Our Thankful Tree

I cut out a naked tree shape
and tons of leaf shapes

we all wrote the things we are thankful for on the leaves.

After we got them all taped up there, I was so shocked at how beautiful it was. As I was cutting out the tree, I thought it looked ugly. As I cut out the leaves, I thought they were ugly too. But when they all were up there, I could not love this thing more. I hope the kids can stand to leave it alone so it can stay up for the rest of the season.

This is my other recent project. My neighbor hosted a class to make these beautiful temple pictures. I'm sure it doesn't look like much in the picture, but we built the frame, mounted the photo, and it even has a texture on the photo to make it look totally professional. I am so in love with it. I am just trying to decide if I want to "antique" the frame or not.



And this is my constant, all-consuming project.

I always have so many projects on my mind. Stupid housework always gets in the way.

Halloween 2010

This year we had 4/5ths homemade costumes.

Jackson was a Mad Scientist

Molly was Medusa

Grant was Superman

Tommy was a mummy

When Molly told me she wanted to be Medusa - I had no idea how to do the snakes. I asked around everywhere and everyone. I had a one neighbor tell me he used to spike his mohawk with elmers glue. We tried it and it didn't really work. Another neighbor told me she used to use unflavored gelatin (Knox). We tried it and it worked so totally great!! I mixed the gelatin slightly stronger than the package suggests. Then I took a section of hair ran some gelatin through it and twisted and rolled it on sponge rollers. It takes a few hours to set up. It turns out really crunchy and hard. The extra cool thing is that it washes right out!!!

We were bored for UEA weekend and decided to go to the zoo. The only problem was - so did everyone else. It was quite crowded but who cares, the kids weren't sitting in front of a screen of some sort, and I wasn't walking around my house feeling guilty that I wasn't cleaning it.

I would love to win this giveaway!

Check it out! I went to High School with Kami, and now she has this amazing and very successful blog that is so fun to follow.

I would love this giveaway.

End of summer "to do "list has an official dent

Lovin' it in Logan!

So toady we spent the day in Logan, UT.
My crazy sister-in-law decided to turn into an ironwoman.
We drove into town to watch her do this.......

and this......
(yes, that freak in the headphones is her)

Clayton's sister, Cherice, ran the "Top of Utah" Marathon today. We went to the finish line to cheer her on. She was so totally totally amazing!! She ran the WHOLE way and came in only 5 min after her goal time of 4hrs 15min. Also, as it turns out, she came in 11th in her category of over 200 women!!! Did you hear me people?!?! 11th!!!

Clayton's cousin, Ryan and his wife Bethany, also ran the race and we got to see them come into the finish line too!

I think everyone of these crazy people are totally amazing! To run that far seem totally impossible to me. I would be thrilled to run 1 mile without stopping.

Anyway, since we had driven 2 hours to get to Logan, we figured we might as well make a day of it. As I was researching what to do in Logan, I found a little Chilean restaurant. Clayton was, of course, game to try it. And it did not disapoint. After we filled our bellies full of empenadas and completos and mostaza, and good ole' American soda, we went to check out the Logan Temple.

After that was done, we found this really fun park that has a small zoo and playground. The zoo only asks for a small donation of $1 for entry (so this was totally up our ally). It was actually quite cute for being basically free.

When we were done with the zoo, the kids played at the playground for a while. At the end of the day we stopped at Gossner's cheese factory for some squeeky cheese and an ice cream cone. All in all, it was a totally fun day.

Most of all, I was so proud of Cherice.

The Cuteness of Brandon

Brandon is just too cute these days!
Here's why.

1. He has the cutest run. He kindof does this high knee sort of run. And if you are lucky enough to have him runnung toward you - his whole face jiggles.

2. Whenever he is getting dressed, he slaps his belly a few times when his shirt comes off.

3. When he is waving bye-bye, he raises his hand all the way above his head and waves with his fingers.

4. He sticks his little finger up his little nose.

5. When prompted by his siblings, he makes this face with his teeth showing and his nose all wrinkled up.

6. If he wants your attention, he taps you with his finger. If you think you can ignore this - think again! The intensity of the poking grows until you can't stand the jabbing anymore.

