More New Home Pictures

According to my mother & mother-in-law, there is a need for more than just the outside of the new home. Here are a few pctures of the first level that I took while having a walk thru last week. Enjoy! :)

Friends Welcome Anytime, Family By Appointment!

We bought a house yesterday! It has the space we have been dreamin' about. When you have 4 kids, you want as much living space as you can get. It is a 4 bedroom with a study (kristi's stampin haven) & 2 living areas, not to mention a mountain view out the back yard. We have a spare room now, & I do not mean a blow-up matress in the middle of the kitchen. An actual spare room so if & when you pass thru, you are more than welcome to stay at our place.

BTW, the title is a joke..please give a holler when you are in the area. :)

160 Days left.......YEE HAW!!!

Our official separation date is 31May07. We are excited to embark on the next saga in life.

The military has brought new & interesting things into our lives. We are grateful for the true friends that have come into our lives through the AF.

We are leaning strongly at staying in Albuquerque, NM. Billy is looking at jobs on base as a GS worker. We have a church that we love & wonderful friends to go with it. The house market is a bit steep out here but we have faith that God will provide adequate living arrangements. (boy does that sound military or what, get me out of here!)

We do realize this means giving up or Texas residency. Whatever you do, please do not refer to us as New Mexicans! We will always be Texans even if we are misplaced!

You can take the girl outta TEXAS, but you can't take the TEXAN outta the girl! :)

Gingerbread Houses...from school

Leah's gingerbread house is on the bottom & Macey's gingerbread house is on top. Both of these fabulous houses were made at school last week. I guess I will get the girls to help us pick out our next home.

31 years....YOUNG!

As Saturday draws nearer, I am getting teased as to getting older. I have come to the conclusion you are only as old as you feel. So therefore, I am 25 with 4 kiddos. Please do not try to do the math as some of you might bring on a heachache. (just kidding)

I think the matter of the fact is that I am happily married (yes, really!) with 4 beautiful children, with family & friends that love us. Life doesn't get much better than this.

Being happy, well that keeps you young. Sounds good to me!

Drunken Snowman....

I have to say we are quite sadden to fing that our snowman has had WAY TOO MUCH EGGNOG...

As you can see the snow only lasted a few days but those days were filled with snowball fights, red noses, snow angels, hot cocoa, & movies while snuggled under blankets. We had a wonderful family time!

SNOW DAY!!!

Just wanted you to meet the newest family member. His name is Jack & unfortunately he will not be staying with us very long but we definately have loved the time that he will be with us!

We want to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS as we take this time & everyday to remember the birth of our Jesus & thank God for our blessings.

love the Shipman6

Better Late than Never!

Billy took me to Phantom of the Opera for our anniversary in November. It was absolutely wonderful. It was the first time I had ever been to an opera so I was thinking I would be asleep in no time. BOY was I ever wrong. The music was awesome! We had a wonderful 8th anniversary!

New Do's

The girls got new haircuts this past Saturday.

They absolutely LOVE them. I was a bit unsure at first but that is probably just the mom in me.

Leah is 5 & Macey will be 7 in January. My babies are growing up!

The Drowner?

Did you know that according to Leah that the drain at the bottom of the bathtub is really called a "DROWNER"? Boy, I guess you learn something new every day!

Halloween 2006

LADYBUG a.k.a. Avery Grace

STICH a.k.a AJ

TIGGER a.k.a. Leah

PURPLE WITCH a.k.a. Macey

Halloween was quite fun this year.

Since it was cooler this year, we decided to dress in warmer costumes!

the Bloody Water

Leah was reading a book to AJ the other day & I over heard her talking about the bloody water. Curious to see which Bible story she was telling her little brother, I stopped & listened. The next thing I heard was, "And Moses parted the bloody water......"

An AJ Prayer

Dear God, Thank you for my Macey & for my Leah.

Dear God, Thank you for my Soren & my Keely. (friends)

Dear God, Thank you for ME! AMEN!!

(this is AJ & his friend, Keely)

Fallin' into Daily Routine....

Well, It has been almost a month since I have written.It amazes me how time can fly nowadays. The girls are in full-day school. While that is nice most of the time, It definately wears them out by the end of the week. I know that Leah would sleep every afternoon if I let her.

AJ has a Pre-school that he attends 3 days a week for 3 hours in the morning. He usually takes a nap on those days. I guess playing & learning is HARD work.

