The Tippett Family

Disney Pixar Parade

2014-04-29T11:57:00.000-05:00

After having such a fun day seeing the princesses and visiting Radatior Springs, there was more fun. It was time for the Disney Pixar Parade!

But before the parade I took Sutton to spend the gift card from Aunt Kristen and family, and Aunt Amy took Sophie. Sophie chose a Tinker Belll light up wand! Sutton chose the Mickey Mouse light up sword and a Goofy hat! Sutton also wanted to get a bundle of Mickey Mouse suckers that he shared wwith everyone!

The parade is beginning! First off, Monsters University

Next, the Incredibles really were bigger than life!

So excited to see what is coming next!

Dora came right over and smiled at us!

Nemo swam right over to Sutton!

Toy Story! That is one big dump truck!

The kids were in awe, just like all of us!

Grandpa had a green arm man come straight towards him and aim! Thank goodness he is a toy!!

Lightening McQueen and Mater finish off the parade! Another great parade at Disney!

Then we finished off the night with dinner at Wine Country! It was another fabulous day at Disney!

Disney Day 4 and Princess Luncheon!

2014-04-17T23:39:00.000-05:00

(Not sure what is going on with all the crazy spacing and stuff with this post. When I have it open in blogger is all looks centered!!)

Our third day was spent at California Adventure Land. We headed straight to Cars Land! Aunt Amy was nice enough to go ahead and get in line for the "big" ride, Radiator Springs Racers, while Chris and I took Sophie and Sutton on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree! We had a lot of fun in Mater's Junkyard!

*****Warning.....a lot of pictures ahead!

On our way to the Racer's ride, we ran into Lightening McQueen in front of the Cozy Cone Cafe! We were so excited to see him!!

Then we got and waited in a pretty long line to ride Radiator Springs Racers! It moved quite quickly and we couldn't catch up with Aunt Amy without cutting in front of a bunch of people! We didn't want to make anyone mad, so she decided to come back and join us! Sophie decided to see how Grandpa's hat looked on Mommy, while waiting in line!

Sutton looks good in Grandpa's hat too!

Ohhhh my, was that Sally that just raced by! This ride looks soooo fun!

Still waiting in line, playing with Mommy's ponytail for a bit, will make some more time pass!

A view of the rides scenery of Radiator Springs!

Chris and Aunt Amy ready to race! We finally made it to our cars! And, Sophie made it through 3 measuring "checkpoints" You needed to be 40" tall to ride. With her shoes on, standing up really tall, annd even raising her hands up high....she met the requirement!!! Phew!

Here is a picture of our picture of us on our race. I love the lady next to Sophie who got caught taking a selfie!!! Check out Grandma's hair below!!!

The Cars ride was SO fun. It's hard to believe just how much you feel like you are in the movie! They've really done an amazing job with this new part of the park!

Sophie is ready to ride Luigi's Flying Tires. We all got to ride this at the same time! There was SO much laughing by everyone!

Sutton rode with Daddy, they were having so much fun!

I saw Grandma and Grandpa having a good time too!

Grandpa and I caught each other taking pictures!

Walking into Radiator Springs!

We made it!

The TIppett's make it Radiator Springs. (Unfortunately Sutton wasn't thrilled with posing for this one, so he didn't make it in the picture! Rats!)

Mommy and Grandma waiting with Sutton and Sophie to ride King Triton's Underwater Caresol!

I LOVED riding with you Sutton!

Time for Lunch at Ariel's Grotto. Ariel was there to meet us!

While we were eating a delicious meal, Cinderella was the first to come see us at our table. She is Aunt Amy's favorite Disney princess, so we made sure to get a picture of Cinderella, Aunt Amy and Cinderella.

Sophie was so thrilled to meet the prinncesses.

Sophie had just told Cinderella, "I love you"!

Sleeping Beauty!

She told Sleeping Beauty she loved her too!

Sutton only wanted to take his picture with Snow White. There must be a bit of a crush. When they announced she had arrived, Grandpa caught Sutton blushing!

He also decided he wanted his picture with Belle. Belle showed him how to escort a lady on his arm! All future ladies have a lot to live up to, after escorting Belle!

Look at the delicious dessert we got to enjoy while meeting the princesses! Thank you so much, Grrandma and Grandpa. Especially when we weren't aware of just how an eloborate luncheon this was going to be! (FYI, it's a character lunch, for anyone else who goes to Disney!)

We also rode a GIANT swing at Paradise Pier! (I can't remember the name!) We went really high! I wasn't sure how the kids would like it, but they loved it! Sophie and Aunt Amy rode together, Mommy and Sutton, and Grandma rode with her little boy, I mean Chris!

In the afternoon we had a snack break back in Radiator Springs, at Flo's V8 Cafe! Milkshakes for everyone! (OH MY GOODNESS, they have every little detail from the movie correct.....we watched Cars at our Church movie night, after we got home. It was so exciting to watch after JUST being there. It really made me see how much they paid attention to detail at Disneyland. Truly amazing!)

Probably the only gas station I would let Sophie and Sutton play around and climb on!

(Of course this Oklahoma gal loved the "Tulsa Tea" on the gas pumps. Made me think of my Great Aunt Annie and and Grandma Rea who would call Tulsa "T/Tea Town"!

Oh my goodness, I love looking through these pictures and remembering and re-living the happy feelings we had while there! So many great memories!

Disney Parade

2014-04-05T21:14:00.001-05:00

After going back to our hotel and taking a nap, we were all full of energy to go see the Disney Parade!

Eating dinner and ready to go and find a great spot for the parade!

Disney has great things to buy where ever you go, but at nighttime, a whole new set of things come out. They cannot be missed because they ALL light up! The kiddos wanted one of everthing....and I think I did too! Grandma saved the day, she brought some light up toys!

