Trick or Treat!

What you would have seen had our little goblins knocked on your door this Halloween!

Reese, our little Witch.

Mira, our "Tiger Tail" - that's what she called herself.

Sage, the Dark Princess of Doom.

At the last minute our dear friend brought this great dress over, so Sage immediately switched from her planned costume of a black cat to THIS. I had a hard time letting my sweet sunshine girl look so, well... dark. The make-up in the next picture really did it.

On our way to the "Trunk-or-Treat" the ward (church) Halloween party on the 29th. Sage was thrilled that no one recognized her. The twins had fun collecting treats.

Coby and I celebrated at the Burton's annual Halloween Bash Saturday night the 30th.

Sage Advice

sage
–adjective
wise, judicious, or prudent
(Dictionary.com)

I was just talking with Sage about what she wanted to do with her birthday money, i.e. how she wanted to divide it between her spending money, savings, etc. She brought in her $15 and said she wanted to put the $10 bill in the bank savings and the $5 bill in the "spending-right-now money". I asked her if she meant the $10 in the spending-right-now money. She said, "No, because if you spend money on something you really, really, really want right now, it doesn't really matter. What matters most is saving it in the bank for college or buying a car." I hope she is always so wise with her money! I could learn a thing or two from her.

Happy 7th Birthday, Sage!

My sweet Sage turned 7 today. But, I feel like we've been celebrating for a week!

When we were planning her birthday party, she told me she wanted a Paula Dean party. (If you don't know who Paula is, she's a famous chef who also has a show on Food Network, Sage's favorite channel.) I told her I didn't think any of her friends would know who Paula Dean was, but we could still have a cooking-themed party. After a short Google search, I found the perfect party plan for my little chef. 7 girls (for 7 years) received invitations on recipe cards "A Recipe for: Sage's Chef Birthday Party". (Sage has LOTS of friends, so it was REALLY tough for Sage to narrow the list, but I knew I couldn't handle any more sweet girls than that.) On Friday April 9th, they brought their aprons and came ready to create in the kitchen. The party started off with each "chef" creating their very own personal lasagna in a foil loaf pan. While the lasagnas baked, the girls made and ate Salad-on-a-Stick (fresh veggie kabobs). And of course, every second they weren't busy "cooking" they ran around, giggled, and squealed. Then the girls shared their thoughtful gifts with Sage. After that, the chefs ate their lasagnas, played a few more giggly, squealy games, took some silly pictures, and then enjoyed Sage's Apron birthday cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Saturday, we continued the celebrating with cashing in Sage's Red Robin Birthday Club free kid's meal coupon for dinner with the fam. One of Coby's office assistants, Kim, was just finishing her serving shift at Red Robin and shared a special gift with Sage, then she got sung too by the Red Robin crew, balloons, birthday sundae and all.

Then, today, on her actual birthday, Sage got to go to Grandma and Grandpa Tippetts' house after church to celebrate her birthday with her grandma and grandpa, cousins, and aunts and uncles that live in the area. A few of them had April birthdays too, so it was quite a party. I think Sage felt pretty special. As she should... she's a special girl.

I LOVE YOU, SAGE!

Tooth Fairy declares bankruptcy ...

Sage lost both her two top front teeth in a week! She looks so old now. It's so cute to hear her talk with her new mithing teeth lithp.

MoTab

Today, we were watching General Conference on TV. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing, and Sage said to Coby, "Dad, if you would just sing a little louder, you could sing in that choir." We had ourselves a good little chuckle with that one!

Lucky Ride

The Luck o' the Irish was with Sage this sunny St. Patrick's Day... Coby and I have been trying to get Sage to learn to ride a bike sans training wheels since before the babies were born. Last year, she just kept stubbornly saying, "when I turn seven..." We didn't know if she'd ever get up the guts (even though she rides her bike balancing between those pesky training wheels). Today after school she went across the street to play with her neighbor friend. I looked out the window and what did I see? Sage riding this little kiddie bike WITHOUT training wheels! WAY TO GO SAGE! Well, she showed us after all the pressure we put on her; we didn't even get to cheer her on in her first independent moments! I grabbed the camera and ran out the door to at least get the event documented. Hopefully one of these days, she'll want to try her new skill on her "big" bike that's actually almost too small for her now.

Sage - no training wheels.

Helpers

Sage, Reese and Mira helping me in the kitchen... Reese and Mira took over Sage's stool, Sage moved to my spot. I guess I got the camera. I hope the goodies turned out with all those cute helpers "helping"!

