Joe and Corinne Bippert Family

Random Summer Funniness

2012-01-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

This is just a snapshot of how the rest of our summer played out.

The first photo is of girls night out! The five of us have so much fun and my life would be less full and fun without them. :) The day before that photo was taken my hard drive crashed! I thought I had lost everything prior to this photo including all of Jack's birth through the first 8 months of his childhood. All gone in a flash. I was devastated... I took the computer into Apple and they got the hard drive replaced and gave me back the broken one. Our good friends the Marlatts (Who also fill our life with joy and fun!) took the hard drive and saved our pictures!! I will be forever grateful. This time around we have a portable hard drive to back everything up (Phew).
Joe had a lot of business trips this summer so we ended up eating at a lot of really cool places! A couple of DDD's and this great Italian restaurant up in Colville. The dish below is from Picabu Neighborhood Bistro in Spokane. We had fun while at home too. Lots of people visiting, we projected a movie onto one of the trailers, photo's of Jack in this cute hat from H&M, and much much more!

We always have a good time when we go and visit the Stucki's over in Eastern Washington. This time around they got us into Just Dance on the wii. Here's us shaking our groove thang! The last one is the boys doing "It's raining men".

There was also a ward activity that we joined them for with a log saw that Jacob and Joseph did (Jacob's arm was still healing from a break a few months ago) and Emma tried her hand at too!

We did do a bit of camping as well. Some up near Port Angeles and in Yakima. One afternoon in downtown olympia they had a pet parade too. Some of the vehicles and pet costumes were awesome!!

Well Jack hopes you had a good summer because he definitely did. Oh and if you ever get an opportunity to lick a window pane you should try it.

The Biggest Trip Ever!

2012-01-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

THE FLORIDA TRIP!

This is the longest trip we have been on in years so bear with me, this post is going to be HUGE!

In June we went to Florida to visit my grandmother for a late celebration of her 95th Birthday! All of my sisters, brother, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles...you get the point. Everybody came down to celebrate the life of a wonderful person!

Joe, Jack and I were flying standby so we left a lot earlier than everyone else expecting to spend some quality time sleeping in an airport (The NBA Finals, which were in Florida, just happened to co-incide with our trip) but we made it there in the first shot so we got to spend some extra time with Nonnie before we met up with everyone else.

He's so happy to meet his Great Grandma for the first time. :)

Jack also got an education in basketball from his Auntie Telene!

We also got to swim in the pool for a little bit...Jack got kicked out because he was wearing a diaper in the pool. (I don't think the staff knew about swim diapers.) Getting into trouble early the little stinker!

After a couple of days at grandmas we took a train down to Hollywood, Florida where we met up with the rest of the gang!

Jack got to see the ocean for the first time and meet some of the rest of my family that hadn't met him yet.

Jack was happy to see his grandparents, aunts, and uncles from Utah as well. We hadn't seen them since March!!

Mia Famiglia

We BBQ'd, had a slideshow of grandmas life, went to the everglades and Bubba Gumps (while Jack got some grandma and grandpa time) and we did some more swimming!
Ooh and I almost forgot to mention that we went to a couple of DDD's (Diner's, Drive-in's, and Dive's in case you aren't down with the lingo!) We went to Jaxsons for ice cream, the Whale's Rib for lunch, and a great sandwich place that I can't remember the name of...but it was delicious.

We had a blast to say the least and loved spending time with everyone. Of course we had to get a 4 generations picture in before we left! Now it's off to Disneyworld!

DISNEYWORLD and UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

We said Goodbye to the Thomas clan and left with the Bippert bunch to Orlando. Joe's parent's flew in and picked us up in Hollywood and we stopped at the Ron Jon's HQ in Cocoa Beach. Man that place is huge!! The prices aren't too shabby either. The next day we went to Universal Studios for one reason...HARRY POTTER!!
In case everyone didn't know, Joe and I are huge nerds when it comes to this stuff. We were super excited to go in and pick out our wands at Olivanders, drink some butterbeer, and check out all things Potter. We had a few things going against us...

