She's 9

We can't believe it, she's 9. So much is a blur.  So much is engraved in our minds.  Time really does go by fast when you're a parent.   Happy Birthday to our daughter. 

Happy Easter

 

We hope you had a blessed Easter.

I haven't posted a family picture in a while, so here's one of us yesterday after church.

Troy and I are still the same (maybe a little plumper) but our daughter sure is growing up, you can see she is past my shoulder now...

Thanks for letting me share.   

Mardi Gras

We went to Mardi Gras in Shreveport, Louisiana this weekend and had a terrific time.  One of my dear friends lives in the historical district of the city and the parade passes right in front of her house.  We literally drove there and back and were home in 24 hours.  I had not been in more than ten years and hubby and daughter were newbies!  It was especially fun for them.

I tried to explain, the "people are different", "people on floats throw beads at you", "lots of Cajun food" but nothing could have prepared them for....

Parade Vendors.. Look at all this cheesy Mardi Gras stuff.  These carts were going up and down the street. 

Parade Tailgators.  I have many pictures of people like this but this one is my favorite.  Notice the beard matches the gold, purple and green stripes in his hair. 

Here is one of the floats, there were around 50!  It was after dark and very hard to photograph, these pictures do not do the floats justice 

Daughter and Hubby had a great time.  Micaela weighed an extra 10 lbs with all those beads around her neck, poor T had her on his shoulders for quite a while. 

Here we all are after the parade was over and we were checking out our loot indoors.  Look at all those beads.  PLUS, We had an additional 3 bags of stuff...  Micaela of course wanted to keep every single bit of it, who knows what we'll do with it when the newness wears off. 

Hope you had a great weekend. 

Looks like Autumn

Our region of Texas is in a severe drought.  All the recent rain has our grass green again. We haven't watered since mid August.   Looking forward to more color in the coming weeks.

First day of school (last week)

Our daughter started 3rd grade last Monday.  We are not sure how long she will let us walk her to school but last week she had no issues holding Daddy's hand.   We took pictures in front of the school and in the classroom but this one was by far my favorite. 

Last full day in Kauai

We spent the majority of the day at the beach today.  We leave late tomorrow. 

That's my feet and Troy & Micaela in the water.  It has been a great week. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Greetings from Kauai

We've been in Kauai since Sunday...

We're here with 30+ other family members for a reunion celebrating anniversaries, birthdays and graduations.  We are having a great time.  It's technically still the 3rd of July here but already the 4th in Texas.  Hope you are having a great day!  

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my hubby.  Here he is the day he became a Dad and today. 

Time flies.  Can't believe it's been 8 years!  We love you!

Twenty Years ago...

Twenty years ago TODAY was a happy day for me and my family...

I was the first college graduate in the family.... This was a big moment for my Dad who although born in the US did not have the opportunity to attend college and instead enlisted in the Army, served our country and went back home to be a successful entrepenuer.  Unlike most parents, he was always thrilled to pay my tuition and expenses while in college.  So happy my younger brother, nephews and nieces have followed suit at other universities around the country.   Twenty years has flown by!

8 is Great

We had a terrific weekend.  Our little princess turned 8 yesterday.  Here she is one day old in 2005.

 And, here she is today!  We love you Micaela!

MLK weekend blur

So MLK weekend just passed and I had a wonderful three days off.  We got a few projects done around the house and I got some sewing done. 

We took Micaela to Ikea and she purchased a pink desk chair with her Christmas money.  She was so excited.  (No, we did not plan to match her outfit to the chair, somehow it just worked out that way!)

The dresden blog hop is next week and I made a practice dresden. I love how this looks, just need to figure out something clever to make with it.

Most of the stuff I am sewing these days is for the swaps I am participating in so I won't show the items until the gals receive them.  In the meantime, here is a sneak peak. 

Patchwork something

Bright color something

 

Hope your weekend was great!

Merry Christmas!

We wish you love, peace and joy

today and everyday!

From The Fipps Family

We just returned from four days in my hometown of Mission.  We traveled there so I could attend my 25 year High School Class Reunion. I graduated from Mission High School in 1988... gulp!  Of course it's hard to believe it's been 25 years!

We had a 500+ mile drive each way and our daughter had to miss two days of school but it was so worth it.  The reunion festivities were spread out amongst three days.  On Thursday we got to tour the school campus and see all the changes and additions that have been made since we left. 

The campus is giant now and even includes a collegiate campus which allows students to get their associates degree while still in high school. 

After the tour we were hosted at a small reception with alumni from other classes. We felt pretty young next to the classes from 1962, 1973, 1983, but a little old next to the class from 1993.




After the reception we attended the Pep Rally.  That was great fun and I was so excited to hear the Mighty Mission Eagle Band play the Fight Song-- weird little things make me happy!








That evening we attended the football game and got to walk across the field-- walking across the field was fun and corny.

Here we are at the football game.  You can see everyone shows thier Mission Eagle pride by wearing marroon and white.  Notice the guy in the red STL hat?  That's Troy showing his hometown pride, LOL.

The next day was our big party.  We had a social hour, sit down dinner, presentations, live band and a photo booth.  It was terrific. 

 

All the walls at the venue were decorated with poster size copies of our yearbooks, it was great!

 

Here's a picture of Troy and I.   We really had a good time.

 

About 20% of the people there I had known since kindergarten, the rest from junior high and of course high school.

Here's a picture of my kindergarten crowd.  This is one successful bunch, we've got people in every field, pharmaceutical sales,  nurses, lawyers, entrepreneurs, pilot, restaurateur, law enforcement, oil business, etc.  Our elementary was one of five at the time and we had the most representation.

