The Girl Scout's Progressive Dinner!

I felt so lucky to sub-in for Linda and Laurie as a girl scout leader for an evening! Linda rushed from the airport and made it for most the night anyway, which made it extra enjoyable! This is Mikela and her dear friends and girl scout troop for the night!

Our master gardener at work!!!

What does a brother do to show his LOYALTY and LOVE?! This one could not be beat. Here is a glimpse of the gorgeous (and long - couldn't fit it all in!) rock wall built by our master gardener, Spencer Lawrence Cooper! And pics of him putting in the grass with the rest of his crew, working into the night!!! And we couldn't miss catching the beautiful vegetable garden he put in by the barn. Great work, Great memories!!! THANK YOU, Spencer! Thank you everyone that helped make it happen! (Including Steph, holding the youngest participant, HOPE!

Sister's Love

Can't you just see the adoration in Clara's eyes! She loves and looks up to her sisters SOOO MUCH!!! She was thrilled for Zoie with every present. Clara also laughs harder than the sister being tickled - it's like your tickling Clara if you tickle anyone else! This morning at the barn, Zoie was crying because she'd forgotten her shoes and couldn't come see the baby goats, she had to wait in the car. Clara said in her two year old lingo, "Doie Dad? Doie Crying decause dshe dan't dome dee dhe baby doats?" "Yes, Zoie's sad she can't come see the baby goats." I confirmed. "I feel sad for Zoie too," I sad, "Maybe we could pick Zoie a flower and bring it back to Zoie to help her feel better," I suggested. We entered the barn, played with the baby goats, fed the animals, petted the kitty, swept up and started back to the car. Clara found a hill of gravel and had to try to climb up it! I finally retrieved her and we went back to the car. As I picked Clara up to put her and placed her in the carseat, she handed a flower to Zoie! Zoie was all better, I had completely forgotten in the midst of all the other activities, but somehow, on her own, Clara had remembered and picked a flower (I don't even know when! Because I carried her from the gravel pile to the car!) and first thing back in the car handed it to Zoie. It did make Zoie happy, she even giggled when I told her Clara had done that all on her own to make her sister feel better. Sister love.

Spencer, Stephanie, Maylee and Hope!

What an amazing JOY to have the Coopers come to stay! For 5 whole weeks we got to enjoy them as family, friends, and next door neighbors! (They stayed in the apartment over the garage). It was such a beautiful blessing to share time, talk, tiny ones, planning and preparing the gardens for the new home!!! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for having the faith to make such marvelous memories happen, Spenc and Steph!! We are SOOO glad you came!!!

Highlights of their visit:
*Spencer building a monumental rock wall that will preserve our memories and love in stone!!! Spencer, I LOVE the stones the children gave me - incredible to do!!!
*Isaac and his friends joining Spencer in the digging and dirt!!! Way to go guys!!!
*Esther, Zoie, Clara enjoying Maylee and Baby Hope DAILY!!!! We still miss coming to the apartment to ask you to play!!! Here are pics from our Reptileland visit.
*Spencer making us ROAR with laughter most every night! (we'll never forget Princess and the Frog quotes and interpretations! ;)
*Stephanie helping so much by watching little ones as I ran to meetings and errands!
*Stephanie even helping with laundry!! Great work balancing a new baby and all that!
*Mike having a hay day with the tractor! We're getting veggies/fruit from the garden!
*Enjoying Mom and Dad, Kari and Clark and Kristi and Calt over Memorial day with Spenc &Steph!!

Thanks for all!!!

Zoie turns 4!!!

And I ALREADY LOVE that age on her best!! She's the epidemy of 4!! Smart, talks hilariously CUTE! SUPER HELPFUL!!! A ray of sunshine, LOVEABLE, ADORABLE, and drives you crazy if she's out of sorts. Zoie is WONDERFUL!!! I love her! And I know she loves me too - but only far after Daddy, whom she still all out loves, needs, ADORES! I cannot blame her ;). We were so lucky to celebrate with her cousin Maylee and Grandpa and Grandma C. before they headed for home!!! Zoie also loved her little gift from Mrs. Cwockett, with whom she has a darling friendship. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZOIE!!!

Memorial Day Weekend!!!

