Month: March 2011

Tucker started the trend when he was born…he’s an early riser!

Most of the time, it’s great. I am not a morning person, so it is incredible for me to see this boy so happy and energetic from the moment he rolls out of bed! (Kind of like Christopher in that way, happy riser, you could say!)

Unfortunately, not everyone got that be happy at the wee hours of the morning gene from Toph.

Elliot and I are from the same mold.

Most mornings he’s able to roll with the craziness of his brothers getting ready for the day and school. But occasionally, he doesn’t do well. Like this day:

After waking up, he promptly went back to his bed got his blankets and then covered his head up with them and the surrounding laundry pile at the bottom of the stairs, and sang himself back to sleep. (the red is his sweater)

A little over an hour later, he woke up, happier but confused as to where Tucker and Truman were! He kept repeating ‘ but they didn’t say goodbye!’ over and over again.
What a sweetie!

The highlights from our winter trip to the zoo:

I always love a trip to the zoo. The day we went was the free winter day, and the weather was better than expected, cold but not freezing. It was the first time we’d really had a big adventure since Lorelei was born. For me a pretty significant milestone getting everything we needed, and getting there.

Lorelei spent the entire time bundled up in her carseat/stroller and slept the whole time!

The double stroller was nice as Elliot was able to walk when he wanted to, and ride when he was tired.

Toph was able to leave work a few minutes early, and we had a fun family adventure together. I love watching him as a father, interacting with our children when we’re out and about.

The animals were incredibly active, more so than I’d seen them before.

It was a great time of year to go to the zoo, and I think we’ll try to make a tradition of coming on this day.

A fun shot on the sculpture, love these boys.

We weren’t sure if we’d be able to see everything as the zoo was closing earlier than usual, so we decided to tle the boys choose their favorites, to make sure we saw the ‘important’ things:
Tuckers favorite–the tigers


Elliots favorite–the giraffe

Trumans favorite–the reptile house

And a must for me? My favorite tradition on visiting the zoo: The monkey shot

And I don’t think we’ll ever get one where the kids match up so perfectly in size again!

Ending with a ‘almost’ family portrait on the elephant (Lorelei was in the stroller to the left of us )

A great day at the zoo.

My plan was to finish potty training Elliot, then move him to the ‘big boy bed’, but sometimes our plans as mothers don’t always work out the way we envision them in our heads… like this plan of mine! 🙂

We’ve decided to put the potty training on hold…Elliot has mastered the going pee part, and gets a 100% for that, and is excellent at staying clean and dry with that part..but the rest? I’d give him a 5%, his bowels are like clockwork and if I remember to help him, he makes it to the potty evertyime, but he just is not aware of the rest of his body, and I don’t want to be in charge of that, I want him to learn to be aware, so we decided to wait a little longer to finish the job, until he can maybe understand a little better what his body is trying to tell him 🙂

Tangent. Sorry about that.

Anyways, the time came that we wanted to put up this toddler bed for Elliot. And let me tell you, he loves his bed, and so proud of himself when he sleeps in it– and as you can see his obsession with having lots of his blankets has continued, as well as having his friends (stuffed animals) with him when he sleeps.

He also has taken to putting his guys on each post of his bed before his afternoon nap. Just makes me laugh when I see all 4 of them on his posts.

And he has done TERRIFIC with his new bed, and had no problems whatsoever, I love when things go so easily like that!

Now the crib is all ready for Lorelei, which is a good thing, because she’s almost outgrown her bassinet!

Since we’ve moved into our house, I’ve wanted to get the playroom ‘done’. I’ve had it done in one way or another, but never totally comleted in my mind.

We’ll I’m constantly tweeking things so who knows how long it will stay ‘done’, but there were a couple of little projects I wanted to do.

After a weekend at Ikea with Toph for our anniversary, I was finally able to get the last few things that I needed to complete a couple of projects on my to do list. And this was the first room I finished re-touching up the paint.

We got the Lego shelves installed *now the boys have a place to store their lego creations away from the littlest brothers hands, and I don’t have to see them ‘stashed’ all over the house.


The magnet board got installed and little basket things underneath to store all the magnets

And lastly all the little robot decals finally found homes hiding among shelves

Pictures were hung

And new light fixtures were installed.

Hurray for updating everything!

The bad news? With a leaky kitchen sink, we’ve already had to fix up a wall and now needs to be repainted…so really it didn’t stay ‘done’ for long! 🙂 But it did feel good for a day or two while it was done!

Lately, I have been loving our mid-afternoons. Elliot goes down for a nap, and Tucker is at school…that leaves Truman, Lorelei and I. Sometimes Lorelei naps, sometimes she’s awake.

When she is awake, it is so fun to watch Truman just dote on her. He is constanly taking my phone and making videos of her and taking pictures too.

truman swinging his sister from Emily Phillips on Vimeo.

On this day the swing was moving, and I thought it was funny, he got a picture of her in almost the same position every single time…

Truman talking to Lorelei from Emily Phillips on Vimeo.

I love to think about the relationship they will share someday…

We have been so blessed. Friends, neighbors, family and loved ones have all showered Lorelei in such darling clothes! And because of them, Lorelei has one of the cutest wardrobes in town.
Including Lorelei’s ‘name brand gear’ this cute shirt our neighbor made–we just love it so much that anytime it’s clean, she wears it!

I was trying to get a picture of her in it one day



and Elliot kept saying, I fix Lorelei’s hair, and kept grabbing her head. So funny.


And poor Lorelei is so used to being ‘loved’ that it didn’t even phase her.
Later that same day, while I was cooking dinner, I was talking to her and cooking away, only to look over and see this…

amazing how babies can fall asleep any place they can!

Our neighbors were ‘puppy sitting’ this little cutie named pepper.

And eventually all 3 boys saw and cuddled her. (Thanks Madsens!)
Whenever I see a puppy, it makes me want to get one, and this sweetie was no exception–just look at their faces!

What is it about puppies that makes the world a better place?

The Good News…
the holes in her heart have not gotten any bigger-

The Bad News…
the holes in her heart have not gotten any smaller-

Next appointment with Cardiology department 3 months. We’re hoping that this little heart of hers will heal up quick!

A great shot of my handsome hubby and beautiful little girl all ready for church

To Celebrate the big 10 years together, we decided to get away…thanks to my momma who took the boys, Lorelei came with us, and we got to escape the real world for a bit, and enjoy the company of just each other and a baby who slept incredibly well.

Of course we had a wonderful time. And I was very diligent in taking MANY pictures of the wonderful adventures we were having. You don’t get to celebrate your 10 year anniversary every day you know! 🙂

But here’s where the mistake comes in. Somehow (user error on my part) I accidentally deleted the pictures, when I thought they had been imported 🙁 Boo-Hoo!

So, only three pictures survived, two horrible pictures of Toph and I smiling in the mirror trying to taking our own pictures.


And this one of Mrs. L and I, in our matching outfits.

Pictures or not, I will remember eating yummy food with my sweetheart (Moochies meatball sandwiches, yum!), suckers from the lobby (they had the most delicious gelatto flavor!), wandering around potterybarn/restoration hardware/ikea, because it was something I wanted to do, getting jamba juices, laughing and giggling, watching movies, and having a great time. (Did I forget anything Hubba?) How wonderful it is to be married to someone who is just so much fun! Love this man!

When I told Toph I accidentally deleted the pictures, and was so upset, Toph’s response to me was, well, we’ll just have to celebrate again, I guess! 🙂 Love him.