I can't tell you how much fun this weekend was for me,  Troy was a good sport to come along to all the celebrations-- he did well getting to know the few non Mission spouses that were brave enough to attend as well.  I look forward to the next celebration in 5 years!  Thanks for stopping by!

Elf is Back

Our Elf is back.  Midas Carlos (Micaela named him) is back in town early.  He spent all of December with us last year.  Micaela has been asking about him for weeks, so he's on special assignment from Santa.  The elves in the North Pole (me) made him a special outfit for the month of October.  It's a cape and belt with Halloween candy all over. 

We've been finding him in the weirdest paces.  Here he is in the breakfast nook, hanging out in the soup tureen.   I expect this is the last year Micaela will BELIEVE, so we are embellishing as much as we can.  So fun to be parents.  Thanks for stopping by!

Blog Ketch Up

Well, I didn't mean to be away for almost three weeks.  I've been crafting a bit, sewing up a storm for various swaps, working, doing my Master Gardener Class which is really time consuming, driving Micaela around to birthday parties and activities and then had a trip to San Antonio for my neice's wedding so it has been non stop!

I will do seperate entries for craft items but wanted to show a picture or two of my neice's beautiful wedding last weekend.  Micaela was responsible for distributing programs and took the job very seriously, here she is....

 Here is a picture of the beautiful couple Steve & Kristina, they look so happy together!

This was such a lovely wedding and we had so much fun.  Micaela danced the whole night and then passed out like a light as soon as we got to hotel. 

While in San Antonio we made a quick stop at The Alamo for a quick Texas History Lesson.  Micaela was very intrigued!

I'll be posting pictures of everything I have crafted the last few weeks in the next few days.  Thanks for checking in and I promise to get back to posting regularly.

This week I had to attend the Keep Texas Beautiful annual conference in Austin. On our way back we made a quick stop at the State Capital. This was Micaela's first visit and she was VERY impressed.

Here are a few snapshots

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend.

The Gates NYC 2005

Six years ago today (Valentine's weekend), my husband and I took a Babymoon trip to New York City before our daughter was due to be born in May.

We were fortunate to be there the opening day of The Gates in Central Park, February 12, 2005. The Gates was a project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Christo & Jeanne-Claude have inspired the world with their art, which has been displayed in four continents and seen by millions. The built a reputation around the world for massive temporary art projects like wrapping Berlin's Reichstag and Paris' Pont Neuf in fabric.

The Gates were free-hanging, saffron-colored fabric panels that were suspended from gates throughout the footpaths of Central Park.

The Gates were 7500 gates, 16 feet high and lined 23 miles of footpathes in the park. It was an amazing site and I am so glad we were able to be there to experience it.

Thanks for stopping by.

New Toy

Cupid made an early delivery for Valentine's Day. This is my new sewing machine, a Janome 5100. A quick glimpse at my sewing area.... Nothing fancy, the desk is the desk I got for my fourteenth birthday (almost an antique, lol). The yellow doily was made by my maternal grandmother more than 50 years ago. The flower stick person holds my pins in the belly votive. On the shelf a few favorite trinkets, the flower pot is by one of my favorite artists Angie Strauss from Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, favorite Mary Engelbreit and Karla Dornacher books, a few pictures of me as a bridesmaid with two of my closest friends, Mary Beth and Kristi and the tiny one in the pink frame is of me as a baby with my Dad when I was about a year old. The pink Longaberger basket (breast cancer edition 2002) on my white shelf hold my scissors.

Thanks for stopping by...

Snow for my Birthday!

Snow for my birthday! Micaela loved it!

Flashback Christmas 2001

These are pictures of my bedroom during Christmas in my Bonham house back in 2001. Please keep in mind this WAS 2001, I would not necessarily decorate like this today. I took these with my very first digital camera. I would have never dreamed of a blog back then so there is no professional staging or anything. This is a room I slept in for several years before relocating back to Dallas and eventually getting married.

I look back on my five plus years in Bonham fondly, mainly because I enjoyed living in an old 1919 bungalow so much. I had more space than I knew what to do with and filled the house with things I loved. I enjoyed every minute of it. I am going to start sharing some of those old pictures every now and then....

I always wanted a pink bedroom as a little girl and finally got one when I was 29 a few years before getting married. The color turned out darker than I anticipated and it looked very PeptoBismal when the painters were done. I had to deal with it even though it was alot darker than I wanted.

Back then I set no limits on Christmas decorations and buying stuff. One of the coolest things about my Bonham house was the fireplace in the Master Bedroom. I was too scared to use it but I had the best time decorating the mantle for the different seasons... Here it is....

This was the tree! Quite large, the diameter was six feet at the bottom branches and it was like 8 feet tall. I had this in the living room several years but when I got a bigger one, I could not bare to part with this one so I put it in the master since I had plenty of room.

I wish I had close up of the ornaments, the balls were all different shades of pink, pearl white and green. The door behind the tree lead to a screened in sun room. I had access to the sunroom from the living room so I blocked this door for the holiday season.

This was the other side of the room facing the dresser. I only had a double bed at the time-- The canvas above my bed is by Angie Strauss from Niagara on the Lake Ontario. It is signed by the artist, it was my five year anniversary gift from the company I worked for at the time. I have that print in our guest room/sewing room now.

This was the other side of the room. I bought those chairs at Goodwill for $9 each and recovered them myself. I also made the curtains.
Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed my flashback to 2001!