The Cooley Clan: March 2011

March 18, 2011

Our NEW Kitchen

The 3 colors of the kitchen are Behr paints: Retro Avocado, Cherry Tart, and Falling Snow

Here are a couple of pictures of our NEWLY PAINTED KITCHEN! All this week has been SO busy with buying the curtains, rod, hooks, paint stuff, on Monday. Tuesday was prep day. Wednesday, March 16 was spent painting ALL DAY! Luckily my sister, Shelley was able to help me most of the day- about 7 hours worth. After she left, I ate a little bit of pizza (because I didn't have time to cook anything) and went back to painting. I didn't get to bed until after midnight! Once I start a project, I want to HURRY and get it done and I did that. Thursday was spent putting up the rod, curtains, hooks and the other stuff. It sure brings a little bit of flavor to our kitchen and dining room don't you think? I LOVE IT! If you don't like it, just keep it to yourself! :)

Jacob's Lego Car

Can I just say that my oldest son, Jacob is one of the most self-motivating kids I know! I think this is such a gift and if the world had more kids like him, it would be a MUCH better place! He was reading in his LEGO Club magazine one day, and Jacob saw an article talking about an upcoming competition where you can enter the BUILD YOUR OWN LEGO CAR. He did this on his own without any knowledge of it except when he was almost finished. So here is a picture that I took and then we printed a picture out and sent it in a little while ago. He probably won't win anything, but he wanted to create his own masterpiece and he did it with such enthusiasm! We'll update this post IF he wins anything. Just know that it's not important to us if he wins anything...we have the BEST prize already, and that is a special boy that we are glad to call our son!

Rachael's 10th Birthday Party

March 4, 2011 I took all the girls to the University of Utah Gymnastics meet against the Florida Gators. It was nice that my cousin, Heather Woolley gave me free tickets because she works right near by. Rachael invited Jayden Jeppson, Tori Anderson, Mikaela Groll, Savannah Otteson, and Rosie Schraedel (who couldn't make it). While there at the meet, I bought 2 things of popcorn for each of them to share and they each got to pick out a box of treats and a V8 fruit juice to eat/drink while they were there. A couple of the girls weren't sure if they would like it but came anyway...surprise... they had a BLAST!!! After watching the meet, I took them to Dairy Queen for ice cream cones. They started to get a little hyperactive and it was almost 10 o'clock so we left and we dropped them all off to their homes. Rachael keeps telling me that that was the BEST party she's ever had and it was pretty much free except for gas to get there, $5 in goodies I brought, $5 for popcorn, and $10 for dairyqueen. Total was around $20...you can't beat that for a fun-filled birthday party!

March 1, 2011

Red Orchid Spa Massage...oooh la la...

Richard was such a sweet husband to take the day off from work. He booked a COUPLES hour massage at Red Orchid Spa & Salon- he had a Deep Tissue Massage, and I had a Relaxation Massage which were SOOOO nice! When the lady finished, my first thought was, "Has it been an hour already!" I also thought, "Oh, I just don't want to move right now. Can I just lay here for another hour and sleep!" It was too relaxing that when driving home, I felt like not doing anything except perhaps to read and sleep the rest of the day! Reality set in at that point, and I realized that my life has to go on as normal. It was nice to push the PAUSE button for a moment in time though. Thank you honey, for your WONDERFUL and MUCH NEEDED break...one of my most favorite birthday presents ever! So, for all you men out there...if you want to totally impress and treat your wife special, I suggest a COUPLES massage!!!

http://www.redorchidspa.com/index.html

Aleah & Mom's Birthday!

Aleah LOVES playing with the boys lego's, so we bought her her very own PINK lego bin...she wanted to play with them the rest of the night! She was DONE bouncing and playing in the Pirate' Cove!

Charise is displaying the home-made jewelry and cute hair band that her talented sister, Cheryl made for her...she is very creative as you see!

Monday night, February 28, 2011 was spent at the Classic Fun Center. Our party included unlimited activities, a jumbo pizza, and soda all for only $25 for our family! We brought our own ice-cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery and the party napkins, plates, candles, presents, etc.

Luke enjoyed climbing ALL over in the Pirate's Cove area.

Qaiden climbs the ladder in the bouncy area.

Aleah is now 4 YEARS OLD today!

She really wanted a picture in front of the cool PIRATE!

The 3 older kids wanted to play Laser Tag but had to wait in line for about 1/2 hour! It was worth it to them, but Qaiden took off his socks in the dark room and we had to try to find them before the next group went in...silly Q!

Aleah got a big container with tons of different sand toys inside...she LOVES spending time in the sandbox at home and so this will be well used when it warms up! I think we'll take them with us to Portland, Oregon for our family reunion this June!

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!!!