#1: It was HOT! Like 100 degrees HOT!! Jack was not liking the extremely warm temperatures and being toted around in the B.O.B. and we all were a little warm to say the least. We ended up buying this spray fan that we attached to the B.O.B. and misted Jack every once and a while. We had even picked up the sunshade for our stroller but Jack wasn't too fond of it. I was able to snag a spot inside the Hogs Head with Jack to cool off (and take a nap) for a couple of hours.
#2: Harry Potter World had only opened up in the spring so the crowds we horrendous! To get food or on a ride took a big chunk of time.

Even with all of that we still managed to have a good time.

So it's kind of ironic that Joe is fake throwing up in the picture above because that Krustyland ride was my undoing..... After a long day of hot sun and a few too many butter beers and maybe a few too many rides on "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" I was a bit tired and dehydrated to say the least and the last ride of the day was Krustyland. The ride was a lot like the harry potter one where you are in front of this giant IMAX size screen and your cart moves all over the place. My stomach was NOT happy. I pretty much had to close my eyes the entire ride to make it through and even then a little butter beer came up the wrong direction... I think it's kind of ironic that I lost my cookies on a Krusty ride.. it seems pretty typical for him. haha

Disney World went much smoother than Universal Studios. It was still blazing HOT but at least there is a water park there to cool off in.

The wicked step mother and step sisters were great. The sisters were playing with Jack and saying how cute he was. On the way out from taking the picture I could hear the mother saying "Now girls if you could just find a husband you could have one of those too." Always in character!

We thought about picking up some things from Bwana Bob's but that guy looked pretty shady... I didn't realize it then but Jack was definitely going through a growth spurt. Look at those cheeks! The little guy was super excited to meet Winnie the Pooh. If we hadn't got there around nap time I'm sure he would have liked to see Pooh Bear. His grandma got him a pooh bear that he carried around most of the trip.

We got to see all sorts of fun shows while we were there. Country Bears, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones, and one of the coolest ones was Finding Nemo. They had people on wires and had the fish around their bodies. Oh and of course lots of bubbles at the end. I made this Star Wars onesie for Jack before we went to Disney World and because of it almost got Jack a pass to get on Star Tours with no wait when he's big enough...but they ran out.

The first day at Epcot we were in a good spot in line and when everyone went inside they went to the rides first and not the characters so we ran to the characters and were the first in! So we got pictures with the whole mickey mouse gang!

After the light parade they had a show called wishes where they used projectors on the castle to change it around. It was really cool looking!

The Highlights: I got super into pin trading and Joe's favorite part was going to all the characters with Jack because it was the happiest he had been all trip. Jack liked "It's a Small World" so much he cut his first tooth while on the ride! I think Papa B.'s favorite part was Animal Kingdom and getting to go on his own personal safari! Mama B.'s was the water parks and floating around on the tubes with Jack!

All in all it was a completely magical vacation and we weren't ready for it to be over but you have to go back sometime I guess. I remember getting home and we had been gone so long that I didn't even recognize our room! Ever had that happen? Well the next big event is Jack's Birthday and there are a lot of cute pictures in there so I'm going to wrap this one up! :)

April = Birthday's, Weddings, Easter and Cute Kids!!

2011-10-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

April is always kind of a crazy month for us. We have Joe's birthday, My birthday, Easter, Conference and a smattering of other things to do. This year there was another birthday to add to the mix and a wedding as well! Phew...lots going on to say the least.

This year was Jack's first Easter and he got to hunt around to find out where that tricky bunny hid his basket.

It took him a while but with some help he found his basket and his fluffy bunny. We of course "helped" him eat any chocolate that was in his basket.

Later that day we had lots of family and friends over for Easter dinner and the traditional bunny cake.

The wedding we went to was for our good friends Heather and Isaiah who were getting sealed in the temple. They chose the date because it was their 5th wedding anniversary. It was so special to watch especially with Kaylee in her little white dress. Aren't they a beautiful family!!

The birthday we added to the mix was our friends Amy and Sam's son Parker. His birthday was robot themed and looked pretty awesome. Jack and I were so glad we could be there for Parker's First Birthday!

Well that was pretty much April for us. Next adventure is Florida... :)

J-man and Chelsey's Wedding (March 12th 2011)

2011-08-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

Yay, I'm finally not the only one of my siblings that is married anymore... no pressure on single siblings. We were all very exited for Jordan and Chelsey's wedding so much that Jack and I came down a week early to see everyone.