Sutton decided to sit on Aunt Amy's lap during the parade!

Sophie then sat on Grandma's lap.

Sophie was "light up" everywhere. She had the wand Grandma gave her, the light up bubble maker we bought the kids earlier in the day, and the light up hair barrettes that Aunt Meggie got her for Christmas. The barrettes were especially cute. Lot's of people commented how cute they were!

Making some of their own magic with glowing wands!

Downtown Disney at night! (See the cool light up balloons......I think they charged $25 for them!)

Here comes the parade!

Minnie and Micky started the parade!

Sutton's favorite....Goofy!

Our kids didn't know who the Genie from Aladdin was! I guess we need to watch more of the Disney movies!

Disney is so special....I could literally feel love in the air, especially during the parade. Everyone was happy and so excited. and it felt so good to be a part of it! Walt Disney really created a legacy!

The Little Mermaid!

I think Donald Duck just got back from a trip to Mexico! They have beautiful beaches there, you know!

Here come the Disney Princesses!

Sleeping Beauty and Snow White

Rapunzel, this was the only time we saw her while visiting! She looked so nice!

Belle and Cinderella

The Lion King

The costumes and floats were absolutely amazing!

Princess Tiana!

Smee, from Jake and the Neverland Pirates!

Tinkerbell

Chim Chim Chimmery, Chim, Chim, Chiree!

(I have no idea if that is spelled anywhere like it should be, but you get the idea!)

Mary Poppins!

Sleeping Beauty's Castle at night. It was so pretty!

Thank you, Walt Disney, for the gift you left us!

We loved every second of it!

Disney Day 2

2014-03-23T20:57:00.001-05:00

It was another BEAUTIFUL day at Disney. We decided it would also be the perfect day to all wear our OSU clothes. I made the kids some Mickey/Pistol Pete shirts, so I thought it would be fun if the whole family would wear OSU one day! This was the day....but we never got a picture with the whole family in it! Disney family picture.....FAIL! Oh well, the great memories are worth more than one picture we missed!

We started our second day at Disneyland with a view of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

We walked through Sleeping Beauty's Castle and got to ride King Arthur's Carousal.

Sutton and Sophie both chose white horses to ride, and they enjoyed every second.

Waiting in line to ride Mr Toad's Wild Ride!

Walking funny makes waiting in line go by much faster!

Mommy is in for a wild ride with Sophie at the wheel!

While waiting to ride the Storybook Ride, Sophie was full of love, giving Daddy some kisses!

Mommy got some sweet sweet hugs!

Two of my favorite people!

We rode right into the Whale, from Pinocchio's, mouth!!!

That was the scariest thing about the ride!!

While Mommy and Daddy when to use the fastpass on the Star War ride, Sutton and Sophie got to ride the tea cups with Grandma and Aunt Amy!

They loved it!

I don't think anyone got too dizzy!

After lunch, we went back to our beautiful hotel room and took a nap. We were going to go to the Disney Parade that night! When we woke up, the kiddos had some special envelopes waiting for them!

Goofy gift cards from Uncle David, Aunt Kristen, James, Ethan and Faith!

WOW, what a surprise! Sutton and Sophie could do their very own shopping at Disney!

It's safe to say they were VERY excited!

Day 1 at Disneyland!

2014-03-06T21:52:00.002-06:00

It's time! Our first day at Disneyland. The adults might have been as excited as the kids! We "knew" what they were going to get to experience, but did they REALLY have any idea why they were so excited!

They were thrilled to see the geyser outside our Frontier Land, wing of the the Disneyland Hotel. If that has them thrilled.....well just wait! I honestly felt giddy, I was so looking forward to seeing them have fun!

Our first breakfast with with Minnie Mouse. We were a little late because we thought we were taking a short cut, but we were wrong! On a positive note, we got to see the inside of the Grand Californian Hotel, and walk through the Discover California Park, then walk out, then walk in the Disneyland Park! I guess it was the scenic route!

The first friend of Minnie to visit us at our table, was Eeyore! This is Chris' favorite Winnie the Pooh character! (Chris is actually named after Christopher Robin!) At this point, the kiddos weren't too eager to take their picture with the characters!

Then, the next thing we knew, Peter Pan and Hooke burst through the doors "fighting". That didn't help the eagerness to take a picture with these "bigger than life" characters! Neither Sutton or Sophie would do more than stare at Peter Pan!

Dale, of Chip and Dale (I know because I asked him who he was, and he made the letter "D" with his hands!) gave Daddy suggestions on where we should go in the park! I never did ask Daddy if Dale's suggestions were good!

Sutton decided to take his picture with Winnie the Pooh, as long as Aunt Amy was in between them!

I obviously didn't get the settings right on this picture, but it was too sweet to skip! Winnie the Pooh was the first Character Sophie went to hug, she jumped up and went right over to him!

T-I double G-ER! My favorite!

I love this picture! Tigger was quite funny even without talking!

Tigger has always been my favorite Winnie the Pooh character. I was more than excited to take my picture with him!

Our hostess, Minnie Mouse came to see us before we left! By this time, the kids were quite excited to pose! Sophie had hugged several by this time, but Sutton would still have nothing to do with them unless someone else was with him. We were all surprised Sophie was so eager and Sutton was more shy!

Getting some Minnie LOVE!

These faces say it all!

Breakfast is done, we are off to explore the park! Off to Mickey's Toontown!

Sutton spotted Goofy and wanted to take his picture with him! We were a little surprised after breakfast.

Next thing we knew, Sutton went over and gave Goofy a big long hug!

Watch out Mickey, Sutton and Sophie are driving your car!