7. He can ride on the wiggle car!! (it really is sooo cute)

8. He holds the Wii nunchuck by the cord and drags it around the house like it's a pet.

9. We taught him the sign for "more" and he does it all the time. (cute little hands)

10. He flies down the stairs on his belly, feet first, faster than any of us can run down them.

11. He is starting to mimic words - SOO CUTE!

12. When the other kids are playing video games, he picks up any random controller and thinks he is playing right along with them.

13. During family prayer, he covers his eyes with this hands on the couch just like the other kids.

Brandon is now 20 months old. I can't believe it. I can't believe how old all my kids are. Why does time have to go so fast? On one hand, I love watching them grow. I want them to get older and experience new things that come with growing up. But on the other hand, that means they aren't going to need me forever..... ANYWAY - some of these things are sometimes annoying also, but usually the cuteness wins over. LOVE THIS BABY!!!

Phillipps family reunion

After much agonizing over what to do and where to go, the day finally came to go camping at Lodgepole. It was so great to see all our relatives that live far away and get to know them more. We even had one night when all 8 siblings were there. (I am still mad at them for not getting a picture!) The kids just love love love camping. The fire provided kid entertainment for the whole time (literally). The older cousins had a few rip-roaring games of Risk going. Clayton and Curt cut down an entire tree since the forest had been scoured clean of firewood. (it is against our religion to buy firewood) We hiked a little bit, but mostly we cooked and ate and cooked some more. This was the trip to get sick on scones. After the last batch of dough had risen, some of the uncles had resorted to wrapping anything and everything they could find in dough and frying it. They were frying string cheese, bananas, brownies, candy bars, peanut butter &jelly, butter - and probably more things that I wasn't around to see.

Even though camping is a lot of work and a lot of planning, it was a lot of fun. The real fun for me was being with family, and laughing till it hurts around the fire until all hours of the night. The only thing missing was Grandma and Grandpa (but we are really glad you are where you are) (did that come out rude? I didn't mean it like that - we love you and miss you).

Glitter Toes!!

Our friend was having a glitter toes party, so I decided Molly and I should get our toes done. I think mother/daughter things are always so fun. I only get to have one daughter, so we are going to have fun together. At least for as long as she will let me!

Thanksgiving Point might just be the greatest place on earth (or at least in Utah County)

Thanksgiving Point is so great! We spent a whole day there and only saw a fraction of the place. The Children's garden is totally fun and, for some reason, my kids could have spent all day bulilding with blocks over there. They loved running down the hill at the ampitheater and walking all around the top of the waterfalls.



So, there is my shameless plug for Thanksgiving Point.

Check out my new bathroom!!

We bought a new house in May. We love the layout, we love the yard, and we love neighborhood. The only problem is, the entire house needs a paint job. Me, being the cheap-skate that I am, would not pay a painter to come do it. So, here I am with this huge project. It is very slow (I can only do about one room a week), but really exciting. The first room I did was Molly's. It turned out very cute. Maybe I'll post pictures if it can ever be as clean as the day I finished it. The other room I finished is the smallest one in the house - the downstairs powder room.

These are the "before" pics.

Most of the whole downstairs is covered with this "rag rolling" technique. Not this same color, of course, but still not my favorite thing.

I didn't think about taking before shots until I had taken down the wallpaper border. Isn't it CUTE!!! (sarcasm)

And here are the "after" shots. I used the leftover paint from Molly's room. I made the wall art after seeing it on the Make it and Love it blog. (it is no accident there is not a close up of these)

Now here is the question. Should I paint the vanity cupboard black? I'm afraid it will be a pain in the butt and not look that cute. But, it might be totally ugly the way it is. I need advice from all my decorating-savvy friends out there. Thanks!