Shipp Family Tortilla Factory Tradition!!

The Tortilla factory has been a Shipp family favorite restaurant for as long as I can remember and a gathering place for SO many occasions I don't even know where to begin. Our group has grown bigger and bigger throughout the years as we added husbands, wives and then kids!! We love going to the Tortilla factory and now our kids love going there as well!! We have celebrated everything from huge promotions for Becky to Becky's bill getting passed, SO many birthdays!! The biggest celebration of all was when we TOTALLY surprised Mom on her 70th birthday at the Tortilla factory where she thought she was going just with Dad and not only was her whole Virginia family there but also her two sisters from Salt Lake and Phil and Sue from Kansas!!! I thought she was going to pass out!! That was the best surprise ever!! We went tonight to the tortilla factory and it will be the last time we all go together here for a couple of years while Mom and Dad are serving their mission in Bogota. We had alot of fun as usual and Mom of course spilled the salsa. We would not have it any other way!! We are SO thrilled and excited for this adventure they are taking, but boy will they be missed!!!

Preparing for our Audition!!!

Amy's friend Reid came home from school today with her so they could practice their auditions for tomorrow's big audition for Pickwick Players "Crazy for you" They practiced hard with their tap numbers they have worked so hard to learn. Then they alll did their songs they are doing tomorrow and sounded fabulous!! Things went a little silly/wild from there!! They had their monologues and Amy made it through hers but they never quite made it through Reids since his mentioned a girlfriend and Amy decided she should DRESS the part of the girlfriend and make her a very nerdy one at that!! From there all heck broke lose as they did an elaborate movie/video of Amy as a nerd wearing all of her honor roll medals who belongs to the sticker club and who hates lunch because she has no friends and wakes up at 3:00 in the morning because she is so worried she will be late to school!!! It was quite a show and had us all rolling on the ground laughing!! She is quite a creative child and is NOT afraid to make a fool of herself!! Hats off to you Amy and good luck to all the kids on their audition tomorrow!! Break a leg!!

Amy loves to Act and SIng!!!

Amy LOVES to be in every musical and play that she can possibly fit in her schedule!!! She will audition for everything!! She has no fear and loves being a part of the plays. She does not care if she knows noone in the play. She just LOVES it!! She has done Hello Dolly, A Christmas Carol, Little Women, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, Christmas Carols and is set to audition for Crazy for You this weekend. She LOVES to sing, dance and act!!!

More Cool Amy Pictures!!

Amy's Cool Pictures!!!

Amy has this amazing talent with photography and computers and does the coolest stuff to her pictures on facebook!! I asked her to share some of them on the family blog I thought they were SO darling and creative!!

Jenn's report on her Trip to DisneyWorld!!!

I went to DisneyWorld with my Girl Scout troop with the money we earned doing bake sales, a car wash, and many other fundraisers. We flew on Air Tran Airlines. Unlike my Mom I thought the plane was really fun. When we got to the hotel we went straight to Epcot. The first ride we went on was Test Track and that is when the chaperones first found out that we scream on rides!! The other rides we went on that night were Finding Nemo, Honey I Shrunk the Audience Open house, Honey I Shrunk the Audience the show, and Mission Space. The next day we wwent to Animal Kingdom. First we went on Expedition Everest 3 times. The other rides we went on were the African Safari, Dinosaurs, Primeval whirl, Kali River Rapids 3 times, and then we went back to the hotel. That night we went back to Epcot the only ride we went on was Test Track and then we watched the laser show which was really cool. The next day we went to Hollywood Studios and had to get up at 6 because we were doing an Animation program which was really fun. After the program the first ride we went on was Rock N Rollercoaster and we went on that 3 times!! The other rides we went on were Tower of Terror which we went on 3 times and the other ride we went on was Toy Story Mania. We saw the stunt show too and that was really cool. That night we went swimming at the hotel's heated pool. It was really fun. The next day we went to Magic Kingdom. The first ride we went on was Big Thunder Mountain. The other rides we went on were Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, the Tea Cups, the Merry Go Round, and many more rides I cannot remember. That night we stayed there very late and did a little shopping. The next day my friends Sarah and Elena were throwing up which was pretty bad because that day we were flying home and I felt really bad for them. That day in the morning we got packed, went to the hotel store, ate breakfast, and then took the bus to the airport. We had 2 flights, one to Atlanta then to D.C.. By the time I got home it was 8:00. I had a great time and I really want to go back!! That is pretty much my whole trip to DisneyWorld!!

