Easter!

I love me some Easter!  Is it because it's during spring?  Maybe.  Is it because of what it represents?  Probably.  This year I made less baskets than I have for 15 years.

It was weird.

The baskets contained; candy, a movie and a tie.  Could it get any better?  Yes.  My basket had my all time favorite Sees candy, bordeaux with a new skirt attached.  Sweet.

The kids had a Easter egg hunt on Sunday evening at Mimi & Papa's home.  Even Winston got involved.

Quinn loves that Mr. Winston!

Roxcy had fun finding the goodies!

A small group this year.  Just two families...one with a kid missing (my kid, Cole).

Truman, Quinn and Winston.

Rick turned the camera on us.

A Valentine's Day Anniversary.

On February 14th, 1987, Rick and I were married in the Arizona Temple.

The hair.  The dress.  The colors.

Thick, black eyebrows anyone?  Pleanty to go around!

My handsome guy.

As long ago as that sounds, time has flown by!

I knew I loved him before I met him because my roommate would talk about him (he was dating her cousin at the time) and I knew he was the kind of guy I wanted.  The deal was sealed when I walked into his kitchen to meet his mom and Gary, Rick's dad, was wearing an apron, fixing dinner.  That was the kind of example I wanted my future husband to have in a father!  Although, Rick got many wonderful skills from his father, I don't think in our 24 years together, I've ever seen him in an apron.  Now I know what he's getting for Father's Day this year.  See how my brain storming works?!

We rarely go out on our actual anniversary because too many people are trying to get out for Valentine's, so we went out on Friday and went to Pei Wei's where I had Pad Thai.  L O V E  that stuff.  Then we went to the movies where we saw the romantic flick, "The Green Hornet."  Really, we're just a couple of uber romantic people.  We don't even have to try.

Thanksgiving with the Tiptons

It's taken a while for me to get these up on my little blog.  There was no cooperation with my computer in my endeavor, so...it took me some time to figure it out.  Some time soon I'll have a computer savvy person come to visit it and he/she will make it all better. 

We had a very fun holiday with the Tiptons, 31 of them in total.  We only were lacking Cherrisse's family who celebrated Texas style in Lubbock.

Tiffany was the hostess this year and she did a wonderful job!  She set a cute table(s).

The preparations went on for hours.

Steven fried a turkey, Cajun style

while Tiffany cooked a traditional one in the oven.

Part of the day consisted of writing three things we were grateful for

and then trying to pick who wrote what.

Tiff even gave an Old Navy gift certificate to the one who

picked the most people.

I lost by one.

Dang.

Here's our

"Thankful for" leaves.

Our great host and hostess.

I don't envy them.

This seems sick and wrong and yet we all do it.

When your belly gets big,

put it to work!

Our cute decor.

 Some of the first to be seated.  Jamie, my-sister-in-law, and me........I was hungry.

Papa, always a crowd pleaser with the kids.

Getting ready for our

Kick-Ball game.

We always play boys against the girls.

It can get ugly.

It was also cold!

Really!

Seriously.

Emily holding the last born Tipton grandchild who just turned one

while preparing for Winston's arrival in January.

The, "Day after Thanksgiving hike"

with the men and kids.

We women are smarter than you think!

 I think the kids had a great time!  After the hike, they went and shot guns and then we hit up Costa Vida for dinner and a movie then more shopping.



Today is my birthday!

This is my kindergarten picture.

I barely tuned 5 when this was taken.

I wore my

Flower girl

dress for the pictures.

As you may gather from the colors of the dress,

the wedding colors were

brown & yellow.

That's the '70s for you!

Ahhh, I loved it so!

I also had some

Buster Brown

shoes to go with.

They were shiny and brown and tan.

I.Loved.them.too!

"What's that toothless smile?"

You may ask.

Well, my teeth were rotten down to the nubbins from being put to bed with a

bottle of apple juice nightly as a baby.

(Don't try that one at home!)

They stayed that way until I started loosing my teeth in

First Grade!

Don't think that wasn't attractive.

Fourth of July!

What did we do for the Fourth?

The Tipton's went up to Show Low to participate in the Fourth of July parade.

Reason being, Rick's brother, Scott, is running for Constable in Show Low

and we wanted to support him.

I thought we were going to watch the parade,

instead, we were in it!

Emily and Steven are waiting on the float for our turn to begin.

The parade started at 9:00 a.m. and we didn't

get on the route until 10:15 or so.

Here are some of the cousins.

