Thanksgiving and Farewell to 1505

Welcome to my Thanksgiving 2012 Post!

 

After reading it though, You might feel a little more like this...

or maybe this!

But after looking through the many pictures and 3 fun videos, hopefully you can just see how much I truly LOVE my family and all of the craziness we have been through!  This Thanksgiving was a bit of a nostalgic one for us, thus the reason it has taken me months to put a post together.  My parents recently built their dream home on some property south of Laramie.  We had lived in our same house in the same little neighborhood for about 30 years and now here we were...all 30 of us together for our first Thanksgiving in a kitchen that could fit us all!  It was also a chance to go back to the old house one last time and say good-bye.

So let's actually back up to  the Tuesday before Thanksgiving!  This was actually the 20th which was Kierra's 5th birthday!!  I will do another post about that later, but here Thomas, Kierra and I had a little picnic lunch after the girls' Turkey Trots at school!

 

The girls always have fun at the Turkey Trot!  Kaylee did a great job and both Taylor and Emily took 2nd place in their grade!

Taylor has been running sprints for gymnastics so she took off fast, WAY ahead of everyone!  She was cruisin' and then hit...a...wall!  It was pretty fun to watch her still go go go and finish strong!  She really did nearly pass out at the end though!  :)

Because of Kierra's birthday and her friend party we didn't leave for Laramie until Wednesday morning.  We pulled into Laramie that afternoon, and again, remember...I was all about going down memory lane this week so as we came up over the hill I had to take a picture of the beautiful sky and view of Laramie and the University...and then another picture of the animals out by my parents' property.

Whenever we know we are going home we check the schedule to see what games might be happening.  Saturday afternoon the boys all went to the football game and then later that night the adults went to the basketball game!  Always fun times cheering on the COWBOYS!

And then of course we had football games on TV all weekend!

 We hung out with Grandpa...Thomas was good at helping Grandpa with his physical therapy!

And Isaac was great at helping out with nap time!  :)

Thanksgiving with all of the cousins together was as perfect as could be!!

 We had Big cousins and Little cousins!

We did a fun turkey craft:

Played lots of games:

And put on many a play...and of course...the talent show!!  I should post those videos too, but I think there were a few video cameras recording that one!

 We celebrated Kierra's birthday!

 And Grandma's Birthday!

 

 AND SANG A LOT!!

Click HERE for our "Call me never ever maybe" video

We are hoping to go viral and become rich and famous!  Ok...not really...but hopefully it will put a smile on your face! 

The girls were pretty exhausted after being in the kitchen:

So the boys decided they would do the homemade ice cream!  So boys...how long does it take to mix ice cream without the paddle inside the mixer?!  ;) 

The food ended up being fantastic!  There was a LOT of eating ALL weekend long!

We had such a relaxing weekend!  We all fit so comfortably in Grandma and Grandpa's home!  It was fun for us all to be together!

Here is their new home...mid construction:

On Saturday, between ballgames, we all drove over to the old house.

The following links are more for my memories and for my family to show us heading to the old house and walking through it. The rest of anyone who sees this blog might be bored, but you are welcome to look.  :)

Click HERE to go with us on a little neighborhood drive

Click HERE for one final walk through. :)

Here it is...1505!

Will these kids even remember this as Grandma and Grandpa's house??

Fireplace casualties didn't happen until the grand-kids came along.  When Taylor was 9 months old she tried to prop herself up on it and badly blistered every part of her hand and fingers!  The little guy on the right came away with 4 stitches on his forehead!

This really was such a special day!  We had definitely worked ourselves up to it...knowing that it would even be a sacred time.  A time to reflect.  A time to kneel in prayer together, thankful for how blessed we were all those years in this home.  It was a time to remember!  So many memories...good and bad...ups and downs...happy and sad...lots of love! 



 

 

We went down the line taking family pictures in front of where the family piano used to be!  Dale didn't want to be by himself!  :)  

Dale is never alone with all these little ones around!  LOVE HIM!!

There were many tears.

I was doing pretty good through all of the conversation and picture taking until Dale reminded us that we needed to take the traditional picture at the end of the hallway!   This is where we gathered every Easter and Christmas morning after painfully waiting for Dad to finally wake up so we could do our egg hunt or see what Santa brought us!  Standing in that spot one last time with my siblings was so important and special!