Eating our lunch. We decided to save a little money by packing our lunches while in the park. There is a grocery store nearby that you can order from online, Vons, and your first delivery is free. Our order was delivered perfectly and on time at the bell desk. It was great. Even just to get some snacks and bottles of water can save you a few dollars! We also rented a double jogging stroller from City Strollers. (Thanks to Amanda McLuckie and Amanda Phillips). The stroller was fabulous, so comfortable for the kids, and a great way to carry all our stuff!

Also, on a side note, just in case anyone ever needs some of this info, we used a great company to transfer us from the airport and hotel, called Save-On Shuttle. They were great and they provided car seats, so we didn't have to take ours with us!

Last, we also borrowed a Disneyland guide book from a friend, that suggested the TouringPlan website. They also have an app that we all downloaded. They have, or you can create, daily ride/show schedules. It also told (mostly) up to date wait times. Even tells you when to go get fast passes for rides. Very helpful When you finished a ride you could mark it done and update your schedule. It was a pretty useful tool. In addition I downloaded a free app that used GPS to help you find your way around the park. It was extremely accurate, but used up battery life quickly

Grandma surprised Sutton with a Batman personal fan! Yep, we needed it while there!

Sophie wanted to race with Aunt Amy!

Sutton was VERY excited to race cars on the Autopia ride. Half the fun of going on each ride was asking the kids who they wanted to ride with. They really seemed to pick everyone about equally! It was fun acting like a kid while riding with the kids, and fun acting like a kid with the other adults!

Grandma asked Mommy to drive her around the race track!

Sutton knew how the real speedster was, he chose Grandpa. Sutton, of course, wanted to drive. Grandpa said it was an experience!

They must be going so fast, since the picture is blurry!

(Daddy had to ride by himself, he took these pictures of us all racing off before he got in his car)

Grandpa took a couple pictures of the crazy people in front of them, hanging out of their car waving at them! Not the safest driving was being modeled, right?

The last thing we did on our first day was ride the Monorail. Sutton spotted it while riding the train around the park, and he was so excited to ride it!

Sutton later said that the Monorail was his favorite thing of the day!

Princess Sophie (crown courtesy of Grandma!) and Daddy on the Monorail.

Day 1 done, a huge success. We all slept VERY that night!

Going to Disneyland!

2014-02-25T13:23:00.001-06:00

Our vacation to Disneyland, a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa, finally came! The icy weather stayed away, just enough, that everyone was able to get to where they needed to go! Aunt Amy flew out to LA, early, to visit some old friends and sights in her old stomping grounds. Grandma and Grandpa drove down to our house the day before, to catch our flight out of Dallas. The packing seemed to never end, but we all finally made it to the airport!

We were all EXCITED!

Sutton and Sophie sitting with Grandma on the parking shuttle at DFW airport!

A blurry selfie with Mommy.

(bumpy parking shuttles make taking iphone pictures challenging....as you can see!)

This sums up Sutton's feeling about getting on a plane and going to Disney!

Mommy and Daddy are excited too!

Daddy and Sophie watching the planes while waiting to board our flight.

While waiting for our flight, I got the camera out and practiced some in manual mode. Sophie and Grandpa were great models!

Grandpa looks excited to get going, too!

Showing some love to Grandpa!

Sophie are you excited to go see Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse?

A little boy watching all the planes and equipment.

Sutton was having a ball watching all the sights outside the plane, and getting to sit next to Grandma.

Sophie and Sutton both did wonderful on the airplane and at the airport. They were in charge of their suitcases that Aunt Amy gave them for Christmas, and they kept track of them very well. They both thought it was a real treat to get a can of juice to drink on the plane, and play Mommy and Grandma's ipads! They both got to experience using the bathroom on the plane! Sophie even got to experience a little turbulence while she was in there. Luckily it wasn't too bad, and she handled it fine........and it didn't keep her from having to use the bathroom again just 15 minutes later! Goodness, those airplane bathrooms are very small!

Sophie during take-off.

Sophie said Puppy was enjoying the airplane, too.

It was 30 degrees when we left Dallas, and it was sunny California when we landed!

It took a few tries to get a picture of Sutton when we arrived!

Got it, enjoying the sunshine!

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel! It was wonderful!

Tinkerbell was even there to greet us!

Disney themes were everywhere! Just in case you forgot when you stepped out of the elevator, you are at the Disneyland Hotel!

The suite Grandma and Grandpa treated us to, was fabulous! I took a few pictures before we cluttered it up with all our stuff!

Aunt Amy was excited to share her room with Sutton and Sophie! Sutton was excited to have his own bed!

Sleeping Beauty's castle was above all of our beds. There was a switch to turn on the fiber optic fireworks, and it also played music!

The Disney details were everywhere. Mickey was even on the faucets.

Mickey would even hold the lights for us in the bathroom!

Our view off one of the balconies. The kids noticed this right away....it was part of the slides at the "Monorail Pool"!

We found a little froggie while we ate at the Rainforest Cafe!

We met up with Aunt Amy when we got to the hotel. We were all very excited to see her! After a long day of traveling, she seemed to have a lot more energy than me!

We made it.....and, tomorrow, there's even MORE fun to come!

Snow Day

2014-02-06T21:55:00.000-06:00

We woke up to SNOW this morning! We weren't expecting it! Daddy made it into work, but called to let us know he thought we should take a snow day! While the snow was melting on the road quickly, as it was being driven on, it was only 15 degrees, and it would refreeze instantly. We decided to stay home. Smart choice, I heard about people slipping and sliding all around the Dallas area.

Since we had gotten up and around to go to school, we were outside playing by 8:15. I also decided to grab my camera and practice taking some pictures out of "auto" mode!

Chloe came out and played with us for a bit!

Cleaning the snow off Mommy's car!

