Leaving on a Jet Plane

This morning we're off to Iowa to visit Seth's folks, witness Ruthie's recording during the tail end of Iowa Yearly Meeting Sessions, celebrate our 6th anniversary, celebrate Carol Jean's birthday, visit the new lake house, and just generally enjoy getting away for a while. Hopefully we'll get a chance to post some pictures (then maybe I'll actually take some!), but if not, know we are off having too much fun to find time for the computer. Blessings on you all.

Happy Birthday, London!

Our puppy turns one today!

To the hardest dog in the world to take pictures of:

Thanks, London, for adding quite a bit of spice to our lives! We look forward to many more years of your company.

Proud Baker

Ella and I made several yummy treats (muffins) the other day since we had copious amounts of zucchini on hand from a friendly neighbor. Ella was extremely excited about this baking adventure - I guess we haven't really baked anything lately - and she spent a good portion of the 25 minute baking time watching the muffins cook.

After we had finished and I'd taken her pictures, I looked them over and realized how much older she looks all of a sudden! My baby is definitely growing up into a big girl!

And, for all you Sargent's out there: doesn't that last picture of Ella remind you of Maddie and Peyton!?

Grasshopper Days

Eleanor is once again obsessed with grasshoppers. She finds them everywhere (and they are everywhere right now) and asks for them to be picked up so she can look at them closely and poke at them. Seth has had a few adventures with this activity (such as one jumping into his mouth!), but for the most part it is fun and harmless.

Rodeo Week (Part 1)

Rodeo Week is the Big Week of the year here in Sheridan. All of a sudden the town is full to brimming with people and animals. We have a carnival as well as 4 nights of rodeo fun. Of course, since we live right around the corner from the fairgrounds, we are also aware of the extra 2 or 3 days when stock is arriving, the carnival is being set up and qualification rounds are beginning. Eleanor was really super into it all this year. We walked over to the "ro-ro" numerous times during the week to check out the bucking horses, steer, calves and of course, to climb into the stands and watch the qualifications. Immediately, Ella fell in love with the calf and steer roping... She would tip her head to the side with one hand under her cheek and say, "See cows do dis! Get tied up!" By the time the "ro-ro" was over she no longer used the tipping of her head to discribe it, but just said, "See cows roped and get tied up, please!"

Thanks to Joel and Amanda, we had tickets to the rodeo 2 nights this year. The first night, Ella went with us and LOVED it! We stayed out with her until almost 10 and she was super content to watch everything. She of course loved the roping events, but she also got into the bucking events a bit and really liked the rodeo clown!

Lucky for us, some of our good friends were sitting in the seats just below us one row and to the right. Eleanor spotted them early and spent quite a lot of time hanging out with them (especially when they had popcorn!) and watching as well. It was nice to be able to let her roam a little bit and great that it kept her from running amuck.

Opening ceremonies: watching Joel's flag race around the arena.

Amanda and Ella

Rodeo Queen with the American Flag

Look, we match, Daddy!

Ella and Adeline, watching intently.

Unfortunately, our camera quickly ran out of batteries, but we do have a few friends with good pictures. We'll get them uploaded soon and keep telling you about our busy week.

A Big Girl Room!

When my parents were here (back at the end of June) they helped me move all of Ella's furniture into the "big bedroom" and some of our furniture into Ella's old room. This has effectively created Ella's new Big Girl Room and a tiny little cozy room for Mom and Dad. Of course, Ella will soon be sharing her room with another little kiddo, but for now, we're celebrating it as a room just for her.

Ella loves her new Big Girl Bed and gets to take naps on it, but she still sleeps in the crib at bedtime. We're not wanting her to feel pushed out of her crib when Baby comes... and I think this technique is working well. Baby may spend some time in the beginning squished into the little room with Mom and Dad anyway.

I'm very happy with the way this room turned out. I love the bright colors and decorations. I love that my living room is no longer being taken over by mounds and mounds of toys... and I love that Eleanor loves it. She gets really excited to show people her Big Girl Room when they visit our house. It will be fun to see how the room morphs when we introduce child #2 into the mix...

