Candy Factory

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to Hammond's Candy factory. http://www.hammondscandies.com/ It was so much fun. We took a tour of the factory and saw how they started the candy process. Dillon had so much fun. Everything there is all handmade, which makes it even more special!

This is what they are known for: Candy canes of course all year long!


Lollipops!


Yummy ribbon candy!


And Chocolate!


It was so much fun we even came home with some loot! Granted this is not the cheapest stuff out there but it is still good!

Christmas Fun!

Christmas eve was really entertaining this year. Both Mikel and I had to work that day so, Dillon got to hang out with my family while we worked. Walmart was not as busy as I thought it was going to be. I think people got smart and shopped before the last minute. Anyway the store closed at 8 this year instead of 6, I was only there until 7. While I was there the last hour and a half I hung out at the service desk sorting returns and sending them out to the floor. I was so proud that by the time I left at 7 there was not much left for them to finish. After work Mikel and I went over to my parents house to spend Christmas eve. We ate dinner, played some mindtrap, listened to some christmas stories, and acted out the christmas story. Dillon got to play baby Jesus, although he really liked "riding on the donkey" my brother played the donkey.

Christmas morning we got up and opened our presents. This year Dillon got the jackpot! He got lots of books, puzzles, firefighter kit, 15 hotwheels/matchbox cars, a tool set, more trios, bath toys and foam swords. Now any of you who knows what Highlander is will understand this next comment. Dillon was playing with the swords with his dad and held his up and said "I want to play Highlander k." It was so funny, we didn't realize how much he was paying attention to the show. We had been watching it the past month. We also got several movies and a new Wii game super mario brothers Wii. We are having so much fun with that game! We had a great day hanging out playing and watching movies.

Yesterday was Dillon's last day in nursery! Next week we are excited to say that Dillon will be going into Sunbeams! It is so much fun to watch him grow and see how much he is learning. He loves singing all the song in primary.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! And Happy New Year and 2010!

Merry Christmas to all!!

I didn't have the time to write christmas cards or get pictures. This will have to make up for that. Granted just last night we made goodies to had out to Visiting teaching and home teaching families.

This past year has been very intresting. Mikel had been finishing with Aflac with the first part of the year, doing what he can to keep his contract with them. He then tried to work with other insurances and that didn't work out very well. He put in many applications for a job and to no avail. Then he got an email about a job, called and had an interview that week. 2 weeks later we found out that he got the job. That was such a blessing in our lives. He is also coaching a class called the SELP (self-expression and leadership program). It is a class to help you see how you community listens you. Also helps you have breakthroughs and create possibility in your life. He has been staying pretty busy.

I have been still working at Walmart and it has been a real pain in the butt alot of times. They have done some changes that have really not worked so well. I have been enjoying taking care of Dillon and getting to know him better. Mikel and I have been Ward missionaries this past year as well as on the activities commitee. We have had quite the adventure helping with the halloween party where Mikel won the prize for the best chili, the Christmas play that the kids put on and all the other little activities we have had.

Dillon has really grown to a big boy. He has learned how to talk more. He sings the songs he learns in nursery. His favorites are "Once there was a snow man", "Popcorn Popping" and "I am a Child of God". He loves going in to primary for singing time. He has been going in to get ready for Sunbeams (now CTR 4). I am excited for him to join the other kids in the primary and learn even more! He is talking up a storm and he talks so much it is hard to keep up with him. He loves to learn, knows the numbers from 1-10, but can't count to 10 yet. He also knows most of the alphabet. He can identify Jesus, Joseph Smith and others in pictures he sees in church and home. He loves to pray and talks to Heavenly Father and Jesus. Just a couple days ago he was looking at his scab on his elbow and looked up and said "make it feel better please", then pointed to the scab and said "this one". He knows what Sacrament meeting is and what happens. He loves to watch me or daddy cook. He loves going on walks, loves the library and reading books. I could go on and on. He is a great kid and we are so blessed to have him in our life.

Thank you to all our friends and family for the support you have been for us. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas from all of us!

The Ropers: Mikel, Shalena, and Dillon

Give thanks

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving I want to list the things that I am thankful for. In no particular order here they are.

• My hubby Mikel
• My son Dillon
• The gospel of Jesus Christ
• A place to live
• A car
• A job for both of us
• Family
• Good Friends
• The Temple
• Miracles
• Our cat Cole
• Food
• Trees
• Mountians
• Ocean
• Eternal marriage
• Love
• Jesus Christ
• Joseph Smith
• Clothes
• The Atonement
• and much more...

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving day!!!

Dillon turned 3!!!

