I couldn't resist. This might be my favorite part of Christmas blogging.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Let the holidays begin

with a movie night. The house is spotless (so mom, Jenna and Kjersti when you come tomorrow and find it messy it's not our fault) and what better to do with a clean house? Lay down and enjoy it 'cuz it ain't gonna look like this for long. Happy Thanksgiving!

when did no turn into yes?

I don't like animals. I live in a family of people who don't care.

And this is not the same guinea pig twice. It's 2 different pigs that were "free". Right. Is anything ever free?

choose your pose

MacKenzie's cat pose.

And Kennedy's raccoon.

Can you see the sass vs. reservation?

wood stack pic

I have been trying to think of a backdrop for a family Christmas pic and the idea came to me... do it in front of a huge pile of stacked wood. How earthy and festive. Except. I need TWICE the amount of pretty stackage and this pile alone about wore me out. (Or was it because I did it after I attacked the bushes in the back yard in effort to make them look like trees). However for kid pics I really like my little pile. What do you think?

So appropriate

Fall activities

include making turkeys...

Going to the mountains to get wood in our new trailer. That's right Justin found a trailer on craigslist while we were in Fresno for Benjamin's wedding. He's been floating around the house for almost a month feeling "like a man" now that he has "manly things".

And what's fall without a little hint of winter. I found this tree at a yard sale a few months ago which means... we're puttin' up 2 trees this year! That's right 2! This one the kids decorated with stuffed animals. Total cost $0. Take that Tai Pan.

He's 2

Grayson is the oldest baby I've ever had, usually there's an 8 month old crawling around somewhere. Can't believe he's 2. Can't believe we've lived here almost 2 years! To celebrate we had a big party and because I'm super organized mom we planned ahead for this kind of thing... 10am the morning of is planning ahead. It all began with the motorcycle.

That afternoon he dropped a can of pineapples on his big toe (which immediately turned his toenail purpleish-black). Poor guy has the party hat on with the expression of why are all these people here? I just want the pain in my toe to go away. Oh wait is that fire on the candles?

And toys! I don't have to share? Man this is getting better and better.

I'm sad to say, Grayson might own more purses than trucks. He was in heaven.

And what ever happened to pin the tail on the donkey? All Party City had was put the sticker-nose on the clown. The kids loved it anyway.

Well happy birthday Grayson. We love you. And your purses, I mean trucks.

Kennedy's first Primary Program

Today was Kennedy's first Primary Program. My mom & stepdad and Justin's parents came to watch her debut her big speaking part (we also threw together a quick birthday party for Grayson which explains the party hats).


From L-R Bruce, Kathy, Kennedy, Mom, MacKenzie, Manuel, Grayson, Katelyn on me & Justin.

Now for those of you who don't know, the Primary Program it's where the children ages 3-11 perform a 30-40 minute presentation instead of your regular "Sunday sermon" if you will. It is always entertaining and usually funny. This morning I was able to appreciate it as a parent.

As the program started the children were singing and all I could see was the back of Kennedy's head. Nice. The chorus began and she whipped around to sing all the words like a champ. That's my girl. Second verse... cat stretching for a few minutes until the chorus again where she starts singin' like a pro. Good job. (Insert proud Grandparents, Aunt Katelyn and mom)

Then she has her speaking part, "I lived with Heavenly Father before I came to earth". Said through her hand up to her mouth and her head turned to the side. My shy little girl. Aww. Cute.

Another song and they sit down. THEN... what is she asking her teacher? I see their little conversation and it ends as Kennedy walks down off the stage and is now sitting on my lap. Uh.

M: The program's not over, don't you want to finish?

K: No. I'm tired of sitting up there.

M: I'll give you some gum if you go back up there.

K: Um, no thanks. I'm done.

Well okay, what do you say to that? I don't know, but she sure was cute while it lasted. Thanks to the grandparents for driving all that way to see your granddaughter in her 5 minute performance. Next year is sure to be a crowd pleaser with MacKenzie though. She'd've sat up there today if we let her.

pics @ the park

Look what my 4 year-old can do

I felt like painting the front door today, but soon realized I didn't have enough leftovers. Dang there goes plan A for the day. Hmmm, look at all these other colors of paint. There's some left over blue, I wonder if that would work in the kids room. Nope. Hey how about the laundry room? It's white. Let's try just a little. Alright maybe a lot. Okay I don't hate it, let's go with it.