Over Fall Break, we missed Balloon Fiesta yet again to travel to Texas for some much needed family time. We stopped in San Angelo for a couple of days & were lucky enough to visit with some good friends as well as spend time with Grandma, Papa, & my nephew, Robert. The picture above is of Grandma feeding our Avery-puppy. She was so cute just poised like a sitting puppy.

On Sunday, we headed to Brady where the kids & I hung out with Mom & the boys while Billy went fishing with the KWAST men. Apparently, I do not have what it takes to go on this fishing trip, so my husband took my place. :)

He claims that he "had a blast". He did comment that there was not a whole lot of fishing but he was glad for the much needed break. I have heard a few fish stories but with no pictures or fish to show, I am not so sure about them.

It is amazing how long it takes me to get back to the grind of daily life when we were out of pocket for only a few days. I think the fact that I am tired when I get home from a trip has to do with it somewhat.

As far as our job situation, it has changed again somewhat. The early separation packet that we applied for was disapproved. Apparently, the AF thought they could let people out in Billy' s career field, but then after almost 6 weeks into the program, changed their mind. Leave it to the government to be indecisive.

That changes our family plans for now. We are still looking to separate from the AF, most likely by June 2007. We are looking for a job in 2 primary locations, HERE & DALLAS, TX. There are a few other options but these are our concetrated places for now.

I will try to update this page more often with the status of our family job sitation. Pleas keep our family in your prayers as we have some exciting & scary choices to make in the next few months!

Avery's new haircut....

For the first time, one of my kids needs a haircut before they are 2. Avery's hair has been growing so much lately & I was having a hard time keeping it out of her face, we decided to cut her some bangs.

Isn't she sooooo cute????

All I want for Christmas is my 2 FRONT TEETH!!!

Macey wanted me to show off her new look. Both of her top 2 front teeth are now gone. As always, this is a great scrapbook opportunity but also school pictures are this FRIDAY!

She put her 3 teeth (we had lost one tooth awhile back & recently found it) under her pillow. In the morning, she had 3 silver dollars that had been put in a stampin' up! container.

She made it clear that the tooth fairy had gone into my office WITHOUT my permission & wanted to know if I wanted the container back.

Life with........A BOY!!

As many of you know, Macey & Leah are at school from 8:45am-3:45pm each day (Wednesdays till 12:35pm). Well, as you can imagine...AJ gets a little restless with no older sisters to entertain him.
Last week, I noticed that he had been quiet a bit too long. He had not come to me in the last 10 minutes to tell me that he was hungry again. I called his name. He answered me from what sounded like outside. Curious, I got up to see what was going on.

He had the back door open & was peeing off onto the back porch. When I calmly asked what he was doing, he told me that his tee-tee did not want to be in the potty anymore, it wanted to be outside. I carefully explained that tee-tee should go into the potty unless there is no potty. Then it is okay to go tee-tee outside!

Never a dull moment with that boy around!

Avery's first pair of shoes......

Well, Avery is walking & getting faster by the day!

I went to Wal-mart to buy HER FIRST PAIR OF SHOES. Being the 4th child, she has plenty of hand-me downs. She was give pairs of shoes as an infant but everyone knows that you have to use your shoes before the are consider real shoes, not just an accessory.

As I was trying different shoes on her at Wal-Mart, she was intently watching what I was doing to HER feet. She was peering over the basket handle after I had put a pair on. She then slowly rotated her ankle on her left foot, then her right as if to say, "do these things have a purpose?"



When we got home, I left them on to see how she would do with them on. She walked around the house for a few minutes doing high steps like she was in a marching band. Eventually, she got the hang of them & she is picking up speed every day!

AJ's First Day of School

AJ started a Mother's Day Out program on Thursdays. Every Thursday, he gets up & packs his lunch right along with his sisters. He is so excited. I am sure that he would love to go every day. He is really sad when his sisters leave for school in the morning. He looks forward to his "school" every week. Avery goes to the Mother's Day Out program as well so from 9:30am -1:30pm, I have no children. It is a very strange feeling after having atleast 1 child all the time for the past 6 1/2 years. I have not yet figured out what to do with my sacred time each week....I am still working on the possibilities!

Leah's First Day of Kindergarten

Technically, Leah first day of school was yesterday but since it was a half day anyway, She was extremely excited about today! She thought it was cool that she gets to take a nap at school. I think full-day kindergarten is going to be good for Leah. Her teacher is Mrs. Susan (yes, that is her last name) & Leah says she is very nice.

Leah has been very excited about school since she found out that she gets to go all day & take her lunch. It has been fun packing lunches in the morning.

School starts at 8:55am & goes till 3:45pm so it is a long day but it think the girls are adjusting nicely.