David Pipkin Family

2011-02-06T17:00:00.005-06:00

Finally. After 7 years of full time school full time

work and some part time school before that,

David gets his Bachelors of Science Degree

in Organizational Communications with a Psychology

minor. His graduation day had moved farther away

everytime he changed his major or had to retake a

class. He worked nights and went to school during

the day and then came home and slept and tried to

still find time to do homework. We jumped through hoops

and more hoops with deadlines for classes, papers

major forms,financial aid, extra projects. Last year

a week before graduation they told us that he

would need ONE MORE CLASS. I waited to get excited

about graduation just in case and then when I didn't hear

otherwise I called David's mom and said, "oh by the way

David's graduation is saturday."

Jeshua came and had the kids sit with

him and they behaved for him, what a sweetie!

Me and Dave on the big day. I brought the whole

crew and we cheered when they called his name.

My turn!

Karen sings at GR concert Feb 2011

2011-02-06T16:25:00.000-06:00

Karen Pipkin - Vocal Competition

2011-02-06T16:22:00.000-06:00

Millie Pipkin - Vocal Competition

2011-02-06T16:20:00.000-06:00

Best Christmas concert ever! Millie sings 2009

2011-02-06T16:19:00.000-06:00

What we did this Spring

2010-08-01T21:11:00.009-05:00

One thing we did this spring was our first karate tournament. The instructor doesn't charge for lessons he just asks that we give a $20 a family a month donation to help him pay the bills for the building but his lessons are free. He sells us the uniforms at cost and is real good with the kids. Millie does well at practice and is a deliberate striker but she didn't get a trophy this time. Which was ok with me but she was a little disappointed.

Jacob takes second place in his karate tournament . He won a couple of rounds.

Jacob enjoyed our Easter Egg hunt with friends.

James having fun at the Rochester's Egg hunt.

Jacqueline meets the Rochester's goat.

This spring we had an Easter Egg hunt with friends out in the country.

For Jacqueline's 7th birthday her friend Brighton came over and we had a Easter Egg hunt at nana's backyard and then went to the movies to see "How to train your Dragon in 3D"

Summer Fun

2010-08-01T19:27:00.005-05:00

One before picture of our fence.

And after.

Our before picture of our fence.

After.

Jacob turns 12.
Jacobs birthday with his

skateboard cake.

Jefferson's 5th birthday. His

off road birthday cake.

Here we have James and our

adopted toad. James and Jacob

would go to the creek and catch toads.

Of course we had a catch and release

policy.

Smithville lake. We took a

trip to smithville lake north of

kansas city. Here is Ruth enjoying

the sunshine.

Jax and the boys built a sand island

and a makeshift flag.

2009-07-21T11:59:00.004-05:00

All of Nana's grandchildren!!

This is whay life looks like at

her cottage of a house when

they all come to visit. They are

all under the age 14.

While Karen was in Idaho

she had fun hiking with Mckay.

She is very helpful with the babies.
She has always had the gift of
being good with kids even at about age 6
she could rock a baby to sleep for me.

2009-07-21T11:42:00.002-05:00

What Karen did this summer...
So She has been the super star helper
the last 6 years while david was going
to school full time and work full time. So we
sent her to Idaho to see her cousins, aunts, and
grandparents.

Karen and cousin Ashlyn.

Karen, Connor and Ashlyn at
the 4th of July parade in Idaho
Falls.

Fishing with Grandpa.

4th of July Block Party with cousins
and Aunt Kristen.

Karen with Aunt Mckay and Uncle
Helio with baby RJ at Rigby lake.

Our most recent happenings

2009-06-13T14:56:00.005-05:00

Karen and our friend Cameron
From Texas. He and karen were
playmates as little kids when he
lived here. He visited for the day.
He is a nice boy and he played with
the little kids.

Cameron and his mom Dianna.

