The firetruck

Oh, the benefits of living in an older neighborhood.

(Seriously, we see the fireman and ambulance in our neighborhood a couple times a year.)
They stopped and said hi to the kids, passed out stickers (last time we got fireman hats!), and turned on the lights. The kids LOVED it.
And don't worry, they stopped on their way out. :)

Thank you Blake

My sweet little boy. . .and yet so mischievous! I kid you not, he cut my curtains, pulled apart his rug, destroyed his piggy bank, ripped his belt in half, and cut his sister's hair in a matter of days. Or at least I found all the destroyed things in a matter of days.

Here's Addi's new hair cut, courtesy of Blake:  Chopped off some hair in the front.

 Took out a chunk in the back. (right in the middle, where there is no long hair)

And here's the new fix-it do:

(She was fast asleep but you can see I had to do a little 'a-frame' cut.)

I just can't believe my little stinker. I told him next time to cut his OWN hair!

Saturday is a special day. . .

My parents came up to spend the weekend with us since we could just not get away! It was so fun to spend time with them, enjoying their favorite activity. :)

 

It was such a beautiful day! And I loved to see the color changes coming!

Good times. Thanks to my mom & dad! 

The race

Emmalee & Blake ran  in a race that Capital High put together for elementary students. It was Blake's first race. He did awesome and was so excited about it. Emmalee also raced and ended up getting 10th place. All the kids got ribbons and dinner. It was great!
Here's my little runners:

Birthday Girl

Wow! Seriously??!?! 8 YEARS OLD?!?!? I have loved watching Emmalee grow up and become the girl that she is. She is bright, she is curious, she is funny. I recently found out that she can read 194 words per minute! Isn't that insane?!?! (Average for 2nd grade is 90) Needless to say, she LOVES to read! She would read all day if she could. I'm so proud of her hard work in everything she does. I love you Emmalee!!

Happy Birthday to you & you

To my big 8 year old:

And my hot hunny:

It's been a good ten years. . .

For our anniversary every year, we pick a nice restaurant to go to. This year was Chandlers at Hotel 43. Yummy! Good food and live Jazz. Awesome. I even got to dress up! :)

Since it was our 10th anniversary, we ended up giving each other gifts. I made Jerek a photobook of our first ten years together. I included fun memories of past anniversaries, trips, and activities. It was a lot of fun looking through pictures, and a lot of working scanning them all! Loved it!! Here are some of my favorites:

From the Dating Years:

The Wedding:

and just great memories:

 (carved at the family property in UT on the July 4th weekend, 10 years ago. "Our tree" is now dying. Hope it is NOT a symbolism of things to come. . .)

School Starts

Where did summer go?! I miss it already. Today was a 70 degree, wet day. I had to break out the jeans, jackets, and tights.
School started this week. Emmalee is in 2nd grade with Mrs. Shockley, and Blake is in Kindergarten with Ms. Galeone. They seem to like it so far! Cross your fingers, cause homework starts this week!

And Addi and I play dress ups and watch princess movies all day. :)

I LOVE to craft, la, la, la, la!

(You know, "I love to laugh, ha ha ha ha, loud and long and clear!" Can you tell me what movie these song lyrics are from???) Totally have it in my head....

Just a few things I've been working on this summer:

the shirt dress found here.
It wasn't too hard, I just had to make my own pattern. For a first try it turned out alright. Thank goodness I have a CuTe model!

And the shoe bench, made from my own design and scraps of wood in the garage. I also have a coat rack and shelf to put on the wall above. My vision is for the school-aged kids to use the bench to put their shoes on, have a place to store them, and have a place to hang coats and backpacks. Hopefully the kids will use it as I dreamed they would. :)

And lastly, my beautiful kid picnic table made from this site.

It's been a fun summer!

August: Reunion & TREK

For the last weekend in July and the first part of August, Jerek & I took the family down to Heber City for a family reunion. We haven't had one for the Tippets (my mom's side) since. . . '94? or so. Anyway, it's been a LONG time. Heber City is where my grandparents are buried and they lived part of their lives there growing up. Something cool: If my grandma was alive, it would have been her 100th birthday and she almost has 100 descendants.
Here's a picture of all of us that could make it:

After the reunion Jerek & I sent our kids home with grandma and went to Wyoming for a week with leaders and youth of our stake. We went to Martin's Cove, Willie Center, & Rocky Ridge. We had a 'family' consisting of 9 teenagers and camped on the plains for the whole week. We pushed/pulled a handcart for 3 days. It was great. No, seriously. It was amazing! It had to be! How else do you get 120 teenagers & 60 adults to camp and pull a handcart up a hill and thru streams and mud holes?? You tell awesome stories, learn about the pioneer heritage, you work together as a family, you play games and sing songs, you run through the rain/hail storm hoping you don't get hit by lightening, you feel the spirit and all the joy of being in nature with good people who are willing to serve each other. It was an experience that I was glad to be a part of.