So let's talk about Jack's first plane ride. Joe couldn't come down early with us so it was just going to be Jack and I flying alone on the plane. Luckily security allowed Joe to walk us to the gate before our flight took off. It was a lot harder to go smoothly through security with all of the extra things you need for a child but we made it on the plane just fine.

Once we were on the plane Jack was next to the window then me of course and this nice gentleman was sitting next to me. (I'll tell you why he was nice in a minute) Jack didn't cry at all during take off and was angelic in the air. I figured I had better change him about halfway through the flight, so I went to the front of the plane where the bathroom/ changing table was and pulled at his pants and got feces on my hand... so I had to walk all the way back to my seat reach over my neighbor grab a change of clothes and garbage sack and walk all the way back up to change Jack. To say the least it was MESSY!!
After we landed the guy sitting next on me helped me with my bag (which he could have stolen and I couldn't have kept up) and I was in UTAH!

We had so much fun we saw my cousin Kirsten and her husband Britton and their two cute daughters who just loved Jack, we ate at one of my favorite restaurants with Nicole and saw Audrey and David and their two lovely girls.

Jordan had bought Joe a shirt and tie that went with the wedding colors and a little tie for jackson but we couldn't find a brown shirt to go with it. So Joe and his mom ended up dying a white one and I think it turned out pretty good huh!

After a long trip and a really easy plane ride home (I think it was because Joe was on that flight) Jackson was plum tuckered out. Sweet boy.

We can't wait to see everyone again in June for the reunion!!

The day to finish getting ready

2010-11-11T20:00:00.000-08:00

Let me just start by saying that babies, like teenagers, do what they want, when they want, no matter what your plans are or how inconvenient and irrational their agenda is. The day before our OB/GYN was leaving on vacation for a week we had an appointment to see how far along Jackson was. In her words he was "coming, but very slowly." This was no big deal since he was still not due for another week and of course, being our first, was more than likely going to be late. So we set up an appointment for the day our doctor got back to induce labor.

That brings us to Saturday. This was the day we were going to get ready for Jack's arrival. Among the things on our to-do list was: Go to the auto dealer where we were going to have the car seat professionally installed, finish packing the go bag, buy the last few things we needed off our registry, clean the car out, fill it up with gas (because the light had just gone on), and Joe was wanting to try his hand at maternity photography. He bought a whole bunch of stuff for the photo shoot and even took a few initial photos a few days before just to see if he could get the right lighting (which he didn't). It was going to be an eventful day, but after that, we would be ready for parenthood.

But that was not Jack's plan...At 7 in the morning, my water broke. I woke Joe up and we sprung into action. After a quick pack of the go bag and prayer that we wouldn't run out of gas, we were at the hospital. Things seemed to calm down at that point, Joe's parents filled up on gas and got the car seat installed. Before contractions got too out of hand, I had an epidural and was feeling good. It turns out, however, that Jack only wanted to feel what contractions were like, he didn't want to come out into the world so he made me push for two and a half hours! But he learned a valuable lesson that day, that we can't all have the things we want, and even though he didn't want to come out we were able to get Jackson Fredrick into the world on October 9th at 5:20 in the evening. Joe's mom thought it would've been cool to have him wait until 10/10/10 to be born, but took back that statement after she realized how cruel that would be to his mother. He is the smallest (thank goodness) of Joe's family weighing in at 7 pounds 15 ounces and has a fantastic mullet. It has been a month now and we are so glad to have him here and are having so much fun being parents. Here are some picture we have of the little cutie.

Summertime!

2010-09-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

Ok I'm super behind on blogging!! Here is an overview of what we've been up to the past few months!

LAKE FAIR

We go down to Lake Fair every year. This year was a little different!
#1: I was pregnant so all of the elephant ears, fries, and deep fried ice cream was calling my name and of course I had to sample it all...
#2: We had family in town with us. Which is always fun! :)

These are some of our friends that joined us at the fair . Sam, Amy, and their little bundle of joy Parker also Heather and cute little Kaylee (Isaiah had to work, sad) Joe and I will be joining the stroller club soon enough!!

Jason and Tabitha along with their daughter Jessica and cousins Jacob and Noah came along too! The kids went on this ride called the Kamikaze (I think that was the name of it) and had a blast!