Jenn and her Troop IN DISNEY WORLD!!!

I was SO thrilled to see the blue of Jenn's eyes when she got home tonight!! It was a snowy day in D.C. and I hated to have her flying!! They had fabulous weather the WHOLE time in Disneyworld, NO RAIN!! They had SOOOO much fun!!!! They hit every park and closed every park down. Jenn took over 100 pictures so I will post some more as I gather some of the leaders pictures as well. I am so glad she had such a good time. She is such a doll!! Her sisters decorated her room with posters and streamers welcoming her home!! Our house sure was not the same without our Jenn!!!

The First Snow of the Year

The girls were so excited to see the snow this morning!! We never had even an inch of snow all of last winter!! I had mixed feelings as Sarah was at a sleepover about 15 minutes away and I was real worried about the forcast and Jenn getting home from Disneyworld on the airplane!! Thankfully Dad got Sarah and Matthew in his 4 wheel drive and tonight Jenn is home safe and sound!! The kids had SO much fun playing and sledding and snowboarding in the snow!! We are all hoping and keeping our fingers crossed for NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!! We deserve a snow day!!!

Teacher Work Day!!!

The Girls were so excited to have a day off of school for Teacher work day!! Actually they get tomorrow off as well, fun for us. It is like they never go to school in January!! I really like having the girls home and LOVE 3 day school weeks and especially 3 days of Seminary!!! Sarah's friend from school Meghan came over today so they could work on a project for AP History, they got that done really quickly and had lots of time to jump on the trampoline and play guitar hero world tour!! They were nice enough to let Abby join in on the fun. Amy spent the night at her friend Jordan's house and they had a good time making lots of silly video's for facebook. They were quite creative, I enjoyed them. Sarah is off at a sleepover now and we are all anxious for Jenn to arrive home tomorrow and worried about the snow we are supposed to get, hoping it won't delay Jenn's big return from Disneyworld!!!

Autumnwood Summer Swimteam!!

Autumnwood Pool and Summer swim team is a big part of our lives!! We love that pool and our swimteam!! The people on the team are like family to us now!! We have been on the team since Sarah was 8 and Amy was 6 years old. I have been one of the managers for the past 3 summers and plan on doing it again this summer. That has been so much fun (and alot of work!!) as I have gotten to know the kids and parents so much better. The biggest joy has been working with the coaches who are all in high school or college and keeping in touch with them during the year!! Even though the Frederickson's don't have anyone swimming on the team anymore Michael is still a very devoted fan and record and score keeper for us!! We are already thinking and planning for this summer and it will be here before we know it, yikes!!!

Jenn and her Troop are off to DisneyWorld!!!!

Jennifer was SOOO excited that this day finally came!!! She and her Girl Scout Troop left today for 5 days in DisneyWorld!! I am SO jealous!!! They were so funny this morning watching the school bus pass them by and waving "Bye Losers who have to go to school" to the bus!!! Jenn was so excited to fly on an airplane. The only other time she has been on an airplane was to GrandmaGreats funeral and she does not remember that!! Jenn is so excited to have 5 days in the parks with all of her best buddies and staying in the hotel!! I can't wait to hear all about it and all her adventures. It will be the best trip ever I know!! Have a blast Jenn!! We will miss you here and yes, we are all jealous!!

Inaugeration Day of Barack Obama!!!

