Category: Life

Holiday Time is Family Time. On the way back from Logan after Thanksgiving, we stopped over and stayed a few days at the Cabin with the the Great Hunsakers. The Thanksgiving Celebrations were just ending as we arrived. So it was only Ry, Tiff and the kids and the Great Hunsakers for most of the time. It was a fun weekend.
Of course we enjoyed hiking around on the Cabin Trails, up to the Beaver Pond (and the new cabin being built there). Here are some fun pics from our ‘walk’ :
Tucker in Grandpas Canoe:

Greenes on the Iced over Pond:

Following Aunt Tiff:

Hiking Cousins:

Just ‘da boys at the Beaver Pond:

Dad and Tru:

Belle and Ry:

At the beaver pond, of course the kids wanted to throw things in, Truman really wanted to throw BIG things in. As big as he could hold. Then he would say, “Help me please!” as he would find large massive boulders that he would want to throw in. Silly Boy.



A few closeups of the kids, while they were tossing things in:
Ikey-

Tru-

Tuck-

This was Good Company and a Good Place.

Anther important Phillips Family Tradition. The day after Thanksgiving is Tree Day.
The Phillips Family always head up to Idaho, up Strawberry Canyon to be exact, and hike up the mountain until we find the perfect tree, cut it down, and bring it home.
This year was no exception.
WE had a wonderful time, and got some fun pics too of course.
Toph and Tru fell asleep:

Tucker with his new loader:

Geared up and Ready to Go:

Hiking:


Cutting the Tree:

The Cut Tree:

Tuck Sliding down the mountain side:

Cold Cheeks!:

The Evelyns:

Cat and Madalyn:

Truman just decided to run to Toph and give him a huge hug, as a parent, these are the things that melt your heart:

Handsome Mikey:

Tucker and Truman had a great time. While we were hiking, we crossed over a river that had frozen over. Tucker made a funny comment. As he was walking across, he exclaimed, “Look at me, I am like Jesus. Walking on Water”. We didn’t quite know exactly how to respond to that comment. But we are grateful that his thoughts are on our Savior.

I love “Charlie-Brown Trees”, so I am always satisfied with our tree hunt! 🙂
And of course after the trees were found, loaded in the truck, we enjoyed Chili and Cinnamon Rolls at the River. Delicious.
Here are some silly faces in the car on the way home(not the best shot, but a good memory):

The past few years, In an attempt to stay ahead of the Christmas Season, I have started a Thanksgiving Eve tradition. This day is reserved for our family, making our own Turkey, and putting up the Christmas Decorations. (all except for the live tree of course)
I find it a wonderful way to get in the holiday mood, and refreshing to return home to a clean Christmas Home after attending the Thanksgiving Celebrations at our parents homes.
This year was no exception, a wonderful day.

Here is Tucker and Truman in front of “their tree”. Tucker was thrilled about putting it up, and putting it together. He really got into the Christmas Spirit, and had so much fun putting this tree together, and later decorating it.

My mom gave us these plastic ball ornaments a few years ago, they are great, because they won’t break, and if any of them get ruined, I don’t care 🙂

It was so fun to watch Tucker put the balls on the tree. Most of the ornaments ended up right next to each other on the same branch, but Tucker enjoyed having a tree to decorate.


Truman on the other hand was more interested in pretending to a pirate and playing Firemen than decorating.

We had our own little Turkey on Thanksgiving Eve, Here is a picture of Toph Carving the Turkey.

It was yummy delicious, and we had a great time, kicking off the Holiday Season.

We have one obsession at our home right now, ROBOTS. I thought that I had better document ALL facets of it, so that we can remember this fun time in our lives.
I don’t know when this started, or with what, but Robotics has been in my boys blood for a while. I can’t and won’t be able to remember them all, but here are a few of the many robots in our lives:

Buddy. Here is the first Robot, built out of junk. Tucker, Andy and Truman built it last year. They were quite disappointed when it didn’t come to life, when they put all of the pieces together.

