Rachel-isms

Rachel has really caught the jabber bug lately! And we're starting to be able to understand most of what she says, which makes it so fun to listen to her! She comes up with some fun things to say, and sometimes makes me giggle! Things like:

"Let's go watch moo-bees!(movies)"

"That's dolly's bank-a-let!(blanket)"

When asked if she needs to go potty, she says, "I already went at the church!"

"I'm heavy momma" when she feels like I'm not holding her tight enough when we're walking around

"I went thhtththt in the potty" when she farts

She still answers either yes or no (depending on her mood) to most every question!

Oh, yes, and on the {mostly} rare occasions when she poops in her pull-up, she always gives me a resounding "Yay mommy!!" when I dump it in the toilet!

Ripplinger Family {mis}Adventures

I'm thinking about writing a book, although with the topic I have in mind, it might be a little long. Here's an excerpt from my rough draft:

"This morning was a pretty typical morning. We got up, ate a delicious breakfast of oatmeal, and got ready as quickly as we could. The kids really wanted to play some cheap, extremely simple hand-held video games Jared dug out of a box recently. When there's fun to be had, they're really good at getting done quickly, which is usually because they do the bare minimum! Like getting dressed but not putting socks on; brushing teeth but leaving toothpaste in the sink; running their hands through their hair and calling it good. We rushed out of the house - like usual - to get the kids to school on time.

As we pulled into the parking lot, Emily exclaimed, "Oh yeah, it's picture day!" Oh great!! There's no way they are decent enough to get their pictures taken! {Refer to the paragraph above, about doing the bare minimum} I had to make a split-second decision: let them go as they are and get re-takes done next month (which I will probably forget about again), or take them back home, make them change clothes and REALLY do their hair, which would make them late for school. I chose the latter - let's get this whole incident buried and done with! We rushed home as fast as we could to fix the problem. Clothes started flying, hairbrushes began tugging through hair, and a few curls were quickly put into those beautiful red locks that belong to Emily."

See what I mean?? Our {mis}adventures are a little too frequent, and I'm afraid if I compiled them into a book, it'd be bigger (and likely more confusing) than the Bible!!

Amazing!!

I actually have a minute to breathe this morning, so I thought I'd let you in on what I'm listening to.

It's a beautiful, wonderful sound.

No, it's not peace and quiet (which I adore)!

It's Emily. Playing the piano. She opened up the Children's Songbook and is sight-reading her way through "I am a Child of God" and "Reverently, Quietly."

She's doing an incredible job.

And I'm not biased.

Oh, and just a reminder: she's 8, almost 9.

Amazing.

Back to Routine

School started one week ago! Emily is in 4th grade (yikes! where did my baby go?), and Josh is in 2nd grade (yikes again!). I can't believe how fast the summer went! And we didn't even do anything terribly exciting as a family this year, other than reunions. But we have enjoyed a lot of time together as a family.

It is good to be back to a routine - sort of! Life seems much more pleasant (for me at least) when there is structure! Everyone knows pretty much what goes on in a day, and there is plenty to keep us all busy. But, it is always nice to not have to be ready so early, to enjoy carefree mornings with the kids, to just BE! I always miss that once school has started!

I was pretty impressed with what the kids accomplished this summer. Emily read all 700+ pages of Harry Potter #4 - and it only took her 6-7 weeks!! Josh read and read and read, too. He started the first Harry Potter book, but we had to return it to the library before he finished it. We'll have to go back and get that one soon because he keeps begging me to take him (always after the library has closed for the day)! Emily finished off one set of piano books and is cruising her way through a second set, and Josh is making good progress on his set. They both got very good at cleaning the bathroom, and more importantly, keeping it clean between cleanings! And Rachel and Caleb have turned into quite the two-some! If he's not bugging her, she's bugging him! But they hardly ever do anything apart!

I have loads of pictures -when I get some time I will do a picture post!

Where Were You...?

Where were you on this day in 1999 when this happened?

I was on my honeymoon!! More precisely, I was running to get into the Jeep that Jared had pulled up to the front door of Olive Garden (where we had lunch) and trying not to die by hail pelting! In the process, I stepped on, and crushed, the container that had our wedding cake in it!! Good thing my parents took some home to freeze!

I am soooo thankful we didn't decide to have Aug. 11 as our wedding day!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 10th anniversary!! And it's a magical one too, because it's also the 10th of the month!! I had planned to put some pictures of our wedding day in this post, but for some reason, our older pictures aren't showing up on the computer! So instead, here is some fun trivia about the past 10 years...

