My birthday girls!

Ana joined our family as one of the best birthday presents a mother could ask for. Ana Jenelle Hoopes was born on my 22nd birthday and it was so fun. Teancum was so excited to finally be a big brother and smothered her to no end. He hugged and kissed, and hugged and kissed no matter how much we tried to stop him with his sick little self (he had a cold at the time). It was too cute! She was a beautiful little baby with TONS of dark hair and fairly dark skin. We got teased a little by the nurse that she wouldn't have believed she was ours if she hadn't witnessed the delivery. She was beautiful and still is.

9 things I love about Ana....
1. Her love for learning. She always asks questions and wants to learn...learn...learn!!!!
2. Her sweet spirit. She loves to look at the children's songbook to read the songs and teach family home evening lessons for us. She has such an amazing little testimony.
3. She is a loving sister. She is so good at helping out her younger sisters and teaching them their letters and numbers while they play school.
4. She is a good friend. She has friends at school that she just adores and always wants to play with. She comes home at least every other week with something that one of her friends made for her.
5. She is helpful to me. Ana is pretty good at helping me around the house, even if it is just cleaning the bathroom.
6. She loves to be loved. She can't stand to be alone at night and wants lots of love and attention.
7. She is one smart cookie! Her teachers always rave about what a good student she is and such a good example to her classmates. She does extremely well and they have a hard time giving her ideas of things to improve on.
8. She loves to read. I love watching her sit down an read a book and get really excited about it. I wish I was more like that at her age!
9. She is one beautiful gal that I can't imagine my life without. I love seeing her beautiful face and smile each day!!!!



5 years ago last monday I gave birth to a beautiful little angel we named Rebekah Janae Hoopes. She was a stubborn thing from the start seeing as she was #4 and took the longest of all the kids to arrive here for us. She decided to make life a little more complicated for me as I tried to get her into this world. She was posterior and caused a lot of pain to the point where I finally broke down and got myself an epideral. She finally came at 8:30 in the evening and we couldn't have been more pleased with her. Tank, Ana, and Jarom all loved her from the beginning. I remember they were so worried because the nurses wrapped her up in the little blanket without a diaper on. They were so concerned that she would pee on them that they weren't really happy until she was diapered properly. Funny kids.

5 of my favorite things about Beka...
1. She has a beautiful smile that really lights up a room.
2. She has such a love for music and dancing. There isn't a place on the planet that she won't sing or dance.
3. She is such a good big sister who tries to help whenever she can.
4. She has a big heart. It kills her to see people sad and she will even cry with them on occasion.
5. She is such a princess. She loves pretty dresses and wearing make-up (which only consists of clear lip gloss).
I just love my little Rebekah and the joy she brings to our family!

Just something interesting to see.

This is James at drill in February. He volunteered to be tased, it was not something that he was required to do. He has said that it is EXTREMELY painful and that he would NEVER recommend any one ever volunteering for this in their life!!!!

My favorite things!

My last blog post was a little depressing so I thought I'd share some of the things that I love!!!!


Staying up late and watching fun shows with my hubby. He usually lets me choose and so I like to watch the funny or action type shows rather than the chick flicks. I'll have plenty of time soon enough to watch all the chick flicks I want. (Last night was Rush Hour, that's why this image)


Having Grandparents that are still alive to visit. I don't get to very often but I love when I do get to see them and how fun it is to see the kids with them.


My crazy kids that I can't imagine life without. People tease me about having 5 kids already but I don't think if I could do it over again that I would change it one bit!!!! I love the laughter at the dinner table, the crying when someone doesn't get along and share, the helpfulness when someone is having a hard time, the hugs when someone is having a rough day and the big messes we make because we're having fun!


A husband who is willing to freeze his hands to provide for our family. He works so hard for us even when it's not always the most pleasant of jobs. It's always hard when he's away but we appreciate the sacrifices he makes for us to have all that we have, including our freedoms that he helps to fight for.


A loving father who is wonderful enough to cuddle up with and go right to sleep. I've always gotten a little emotional when I see James with one of the kids sleeping in his arms. I know how much they love him and it makes me love him that much more!

I've got SOOOO much on my mind!

This is a boring one just to warn you! I've been up for over an hour with my mind racing and so I figured I would just let it all out. Over the weekend of Bob's wedding James hit a car in the parking lot when we were leaving the dinner. We called our insurance and took care of it all and they came to do an estimate of the damage to our car. It was A LOT more than I was expecting just simply because of where it hit....$1500 and it'll take 3 days to fix. Well, it's the only car we have and so it would cost us to get a rental on top of the $500 deductible and whatever it goes over and we're trying to sell it to get a Suburban because we just don't fit in it anymore. What do you do? Do we pay to fix it and then sell it, while still having to pay some money out of pocket for what we're upside down on it (only about $400-$500)? Or just sell it like it is and use the money from the insurance to pay that difference? I never know what to do!!!!!

