September 2011

We had a fun month. My nana Gray and my Aunty Barbara came in for a visit. We visited some of the sites around Cleveland (including the LDS Kirtland Historical sites down the road). Nana and Barbara spoiled us rotten and we all had a fun time. It took Liliana a little while to warm up to them - in fact for the first few days she screamed every time I was out of sight, she got over it and as you can see in the pictures she started to like everybody.

Luke started school and is still liking it as much as he did the first day. He has been exhausted when he gets home, which is sort of a nice change. Luke also started in a football/soccer league. He is a little ball hog but he had fun which was the point. He is number 9 - something I was exciting about since number 9 is frequently the striker on the team :). His first day he got REALLY muddy. They had the little kids on the muddiest field in the area, it was really a mud bath - not really sure how to get cleats clean, oh well, mud is good for kids. He scored twice, they may or may not have been in his own goal but that is beside the point. He has been telling everybody about his goals so it's not important. Hopefully he continues to enjoy the game because I much prefer soccer to American football (not that I don't enjoy watching football, i just don't want my son getting killed while playing a sport).

1 muddy soccer star

Liliana has decided walking isn't too hard after all. She took several stpes the other day in order to get her binkie from me. She is a binkie kid for sure, she HAS to have it at night and she likes to have it during the day. In fact, Lily just likes things in her mouth in general. I swear there is not a thing she doesn't like to eat. She eats more than Luke and I combined. She's getting chunky but it's cute on a 1 yr old... wow she's nearly 1.

My Chunky Monkey

For me - I redid my dining chairs. So I got these chairs from a friend of mine who was moving away. They had cream seat coverings (uuhh, not good with kids) and they were REALLY dirty. So i had been looking for some material to cover the chairs with. So one day I was at a mall and needed a trash can for lily's stinky diaper. I opened the dumpster that was outside crate and barrel and found a TON!! of fabric (there was nothing in the dumpster except fabric and broken dishes). I pulled out the fabric and someone had thrown away over 6 yds of material. It was beautiful - not a mark on it - and great quality (in fact i googled the brand - $50 a yd). So... i redid my chairs in this pretty red stripped fabric... Pics below.

Before

After

Starting School

So i have issues with my camera, for some reason I can't get the pictures off. When Paul gets around to it, I will have pictures on my computer to put up on the blog.

Well Summer is officially over. Paul went back to school end of August, Luke started Preschool (yay!)beginning of September, I started school again (more on this later) this last week. It's been an interesting month.

As I said, Luke started preschool. He is going 4 days a week for 3 hrs and is LOVING it! One of my friends and I carpool which is super nice. I get to spent some alone time with Liliana and I also get to do somethings in peace. Luke's first day was more traumatic for me than it was for him. He just said, "bye mom, bye dad" and walked straight into the classroom, when he got home he said "lots of other kids were crying btu I didn't". Now I did, just a little. I can't believe Luke is big enough for school and i was also a little offended (not really) that he didn't care that I was leaving him. Hopefully he can enjoy school as much in the future as he does now. He also wants to know everyday why they don't practice the ABC's obviously playing isn't what you're supposed to do in school.

Now me. I have decided to go back to school and get my master's degree in Public Administration. I am really enjoying it so far, even though it is a little crazy with Paul being gone most days and studying and a whole bunch of reading (try reading more than 50% of the federalist papers in 4 days). I plan on being done in about 2 yrs and then the plan is to work for a non-profit organization of some kind. I'm taking 9 credits this semester and love it. Hopefully I'll be able to say the same in December :)

Liliana turns 1 next month, but I'll decuss that in another post. She is nearly walking - something she's been thinking about for nearly 2 months - little chicken. She will walk with a popscyle stick in her hand as long as someone is holding the other end - like dumbo and his feather.