Ruth's new hairstyle.
So, I usually put off taking a shower
in the morning because I don't
want certain toddlers to be unsupervised
SOOOO. I decided I might be able
to get away with a quick shower because
Karen was home for the summer
but when I got out of the bathroom
Ruth had a lot less hair than before.
When I asked her where her hair was
she said that she cut it and Jeff said, "I helped her!"
So then that afternoon Ruth and I went to
the hairdresser to trim it up and fix it.
It is actually not too bad although there are
a few really short spots. She didn't get in trouble
she is just too cute. Jeff had to clean up the hair he cut
but while I was getting him to do that Ruth got into the
freezer and was trying to eat frozen butter. Sigh.

2009-04-24T09:48:00.012-05:00

FHE Ensign Picture

For those of you who aren't amember of the

LDS church I need to explain what the picture is all about.

We are encouraged to have a family night once a week to teach our children

about the Lord and to have fun together. It is

called Family Home Evening, or FHE for short.

In our churchwide magazine titiled the Ensign, there

are often pictures of families having Family Home

Evening. Such as this one below. Notice everyone is smiling.

Everyone is paying attention. Happiness all around.

At our house FHE consists of Millie mad every week if she

doesn't get to pick the treat and pouting in the corner.

Jefferson doing head stands on couch and falling on other

children who in turn start crying. Ruth crying for milk. Karen

bored. Jacob wrestling with James and David and I after asking people

nice a couple of times are now YELLING "It's time for PRAYER!"

SOOOO. On this one occassion. We decided to briefly talk about

how important it is for people to chose righteous leaders in our government

and then we just sat down and watched Prince Caspian. Not too spriritual in nature

but hey, we were having together time. :) So before the movie started I had to

take a picture of everyone sitting there on the couch. One of our rare cooperative moments.

Lets celebrate.

Valentine's Day PTO Father Daughter Dance

2009-04-23T16:38:00.001-05:00

2009-04-23T15:22:00.001-05:00

Spring fun!

2009-04-23T12:31:00.008-05:00

Jax flips!

Buddies

Christmas Gifts!

2008-12-25T23:05:00.005-06:00

James bought me a #1 mom necklace.
Our James is so considerate.

James gives david a hug while
looking at the calender that Jax
gave to us.

Millie opens a present.

Jax loves her sparkly pony!

A transformer for James.

Thermal underwear and tech
decks for jacob (mini-skateboards).

Millie bought ruth a baby.

Jeff squeals over a motorcycle.

James buys dad a giant calculator.

Ruth gets a dolly stroller for her babies.

Jacob opening new winter coat and
snow pants and gloves.

James helps ruth get her babies.

Jax is excited to see her barbie carriage.

James and Jeff get excited about transformers.

Millie's first mp3 player.

Jake gets a Playstation game.
Our friends gave us thier old unit.

Ruth hugs her bear from her stocking.

Everyone shows thier stocking treasures.

Playing with the stuffed animals.

Winter Fun!!

2008-12-25T22:51:00.001-06:00

2008-12-25T22:36:00.004-06:00

Our version of the nativity story
Here is Millie our angel.

Mary and the donkey.

Here is Mary and Joseph.

Mary and baby Jesus...

Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus.

Jake, our wise guy...

2008-12-25T22:28:00.002-06:00

Ruth has a habit of twisting
her hair and sucking her thumb.
I caught a picture just before
she did it. He he.

Jeff helps put the tree together.

Jax helps put it together too.

Jeffy is stayin on his task.

Our finished product!

2008-12-25T22:19:00.003-06:00

In getting ready for Thanksgiving
we made these treats.
Here is our finished product.
It is a imitation thin mint. Mint
flavored chocolate over a cracker.
Millie, Jax Jeff and Jake helped.

Jeff shows his excitement.

Jake and Millie are tasting it.

James carefully places them on
the cookie sheets.

Jax is our product inspector.
Yup, passes inspection.