Tabitha was talking about another belly that was growing and it wasn't mine.. Haha

SAN FRANCISCO AND UTAH BABY SHOWER

As an early anniversary present Joe and I took a trip to San Francisco for one reason only:

Wicked was AMAZING!!! Before the show we went behind the scenes to see some of the costumes and props from the show.

This is the green silicone baby they used in the play. It was heavy enough to be a baby! Too cute!

Joe found this really great hotel just outside of san fran. It was called The Inn at Oyster Point. If you are ever down in that neck of the woods it's a great place to stay.
This was the view from our window and they brought you breakfast every morning!!

After Wicked we drove up to Utah to visit family and friends. My mom and sister also threw me a baby shower!

A lot of people who came brought their children which was really fun because of the games we were playing! There was a "Feed the baby" game where you were blindfolded and had to put applesauce in a cardboard cut out.

And a play-doh game which I got to judge!

And the winner is:

The J F on the baby is for Jackson Frederick. ( Which is the name we decided on by the way!)

I'm so blessed to have such loving family and friends. It was so good to see so many of them while we were down and we miss them so much!!

Well you are sort of caught up with what's going on in the Bippert House. I only have 3 more weeks until my due date so more posts to come very soon!!

It's a BOY!!

2010-06-09T12:19:00.001-07:00

After all the waiting and anticipating we finally know what were having!! In honor of us having a boy I have lovingly changed our background blue!
While we were getting the ultrasound the doctor measured his weight and found out he's already in the 97% for weight! (He needed to be at least 10%)
Babies at 20 weeks are around 10.5oz and he was a whopping 14oz! Maybe it's just a growth spurt or he definitely a Bippert! (Most Bipperts are around 9 pnds. when delivered!) So pass the cocoa butter and color me blue!

Here's a good picture of our boy!

Here is an arm.

and here is a foot. The way the toe is coming out like that I guess is a hereditary thing and yes, I'm the one with the freak toe...

Now we've just got to pick a name... It's either Jackson Fredrick Bippert or Gavin Bippert. So if you see my husband he'll try and recruit you onto the Jackson bandwagon, he really likes that name. :)

I'm definitely starting to show. People are asking me if I'm pregnant now and he loves to kick my right side. Silly boy! Only 4 more months to go!!

May visit to Utah!

2010-06-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

Every year around this time we take our annual trip to Utah to visit family and friends. We choose May because the blue mountains are usually clear and we can soak up some sun while in Utah for a couple of days.
This year we brought our trailer down with us 1: Because we were going camping in Bryce and Zion's National parks 2: When you have a 13 hour drive from Washington to Utah and you leave late at night, sleeping in the car is NO FUN! With me being 17 weeks along, finding comfortable sleeping positions is hard enough as it is! We were really glad we brought the trailer to say the least.

First stop was to Mom and Dad's home for Mother's Day! We went to church that afternoon and mom hadn't told anyone because she wanted me to when we came down. It was nice seeing everyone from my original home ward again. It was also great having everyone home for dinner that night as well. Jordan's girlfriend Chelsey and Rachel's boyfriend Quaid came over too!

Next we were off to Bryce Canyon and Zion's National park. It wasn't as long of a drive as I thought it would be. (Joe drove the whole time though so what am I complaining about...) It's interesting that when you're heading down there is a distinct line where it changes from brown dirt to red rock. I had forgotten how blatant that line was!

We get there and get settled in and that night it decides to drop below freezing!! We can comfortably fit 2-3 in the trailer, but we had 5. Dad would have stayed in there too if there would have been room but he was the gentleman and slept out in the tent in the cold. In the morning we trek into Bryce and what would you know....it starts SNOWING!! Man, we left Washington to get away from the colder weather!! Joe had never been there so it was a neat experience to do as a family.

All in all the first day at the park was great! There were beautiful walking trails and grand vistas to be explored. We saw deer and prairie dogs and had alot of fun in the visitor's center too...

Joe is training to become a Junior Ranger in his spare time... or maybe a Jr. Chipmunk. Swqueakity, squeak..uuh squeaken.

The last stop of the trip was to Zion's National Park. It was much warmer there compared to Bryce. It was so warm all of the caterpillars had hatched and were crawling all over the visitor's center. To get to other places in the park you have to take a shuttle up so we went about halfway and hiked up to the Emerald Pools. It was a really nice hike and nice area.

