Constable Tipton gets sworn in!

We traveled to Holbrook to have Scott sworn in. There were all the elected county officials to be sworn and resworn in. Janet and Gary came to support him.
The meeting was conducted by Jesse Thompson who prayed in English and switched to Navajo in the prayer. It was very touching.
After the ceremony, we ate at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant- and I mean HOLE-IN-THE-WALL!
It was a good day, and Scott was very pleased to finally be able to take up his new post.

Winter Formal, Sydney's first date!!

Sydney asked Cory Davis to Winter Formal 2010.
She chose a lavender irridescent gown with lace and beading on the bodice.

The gown has a sweeping waist and looked really beautiful on Sydney.

Another shot right before they left to the dance.

We had them stay and eat at our house. Scott was their server and did a great job. He wore a bowtie and looked the part. Jamie was the kitchen help. Dinner consisted of a nice salad, pizza and a pazookie. All of this was served on the best china. This picture looks light, but the flash was on.

Here's one with the flash off. Really what it looked like. Christmas music was playing so the couple could talk to each other without everyone else hearing.

Leaves, wonderful leaves!

A friend from work has some trees that drop tons of leaves. I asked for them so the kids could roll around in them. We have about 35 trees but they are all cedars and pinions, so no leaves.

What joy can be found rolling in leaves!




Sydney, Sloane and Andrew taking advantage of the big pile of soft leaves.

Green's Peak Picnic

We wanted to take a little day trip to Green's Peak and have a sunset dinner picnic. Wow, we did not quite expect the freezing temperatures. When we got in the car it was 60degrees, when we got out, 40, brrrrrrr......
The view all around was beautiful and the green trees have big areas of yellow from the aspen trees. The wind was crazy.

It was a little warmer the closer we got to the forest, the wind didn't blow as much. Notice Scott's Coco's jacket, he won a pie-eating contest at the AZ state fair with the scouts. I always knew he had it in him!

Andrew, Sloane and Sydney looking with awe at the view. A pretty dense forest is directly behind me taking the picture.

Three little ants on the log--oh four, forgot Charro.

Sloane's 11th Birthday

Samantha K, Chayla C, Sloane T and Emilee H having fun together!

Happy 11th Birthday Sloaney!!
Sloane didn't want a regular cake with ice cream this year, but wanted to make caramel apples. So, she had a few friends over and had a caramel apple bar. They all wanted to watch Percy Jackson The Lightening Thief (which she got for her birthday, along with a ripstick). Good, good times.

Sydney's 16th Birthday!

Today is Syd's birthday, of course we had birthday breakfast of pancakes in the shape of an "S". We also had monkey bread which is our tradition for Sunday morning General Conference.

We wanted to take her out to dinner for her birthday and did on the Saturday before (Oct 2). She asked to Taco Bell for double decker tacos, her most favorite thing in the world! So, to Taco Bell we went and had a great feast!

She got a hoodie that has headphones in the cord, a new ctr ring, a necklace and itunes of course.

She has to wait for one more month before getting her driver's license, but she's driving really well.

Our Garden Harvest

Here's the end product. Carrots, tomatoes, potatoes and watermelon. We decided to dehydrate some watermelon and see what it does. It dryed nicely and has a taffy-like consistency.

We canned all the good stuff while watching General Conference

We can hardly believe all the carrots that we grew. Never have we been successful with carrots!

These are the tomatoes from just today, we've been picking and eating all season. There are a ton more that are not quite ready.

The watermelons that Andrew has were not part of our garden, per se. We had a patch of sunflowers that were basically weeds. When Scott went to cut it down, he saw that watermelons were growing inside.

Sunday afternoon baking with Sloane

Today, Sloane and I decided to bake some yummy breadsticks.

Here's the recipe that we used:

3c warm water

2Tbl yeast

1/2 C yeast

Place ingredients in kitchen-aide bowl and let sit until foamy.

7C flour

2tsp salt

2Tbl italian seasoning

1Tbl garlic powder

Add flour slowly into the bowl and let knead for 10min (using the dough hook). Add a little more flour if needed. You want the sides of the bowl to be clean.

Cut the dough in half, take the dough and roll it out and cut strips with pizza cutter, twist and place on a greased jelly-roll pan. Let rise for about 30min, bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes. I like to broil the last couple minutes to brown the tops. Brush with butter, delish!

Fossil Springs Hiking Trip

Scott took Sydney and Sloane on a hiking trip to Fossil Springs. They went with Scott's brothers (Rick and Jay) and their cousins. It was an easy 4 miles down to Fossil Springs but a hard 4 miles up the next day! While at Fossil Springs, everyone swam, swung on rope swings, played in the water caves, jumped off cliffs and had a great time exploring! It was Sloane's first family backpacking trip, and, with the exception of being too cold or too hungry, I think she had a good time. Here are some pictures of the event:

Everyone in good spirits at the start of the hike!

