Category: Elliot

I love conference weekend, or as Christopher calls it, Pajama Church. I love the messages we hear from the leaders of our church. I always leave feeling uplifted, and wanting to be and become a better person. This time we were up to Logan-town again, and had a great time.
Here are the pics, and some highlights.
We found the material for Tuckers Costume (more details on that to come),
I got the awesome-est birthday present, the swivel sweeper. My floors have never been cleaner.
Toph took the boys and Dallin Paul to the Home Depot building project. They built fire engines, and Dallin Paul totally got in on the action. They are all good little builders.
Of course there was omelets, a Phillips Family tradition, and boy were they delicious!
The boys did awesome listening to conference, thanks to conference treats, conference books, coloring Grandpa’s Legs, and looking at stories with Grandma.
Also, Toph and I were able to get away for a few minutes, and visited Frederico’s. They have the best Ham and Cheese Salads. I have been craving that ever since we left. I think I could eat that every day, and not get sick of it, with of course the garlic bread.
And a good walk with Michael and Madalyn (and Dodger the dog) to feed the horses during priesthood.
We had a great time in Logan town!

A catch up post as I haven’t posted in along time, and life just keeps on moving! So I apologize for the length!

I can not even begin to tell you how happy I am to state that the pregnancy fog is finally starting to lift a little bit, and I really am starting to feel a little bit better every day. Thanks Goodness! It is nice to have glimpses of normalcy again, and feel like I am not totally and completely falling behind in every aspect of my life.
As far as blogging goes, I am still behind, and unfortunately I don’t see that changing anytime soon, so for now, I will try to remember the awesome moments, and record them when I get a day when I don’t feel like I am chasing life!
So for the latest catchups:
Lately Truman has had more of a twinkle in his eye, and is full of sugar and mischief.

He is so sweet when he wants to be, and yet can be mischievous–Not in a bad way, just figuring out how the world works
With a couple days a week at preschool, Truman takes one day at a time and is looking forward to our trip to the pumpkin patch later this week. Before he started school, we began practicing writing his name. He just writes ‘Tru’ for now, but is learning how to add the Man to his name 🙂

I can’t even begin to tell you how happy those upside down u’s make me feel! He does it whenever he spells his name, here he is with some of my scrapbook letters–cutie.

Tucker has gotten into the swing of life with Kindergarten. I do hear an occasional grumble about going every day, but for the most part, he is loving going to school. I am loving the fact that we are close enough to walk him there and pick him up. We get to really chat, and it is becoming one of my favorite parts of the day. He tells me what book bear chose out to read that day, what happened at recess, the other children he is getting to know (And if they are pants-puller-upers like him, an important categorization in his eyes) and funny other things that happen throughout the day. I am dreading the weather changing, and the thought of having to bundle up to go out (we’ve only had one day where we’ve had to bundle up).

But on that same note, am not picturing any sixth grader excited to walk to school with his mom. So I shouldn’t complain about the weather.

For me, I am enjoying life right now. I must admit, I do love the changing of the seasons. I do love fall, the cool weather, the colors, the smell, back to school, our birthdays, I love everything until the leaves start to fall, and our lives become consumed with raking.

Last week Tucker picked this sunflower from our garden and took it to his teacher, he didn’t really want me to take a picture, but I couldn’t resist, maybe he’s got a crush?

She is an amazing teacher, and is challenging Tucker and keeping him interested in school. I can’t wait to get into the classroom and volunteer, to see what life is really like there for him, and his peers, with this beloved teacher of theirs! Knowing tucker is in such good hands makes me happy, and him happy. Such a blessing to have good people in your life and the lives of your children.

Here is a shot of the baby bumpage. (hurray for being over half way done!)

Totally there, and he is not super active, he already is on kind of a schedule, and I love to lay in bed at night, and to feel him kicking. (Which inevitably happens right as I get into bed, and start to relax, and right as I am about to drift off to sleep.–which I hope he doesn’t get used to. When he is here, I am want him to be sleeping when I am sleeping!)

Another sign that I am feeling better, is I am able to laugh about some of the things that have made me sick during this pregnancy.
For some reason about 3:00-4:00 is a hard hour in the day for me. Therefore we save our TV time for that time. One of the shows we’ve come to love is Word Girl.

The boys love her, she’s a superhero, and I love her too! But I don’t love the meat attacks from one of the villians, the butcher. I don’t know what it is, but seeing that much raw meat all over a person, just makes me sick!
Lately the book the boys just LOVE is the original Curious George. This picture actually made me sick with the other two pregnancies too! But I got over it.. but it’s back!

