Sissy's New Role

From Little Sissy to BIG Sissy!

Seriously the worst Ultrasound picture- it's just a parasite blob. I'm glad they labeled it

Baby Number 4 blesses us April 2013 with his/her arrival.

JR's

 When we go to Wyoming, we always need to go to JR's. JR is a neighbor that Ben worked for who has a ranch with lots of cattle and race horses.  He is also a miner, a father, a cowboy and a I think who Ben learned to be a Hick from. I think he is one of Ben's favorite people in the world.  We love to go see him. JR acts like he loves to see us- he acts that way with everyone. He is the nicest guy you will ever meet. Make sure you have a few hours though, because he likes to talk, and he just makes you feel like you are his best friend and you know he would give you the world if you asked for it. When we got married, JR drove all the way to Utah to the temple, just to tell us congratulations in person and give us a card. He wouldn't stay for the luncheon, he wasn't there for the actual wedding, he didn't have anything else to come down for, he just wanted to say Hi and chat for a few minutes then he hopped in his car and drove the two and a half hours back home. Like I said, JR is the nicest guy. He has a heart of gold. When we talk about our visit to Wyoming, "going to JR's" is always the highlight. Last year, Carter got to sit on one of his bulls- so he now tells everyone he has ridden a bull.

Anyway, we headed to JR's to ride a horse. This isn't any ordinary horse, this is Exit, a famous race horse, the Wyoming horse of the year in 1993, and he still looks like he could win any race. Carter was on Cloud Nine and wanted to do everything he could to help. He had no fear of this giant horse. Bridger was a little more hesitant, but enjoyed the ride. Let's  be honest. I'm not a huge horse fan and he made me little nervous- well, I was nervous with Carter running around his legs knowing with one step Carter could be a gonner- but it all turned out great and the boys have these pictures hanging up in their room. A great day for any little cowboy. Thanks to Aunt Katie for documenting this experience.

 JR showing Carter the bit. JR used a coffee can to put grain in for Exit to eat while we got him saddled up. The next time we were at the grocery store, Carter saw the same Folgers can and said, "Look Mom! We can buy Exit some food here!" Not quite.

 Sissy wasn't nervous at all and enjoyed the ride. 

 Sis and JR

This kid could have stayed all day

We took the chance to get some pictures by the old barn. I love the background. 

July Fun and Family Reunions

As I am looking at the title of the post, "July Fun and Family Reunion," It makes it sound like they are very separate- like we had fun in July and then went to a family reunions that weren't fun. Because family reunions are never fun, right? Wrong. They were. We have had too much fun this summer which I why I am so behind and haven't posted anything. Too much fun. Too often. No time to blog because we are re cooperating from having too much fun. I am glad to have lots of fun memories and not enough time to post them... so here we go.  In July, we had our great friends from Austin come  to visit for a morning. Lucky for us, they have family here and this is the second summer that we have been able to see them. And we remembered to get a picture this time. Here are the Derderian kids with ours:

L to R: Bri holding Afton, Meredith, Brooke, Bridger, Myah, Carter and Sam. 

All the kids were horribly bored while Rochelle and I talked and talked. My boys don't know how to entertain 5 girls who are older than they are and not into cowboys at all. Luckily, the sandbox is a pretty good toy for most kids of various ages. 

 This is me looking drunk with Beautiful Rochelle. I really like this girl. We have a lot of similar interests. She has great ideas and is so organized. After her visit in the summer of 2011, she inspired me into doing P90X workouts (she has done the entire series  4 or 5 times) and I am thankful to her that after 30 years I discovered that I really was born with triceps. Like many of my closest friends, I wish we lived closer so her great traits rubbed off on me more. It was a short but very sweet visit. 

 Random picture of my sweetie in her cute little swim outfit. I love her!

 She is Miss Independent. Likes to stand in her chair and get herself out. She can't get down herself and luckily she hasn't fallen yet.  And she insists on feeding herself now. She wants to do it all. by. herself. 

 Sometimes she gets yogurt in her mouth. She likes to lick it off the spoon.

 Healthy finger paint I guess. 

Sissy's First time in the tube

 A picture really is worth a thousand words!