Family Prayer

I love our tradition of family prayer every night and morning. The evening prayer is particularly special, since we aren't rushing for the school bus. After jammies are on, we usually traipse upstairs and kneel in a circle in the loft. The babies usually sit on our laps, but this past week, Mira started kneeling all by herself. Of course I have to sneak peaks at the little cutie, and she knelt with her eyes closed and arms folded the entire prayer one night. I just had to capture this kodak moment, so a couple nights later, I irreverently brought the camera up to family prayer. Of course, the perfect moment had come and gone, and she was a little more wiggly this night. But, oh, don't you just want to kiss her!

Mira at family prayer.


Reese and Mira: Hugs and kisses after prayer.

Reese and Mira: Aftermath of the hugs.

If we don't hold them up, they hug so hard they topple right over.

"Strolling" to the park...

One day in the first week of February I decided to take Reese and Mira on a walk to the park despite my hesitancy at chasing two busy 1 1/2 year olds in different directions. My mom (brave woman) had tried this with them a week or so previous and said the strollers gave them a sense of direction and purpose, so they didn't really wander. Indeed it did. The girls were so tickled with the rush of walking down our sloped driveway, I couldn't keep from chuckling a bit myself.

Mira then Reese.

Sage...Are you missing something?

Sage FINALLY lost her first tooth tonight. Not without much pushing, pulling, and twisting by mom, and lots of prayers from Sage. In the past couple years, she has often prayed that she would lose a tooth. Sage is probably the only kid in her first grade class with a perfectly complete set of baby teeth. Her prayers renewed in earnest this past weekend when I realized the permanent tooth had come in behind the baby tooth that was just starting to get wiggly and I threatened the dentist. Thank goodness Sage was a good sport about letting us work on loosening her tooth despite the discomfort. Grandma Tash made Sage a special "Tooth Pillow" (just like Coby had when he was little) a couple years ago in anticipation of this milestone in Sage's life. Before Sage went to bed tonight, she slid that little baby tooth in the yellow tooth pillow pocket in hopes that the Tooth Fairy would put a dollar in the pocket sometime in the night. I hope that Tooth Fairy doesn't forget!

Dancing with his girls...

A common Sunday activity for us... We usually listen to classical or church music, and you can see what ensues. What a sweet daddy to dance with his girls... Sorry, no planes, trains, army guys, or rough and tumble here!

Merry Christmas!

The girls in their Christmas Eve PJs.

Stacy sharing gifts with Mira and Sage. (Mom in the background.)

Reese and Mira checking out what Santa brought. Cars for the twins, and a GIANT Barbie house for Sage. Reese tried sitting on the barbie chairs a few times - visions of Goldilocks breaking baby bear's chair... So funny!

Reese is often seen with the sun glasses on, but not usually not on right side up or straight!


We spent Christmas Eve enjoying the following traditions... (A song is coming to mind - name that tune!)
Tradition: Aebelskivers and all the fixin's at Tasha's with the family. Davidsons, Sorks, Mom and Dad, and Joy and Galen Davidson (Ben's parents), Zack and Katie Davidson (Ben's brother and sister-in-law). Tasha has carried on the holiday aebelskiver tradition from our growing up years for all of us - my special pan sure isn't getting seasoned sitting in the cupboard!

Tradition: Christmas Stocking Shopping at Target. History: Once Santa decided us Tippetts kids were too old for him to fill our stockings, my Dad and Mom let us join in on the fun of filling stockings for each other. The Family Night before Christmas we would all draw names, mom and dad included, Dad would pass out 20 dollar bills and we'd head to the mall to fill the stocking for the person whose name we drew. We've continued the fun (and sometimes funny) tradition in our family for the adults, except my dad doesn't foot the whole bill anymore - DARN! If you ever want to get in on the action, come spend Christmas with us! Since my parents were with us this year, my mom and I filled each other's stockings, and Coby and my dad swapped stockings (among other things! hee hee!).

Tradition: Clam Chowder in Bread Bowls here at home with my mom and dad and our dear friend and neighbor Stacy. This is a tradition from the Johns side of the family - thanks, Tash!

Tradition: Christmas Eve PJ's for the kids. Started by my mom, or maybe her mom, forever ago.

Tradition: Nativity Story told by Coby with the help of the scriptures and a beautiful book Coby's parents gave to us for one of our first Christmases. It was wonderful to reflect on the joy the Savior's birth brought in to the world and our lives individually.

Christmas morning was spent playing with toys, eating a yummy breakfast, cleaning up wrapping paper, hooking up new electronics. This year we opted out of making the trek over to Vancouver like we do on most holidays, for a less stressful day of lounging, though we did miss hanging out with the fam. We did go down the street and enjoyed a Christmas fiesta dinner with our friends the Lees and Burtons.

Shalyce, Heather, and Kelly Christmas night.

Here's a video of Coby playing our Christmas present - Wii. It's his first shot at boxing. Pretty funny, I mean fun! We both had sore right arms the whole next week!