Then Kennedy picks up on my train of thought with, "MOM!!! I want to help!" Alright let's see how she does.

She did AMAZING. I was all busy doin' my side and when I turned around I saw little miss resourceful on the chair trying "to get up to the top". One little smudge on the ceiling, easily whipped off. Not a drop on her shirt or the ground. I think she's better than me.

You know we may not be doing pre-school or play school or whatever you want to call it, but gosh darn-it... that girl can paint!

Dinning chair covers

I just found some chair slipcovers and they look like a table cloth threw up on my chairs. I'll be taking them back. What's the cheapest best slipcovers?

whatcha got in dat there purse a yours?

I'm walkin' along Costco (yes I'm feeling much better, I had Katelyn mop the floor this morning and I went to Costco this afternoon. Fantastic day.) Anyway I'm goin' down the isle for the sour cream when I realize, dang. I just passed it. So instead of turning the very large shopping cart (with Kennedy in it) around I just leave it there next to the gogurts and get the sour cream. Got the cream. Good. Look up and this couple about my age are staring into my shopping cart NOT at the Halloween treats that are bright orange, but at my purse!!! What the? This is Costco! You can't be tryin' to steal from me in Costco. Physco! They see me and keep walking as if nothing happened. To myself (who's had the swine flu and strep throat this week) I think how odd people have become in just a few days.

Outside I go to put the groceries in the car. Turn the car on to heat them diesel coil thing-ers up, put my purse in my seat, shut the door and open the back to load in all my stuff. As I shut the back of my car I turn to find this old guy staring in my window at MY PURSE! Dude! I'm right here! He quickly, yet slowly walks away. What are you looking for? Do I even look like I have any money?! You wanna know what's in my purse? I'll tell you. A credit card I don't use ATM that has recently been frauded and a hospital bill from when I took Grayson to the ER. You want the bill? Oh wait my water bill is in there too, you can take my bills. But really. What is with people today?

#5

The big wedding. Wedding number five. That's right my parents are done gettin' them kids out the door and into their own homes. My little brother Benjamin is officially a man or at least a grown boy paying his own rent and food bill. He got married in the Fresno temple which translated means, my sisters and I had a long overdue reunion. 5 years since we were all in the same state together.

Me, Khristie, Mom, Ben, Jessica, Rebecca, Julia

We carried our excitement right into the temple with us. Unfortunately for everyone else reverence and "Phillips girls" don't mix.

Here's a redo of an old pose.

I haven't had such a good time laughing in a LONG time! I almost peed my pants many times this past weekend and it felt good (not the pee, the laughing). I think Rebecca put it right when she said there's reason we all have moved to different states click here. Thanks fam for the fun weekend.

Box Car

There's a primary activity tomorrow. It's a "drive-in" movie and everyone has to make a car to watch the movie. MacKenzie's not really in primary, but do you think they'd notice if we left her?

These are my favorite part, the license plates.

We've got a ho down

Well maybe not exactly, but that big pile of dirt is gettin' outta here! This is Brother Fekete, he's in our ward, and owns this sweet litte tractor. And for some reason he wasn't scared about leaving it in the hands of my husband.

After riding on the (whatever that thing is) Justin got a tractor driving lesson and didn't get off until 8pm. He was on cloud nine driving the tractor around. And this morning... my NOT morning husband jumped out of bed, put his shoes on and got to work again.

If only you needed a tractor to:

Lift up the toilet seat

Make the bed

and do the laundry

Curtains before and after

Before

After my trip to Ikea and Ross.

Not to mention phone call of panic to my sister Rebecca when I realized I loved 4 completely different curtains. Which should I pick. I loved these better in the store, but I don't know. It's a lot of dark, but I still kind of like them now that they're up on the wall.