Kids Christmas concert

2008-12-25T21:24:00.004-06:00

This month in december the elementary kids (Millie,James, Jax) had thier Christmas concert. Karen did millie's hair and a tiny bit of makeup, (mascara and lip gloss and shimmer powder. They felt so grown up! I did Jax's hair. James brushed his own. They did great and afterwards Nana came over and brought choc. popsicles for a treat.

Ruth is 2 Today

2008-11-21T17:49:00.005-06:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

2008-11-21T15:43:00.002-06:00

Ruthies 2nd b-day is today!

We went to storytime and played

Then we went to walmart and

bought new shoes and a new coat.

2008-11-01T22:29:00.002-05:00

This is Sandra. She is one of

my BEST friends. She had us

over for a halloween party.

My mom wanted to help us when

she visited so i showed her our rotted

facia and she hired Sandras husband

Marshall to replace it for us.

Here is one a picture of the before of each corner and then Marshall tearing down the front.

He worked for 7 hours on his day off and he will come back to finish it so stay tuned for the

after pictures!

Thank you Deweys! and Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Oh, for those of you non-missourians, it rains here a LOT and that is one reason for the rot.

The other being that when the porch was added on the owners didn't add flashing to cause

the rain to pour into the gutters so it poured into the facia instead. Marshall put flashing in there for us.

2008-10-18T20:00:00.001-05:00

Jake posing for a picture with Gram.
James poses for a picture too.
Now its Jeff's turn.
Jeff tackles grandma's leg!
Gram playing Football with Jeff.

2008-10-18T19:51:00.002-05:00

Ok. This was an insane day. Jacob, David, Jeff, Jax went to Gower for Jacobs last football game. Grandma and James walked up to the school to go to James' last football game and I was up at 5 am to get karen to the bus to go to Maryville to march. After the Maryville marching. I gathered up the LDS band members and headed 1 1/2 hours east to Jameson to do a renactment of the LDS pioneers with handcarts, food, speakers, etc. and according to my map from the internet the road I was on was supposed to take us to the pioneer area. but the road was so muddy we got stuck and the road had a creek running through it.
Here is our back tire stuck in the mud.
Here is a church leader friend who we called on the cell phone to come dig us out since a pick up truck wasn't going to cut it.
I was never so happy to see a tractor!

2008-10-18T19:46:00.005-05:00

Today was the area band competition. Our band took first in our division. Here is karen marching at the competition during the university homecoming parade in Maryville.
Wilson (davids littlest brother) was marching in the university band since he is at a academy for talented high school students. They attend the university and after two years they come out a high school graduate and they have a associates degree. His band led the parade. They were great!

2008-10-18T19:38:00.004-05:00

Karen is sitting in the middle of the band last night in the bleachers they didn't march last night they just played during the game.

Last night was a Hamilton football game. They announced the junior tackle league and here is jacob running out onto the field after they called his name to recognize their team.
Millie and Jacqueline took a cheer clinic together and learned some cheers and then ate hot dogs and performed for everyone before the game.
Millie poses and jax gives her bunny ears.

2008-10-11T14:32:00.002-05:00

Last night was our PTO Fall festival grandma ended up sitting on
the bleachers in the gym because she couldn't keep the kids so she held popcorn for people. Here are some of the kids doing the Hula Hoops.
Millie is actually very good at this.
Jacob hula-ing on his arm
Jefferson has a good pitching arm.

2008-10-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

Ruth gives the houla hoops a try

2008-10-11T14:28:00.001-05:00

We took grandma to our school Fall Festival. I was on the committee to run it. Here Jeff is doing the houla hoops. He told me that he was awesome at it!

2008-10-11T14:25:00.001-05:00

Here is ruth getting my "pattern weights" a.k.a tuna cans. She and Jeff were making towers.

