Halloween Week 2010

We have been celebrating halloween all week long! Max has participated in two trunk or treats, a halloween party and parade at school, three trips to pumpkin patches, painted pumpkins for our front porch and ate a yummy scary pumpkin pancake for breakfast this morning! Here are some pictures of all the adventures!

Pancakes with Halloween Faces ... yummy whip cream & candy corn

Beautiful Fall Flowers & Pumpkins

Maxs' ghost face!

Pumpkin Faces!

We saw some pretty interesting looking pumpkins


VERY BIG pumpkins!

Still with the ghost face ...

Really unattractive pumpkins...

White pumpkins ...

Blue pumpkins ...

Having fun climbing all over the pumpkins

Scary tunnels to climb through

And the scariest of them all .... "The Master" otherwise known at Darth Vader!

Tonight we are watching The Nightmare Before Christmas to finish out our scary week! Happy Halloween to all and enjoy eating your kids treats!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Tippets!

Grandpa Tippets celebrated his 73rd birthday this past week while he was here in Virginia. We celebrated with yummy Pumpkin Pie from Costco and of course his best little buddy, Max was so excited to help Grandpa open up his present! Grandpa received a digital photo frame that had TONS of pictures from Scott & Angela and our camera that were taken this past summer in New York. A fun way to see lots of pictures all the time without taking up too much space! Great idea Angela!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

I'm Thankful For ...

This past monday night we had a family home evening lesson on "I'm Thankful For" with Grandma & Grandpa Tippets. We wrote down various things we were thankful for, taped them to leaves and placed them all around our fireplace. We taught Max that when we say our prayers, sometimes, we can just tell Heavenly Father everything that we are grateful for and not ask for any blessings. We went through lots and lots of blessings, from toys, indoor plumbing, family, gospel, airplanes, swimming pools, good health, etc.

Tonight after work, Max and I went to Michaels to get a couple of things for our wards trunk or treat party tomorrow night. While there, somehow Max convinced me to get him a new light sabor for halloween. Tonight while saying his prayers, Max told Heavenly Father, thank you for the "best light sabor in his entire life!" I had to hold back a little chuckle but, at least he is getting the concept for thankfulness and gratitude.

Here are some of our "fall thankful" leaves.

Oh So Long ... Again!

My blogging days may be coming to an end. I seem to run out of energy or time pretty early these days ... then I feel guilty! Ughh.

Our life has taken us back to Alexandria, Virginia and I started work full time at the end of September. I left Wyoming back on Labor Day and drove across the country by myself leaving Max with mom and dad Tippets. The drive was not bad ... the start of 4 weeks of setting our life back up. I listened to books on CD and the time really went quickly. I stopped in Ohio for a day and a half to visit with Scott, Angela and the kids. I had fun helping Angela with Scentsy then later that night we all went to watch Makenah in the marching band at her high school football game.

Once I arrived in the Virginia, my priority was to find us a place to live. I wanted to come back to Kingstowne since I would be close to the metro and I still have friends in this area who could help me with Max if necessary. I found us a great little apartment and then a few days later, I found a great school for Max to go to. The school opens up at 6:30 am and closes at 6:30 pm. They feed him breakfast, snack, lunch and an afternoon snack. He is learning Spanish, making new friends and enjoying his new routine. Once I secured our new apartment, next came the moving and storage units. Thanks to three wonderful men from Winchester, we were able to load a 17' U-haul truck COMPLETELY full and get it all moved to the 3rd floor. I was grateful that none of us passed out or had a heart attack that day but, I'm SURE we all lost 10 lbs that day! Multiple trips back and forth to Winchester and finally our apartment was starting to feel like home. (Note: we still have 4 storage units!) Three walls painted, pictures hung, curtains up and food in the cupboards ... all ready for Max & G&G Tippets to fly out!

I was soo excited to have family come! They arrived at Dulles airport around 12 midnight which made for a very short night. My alarm goes off around 5:15 am and I'm on the metro by 7 am. Early and long days .... makes bedtime an early welcome!

Mark continues his work in Afghanistan and has both good & bad days. His co-workers are getting ready to turn-over once again. His first commander from a year ago is coming back by the end of the month and will be there with him until next summer. Mark is excited to have him coming back and really enjoyed working with him. In the mean while, we are still trying hard to find him a full time job here in the states. Hopefully, we can find him something soon ... even if it means coming home early.

