Happy New Year

Well, Christmas is over. It was a wonderful day. We missed Josh terribly and hope that next year he'll be with us. We just cannot believe how fast this past year has gone by. Unfortunately, we've all been so busy that I didn't have much time for blogging. So here are the highlights for 2009.

Melinda -

I'm still living in Arizona and this year I turned 51. I watched my baby graduate from high school. I went to the Temple with Krystal and my baby sister, Rochelle. I was able to go to Disneyland with Marcie's family for a week and enjoyed every second of it!! I'm still working/running/operating Muddy Boys Drywall while my brother is in the Police Academy. I participate in and enjoy a "card exchange" group. I became the Young Women's President in our ward...and LOVE it. (which I didn't think was possible) I participated in the Snowflake Annual Pioneer Fun Run and in the Heber Daze 1 mile run. I also did A LOT of canning this summer with Marcie and Krystal. We raised goats, chickens and turkeys this year, and I learned alot about them, including how to butcher them! I still love living so close to my nieces and nephews and watching them grow! I hope that great things are in store for 2010 and I look forward to many new adventures!

Josh -

This year Josh turned 26. He is still living in Madera, California. This year he got an apartment with a friend. He's still working at the glass company, Saint Gobain Containers. He went to Disneyland for Thanksgiving. And while we were so, so sad that he did not get to come home for Christmas, he did get to enjoy the day with Karsta and the girls. We love him and miss him SO MUCH. And we pray that he enjoys many new adventures in 2010!

Krystal -


Krystal turned 25 last week. (this was her "golden" birthday...turned 25 on the 25th) This year Krystal went through the Snowflake Temple to receive her Endowments. She served as the 2nd Counselor of the Relief Society Presidency in her single's ward. She ran her own business, while also working as a receptionist at a gym and was the field manager for the Show Low City, Co-Ed Softball League. She spent the summer learning how to can food and made TONS of homemade Salsa...YUM! Krystal also learned (thanks to Russ) how to butcher, cook, and eat goats! (disgusting) She was also a good sport in learning how to raise and butcher chickens. Her and Molly took a road trip to California to pick up Hannah over the summer. She recently moved back to Utah and is currently working at a Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts store. She's loving life and I hope that she also will have many fun and exciting things to come in 2010.

Hannah -

Hannah turned 22 this year. She's currently attending Northland Pioneer College. She will graduate next semester with an AGS and the following semester she'll have her AA. She's currently on her single's ward Enrichment Committee as well as the Ward Web Aministrator. She's enjoyed several opportunities this year to do baptisms in the Snowflake Temple. She also was able to spend the summer back in Kansas, with her father and then a couple weeks in California visiting friends. Hannah has a busy and exciting 2010 to look forward to!

Molly -

Molly turned 18 in 2009. She played on her school's Vasity Softball team. She was elected MVP of her Arizona Senior All-Star League. She graduated from Snowflake High School and is now attending Northland Pioneer College. She coached the Snowflake Jr. High Girl's Softball team... and LOVED IT! She also spent the summer learning how to butcher goats and chickens. She has a newspaper route and is currently serving in her single's ward Visiting Teaching Committee. We love Molly's spunky personality. And I know she will have many new experiences in 2010.

So...that's us! We hope that everyon had a very Merry Christmas. And we hope and pray that everyone will have a fun and safe New Year!

Happy 22

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Hannah is 22 years old today. Can't believe how fast time flys. We love you Hannah.

Hope you have a fabulous birthday!

Update

It's been a long time since we've updated our blog. It seems that we've all been staying pretty busy. But, I'll fill you in on what's been going on with each of us.

Melinda - Still working hard for Muddy Boys. And spends all my free time with the family. And spoiling Riley, Raegan, and Reese as much as a Ninna possibly can. We all helped butcher the Thanksgiving and Christmas Turkeys this last weekend as well as the rest of our meat chickens. We're so glad that it's finished. It's a lot of hard and gross work.

Joshua - Still living and working in California. He recently found an apartment with a new roommate and moved in about a month ago. We're hoping that he'll get a few days around Thanksgiving to come out and celebrate with us in Snowflake. We love and miss him so much.

Krystal - Just moved back to Utah. She's been there almost a month now and found a job working at a JoAnn's fabrics for the holiday season. We're sad that she won't get to travel back home for Thanksgiving, but we're so happy she found a job and is loving life.

