TREEmendous!

We had quite an exciting Sunday. A bad storm blew through Rexburg and uprooted our big willow tree. The kids had fun climbing on the wreckage. Our trampoline blew from our back yard, over our house and into the power lines across the street. The power lines were tangled and one house lost power for a while until the power company could come and fix the lines. Brett was in Boise this weekend for continuing ed courses and came home to the mess. Here are a few pictures. That was such a good beautiful tree. Our trampoline is banged up and no good anymore. Nate was crying "my trampoline blew away!"

Brett and the neighbors are hacking away at the tree right now. Love you all!

Family Vacation

Hello everyone! We hope that everyone is having a fun summer. I love looking at the blog and seeing all of my cute nephews and nieces. We just went on a fun little family vacation. We started out going to Virginia City and Nevada City where we got to see a play, ride a train and see the ghost town which my kids kept calling the cowboy ghost town. Then we went to the Lewis and Clark Caverns which I highly recommend! Then we went swimming to a place called Big Timber. The kids had a blast! They had a bunch of water slides and a cute little kiddie pool. We took our trailer and just camped out each night. We were gone about 4 days. It was lots of fun! Ethan was pretty tired as you can see in the picture. Lizzy was pretending to sleep for the camera. It was pretty funny. She couldn't stop smiling. The picture by the river was taken in Big Sky. It was so pretty there! We have had a pretty fun summer so far. I can't believe that school will start next month!

Peyton's jumper

Here are a few pictures that I took of Peyton today in his jumper. He loves it! He could jump for ever (notice the blanket under him, we have to put that there because our carpet is so hard he gets blisters and his toes start bleeding!! That's how into it he gets! Ha Ha)

His new thing lately is mutilating his bed...He pulls himself up and tries to escape, making the process of naptime a little more difficult. Normally, I just lay him down and he'll go right to sleep but now that he figured out that he can stand up by himself I have to work a little harder. I caught him in the act of trying to rip his bumper off, needless to say he thought it was pretty funny.

Our 4th of July Week

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We had a nice, laid back day. We went to a parade in the morning and watched fireworks in the evening.

Last Christmas I bought Dan a gift certificate to go indoor skydiving. He finally decided to use it last Saturday. When we told Tyce where we were going, he wanted to skydive too. It was really neat to watch. (The pictures didn't turn out very well, since they were inside a big tube)

We love to hear what everyone is doing we LOVE to see pictures! Thanks for the great recipes and the cute pictures, Ali. Kara, you really are the woman. I can't believe that you did Disneyland with all the kids without Brett. You are a great mom!! Ashley, can Peyton get any cuter?? Happy Birthday Darrin!! Debbie, we are so excited to see you and the kids next week. Katie and Bev keep te blogs coming!! I hope that everyone is enjoying the "dog days" of summer!

Love,

Brigit

Happy 4th!

Hey guys,
I would love to hear about your 4th of July's and see pictures of your kids. We had a fun, normal day - parade, BBQ, fireworks. I can't believe summer is 1/2 over. Kyler was asking when his birthday is, and I said in 6 weeks and he was sad it was so far away. I told him it was right before Kindergarden started and then summer would be over and then he thought that was too short and he didn't want it to come so fast. (nice matching pajamas)

Kara, I loved seeing your Disneyland pictures! I just saw them this morning. The kids loved seeing them too. Lexi thought it was so neat that Haley got to meet Cinderella. What a fun trip!!! I wish we could have gone with you!

Brigit, I made your Buster Bars and they were really good! That is such a great summer treat with ice cream and chocolate. Thanks for the recipe!! And thanks for asking for summer recipes. I have a couple to share.

Chocolate Pie

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
5 Tbsp butter, melted
3 squares semisweet baking chocolate, melted
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 cups cold milk
2 pkgs (4 oz each) instant chocolate pudding
8 oz cool whip, thawed

Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Press in pie pan, bake @ 350 for 6-8 minutes.

Mix chocolate and condensed milk (melt 20 seconds in microwave, stir, melt another 20 seconds, stir, etc.) Pour into crust.

Mix milk and pudding with wire whisk. Spoon over fudge. Spread cool whip on top. Chill for 3 hours before serving.

White Chocolate Macadamia Caramel Bars

1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
1/2 cup butterscotch caramel topping
1 pkg (18 oz) Pillsbury Ready to Bake Big Deluxe Classics refrigerated white chunk macadamia nut cookies

Heat oven to 350. In large bowl, beat cake mix, oil, water and eggs with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Spread in ungreased 13x9 pan. Bake 15-18 minutes or until top is golden brown. Remove partially baked crust from oven. Pour caramel topping (warmed) over crust. Crumble cookies over crust. Bake another 18 minutes or until golden brown. COOL COMPLETELY before cutting.