Someone even found a Mickey Mouse shaped cactus!

On the way home we noticed a cop car stationed in the exact same spot as when we'd drove by that morning. We decided to take a closer look and noticed something was amiss.... I know sleeping on duty can't be good but to fake it entirely!! Man!

This was a fun sign Joe wanted to take a picture of before we left for home.

Last but most certainly not least we had to go see our friends while we were here! We went out and saw Iron Man 2 with them. It was a pretty awesome movie! I just wish we would have had more time to spend with everyone. Of course being preggars and all we had to eat at all of our favorite spots and had a grand last couple of days! Tepenyaki, Cafe Rio and In-and-out...nothing wrong with that!

I think this is a really sweet pic. Audrey is having fun with Katelyn and David is just looking over lovingly... Aww!

Just stuffing our face at Cafe Rio...

We miss everyone already and well be back in June or July for a baby shower!! So I'll just have to keep up with everyone's blogs until then so I can get my Utah fix!!

April is CRAZY!!! (Warning this is a long post!!)

2010-04-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

Every year in April the Bipperts have a million things going on, no matter what year it is! This year we have something going on every weekend!! So here we go!

April 3rd: Michael Buble for Joe's B-day!

For Christmas this year I thought it would be fun to plan really far in advance and get my husband concert tickets around his birthday. Michael Buble just happened to be in town on his b-day so I had to snag those tickets!! I always forget that his birthday is so close to conference that I probably shouldn't plan anything until the weekend before or after his birthday...well too late, already had the tix!

I was able to acquire floor seats but they were 4 seats apart from each other. We got there and the seats were great!! They were in the very front of this walkway so Joe had tons of room for his feet (which he loves!) and the people that we were sitting next to didn't mind if I sat next to him and they were over one spot! Super nice!!

This is about how close we were from our floor seats. He was doing Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" right here. He is a really funny guy by the way! He was cracking jokes about Tiger Woods, being engaged and all sorts of stuff!

About half way though the concert they rolled out this mini stage RIGHT DOWN OUR ISLE!! He came out and sang "Home" with one of his band members playing acoustic guitar. It was awesome!! Joe gave him a pat on the back as he was going down the stage past our seats... hehe

The rest of the concert was great we were able to dance in the isle because of all the room and inspired the people sitting next to us to dance as well. I hope my dear husband had a wonderful time for his birthday and I am so grateful to have him in my life.

April 10th: Vancouver, B.C. Temple Open House!

We had been planning with our friends Rich and Allisha for weeks about heading up to Vancouver for the open house of the temple. We had gone to the DMV to get enhanced driver's licenses because we both didn't have passports. The people there told us it would take about 2 weeks...so it was cutting it close! We waited day after day and they never arrived.... until the day we had to leave!! So we hurried up, packed our bags, and left to Vancouver!

I don't have alot of pictures of the first half of the trip because we forgot to charge our camera...

Of course all of the temples are beautiful and this one was no exception! The chandeliers in the main lobby were dark around the edges and all over the temple there were accents of the dogwood flower. On the door handles, engraved into the carpet, even some of the chandeliers looked like bunches of dogwood. The one in the bridal room was the most impressive!

Later that day we ventured down to Stanley Park. They have these larger than life statues just outside of the park that are modeled after the artist. Inside the park there was people dancing, painting, bike riding, and this great play area we had to go visit.

It's hard to miss this guy in the park...Spandy Andy. All he needs is a boombox and a crowd!

The last day we were there we tried to find the Olympic Torch...I mean Cauldron. We ended up in the slums of Vancouver where people wear garbage bags and viking hats (true story). Needless to say we were a little lost so Rich stopped to ask for directions. He decided to ask the man in the slums wearing the 3 piece suit and his business associate that were grabbing a briefcase out of the back of an suv. Needless to say he wasn't much help but we ended up finding it anyways...and didn't get capped in the slums.

The cauldron ended up being kind of a bust... there was this big blue dumpster right near it and it was all fenced off and torn up. They were remodeling it for Canada Day or something like that. The finished product looked like it was going to be pretty though!

Last stop on our trip was the Tulip Festival back in the good ol' U.S. of A. I had never been there but I'm a huge flower nut so it was a lot of fun!