Yesterday I called to pay our last health insurance bill before James goes active duty. To get on Tricare Prime, which means you don't pay monthly or anything else, you have to have the application in by the 20th of the month to get coverage for the 1st of the following month. Problem...James goes active on the 21st of April and there are no orders til after the 1st of May....no Prime until June 1st. There is a slight chance that if DEERS (the people who determine eligibility) get the activation status change in the system before that we can have the application in before he leaves and POSSIBLY get it for the 1st of May. I know it doesn't sound like a huge deal but this is what it means to me. If I have the baby before May 1st with the other insurance I pay close to $1000 or more for it all, or if I have the baby on the 1st or after, I pay nothing (if we get the other insurance). Again...WHAT DO I DO??????? I know it seems like no big deal to some but for me it is. I like to know what's going on and not feel like things are up in the air. I don't like taking chances. I don't like the idea of maybe we'll get the insurance or maybe we won't...ya know what I'm saying? If I know right now that there's no chance that we can and I'm going to have to pay no matter what, it just makes it easy.

My last dilemma seems to be one of the hardest to deal with. I don't think it would be as bad if I weren't pregnant but unfortunately for my sanity, I am. As the time gets closer to both my due date and James leaving, the more stressed I get. I almost feel like some days I can't function. I love James so much and I know how much the kids and I are going to miss him. Of course it's only 7-10 weeks or so that he'll be gone, and we've had other times when it's been longer and survived. The part I have the hardest time with is what's happening while he's gone. I've had 5 kids already and I've always been able to rely on him to be there with me and hold my hand and tell me what a good job I'm doing, and how much he loves me. It's always been so nice...and I'm not even mean or ever yelled at him (may be a shock but it's true). He's always stayed with me overnight in the hospital. With Sariah he went home with my mom and the kids and I called him crying because I couldn't sleep without him there, so he came all the way back to be with us. He's so wonderful! I just can't imagine doing this without him this time. I know I'm whining and I feel like such a baby, but I can't imagine any woman who wouldn't want their husband there with them for this miracle taking place. There's still a very small part of me that just wants to have the amnio done, pay whatever it costs, and have the baby before he leaves...but there's the other part of me that feels like I can do it and I just need to wait. I just hate feeling so confused and not knowing what to do. Oh well...I know that this is the time with all of these circumstances where I turn it over to The Lord and allow Him to help me. I know that if I trust in Him, that He will lead us in the right direction and I will know what to do. I just need to have more faith in Him and confidence in the choices that I make. I know that He loves me and is mindful of me and the stresses that I have right now. I just pray that I'll have the courage to let it go and leave it in His hands to guide me in the right direction. If you got through this mess of a post thanks for reading! I love all you wonderful friends I have and I don't know what I would do without you all!

Just a little fun!

Beka being cuteness!


Sariah being a little star!


Beka showing off a little ballerina pose!


Sariah telling me her hair was silly!


My 30 1/2 week belly with the girls!


So, I've been a slacker again on blogging. I just forget about it all the time and all the sudden more time has gone by than I realize! Lots has happened in February. Teancum did his first science project for school and really enjoyed it. It was a fun time for father and son to work together. He didn't get to go on but he got a good grade, but most importantly he enjoyed doing it!

Jarom celebrated his 7th birthday and at the party James told everyone about his fun experience at drill. He got the opportunity to be tased, and told us that it's one of those opportunities that you'll never volunteer for again. James isn't a whimp but said it was the most painful thing that he's ever experience. He also decided to get ahold of the guy who took a video of it so that I could see. Not something I would care to witness in person let alone watch the video for again. OUCH!!!!!! So, Jarom had a really fun time with all the aunts and uncles around and grandma and grandpa. He had a black spiderman cake and mcdonalds chicken nuggets for dinner. Way to make a little guy happy!

Ana has just been pluggin' along in school and enjoying it tremendously. She is one of the best students in her class and is such a sweetheart. She loves going to achievement days with her friends and is really starting to come out of her shell a little bit. Sweet!

James and I got to go to the valentine's dinner put on by the yw of the ward to raise money for camp. They even babysat the kids for us while we ate spaghetti and had ice cream...what a night. After the dinner we went to some friends house to watch a dvd of their favorite comedian. About 10 minutes into there was a knock on the door. Good old Officer Foster drove over to tell us that our son was standing out on the front porch crying. Jarom had decided that he was going to wait til someone asked for him to come inside (we all thought he was upstairs with the rest of the kids) and stayed out there. Someone drove by and noticed him out there without a coat and he would hide himself as best he could into the wall whenever someone drove by. She noticed Office Foster at Walmart and sent him over to check it out. SO EMBARRASSING!!!!! I just couldn't believe that the poor kid didn't knock on the door. He is stubborn and he was absolutely convinced that we knew he was out there and would come get him any second. I think it'll be a while before we live that one down since it was the house of the guy James works with and Mrs Foster works at the school too.

We got the horrible long lasting cold that has been going around which has made life a little crazy. Sariah has had it the longest and I feel sorry for her little self. She seems to be getting better each day and now it's Beka that's not sounding so good. I've missed 2 weeks of church because of it and I can't wait to go back. Well...Feb was a fun month and I'm sure I missed A LOT of stuff that we've done but I'll try to do better this next month.