Here's Luke's first day of school pictures and a cute one of Lily

2 Weddings and a funer.... I mean family reunion

It's been one of those vacations again.
Luke, Lily and I left Cleveland June 24th. We stopped in DFW to see my best friend, Megan, for a few hours then headed to Utah.
June 30th the 3 of us plus my mom and my little brother, Matthew, started our suicide drive to Calgary. We spent 1.5 days there for my cousin Richard's wedding, and then drove home. I did learn that Luke has no issue with strangers, he stayed with my aunt's friends and couldn't have cared less that I left him there for 6.5 hrs. We then drove back to Willard (a 12 hr drive) starting Sunday morning and got back just in time for the Willard firework show for 4th of July.

The fireworks are excellent. Willard has an awesome show. Luke was hilarious. While they did a testrun he happened to be in a porta potty. He nearly fell in and was officially scared :) He then spent the next 45 mins while we waited for the show to start hiding under a blanket in my life. He kept saying, "I don't like fireworks, they are scary". I thought I was going to have to take him back to the house. So the show starts. Luke is sitting there with hear plugs in, his hands over his ears and a blanket over his head. He then starts to watch and smile at the show, he then turns to me and says, "are there going to be any fireworks momma?". I tell him these are fireworks and he is like, "oh... these aren't scary". He climbs off my lap and starts watching on the floor. It was really funny.

After the 4th we spent the next 5 days planning and getting ready for Simon's wedding. Congrats to Simon and Chrissy. I'll try and get some pictures up of my kids, they were really cute at both weddings. We left my parents house in Willard and we are now at Paul's parents house for a week for the Tippetts' family reunion. It should be a lot of fun. Luke is currently outside wrestling Grandpa in the garden. He's going to be a dirty tired boy this entire week.

Meanwhile, while Luke Lily and i were gone. Paul moved us into a new house, across the street. I'll also take some pictures and post them once we get home and unpacked. I told Paul not to since men lose things:) (plus he had finals and I'm a nice wife)

Here are some pictures from the trip

Matthew and Luke being silly on our crazy drive

Luke is worn out

Luke fishing

Luke is fishing somemore

Liliana is worn out

Luke's Dance Recital

This is gonna be a short post but I thought you guys might enjoy these videos of Luke during his dance recital this last Saturday. He has been taking a boys dance/tumbling class over the last few years. He loves it. Here he is dancing to 2 different songs. He is the 2nd from the Left and the other boys are his friends in the Cleveland area (thanks to Jessica for the video :) )





The last video (which was freestyle dance if you didn't get that) really ends at about 2:00 but the entire group of dancers takes a bow.

This must be a record. 2 posts in a week :)

So since I spent the last 45 minutes updating the look of our blog I decided it would be a good idea to actually write something.

This week Luke and Liliana had their well child checkups. They are both super happy/healthy and good kids. Luke is FINALLY 30 lbs, don't forget people he is 3. Since the new car seat recommendations say "backwards facing until 30 lbs" this is quite an achievement, mind you he's been forward facing for 2 years... oops. He's growing though so that is GREAT. He's probably never going to be that big, but that's okay, he is a little bully so he holds his own.

Liliana is quickly catching up to her brother, she is 18.2 lbs and 27 inches. It's lucky too since Luke likes to sit on her. I'm gonna have to buy that girl a toddler car seat that I can turn backwards, she is too big for the infant seat. At least I didn't buy the seat new, it was Luke's. I'm also glad that I am using cloth diapers as it means I don't have to keep changing sizes (trust me it's annoying to have a whole bunch of size 3 diapers that don't fit anyone), my cloth diapers are one-size-fits-all... we'll see if that is true for a chunky Lily-bug.

This weekend Paul went to Raleigh, NC for some job interviews. Paul and I have decided that Raleigh is where we would like to move when we are done with school - although that feels like an eternity away to me. It was difficult for him to be gone but hopefully something will come of it, and he'll have somewhere to work this summer. He loved the city and the weather, but anything is better than Cleveland in both areas - trust me. It was finally warm this weekend but then mother nature decided that was just a joke and the temperature dropped 40 degrees over night. Don't get me wrong Cleveland has some beautiful places and nice qualities about it but there are some things that drive me nuts. That will have to be another post since it might take a while.

