Congratulations Girls!

As an extra homeschool activity the girls entered the local banks, "Through the Eyes of A Child" photo contest. To our surprise all three of the girls won ribbons. Katey and Alyssa both won Honorable Mention ribbons, and our little Josalyn won 3rd place (and a savings bond) out of the whole competition! Josy's picture was picked out of about 150 photos. YEAH GIRLS!!!

Josalyn's prize winning photo of a soccer statue in our field

Alyssa's photo of Chin Chin

Katey's photo of Levi kissing a statue outside Town Hall

A gust of August...

Whew! Is anyone else wondering where this summer has gone to? If time keeps moving at this rate, I'm going to be 75 before I know it.

Derren and I began Aug. with an over-night fishing trip. Our party caught 50 fish. I know that sounds sissy-ish to my Alaskan friends, but I'm pretty proud of the bunch we captured.





One of the high-lights of this month was when Andrea (a.k.a. Emmett) Oliver came up to visit. The kiddos loved her and I had fun taking a stroll down memory lane with her. Andrea and I sure had some good times together.


Shortly after Andrea left, Josalyn decided to cut her own bangs, and for some reason I decided now would be a good time to treat Josalyn to a hair cut at the "beauty shop." I think the final results are pretty cute.

This month we studied ancient New Zealand history in homeschool. The girls decorated themselves like Maori warriors.


Yesterday, we returned home from UT. While we were in UT we visited the Taylors, went to the Salt Lake Parade of Homes, were able to see Uncle Benny, stayed over at Mom's, and met little Baby Reagan for the first time.

Everyone agrees that Reagan is very VERY cute!


As you can see, Katey took most of the pictures at the Parade of Homes.

Uncle Benny flew in for the fun, and made it just in time to see all the kiddos come down with a nasty case of food poisoning.
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These photos are some fun pics. I took at my mom's house.<

Happy 2nd Birthday Levi!

It seems as if time has sped up with each child. Levi turned 2 today, and I'm having a hard time believing it has been that long since he joined our family. The last two years have been filled with many hugs, kisses, and love for our little guy. He is
the best surprise our family has ever had.

Levi is a fun little 2 year old. He has outgrown his Mama's boy syndrome (for the most part) and loves to play with friends, go to nursery at church, and explore outside. He is incredibly friendly and will say "Hi Grandma/Grandpa" to anyone who looks like they'd fit the part. Levi enjoys searching for bugs and then squishing or - I hate to admit - eating them occasionally. Levi's current obsession is the Hulk. He'll walk around growling the words, "Hulk smash!" as he bends over and flexes his little arms. He has a set of Hulk gloves which he enjoys "smashing" his family members with. Levi loves balls, especially "basketbowls" and "soccerbowls" and all animals. He is a little maniac when it comes to swimming. When water is around, fear is not a part of his vocabulary. Levi will jump right in, submerge himself completely, and then come up sputtering and laughing. His favorite foods are "chocate," "go-go" (yogurt), and "eyecream." His favorite songs are Michael Jackson's, "Beat It," "Boo Boo Boo," "Do-Re-Me," and "The Bones Song." We love to hear Levi sing, especially when he is performing a Levi opera.

We went to the Ridgeway Reservoir today to celebrate Levi's birthday. We swam, enjoyed icees, and played with our new puppies. Happy birthday Levi, we love you!!!

His and Hers...

We would now like to introduce you to Athena Tippets (a.k.a. Derren's dog). Athena is a Great Dane and is welcomed warmly by those who feel Chin Chin is a little too girly.

We're Adding One More to Our Family!

We'd like you all to meet Chin Chin Tippets, our newest little girl. Chin Chin is a Shih-Poo (Shih-Tzu Poodle mix), is very mellow, and loves to be snuggled. Mommy, and family are all doing well and are thrilled about our newest addition!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

We hope each of you enjoyed your holiday as much as we did.

Ours felt like it started last weekend and continued until yesterday.

We ended up having an unexpected cancellation of plans last week so, our family used the time to plant 7 fruit trees (2 cherry, 2 plum, 2 apple, and a peach), create 3 4x16 ft. garden boxes, and plant a vegetable garden. Despite how much work it was, I felt like I was in heaven! I'm so excited we are finally (literally) planting roots somewhere.

Once the plants were in and watered, we had visitors. Aunt Mechelle (from New York), Aunt Tenele, Uncle Milo (Te-Milo, as Josalyn calls him), and cousins, Camille, Justine (Beans, as Levi says), and Aaron (Derren, as Levi calls him) came to stay over night and see where we are living.

Friday we were all on our way to the BLT Family Reunion - for all you non-tippets BLT stands for Brigham Lewis Tippets, not bacon, lettuce, and tomato - at the YMCA in Winter Park, CO. We spent 2 1/2fun filled days with a lot of Tippets'. We had a talent show (I'm still bummed Mechelle didn't perform a solo!), smores, pictures, church, cafeteria food (that's a big deal to homeschoolers!), canoeing, a few cuts and bruises from cousin rough housing, and lots of time to realize how great our family is. I came back feeling pretty proud that I am part of such a large group of fantastic people. Thank you Tippets family!

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Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We hope each of you had as much quality family time as we did, and enjoyed your 4th of July!

Summer Fun!!

I thought some of you would like to see the girls' cute dance recital costumes. Katey was a country clogger, Alyssa was a spring flower, and Josy was a summer flower.
Levi is our little biker?

Derren decided it would be fun to have a craw-fish fry using the craw-fish in our pond. So, he contrived a trap, and actually caught some!

The smell of the cooking craw-fish attracted a skunk - whom I found in our garage and later out our back window - trying to get to our craw-fish. Luckily he/she wasn't scared enough to spray. I naively thought our visitors had ceased coming when Derren found a snake in the garage! YUCK!!!!!

Today I decided it was time to work on the landscaping around out house. Since it had been left empty for a year the weeds had become pretty wild. Speaking of wild, wild rose bushes are some of the most vicious plants I have ever encountered! Their thorns kill!!!!



Later on, we played in our pond.