I love this picture:

 So I went boating once a week on average this summer. The rest of  the family went often. I decided if we had our own boat, we wouldn't have gone any more than we did this summer. We have lots of friends who have boats who claim they can't find anyone to go with. They know we are up for it any day, so we got to go a lot.  We have lots of fun. I can't think of a better family activity than being stuck on a boat together, encouraging and cheering each other on, seeing your kids learn and be able to do things that are scary and hard AND getting a good tan while you're at it. :) It's the best. Someday when our student loans are paid, we will get our own boat and then we'll return the favor and take everyone who has taken us. 

Ok- Family reunion Numero Uno.

Lewiston, Utah. Yeah- I know, killer place for a reunion. We got to have cousin time- so it was fun. 

Two of my sisters live here. Within walking distance of each other. They share food and meals, they share clothes, their kids sleep at who ever's house they end up at at the end of the night (maybe I'm exaggerating on the last one...) It's something this Type-A girl couldn't handle, but it works for them and they are still relatively normal :)

The kids ran around like hooligans all day- rode four wheelers everywhere, played cowboys, pirates, spies and just had a blast.

 We went boating to Lamont reservoir- they call it the Toilet Bowl. 

NOT because the water is like a toilet bowl, but because it is so small that you basically go in a big circle around and around and around.  The kids had fun playing in the water, they could jump off the dock and we could ski and wake board. 

 Ben and Carter on the tube.

We celebrated Carter's birthday and then went to Oneida reservoir the next day. It was kind of cloudy and rained on and off, but we still had lots of rounds of water skiing and plenty of tubing. We had a big barbecue that night and then went to Wyoming the next day for our next reunion.

Reunion Number Two: Bridger Valley Wyoming and then onto a 4H camp in the mountains. 

I know... I keep making you jealous that we went to all these hot destinations for vacation. 

Ben loves to go home. He loves to go fishing in the canal down the hill. He likes to drive around and see if anything has changed- usually it hasn't... but when it does, it is BIG news.  He loves to catch up on how everyone in the Valley is doing. And when you are from a small valley, you know how everyone is doing. The crazy thing is, my uncle lives in this valley and Ben grew up with my cousins. I have a few cousins who live there now, so sometimes I care to hear about what is going on too. I think Ben really loves not thinking or worrying about anything at home or work when he is here. It is great R&R for him that he really deserves. 

 He brought the boys fishing with him and they caught these little fish. 

They wouldn't eat a bite for lunch, but they had a great time fishing. 

 This is Carter's first fish ever.

We also went to JR's to ride horses. This will have to be it's own post because we have too many pictures. 

We went up to a 4H camp for Ben's mothers side reunion- Reunion Number 3. They were celebrating her father's would be 100th birthday. Lots and lots of cousins to meet and lots of cousins we knew to see and play with. We were only there one day, so we filled it up with fun things. 

Like playing in the water and more fishing

 Afton and Stella

 This is very typical. Ben (only adult) with ALL the kids. 

He likes to say, "Kids just know a good pediatrician when they see one."

I like to say, "You are too patient and too nice." What great qualities. Man, I love that guy. 

 Ben's Dad bought this pinball machine when they were kids. They all have so many memories with this thing. He sold it to a friend when the kids left home.. or when Ben's mom couldn't handle it anymore- the story is still unclear, but then borrowed it for this reunion. I will admit, it was fun to play and can tell why they all got addicted and spent hours playing it. Now we are on the search for the pinball machine game "The Six Million Dollar Man." If you see it, let us know immediately. Ben will pay top dollar. :) 

Sweet Little Baby Lady

Our Sweet Little Baby Lady is growing up way too fast. She looks like she has grown 6 months in the last 2 becuase her hair is finally growing. I needed a new picture of her, so one morning in July we went out to the front porch and I snapped these. I thought they turned out well. Lately, my favorite thing to do is hold her at night or first thing in the morning and cuddle with her in her rocking chair. She loves to cuddle. She loves to rub noses, blow raspberries on my arms and face and giggle. She will grab my face, look deep into my eyes, smile, sometimes bite my nose, and then will laugh some more. I am so in love with this little girl. I am so thankful she has come to our family. I appreciate the tenderness and sweetness that she has and reminds us all to have a little more. She also uses her cuteness to rule this roost-- but can you blame us for giving in to such a little cutie?

Big blue eyes from her Daddy

Curly hair?! I hope it stays!