Skyler met a girl while we were there. It was so cute!!

April 24th: Corinne's B-Day in the Olympic Peninsula

For my birthday this year we decided to go to the Forks, Kalalock, and La Push area to discover the beautiful outdoors. The first night we were at Kalalock which is a beautiful rv site near the ocean but it didn't have any hookups. We walked on the beach and found this awesome tree that was hanging on for dear life between these two hills. there was a small waterfall underneath it that had eroded the land that was once there.

We relocated our trailer to a site just outside of Forks that had hookups. It was still a nice site just not near the ocean.
Our next outdoor adventure took us to Rialto Beach which is just before La Push. We had read about it in a book that said there were cool tide pools around here. It was about a 3 mile walk out to where they were and it dumped rain the entire time!! By the time we got back to the truck it looked like we had gone swimming in the ocean in our clothes! We quickly headed back to the trailer and spent the rest of the evening drying off, drinking cocoa and watching "Friends" episodes. (Thanks to Rich and Allisha again for letting us borrow those!)

So that sums up most of April! Baby wise I'm doing great! The second trimester is wonderful because I"m not as tired and my hips don't bug me anymore! YEAY! May is going to bring some fun adventures too. We are going to Utah to visit my family and also go down to Zion and Bryce canyon.

Oh and we also find out what were having in May!! We wish we knew now but I guess we'll have to keep being patient...

And sea monkey makes three!!

2010-03-31T21:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, the cats out of the bag! I'm Pregnant! I was going to wait to post this until after we went to Utah but that's like a month away!! So baby bippert is doing great, I haven't thrown up yet, and my hips are killing me! Now you're caught up... So here are the ultrasound pictures with more to come!

This was our 7 week visit. Just a pea in a pod.

This is 9 weeks.

And this was today! I'm almost 12 weeks now. Look baby is already smiling!! Can you see it!

Joe and I both are super excited for all the fun that is to come. I can't wait until I can feel kicking.. which won't be for a while.

Here's the floating baby in space that is the size of our child!

Bubbles and Birthdays and Beaches, Oh My!

2010-02-21T18:05:00.000-08:00

So I know I've been a total slacker so here is what's been going on with the Bipperts the past couple months:

CAMA BEACH:

Patti's birthday was in January and to celebrate we went to Cama Beach. When we arrived we had to use these little hand carts to carry our things to the beach. The boys were very helpful!

In the morning we went out to the shore and there are thousands of shells! All of the white you see on the ground is broken shells underneath the chairs.

There was also a boat exhibit, horseshoes and a really cool dam where bald eagles hung out because they released fish from there.

That was about as close as we got...

Buddy's Birthday:

Our good friends invited us to their son Skyler's 1st birthday party. Joe and I went to get him a present and the first thing we saw when we walked in the store was bubbles!! This bad boy pumps out 4,000 bubbles per minute so we had to give it a test run!

Skyler looks like he's wearing one of those eye pieces they would in older times. Cherrio old chap!

I think Rich got a little "sick" of the bubbles. No pun intended.

My husband, being the big kid he is, had to play with the toys as well!

Ocean Shores:

A couple of weeks ago we went with some friends and the missionaries to Ocean Shores because one of the missionaries had never been to an ocean. Luckily it was a gorgeous day (but cold) and it didn't rain at all! We tried our hand at kite flying, moped driving and the local fare. (He also had never tried clam chowder!)

Somebody dared Elder Wheat to run out to the second to last pole, touch it, and run back. He made it out and got smacked by a six foot wave! He was soaked pretty much the rest of the trip. Hehehe

That's what we've been up to! Were still working on a time frame to come out to Utah and what our big vacation is going to be this year... We'll see!!

This Is Halloween 2009

2009-11-08T22:15:00.000-08:00

This year for Halloween we went up to Jon and Julie's house in Federal way. After having some of Julie's famous taco soup we went outside to do some Trick or Treating with the kids! It was a little cold but we had a blast!

Joe went as a nerd and I went as Little Red Riding Hood. (I made him fix his shirt before we went outside w/ the kids)

Jessica was a cat, Evan was a dog, and mom was a Mexican man... Her full costume is seen below.

Julie went as a witch. Here is a picture of the witch and her black cat. So cute!