I have a little bit of pride being one of the 6 Hoopes kids!  We are pretty awesome!  ;)  We are so perfect that we even go girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy!  Ok...so I might be getting a little out of control with the bragging, but we are seriously so blessed!  We have been through a lot together.  We have the most incredible parents who come from generations of blessed, hard working people!  Our heritage means everything to us...which is maybe another reason this day was so important.  New beginnings...new generations...kids raising kids (because I still feel like the little girl in the 1998 picture below)...sharing the gospel, kneeling in prayer, feeling the spirit of eternity and heaven within four plain walls.  I LOVE my family and should stop there before I get too personal on a public blog!  This Thanksgiving...was the best ever!  :)  Taylor is reading over my shoulder as I try to figure out what to say...and she is right...it was the best ever!  So much to be thankful for! 

A year ago the New Era had a great article entitled "Be a Defender of the Family". (click HERE to read it) I thought of my family as I read the different ways to defend our families every day!  I especially loved #1-Put family time first and #2-Strengthen your family members.  The whole article is perfect, and definitely reminded me of how blessed I am to have parents and siblings to learn and grow with and that I know I can call at anytime, for anything.

"Families can be together forever...through Heavenly Father's plan

I always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can."

Van...Suburban...Bus??

A year ago we were having a hard time trying to decide about our vehicle situation. With baby #6 on the way we would no longer fit in our 7 passenger van. We polled everyone on facebook...talked to friends and family...crunched numbers and tried to decide if we wanted a suburban, or an 8 seat mini van, or a bus ;)....ok...not really a bus, but it seemed like this decision involved a much deeper question of "will this be our last baby?"  That was not a decision I have ever felt would have a 100% answer...especially as a 6, 7 or 8 month pregnant lady in the heat of the spring and summer.  So we waited and waited deciding that if all else fails we'll just stick with the van we have now and find another 3 seat bench to put in place of the 2 seat. That's an easy $200 fix, and one we almost did.  

Well, two weeks before Isasc was born here is what our van said:

At that point I was nearly 9 months along and climbing in and out of vans and suburbans trying to decide what we want. Hoping to make a decision before baby comes.  

Well...call it procrastination, really trying to do our homework, or just plain crazy...but it wasn't until Isaac was a week old that we finally decided to spend a few late hours at a dealership buying a vehicle!  It was LATE, and I was a little stressed, but Isaac was so good and we got it all done.  I was very excited, but then as we went to our van to clear everything out I got so very sad to just up and leave our good friend behind.  We took a couple of pictures there in the dark...

 and then because my husband knows me all too well, when he went back a couple of days later, he took another picture for me in the daylight.

 I loved our van!  My favorite feature was those built-in carseats!!  So perfect for us!

 It took us all over Wyoming...too many times to count...and one of our very favorite memories was the 24 hours(spread over 3 days) in the car to Houston, Texas, and then 24 hours (in just 2 days) back.  How many times can a family watch the brand new (at the time) Hannah Montana movie while spending 48 hours in a van!  Good memories!  :)

Well, now we have our new Honda Odyssey!  An 8 seat van!  And what about that having more kids question??  Well...we'll take things as they come, but for now this is what made the most sense for our family!  Notice we dug into our year supply of Cowboy stickers!  The van is now marked and ready to go!  (stuck the kids there to cover up the license plate...they are smiling and even giggling...the sun was just in their eyes!)

 So, we miss the feature of the built in car seats, but we LOVE the new entertainment package.  For a couple of months we even had free satellite radio where we got to listen to the world series and playoff games!  Our first trip was Fall Break to Laramie...each kid has their own headset on and Matt and I were even able to listen to our own music!  No more memorizing the kids movies!  :)

 In the picture above we can't see Isaac's car-seat to the right of Kaylee, so today I had them all pose for a Sunday picture on our way to church!  :) I know it may seem silly to have done this huge long post about a van, but it truly is part of the family!  Just this week Matt took it to get a hitch put on so it's all ready to go for our first camping adventure!  This van will do just what the other one did...take us on many camping trips, visiting Grandmas and Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins, maybe a trip to Disneyland ;) or the kids beg for Houston again.  The kids hop in and out daily to and from school and their many activities.  It becomes a cramped space at times...don't get me wrong!  :)  However...I am very thankful for our van that gives us many opportunities to do such fun things as a family!  Happy Trails!!  :)