Tucks Robot Blanket: (see previous post) Tucker has Vision, he designed it and helped me make it in one afternoon.

Dancing like a Robot: After just pretending to be robots, Dad found this awesome Robot Music, and Tucker started to dance.
dancing.mov

Robot Notebooks: We have 3 notebooks full of Robot Artwork, the pages are full front and back, of robots and landscapes drawn by Tucker

Robot Stories: This project has many phases. 1. Print Robot picture off the internet. 2.Color the Pictures. 3.Cut out the pictures. 4.Paste the picture to a plain piece of paper. 5. Staple this paper to a blank paper. 6. Dictate a story about this robot to mother. 7. Three hole punch this paper 8. Place in notebook.
These stories are so funny, and contrived in Tuckers head.

Wall-e: The new pixar Movie, about a robot. We are DEFINITELY going to the theater to see this one. (the boys loved to watch the trailor, and move pillows around like they are cubes of junk..They even talk in the Wall-e robot voice.

Playing with Andy’s Robot Toys: Andy got an awesome robot building toy for his birthday, he brought it to play with at our house one afternoon. Of course, my boys loved it!

robot.mov

Robot Museum: Tucker set up all of his robot stuff one day, and made a museum and filmed it himself. (We are also in the process of going to the Children Museum in SLC that has a Robot interactive exhibit right now, my boys are pumped about this!) Here are a few he took pics of and a video that he made. Warning, the video makes me motion sick…watch at your own risk!


museum.mov

Robot toys.Daily, a robot of one kind or another is played with. We have a few Robots, most of all have been played with so much, that they are broken. Here is a picture of the robots playing soccer on our mini-pool table.

Robot books: Whether it is getting them from the Library or the DI, we love to find, read and re-read books about robots. We have 2 favorites right now: “Ricky Ricotta and his Pet Robot” and this one.

Robot Costumes: of course we can’t forget these.

Robot Squares Tucker wants to make another blanket, we are making it one square at a time.

Legos: Tucker builds with Legos, makes robots, then places each one in a sandwich bag, then places it on my ledge. The sad part is, that this seems normal, and don’t realize they are there until guests ask about them.

How I love my little Robot Lovers.

So, as much as I hate raking and bagging leaves, I sure do love watching my children play in them.

It almost makes it worth having so many leaves, almost.
I count myself as a blessed woman to have 2 happy and healthy boys,

and seeing them running and jumping into piles of leaves, seeing their glowing faces, in pure joy, brightened my Saturday, and made the task of bagging 21 bags of leaves, a little more enjoyable.

As predicted, we had a gargantuan pile of leaves.


We bagged most of them, but left some out for the boys to play in. And play they did.
They brought over the lawn chairs, and jumped in…


and I got a few shots of the boys, I know they have dirty faces,


and now I started to look at them, I almost wish I had cleaned them, but then I began to think. That is not how we were. We caught them in the action of being boys. That was how our day was. A working day, out raking the leaves.
My boys:

The fam:

The boys “helped” alot, including hauling the bagged leaves to the side of our house:

Making Disneyland rides:

And playing on their new “Playground”


(For my own purposes the bag count: 16 previous bags, and the 21 from this Saturday, that puts our total at 37 Bags)
As you can see, we spent the majority of the day with the leaves.
It has been a long time since all 4 of us have been in the same place for that long of a time. So maybe, instead of looking at these leaves as a burden, I need to look at them as a blessing. Something that has brought our family closer together.
Maybe that can be a goal for next year, cause man. I still hate those leaves.

(This is a Novel…sorry, I should have broken it up a bit!)
Anyone who knows Tucker and Truman will not be surprised by this post, for two reasons.
First, Tucker has one obsession, that has stayed true for months now. It is Robots, so naturally, when our neighbor found a picture of a robot costume, Tucker talked of nothing else.
Secondly, anyone who has been around my boys for more than a minute, knows that Truman follows and idolizes Tucker. So again, naturally, if Tucker is being a robot, he MUST be one too.
With the decision made, we started to make the costumes (because there are not to many robot costumes out there for the purchasing). The boys helped make them, and had a great time doing it.



