snowman

Sydney and I made a snowman today! He isn't very big, mostly because Sydney doesn't have much of an attention span, and because there wasn't much snow left after it rained all night. That is also the reason it was perfect snowman making conditions. We tried to make one earlier when there was lots of snow, but it was way too powdery. I also couldn't figure out why she was sad and didn't want to stand by the snowman for the picture. It was because she wanted to wear the Mickey Mouse hat!

Vote for us!

click on this link and vote for Sydney's picture called "I refuse"

Christmas countdown

For some reason I can't get images in my posts tonight, just links to what I want you to see here on my blog... oh well. Merry Christmas anyway!

Santa's lap?

Sydney didn't do well at her first attempt at sitting on Santa's lap. We went to the festival of trees on Saturday (that's why it was Sydney's first attempt - it wasn't at a mall - I just don't frequent those) with some people in my family. She probably would have done better last year, she wasn't so clingy then. She had some cousins there to show her how to do it (yes, I will email all of the shots soon), but maybe she'll do better next year.

Early Merry Christmas

I surprised Eran this week with his early Christmas present. I traded his old Jeep in for a new one because this one has 4 doors - now Sydney can ride with Daddy too. The top picture is as he was just pulling into the driveway in my car (I lied and told him I was taking his car to get the oil changed that day). The 2nd picture is the priceless look on his face as he saw it and knew what it was. The bottom picture is self explanatory. I saw one of these 4 door Rubicons when I was in California and thought, "Wow, that's pretty!" I tentatively started looking when I came home, but the 2 dealerships I was familiar with didn't have any in stock and would not be getting more in before Christmas. Last week I found one! It may not have been the smartest financial decision present, but it sure is fun! Anyone wanting a ride, come on over!

Silly Cal

Cal did a very funny thing this morning. For some reason, he was convinced

that my Christmas tree ornament that looks like an apple, was real. The string it hangs from was broken, so I just kind of laughed when he picked it up and started chewing on it. Even when he broke a few pieces off and revealed the Styrofoam, he wanted to keep chewing it. I eventually had to take it away and hide it from him so he didn't eat the whole thing. I also love that he closed his eyes in the middle photo because the flash was blinding him. I love my crazy dogs!

Thanksgiving fun

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday. We started it off with my crazy family tradition of running in the Turkey Trot. I ran the 4 mile and Sydney ran the 100 meters for 0-2yr. olds. I shouldn't say Sydney ran it; she took 3 or 4 steps before falling down on her knees bawling, so I'd pick her up and get her to take 3 or 4 more... Sydney likes running, but she was miserably cold as you can probably see in the 3rd picture.

Then our entire Hippen family (except Heidi, Matt, and Sarah, and Rob who were horribly missed) gathered at Grandma Smith's house for some feasting! Eran and I fried a turkey for them, and it was just good times all around. The next day we went to the Thanksgiving Pointe dinosaur museum with my sister Heather's family and my brother Seth's family. Here's Sydney looking cute on one of the statues.

Very fun vaca

So I just got back from a very fun vacation to California. I went down all by myself for a roommate from BYU reunion. Even though 2 of the 6 of us backed out at the last minute we had such a great time! It was also a wonderful opportunity to use some of the lessons I've been learning in my photography class. It is a community class that explains how to use you digital SLR camera. Last week we talked about lenses, so in California I used my macro (setting) lens on the many different beautiful flowers, sea shells and weed, palm tree textures. I used my zoom lens to get those pelicans on the rock. If you want to see pictures of us girls, you'll have to visit our B2 bombers blog.

Halloween 07

We had so much fun yesterday! I had to go shopping for a costume for Sydney since her Aunt forgot to send the vampire one we had been promised. While

we were there, we decided to get one for Daddy too - even though he tries to be a bah-humbug about Halloween and costumes. "Dog the Bounty Hunter" is highly entertaining in our household, and Daddy wearing the costume was even more entertaining! Sydney was unsure at first when she saw him. She wouldn't even go to him, but she warmed up after about a half hour of trick-or-treating. She loved her monkey costume! It had monkey shoes, and she went around saying, "OOOh! Ooh!" She kept telling me there was something on my face and even honk-honked my nose (there were several reasons it didn't stay on long). One of her favorite parts of trick-or-treating was ringing the doorbell and occasionally snagging a candy before it went in her bag so she could eat it!