Hannah - Is still going to school at the community college. And spends most of her free time with friends, being the social butterfly. She continues to be a big help around the house. And is very active in her single's ward.

and last...Molly - She's still attending school at the community college and is READY for the semester to be over! She's doing very well in all of her classes but is ready for the winter break. Both Molly and Hannah are taking a trip back to Kansas during their winter break to spend a week with their dad. They're both looking forward to their trip and their sister time.

Happy Birthday Molly

Yesterday was Molly's 18th Birthday. We can't believe our baby is all grown up. We love you Molly. Love....Mom, Josh, Krystal, and Hannah.

MVP

We are so dang proud of Molly. This past Friday she had her Senior's All-Stars tournament. She rocked!! It was an all day competition. Begining at 8:00am check-in. There were fun contests all day long. Lots of practicing and they had a fabulous lunch at Licano's (mexican steak house). The girls were split up between North/East and South/West. There were 4 seniors from Snowflake. Technically they were supposed to be on the East team. However, there were too many girls from the East, so they put Snowflake with the South/West team. They played 2 games in the evening. Both games were pretty intense. The first game the North/East team won 9-8. They were neck and neck the whole game. And even had to play an extra inning to break the tie. They had a 15 min. break and then played again. The 2nd game was even more intense. It was in the 7th inning... the score was 12-11, and the other team was at bat. They had a player on 1st and 3rd. And then pulled Molly in to pitch (a mother's worst fear). Talk about all the stress!!!! Molly was FABULOUS!! She struck the first batter out. (PROUD MAMA) Then, the next batter up, she swings, and she hits the ball...HARD...straight into MOLLY'S GLOVE!!!!! What does Molly do???? Throw the ball to first, before the other girl on base could 'tag-up' for a DOUBLE PLAY to WIN THE GAME!!!!!!! There was lots of screaming and cheering and tears (on my part). We were so proud of Molly. She's an amazing ball player.

Right after the game, the girls lined up to recieve awards. There were 3 medals given...for something. And then there were 2 trophies given. One was for the MVP of the first game (from the winning team). And then one for the MVP of the 2nd game (winning team). The announcer says, " and MVP for the 2nd game...and my personal MVP for the WHOLE TOURNAMENT....MOLLY ORTON!!!!!!!!! More screaming, more crying, more hugging....blah blah blah....Molly you did it!!! She was amazing. Everytime Molly did something he would say, "and that folks is Molly Orton, from Snowflake High. She's been playing great Defense and Offense all day. She never lets us down."

The umpire takes Molly aside after the game and says....he's going to start making calls on Monday to get her into a JC to play ball. So, hopefully we'll hear back soon. Keep Molly in your prayers.

Molly we love you so much. We're so proud of you. And we're so excited for you. You had a great finale to your Senior year. You definately ended it with a BANG!!!

Krystal's Update

Krystal has been keeping busy. Her business is picking up for the summer, which we're so greatful for. Lots of waxing and body wraps. She also has been covering the front desk at the gym when she doesn't have clients. This gives her an opportunity to not only pick up some extra cash...but it allows her to advertise herself to the gym members. May was a VERY exciting month for Krystal. On May 5, 2009 Krystal had the opportunity to go through the temple and receive her endowments. She was so excited to get to do this. She started temple prep classes in March and went through the temple in May. It was a beautiful experience. She absolutely loved it. It was a special day with Me and my daughter. She was thankful that Marcie and Russ were able to go with her as well. We made a goal that we will attend the temple at least once a week...and so far, we've kept our goal! We also had the opportunity this month to go and do baptisms for the dead. At Molly's seminary graduation, the Stake President announced that you do not have to have a large group to go do baptisms. He said that as long as there was at least 1 adult, any small group of friends could go. So....the 4 of us girls went. Mel, Krystal, Hannah and Molly. It was a beautiful experience as well. We feel so blessed to have a temple right here in Snowflake. We love that we can see it from our street.

Hannah's Update

The past couple months have been busy for Hannah as well. During the month of April she had lots of school projects and finals to study for. She passed all her classes with A's. Yay Hannah!! She also picked up a job as a nanny for the summer. Unfortunately, after only a month, the mom backed out because the grandma wanted more time with the little guy. This did however free up her summer. So, she took off to Kansas for a couple of months. We're not really sure when she'll be home. But she's having a lot of fun, relaxing and hanging out with her father. We miss you Hannah!!!

Hannah...keeping Reese occupied while we do yard work.

Molly, Mel, and Hannah.

Sisters... minus one.

Molly's Update!!

Our blog is long past due for an update. So much has been going on here with the Sipes/Orton clan. Rather than overwhelm you all with a LONG rundown....I decided that we'll update you, one girl at a time. Starting with the baby.