It was really dry powdery snow! No snowmen or snowballs!

Sophie was raking the snow!

Sutton was laughing and smiling the whole time! The cold barely seemed to affect him!

Sophie loved it, too, but she wasn't smiling and laughing as much!

She was quite cold!

Sutton tried out his scooter in the snow....worked well!

Riding the scooter and catching snowflakes!

My little snow angel....there's that smile!

Mischievous Sutton collected snow in his butterfly net and is chasing Sophie!

Sophie didn't quite get away!

Sophie thought they were just running a race, but Sutton's trying to get her with a snowball!

You just wait Sutton, Sophie will figure you out!

Taking a ride on the four wheeler together....heading inside! They had enough snow!

After dinner tonight, Daddy taught Sutton how to make a s'more! He enjoyed it very much!

Time for s'more #2!

So excited!

Look at how big the marshmallow is getting!

Learning How to Use Our Camera

2014-02-04T22:18:00.001-06:00

Today we had so much fun! My new friend, Patrizia, invited us over to her house. (Her daughter, Lucy, is in Sophie's class.) She is a wonderful photographer, and she offered to help me use our camera even better. I wanted to know a little bit more so I can get some great pictures on our trip to Disneyland next week! You can check out her website here or Facebook here.

Lucy, Sophie and Johnny are watching cartoons while the Mommy's talk cameras!

These are all straight out of the camera, I didn't edit them.

Patrizia explained ISO, aperture, and shutter speed in a way that I REALLY understand it, and I think I will remember it this time!

She also showed me the benefits of using manual and auto focus!

I had recently been a little frustrated with our camera. When we first got it, I learned quite a bit on how to use it outside of "auto" mode. But I haven't used it much in the past year or so, and I had forgotten almost everything! I really needed some inspiration to relearn. Having a personal lesson was really wonderful!

Here is the beautiful Patrizia being a model for me when I try out manual focus! What a beautiful lady! I must admit that I am a little enamored with her because she is so sweet AND because she is from Italy. I absolutely LOVE listening to her talk with her beautiful accent. I also love how she always calls her babies, "Amore" Maybe that's because I often call my babies, "Love"!

After a bit, we moved into her home studio and had Johnny be our model! He got right in the box to pose, like he knew what he was doing!

I managed to get some good pics, and it was very encouraging to have Patrizia look at them and tell me they were great, or suggest something that could improve them!

Ahhh, he is a cutie!

Then we got all the other kiddos to come in! It was hard to catch them being still! With an 18 month old, 2 three year olds and a 5 year old, there was defiantly action.

One of my favorites!

Sophie posed in the box too! She's a great model!

I love the brother and sister love, and look at sweet little Johnny looking up at Sutton. I noticed him trying to copy Sutton several times! It was precious!

Look at that little belly!

......and there goes the last of our models!

Another of my favorites!

These two of Lucy melt my heart! Did you just go, "AHHHHHH", too?

I always want to remember Sophie's sweet little toddler profile!

These are some of my favorites, too! Sophie and Sutton were really lovin' on each other

Yes, I think I will have to crop these a bit and frame one of them!

Brother and Sister Love!

(notice Sophie's favorite toy is in the picture too, included in the love, too!)

Out of the studio and time to play and have some tea!

Another favorite of Sutton. I wonder what he was thinking!

Lucy, we love you and your Mommy and brother! Thanks for having us over to play!

Lego Love!

2014-02-04T20:26:00.001-06:00

Sutton loves Lego's! Sutton got a lot of Lego's for his birthday, and even more for Christmas! He loves to have us help him build, and he loves to use his imagination and build things all on his own!

Sophie mostly just gets to watch Brother build his creations! She was helping him find the blue pieces he needed!

Putting to together a little Lego man!

Sutton's so proud. We finished the truck and forklift that Aunt Kristen, Uncle David, James, Ethan and Faith got him!

Now after all the hard work, Sutton was so happy to play with it!

I thought Uncle David, James and Ethan might especially like these pictures! I remember a Christmas when David and Uncle Chris were helping James and Ethan with a Lego project!

It's so fun to load the pallets on the forklift and loading them onto the truck!

Meanwhile, Sophie moved on to reading a book!!

A Little Something New for Mema and Papa

2014-02-04T20:25:00.002-06:00

While we were visiting Mema and Papa, we gave them a little gift! Chris and I decided to replace the shower in their master bathroom. The first two pictures are the before! This is the original shower from when the house was built in 1978. It had served my parents well for so many years! It was time for a new one!

We were very pleased that there was no water damage in the shower! The other bathroom, which we replaced last year, had no water damage either! We thought that was pretty good considering their age and how worn the showers were!

Here it is after all the demo and the shower floor sitting in it! All that demo was pretty noisy!

Starting to put the walls in! Mom and Dad were very good sports. They got kicked out of their bedroom for quite a few days! Well, they could have stayed in there, but it was noisy at times! Dad kept a good eye on Chris to make sure he knew what he was doing! :)

Here's what we were doing on New Year's Eve 2013. We celebrated by installing tile! Whoo hoo! What a party it was! We even drank some champagne, but got finished before midnight and went to bed before it was 2014!

Then the first day of 2014 was spent grouting and calking! It was all worth it though. It looks fabulous all finished!

All done! My Mom kept coming in to look at it as it was getting close to being finished, and she kept saying, "It looks AMAZING!" I hear they've been taking longer and even more frequent showers than before! Mom has been reported to say, "I LOVE THAT SHOWER", after every time she uses it! Their excitement and appreciation made it all worth while.....but I think it will be a while before we do another shower. (and when I use the word WE, I really mean Chris. It was 99% Chris.....well mabe 95%, I did almost all the tiling, grouting and a lot of calking!)