Mom and dad Tippets went on a cruise to New England and enjoyed some wonderful fall foliage. After their cruise they came back to Virginia and we celebrated dad's 73rd birthday. We had a wonderful pumpkin pie from Costco and enjoyed it ALL weekend. They are now back in Utah and of course we are missing them.

Life is running at a fast pace. Max is 4 1/2 years old and learning SOO much. He has an incredible memory and wants to know so much information. Every night he asks me to tell him a story about Heavenly Father, Jesus & the Holy Ghost. Then recently he will ask me to tell him about when Jesus died on the cross. He is so curious and learns so well. I am so proud of him and I'm so glad he is here with me. I'm sure I could not be getting through these days without him. We miss Mark terribly and count the months until he is home again.

Toy Gun Holster Production

Yesterday we went to Afton to pick up a GPS that I could use on my trip across country next week. While we were there Max found several toy guns that he wanted. Once I convinced him that we had no room in the car for the kind of gun "that the army guys use to protect dad" we settled on the $1.49 pistol. He is on high alert on guns these days since the other day a skunk got in to one of my dads traps here in our yard and Grandpa had to shoot and kill it.... another whole stinky story! When we got home, Grandpa thought long and hard on how he could design and make a holster for Maxs' new gun. After some thought, Grandpa cut out the pocket of some old jeans, had Grandma sew it together, add an extra belt loop, add a little cardboard to help make the gun slide in easy and wa-laaa ... you have a fantastic gun holster for a 4 1/2 year old! See detailed pictures below. My thought was, somehow, I have got to configure this all in to this years Halloween costume!

Production at the kitchen table.

Adding the right size of cardboard for a perfect fit!

Grandpa adjusting the holster with belt.


Ta-da! Finished product!

Gun & Holster in use .... of course only at snakes, spiders, ants, flowers & trees!

Such a happy boy ...

Oh the joy ...

PS - I did convince Max to leave the gun & holster on the table for bedtime last night vs. sleeping with it all! These are the moments we'll miss once we are back in Virginia!

August R&R ... Good News!

We had a quick trip back to Virginia to spend 10 days with him while he was doing his medical tests for his 9 month extension. While we were there we got to visit with many friends, go to the national zoo, go to a water park, visit our storage units, play a competitive game of Risk, visit with Justin, go swimming at our hotels, visit the Natural History Museum, eat Godiva chocolate, visit Tyson Corner mall, ride the metro, oh .... and visit the FBI building in downtown DC! In fact, during our trip to the FBI office building ... I had a job interview and was hired! What a surprising week for all of us!

My new career with the FBI will begin at the end of September and I can hardly wait! I will be SOO busy in the next four weeks as I will start my drive back out to Virginia, find us a place to live, line up pre-school, go through storage units and set up our home! Max will hang out with Grandpa & Grandma for a few weeks until I can get ready for him to come out. Mark is working his way back to base and will work for another 9 months if all goes well with his tour orders. While we are sad to say good-bye once again, we are planning to see him for Christmas or early January depending on his schedule.

We got to see ..... Lions at the National Zoo...

Dinsosaur bones ... Max inside the head

Maxs' favorite Old Testament story ... Daniel & Lions Den ... he was so excited to these guys!

Eating pizza with Justin at California Pizza Kitchen ....

Mark & Max at Chili's ... eating out for 11 days total does get a little old!

Swimming! We did lots of swimming at our hotels & at Water Mine, a park in Reston.

Lots of fun in our hotel room and lots of great cuddle time with dad!

Max & Mark enjoying lots of loves!

We Are Off ...

Tomorrow Max & I are headed to Virginia to spend the next 12 days with Mark. This is sort of an unexpected trip so we are very excited. Mark has decided to extend his tour in Afghanistan for another 9 months. Because of the extension, Mark is required to complete another series of medical tests and doctor visits. So this trip will involve visiting several different doctors but, we are still happy for the visit. This extension will take us through mid-June of next year. We have many reasons for the extension but the biggest two are financial and no job state-side. We are still hopeful that a job will come to us and we continue to apply for jobs weekly for both Mark & I. In the meanwhile, we are grateful for the job Mark does have and will continue to pray for the employment blessing here in the states and for Mark's safety. We are also hoping to see Justin while we are in Virginia. He should be returning from Canada this week so hopefully we can visit with him later this week. Until we get back on the 27th ... enjoy your weeks!