And the canvas paintings you see on the walls (moon and stars over the crib, bright colored flower and handprints over Ella's bed) are the ones I did with McKinley, Kiley, Avery and Eleanor. Eleanor was very excited to hang them up! Thanks again guys for helping us decorate!

30 Weeks

Things are currently going well, but I'm definitely feeling the aches, pains and discomfort of being 7 1/2 months pregnant. I keep thinking, "I'm huge! How can I get any bigger?" Part of this is a feeling that the baby is growing faster than my belly is stretching... very uncomfortable. I don't remember this so much with Eleanor. But, I did look back at old pictures of myself at this point in my previous pregnancy and realize I wasn't quite this big, but almost - and of course I'll get bigger. :)

31 Weeks with Eleanor

The other thing I find very different this time around is that I'm carrying this baby much higher. This means I have trouble finding shirts/dresses that fit and I'm totally dealing with horrible heartburn issues. I thought this was true, but it is confirmed by this little photo comparision session. :)

Helmet Head

A couple of friends of ours showed up on their motorcycles a week or so ago... and after some discussion we realized the gal didn't have a helmet. So Seth dug mine out - figuring I haven't used it in over 2 years and don't plan on using it soon - and gave it to her. Of course, Ella had to try it out first.

Wacky Hair

This is what happens when Daddy gives Ella her bath:

And they both giggle incessantly. Pretty fun!

A Trip to the Mountains

From the 3rd weekend in June:

We've lived very close to the Big Horn Mountains, their lakes, hiking trails and camping opportunities and have unfortunately taken little advantage of them... This particular day, however, we had a wonderful family trip up to Sibley Lake where we enjoyed hanging out, fishing, picnicing, canoeing and hiking. We all thoroughly enojyed being outside all day.

Ella's first boat ride

Bret fishing

The Stewarts canoeing

Ella's second boat ride As often happens, this day we have no documentation that Seth was there with us - he was the camera man - but he was and we had a great time! Hopefully we'll get out there again very soon!

Playing "Plano"

Eleanor watches the piano lessons Mommy gives fairly intently. I was under the impression that she really just played with the other kids that are generally around during lessons, but she actually pays quite a lot of attention... This translates into a desire to "play plano" a lot, especially with "music books" up on the music stand. It also means she knows there is a prize box that is "only for piano students." Of course, that means she really needs to have "plano lessons!"

The last time I sat down with her for Eleanor's "plano lesson" she informed me that we needed to practice the "Engine Song." This particular song goes like this:

"Big Red Engine racing down the track choo choo choo we'll be right back!"

On the choo choos students "squish" a low set of 3 black keys together 3 times. Well, apparently Ella has heard this song enough times to tell me I needed to play my part and sang and squished her part right along at the correct time! She's still a bit shaky on the concept of 2 and 3 black key groups, but she got the low/high thing and the placement in the song. I was impressed.

Hopefully this exposure to music will help her later in life - I hope she'll always like it.

When Daddy Watches Ella

They do very different activities than when Mommy and Ella hang out! This particular day, Ella got some driving lessons. As I recall, she later told me she took Daddy to Home Depot and Walmart to get avocados and puppy food.

Painting with Friends

From the 2nd week of June:

Just after Grandma Tippin left from her visit, Eleanor and I had 3 very fun visitors for the week. My friend Katie was out of town on work and needed childcare for her girls, so we enjoyed a full house for a while. We took trips to the parks, played in the fountain, ate ice cream, painted, took walks and were just generally girls. It was a great week (although I was exhausted by the time it ended!).

One of the super fun projects we worked on was painting some large canvases for Eleanor's new Big Girl Room. I knew we needed something fun for the older girls to do while the younger ones took their naps throughout the week and I definitely needed some bright colored decorations for the new kids room. The first afternoon, Kiley and McKinley and I spent a lot of time at the kitchen table with paper, pencils and markers doing some planning and brainstorming of ideas. The session went great! I was so impressed with their creativity and ideas.

