Christ is Born! Merry Christmas!

After worship this morning we smiled for the camera. Jonathan has learned to say cheese when we snap photos! Last night we spent the evening at Dana and Ernie James' with Josh, Ashleigh, Ella and Jackson Stegall. It was very good to catch up with our sweet friends. Our Christmas plans are to celebrate Christmas eve with Mindy's mom and dad. We'll spend Christmas morning at home and drive to Mississippi for lunch with Jason's family. Merry Christmas everyone!

Why You Should Always Know Where Your Kids Are...

Early this week I took advantage of a rainy day to clean out my car. As I worked I listened to the rain, but soon realized the noise I heard wasn't from falling raindrops. I peeked around the corner and caught a glimpse of Jonathan splashing in a mud puddle. I must have left the door open just enough for the "outdoor boy" of the family to escape. He was a fantastic mess and loving every piece of dirt! Although it's November the rain and temperature were surprisingly warm so we took a moment to splash and say cheese for the camera. Maybe there will be some rain boots under the Christmas tree near the end of December!

Enjoying the beautiful fall day in the backyard.... Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Pajama Party!

Disclaimer: No children were injured in the shooting of these pictures....

Happy Harvest!

Happy Harvest Everyone!

Jonathan the Lion had a roaring good time at Englewood's Fall Festival. He didn't quite understand the concept of playing games for candy, but by the end of the night, he did understand that he should put candy in the bag. His favorite activities were the ball pit and splashing in the duck pond! Maybe next year he should be a duck...



Before we went to the Fall Festival Jonathan and Maddison smiled for the camera beside the pumpkin and the mum. We found this beautiful mum downtown at the farmers market one Saturday morning.


Maddison and Hannah look adorable, don't they?


I learned why candy is associated with Halloween. Sometimes it's the only why you can bribe kiddos into their costume!

Jonathan - What's the lion say?

ROAR!!!!

This Fall Jonathan has learned what several animals say:

Lion - Roar!

Dog - Woof!

Cat - Meow!

Tractor, Motorcycles, Cars and Trucks - Varoom, varoom... oh wait that's not an animal!

Shutterfly Photo Book

Here is an online scrapbook that I created of our vacation. This has some more photos for everyone to enjoy!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/project/0CZOWrJuxcMXKg/landing

Fall Fun

Nana and Coach came to visit at the beginning of October. We drove to Green Acres Farm on Highway 45, just north of Jackson. Everyone enjoyed the pumpkins, but at 92 degrees the weather was not very "fallish"!

Jonathan - You look like you're getting sleepy...
Maddie Bug had a great time!

Excursion to Breckenridge, CO

Here are the long awaited photos from vacation! We had a fantastic time and are already looking forward to when Jonathan can join us on skis! We hope that you enjoy the pictures.

This is taken at Twin Lakes Reservoir. Twin Lakes is a small town (population between Breckenridge and Aspen.

Boreas Pass from our Sunday afternoon drive.

Jonathan and Mommy had fun playing in the bear cave at the Children's Museum.
Aspen Tree Trivia: The Aspen tree forms large groups of genetically identical trees connected by a single underground root system. They form through root sprouts coming off an original parent tree,
Playing at Peek-A-Boo Toy Store

Jonathan discovered raisins and he's a fan!

This is one of my favorite photos from vacation. It's taken at the edge of Twin Lakes Reservoir.

This is the moose and her calf that we saw while hiking Georgia Pass.

Another favorite taken on the western mountain of Boreas Pass.

Hiking Laundry Mountain

Well, it's official. The Tipton's are going on vacation in 3 days!
In preparation for Breckenridge, CO, I've been sorting clothes and washing laundry. Then it's time to dry the clothes and fold the laundry... It's really a never ending cycle. Actually, now that I think about it, there seems to be lot of work that goes into taking a vacation. As my "Vacation To Do List" grows and grows, I've wondered if the endless vacation preparation doesn't somehow defeat the purpose of the vacation itself.

Muddy Saturday....

This summer the Tipton's planted a garden with squash, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, cantalope, honeydew, tomatoes, flowers, basil and rosemary. We enjoyed working together to plant, weed and harvest the produce and we're already looking forward to improvements and expansions for next summer.

The delicious vegetables fed us many nights and we had enough to share with friends. Our favorite dish from the veggies quickly became homemade tomato sauce which we used for pizza, YUM!

Since, all good things must come to an end, today we cleaned out the squash, zucchini and cucumber (along with a few weeds). We replanted the rosemary and basil to bring indoors. Because of recent rain, we had several inches of mud in the garden. Of course, if there's mud - Jonathan must play in it! Here are a few photos of the garden clean up.

Check out the following link for some updated photos of Jonathan and our family. Enjoy!

http://www.rockyou.com/show_my_gallery2.php?instanceid=82410108

Labor Day Weekend!

Here's a recent photo of Jonathan with his friend Maddy. Everytime he threw down his sippy cup, Maddy would hand it back to him.

So full of possibilties...

May I share an obscure truth about our family?
I must admit that we are enthusiastic readers of Calvin and Hobbes. We especially enjoy laughing at the 6 year old and his stuffed tiger near Christmas when the afternoons stretch before us. I was introduced to the dynamic duo first by my sister Hannah, then became reacquainted with them years later when I realized Tip also admired the work of Bill Watterson. Watterson's comics ended on December 31, 1995. The 3,160th and final strip (pictured) displays Calvin and Hobbes outside in freshly-fallen snow. I thought the closure of this family favorite would be a great way to open our blog.

So here's to our new blog... a fresh clean start! In many ways it is just like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on and it is so full of possibilities...