Love you, Mom and Dad!

Vistiting at Mema and Papa's House

2014-02-03T19:52:00.000-06:00

While we were at Mema and Papa's house, Noah the Savannah cat, got lots of one on one time with Sutton and Sophie! Aunt Meggie put Sutton in charge of taking care of Noah. Sutton took it very seriously! He would run out and check on Noah as soon as he woke up, made sure he was locked up in his kennel if we had to leave, and tried to hold him the rest of the time! Noah probably took a couple of days to recover from all of the extra love he received!

Megan played with the camera one evening. When I got home, I discovered a lot of pictures that I didn't know she had taken! Here I am after a long day in Stillwater visiting my friend Paige with the kiddos!

A great picture of Papa eating his dinner!

I know he will love it!

Chris after a long day of working on Mema and Papa's shower.

(more on that in the next post)

Noah thinking, "Thank Goodness those two kiddos are in bed!"

A little love between Papa and Sophie!

Sophie sat on Papa's lap while Papa told some of the stories that we grew up listening to!

I loved seeing it!

Sophie and Mema love!

Ahhh, they are so sweet!

Sutton and Papa love.

Sutton has some of Papa's mischievous behaviour!!

Love these two boys!

Sutton giving Mema some love!

Christmas with Mema and Papa

2014-02-03T19:39:00.003-06:00

A few days after Christmas, we headed to Ponca City to see Mema, Papa, Aunt Meggie and Hope! One of the first things the kids spotted were the presents under the Christmas tree. We managed to make them wait until we got all our luggage in the house before they got to open presents!

Sutton got one of his favorite things, Lego's and it was the fire chief car! He had it put together, with a little help, in a hour or so!

Sophie got the Minnie bowtique! She may think that she will get to pick out Minnie Mouse's dress, bow and shoes when we go to Disneyland, like she does in the "Bowtique

Sutton also got a great little activity with magnets. They are all geometric shapes, and there are cards that you can copy to make pictures or animals. He loves it, and does a great job doing it/1

Sophie got some more Princesses for her castle!

We were really excited to give Hope her little rag doll "Hope"! Sophie couldn't wait for her to open it!

See Hope, she looks like you!!!

Who is more excited, Hope or Sophie?

Merry Christmas from the O'Neills! What a great holiday!

Christmas Morning

2014-02-02T21:54:00.001-06:00

Oh, what a WONDERFUL Christmas morning we had in 2013. For the first time since Chris and I have been married, we spent Christmas at our house! While we have LOVED every Christmas we've spent at Mema and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa's house, there is something great about waking up Christmas morning in your own house. It's even more special with little ones in the house! We were lucky enough to have Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Amy come down and celebrate with us! I also have to say, I was very excited to plan Christmas dinner, and we had WAY too much food! (and we somehow managed to spend all our time eating the food and taking zero pictures of it!

We started a new idea this year. Sutton and Sophie had to clean out all their old toys and give them to Santa before he left them new toys! Santa would clean and fix them up to give to other little boys and girls. (This year, Sutton and Daddy delivered them a local shelter where they had little kids that would have a Christmas because of them!) On Christmas Eve, the kids put out "Santa Sacks" for Santa to put all their presents in. (Mommy and Daddy were SO glad we weren't up wrapping all those gifts!) I made the sacks, and we loved how they turned out! The bags have a place for Santa to check if Sutton and Sophie have been, "Really Nice, Nice or Naught" Of couse, he said they had been "really nice". And even signed them!

Mommy finally got to open the BIG present from Daddy. It is a Tower Garden, check it out here: https://www.towergarden.com/. A friend of mine has one, and I have wanted something like it for a while! I can't wait to start growing some food for our kitchen!

After opening stockings from Santa and presents from Aunt Amy, Uncle David, Aunt Kristen, James, Ethan and Faith, and Uncle Greg, Aunt Shilo, Cade and Coco, (oh how they LOVED all those gifts!) it was time to see what Santa brought

Sutton had been wanting this turck and crane since before his birthday. He was so happy to get it! Patience pays off!

This logging truck had also been (mostly) patiently waited for! Seeing his happy face was wonderful!

"A princess coloring book, I LOVE IT!" says Sophie!

Sophie made us laugh as she would go inside her Santa Sack to find another present!

"Lambie, I LOVE IT!"

(It's so sweet, the way she said she loved all of her gifts!)

Yeah, Santa brought Sutton some new clothes! He needed some!

Back in to find another gift!

Mommy made Sutton, Sophie and Cousin Hope these little rag dolls! I enjoyed every minute of making them, but they were VERY time consuming! Seeing the look on Sophie's face when she pulled hers out, PRICELESS!

This is a fun game, it spins these little disks and they fly up in the air. You try to catch them. We've all spent time trying to master it!

There's still more in there????

Sutton found the Batman rag doll I made him, after going inside his sack!

Ladybug slippers. This little girl likes ladybugs ALMOST as much as Aunt Amy!

Sutton Got Monkey slippers!

A microphone for our little lady! She sings so beautifully!

Oh my, how I love your little girl. Seeing you happy makes me happy!

Singing a song while waiting for Christmas dinner! (It took us so long to make it, I think we put Grandpa to sleep!)

Still waiting for dinner, so we will play with the playdough we got!

Sophie and Sutton were lucky to have Grandpa there to get all the playdough out of the cans! It did not want to come out!

Wow, what a GREAT Christmas. We are looking forward to many many more together!

Try Until you Succeed...Seeing Santa!

