My New Old Dining Room Table

Here are my before and after pictures of my dining room. My poor poor dining room table has finally gone to the great big table heaven. This poor table has been drawn on, spilled on, painted on, and cut on and it looked like crap. It was 9 years old and showed every day of use, we couldn't even fit all of us at the table for dinner. We even had two plastic folding chairs filling in where old chairs had broken. Well my parents decided to buy a new table, they have been looking for at least 2 years but haven't been able to decide on one, well they finally did and so I got their old one. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is the most beautiful table ever! (okay not really but it is much better than what we had. So thanks Dad and Michele for our new - used table.

Family Night Out

One of the things that I liked to do when I was younger was ice skate. Well like every other Mom out there I haven't found the time to go in a very long time. Abby had seen my ice skates in the closet and had beg me for months to take her. So for family night last week we decides to go ice skating (despite Kelly and Aiden wanting to do something else more boyish). It was so much fun! They have these little walker like things that helped the kids skate all by themselves. It was a great adventure with only one little fall (Abby fell when she tried to show us she could do it without any help). While I may not be as good as I used to it was a great family outing that we hope to repeat in the future.

Crazy Christmas!!

I love Christmas! I know it is a ton of stress, a lot of money and it takes a lot of time but it is truly my favorite time of the year. We had a wonderful Christmas and are just so blessed. The Sunday before Christmas we had Kelly's family over for dinner and opened presents. It is always great to get everyone together. Then on Christmas eve my family all got together and attempted to get a family picture taken of all of us it was a little crazy but it turned out okay. That night the Tippets family always has a big family dinner which is fun, all of the great-grandkids put on a nativity which is a wonderful tradition and then Santa comes and gives the kids a gift. It was so much fun! On Christmas day we made a big breakfast at our house and then visited some family. My Sisters got Wii games and Guitar hero so we had a blast playing video games together. And the day after Christmas we had round two. All of my siblings got together at my dad's house to do a gift exchange and then had a huge sleepover. 16 people in all! It was a bit crowded but so worth it. Overall it was a crazy, busy, chaotic, and fabulous Christmas season.

Bop It Extreme

I don't know if you know what a Bop It is, but if you don't your lucky. It's a timed game where you have to bop it, twist it, pull it or whatever it says as fast as you can before it times out. We got this stupid toy when we first got married almost 9 years ago and use to play it all the time, we actually had to put tape over the speaker because we were worried it would wake the people in the apartment below us when we were playing at 2 in the morning. Well I cleaned out the hall closet yesterday and found it (this closet was were old things went to get lost and die!). Well Kelly and I started playing it and wasted almost the entire night trying to beat each others score. Needless to say I won!!!! But I think we are both losers considering we are now addicted to a stupid toy! Although I have to say it is nice that we are both so easily entertained =)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a really good time. On Wednesday we had Colby and Bradley over to make Muddy Buddy Snacks, we are always glad to get to spent time with those cute boys. We spent early on Thanksgiving day at home setting up our Christmas Tree and decorations and then went to North Salt Lake to have a Thanksgiving dinner with the Tippets side of the family. Friday the Tippets Girls (Me, my sisters Jori, Shanae, and Misty and my Sister-in-law Bethany) all braved the crowds for black Friday shopping. It was crazy but we got some really good deals. And Saturday we went to Chuck-E-Cheese with the Johnson side of the family which is always a favorite for the kids. Overall it was a great holiday weekend and a good time to remember all the things we are grateful for. Who could ask for a better family and such great friends!

The Planetarium

On Saturday we took the kids down to the gateway with Kelly's twin sister Becky, her husband Marcus and their cute little girl Katana. Gammy (Kelly's Mom) went with us as well. It was great to spend some time with the family. It was so much fun, we went to the 3-D movie Fly me to the Moon. It was really cute to see the little kids reaching out and trying to touch the images and they came towards them. Then the kids looked at all the displays and fun activities you can do in there. Their favorite part was walking on the moon! I love days like that where you have nothing else to think about but having fun with the kids.

Our Not Too Scary Halloween!!!

So Halloween has come and gone and we had a great time. Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, not because we like the scary part but because we love the costumes. We have had some fun doing a family movie theme costume for the past couple years. Last year we did the Wizard of Oz and this year we did Peter Pan. Aiden was our handsome little Peter Pan and Ella our precious little TinkerBell, while Abby was a beautiful Silvermist (she is Tinker Bells blue fairy friend from the new Tinker Bell movie), Dad was the big mean Captain Hook, and Mom was Wendy Darling. All the kids got a chance to wear their costumes for a school program on the 30th and they sang so cute. We also got to go to the pumpkin patch and get some pumpkins for carving and painting. But of course the best part was trick-or-treating, Kelly has so much fun taking the kids around you'd think he was still a kid.