***Miss Molly ***


Molly has been so busy the past couple months. In April, Molly went to her Senior Prom. In May she was busy with finals, Gradnight, Softball, and GRADUATION!! For Gradnight, the seniors get to take a "Senior Trip" to both Disneyland and Six Flags. They were gone for 3 days and they had a BLAST!!! Molly was sad to be done with softball this year. Softball is her passion. This year, during the State Championship Tournament, Molly was awarded the AAA East Region - All Region - 1st Team. This is a HUGE compliment. Basically it means, that if the state of Arizona were to pick it's top 12 players and make a "perfect" team.... Molly would be on it!!! We are so proud of her and all of her accomplishments. She was the only member from her high school team to make ' All Region - 1st Team'. And finally......GRADUATION!! We can hardly believe it, but our baby Molly has graduated high school. We're so proud of her! We love you Molly.








Senior Prom




It's official!!!



Proud Mama and the Graduate!



All the kids...so proud of their baby sister!




Josh and Molly....the first and the last.




Silly girl....caught in the 'walk'.

SPRING FEVER!!!

I know...we haven't updated our blog for a while. We just didn't have anything new going on. But, we figured it's time of an update. So here we go. Our Molly Girl has been playing school softball. She's on Varsity this year. And has been playing 3rd base and pitching. She LOVES softball. This past weekend, she had an out-of-town tournament in Winslow (which is only an hour away). It lasted for 2 days. Her team played 6 games. Only losing one game. Which put them in 3rd placed for the whole tournament. (Molly even hit one over the fence during one of the games scoring her run plus one runner that was already on base) Go Molly and ...GO LADY LOBOS!!! Hannah and Molly are both on spring break this week and loving every minute of it. Hannah especially is enjoying the break from her very busy school schedule. Krystal's business is quickly picking up (thanks to the arrival of spring) and keeps her busy throughout the week...and lately even into her weekend. We definately have SPRING FEVER here at the Sipes/Orton residence. We are ready for the sun! We've had beautiful weather the past couple of weeks (aside from the 50mph winds). It's been beautiful and sunny. This past month our Stake President has asked every family in the Stake to plant a garden. So, we've been getting our soil ready and buying seeds. This week since the sun has been shining, we decided to plant our "starts". We have a large variety of vegetables. Bell peppers, black beans, onions, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, green beans, corn, carrots, lettuce, peas, pumpkins, watermelon and a variety of herbs. We are so EXCITED for our yummy garden to grown. We (Sipes/Orton Clan) also decided we are going to raise some small farm animals. We already have two goats, Nelly and Toby. So, we began this week with Chicks. We got a varity of egg laying hens. We bought them today. We have 4 that are 2 weeks old and 12 that are only 4 days old. They are SOOOOO CUTE!!!!! We've never done the 'farm animal' thing and the girls are very fascinated. They've even gone as far as getting library books on gardening and raising chickens. We are so very blessed that we live with Marcie and Russ and that they too are on board with the self-sufficiency plan. We all have the "preparedness" bug. We've all been working so hard on getting our food storage built up. And the garden and chickens are just that much more to our preparedness plan. We'll let you know how it all works out. And here are some pictures of our new little friends. They have to live inside for the next month. We love them!!!




Molly Girl playing 3rd Base.




After the game!




These are the 4-day old chicks.






Krystal...with a baby chick (she's been asking for 1 for about 4 years)




Hannah...with a baby chick.

Happy Birthday Joshua!!

Yesterday was our Joshy's 26th Birthday. I can't believe how fast the time has flown. We were sad that we couldn't be there to help celebrate. Hope your day was great Josh. We love you. Happy Birthday!

Esthetics By Krystal

Hey Everyone! Krystal has a new skin-care blog. All skin-care comments and questions are welcome. It's www.estheticsbykrystal.blogspot.com. Be sure to visit often and watch for new specials and discounts! PS....advice is free.

Let it Snow..Let it Snow..Let it Snow!

We decided to go play in the snow today. We worked hard on Friday to take down the Christmas tree and decorations and get the house organized so that we could have one last play day before everyone gets back to our crazy schedules. We had so much fun!! Here are some pics.

(Hannah icing her knee in the snow.)

(Go Molly Go)

(Who says Moms can't have fun?)

(Krystal...comes to a stop at the bottom.)

(Hannah....trying to fly down the hill._

(We're exhausted...but had tons of fun!)

(Ready to hit the slopes!)