MacKenzie's new favorite song

Kennedy knows who Hannah Montana is, but MacKenzie's all about her brother Trace.

my NOT rug

This is the pic of a rug for sale on craigslist. 5'x7' for $50. Okay it's not $5 Khristie (click here and here), but it's brand new so it was a pretty good price. I went to check it out today... I didn't love it. I've noticed in my rug shopping that there are patterns that are "out of focus" and "in focus". The fuzzy ones are lame. I don't like them. The crisp ones are SO much prettier and way more expensive. This one was out of focus. Dang.

The up side? The lady I didn't buy the rug from lives down the street from Home Goods! So I went to see what I could find. No clocks I needed. No pics for the walls. Almost bought that cute little Santa. But look at my little turkey salt and pepper shakers! Finally got a 4 cup measuring cup. The 2 cup business is driving me nuts. And Khrisite... you need this sister. Your frying pan is all scratched up and I'm pretty sure that teflon is part of your diet. And look, it's avocado greenish!

Luau

The YW President before me was WAY more organized. She always had cute handouts, brought treats on Sundays, never forgot birthdays, knew who was getting ready to come into YW... blah, blah you get the point. Then there's me.

I STINK at being the President of anything! I have yet to make a handout, brought treats once and forgot we were getting a new YW until primary came to get us to get her.

Then there's my 1st counselor, she can do things like:

Throw together a luau

feed 10,000 people who show up

decorate everything

teach the girls to dance

have a cousin who can teach the RS to dance

get other YW to participate to get their personal progress done too

So who's really in charge here? Umm I helped vacuum. Does that count? Either way we had SO much fun at our luau. It was on a school night (mutual night) and the YW danced the night away. They were all fantastic and so entertaining. I think this might turn into an annual ward activity.

Temple Square

We went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City, UT on the way home from our big vacation. Oh. I love Temple Square. For those of you who don't know it's where I served a mission for the Church for 18 months. BEST thing I've ever done!

Here are some sweet sister missionaries I got to stop and pose with Kennedy. I'm trying to train my girls young to serve a mission.

I miss seeing the temple everyday... oh wait. I just got my new picture and I do see it everyday. Not the same. How amazing it was to talk to people about the church on dedicated grounds? It was unlike anything I could've hoped for in serving a mission. They say (while you're training to be a missionary for a whole 4 weeks) you have 18 months to serve your mission and the rest of your life to think about it. It's true. Every. Day.

We went up on the observation deck @ the Church Office Building. The temple grounds look perfect from up here too. I need my yard to look like this!

And I wish I had more time to jump into this building. It's new! And totally hands on, but not so much for kids.

I walked and was met by this sign. It gave me goose bumps. I've been keeping a steady journal since I was in jr. high. A lot of it is pretty dumb, but if my parents had journals of the "dumb" stuff I know I'd be fascinated by it today.

We spent all day visiting and will most likely do it again, but not any time soon. The kids traveled well the whole trip, but 10 hours is a long time to be stuck in the car.

We've been robbed!

Some criminal has taken our money! Justin and I have not lost our debit cards, but Justin's has been duplicated. Pin number and all. Our bank stopped them from taking ALL our money when Chase decided Justin couldn't physically buy gas here AND take out a large some of money 60 miles away, within 10 minutes. Thanks Chase. But what gives?! How can they use Justin's debit card with pin? When I asked the lady on the phone how I could prevent something like this from happening again she replied, "you can't". Surely I will sleep better tonight with such words of comfort.

Ode to Facebook

This is one of many reunions we've had thanks to that sweet little website. Justin thinks it's "lame", but not when his old high school buddies contact me. This is Sarah, Justin's old high school buddy. I LOVE Sarah! Wish she was around Clovis instead of Taft so many years ago. While we were near her home town we went for a visit.

While visiting we went to this pick your own fruit area of Washington called Green Bluff. They have animals and toys and produce. Except we went while everything was "getting ripe", so nothing to pick.

Justin accidently let out the goat from the caged area though. Ha!

The goat was ticked. Kept head butting him;)

There were some cute little shops. I mean every little boy needs a tractor.

And I had to take some pics of these clocks for my sister Rebecca, click here. You like?

This one made me think of "Simply Lemonade".

Sarah invited us over for some AMAZING BBQ. So tastey. She's got 3 little girls (and a hubby). Kennedy asked a few days later when we were gonna go back to our "new friends" house. Our kids blended together, good times. Thanks Sarah (and Travis)!