2008-10-10T15:04:00.002-05:00

Here is lovely ruth. We went to a Parents as Teachers storytime and the kids got to play in shaving cream. It was awesome. Ruth is covered up to her elbows. I fully support kids doing supervised messes so that they get to have fun and not be told no over everything they do. She had a lot of fun but smelled like a man when she was done. :)

2008-10-02T11:45:00.001-05:00

Yeah Jeffersons blanket is all clean! Waiting for the dryer was so hard!

2008-10-02T11:23:00.001-05:00

The best blanket ever. This is Jeffersons loved blanket. He sleeps with it and it even goes to church with us. He loves his blanket. He says he loves the lions on it.

2008-10-02T11:02:00.002-05:00

Jefferson loves his blanket. It is a blue blanket that is light blue with lions on it. It was made for me by my grandmother (now passed away) and Jefferson is very attatched to it. He cries and cries when we have to wash it. Today he agreed to let us wash it but then asks every 2 minutes if it is done yet. So I told him that the dryer would buzz when it was dry. So he was waiting outside the dryer so he could get it out when the buzzer went off. Here he is waiting... and waiting...

2008-10-02T10:51:00.002-05:00

So yesterday I got a haircut because it was halfway down my back and very damaged. It was only $12 and I got some bangs and layers. Like onions have layers. (a line from the movie Shrek). So I had a lot of length cut off to give me the layers so now i have a hairstyle and not just damaged long hair that is flat. I am happy with it but millie thinks that it is the same. And dave is sad to have so much length gone.

2008-10-01T11:08:00.004-05:00

My mom influenced me in many ways and a few of those arethe interests that we have in common. Knitting, crocheting, opera andpolitics. Check out the video of Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma. You canwatch it on this page. A little window will pop up. Just click on the pause sothat it will have a minute to load. It is outstanding.

2008-10-01T08:41:00.004-05:00

I have been making our own

tortillas for some time now just

not always consistently. Millie

is a great kitchen helper. She

loves to help cook.

Millie wanted another taco

last night for dinner and we

were out so I said she could

have another one if she was

willing to make some.

Here she is trying

to flip it in the air

like the restraunts

do for pizza.

Karen is taking the pictures.

So I made the dough

and she did the rolling.

Millie is a very confident

girl. I try to say yes to

her as often as I can

because it instills confidence.

Millies finished rolling!

2008-09-28T21:56:00.004-05:00

So this is Jeff at our friends house, she offered to take some pictures for them

to have school pictures. He was too distracted to pay attention. I don't know how

to make the picture bigger, any suggestions?

2008-09-19T14:46:00.012-05:00

Jacob is in tackle football and the guys

were in a homecoming "float" throwing candy

He is having the greatest time.

2008-09-19T14:46:00.009-05:00

Here is karen from the back, I ran to catch up to the band to get more pictures. I am a band mom.

2008-09-19T14:46:00.006-05:00

Here is Karen again playing her flute in the Homecoming parade. The middle school is playing with the high school since it is so small.

2008-09-19T14:46:00.004-05:00

Here is karen in her first march on the Homecoming parade. She is really good!

Bride and Groom Shiloh and Andrew Stradley

2008-08-19T15:50:00.006-05:00

Shiloh and Andrew Stradley
Andrew is a smart boy who recieved
a scholarship his first year at school
and a soccer player
that speaks German.
Shiloh has one year left of college.
They are moving back to Utah.

Sisters of the Bride

2008-08-19T15:47:00.002-05:00

Mckay, Amber, Shiloh, Me, Chelsea and Liz

Missing are two sisters Georgie and Verity. Also

missing is brother in the army Jeshua.

Bride and Groom with Mckay and Family

2008-08-19T15:45:00.002-05:00

McKay Montiero with baby RJ Bride Shiloh

Groom Andrew and Helio Montiero

Mothers of the bride

2008-08-19T15:43:00.001-05:00

Susi and bride daughter Shiloh

also Sandra Stradley (who made the wedding

dress!)

Me and Karen

2008-08-19T15:42:00.001-05:00

2008-08-19T15:35:00.002-05:00

Our 7 little drawfs!

