FHE

One thing that I LOVE about our church is called Family Home Evening. Every Monday night is designated family time. We sing a song, say a prayer, have a spiritual lesson, do an activity, and of course, eat a treat. Kevin's plan for our activity one Monday was a "surprise at the Widstoe building.*" It was freezing cold, but I trudged out to the car, bringing the treats along (of course). Lo and behold, in the basement of this building is a little aquarium. Emphasis on the little. Sadly their tanks were dirty, but some of the fish were HUGE! We had a lot of fun, and, as you can tell, Kevin frightened the fish, so they asked us never to come back. Or maybe they were just jealous of our treats.


*The Widstoe Building is on BYU campus.

an aunt again...well, kind of.

I have been DYING to write about little James for a whole week now! But, in true blog-manners, I waited until his mommy announced the birth on her own blog. James' mommy is one of my dearest friends, Tawnya. She was the epitome of patience for a woman nine-months pregnant. Little James came six days late, and Tawnya kept on teaching elementary school until practically the day he came. She's a champ.


It's quite a unique and special experience to hold a newborn baby. Everything about him is cute--from his little yawns, to his sneezes, to his little cries. How fortunate I feel to know him already. And how fortunate I am to have this picture:


Here's a crazy thought: Kevin has only known Tawnya as pregnant! Funny.

Oh my...COLDPLAY?!?!

So on November 22, a lazy Saturday, I was just minding my own business, thinking that Kevin was planning a big date for us that evening. He'd been talking it up all week after our friend Ashley canceled going on a double date with us. (Little did I know Kevin put her up to it.)

Sadly his plans were supposedly foiled when his friend's car "got stolen" while in long-term parking at the Salt Lake airport and he needed us to pick him up. Quite the scheme to trick me for us to go to Salt Lake without too many questions. I was a bit suspicious, but Kevin stuck to his story and kept lamenting the fact that we couldn't do what he originally planned. We left early so we could eat dinner and found the tastiest Chinese food place--Charlie Chow's. Oh man, it was SO good. If anyone likes Chinese and comes to visit us, we're taking you there. It was amazing.

Anyways, that's not the best part of the story, believe it or not. While we were there, I noticed something on the table. I picked it up and opened it and it was two tickets to the Coldplay concert that night!!! I was so surprised and EXCITED! Kevin and I absolutely love Coldplay. I was excited because I wanted him to see them in concert--they give such an amazing show. I went back in 2003 with some friends by chance. (Thank you Megan and Amy!) I'll sheepishly admit that I didn't even know who they were when I went. It was a small venue, only 3,000 people and we got to be 15 feet away from the stage. This was much different. We were very far away in the Delta Center and there were so many more people. But the show was perfect--we can't stop talking about it, nearly three weeks later. I could go on and on about them! I mostly loved being there listening to all the songs that I love with the man I love. Life couldn't have been any better at that moment. It will forever be etched in my mind. And in my ears.

The most shocking part of this story? Kevin kept this all a secret from me since JULY! Wow, I'm having a hard time not telling him what I got him for Christmas, and that's just around the corner!

Sadly, we didn't bring our camera in with us. It said on the ticket not to, but everyone did anyways. Oh well. At least we have this priceless photo:

Four Months!

Kevin and I have been married for four months today! Can you tell that we like any type of anniversary?

In order to celebrate, we'll go back to the archives and I'll share another journal entry:

March 2nd, 2008

"Kevin is amazing. We went out on Friday night and ate El Salvadoranean food (pupusas), went to Comedy Sportz, and then afterwards we went to a park and magically waiting for us was hot chocolate! Too cute! I was sad to see the night end. We studied together on Saturday and I got to meet his mom, brother, sister-in-law, and nieces and nephews. It was a lot of fun. Kevin is such a great guy and he gives me butterflies!"

So how do you become a pirate?

(click on the picture for more)

I never really understood the meaning behind Thanksgiving. We are all so thankful for things that we have, so we take a few days off of school and work, and eat until it’s hard to breathe. And we do all this right before Christmas, when we do it all over again, albeit for a much nobler reason. Notwithstanding that, overall I enjoyed Thanksgiving; we went with my parents to Arizona, the Holy Land of the greater Hoopes family. For Thanksgiving itself, we ate dinner with my Aunt Deloris at the house of my cousin Clinton Fischer. The food and company were both great, and even though I could even still breathe afterwards, it truly was amazing.

After dinner, we played this game called crazy dice, which was really really fun. I would recommend it to anyone. I looked for the rules but couldn’t find them anywhere online. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, or maybe I dreamed the whole thing and really took a nap after we ate. Who knows. The driving force behind our visit, however, wasn’t just to drive 15 hours to stuff our faces with turkey, potatoes, and pie, but to attend a family reunion on Friday. It was pleasant, and I learned a lot about my Great-Grandfather Russell that I never knew before. One interesting fact is that one of our relatives was a double for Shirley Temple, doing the singing and dancing when the child star got too tired.

Other than that it was sort of a lazy vacation. My brother Mark and his family were there, which was really nice. We don’t get to see them often since they live in New Mexico. Also, I did get to spend a considerable amount of time with my paternal grandmother, Elaine. She is an interesting person, with a lot of strange stories and even stranger ideas. I am starting to think that that sort of thing runs in the Hoopes blood and is a function of age. So watch out in 50 years, Tess! But seriously the highlight of the trip was getting to be with Tess for five days straight, except when she deserted me to watch some crazy vampire movie, but I will let her tell those details. The trip ended with a pirate-themed birthday party for our nephew, and then a non-pirate themed trip to the Mesa Temple. Both were great.

Merry Christmas!

Monday night was the perfect time to roll out the Christmas decorations! I love having the little Rudolph that I made when I was 13, the elf I made in high school, the nativity my mom got me a few years ago, and my wooden nativity from Madagascar. And our course, our little artificial tree in the corner makes it complete, wouldn't you say?

And, just to remind you, this is a picture of the blank wall that we had no idea what to do with. That's a craigslist beauty right there--our piano. We love having it, especially as a pseudo-mantle until we have a real one someday.

I have been quite busy of late (hence the lack of blogs). Work is great. It keeps me very busy, which is nice. We had a very fun Thanksgiving in Arizona . . . details forthcoming, so stay tuned! I can't imagine not spending a holiday without Kevin, but it's weird to think that a year ago right now, we didn't even know each other. And now we're trading off whose family we celebrate holidays with. An adjustment of married life, for sure. Speaking of adjustments, I am amazed at how well Kevin adjusts to letting me sleep on him whenever. Literally. In the car, on the couch at his Grandma's house, grocery shopping. Okay, so not really grocery shopping, but you get the idea. What a guy!