What a Wonderful Blessing for us to have Mom and Dad Cooper, Maxwells, Laws, and the jr. Cooper family all with us on Memorial Day weekend! Who would have thought a few years ago we'd have most the family in PA for a casual, fun weekend together? Wonder of wonders! I'd like to thank all of those people I love for making it such a memorable weekend! We had a beautiful time visiting the barn and new home. Mike's & guys worked on the skid steer! Like the big version of garden we showed in early spring? It's growing!!! We loved playing in the yard, laughing on the porch, eating Mom's amazing food, watching the children play piano and sing, planning for the landscaping and most of all, just being together! Thanks everybody! Love You!

Hurray for Spenc & Steph!!!

How we RELISHED having my dear brother and his wonderful wife, Stephanie, along with their precious Maylee & Hope here with us for 6 weeks!!! We feel immensely blessed to have had such an opportunity. Spencer built us a lasting and beautiful monument to remember him by at the new house; an amazingly beautiful rock wall guiding one through the forest and onto a french garden as a welcome to our new home. The green grass we managed to get in with Spencer looks fantastic (more to come!) and the ebb & flow of the garden beds he created speaks peace to the whole area. We LOVE it Spenc!!! Can't wait to place the fountain in the middle and finish it up for you and Steph to visit us again soon and see it completed! Here are some fun pics of our visit with Stephanie and the little girls to Reptile Land. Love you guys!

Goodbye to our Beloved Killpacks!

Oh we will miss you!!! One year ago (almost!) we were lucky enough to have the best of friends move in a few blocks away, Kimberly and Aaron Killpack, family practice residents. Their little boys, Joseph and Sammy robbed our hearts, and we've LOVED having them near this year. Kimberly's a wonderful confidant; I will miss seeing you walking to Cochran and talking together! Joseph is the funnest of playmates for the 3 little girls. Emily and Anna had a great experience babysitting Sammy and Joseph on parent's datenights. Aaron was an immediate friend to Mike. We'll count ourselves blessed to have been with the Killpack's and wish them the greatest of adventures as they move on to greener pastures! Love you guys!

Way to Go Kate!!!

We are all SO PROUD and IMPRESSED with Kate's great accomplishment this spring!! She prepared for and ran her first 5K!!!! What an achievement for a girl just turned 9!!! Way to go, Katey! (pictured with "girls on the run" front right. youngest runner - she did GREAT!)

An awful fall this spring!

Poor Anna took a terrible fall from a high bar she was sitting on at Memorial Park after the AMAZING SERVICE project with Mormon Helping Hands last month. (Sitting mind you! She jumps on the trampoline, plays soccer, rides horses, runs track and then breaks her back falling from sitting!) It was a very high sit - and Emily kept saying "ANYONE, even a boy would have cried Mom!" but Anna is a strong-willed girl and would NOT cry, though she could not breath either for a minute, because her friends were all around her. Instead she got up and tried to play tag (every step was excruciating she told us later). Because of this we thought she was merely badly bruised and continued on with the weekend and week! But Anna could not bend, hardly walk down stairs, and most alarming - laugh! (Anna is ALWAYS laughing and singing - it hurt so bad she begged everyone not to make her laugh). We finally clued in and took her for xrays Wednesday morning at Mike's office. Three broken vertebrae! O Anna, how did you ever survive? (Going to school carrying a 20 lb. book bag!) We were worried about surgery, but after a cat-scan found that her spinal cord was un-compromised and she would simply be wearing a brace for eight weeks (it's even a cute little white one!). Anna kept her smile on so well, we could not know how badly she was hurt.

Thank you so very, very much to those of you who prayed for her. I feel it made all the difference. She's managed this whole injury very well, and has experienced minimal pain since the first week. SO very grateful she is OK.

Love and Thanks! Hoffmans

Thank you so very much

2 cute!

I just had to share: Esther's favorite gift this year was her science kit with all the parts of the body one can pull out, exam, operate on. Emily and Anna's favorites were there new coordinating swim suits. Quite a difference between childhood and teenagehood, yes? Shocking for me to look down from the organ bench when I was filling in for Bro. Haggardy one Sunday and see our 4 independent, older children so competently caring for our 4 younger children and realizing a whole new stage of life for us - full fledged teenagers! Isaac cannot WAIT to start driving this spring (age 16 for permit in PA) and worse yet, DATING! Emily and Anna are glad they will be included in the regional dances now and have just a few too many boy followers ;)- FRIENDS they tell me! - they are very good at being friends. I'm appreciating Esther's age six more than ever.

Blessed to the Brim by these three WONDERFUL GIRLS!!!

