Recent Pictures

I thought I would just quickly share some photos of my most recent outings with Serenity and Cadence.  The first photo is from dress rehearsal  performance of the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  One was a trip to the Seneca Park Zoo.  The other was a quick trip to Niagara Falls before we dropped the girls off at the Buffalo airport to meet up with their dad and go to Vancouver, WA for the next 4 weeks.

I love this one.  Cadence hasn't figured out yet that Serenity is getting so close in order for me to take a picture.
 

Windy day at Niagara Falls.

Did I mention it was a bit windy?

Crazy Busy and Helpful Girls

Wow.  I really have neglected posting anything lately.  It isn't that nothing is going on.  It has just been crazy busy.  For the last month I have been working two part time jobs.  I am still working at the Latter Day Harvest bookstore right here in Palmyra.  I am now also working at Kohl's in Victor, New York, which is about 30 minutes away from our house.  After working out some scheduling misunderstandings and having a gracious manager at the bookstore, things are now scheduled fairly smoothly.  It, however, also means that Sunday is my only day off.  Laundry and other household duties are still being worked out, more unorganized than usual but, I'll get it all figured out soon.  The girls are being incredibly helpful and for a month minus a sick day for each girl, have made their beds everyday.  They keep their clothes picked up and on Saturdays it takes no time at all to clean their room even better.  They are doing more chores as well and it almost makes me cry thinking about what a HUGE help and weight off me and Grandma it has been.  I had been worried that I hadn't taught them well enough and they wouldn't gain an understanding of the satisfaction of hard work.  ;-) I think they will be all right.  I am grateful to them for their willingness to help out and being able to reward them with a tiny bit of allowance is very nice.


I am super stressed out and have had a couple of meltdowns and I don't know if or when things will calm down but I'm sure they will.....eventually......right?

I Love My Super Kids

We spent the day at the Strong Museum of Play on Martin Luther King Day.  We had a great time and were grateful for some much needed together time after they were gone for so long for Christmas Break.  Here are the girls looking SUPER!

Smudge

This is Smudge.  He joined our family about 2 weeks ago and he fits in quite well.  I think he might be as quirky as Smokey, my childhood cat and Boo, our cat that died last January.  I think he would also be a pea in the pod with Seth's family cat, Princess Tiger Lilly.  The girls are both in love with him and fill their free time with him lately.

And this is Smudge chasing a mouse....pointer.

Some Traditions

For decades now, someone in the Hippen family has participated in the annual Turkey Trot, Turkey Chase, Thanksgiving Day Race in Orem, Utah.  Some years it has been many of us.  Some years, only a few could be there.  Well, crazy as it sometimes seems, like remembering how cold it was in 2007, Dad and the girls and I missed being there this year.

So we went over to the high school and had our own Turkey Trot.

  The weather was unseasonably nice, but don't get me wrong, I am not complaining.

Cadence did a lap around the track and then had fun drawing pictures.

Serenity made it around twice and then went a little camera crazy.

Not being in our greatest shape ever, Dad and I just walked, but hey we did it.  I walked 2 miles, like I would have in Orem and played with the girls while Dad finished his four miles.

Woo Hoo.  It helps to do something like this to not feel as guilty about stuffing ourselves later on in the day.  I'm glad we did it even though we didn't get a fun shirt out of the deal.  Some traditions need to keep going.