Bringing the cart for Matt and Evan turned out to be a really great idea. Matt was a race car driver so it made sense.

What would the night have been without giving the nerd a wedgie!!

New finds on the farm...

2009-10-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

So a few days ago I came home from work and noticed something new in the bushes near the Japanese maple tree. I went inside and asked if anyone had put decorations in the bushes. When the answer was no I went back outside and took a closer look and this is what I found.

Joe told me he has never seen anything like this out here. It must just be the perfect conditions for mushrooms to sprout up all over the farm!

These are real by the way! I looked some of these up and the ones I found names for had a large skull and cross bones symbol next to them. Not that I really trust anything that comes out of the ground that I haven't planted there...

Playing in the Pumpkin Patch!

2009-10-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago a whole bunch of us Bipperts went out to pick pumpkins for decorating and carving this holiday season. I have never seen a pumpkin patch this big! They had acres and acres of pumpkins (It also doubled as a Christmas tree farm) and we all found some good ones to take home.

Evan found his pretty fast and had a grand ol' time playing in the dirt. So cute!

This guy doesn't look too happy for the next holiday around the corner!

"Gonna party like it's your birthday."

2009-05-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

My husband truly spoils me. For my birthday he took me up to Seattle and we did it tourists style (that's what she said..) and we went to all the hot spots that we normally don't visit while in Seattle!

I always wanted to go to the Experience Music Project (E.M.P.) so that was our first stop.

After that is was over to the Pacific Science Center! They have this wonderful exibit with an entire room filled with butterfiles. I would highly recommend it if you're up in the area.

Lookout Joe!!

It was a beautiful day and I had alot of fun. I'm so thankful for my dear husband who is so sweet and thoughtful. I'm so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man.

Dutchess' Day of Pampering.

2009-05-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to give dutchess our cat a day of luxury and relaxation....We brushed her and gave her a bath. It was hilarious as you will see below.

Here's her initial struggle...we got her in though.

She's thinking at this point "I hate you guys"

All clean!

So close... yet so far, far away.

2009-01-28T23:04:00.000-08:00

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away... There stood one person who had not seen Star Wars. This is her story.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

"Do your owls have large talons?"

2009-01-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

So in October Joe and I saw an owl fly by our car and ever since then he has been trying to get a picture of it. Today was that day.
It started out a couple of days ago when Joe saw a baby owl and today he decided to follow where it went and ran into the owl we saw originally. Hopefully someday we will be able to get a picture of them together!

This type of bird is a Barred Owl.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barred_Owl

Welcome to Washingon!

2009-01-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

As Joseph and I were moving to Washington from Utah just as we got into Washington state it started raining like crazy and I was driving next to a semi who was also kicking up buckets of water at my window. Joseph calls me and says "Welcome to Washington." It hasn't rained like that since we have been here until today.

Today was another crazy week for weather. This time it flooded! Last year around this time there was flooding south of our home and this year it was state wide. They closed down I-5 near Centrailia and all of the passes to get anywhere so everyone was stuck in the middle of the state.

These are some of the pictures of the creek flooding over the driveway.

Over on the left is usually dipped into a U shape and the creek is little and flowing through...

This is the little creek that is almost a river!

I was able to get my car through that by the way...

Snow? Who said anything about snow?

2009-01-07T22:57:00.000-08:00

So according to most people that live in Washington it doesn't snow in December. Normally it snows six or seven times in January but never in December. Well of course this being my first year here I don't expect anything to be normal.

Right around Christmas it snowed and snowed and snowed for about two weeks straight and unlike Utah there is no plow system at all!! We were stuck at home a couple of times because it was too dangerous to drive. Crazy Stuff.

Halloween 2008: The Dirty Old Man and the Pink Lady

2008-12-24T22:29:00.000-08:00

Halloween this year wasn't as eventful as in years past. I had to work so it left Joe to fend for himself against the ghouls and goblins of the night... and the bats as well (Evan dressed up as a bat this year.)

Dirty old man!!

I kind of look like the gold digger here...

Media Holiday Kickoff 2008

2008-11-06T09:41:00.000-08:00

Once a year Best Buy so graciously sends all of it's media supervisors to one location to do training and gather insight from movie, game and mp3 developers for the holidays. This year it was in Dallas, Texas. One week of vendor shows, game demos, movie previews and a look ahead at some exclusive stuff. I was fortunate enough to know some of the other media sups. down there and we all had a blast!