2014-01-13T14:44:00.000-06:00

Sunday morning we went back to Bass Pro to see Santa. Surely with everyone else at church, we could walk right up to Santa...... Well, not so much! We got there within 30 minutes of the store opening, and once again the line was all the way across the store! We decided to wait it out, we were determined to see Santa! There was a really nice family in front of us, that we chatted with the whole time, and that made the time go by faster. Faster.....not fast! After an hour and a half we finally got to the front of the line. (If you would have told us 5 years ago that we would EVER wait in line an hour and a half to see Santa, I would have said....no way! The thought of those two pair of sweet eyes looking sad if we didn't see Santa this time, changed our tune!)

Sutton was ready to talk to Santa, but Sophie was still a little unsure. Sutton was there for her the whole time. He told her he would sit on his lap with her. He was being such a caring big brother! (He also thought Santa would really notice how nice he was being to his sister!)

They just walked right up to Santa and started talking to him. If there were any nerves, we couldn't tell!

Sophie let Santa put her right up on his knee!

Then they all smiled (a little strangely) for the camera!

After the photo, Sophie told Santa just what she wanted!

and then.....

Sutton got to tell Santa his wishes!

And let me tell you, it was worth every one of those 90 minutes we spent in line, to see the smiles on their faces and the excitement in their voice!

Going To See Santa....attempt #1

2014-01-10T20:01:00.000-06:00

While we were in Piedmont celebrating Sophie's birthday, we went to Bass Pro Shop to visit Santa. We went before going out to dinner, and, apparently, a lot of other people had the same "original" idea we did! The line wove in and out around the store! It was LONG! So we decided to come back the next morning, Sunday, thinking that it would be much less busy. While we were there, thought, we did go and do a lot of the activities they had for the kids to do.

First, Sutton and Sophie wrote their letters to Santa, with the help of Aunt Amy and Daddy.

Sutton is thinking of some more things to tell Santa!

Sophie wanted Doc McStuffins, Henery Hugglemonster and Little Mermaid. (Her list never changed throughout the whole holiday season. If fact she told people so often, she would say it so fast, no one could understand her!)

Sutton wanted a logger and crane, (which he had seen back in September and always remembered.)

Sophie rode her first carousal, you don't see one with reinder very often!

Sophie put her letter in the mailbox to mail to Santa.

Then Sutton mailed his letter!

After mailing letters, Sutton got to race the remote control race cars! As you can see he really enjoying himself!

We will try for Santa, again, tomorrow!

Sophie's Birthday Week-end!

2014-01-08T22:15:00.000-06:00

The weekend after Sophie's birthday we decided to take a week-end trip to Piedmont. Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Amy were going to come down to see the birthday girl, but after being stuck in the house for a week during Icemageddon, we decided we needed a change of scenery. So off to Oklahoma we went.

We also thought we would take this BEAUTIFUL cake Cara made and share it with more family. We knew Aunt Amy would love it too, since it was her birthday on the 12th also, and she loves ladybugs!

We managed to get it to Piedmont in one piece. It would have been in perfect condition if I hadn't tried to put it in my travel cake dome thing. I thought I was just trying to snap the top in place, but really, the cake was too tall for it. So, I accidentally smashed it a bit. I then taped the bottom to the bottom of a box, and it didn't move any!

Sophie helped Cara design her cake while we were at her house decorating cookies. Sophie suggested the big pink bow. She also picked out the bow on the ladybug. At first Cara made a smaller one, and Sophie said, "NO a BIG bow!!" So Cara obliged!!

Maybe they should design more cakes together!

Lighting 3 little candles on the cake!

Maybe her mouth is already watering!

Made a wish and blowing out the candles!

A little extra to get that last candle!

Aunt Amy found a great Doc McStuffins magnetic dress up set and house!

Sophie loves Doc!

She said, "I LOVE IT!"

She was so excited!

Sutton was a great helper opening the gifts. Sophie was great at sharing her new things with Sutton

Minnie Mouse BOW-tique!

What a wonderful birthday celebration Sophie had! Thanks for all the love and presents. Sophie plays with the new toys a lot!

Decorating Cookies!

2014-01-06T15:15:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things we did during the Christmas season was decorating cookies at my friend Cara's house! (Yep, the "Cara's Cupcake" lady!) She and her little man, Kellan, invited us over to decorate. Our original date got canceled 2 or 3 times because of that "lovely" ice storm. We finally got it rescheduled for after school on Sophie's birthday!

Cara said that she wasn't organized.....but I didn't believe her. She even had cute little snowman aprons that she had made the kids! But we didn't use them, we wanted those cuties to stay clean! (not really, they weren't quite finished because that ice storm kept her from getting to the store to get whatever she needed to finish them!) They are all done now, though!

She had the cutest little table set up with all sorts of sprinkles and cookies. There was even plastic on the store to catch any "oops" that might be made!

Kellan is more than ready to decorate! Does he know how to smile for the camera or what?

(Also, he is wearing a shirt that was Sutton's, it was one of my favorites. I love seeing our outgrown clothes being used by our friends! Always makes me smile, seeing how cute they are and remembering my own cuties wearing them!)

Sophie picking out her first cookie!

I think maybe Kellan has seen his mommy decorate with icing before! He looked like he knew what he was doing!

Sutton's first cookie!

Sophie is giving it a try!

(By the way, Sophie is wearing her "ladybug" dress for her birthday. She had a ladybug themed party so we had to have a ladybug dress....right?!)

Well, I think all bakers have done it...you just have to taste the frosting! Believe me, it was yummy. I might have gotten in a taste or two!

These boys are having fun!

Ohhhh, isn't he just precious! That cookie looks good, too!

You have to really concentrate to put the sprinkles in just the right place!

A little taste test.....and it passes! Yum Yum Yum!

I think Sophie frosted this cookie half of the time we were there!

Sutton was the quickest decorator...he finished the most cookies!

Sutton being silly....I bet Kellan will try to do the same thing soon!