(These bars are really good and really easy. Dave is not a nut fan, so I made them again with a devil's food cake mix, caramel ice cream topping, and chocolate chip cookie dough. You can get creative and mix and match what you like!)

Peyton doesn't like the grass

Ali that recipe is so stupid I'm embarrassed to share! All it is is browned hamburger, a can of re- fried beans, and cheese in the middle and then the sauce is just McCormick's Enchiladas Sauce in the little packets you can get at the grocery store. Then I just grate more cheese on the top. It's a real no brainer!

Brigit, your recipe looks super good I'm going to make it for family night on Monday. Anything is good if it has peanut butter and ice cream!!

Anyway, things are going good here, we had Peyton out on the grass the other night, it was so funny because he has touched the grass before but for some reason he didn't like the feel of it, he wouldn't stand on it for the longest time he would just hang with his feet all scrunched up. It was so funny!

Meat Enchiladas

Hey Ash,
Mitch's lunch looked good today that he reheated - I told him to have you give me the recipe and he told me to blog the request. So would you post the recipe? It smelled yummy but Mitch wasn't willing to share any.... :) Thanks!

Super Yummy Ice Cream Dessert

Hi All,

A friend of mine made this the other day and it was to die for. I thought I would share. Hope all is well.

Buster Bar Dessert

1/2 c Corn Syrup
1/2 c crunchy Peanut Butter
2 c Rice Krispies
1/2 gal Vanilla Ice Cream
2 c Powdered Sugar
1 (13oz) can Evaporated Milk
1 (6 oz) pkg. Chocolate Chips
1/2 c Butter or Margarine
1 tsp Vanilla
Spanish Peanuts

In a large bowl, stir together corn syrup and peanut butter. Stir in rice krispies. Press into the bottom of a buttered 9X13 in pan; freeze 10 minutes. Pack ice cream on top of crust and freeze.
Mix together powdered sugar, evaporated milk, chocolate chips, and butter. Bring to a boil; boil 8 minutes, stirring constantly. Add vanilla. When cool, pour over crust and ice cream. Sprinkle with Spanish peanuts. Freeze. Keep frozen until 10-15 minutes before
serving.

Disneyland!

We made it! (or at least I made it) I took the kids to Disneyland for a week without Brett. I will be totally honest and say that it was really hard and I about lost my mind. But, I will also say that I am glad we went. It was so good to see my aunt, uncle and cousins. The kids had a blast. Here are a few pictures of the trip. Everyone in my family was great to help me out with all the kids. Haley got to go to a "princess lunch" and meet all of the Disney princesses and get autographs--she thought that was awesome. You can't see very well in the dark picture of all of us but Kacie is asleep--too much fun I guess. Then we took a picture of all the kids including my cousins 2. We had quite the group fighting the crowds. Well, I will have to tell you all about it--too many adventures for one blog. Love you all!

Tippetts Reunion

We loved going to the Tippetts reunion yesterday. We got home late last night but everyone else stayed overnight at Lavell's resort in Preston. It was alot of fun seeing Bev's brothers and sisters and some of your cousins. The kids loved the horse rides and especially the swimming! I don't think I've been down a water slide since I was in Jr. High, it was alot of fun. Kyler and Porter loved it and probably could have stayed in the pool all night. I'm so glad we went and that Dave took the day off to go.

End of School Craziness

Summer is finally here!!! Sorry it has been so long since I've blogged. The end of the year was crazy. We had 2 graduations, parties, awards programs, orchestra concert and on and on. I've included some pictures of the kids. Mark has turned into a little fish. He loves the water and the freedom of his float vest. He swims all over the pool, goes down water slides into deep water and loves to do "candyballs" off the diving board. We are lucky we have so many friends with pools because it is too hot to do anything else in the summer.

Here is a picture of Michael and grandma at his graduation party. We had a combined party with Michael and one of his friends. It was so fun having grandma here for the celebrations.

Here is Michael and Matt at Michael's graduation party. This is the best I could do for a graduation picture. Graduation was so hectic and the place was huge. By the time we finally met up with Michael he had his cap and gown off and has refused to put it on again. He is such a stubborn child. I think we are going to let him take a car out to the Y next year. He claims he needs a car so he can visit all his relatives in Idaho. One of his best friends is going to BYU-I so you may get the privilege of having him visit once in a while.

Jessica also had her 8th grade graduation this year. The night before graduation they had a semi-formal dance. Her and her friends all had their hair and makeup professionally done. I can't believe she is going to high school next year. She is really growing up to be a beautiful young woman.

Here is Anna at her school program. It is so fun to see how excited they get over performing when they are young.

Well, I hope to see everyone in a few weeks. This blog has been a lot of fun. Keep writing and sending pictures!

Hello Again!

I have been checking the blog everyday to see if there have been any new posts. I was excited to see that Katie and Bev have joined the blog.