The next morning we let the littler girls help us paint the backgrounds...

and got very messy...

Then the next day we painted the main pictures with acrylic paints during nap time. The finished products are amazing! Again, I was so impressed. I am very excited to get these hung and take more pictures of our finished products.

That day for lunch we also had cherry/strawberry smoothies... and Eleanor decided to wear quite a bit of hers.

Getting Back to the Blogging World

Hey friends and family -

We've had a wild last little while. I think for the most part it's been good, but we've also had our struggles. I hesitate to begin updating the blog when my mood presses me to simply complain about current circumstances, so I've waited (not so patiently) and I think now we're ready to catch up with y'all. A lot of our absence stems from a busy summer - visitors, playing outside instead of in, extra projects around the house, a pregnant belly and all that aligns with that - you know, the day to day stuff.

I think my other reason for not tackling this project is that it is a project. So much has happened! So much growth is occuring! I'm not exactly sure where to start or how to format this so we can look back at it fondly later...

So here is today: it is already 80 degrees and I'm looking out at my garden thinking I should head out to tackle the weeds that have overtaken everything, but I know I'll put it off until tomorrow. Eleanor hasn't risen from sleep yet, so I'm enjoying a quiet house while I have breakfast and chat with you. Seth is already hard at work at the VA where he is doing his "normal" work as well as beginning to move his office to a new location and get a whole lot of paperwork finished for HR. London is already looking like she'd really like a long walk. Baby in my tummy is happily dancing about after a lovely breakfast of homemade granola. All in all, we're good and this is just an average day in the Tippin household.

Here are just a few new posts if you'd like to look back with us:

28 Weeks
He's Official!
Cherry Lover

28 Weeks

Gestational Age: 28 weeks, 2 days
Weight Gain: 2 lbs
Blood Pressure: 114/63
Fetal Heartrate: 140 BPM
Fundal Height: 28 cm

This appointment was much needed! I was having a very rough week - having lots of contractions already, needing way more rest than usual, generally feeling strange and uncomfortable, spotting - so seeing the doctor could hardly have come sooner. Happily, however, the time I took to rest seems to be just what my body needed. Things are checking out just great, Baby sounds and feels good and I'm cleared once again to get back to my running/walking/housekeeping activinties.

This last month I finally started to feel pregnant - really pregnant. I'm happy about that, since it obviously means Baby is growing and growing appropriately, but it is also pretty uncomfortable in the Wyoming heat. I took a fun trip with Amanda last week up to Billings to get stocked up on some cute summer maternity clothes and what a difference that has made! It is really important to feel comfortable and cute when your belly is overtaking your body. :)

Baby continues to be an active critter, bumping and jumping around, just like Ella. But, Baby is quite a bit more subtle than Ella ever was - or at least more... gentle? I guess my sense right now is one of a slightly calmer spirit. It is fun to begin to get a sense of this child - it's fun to have some space to spend time getting a sense of this child.

We had our first set of hiccups the other night...

I continue to crave fruit like crazy and I'm enjoying my fresh CSA vegetables emmensely. I'm doing a great job of staying away from gluten, dairy and refined sugars. I've eaten quite a few steaks lately and let me tell you - beef never quite tastes as good as when I'm pregnant!

Baby and I decided to have a couple little dates on the road this week and started up a gentle running routine again. It is great to get out in the cool of the morning and get in some exercise just the two of us. We decided to take London for her first run yesterday, too, and she did really well. Of course, she wanted us to go faster than we were planning, but her joy was fairly infectious.

Seth and I have started seriously talking about names, but continue to be seriously stumped! We're going to need some amazing inspiration here soon or Baby might really be named Baby for a while. :)

He's Official!

We have the most wonderful news we could possibly share right now:

Seth passed his EPPP!

And, is now officially licensed as a Clinical Psychologist in the State of Wyoming!

Really - he even has the paperwork in hand to prove it!


So, no more studying, no more stressing and wondering about the dreaded test, no more evenings without Daddy. We get to party!