The Cooley Clan: August 2010

August 5, 2010

LUKE WALKS!

August 4th, 2010...Luke takes his first 5 steps all by himself at Aleah's Speech Therapist's office! They had a box of toys and there was a cute dalmation stuffed dog that I was holding and he REALLY wanted it I guess because he was going to walk that distance to get it...AWESOME!!! He is only 16 lbs and 10 months and already about to be walking all over the place! Jacob was 10 months old when he walked. Rachael was 12 months. Qaiden was 9 months (the earliest of them all!) and Aleah was 19 months (the slowest). So, Luke is about on track for the boys... WAY TO GO BUDDY! He is such a cutie pie!!!
Rich is in Texas this week for work and so he missed Luke walking and also Aleah has been talking a lot more just this week! She attempts almost every word you ask her to try now! That's a HUGE milestone for her! WAY TO GO Aleah!!!

August 2, 2010

Shelley & Paul's Baby Blessing

Paul, Shelley and baby Ethan

The whole group of family/friends who attending the blessing!

Shelley's family and our friend, Alicia Anderson holding Luke

Sunday, August 1st was the blessing of Paul and Shelley's baby, Ethan Paul Schneider. It was nice and simple and afterwards we gathered in the Social Room at their apt. for a little luncheon. We had pasta salad, grapes, canteloupe, edamame, brownies, veggie tray, spinakopita, little bbq sausages, smore treats and water. It was a perfect little array of food snacks before I had to take Chantel & Reed with baby Norah to the airport to go back home. It was nice having them visit for the weekend. They got here on Thursday night and spent Friday with our family...we went to the gym in the morning then to the splash park on Hill AFB. We had a picnic lunch and then went home to shower. Chantel and I went shopping afterwards to see if we could find her a good swim suit. We ended up not finding one. Rich made some fried chicken, I made a salad and Chantel & Reed bought some chips and soda for a picnic we ate at the Farmington Pond with Alicia joining us. After spending a couple of hours there, we drove home and got ready to go to Cherry Hill for the Concert in the Park. Rich stayed home with our two youngest kids while the rest of us (except Reed who was hosting a bachelor party for his friend) enjoyed the music of Corri Conners (a local LDS guitar player, singer, songwriter)...it was really nice and we had licorice and peanut m&m's and water for snacks for the hour concert. So a full but fun weekend for everyone I think...

BBQ with Alaskan friends

We had our good friends, Rob & Jocelyn Dindinger with their kids (Conner & Amarah) over to our home for a BBQ Saturday night (July 31st). Anna Leckie (another friend of ours from AK) came over as well but had to go to a birthday party right after so isn't in the photo. It was sure a nice visit together and afterwards we played a couple games of Monopoly Deal- a quicker game based on the old classic game of Monopoly (which I am not a fan). It was fun visiting with old friends as always!!!

Jacob's Orange-Belt Promotion

Jacob and Tyler Wright (who used to be in our ward before the boundaries changed)

being promoted to orange belt.

4 kids were promoted in this ceremony

Saturday, July 31st at 11:00 a.m was Jacob's promotion ceremony where he moved up from a yellow belt to an orange belt in Taekwondo at Tiger Crane Martial Arts. His next promotion ceremony will be where he gets his purple belt and will be in the fall hopefully. WAY-TO-GO Jacob!!!

Funny Kid Moments!

December 20, 2011- We were all in the kitchen making gingerbread and I had just taken out the first batch of the gingerbread boy and girl. As I attempted to scrape up the girl on the spatula, she was too soft and started to fall apart as I quickly placed the mangled mess on the brown paper bag! Qaiden pointed to the messed up cookie and said, "Ladies first!" and "Mom killed her!" It was just so funny I changed from being really upset that I had ruined the cookie to laughing so hard at the random funny comment! I keep telling the boys, "Ladies first", and I guess it is sinking in!

November 2011- I like to recycle plastic containers and so I had just washed out one of them and placed the plastic lid on top the toaster (near the sink) to dry. Jacob went to put some bread in the toaster and while in there, the lid melted! Just a little while later as I was getting dinner prepared, Qaiden sat on the stove counter right next to the hot stove top. I told Q to get down off the counter but he was slow to obey. I had turned off the stove, but one of the burners was still hot and so as Q sat there, his coat was lying on the still hot burner and his inner part of the coat melted. I was a bit angry with him for not being obedient and was pretty frustrated. At this point, I turned to the boys and said, "Ok, and the winner for the 'NO-BRAINER' award goes to...drum roll please...QAIDEN!" I changed from being angry to laughing because of how funny my own comment seemed to me! ;) (Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself!)So, whenever we do something stupidly funny, we call it the NO-BRAINER award! It's become quite funny to see some of the silly things we do each day!