I know this is a week late but here it is. Dillon turned 3 on the 30th of Oct. I still find it hard to believe that he is 3. We had 2 parties for him. One on his birthday at Mikel's parent's house, and the other at my parents house on that Sunday with trick-or-treating in the middle. I only have pics of the first party, we didn't even get pics of him in his costume.

Dillon's cake he got to keep McQueen and Mater


Dillon blowing out his candles!


Opening the legos his Grandma gave him.


Checking out his ABC pop-up flash cards from uncle David as well as a Trio set.


A Trio set he got from Aunt Rachel, he also got some outfits


The tower set that Aunt Rachel gave him


Saturday we went tric-or-treating on mainstreet, where we went from store to store to trick-or-treat. He did so well he may not have always said trick-or-treat, but he did say thank you everytime. People really liked that. There were a lot of people there that day it was crazy and great for the kids. Then we went to Walmart as well. They had trick-or-treating around the store at different departments. Between that and the trunk-or-treat (of which we have no pics) he about filled his pumpkin full of candy.

Sunday evening we went over to my familes house to eat and celebrate Dillon's birthday with them as well. The cake there wasn't as cool. I made it and we put m&m's on top of the cake it looked pretty cool. He got some shoes and a couple outfits as well. It was great to see how much he enjoyed those few days, and fun to have a 3 year old!!

Rachel's wedding!

I know it has been a while so I am finally getting to the pics that I wanted to upload, so that I could show you what has happened when we went up to Lake Dillon for my sister-in-law's wedding. It was so awesome to be up there and spend time with family.

This is where it happened. They got married where the chairs are and in the pavillon was where the reception was.


A view of Lake Dillon


This is how Dillon and my cousin were supposed to go down the asile.


Aren't they cute!


Bonnie, Rachel's sister, filling in for Dad.


The wedding party doing their stuff, The Best man (Brett's dad) was so good with Dillon it was awesome.


And there they go back up.


A sunset by the lake.


Brett helping Dillon with his ring bearer gift. The backpack was filled with coloring books, crayons, fruit snacks and a couple other things.


The next day we went out on the canoe.


This is one way to put a kid to sleep.


When the wind picked up there were alot of sail boats it was so cool.


The officiant, Brett, and the Best man.


This is what happened his cousin got scared and didn't want to walk down the asile, Dillon tried to take her had but she refused so he went on his own.


Dillon making his way down and the Bridesmaid making her way with the Flower girl.


Rachel with her Dad


He was so good.


Look they are ring pops!


What a happy couple!


Ahhh


They went out on the lake as they "left".


The cupcakes!


The topper, so cute!


Getting ready to cupcake feed. They both got frosting on each other.


Their first dance!


Daddy daughter dance.


Rachel's parents


Rachel's grandparents. Mikel said he had never seen them this close before it was so cool to see!


The grandparents with the bride and groom.


Us with the bride and groom.

LIGHTNING STRIKE!!!

Yesterday around 5:30 we heard a big crackling sound and we unplugged our computers and shut off the T.V. Then the most annoying noise started, the alarms. Next thing we know mantience is knocking on our doors saying that lightning has struck our building. We got out and waited until the firemen came. Dillon was getting pretty excited to see the fire truck. We had 2 fire trucks, an amblience, 2 fire rescue SUVs and a cop car all there to see what had happened and make sure everyone had gotten out alright. We got to watch them get their latter on their truck up to see what was happened. When they came down from the ladder the three of the fire fighters who were there waved at Dillon. Dillon thought that was pretty cool. They located the problem and found out that the alarm system was hit so the alarm was going to have to be shut off by the alarm company. We were finally allowed back in our apartment and they said the alarm would be shut off soon. Luckly it was off with in 5 minutes! As soon as I got in I had to change and get to work since I was at that point 20 minutes late. While we were out there Dillon kept asking if he oculd ride in the fire truck. It sounds like we are going to have to take him to the fire station some time to get a look at the trucks. He loved being so close to them! Nobody was hurt if you were wondering, it wasn't that much damage as it was, so yea for us!

Topics for lack of posting for a month

I was hoping to post about it when the pics got off the camera but that didn't get done for a while. Then they all had to be put on the other computer and they haven't been put on CD to put here. I will try to get them up as soon as I can.

GARDEN OF THE GODS: We had a chance to finally go to Garden of the gods a couple months ago. It was so much fun to walk around and take pics of the rocks and all of us. The rock formations were pretty cool, they had one called the kissing camels it really looked like two camels kissing! I highly reccomend going to anyone who have the chance to go to Colorado Springs.