They talked and talked and talked about them, to anyone who would listen.
We were ready, as our first costume party approaches.
When it is finally time to put them all together and leave out the door, they have decide that they HATE the costumes, and don’t want to wear them. (Important note, these strong feelings of hate are coming mostly from Tucker, but of course, Truman emulates everything his brother does, so he also hates the costume.)
After alot of talking and cohersion, Topher convinces them they should wear them at least one time, and with a sigh of relief, we’re off to the great grandparents and then the party with our two little robots.



As soon as we arrive at the party, we have our picture taken

(I am a robot Medic, and Toph is a nerdy robot engineer)
After the picture, the boys promptly ask to take off the costumes.
They have not been worn since. So I am posting these pictures here, so my boys can remember how much their parents love them, and hopefully look back someday, and wish they could still fit into those costumes! Because honestly, they are wicked awesome!
On a brighter note, the day before Halloween, Tucker has his school program, which he actually sung at! I was so proud of him, he usually just yawns, and sings occasionally. Before it started they announced that there was going to be a spook allley, and for the first few minutes, and after every song, he would look at me, and ask if it was time to go to the spook alley. During the program, he did have one or two yawns, but mostly he sang! He was the best Red Ranger I have ever seen, and Tru had to dress up as a frog.

Here are a few video clips, Truman was climbing on and off my lap as I was filming, and I have never be known to do things straight so you still might get a little sea sick 🙂 Watch at your own risk. (you need quicktime video to watch)
5littlemonsters.mov
did-you-know-its-halloween.mov
3blackcats.mov
didyoueversee.mov
im-a-little-spider.mov
meanoldwitch.mov
ittsybitsyspider.mov
spook-alley.mov
That last one is the funniest. In case you can’t hear, he says, “Now its time to go to the Spook Alley for sure!”

Grams and Issac came for the performance, and stayed for the carnival. (we only got this blurry pic)

A great time was had by all.
Halloween Came, and surprise, we had a change of costume again. It is a hard thing to make up your mind when you are 4 and 2 years old! Tucker decided to be a dragon

(the costume by the way that was almost too small last year, was way too small this year)

and Truman decided to be a power ranger.

We had a great time trick or treating at the park with Hinckley,

then later that evening around the ward with Aunt Amy


While Toph stayed at home to pass out the candy.
We all are now on Sugar overload, and having happy memories of our indecisive trick or treaters.

A great year of Halloween has now to come to a close.

So a few Sundays ago, we went to my parents to carve pumpkins with my family.
It was such a fun night, we not only carved pumpkins, but also made sugar cookies, caramel apples, and pumpkin seeds.
This night embraced so many of my favorite fall activities, plus what could be better than doing it together with family?
Making Sugar Cookies:


Carving the Pumpkins:
(side note, I let the boys choose out any pumpkin they wanted, Tucker choose out a Mammoth 29 pounder. Seriously, it almost weighed as much as he did. Tucker carved his into a Robot, and Truman wanted one with a tongue sticking out. Funny kids)





Finished Pumpkins:


Making Caramel Apples:

I am keeping a tally of how many bags of leaves I rake up from our 14 Trees in our yard.
Previous Total: 4
Last Monday: 2 Bags
Last Friday: 2 Bags
Last Saturday: 6 Bags
Plus our neighborhood kids were sad that they didn’t have any leaves to play in, so they asked if they could have so of mine. It would be greedy not to share right? So they came and bagged up like 2 big bags to take back to their yards. I am sure their parents LOVE us 😉
So that puts the grand total to…
16 Bags

(and don’t you worry, we still have fully leaved trees in our backyard, so we are not even half way done yet.)