Painted front door

Well I painted the inside of the front doors. Here's a little move in ready pic. Isn't that light inviting?

Here's earlier today. Not bad, not exciting.

Now don't be makin' fun of my mis-matched door knobs or the lock on top. The real plan is to yank these doors completely out and get a fun door (singular) with little side thingies. Until then I really like the black. Thanks sister.

My little corner of shame

What color should this bookshelf and side table be? I have that dark couch, but I don't want ALL my furniture in the house to be black. And it's not, but it very well could be. I look at this corner everyday and think "lame".

Spokane Fair

Air Force

Uncle Jordan is in the Air Force.  The kids were excited to go to work and see the "airport".   That is, the airport with planes that don't fly any more.

There were old yet sleek planes.

Some of the planes were just BIG. 

Justin read all the plaques out loud.  

Toward the end of our "tour" Grayson joined in.  He reads brail.

The girls just ran around on the grass.

Then there were some trains.  I guess in the 50's (I might get all the facts to this story wrong) jet fuel was way expensive.  Air Force right... they do that refuel in the air thing.  To practice this technic minus the price of jet fuel, they used trains.  Check out the sign on the trains though.

After the base we went to downtown Spokane.  Check out this slide.

Can I get one of these in my backyard?

What's a park without ducks?

A waste of money little gondola ride.

Carousal ride.

And some large blocks.  

Nothing gay about it

Due to the low rainfall in the high desert, we don't see these.  Ever.  But they do in Washington!  I couldn't believe how HUGE this thing was (blast!  I don't have panoramic lens).  

I guess Jesus won't be coming back today.  

Road trippin'

Who's trippin'?  Who's idea was it to drive all the way to Washington?  But you know the kids have been such good travelers.  

Along the way we made a pit stop for a few days in Idaho.  My sister Khristie and Bob live in Meridian and we haven't seen them in almost 2 years.  The kids were in my-Aunt-Khristie-spoils-me heaven.  And I haven't laughed that hard in a while.  No one can replace the funniness of my sister.  She needs to live closer!

Now we're in Spokane with Justin's brother Jordan & Heidi.  These brothers have missed each other.  A lot.  And it is beautiful here!  This is the farthest north I've ever been (okay outside of going to England) and it's so nice and cool up here.  

For the past few days we've been boating @ Couer d' Alene which is like 25 minutes from their house.  I had my doubts about getting in the water, but the lake is WARM!  The boys have been wake boarding and skiing, but me and Heidi just do the tube.  We made all the kids go on the tube... so funny.  Nothing like making Grayson get on out there, but he liked it!  MacKenzie LOVED it, and Kennedy only went out to cash in on the ice cream bribe:)

This is what makes me laugh.

What's burnin'?

I got up from resting this afternoon and it smelled like the house was on fire! Went in the kitchen... nothing. Go outside and (smoker cough here) the sky is beginning to look like this! What the? Apparently 50 miles over the hill everyone is being evacuated.

You know why LA is getting hit by all these fires... it's the 2nd coming! You can't just be all gays rights crazy on the Lord's church and expect to get away with it! No way, you're gonna burn.

Cheap stuff

I found 2 night stands on craigslist a few months ago. They were nasty orange-stained cheap pine color with broken knobs. So I painted them. Some good ol' raffia cream and new knobs seems to have done the job here.

And then the head board. Originally I wanted something upholstered and light in color. Then I saw this @ the thrift store in Mammoth. Hmmm. $15? I could handle that. What do you think?

I think I need some different lamps and a new bedspread.

Left before the alter?

Katelyn's fiance... BROKE UP with her!!! What is that?!

The guy can't break up with the girl. He asked her to marry him. The only other explanation is that he's... (insert trash talk here)

What do you do when your sister's entire world crashes down upon her?

Call reinforcements.

Everyone to my house, we're goin' out.

From left to right we've got Kami, Katelyn, Kathy, Amanda, Laura and myself. We missed you Heidi!

The food was great. No one cried. We all had a good time, considering.

My thoughts toward the loser Richie are, glad you did it before the wedding. But really... ugh! You left her there! Completely blindsided and then you were gone. Just. Like. That.