Month: December 2011

A beautiful meal, and day in Logan!
(Pictures stolen from Emily Huff, thanks em!)

In pictures.

I love that the church provides such great ways for my kids to learn.

Things you love:
being where the action is.
Finding crayons and biting them.
Crawling around, trying to catch your brothers.

Hugs from Elliot.
Your binky, and nursing.

going for ‘stroller rides’.
being able to feed yourself.
your big brothers.
sleeping with a baby doll.

Things you hate:
thinking you’re not the center of attention.

being in the car with just mom. (you think you should always have someone in the back seat with you)

not being close to dad or mom.
having little toy pieces pulled out of your mouth.
when after you spit out food, when it gets fed to you again.

We love you so much sweetheart! We love watching you grow up!

Cam-wow is a funny app I have on my phone.

It was discovered at Lorelei’s birthday party, and here is the fun that ensued:

fun, fun, fun.

I don’t know how it went by so fast, but Lorelei turned One!
(Here were are, with our sunday ritual of getting her hair done for church.)

We had a grand celebration at our house with my side of the family, on her birthday, a beautiful Sunday Afternoon and evening.

We ate yummy food, enjoyed good company.








Watched the birthday girl get her first taste of cake.




(Our camera battery died, half way thru, so we had to use our phones! Thank heaven for technology!)

And open her presents.






The more children you get, the more you get to sit back, and enjoy the little moments. This day was full of those little moments you can only enjoy after four children.

Thanks everyone for coming to celebrate with our little girl!

Yep. They are still falling in my backyard by the dump truck fulls.

I gave up counting the big black garbage bags at around 55. And that was just me, I have no idea how many bags Toph did.

Thank heavens the boys are getting bigger and stronger and more helpful.

There is NO WAY I could have done it with out them.

I can’t wait until their teenage years, when I can delegate the job to them completely 🙂

Just kidding. (mostly)

They did work hard, but we also did play too! 🙂

And, there is not too many pictures this year,

(I didn’t try to get really good ones, just tried to get some, if that makes any sense)

as Lorelei usually wanted to be held while we did it, or was covered in bananas, shrieking at me for more. (she ate a lot of bananas that week…..)



But a few to remember the season by.

(the fun part of playing in the leaves, part of the season at least!)

Good bye fall!!

Yeah. Long post, with silly story, and not very many pictures. Proceed with caution.

This little girl thing, is all new to me. (still).

With Lorelei’s first birthday approaching, I knew we needed to do some serious shopping for her very first baby doll.

I had no.idea.it.was.going.to.be.so.difficult.

Apparently I had years of walking past the little baby girl doll section anxiety.

And when we finally went down, I was a tad bit overwhelmed with joy. I was so excited to finally be buying all this baby doll pink goodness! And apparently I was feeling a little bit of pressure. And apparently (I realized this later) I wanted to find the perfect little doll, for my sweet little girl to love and cherish the rest of her life. (No high expectations here!) I had talked to friends and family, I was finally ready to make this big purchase, I had been looking forward to since becoming a parent.

We walked up and down, taking dolls off of shelves, looking at their faces, trying to find one you could put a bottle in the mouth (a big requirement for me) but whose face was not a funny puckered mouth, I wanted one that was beautiful looking, with soft body, and I am embarrassed to admit, the list goes on. After a few minutes of examining them, I chose out a few that I thought she was going to love.

I’d seen her previously interact with a few dolls at friends and families houses, and she always lit right up. But as I was introducing these perfect dolls to her, there was a baby belle doll on the shelf behind, and to the right of me. When we first came down the aisle, she saw it and reached out for it. But I had a list, and quickly dismissed that doll, as unacceptable, it didn’t meet enough of ‘my criteria’. But now, seeing her desires I reluctantly added this baby doll to the selection. And there was NO CONTEST. She LOVED that doll from the sight of it. She grabbed it immediately, and started to love it and squeal.

And later as I reflected, I yet again, realized how easy it is as a parent to let my feelings, thoughts, and emotions, overpower what my child wants and needs. It was a powerful (and a little bit silly) reminder.

And now, I am happy to say, I love the doll too…but not nearly as much as I love my sweet little daughter..

Some time I get one track mind.

Meaning, SOMETIMES (Wink, wink) I have a project I want to get done, and it stews in the back of my mind for months… because let’s be honest… Its hard to squeeze those ‘extra’ projects in when you have 4 little cute faces running around who need their mom’s love and attention.

So when those rare days appear on the calendar with out shuttling, laundry catching up-ing, or whatever there may be, I may-ish, probably turn into a CRAZY project getting done lady.

Like, maybe, going to the hardware store, and buying supplies for the latest project, only to realize, it might be a tight squeeze in the car to get them home. But being a little bit crazy project obsessed, shuffle the two kids and their car seats around, and SHOVE-ING with all my might to get the wood in….then driving home with it sticking out a foot from the back of my car, and a red shirt hap-hazard-ious-ly draped on the back, wood almost touching my children’s head, with the tailgate up and the hazards on.going.like.5.miles.an.hour.


Well, I do think the first step of going crazy, is realizing there is a problem…and I know I’m going crazy, so at least I can admit it….right?

One thing I love about our school, is the opportunities that are offered to moms and parents, to be part of our children’s education.

I am grateful for my life, for my hard working husband and his job, so that I CAN go and volunteer regularly in the kids classrooms. There is a lot of class parties, reading books, and MONDAY FOLDERS.

Each Monday, we go and stuff folders with the flyers/papers/homework to be sent home for that week. I load Elliot and Lorelei in the double stroller and walk over to the school, and spend about 1.5 hours there.

Elliot and Lorelei are CHAMPIONS. They almost always sit quietly and talk to me while I do it, playing eye spy, or eating goldfish crackers. It is busy work stuffing folders, handing crackers and eye-spying. And it’s just wonderful.

I love the opportunity it gives me to touch base with their teachers, get to see how the classroom works, watch out for those bully kids, and understand their curriculum. I am grateful that all though I am not part of their classroom setting, I can be a fly on the wall and watch what is happening.

Another reason why I love this life I have.

Another great year of Wrestling has come and gone.

The boys loved, and worked REALLY hard again this year.

They both earned their gray shirts, and were VERY close to getting their blue shirts (the highest level).

There was a lot of wrestling practices this year, twice a week at the school, Saturday morning meets, and then every spare minute at home was spent perfecting their techniques.

Just like with Soccer, they are starting to understand the rules, how things work, and etc. of wrestling, and they are fun to watch, as they apply their ‘half nelsons’ and ‘bull-leg’ stuff.

They look forward and talk about wrestling all year round. So glad they have found things that they love.

And on the very last wrestling match of the year, Grandma and Grandpa Phillips, Patrick and Paul came down to cheer them on!

And video clips,