Christmas 2009

I had written this post a week after Christmas. It's taken me 2 1/2 months to post it!

Whew! The presents are unwrapped, I finally finished making all of our stockings (minus mine, Mom made it), the dishes are cleaned, and I'm ready to sit down and review the happenings of this month...

This year Christmas was special for me, because I was able to see how truly blessed I am.

Seeing many of our relatives over the holidays reminded me that I have a wonderful family, both immediate and extended. I am lucky to be a part of the Tippets', Cox's, and Raybacks. I am connected with some truly amazing people.

Here is a (not so quick) review of our Christmas happenings...

After all of our Montrose craziness (the parade, office party, ward party...) we escaped town and drove over the mountain to visit family on the Denver side.
The girls were the angels in our Church Nativity.

Milo and Tenelle graciously offered their home to us for three days. While we were there we had a lot of cousin time AND were able to see Aunt Mechelle who had flown home from NY for the holidays.

Needless to say, the girls and Levi loved every minute of it.

On Saturday we saw a house my dad has restored in Denver, and were all thoroughly impressed with the ideas and quality Dad put into the house. Later, he took the kiddos Christmas shopping and then treated us to a lunch at Blue Parrot Spegetti. After lunch we drove to Broomfield for my cousin Tyler's graduation party. I was able to see several of my cousins, my grandparents, and most of my aunts and uncles on the Cox side.

Levi jammed with cousin Karin!

One of my personal highlights of our trip was going to church with the Tippets family. Elvis, Anne, Mechelle, all of our immediate family, and all of the Cadayongs were there. Milo, Camille, and Justine performed in the Christmas program. As Camille played her violin all I could do was try not to cry because of how overwhelmingly grateful I felt to be with my family and to be a part of my family. They are the best!

Derren and I had a fun night visiting with Matt Thomas and his family while seeing the light display in the Denver Zoo. The conversation, lights, and hot chocolate were refreshing.

The following night, our family shared a wonderful Christmas meal, decorated cookies, and performed the Tippets' family Christmas program (created by Aunt Mechelle.) Once our kids were in bed, Derren and I spent the late hours of the night laughing about things we had done when we were younger with the Cadayongs. Another great night.

As much as we hated to leave, we packed up and left the following morning. On our way home -as we were passing Golden - our alternator went out. As luck would have it, we pulled off the nearest exit and stalled in the intersection next to the Ford dealership. Next, a police officer showed up within a matter of minutes and pushed us across the road to the dealership where we were able to have the car fixed. We plopped the kids on the couch in the waiting area where they watched cartoons until Elvis came to pick us up to take us to lunch. Can you imagine a luckier break-down? I can't.

At home, we saw Santa Claus, watched our harp teacher perform, delivered a few gifts, shared our friends' Christmas Eve dinner, and enjoyed more family time. As I said ealier, this was a Christmas filled with reminders of how blessed we truly are.

Alyssa made all these hair clips for Josy's Christmas present. She loved them! Wouldn't you?

Levi was determined he would give us a white Christmas. With, or without snow! He poured baby powder all over his room Christmas morning and then banged his head on his mattress to watch the powder fly! You've got to love how a kids brain works.

This picture is a random bath picture of Levi. I just thought it was too cute to keep out.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Posting our 2009 Christmas Letter

Creating our Christmas letter always thrills me. It's fun to look back and realize we actually completed a lot, the year wasn't just hectic and crazy, but there was a purpose to all the madness!

As a family one of the things we did this year was travel. In May we went to New Orleans. In July we went to Winter Park, CO for the Tippets' Family Reunion. In October we revisited one of our favorite places - Disney World. In between the big trips we enjoyed getting to know grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Utah and Colorado a little better.

One of our other big happenings this year is moving into a new (for us) house. We are hoping this will be the home we will never EVER move from!

In August, we added a new member to our family... Chin Chin Tippets is a mini-poodle/schitzu mix. She is just what we hoped to find in a dog: hypo-allergenic, friendly, and increasingly obedient.

Derren has been very busy and happy running his business, Treasured Teeth. This year, he hosted an awesome first year anniversary luau celebration, let the girls cater several business luncheons for him, and took part in Montrose's annual Christmas parade. I get a kick out of how many children recognize him when we run errands around town. They are all really excited to see Dr. Tippets. For relaxation time, Derren was lucky enough to go to a couple CU football games.

I've kept busy doing mommy work. I'm homeschooling again this year, and just like every other year, I am loving it. As a treat for myself, I have started taking lever harp lessons with Katey. Derren "treated" me this year by introducing me to snow shoeing, a kid-free fishing trip, and reintroducing me to skiing. Snowshoeing is fantastic, and I enjoyed the fishing, but I think it's going to take a while for me to warm up to skiing. I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it!

Katey (9) continues to be our little attention grabber. She is social, fun, and bubbly, and to Derren's dismay, the boys are starting to notice. Luckily, Katey isn't too focused on them yet. Katey took part in a local photo competition in September and won an honorable mention ribbon. She enjoyed being in Girl Scouts and clogging class through May, a drama camp in June, and piano lessons, gymnastics, art class, and harp lessons the rest of the year. Out of all her talents, Katey excels in music. She will be competing in a piano competition in Grand Junction this coming February. Katey's biggest news (according to her) is that she is now wearing braces.