Well, as you well know, it is birthday season for the Hoffmans. From March to May we celebrate 6 of our daughters birthdays, 3 on May 2 & 3rd! (It is so great to remember what a joy it was to bring Esther home for Emily and Anna's birthdays and to have all three girls in white that spring for blessing/baptism days.) We were all rejoicing as we partied at the new house (not moved in yet) with church friends for Emily, Anna, and their friend Phoebe born the same week. The next night, Sunday, we celebrated again with newly arrived (to stay for 6 weeks!) SPENC and STEPH, MAYLEE and HOPE!!!! How lucky are we?!!!

"Bess Duh Baby Unnies"

Yes, Baby Bunnies arrived at our barn a couple months ago! I've been amazed at what a wonder, delight and joy it's been to watch the miracle of life in a bundle so small and helpless. The mother begins to pull out her fur (LOTS of fur) and turns the old, dirty rabbit cage into a downy soft, angel white wonder world for her brood. When they arrive they are pink and hairless, look like an overgrown mouse and completely fragile. They are completely covered by the mother's fur so you could go a few days not knowing they are in there. We loved watching every stage of development, a little fur - you could see what color they'd be, the funniest stage when they are all piled in the nest but spastically flip around not knowing how to jump but having the urge to do so. Next delight is the first time they venture out of the nest and dark den into the world outside - so funny to see them have their individualized way of trying to hop. Then just a couple weeks later they go through the height of their CUTENESS - never seen anything cuter, except humans of course ;).
The girls have LOVED their baby bunnies to bits! We brought two of them here to the house and they've been best buddies to the children this last month. EVERY blessing on the food, EVERY family prayer two year old Clara leans over to the one praying and whispers "bess duh baby unnies"!! The baby unnies have been a sweet blessing to us this spring.

Funnest Family Visit!

All the plays this spring allowed us time together with our beloved Maxwells!!! Both of our schedules made driving 3 hours straight, seeing the play of cousins & driving 3 hours back the usual; but one of the days(plays) we snuck in time at the barn. It was SO FUN! Sharing new baby bunnies and sunshine, green spring and fresh "barn" air ;). The Maxwells took home their "first REAL pet!": baby bunnies!!! Here they are with Daisy and Buddy!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mike's been desperately wanting a garden since we lived here - each spring we've found ourselves too busy growing other "gardens" - "better ones!" I remind him. But we believe in planting a garden and we finally did it this year! Thanks to a couple of family home evenings focusing on the garden and my brother Spencer who came out to prepare the area, put the boxes together, mix the soil and help collect plants!! We enjoyed our evenings working on it as much as ever! (now for the maintenance this summer, eh?) Wish i had a picture of the boxes, they are gorgeous up behind the fence at the barn, well protected from deer and bunnies too! But these pics are of the humble and happy beginnings of our garden this spring. Happy gardening to all of you!

A Very Lucky Mother

The Luckiest I'd dare say - o yes - we call it BLESSED! Whether or not we deserve such blessings!! I felt the very most blessed to be surrounded on Saturday and Sunday by many we love, MOST especially our MOTHERS!! We visited Kennett to see Marisa's amazing acting and found Mom C. there of course - we LOVE to be near her, even if for only a day! Then we had the honor of Mom H. for dinner on Sunday!- O, the wonderful little stories she shared about our "other mothers", Grandma Kingsford and Grandma Hoffman and Voss. Special to have Stephanie, new mother to Hope, here with us too! So grateful for these and the many other mothers and grandmothers that influence us so greatly; the ones on our Family Trees and in our Friendship Circles. What a Blessing you all are to me and my family!!!!

My mother's day was wonderful, beginning with my children making me the MOST SCRUMPTIOUS breakfast in bed (all on their own) and, most especially joyful, delivering it to me while singing! They sounded better than the Von Trapps early in the morning! It was sooo beautiful! A special treat was getting ready for and going to church WITH Mike. (We made it early that way!) More singing from the Primary children (Zoie, Esther, Kate, and Mikela) at church and beautiful, bright, handmade gifts from them as well! Mike's remarks on motherhood meant so much. A nap, a meal made by the men, and presents to boot!! I could not have had a better day or weekend.

I hope each of you very special women that spend your heart hours and days loving, serving, and nurturing will be blessed with wonderful "Mother's Days" all year as you see the fruits of your labors grow!!

Sincerely,

The Mom