4TH OF JULY: aka My birthday Mikel made me breakfast. We had french toast with strawberries and powered sugar. It was so yummy they he got me Eclipse the third book in the Twilight series, now I am only missing one New Moon! We headed out to Longmont to see Mikel's grandparents and hang out with the rest of his family. We had a great time talking and eating. Dillon enjoyed running around and if there wasn't some crazy party at the park we would have gone over there. While we were there it rained but not too hard. We had some cupcakes and Grandma gave Dillon and I a quilt. Later that night we went to see the fireworks and it was so much better than last year!

NEW CAR: We got a new car! Someone gave us a 1991 Saturn SL1 manuel drive car. The only thing about it is that you have to double clutch to get into 2nd gear. I am not that good at that yet I am still working on it. It is not too bad of a car though. It is so nice to have a second car again!

CAMPING TRIP: Mikel left today on a camping trip with the 13-14 year old boys in our ward he is excited to be camping again and not sure quite what to expect with the boys. They have quite alot planned it sounds like they will have a blast! He took our Xterra up for the space that is holds and he won't be back until friday afternoon.

I believe that is all that I have if there is anything else I will try to write it later.

Finally...

After 2 weeks of crazyness, we got our dishwasher replaced! We put in an order for them to fix it and they came and looked at it. They couldn't figure out what was wrong so they brought a supervisor who cleaned out the trap and ran it with bleach. That sure didn't work well. We went down to have them look at it again and they told us to run a load and see what happenes. We ran a load and we still got food particles on out dishes. We waited to see what they would do, after bugging them for some time they told us they were ordering a new dishwasher. At that point we had dishes stacked up a bit, so we hand washed some dishes. Today they finally came and put it in! Yea for new dishwasher!

Back up and running!

Last Thursday we were driving home (south bound) from denver on I-25 and just as we were getting to the Evans exit and the Xterra looses power. I had no idea what was going on, Mikel was trying to get over as soon as possible. Things were entertaining. Mikel called his bro who said it was probably a fuel pump or fuel filter. He was heading up to WY or else he would have come over to tow us and help fix it. He then called his other bro who was in Longmont and wouldn't be back until 6, so he called his mom and she came and picked us up and took Dillon and I to a friends house. Dillon and I went swimming with our friends and I went to work. Mikel went with his mom to his parents house to wait until his bro got off so they could tow it to his parents house. Mikel stayed with the car to figure out what the problem was. They put in a new battery, and new fuel filter, but the car still quit after about 15 min. His sister lent us her truck while she and her financee went camping for the weekend, our friend picked me up and droped Dillon and I off that night, because Mikel wasn't going to make it in time.

Friday we went up again and tried some other things like changing out the air filter and the air filter sensor it still wasn't working. Saturday we didn't go up, but they did take it to some one who hooked it up to the computer to see what was the problem was. They ran the tests twice and they came up with no fuel. Bacially the fuel is not getting to where it needs to go. Sunday, much to our dismay, his dad switched out the fuel pump regulator and didn't get it put together because of the rain. When we came up Monday Mikel had to put the cover and all the connections back. After I left with his sis to go to work, they tried to replace the fuel pump but they droped the tank as well, which we figured out later that that was not neccessary. Tuesday we went back up and put the tank back in, which was a big pain in the butt. Then we were stumped so Mikel called his bro who came back from WY the day before and tried to figure it out. He did a little testing, then it got dark and had to put it down for the night.

Wednesday we went up and things were looking up. Before we got up there I googled a couple questions to see if we could figure out the problem. When I googled the question "How do you get fuel through in a 2001 nissan xterra?" and it came up with the fuel sending unit possibly being the problem. After his brother got there they checked the pump and the sending untit and found out that the sending unit with one of the electrical connections was coroded. We were able to get the sending unit at a dealership, and as soon as we got the piece in. The car started up with no problem! We were so thrilled to know that it is working and that we did find the problem. We then followed his sister to drop off her truck and then off we went home so I could go to work. It has really been quite a week!

Pics and stuff!

Yesterday for memorial day we enjoyed the day with my family. We played on the tramp, watched Surf's up and played a card game. Dillon had a blast he really loved the tramp. He got bounced around and giggled alot it was great to watch. He really enjoys hanging out with his uncles and playing with them. After we had some dinner, Mikel decided to go back out to the tramp and ended up putting enough weight on the tramp in the right place that the frame gave in finally. It was ready to give in for awhile. We were grateful that none of the kids were on it so they wouldn't get hurt. We enjoyed the day yesterday it was so much fun!

These are the pics we took at the temple before we got sealed! Yes, I am wearing my wedding dress, I also got sealed in it.

Some pics of me






Mikel and I




Our little family






With Mikel's parents


With Mikel's parents and grandparents


With Mikel's grandparents


With my parents


Some pics of Dillon