Scott on the parade route handing out flags to the crowd.

The kids handed out 70 pounds of candy but ran out

1/2 way through the 1.75 mile route.

Mimi or Janet Tipton stayed in the car and waved.

Quinn dressed up as a law enforcement officer.

Waving to the adoring public.

Truman with his bucket of candy

running to catch up to the float.

Jayden taking a ride on Truman's shoulders.

This really is the best picture.

We were lucky enouch to be behind

Katherine's Dance Studio.

Which was a belly dancing studio.

See the gals behind Heather & Rick?

They are the epitome of belly dancers!!

Don't you agree?

The Graduate

The Graduate

R. Cole Tipton

5/26/2010

Last night was Cole's graduation.

It was heald at the

ASU Wells Fargo Arena.

There's a bunch of kids in his class.

Lots, I tell you!

(Disregard the picture of Emily.  She has a way of getting herself in all of my pictures.)

Grandpa Bruce ended up there with Uncle Lloyd.

You can see Grandpa Bruce was underwhelmed.

Uncle Lloyd dressed up for the occassion:

A one-piece jump suit goes with evey event!

This is the best picture of Cole in his graduation outfit.

He disrobed as soon as he was out of the building.

He didn't shave 'cause he wanted to look like some form of cool.

Mimi and Papa Tipton made it just in time by way of Texas/Show Low

to the reading of the names.

A super tall graduate.

No, wait,

it's just Truman giving Quinn a piggyback ride.

By the way, where did that phrase come from?

Someone's gotta know.

Quinn trying on the goods for his turn in 9 years.

Rick went around snapping pictures at the party.

Unfortunately the camera was on the wrong setting.

Thus the blurry pictures.

Squint your eyes, they'll look better.

More blurr, sorry.

This is just to illustrate how delicious the food from

Tum Nak Thai was!

We loved it.

Last Wednesday I placed an order for 30 people.

Once done with the ordering, the lady on the phone said,

"Okay, come in 15 minutes to get your order."

"No, no.  It's for next Wednesday," I said.

"Oh, okay.  We'll have it ready for you."

They did.

Thanksgiving

Last night I made Thanksgiving dinner.

Don't judge me.

We had a Turkey that I purchased in December which I firgured we could eat off of this week.

So, I planned to cook it on Sunday.

Perfect. 

 Since it was Fast Sunday, I thought I'd make a whole meal.

I had potatoes, so I mashed them.

I had lemons, so I made a lemon meringue pie.

I had canned pumpkn so I made my first pumpkin pie.

I didn't have any of my trusted old Rhodes Rolls, so I had to make the rolls from scratch.

I had to make the pie crust from scratch too.

I also made stuffing - even though once I put the ingredients together and placed the stuffing in a 9x13 pan I forgot all about it. 

The stuffing didn't make it out of the fridge for the meal. 

It kind of came out to be warmed up after the pies were eaten.

We had Steven & Emly over along with Rick's parents.

Of course my mother was here to partake too.

She always is.

My big idea for eating turkey all week went out the door shortly after the meal began.

It turned out to be delicious and pleanty of people ate a lot of it.

Quinn even had a whole turkey leg.

I felt like we were at the Renaissance Festival for a moment with his turkey leg on his plate.

It was fun.

It's not so bad having Thanksgiving in April.
The only down side to this is while the rolls were rising, I placed them outside on the trampoline
to get warmer faster.
I put one pan of rolls on a chair on the porch - 'cause I didn't feel like walking all the way to the trampoline.
Well, Ted, our neurotic dog, found them and ate 4 or 5 of them - all doughy.
He was sick!
We could visibly see his swollen belly.
Three hours later, he had "brought up" four rolls - doughy and all, in the backyard.
The rest of the evening he walked like he was drunk and threw up on my carpet.
Dumb dog.

I love Easter!

Somehow Easter seems so much more fun when your kids are little.

At least smaller than mine are now.

But, I still love it.

I insist on making baskets for all of my offspring.

Including Steven and Emily.

Can't help it.

I love Easter baskets!

Sees chocolate is the best.

Here are just a small sampling of the Tipton cousins.

Quinn's the oldest of the bunch.

("Which one of these is not like the other?")

Delilah was loving her some Easter chocolate.

Can you see the drool dripping down from her chin?

Em and Steven dressed in matching Easter stripes.

She even has an egg in her hand to prove its Easter.

Truman got an Easter wound from catching the football on a burm.

Good times.

Can't get a normal picture of these two.

Whatever.