Things around here are finally starting to get back to normal. Jake drove back to Colorado with us. It was great having a built in babysitter when I needed to run to the post office or grocery store. We went to a family fun center, swimming pool, and a couple of movies while he was here.

The following week, Shawn flew out. He shadowed Dan for a day. Then Dad, Michelle, and the girls drove out. The boys flew to Alaksa for a week to go fishing and Michelle and I partied it up with the 6 kids!! My house was crazy, but I loved it.

When they all drove away Tuesday, I was so bummed. I don't have anything else to look forward to this summer. Feel free to come and visit!!

Last night, Dan and I went to the Colorado Rockies baseball game. They swept the New York Yankees!! It was so fun. A doctor that Dan works with gave us tickets right on the first base line, 30 rows up. The stadium was full, 48,000 people (mostly of Yankees fans) and the energy was high. It is really going to be hard for Dan to leave all the professional sports teams if we end up moving.

I hope all is well. I thought that I would start asking questions, and hopefully everyone will respond. So, here goes:

What is your favorite food to eat in the summer and will you share the recipe?

Love,

Brigit

Hey Everyone!!

Hey everyone! I took some pictures yesterday so I decided to share. I was changing the sheets on the bed and Peyton was playing in the pile. He loves to have things over his face so he kept pulling the sheets over his face, playing peek-a-boo with himself! We got him a jumper a couple of weeks ago and he totally loves it he will jump forever and screams with excitement the whole time it was a great investment for when I'm cooking, he's entertained the whole time and I don't have to stop and gather his toys back up because their not at arms reach anymore! So I'll have to take a picture of him in it and post that too! Well I hope everyone has a good day and it was good to see new posts when I checked the blog! Summer gets so busy!

Hooray!

Yay for Bev and Katie! I'm so happy you've joined us. :)

Just had to post how great it is to have grass (it'll be soon for you Katie!) and be able to let the kids run through the sprinklers without a muddy mess! Hope you're all having a great day! Ali

We went camping this weekend and Dylan got to try out the new family motorcycle. It was pretty fun. We just went Friday night and came back on Saturday. We were going to go swimming to Heise, but Lizzy and Ethan were not feeling too great and so we came back home. It is so nice to have school out so that we can relax and go do fun things!

I tried an easy new recipe for stroganoff that was pretty good. I make it on a Sunday and it was so nice to come home to dinner being almost completely done and the house smelled so good! Take 2 cans of Golden Mushroom Soup and 1 can of Cream of Celery soup and put it in the crock pot with a pound of stew meat (I used cut up round steak). Cook on low for 6-8 hours and then put 1 cup of sour cream in a half hour before you serve it and put it over rice or mashed potatoes. Doug and the kids really liked it.

This is so fun! I am so glad that I am finally able to do this! Thanks to Ali for all of her patience with me! :)

I'm still in

Just making sure I remember how to do this.

Bev Dog's in!

Hi everyone - Guess what? I am into the blog and I did it all by myself. Too bad I don't have a picture to send you. That comes next. The family has all been here today and I so glad Father's Day only comes once a year. The noise level is a little hard to handle. Until next time - when my sanity returns and I can think more clearly. Love Mom

P.S. Only believe half of what I wrote.

Hi Again Everyone

Hi Guys,

I haven't blogged for awhile because I always want to attach pictures but I haven't been able to take any because our camera has been broken (clumsy me - I tripped and fell on it and broke the lense). So I sent it to Sony and they fixed it and just sent it back a couple days ago. I was so excited to get it back! But I have been scrapbooking the last couple weeks and now realize how insane my picture-taking habit is. I have way too many pictures to scrapbook so it's my goal to scale back(much to Dave's relief.)

We're looking forward to the Tippets family reunion next week. I've always wanted to go see Georgetown and see the house where Bev grew up. I'm glad (and a little surprised) that Dave is taking the day off to go. The kids will think it is neat to have a horse-ride. I hope all of you come that can!

Our exciting news is that our landscaping should be done tonight. They're laying sod today and filling the flower beds with bark. I can't even tell you all how excited I am to have it done!!!

Kyler's T-Ball season is over. He was finally getting the hang of it and loving it so I'm sad it's done. He was too shy the first few games to run after he hit the ball, but the last few games he finally ran around the bases and he had so much fun he couldn't wait for each game. He even got 2 homeruns in one game.

That's pretty much all that's happening here. I put some pictures on my blog of the kids swimming yesterday. I hope the summer is going great for all of you! I've missed hearing from you but I know the summer gets busy.

Debbie, how did Michael's graduation go? I would love to see pictures if you have some to attach.

Oh, and I tried an easy recipe the other night for Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole. It was easy (with already cooked turkey and ham it's super fast to make) and we all liked it. I took a picture of the recipe to attach so I didn't have to type it. If any of you can't read it and want to make just let me know and I can email it to you or something. :)

Lots of love!
Ali