Alyssa (7) is our mini-Aunt Tenele. She is strong, tall and thin, clean, gentle, smart, and loving. This year, Alyssa has started to read like a pro. She enjoys reading any silly story or joke book she can get her hands on. One of Alyssa's favorite past times is dressing Chin Chin up and giggling as Chin Chin tries to get her hat off of her head. Luckily, Chin Chin seems to think it's pretty fun too. Alyssa also took part in the local photo contest (also won an honorable mention ribbon,) Girl Scouts, and participated in ballet class until May. Currently, she is in gymnastics and piano lessons.

As for Josalyn (5,) I'm guessing her favorite occurrence this year was our Disney World trip. Since this year is Disney's, Year of Celebrations, and we were visiting during the week of Josalyn's 5th birthday, Josalyn had "Happy Birthday" sung to her at every lunch and dinner for a whole week! Josy told me, "Mom this is the biggest birthday I have ever had in my whole life!" I let her know it will probably be the biggest she will ever have. Josalyn also participated in the local photo competition. Josalyn's photo won a third place ribbon and a savings bond! We were very impressed. Josy competed against 200+ photos with much older contestants. Josy was in ballet until May, and started homeschool preschool and gymnastics this year.

Little Levi (2) is a hoot. He loves making us laugh around the dinner table by making silly faces and dancing with his shirt off like a fire dancer. Levi loves the Hulk, Spider Man, the Rock Band video game, football ("hut, hut",) soccer, basketball, baseball, and any other kind of sport. Since Disney we have been trying to convince Levi everything is not spooky or "cary." Levi's big change this year was moving from a crib to his big boy car bed.

We hope each of you are well and wish all of you a Merry Christmas!

Love,

The Tippets Family

Derren, Shauna, Katey, Alyssa, Josalyn, Levi, and Chin Chin

Every once in a while I blog just because. No party, no birthday, no special achievment, just a post about my wonderful family and our simple happenings. That's what my blog it for today.

We decided that we are going to enjoy our holidays this year and not feel like the victims of a hit by a hit-and-run. Novemeber 1st we started listening to Christmas music, we put our tree up Saturday, have had hot chocolate 3 times (that's alot for us), and Derren has been keeping our fireplace stoked any time it is cold outside. I've been pleasantly surprised how nice it has been to have Christmas begin earlier. We might actually get through all of our Christmas books this year!

One of my habits - be it good, or bad - is to shop the clearance isle after a holiday. After Halloween I found cute ward robe for Chin Chin. This is one of my favorite pictures!Chin Chinpatra.Our little witch.Our little princess. You know your little boy is growing up when he dons a mustache. Oh wait, he drank the molasses!

Need a little Mickey in your life?

We had some Mickey, and Minnie, and Donald, and...then some more! As a surprise for the kids we took them to Disney World for a week and didn't tell them (other than Katey) until the day of our trip.

I had to post a picture of the Montrose Airport. Our flight from Montrose to DIA was our easiest flight yet. As you can see, there were no crowds at all! Beats driving five hours to Denver.

The first thing we saw in the Orlando Airport was the Hulk. Levi LOVES the Hulk and was more than happy to pose for a picture.

During our week Katey was our super helper. She was happy to sit alone when there weren't equal sitting partners, she took her little sisters or her brother on not-so-fun for big girl rides over and over, and she walked the whole time without complaining! My oldest one is really growing up.

As for our calm little Alyssa, we found out she has a bit of a wild side. Alyssa loved the fast rides, and I mean loved them! She rode the Rockin' Roller Coaster which goes upside down 3 times, and she thought the Tower of Doom which drops 12 stories was a little boring. She definitely got this side of her from Derren.

Josalyn was our adventure girl at Disney. We nearly lost her in the Biergarten Restaraunt in Epcot(I should say out of the Biergarten - she ran out of it into the park), she decided she would give the characters her autograph, and we celebrated her birthday ALL week long. Some time during our last Disney day Josalyn told me, "This has been the biggest birthday I have EVER had in my WHOLE life!" I do have to agree with that. She was sung Happy Birthday to every lunch and dinner for 7 days! Hurray Josalyn is 5!

Levi has moved into a new stage in his life, the "I'm cared (scared)!" phase. Some of the 3-D shows scared him so much he tried to climb up onto my shoulder to curl up and hide. That was something I had to help him over come pretty darn fast as my shoulder is not very big.

He decided sitting on my lap and putting my hand over his face with my fingers spread apart was okay too. Silly little guy.

When Levi wasn't feeling "cared" he was taking his shoes off, and as you might have guessed, we lost one and ended up having to buy him a pair in one of the Disney gift shops. I was really excited that I got to buy a 2 year old a pair of shoes for $32.00! I bought them a size too big so he can wear them next year too.

They do look pretty cute on his little feet though, don't they?

Some of our favorite things on our trip were the parks themselves (of course), the characters, and some of the fun places we ate at. The kids got to dance with the belly dancer at the Moroccan Restaurant in Epcot.

A little R and R.

Our "table" at the Sci-Fi Cafe and American Idol in Disney Hollywood Studios were both a high-light of that park.

Trick-or-Treating in the Magic Kingdom! I think the only place the kids don't care about how much candy they get is at the Magic Kingdom. We had a blast riding the Haunted Mansion ride, Peter Pan, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain over and over again that night.

The inside of our restaurant in Epcot. If you look closely you can see where the volcano is erupting. We had fun watching that a few times throughout our meal.

The Luau at the Polynesian.

The mark of a good trip? When even the "big" girls can't stay awake! Farewell Disney, thanks for a great time!