My pirates

Here are my pirates this Halloween! That's not Zach, it is Jack Sparrow. I wasn't home to help put his bandanna on over the wig. My puppy pirates are fun too even though they feel tortured when I put their costumes on. Did you notice, Cal even has an earring! Of course it causes him to shake his head and the earring fell of in the Petsmart parking lot. It's a miracle I found it again! We'll have more fun Halloween pictures next week:)

To our HOA

I borrowed this image from Melissa on our blog, but I felt it was appropriate for sending a message to our HOA. Last week, while our basement was being repaired, one of our neighbors called our HOA and the COPS because Eran was playing his electric guitar in the garage instead of the basement. SO I guess this image is for that neighbor, but the HOA is a pain in the butt too.

Family Pics

I am sharing this picture of our recent family pics because I know it is not one of the pictures we are considering for our Christmas cards this year. Sydney's the only one looking at the camera, oh maybe Sunny too. Thank you Seth for taking these for us again!

Tough Weekend

I have lots and lots of pictures I have taken recently, but I'm not posting any currently, I'm too tired. I just have to vent about this weekend! Why is it some days are impossible to sell training classes at work. I got at least 5 promises to come in this week and sign up, but last week when we needed the sales, nobody was paying. I only collected 1 commission for all week. I'm also feeling punished for my faith - it's really more of a trial, but my husband is mad at me for paying tithing. That made us all in a real chipper mood for our family pictures we had taken today. Of course, my feelings right now are to give up, throw in the towel, it's not worth all the heartache. Any suggestions? Not that anyone wants to comment on this depressing entry, let alone finish reading it...

Dog Training

I can't believe I haven't talked about how I have the best job in the world. I'm a mom! But I'm also a dog trainer at Petsmart. I get to meet and teach people who have common likes as me - dogs! This was a puppy class that graduated back in the Spring of '07. Then the chocolate lab named Buster is showing how he learned to "shake". Buster belonged to a girl I lifeguarded with at BYU and her husband.

Zach's b-ball

Zach is on a basketball team for Lehi High School and the Special Olympics. Here he is at his first game. It is awesome, if you ask him if they won, of course he says, "YES!" even though it's not quite true. GO ZACH and the Lehi Pioneers!

How could I not add this picture?

Sydney's Daddy took this cute picture! For some reason she found Cal to be a great chair. She is fascinated with chairs. I had to go get Zach a new computer chair this week (his old one was quite disgusting), so off to IKEA Sydney and I went. I found the perfect one for him - it was red plastic (Spiderman), but the only red one they had left was the display. A nice worker said I could have it - already assembled and everything! Sydney went crazy over it! She would no longer sit in the cart, so I pushed her through the register and out to the car in the chair. She threw a fit when I put it in Zach's room and not hers, so I had to put her Mickey Mouse chair in her room so she would go in there to take a nap! Her other fascination is shoes...we're doomed!

update

So I was finally pressured into updating this blog. Hopefully the images wont take too long to upload... here we are on our Labor Day hike up to Timpanogus cave. It was quite the trek! You see Eran and I traded off carrying Sydney. Hey I haven't seen my sunglasses since that day, maybe they are still in the diaper bag. The hike is 1.5 miles straight up the mountain (okay, maybe there were a few switchbacks). The photo at the top is when we were within yards of the cave - the exhaustion shows.

Zach's picture was disagreeing with being posted in the same post as ours so he gets his own - kind of like at home, especially with food.

Here we are

This is what everyone saw us look like last Christmas. We really need a picture of us all together. The original family Bair consists of Eran, Hanna, Sydney, Cal, and Sunny. Zach is our foster son and joined us in Oct of 2006.