Just a quick summary

It has been way to long since I have updated any photos. These are just a few of the happenings. More to come shortly...hopefully :)

We headed to Orlando, FL for some fun back in November. On our way there we had just a stop in Salt Lake City, which was a surprise to us, where David's dad and sister got on our flight. It was so fun to travel with them the rest of the way to Florida.

Playin in the sand at Cocoa Beach. Uncle Richard was aMaZiNg building those sand casltes.

Aspen ate lots of sand. She was completely a MESS, but it was sooo worth it.

We went to St. Augustine our first day to show the kids the fun amazing things there. It was fun to walk around this little town. We also drove by Daytona beach, it was tooo windy to get out. Watching the waves was pretty fun.

The boys were to little to ride on Lilo and Stitch, so Aunt Lara bought them some cotton candy and little star wars Micky figures to make them feel better and pass the time.

Dad and Madison skiing at Schweitzer. The kids have had such a great season skiing this year. Cam is catching on fast and loves doing his classic bear face while skiing down the slope.

The annual 'first day of school' pictures

Madison and some friends

Brooklyn and some friends after lunch

CCrazy Kindergarten Cam!

Logan

Madison and fabulous Mrs. Nickle. She was so excited to have the same teacher Brooklyn had last year!

Cameron is just goofy and fun

Logan is 'cool'

Ms. Maddy

Brooklyn is ready!

And what type of mom would I be if I did not post about the first day of school? Let's just be glad I actually took pictures! Not many, but enough to say I did!

FiNaLlY!!!

I have been such a slacker lately with keeping up on our fun, fabulous lives! My poor blog has been pretty pathetic looking that I fInAlLy decided it was time... time for a little updating and makeover. How about that? I hope I can keep the posts coming!

Our sweet Logan turned 8 on September 4th, the same day as our Stake baptisms. We are so proud of him for making this choice. He was so happy to be baptized a member of our church on his actual birthday. It was such a neat day. Grandma and Grandpa Tippetts, Grandpa Christensen and Aunt Lala came to celebrate this day with him!

Our 'FOREVER' wonderful friends/neighbors the Alfaros came. They are just so wonderful! We just love them!

Logan is such a great example to his siblings. We are so grateful for him and the choices he is making!

The other day my kids came in asking if I could take them to the Swimming pool. I told them to just go grab the tarp out of the garage and make a fun slip n slide to cool off on... well after a few phone calls to dad and them duct taping a few minor holes I thought they would be all set. When I went out to see how they were coming along this is what I found! My kiddos used their creative minds and made a little pool for themselves. Though they refer to it as their hot tub! It was quite funny! And no worries, we do now have a slip n slide and wading pool for the kids to play in!

And this is what happens when Logan attempts to pitch a ball to Cameron who was simply the batter. We now have soft foam balls for them to play with. And Logan is working on his pitching skills! Day 2 of his black eye.

Poor kid!

Family pictures

LOVE when my sister Kristy, her wonderful husband Tyson and their fun, vibrant boys come to visit us! They are so much fun! Tyson went to work and did the plumbing in our bathroom, then took 2 days and refinished my kitchen table! Kristy was amazing as usual and took some fun pictures of our family!

Our trip to Idaho!

AHHH such great memories with our great friends the Macks! When David and I were first married we moved to Grain Valley, Missouri where the Mack family quickly took us in and made us part of their family! We have such a special place in our hearts for them. Our family recently made a trip to Idaho Falls for Kortneys baby shower. Kortney babysat my kids for many years and we became very fond of her! She is now due to have her first little girl in less then 2 weeks. We knew this was a trip we needed to make... so we could see Diane (Mama Mack), Chase and Kortney, Cameron - Ashley and their darling boys and Jared-Emily and their precious new addition ~ since we knew it would be a while before we would see them again! Hopefully not long! Here are some pictures from our trip!Kortney and the girls

The Mack girls

We also were able to visit our GREAT friends the 'Spencers'. The recently moved to Idaho from Spokane! WE miss them! The kids had a wonderful time playing with them again!

A few months ago...

So I'm a little behind on MANY things, and blogging is just one of them. If you are reading this... THANKS for not giving up on me! We had a FUN April Fools Day! I let the kids have ice-cream sundaes for breakfast. The kids were soooo excited and kept asking me what the catch was... Brooklyn finally caught on that it was April Fool's Day!!! It was very yummy and fun! That night for dinner we had cupcakes... the real cupcakes are on the left and the 'meatloaf with colored mashed potatoes' are on the right! Fun day!

St. Paddy's DAY

We have FUN on this 'GREEN' filled day. Thanks to my friend Kristi - my kids began building their leprechaun traps a week earlier! They were really into it making traps inside their traps, leaving gold coins in hopes to trick him! No luck this year. Lots of messes left by St. Riley himself though. He used our toilet, and forgot to flush, washed his hands, took a bath, turned our milk green and left a glittery mess all over. He did leave some fun 'GREEN' treats for the kids and they loved the 'Lucky Charms' cereal for breakfast. We also made some green pancakes and green rice krispie treats. It was a fun day!

Valentines...

We had a fun 'before' school hair party! These are the cute girls who got the famous 'heart braid' hair-do for Valentines day!!! I learned to do this braid back when I was 14 years old up at girls camp from Allison Bishop. I bet she doesn't even remember teaching me... but I love it and get such great comments about it!
The "heart" view!

Brooklyn's

Maddy and Brook

The 3 girls!

A day of LOVE!!! Many Valentines were being made at our house this year... all different too. Brooklyn wanted to make these fortune cookies for her class.

Logan and Madison make rice krispie hershey kisses for their classes! Lots of work, but really cute!

It was a very 'LOVEly' day!

AHHHH Christmas....

What a wonderful Christmas, full of family, relaxing and good memories. We started Christmas Eve by opening our ever so wonderful pajamas... Penguins happened to be our theme this year. We then acted out the story of the Luke II. Brooklyn had a great time writing the story our of our Saviors birth and assigned us all our parts. Brooklyn was the narrator and director, David was Joseph, I was Mary, Aspen - played the important role of baby Jesus. Logan, Cam and Corbin were the 3 wisemen. Madison played the Angel, Grandpa was the keeper of the inn, who offered us his stable, and LaLa was the Shephard. It was really fun. After we put the 2 younger boys to bed Lara had 2 very special poems she read to us and then we watched a video of Heather!

Heather was Davids younger sister who passed away tragically the beginning of October. She was traveling back to American Fork with her band students when the bus driver blacked out, Heather jumped up and steered the bus back on the freeway. Unfortunately, the bus tipped over. Heather was the only fatality. It really has been VERY SAD. Hard to explain the emotions that are with us all of the time. I do know that Heather is loved, she will ALWAYS be in our hearts and has given us a new look at life! It was a wonderful Christmas Eve to dedicate a special moment to Heather and reflecting on her 1st Christmas in Heaven with our Savior! Sure do miss you Heather!

Christmas morning we tried something new this year. I had woken up around 4:30 to feed Aspen and could not fall back asleep, David was also awake, so finally at 5:30 we woke up David's dad and Lara and went up to the girls room with all of the kids. We read scriptures, prayed and talked about what gifts we wanted to give to the Savior this year. Things that we wanted to do better and work towards. It was really neat. The rest of the day was full of FUN, FUN, Fun and food toooo! It was a lovely day!

Christmas Piano Recital!!!

Yeah! Brooklyn is ready to go!

Brooklyn, Lexie, Alyssa and Madison after a FaBuLoUs performance!!!!