So it can be used!!!
Ikey and Belle were here for Friday Night…
Watching a movie, Robots again, actually–
Coloring Pictures–
(again, we were so busy, I didn’t stop to take pictures!)
Then on Saturday, it was a Girls Night Out
Cat,
Becca,
and Mom
came from Logan and spent the night….
We went to the Pizza Factory and watched Stardust–How wonderful it is to have a home to share with others, and share in good company.
Category: Topher
My hubby just returned from a vacation, I mean Conference. We’re glad he is back, and glad he brought some pictures back too…It’s fun to see what this party, I mean Conference was about!
He did find some awesome pictures for me and the boys at home, look at this cool ball thing that was hanging from the ceiling:
He found a cool food store, with an amazing cheese section, of course that picture was for me too! 🙂
Fruit at that same store:
He saw the Guitar Hero World Champion (Look at that Wicked Awesome behind the head move, you could totally do that Amy, Eric and Cat, start practicing now!):
Now for pictures for the boys,
A creative area full of thousands of Legos:
A Monster Truck (notice it’s built out of PVC pipe, and has a webcam on top, ha!):
And of course Robot Pictures:
A robot man thing:
A Robot table:
A Scary looking thing that reminds me of something out of Toystory:
And more from that scary man’s shop:
And let us not forget this, and awesome toy store, with a section dedicated to robots:
My boys would love all of this,
And This,
And This.
It’s a good thing we aren’t rich, or our boys would be spoiled rotten with awesome robots from this store.
And just FYI if you ever come across ‘oatcream’ it may look delicious, but trust Toph, (who eats everything) it’s NASTY…
Now Gellato, and pizza that’s some good stuff: (From that awesome cheese/fruit store earlier)
Now here something from one of the sessions. Drupal Rocks. Yep, he sure does feel that way!
Another thing, remember how Tucker LOVES that Drupal song? Tohp met the guy who sings it. Now that’s famous! (look at Toph’s face, you can tell he is so excited!)
There was even big evening Firedancing festivities:
And if you know who these men are, you might be a geek. (I can say that because I don’t know who they are, and therfore am not a geek. Toph, who are they?)
And coming home, the landing:
We’re so glad you’re home! We missed you SO MUCH!
“Rope Jumping”, out of a ‘rope’ he made by hooking straws together.
trick.mov
The quality is horrible, but I couldn’t help posting it, I don’t know if it’s our new video software or what….
We headed to Logan a few weekends ago, any excuse is a good excuse to go there. And our niece Ava was being blessed, so a perfect excuse…
My mother-in-law Rhonda made the blessing dress, doesn’t Ava look beautiful in it? It was a special day.
Of course, my boys were happy to be there, too.
They loved to run and play with the cousins, as they do everytime we go. Sometimes I worry how Tucker is going to cope, now that Soph is not so close anymore, but I didn’t have to worry too much this time, because boys all love to do similar things, no matter their ages. Running, jumping and being exuberant, tops the list. (We still missed the other Phillips branch though)
Here’s a shot of em all at the end of the day…
(Tucker refused to turn around…)
Tucker also entertained himself with, what he called the ‘amazing dodger show’, here’s a movie. He did seriously entertain himself for quite a while the whole day, Sunday, laughing at the dogs, or trying to scare them. What could be better than a dog and a boy?
dodgershow.mov
Also, Truman is making progress with the potty training business, here he is with his reward:
A fun trip was had by all, we still love our family, and being close enough to be together. 🙂
One of the great things of Tophs’ Job is the annual “An evening with a General Authority”, this year we went to the Tabernacle to hear Elder Packer speak.
As with anytime our Church Leaders speak, it was an amazing experience. There was one thing that Elder Packer said, that I really wanted to remember. He said many inspiring things, but this story, struck me to the core. These are not his exact words, but the words I remember.
He told us the story of a trip he (Elder Packer) went on with Pres. David O. McKay, when they arrived there was a mother there with her sick son. She wanted Pres. McKay to give him a blessing. In a very gentle way (as I said before I don’t remember the exact words) he directed her towards her local leaders, then said, something to the effect, If I give all the blessings that people requested of me, I wouldn’t be able to do the things ONLY I CAN DO.
It made me stop and think, what are those things that only I can do?
So often we see our prophets doing so many amazing things, It is also a powerful realization that they have too have to learn to say no and
take care of the things ONLY I CAN DO.
I have heard this same instruction before, but loved hearing about it, through the life and example of one of our prophets.
alright, maybe not live here, just be here almost daily. I love this place, therefore more pics of this weeks FHE at the Childrens Museum. (Thanks again to the Great Hunsakers for our Christmas Present, we have already used it so much, that it has almost paid for
itself twice now…and it’s only February!)