Wait a minute, how much decorating and how much tasting is going on! These faces don't lie!

Sophie's finished cookies!

Kellan's finished cookies....looks like he's missing parts of his!

Sutton's finished cookies!

Oh we had so much fun!

While all this decorating was going on, Cara was decorating Sophie's birthday cake! It was really fun to watch her put a cake together! More pictures to come in the next post! Thanks so much for inviting us to decorate. We had so much fun! Let's make this an annual tradition! Love you Cara and Kellan!

Sophie's Birthday Day!

2014-01-06T14:52:00.003-06:00

Sophie's 3rd Birthday was a very busy day! We all didn't get home to really celebrate until almost bedtime. When we did get home, we needed to call Aunt Amy because she had sent a very mysterious gift earlier in the week that wasn't to be opened until December 12. It was something for the whole family!

Surprise! It was our very own Polar Express Train to put around our Christmas tree. (Grandpa and Grandma have one that Grandpa had as a little boy, and they LOVE it!) They were so excited. Sutton said several times..."This is the best gift ever!!" Daddy got it all put together and around the Christmas tree. It has a remote control and several sounds and phrases that it says. I think it's like having Tom Hanks in our house for Christmas!

We didn't actually have Sophie's birthday cake on her birthday, we decided to wait and share it with family while we were in Piedmont the next day! Sophie did get to open some of her presents! She got some very stylish black boots with glitter bows! She loves wearing them!

Sutton gave her a copy of his "oldie but goodie" books, Blue Hat, Green Hat!

Hmmm, I can't remember what was in this bag!

Time for a big gift!

Trying to get the big bag off.......

It's a Disney Princess Castle! YEAH!

They've been playing with it ever since!

Daddy showed them a few tricks! Now we have princesses dancing and singing all the time!

Happy 3rd Birthday to our Sweet Sophie!

Chris' Birthday

2013-12-16T22:26:00.003-06:00

We celebrated Chris 39th birthday during the ice storm. I planned ahead and listened to the weather reports and scheduled his special apple pie to be picked up the day before! After a freezing and icy weather dinner of smoked ribs, we were all excited to dig into this pic

Downtown McKinney just got a new boutique pie shop, Emporium Pies. It is DELECIOUS! It's only a few blocks from the kids school, so I might be going there more often. Chris picked out their deep dish apple pie, and the are serious when they say deep dish. It's VERY deep!

Sutton and Sophie were a little giddy with excitement to celebrate Daddy's birthday!

We didn't have 39 candles, so we just put "some' on there!

Make a wish!

Then Daddy opened his gift. He gets to go to Texas Motor Speedway and ride in a Nascar, 10 laps as the driver and 4 laps with a NASCAR driver! He's really excited. He got a similar gift several years ago, but the company went out of business before he was able to do it! The kids are really excited to see what kind of race car he drives!

The pie, after we dug into it! Look at all those yummy apples and spices!!

Happy Birthday, Chris...we wish you many many more!

Icemaggedon 2013

2013-12-16T22:20:00.001-06:00

That's what I read several of the local media outlets call our ice storm from December 5 and 6th. Let me tell you, I've never seen anything like it in Texas! Well, our part of Texas. Thursday, Dec 5, it started raining as I went to pick up the kids from school. (Chris was working in Sherman instead of Dallas, thank goodness, or he may have had a LONG trip home). I picked up Chris' birthday pie before I got the kids because by the time I got to the school it was sleeting, but 35 degrees! I got the kids and we headed straight home! By the time we were half way home, it was 27 degrees, sleeting/freezing rain and it was already freezing some to the windshield Folks, I grew up in Oklahoma, but I lived in Austin for 10 years and now North Texas. I do not like to test my ice driving skills much at all, especially with my sweet babies in the car! We made it home, it didn't seem to be slick on the roads any, but the roofs were already accumulating white on them, and so was the ground! Of course Chris didn't come home til about 5, but he made it safe and sound!

With all the forecasting of freezing rain, Chris was a DEAR, and got the LAST generator from Sam's that morning. I was more concerned than he was, that with all the trees around our house, we might loose power. We didn't have any wood......so we bought a generator.!

Luckily for us, we ended up getting more sleet than freezing rain, so we didn't have the major tree damage like my friends in McKinney and Melissa. Our power went on and off, quickly, about 6 times. But we stayed warm and toasty. I had at least 4 friends that I know of, that lost power between 36-48 hours. BRRRRRRR.

Chris took all of these pictures before taking the kids out to play on Friday, his birthday. I think we ended up getting about an inch or so of ice, and 3-4 inches of sleet. It was a lot of ice. And it kept getting even more slick every day because we had freezing fog at night. Everything was a sheet of ice. Lots of stories of people stranded for hours and hours and hours on the interstate. Roads being opened and closed and lots of people MAD about the response of the county. I personally don't understand how they could even think the county would ever have enough snow equipment to clear the roads quickly when we rarely ever get snow, much less ICE like this. Then on top of that, how are they supposed to clear the major roads when they are clogged with stranded and/or jack knifed semis and cars all over the road!

We were literally stuck in our house until Monday. Chris drove to Allen on Monday, to see if he could make it to work on Tuesday (big meetings!!) In our county, he said that I 75 was just two ruts with about 3-4 inches of ice the middle! It was more clear, the closer you got to McKinney! Chris made it to work on Tuesday, and the kids and I finally made it out on Wednesday! Sherman and Van Alstyne were out of school from Friday to Thursday. Oh, and by the way, the couple of days before this crazy weather, it was in the 70's! That's Texas!

We had lots of fun while ice bound. We went ice sledding several times with our neighbors. They have a great hill between our house and theirs. Sophie even got to where she would slide down by herself! We all had a lot of fun!