Update- now that is it September and I am finally posting this, she has recently started sign language. It is so fun to see her sign bath, more, all done, snack, food, milk, book, fish and bird. She also started her love for books. She wants anyone to read to her. Luckily her brothers will when I just can't take to do it. We all love our Little Sissy. 

My newest hobby

This is Ben speaking.

So, those of you who know me, know that I am a bit back-woods.  Grew up in Wyoming, was member of the 4-H and FFA (actually I was the star greenhand in my FFA chapter in high school) aspired to ranching and rodeo greatness.  That was until I realized that I like to eat and I don't like broken bones.  I have wandered from my country roots over the years, but not very far.  Now that we are back in the wild west (Idaho) I have come back to my hickness with a vengeance.  As you may have realized from Mona's recent posts, we are doing quite a few cowboy adventures.

So, it is with great pride that I announce my latest hobby, being a rodeo doctor.  I was reading something that I wrote when I was  about 8 or 9 years old, I said that I wanted to be a world champion saddle bronc rider when I grew up.  For you that are rodeo novices, it is riding bucking horses.  When I realized that I was too skinny, too scared and wouldn't like traveling around the country following the rodeo, I decided the next best thing would be to go to medical school and become a pediatric pulmonologist.  But being a physician has its benefits.  I have always wanted to be a part of the rodeo, not just to sit in the stands and watch.  So I found out that the Justin Boot Company has a sports medicine program that travels to major rodeos around the country taking care of those hard riding fools that are addicted to danger and want to ride bulls and bucking horses.  About a year ago I finally found someone that was involved and asked if I could join in the fun.  They were a bit skeptical, but I was persuasive and they let me join.  Here in Boise there are two of the biggest PRCA rodeo's in the country, the Snake River Stampede and the Caldwell Night Rodeo.

 Snake River Stampede.  Me in the red plaid shirt.

                                                

 This is Cody Wright, a really good saddle bronc rider.  Mona had to take a picture because we bought a video about him and the boys want to watch it all the time.

Caldwell Night Rodeo.  The rodeo is big into Breast Cancer Awareness and they always have a night that they call "Tough enough to wear Pink," They donate some of the proceeds to the local hospital to pay for mammograms for those who can't afford it... usually several thousands of dollars. We all get to wear pink western shirts on that night.  Basically, the only time that I will wear pink. This night you will see lots of cowboys in bright pink jeans, chaps and shirts. 

Of course the boys had to go to at least one night, and were pretty upset that they only got to go once and I got to go every night.

I have to admit, it was totally awesome.  I get to rub shoulders with some of the greatest rodeo athletes in the business and I get to stand right by the fence for eleven rodeos a year, for free.  I guess if you volunteer your time as a doctor they give you a free ticket. I actually came home and announced that I was giving up my day job to become a rodeo doctor, but I got the look of "you are crazy, and this has gone a little too far."  So I will keep my day job and get as excited as a five year old before Christmas  when July comes around every year.

This is why I want to be the doctor and not a participant.  I am sure this guys neck was hurting afterwards.

It was a bit anticlimactic.  There was no major injuries, just a few hurting backs and a broken collarbone.   I have to say that those guys are tough as nails.  There was a bull rider that got stepped on by the bull, on his shoulder.  It did not break anything, and he did not want ice or any Tylenol or anything.  He was just upset that he did not make a full 8 second ride.

I hope to be able to do this for years to come. I love being a Hick. 

Ben taking the kids in the secret tunnel

This is Mona now. My favorite rodeo ever is the Snake River Stampede. I love that it is indoors- out of the heat and the dust and this time it was awesome because we were treated like VIP's. Ben didn't mention that we pull up to the back gate, he says he is on the Justin Sports Rodeo team and they let him in. We drive up to the back door of the arena- next to the pens with all the livestock, among all the big 4X4 trucks and big trailers and park. Yes, our minivan did look WAY out of place. We walked in and they walked us through the security, secret tunnels and up to the stands with our special badge. Devin, the head guy of the team, told all the security people, " This is Doctor Tippets family. If they need to come through, just let them." Sometimes being married to a doctor does have its perks!  It was fun to watch Ben be on cloud nine- he even spoke in his hick accent while he was there. You could tell the team wanted really wanted to run out and save some poor cowboy from a big injury by the way they hung on the gates, but fortunately, there were no major injuries like Ben said. The only problem with this whole gig, is that his day job will never have the same appeal.