May 25, 2010- As the kids got ready for school this morning, I asked Rachael if she remembered to get a leotard for Gymnastics today after school. Qaiden overheard and said "...it's NOT Aleah-tard, it's a Rachael-tard! And I would wear a Qaiden-tard!" Ohhhh the silly things that kids come up with!

Jan 20, 2010- I was in the middle of winding the cord of our kirby vacuum cleaner while singing 'Ring around the rosies a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down'...and Aleah just standing there all the sudden dropped to her bottom without bending her knees (looked a little awkward). It was just one of those moments that made me laugh because it was so unexpected!

Who Is... Richard LeRoy Cooley II

With much pushing and proding from Charise and a little from her Mom, I am attempting to briefly answer the question "Who am I?". To begin, I was born to wonderful parents, Richard LeRoy Cooley and Leah Tryon on October 16, 1970 in Little Rock, Arkansas. I am the 2nd eldest of eight children... Nichale, myself, Rodney, Roger, Oralea, Tawnya, Andelaura and Gayla. I moved to Mesa, Arizona when I was about 3 years old and lived there till I was 9 years old. In the summer of 1980 my family moved to Carthage, Missouri where I spent the most important and influential part of my childhood. It was during my time in Carthage that I finished grade school, Junior High and High School. I graduated from Carthage High School in May 1989 and shortly after entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah, January 1990. I served an honorable mission to Brasilia, Brazil. Shortly after my mission, I enlisted in the Air Force and was Active Duty for 9 years. My time on active duty in the Air Force was spent in San Antonio, TX (Lackland AFB) for basic training, then I went to Technical School in Dever, Colorado (Lowry AFB) after which I moved to Hill AFB in Clearfield, Utah. I was afterwards, stationed in South Korea (Osan AFB) and was there for 1 year. Then I cross-trained from Munitions (otherwise known as "Ammo") to Computer Maintenance and went to Buloxi, Mississippi (Keesler AFB). My time as an "Active Duty" enlisted member ended in Anchorage, Alaska (Elmendorf AFB), where I met and married my wonderful wife, Charise Alithea Nebeker. Her father worked as the Chief Auditor at Elmendorf AFB and was just around the corner from the Headquarters bldg. where I worked in what was called the RAOC - pronounced rock - (in the basement of that bldg.). We met in June, 1997 at the LDS Singles Branch at the Maplewood Chapel in Anchorage, AK and dated till she went back to Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. Charise came home for Christmas and we got engaged January 1, 1998 and got married that summer, July 18, 1998 in the Salt Lake City Temple! It was a VERY special day for me! We lived there in Anchorage till 2000 and then moved in to Charise's parents home (10411 High Bluff Dr., Eagle River, AK 99577) for 10 months to save money for school. Thanks to Charise's parents we were able to save a substantial amount for school, which eventually was used as a down-payment on our 1st home. We had just had our 1st baby, Jacob LeRoy, August 26th, 1999 and then we were blessed with a baby girl, Rachael Anne on March 9th, 2001. We moved to Logan, Utah, May 2001 so I could go to school at Utah State University to finally finish my degree in Electrical Engineering that I'd been trying to finish for quite some time and which was VERY difficult to do while working in the military and moving around a lot. I also transitioned from Active duty to the Air Force Reserves shortly after arriving in Logan. I got my Bachelor degree December 2003 and got a job working with the government on Hill AFB as an Electronics Engineer six months later in a three year internship. We moved closer to the base in May of 2004 soon after our third child was born; Qaiden John, April 6, 2004. I was fortunately to get commissioned as an Officer in the Reserves about a year after starting work at Hill AFB and just before going back to school to get my Masters of Engineering in Electrical Engineering. It only took me a year and a half. I am currently a Captain in the Reserves and work as an Individual Augmentee (IMA) in the 508th ASW, which is an Active Duty unit. Our 4th child, Aleah Reese was born on my wife's birthday, February 28, 2007, in Layton, Utah and we had our 5th child, Luke William on September 19, 2009 at Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, Utah as well. Life is going well for my family and we are grateful for ALL of our blessings!!!