Anyone want to go swimming now! Sutton wanted to slide down the ice on the slide, but it was frozen to the ground right at the edge of the pool. He didn't think sliding into the pool in the cold was a good idea!

More Birthday for Sutton!

2013-12-16T22:05:00.000-06:00

Our last celebration for Sutton's birthday was with Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt Amy. They came down to see the birthday boy the weekend after his birthday! We ate good food, including more cake and cupcakes, enjoyed good company and opened PRESENTS!!!

Grandma had picked out a special book for Sutton and Sophie and read it to them. They love reading books with Grandma!

Aunt Amy got Sutton a really cool rescue helicopter! She showed Sutton all the fun "rescue" things it can do!

This was a cool marble maze type of game. You can build different "mazes" and watch the marbles go down. We love it, although we also just LOVED carrying the marbles around, and we don't have many left......

I'm wondering where Sophie's pants are in the process of opening presents mayhem............

Time for the big gift...what is it?

A remote control Dusty Cropduster, from the movie Planes. Oh the fun we've had with this.

A picture of the cupcakes that Cara made for Sutton's birthday party. We had a few left over, and celebrated with them again! (I tend to always over order from Cara.......)

Sutton's 5th Birthday Party

2013-12-16T21:57:00.000-06:00

This year we had Sutton's, (you guessed it) Batman party at the park, with his friends and classmates!

We enjoyed some Chick-fil A fruit and nuggets before cupcakes. There was lots of playing on the play equipment, in between!

Sophie sitting next to her new BEST friend. Ben is 4 years old, but we play together after school most days. Ben and Sophie have a real connection! They really love each other!

Gavin is making me laugh....he looks unsure about this cupcake!

More kids enjoying the sweet treat!

Sutton's party favors this year was a Batman shirt for everyone, with their name on it. The boys got yellow and the girls got sparkly pink! It's fun taking the kids to school, and seeing the kids wear them at different times!

Sutton, Kaylin, and Brynlee (hasn't she grown up?)

PRESENTS. A real difference I noticed during present time, was how the kids all wanted to tell Sutton about the gift they chose. It was really sweet! They seemed so proud of their gifts!

Legos! A new love at our house!

Ben explaing his gift!

Pippin getting to tell Sutton about his gift!

More Legos!

Batman boots....boy, Sutton's friends know what he likes!

Thanks for all the gifts and thanks for coming to the party. You helped make this boy feel very special!

Sutton's Birthday Day

2013-12-16T21:40:00.002-06:00

Yes, finally I am doing a post from Sutton's birthday!

Our favorite little man turned five on Oct. 2nd. We had a small family celebration at home.....followed by a party with his friends and a birthday with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Amy. The kids birthday's always seem to last a week...but it's a fun week!

Sutton was in school on his birthday, but Sophie wasn't. So we made a trip up to Sherman to see my sweet friend Cara. She created this FABULOUS Batman cake for Sutton!

Barely able to contain their excitement to dig in!

Maybe just a little sniff....yum that butter cream smells as good as it tastes!

Sutton ate the yellow and black Batman logo right off the top!

Cake this good gets a little messy

Sophie picked out some of the "Planes" planes as a gift for Sutton

Batman motorcycle. His shirt was also a gift made by Mommy!

Sutton got his Halloween costume...Batman. (do you see a theme yet?)

One last gift......

......a "big boy" bike!

Putting Up the Christmas Tree

2013-12-02T20:16:00.001-06:00

We actually put up our tree before we left for Thanksgiving in Oklahoma, but we did the finishing touches on today. Sophie and Sutton were a big help, shaping some of the branches and handing them to us while we put the tree together. We have garland that has zillions of tiny bells, so when the kiddos are messing with the tree we can hear the jingling! They seem to touch it a lot more than they ever did as tiny kids! We understand, we love looking at the ornaments just as much!

I also found an idea, on Pinterest of course, for making the tree an advent calendar! I printed out the red cards with 1-25 on them, laminated and cut them out. Then Sutton and Sophie helped me put them on the tree. Each night we are taking one tag off until we get to Christmas......but we already forgot to take one off tonight! Oops!!

Sophie likes the was the tree looks when she lays underneath it!

Sutton's placing an ornament he made in school last year, in just the perfect place!

To us, it's just perfect!

First Day of School 2013/14

2013-09-05T22:02:00.001-05:00

Sutton and Sophie both had their first days of school this week. They have been so excited to use their new backpacks, lunch boxes, shirts and nap mats!

Walking out to the car! I didn't get to many pictures of them together because Sutton "preferred" to not have his picture taken with Sophie......or much at all!

Sutton is in Pre-K this year! It's his last year at Hope School. He has loved every minute with ALL the wonderful staff, teachers, kids and parents there! He is going to school 3 days a week, this year. His Oh, notice he has a sea doo on his shirt! He picked it out himself and "helped" me make it with my Silhouette. He is already talking about what other shirts he wants to make1

Sophie Elise on her first day of school EVER! She is in the 2 year old class. She already knows her schedule...go to school with Sutton one day, stay home with Mommy the next day, and go to school with Sutton the next day! I asked her today, what her teachers name is and she said, Ms. Oko (Ms. Miyoko) and Ms Eewin (Ms. Erin). She loves it and by the 2nd day of school, she hugged and kissed me and just waved bye to me!

Sophie's new backpack. She LOVES her "Puppy" stuffed animal, so we put a puppy on her backpack with some glittery flowers and a yellow butterfly!

I asked Sutton if he wanted a Batman or OSU backpack. He's all about Batman right now,, so he chose Batman! Oh, and did you notice the new race car light up shoes! They are BIG news at our house!

She's ready to go...backpack, lunchbox, Mommy has the nap mat, a drink for the car, and a SMILE!