At the ball pit-“beehive”:
Tuck at his favorite spot–the drill thing in the ball pit-
Happy Kids = Happy Parents-
Our everytime shot on the Motorcycle-
Gasing up-
Drivers-
My little blacksmith, sometimes you just can’t resist and have to try things out!
Cowboy up-
Here is video of Truman buying food at the market. Watch his facial expressions, what is not to love about this sweet boy?
trumarket1.mov
Tucker discovered the Rock Climbing Wall, and did pretty good-
Building- (by the way, thanks Grandpa Phillips for the AWESOME shirts, Tucker sat in the window all afternoon, trying to get his lizards to change colors! We love them!)
Tucker also discovered the Tube to talk through, as well as the telescope, always something new and fun here (even if it’s been here every time we’ve already come)!
We went to a class where we had to build a sail on top of a strip with Magnets, then see if it would sail….
We did one first as a family, which didn’t do so good,
So, then we re-did it.
Then Tucker made his own, by himself. It did the best of all three, what a smart cookie.
Here’s a movie: tucksail.mov
Then afterwords we met up with Eric, Amy and Dad for some good-eats at “Super Salad”.
Eric left before we got a pic with him, he’s a busy, busy working college student…
Tuck
Me and Amy (pic by Tuck)
Toph and Dad (pic by Tuck again)
Just looking at those pictures makes me hungry, I love that place, yum, yum.
It truly is amazing to just go and have fun with your kids and watch them learn.
So I guess this is what you get when your hubby builds websites, finds a content management system that he loves.–Which by the way is Drupal, and it has its own theme song. Take a listen here:
http://www.lullabot.com/audiocast/the_drupal_song
During quiet time he listened to it for an hour over and over (the song is only 1 minute long, so like 60 times),
dwupal, dwupal, dwupal, dwupal!
Hurray for Presidents Day, and Hurray for family close enough to be together, and what better meeting place than Ikea?
Mom P., Cat, Emily, Becca, Micheal, Owen, Madalyn and Ava, met up with us, and I must admit, that one adult to every child seems like enough, but even so, it took all of us to keep track of everyone!
(By the way—somehow, every pictures of Michael came out Blurry. I guess he moves too quickly for me to get pictures of him 🙂 )
3 kids in an ikea cart…
Tuck n’ Madalyn–
Tuck and pup pup–
Owen–
Afterwords, we enjoyed a good meal at Artic Circle, and let the children play in the playplace. (Thanks Cat for taking pictures…)
Ava-
Cat and Becca-
Ems adn Madalyn and Ava-
Owen trying to get up, and Tuck n’ Tru helping him-
A great shot of Toph (he looks scared or something- LOL)
Good times!
We all did mention, that one thing that would have made it better would have been if all the grandkids, Soph, Nora, and Miles were there too!
As some of you know, me and the ‘puter (Trus word for the computer) were having some issues.
But it wasn’t only me, my husband (who does freelance type work, in the evenings with that good old ‘puter) were having some issues too.
Since the ‘puter is a necessary part in that “work = money” equation, (I am sure having a happy blogging wife, is also part of that equation), we decided it was time for an upgrade (and it didn’t hurt, that we just got our tax refund either).
Anyone who knows Toph, knows that this is an exciting day in his life.
He loves computers, (Yes I married a geek), Hence the post, and the look in Tophs eyes, like a kid in a candy store…
We didn’t just get a ‘puter, we got a new member of the family 🙂
So, this weekend, Topher and I spent 24 continuous hours together, enjoying adult conversations, eating DELICIOUS food and more DELICIOUS food, not cutting anyone children’s food, not changing diapers, sleep in, exercising, reading, watching TV, playing games, and mainly just being together. (Somehow though, I forgot to take pictures, I did haul our camera everywhere though!)
It was wonderful. Don’t get me wrong, I love my boys, but it is also nice to spend time with just their father.
We were looking forward to finishing up our time, by attending the temple, but were not able to, so instead we sat at the Christus.
It was beautiful. Beautiful to listen to the Sister Missionaries Testimonies, beautiful to sit and ponder life, and wonderful to look at the face of our Savior, and remember his love for me and my family.
Our kids partied with the Greene Crew, and Tucker and Truman have already asked when Belle and Ikey are coming to our house. It is nice to have places for our children to go, where they feel so comfortable and loved, so much so, that they didn’t even care when we came to pick them up.
Hurray for getting away, and hurray to coming home to happy children!