It's a Love/Hate Relationship

I love my blog. 

I love looking back over it, that is.

I love looking at the pictures of my kids, and reminiscing about days gone by.  

I am a bit of a perfectionist though.  You wouldn't know it by looking at my house or my life, but if I can't do something as well as I would like to do it, then I give up. 

  With my blog I get frustrated that my pictures aren't as good as so and so's, or that I don't write as clever and witty as someone else, or even as well as I would like.  I also, get frustrated that I don't have enough time to devote to it as I would like.  I set standards for myself that I can't keep. 

Then I get frustrated and give up on it for a time.  I go completely cold turkey.  I think that is part of my perfectionism.  I'm either all in, or all out.  I can't find a balance.  

So then I hate my blog.  

Until...

I begin to miss it. Then, I look back through it, and I remember that it isn't about being perfect or as good as so and so, it's about telling my story, our story. 

My blog is my journal and it's about recording our memories and having a story of our family.

My kids are growing up way too fast.  .  

I always think I will remember the cute things they said and did, and the funny faces they made and the little things that are part of our lives for a time, but I don't. 

Not unless I write it down.

Sunday afternoon treat, compliments of Tabetha

When I am blogging, I make a conscious effort to take note, write down and document those little things that I would not normally take the time to record.  

And, life is just a little sweeter when I am looking for and taking time to recognize those special little moments that are part of our family's story.  

Small fire that occurred while making above treat

So, all this to say I want to start blogging again.  I know I do this all the time, start, stop, and start and stop again.  I won't promise it won't happen again.  It might, but at least I will have recorded a few more memories in the process.  

Wish me luck.  And check back again.  

Only 14 days until this baby is here, and 

I know he is going to be adorable.

Stay tuned for pictures!  

Happy Father's Day...

... to the two greatest men I know.

"By divine design, fathers

are to preside over their families in love and righteousness

and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and

protection for their families." 

                                                                               --The Family A Proclamation To The World

I love you Dad!

I love you Sweetheart!

Thank you  for taking your responsibilities as fathers seriously.  

You are both wonderful men and fathers. 

Thanksgiving Moments 121-127

To start off with, I thought I would share with you the secret I discovered today for having a really great Thanksgiving dinner.  Are you ready?  Okay, here is the secret, lots and lots of butter.  
Siimple, really, but oh, so true.  Am I right, or am I right?

121.  All my kids were such good helpers today!  It was 
wonderful!

122.  All day, I kept hearing Jarom say, "I love Thanksgiving."

123.  Chocolate and Peanut butter always makes me happy.

124.  My homemade rolls turned out fabulous, and so did my turkey.

 The only major catastrophe I had today was that I put the yams in the oven on broil to brown the marshmallows, and I stepped away from the oven too long.  When I got back, the marshmallows were black on top.  I panicked at first, and then I just picked the burned ones off and put new marshmallows on.  No one even knew. 

125.  Shawn's sister, husband and 7 children joined us for dinner.
 Their youngest is just a few weeks old, and boy is he a cutie.
I thought maybe I could offer her 20 bucks for him.
We do sort of need another baby around this house.  

126.  Shawn's mom, aka. Grammy, also joined us, and boy are
 we ever glad we have her.  She sure can make some
 meeeeaaaan pie.  Oh, and her gravy is fabulous too.  

127.  After the turkey had been taken out of the oven, and we were putting the final touches on dinner, the kids would poke their heads into the kitchen to see how things were coming along, if we had carved the turkey yet, and how much longer it was going to be?  It was fun to see how excited they were. 

I really had a wonderful, relaxing day.  It was so nice in fact, I kept thinking I must have forgotten something really big that I should be making or doing.  But, as far as I know, I didn't forget anything important and we had a great Thanksgiving Day.  Hope you did too.


Check back tomorrow to see what we did for fun after dinner.  Believe me, you do not want to miss this.  

Moments 87-90 From Our Summer Vacation

"...the family is central to

the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children."

(The Family, A Proclamation to the World)

It was wonderful being able to spend so much time with family this summer.  Here are a few highlights our our trip. 

87.  Grandpa Great

88.  Seeing all my brothers and sisters and their families (This is about half of us)

89.  Shawn's Sister, otherwise known as "Aunt Liddy"

90.  Grandpa and Grandma Alix

More summer vacation moments coming!

Welcome Baby Abigail!

 Shawn's brother and his wife had a beautiful baby girl today.  Mom and baby are doing great.  We went and visited them this evening and I, of course, had to take a ton of pictures.  I am posting a few so that the aunts, uncles and cousins that live far away can see this gorgeous baby. 

Welcome baby Abigail.  We are so glad you are finally here!

The Tippets Family

I had the pleasure of taking pictures of my brother's cute, cute family, tonight. I had such a fun time. Stay tuned for more pictures.





And happy anniversary Mike and Cordie. Love you guys.

Family Pictures

My very awesome sister-in-law, Cordie, (check out her photography blog here) took these family pictures for us a couple of weeks ago. I thought she did a great job. You can't even tell that a few of us had melt downs in the middle of the photo shoot. Having a family photo shoot just reaffirmed to me the reason I have very few formal pictures of my children even though I am a photographer. There is a certain amout of bribing, cajoling, and threatening that takes place to get your children to cooperate with the photographer, and I can't handle being the briber and the photographer at the same time. I go straight to threatening and then I have a melt down. There, now you know the truth.