Paul is also finishing up his semester. He takes finals in 2 weeks time and then will hopefully go to Raleigh. If not we plan on having him get a job in Cleveland and then take some classes (it will make his workload in Fall/Spring easier). He has also been elected as a Student Senator, which will take up some time but will get him involved in school more. He's pretty excited about it, but those who know Paul know that Student Government is something he likes.

I think that is all that has happened this week. I have to talk in church on Sunday so I need to plan that, anyone have any ideas what to speak on in regards to modern-day pioneers?

Wow Time flies.

I can't believe how bad I am at blogging. I just never seem to get around to it, it's always on my to-do list but it still doesn't get done.

Liliana is now 6 months old. She's pretty much crawling, although she's much better at going backwards than forwards. She has the hugest attitude in a 6 month old that I've ever seen. She shouts at you if she doesn't get her way, her pediatrician thinks it's pretty funny. She is a beautiful girl, everyone keeps telling me her eyes are huge and that she should be a model, but I'm pretty sure that field is not worth the time involved for the pay you receive. Here's a picture of the little princess eating her first solid food.

Luke is also getting too big for his boots. He turned 3 last week and is now a "big boy" and is going to "grow tall and be just like daddy". He's a rascal but he sure is cute. We've been working on doing family home evening with him, but I didn't think anything was sticking. I learned differently today. He has informed me (after a lesson on the prophet and watching general conference) that his dinosaur is called "Thomas Monson" (That's the prophet's name to all those who don't know). I thought it was hilarious. He wants to send "Thomas Monson" a card and a dinosaur. I think he'll find that amusing :-D 

Here's the boy playing with in Liliana's car seat. He thought it was great.

                         

Paul is finishing up his 2nd year in law school and I know I'll be glad when next year is over. Law school takes up so much time and energy. There is always something to be doing so it feels like he is studying all the time or could be. Paul is currently in Raleigh, NC at some job interviews. We're hoping to move there when Paul is finished school. Let's hope and pray it goes well. Law is a weird field, the job you have during the summer before you graduate impacts your future employment which is why these jobs are so far from home. He'd be over 10 hrs away from me and the kids over the summer - sounds like fun huh. 

I'm studying to take the GRE right now. FYI: it's the exam you take in order to get into a graduate school. I am enrolling in Denver University School of Law to get a Master's in Legal Administration. I will have the ability to run a law firm when I am done, and since owning a law firm is the longterm goal of the Tippetts' Family, this sounds like a grand idea. I'm pretty excited. Although fall is going to be a little crazy with me as a full- time grad student, Paul as a full-time law student and Luke in halfday preschool. We'll have fun, right?

So the last few months has been interesting for me. I've all of a sudden got onto this green/thrifty living kick. I've found a bunch of women on the message boards (babycenter.com) and decided that green/thrifty living is something I like to do. So as my best friend, Megan, says, I'm a hippy (I'm not so sure, but oh well). - I use cloth diapers, I make my own baby food, my own dishwasher soap, I buy organic laundry soap, I use dryer wool balls instead of dryer sheets, and I recycle everything, I'm going to try homemade toothpaste and shampoo and soap. It's kind of funny for those who have known me for a while, b/c it seems out of character for me. But it's fun and VERY cheap. 

I've also picked up crafting. I like to make random things. I made a growth chart out of spare wood i found on the side of the road and am refurbishing a bunch of frames, and my dining table and chairs (pictures when they are all done) and I scrapbook, crochet and sew. Where did Amy Gray go?? I know that when I was at BYU I said I'd never be one of those moms. It must be contagious. 

Well see you next time. Hopefully I'll get this done more often than every 6 months.