What a great day today was!!! It was amazing watching Obama get sworn in as President!! What a historical moment!! I was quite teary and emotional. I gathered all the girls around me on my bed and we all watched together and listened to his speech and pretty much watched all the festivities throughout the day!! Sarah could not get over how many balls the Obama's have to attend tonight!! They will be so tired when this day is over. After his speech and the girls had lunch we had 3 of the girls friends over, the Overton's, Megan, Sarah and Hannah. It was funny how they all did separate things. The "older girls" were on their facebooks and then guitar hero, "the middle" as they call themselves were the bakers and made brownies and did fashion shows and looked at pictures of Joe Jonas, and the youngest ones played a quiet game of Life!!! They had a great time!!

Precocious Abby!!!

Abby is a very precocious 8 year old in our house and she brings us much joy, excitement and yes stress as well!! We love every minute of her though!! She is such a talented girl at whatever she does and unfortunately she does know it!! Today at Brunch at Becky's she was telling us how popular she is in the 3rd grade and what a cross it is to bear all the constant "Hi Abby!" "Hi Abby" all the time, I guess that would just be too much at times!!! She loves all sports and DOES NOT like to be called a girly girl. That pink shirt she has on she will not wear anymore even though it still fits because she WILL NOT wear pink, that is TOO GIRLY!! She loves basketball, soccer, swimming and football. Last night we were watching the playoff football game and she had her Uncle Dave write down for her all the rules for football so she could discuss with the boys better about football!! She has several boyfriends. She has her Church boyfriend and her school boyfriend, I am not sure they know about it, but they are her boyfriends whether they choose to be or not!! Abby's classic move of late was when we were visiting Grandma Shipp's Ward to perform for one of their farewells and as the Sacrament was being passed she whispered to me "That boy is hot!!" So much for being reverent during the Sacrament and Abby is 8 years old!! Wish me luck when she is actually a teenager. She is so much fun and we all love sweet Abby!!

Martin Luther King Day!!

We had a fun day off of school today. It started with a great brunch at Becky's house. She made a yummy egg dish, fruit salad, potato's, muffins and the ever popular bacon. It was very fun to be together. Mom and Dad will be on their way on their 2 year adventure 2 weeks from today so our time together is so precious!! We stopped and picked up the family calendar which turned out so darling. Sarah and Matthew left straight from there and went to Cameron's house to meet up with all their buddies for a game of lacrosse, lunch and lots of fun!! It is after 7 tonight and I have not heard a word from them so they are obviously having alot of fun!! Right when we got home I took off with Amy to pick up her 3 best buddies Lauren, Taty and Rebecca for a fun afternoon at the mall. Here are a couple of darling pictures of Amy and Lauren hamming it up for Amy's cell phone camera. Are they photogenic or what??? They had a fun time trying on all kinds of expensive clothes, too bad no money to spend with Amy!!! Jenn is psyched tonight to watch the concert at the Verizon center in celebration for Obama!! It features you guessed it THE JONAS BROTHERS!!!! We are all psyced for the inaugeration tomorrow, you can just feel the excitement around here!!!

New Year's Eve!!!

We all had a really fun New Year's Eve. It started by going to the Crime and Punishment Museum, our whole family and the Frederickson's with Aunt Becky, a Christmas present from Becky. It was SOOO fun, who would think we could laugh so much at the Crime and Punishment museum, but we have never laughed so hard!! We rushed home to get Sarah and Matthew off to a night of partying with their Church friends and the New Year's Eve dance!! They had a blast and ended up at I-Hop after the dance. My other 3 girls, Jenn, Amy and Abby went to party at their friends the Overton's house, where several other of their friends were invited as well. Amy is best buds with Megan, Jenn with Sarah and Abby with Hannah!! As you can see in the pictures they had a blast rocking in 2009!! That left Tom and I home alone, WHAT!!! That never happens!! We brought in chinese food and snuggled up and watched a movie. It was a great New Years Eve for all of us and we are so psyched for 2009!!!