At the bottom of the trail.

Sydney ready to take the plunge while cousin Jake waits for his turn!

Sloane "The Fish" showing us how its done!

The cool magical cave, or "Gollum's cave".

The water was cool and clear. Quinn, Sloane, Jake and Sydney in the cave.

"Dad, I'm hungry!"

Sloane, Quinn and Cole's friend at the waterfall.

Halfway up the trail. Sydney and Sloane are a little tired from skipping up the trail singing "Zippity Do Da"!

Triumphant smiles as another hike is conquered! I think Sloane is already asleep!

Happy 6th Birthday Andrew!

Andrew celebrated his 6th birthday today. He is so, so, so excited to be so big now. He asks all the time if he's 6 1/2 now. He got a new bike for his birthday.

A few months ago, his friend Isaac who is younger could ride without training wheels. Andrew could not stand riding with training any longer! He practiced and practiced until he got it right. However, his old bike was way too small for him, he was crouching uncomfortably trying to fit his body onto the bike. So, here he is with his new one.

Scott won the Republican Primary Election for Constable!

Scott won the Primary Elections!
He had 48% of the Republican vote. He beat out two other candidates.
Scott spent the summer going door to door and meeting people, speaking at engagements, on the radio, in the newspaper--He was everywhere, not to mention all the signs around town.
We are very excited for this and now Scott will go the General Elections in Nov and tr to beat out the Democratic opponent. We feel strongly that he will be successful.

Blackberry Picking!!

Emilee, Sloane, Andrew and Hunter posing in front of the cabin. Andrew and Hunter in the creekbed with blackberries growing.

Scott Hastings, Emille, Heidi, Sloane, Andrew and Jamie making s'mores by the fire.


Andrew playing in the rocks, he couldn't resist climbing over all the rocks!

Heidi Hastings and Jamie picking berries to their heart's content.

Blackberry Picking!

We went on a short overnight trip to Pine with the Hastings family to pick wild blackberries.

We stayed in a quaint cabin that had a creek running behind it with tons of blackberry bushes. It was really fun, we got all scratched up, bitten up by mosquitos and sweated up due to the HOT weather.

Nevertheless, we came home with yummy blackberries that were promptly made into jam, cobbler and frozen for smoothies. I was seeing $ in my mind as we picked--blackberries are so expensive in the store!

First Day of School (minus Sydney, who declined a picture)

Yay! Today is the 1st day of school for the younger kids. Sequoia starts today with Andrew starting Kindergarten (with Mrs. Warren and Mrs Lewis) and Sloane starting 5th grade (with Mrs McAteer). We hope all the best for this new school year.

Sydney will start 10th grade next week. Yes, I can hear her crying upstairs!

Andrew loves, loves art!

This is the cutest picture, and I show everybody. My son Andrew (5) loves art and making anything and everything out of anything and everything. One day I made some brownies and found him taking the brownies and smashing them to sculpt into army men.

Cousins visiting!

My brother Brandon's wife drove through our area on her way to a family reunion in WA. Brandon stayed home in Houston to study for the bar.

We were able to visit with Amy Tuck, her twin sister Annie. Her children, my neices and nephew are: Evelyn in the top picture, Mallory and Lawson are in the lower picture along with Amy. Miranda is not pictured here, but she is an adorable little 3-4yr old.

I loved their visit. I hadn't ever met Miranda or baby Evelyn, and also Annie. Mallory and Sloane were inseparable. The kids were so cute and very well behaved. Bravo Brandon and Amy!

4th of July Show Low Parade

We had a great time "stumping" in our Show Low 4th of July Parade.
We had so many people come up and show support for Scott and his constable campaign. Gary and Janet, Rick and Tracy and family, Jay and Heather and family, Tiff and Shaun and family and Ann and Todd and family.
We had quite a full house. My good friend and neighbor Heidi let us use her house (they were out of town) and those who stayed there were definitely more comfortable than those who stayed at my house!
I (Jamie) drove Scott's car all decorated up, Janet was yelling "Vote for Scott, he's hot". Todd Smith pulled the float filled with kids from the family as well as from church.

Newport Beach CA June,2010

We went to Newport Beach CA and had a great time. We stay at Mr Lee's pretty rundown beachhouse. Oh well, it's on the sand! A week of waking up and going to the donut shop, riding scooters on the boardwalk, surfing, laying in the sand and reading or listening to music can really take it's toll! Here's a pic of the grandkids. This year we numbered about 40 people in the beachhouse. Andrew was buried straight up and down in the sand, I think sand was blowing in his eyes.