This picture of George, makes me sick. Really sick. I have even hidden the book, but the boys keep finding it! I need to learn to hide things better!
And of course there are the usual things, chinese food, tuna fish and etc. 🙂

Another sign I am feeling better? We made it back up to the Children’s Museum. (it has been months, since I have had the energy to think about going, let alone actually go!) We all still love this place, and find new ways to play everytime we go there. I keep thinking the boys might be getting tired/bored of this place, as we have frequented it many times, but they just don’t! With their developmentally changing, they seem to find new things that intrege them. So pics from our latest adventure.

The boys still adore their father, and what’s not to love about him? He even helps them build a table out of the neighbors scraps from their deck.

They’ve eaten dinner/snacks on it, and Tuckers latest plan is to collect bugs and sell them from ontop of it. Silly, silly boy. He even draws pictures about it and brings them home from school.

It’s nice to see pictures that are not about robots. He brings home pictures daily, and a large portion are robots. Some things never die, like his passion for robots.But anyways, back to the pictures, again, Kindergarten has expanded his view, the other day he brought this picture home and said, Mom this is for you.

Variety is the spice of life! Love this rainbow.

Also, a few weeks ago, thanks to some good friends, Tuck and Toph were able to attend a BYU football game. It was a big day, which started off with a family trip to ‘a day out with Thomas the Tank Engine’ at the toy store.

Then Toph and Tuck went off to the game (I only have a picture of the tickets, as I took the camera!),

Tru and I had a date. We went to Fuddruckers for a delicoius hamburger, and to a fun, fun, park with friends. It is nice to have one on one time. I’m looking forward to some time with Tuck too!

We’ve also finally gotten the boys room fully put together! The bookshelf moved in, the bunkbeds straightened, and the room totally dejunked.

(notice that above Tuckers desk, he has removed the pictures of Jesus and the temple, and hung up Bionicle/robot pictures…hmm…) Having it clean is such a good feeling, I only wish they stayed like this all the time! 🙂

Hurray for harvest time,

although I was not feeling totally up to canning things, it did feel good to get some Peach Fruit Leather,

Peach Fruit Jam and Applesauce made (Apples and Peaches from our tree). Maybe next year I will be feeling up to being more ambitious!

Super Saturday is fast approaching, and we had our first display last weekend, look at this darling material I used for a project, don’t you love it?

Also, we had our Stakewide Humanitarian Event. I can’t even begin to tell you what an awesome day that was! We have been working hard all year round for this day. We put together over 400 school kits, 400 newborn kits, gathered over 300 quilts, and tied over 35 quilts that day. It was so neat to see all of our hard work come together. I hope to be involved in Humanitarian stuff all of my life. I have felt the blessings of it just flow into our house as we have been working on it. I love it.

Other random things:
Celebrating Birthdays with good friend Hinckley,

Made these darling baby carmel apples (From Family Fun Magazine)for FHE with the Ermolaevs, thanks again for coming guys! We’re so glad to see you again!

It’s amazing when you don’t blog for a month how many fun things you do! 🙂
Hopefully we’ll be back sooner next time. This post took me way too long!

A question asked by my friend why she hasn’t seen me in a week. And this is why….

(this picture was actually taken a few days before the sprinkling system project, but it does describe how we are all covered by mud perfectly.)

Yeah, we’re covered in Mud. Mud created by the new sprinkler system being installed in our yard. I keep telling myself over and over and over and over again, it will be worth it when it’s done. No more hauling hoses around our yard, but for now, it’s a MESS!!! But really I know it will be wonderful when it’s done, and the yard has recooped.

But I do keep wondering, will anything grow back besides weeds? We are getting closer to being done, thanks to all the help we received from Dad, Ry, Lee, and Neighbors. Sprinkling system installation is hard work! We still have many trenches to fill in, sprinklers to be adjusted so they’re not spraying the house and sidewalk, but slowly but surely, every day it’s getting closer and closer to being done. I will have to post more pictures later of the full process so you can fully appreciate the muddy mess I’m talking about!

So that’s why I haven’t posted in awhile (or you haven’t seen/heard from me), all strength and energy is being directed to the yard, and keeping the mud on the outside of our home, and not inside our home…oh, boys will be boys.

Well, in case you have been wondering why I can’t keep up with my BLOG, my house is a mess, I seem to leaving the room at the sight/smell/thought of food, I have been gaining weight, have wicked crazy mood swings, don’t leave my house unless I absolutely have to, have been a horrible friend, can fall asleep before you say good night, and just in general seem to be sicker than a dog…it’s because we’re pregnant again!
Yesterday we went into the Doctor and heard the heart beat for the first time. What an amazing sweet sound that is! So it’s official!
Come the end of January we’ll welcome baby number 3, and the boys are thrilled about being a brother again, and Toph and I?
We’ll I can’t speak for Toph, but I will sure be glad to be past sick phase, (hopefully in the next month or two!) and life returns to a somewhat normal state again, so I can really enjoy being Pregnant. But for now, it’s off to go find the saltines….