• Location of our wedding: Salt Lake Temple
• Places we've lived: 6 (4 different cities)
• Most we've paid for rent (not a mortgage): $1700 a month
• Least we've paid for rent: $440 (our first apartment, 2 bedrooms, no A/C, but a great little apartment)
• Number of jobs (Jared+Heather): 9 (I think)
• Number of degrees received (just since we've been married): 3
• Number of perfect children: 4!!!
• Number of vehicles: we're currently on #5 and #6
• Tax seasons we've made it through: 8!!
• Number of gardens we've planted: 5

And now, 10 things I love about Jared (in no particular order):

• He's handsome
• He's strong
• He's a hard-worker, willing to provide for our family
• He loves music
• He is thoughtful
• He loves to play games
• He is smart, and also wise
• He is trustworthy
• He has a rock-solid testimony
• He loves me, even when I'm my absolute worst!

I love you Jared! You are the best thing that has ever happened to me! Thank you for being my husband and wanting me for your wife! I look forward to the rest of eternity with you!

Happy Birthday Josh!!

Joshua is 7 years old today!! Can't believe it's already been 7 years since we brought our little boy home!

We've had a great day today. Josh chose crepes for breakfast, and we put cherry pie filling in them - yum!! Jared was home for the morning (because we were getting some gravel and a shed), so Josh was able to open presents this morning. That turned out to be a great thing, because he got to spend the day playing with all his new stuff. Surprisingly, I think his favorite gift was his Webkinz snake, which he named Stripers. We got to go out for lunch (Sonic), and we had his favorite food for dinner - SHRIMP!! Can you believe a kid his age loves shrimp??

Josh is such a great kid. He is a hard worker, a deep thinker, and very energetic. He has a great memory, and he loves to ask lots of questions. He can always make us laugh, and he is very helpful too.

Here's a look at then and now...

We love you Josh!! You are "totally wicked" and we're glad you're part of our family!

Flowers and Jam

What do flowers and jam have in common, you may be asking?

Nothing at all, really!

Here is a picture of the beautiful flowers Jared brought me for my birthday last week. Aren't they pretty?!! He is a smart man! He remembered that lillies are some of my favorite flowers. And the coloring on the two roses is sort of like tulips, some of my other favorite flowers.

Maybe you remember the movie "Alice in Wonderland" - not the cartoon version. I remember watching it as a kid, thinking what an odd story it was! And maybe you remember a song about jam. I think it went something like, "Jam tomorrow, jam yesterday, but never ever jam today." Well folks, we've got jam today!!

{Thankfully we don't live in Wonderland, although sometimes it feels like we do!}

We bought 3 flats of raspberries yesterday, which gave us 43 pints of delicious raspberry freezer jam, with 4 pints of berries left for eating!

Here's a picture of the whole process - 4 batches going at a time!

As a sidenote, I love jam, especially freezer jam. But after realizing just how much sugar goes into it, I'm kind of grossed out!

Do you realize that for every tablespoon of jam you eat, about 2 teaspoons of it is sugar?!?!?!

We used 23-24 POUNDS of sugar for all that jam!

Now that's a lot of sugar!

Just a Typical Day

Here are a few shots of a typical day around our house...

If Emily is not off reading, she is playing the piano! I don't have to beg and plead to get her to practice, I have to beg and plead to get her to stop!! She's great at multi-tasking too...see the cracker in her mouth?!!

Caleb's new favorite activity - climbing to the highest surface he can! Yes, he's standing on the cedar chest which is up against the railing, which is the only thing keeping him from taking a flying leap down the stairs! In a 5-mintue span, he has managed to climb onto the kitchen table, be removed, climb onto the cedar chest, be removed, climb onto the end table, only to be removed yet again! I hope I can survive this kid! In fact, I hope he survives himself! But how could that face not instantly melt you?!?

Rachel is synonymous (spelling??) with sweetness. She just bounces around with her ringlets bouncing right alongside! She has discovered how to be a little impish, though! You can see it in her eyes! She is usually the one showing Caleb just how fun it is to climb onto things, or she's right behind him encouraging him to go farther!

And Josh...well...just look at the picture! Would that drive you nuts?? He prefers to wear socks, and this is how he wears them 99% of the time!

Moment in Time

Go ahead...try to tell me these aren't the cutest kids you've ever seen!!

{Just playing around with Photoshop and had to get this up here!}

I'd like to burn this image into the deepest, most permanent recesses of my mind, with the option to open a full-size, life-like view of it anytime I want.