Jax, and Jeff in the back

Left to right; Millie David Me (holding Ruth)

Karen, Jacob, James.

Did I already mention that i made 5 dresses for this event?

Yeah me. :)

2008-08-19T15:34:00.001-05:00

The bride Aunt Shiloh and karen

Holding Baby Ruth

2008-08-19T15:31:00.002-05:00

Flower girls: All cousins;

Noelia,Eliza, Baby Miriam,Karen,Jax

MIllie toddler Evette, Gabriella

Front Ruth and Lucy

2008-08-19T15:28:00.002-05:00

Jeff,Jacob, Millie,James,Karen,Ruth,Jax

This is pictures of aunt shilohs wedding in Nauvoo, Illinois

I made the little girl dresses for my girls. We stayed in a

family suite the night before and it was really fun. They even had a pool

2008-07-07T23:05:00.003-05:00

This is what happens when get involved in something. (emailing, banking, etc) This is two toddlers after an encounter with a pound of powdered sugar. Now they are sugar coated toddlers. Baby Ruths name is so fitting now. But aren't they cute? And I didn't even yell, i just took pictures and shut the kitchen door on the mess. I knew that i would get to it later. I did, too. It took three of us to sweep, mop and vacuum.

2008-03-07T12:13:00.002-06:00

2008-01-04T15:18:00.000-06:00

This is Jeff playing in the first snow at the beginning of december. I guess that he is having a deep thought.

2008-01-04T15:11:00.000-06:00

Ruth can stand on her own and take about 4 steps but only when it is her idea or when you clap for her. She thinks she is so big!

2008-01-04T14:46:00.000-06:00

I made a from scratch gingerbread house. I was pleased with the dough and thought that i was cool...but then i suppose i should have consulted a construction manager because the roof was too thick and once we added the candy the roof collapsed. But we had alot of fun making people and our house.

2008-01-04T14:45:00.000-06:00

James resting in the leaf pile.

2008-01-04T14:42:00.000-06:00

I took my dinosaurs along to watch the kids halloween parade.

2008-01-04T13:40:00.000-06:00

Millie took a little cheerleading clas and she wanted to show me how she can hold her toe, very cute.

2008-01-04T13:35:00.000-06:00

Grandma and Grandpa had a 40th wedding anniversary while we were there that was fun getting to have so many important events all at once.

2008-01-04T13:31:00.000-06:00

Grandpa Akins took the boys to a baseball game and here is the brick that has grandma and grandpas name on it for contributing to the baseball team/stadium. They had alot of fun.

2008-01-04T13:10:00.000-06:00

Aunt Kristen treated us to an afternoon at a Discovery Zone kind of play place with a fun dress up zone..we had fun.

2008-01-04T13:07:00.000-06:00

All of us in front of Rushmore, even baby ruth peeking out from around my shoulder.. we had fun. Except James didn't want to be in the picture so he is mad.

2008-01-04T13:03:00.000-06:00

On our way to mount Rushmore we stayed at a State park in South Dakota and had to stop and feed the wild burros that karen was afraid of... we had to giggle at her. The signs along the way said to feed the burros at our own risk, they were very friendly and pushy.

2008-01-04T13:02:00.000-06:00

what we look like walking down the street... our own little crowd

2008-01-04T12:58:00.000-06:00

This is what it looked like from my point of view in the van, there are a few kids missing here....

2008-01-04T12:53:00.000-06:00

Baby Ruth says hi back in August this summer on our way to Idaho via Mount Rushmore.

2007-09-21T16:43:00.000-05:00

James taught himself to ride a bike on my birthday.

2007-09-21T16:42:00.000-05:00

James getting ready to hit his pinata

2007-09-21T16:39:00.000-05:00

This is James with the spiderman pinata that I made for his birthday.

2007-09-19T23:21:00.001-05:00

2007-09-19T13:14:00.000-05:00