Melissa wanted to try out the new Gears of War 2 game so bad she was going to bum check a guy just to play!

This is one of the real S.O.C.O.M. ops that helped develop the game. He even showed me how to properly hold the gun!

I sang a couple of times in this gaming lounge. The new Guitar Hero: World Tour game is great!

This video is really funny! The guy behind me is another media supervisor who really likes this game...so much he is playing it behind me!

Favorite Shots

2008-10-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

These our the best shots we took while on our Forks/ National Forest Trip!

This one was taken by Joesph at Cape Flattery.

This one was taken by Corinne at a beach where you can see Canada from the other side.

Forks....

2008-08-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

This year is our 4th wedding anniversary and my husband (being the romantic he is) planned a secret trip for us. I had no idea where we were going...I thought maybe were going to Mt. Renier or maybe to Canada...maybe were going to Utah?? I had no clue. As we were driving there he had me read a book or look at the ipod when road signs would come around. When we got to Port Angeles I still hadn't figured it out. He had me duck near a crucial sign and when I looked up we were at a light and there was a very small sign that said "Forks West" I said "Oh look honey, Forks" (I'm so oblivious sometimes) He gave me this guilty look and right then I knew where we were going.

The actual "Twilight Tour" takes maybe one day but the surrounding National Forest is a must see when heading up that way.

This is Forks High School. It's kind of small compared to schools in Utah. There is this cute little flower and gift shop across from the high school and there is a map you can pick up in there that has all the sites from the book.

Here is the place where we stayed. It was right next to the high school. In fact we could see the high school from our room.

This was actually our first stop Bella Italia restaurant. It's where Bella and Edward had their first date. Where we sat was in a booth kind of off on the side of the restaurant...We like to think that was the place Stephenie Meyer was talking about.

Seattle Aquarium and Evan's B-day!

2008-08-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't been to the Seattle Aquarium since I was a child. (I remembered it a little) We all went for Evan's birthday and had a good ol' time!

We discovered at the aquarium that Joe loves otters! He wants to buy one and put it in grandma's pool! I don't know about that though...

The Annual Bat Shoot

2008-07-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

Once a year we come out to kill things that go bump in the night...or the house. We've been getting bats in the house and the cats keep stunning them and we have to finish them off. So we decided to go to the source.

This was one of the 5 bats the boys shot out of the sky.

Wii like to party!!

2008-07-13T18:46:00.001-07:00

Our family finally broke down and picked up a Wii everyone has been having a blast playing it!

Graduation 2008

2008-05-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

It finally came! Joseph has been in school for....well quite a while now and he had his graduation on April 24th and 25th. I am so proud of him and all he has accomplished. After graduation Joseph got a job with the state of Washington working as the marketer for all of the food banks in the state!

"Our House, in the Middle of the Street"

2008-05-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of our very first home. We love it but it has also been very hectic fixing it up over the one and a half years we lived there. We could see our family growing into this house but circumstances have relocated us to Washington. We will miss our first home and all of our friends we left behind.

Main bedroom

Guest bedroom

Kitchen

Family room (Star Wars!!!)

Dinah and Dutchess

2008-01-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

These are our kittys. Dutchess on the left...that picture really tells you everything you need to know about her personality. Dinah is on the right. She is a little more calm compared to Dutchess. They tend to get along most of the time...

Grand Cayman

2008-01-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

This was our favorite part of the cruise. The stingrays were really fun to watch and to play with. They are not as dangerous as people might think.

Summer Vacation 07'

2008-01-06T17:03:00.001-08:00

We went on vacation in May with: Audrey and David also James and Sandra. We traveled to the Grand Cayman, Freeport Bahamas, and Costa Maya Mexico!

The Wedding 8/10/04

2008-01-06T16:46:00.001-08:00

This is one of my favorite wedding photos. We were married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

Engagement

2008-01-06T16:41:00.001-08:00

This picture was taken at Thanksgiving Point. It also happens to be the same place that Joe proposed. It was inside the Secret Garden.

It all started with a dance

2008-01-06T14:36:00.001-08:00

Joe and I dated for about a year and a half before we got married. We still try and dance as much as we can.