August Decorations

This month was the month of redos. I would finish something and then hate it and have to redo it. It was pretty ridiculous. I actually just barely finished and it's the 31st.

The SUN blocks are from a few years ago, but I had to change a few things about them because they didn't match the new stuff. The caterpillar stayed the same and so did the HOME "O", but that's all.

I actually only did the flip flops once. Amazing. I originally did the Subway Art with white lettering, but you couldn't read it from more than a few feet away, so I had to redo it with brighter colors.

I had to redo 4 out of the 5 things in my shadow box. The first time I did a color scheme of red, yellow, white, and dark blue and I hated it. So all but the sun got a new coat of paint.

I didn't have August plates last year because I couldn't find any beach-themed plates. I finally found these ones. They were really little, so I had to find plates to go behind them. I originally bought a green one for in the middle (with an orange one on each side), but I didn't like that, so I returned it for a red one and surprise, didn't like that either. So I finally ended up with 3 oranges and I do like that.

It may have taken me a few million tries, but I am really happy with how everything turned out!

Receptions and Manti and Cars, oh my!

This last weekend my parents came up from St. George. Friday night we had dinner with them at Outback in Sandy and then we hit up a few receptions. First was Aubrey Bickmore's reception. I went to elementary school with her, we were on cheer together in high school, and we were basically inseparable. While we were there I got to catch up with Nate and Ann Edwards and meet their two adorable kiddos. And then we went to Chris Walker's reception. He was in Roger's ward in Moreno Valley in high school. There were a lot of people from his old ward there, so he had fun talking to all of them. And we all enjoyed the delicious Italian sodas they had!

My mom stayed the night and watched Corbyn for us in the morning while we went to the Manti temple. We had been to the Manti pageant before, but never in the temple. It was beautiful!

When we got home, Rog washed Fred and took him to the Honda dealership to sell him. It was sad seeing my baby go! (He was my first car.) His air conditioner has been broken for a few years and his age is really starting to show, so when my grandma decided to get a new car, we jumped at the opportunity to buy hers. (More on this in another post.)

We picked Rog up at the dealership and went to Seven Peaks for one last time this season. And then we put Corby to bed and played a game of Guillotine.

On Sunday, my parents came to our ward with us and then drove back to St. George. After church we went up to my grandma's house to have dinner with her and Rog drove his new car home.

And there you have it... Receptions and Manti and Cars, oh my!

Happy Friday!

Only one more day until the weekend! Here's a video to help you make it through the day.

Playdate with Carver

On Monday morning we had an fun playdate with Carver (the son of one of the ladies I visit teach). He is about 3 months older than Corbyn, but they get along great. They liked to copy each other. If one climbed up on the couch, so did the other. They played with the pillows and had a great time. It was hard to get a good picture of both of them, but I did get some cute ones.

St. George Quicky

Last week Roger's dad and sister were in St. George helping his grandparents put in some new flooring in their den. We decided to go down for a quick visit, so Rog could help them finish up on Saturday. We went down Friday afternoon and came home Sunday afternoon, so it really was super quick, but we fit in a lot while we were there.

Of course there was eating out (at Wingers and 5 Guys). And swimming in my parents pool. Two things that always make a vacation great!

On Saturday while Rog was helping over at his grandparents' house, we did some errands with my parents. I got my hair cut and Corby went with Grandma Lori to Walgreens. He loved playing with the balls!

We found a killer deal on chicken. $1.39 a pound if you bought 40 pounds. That wasn't a problem because I needed a ton of chicken for freezer meals. (Which I finished making yesterday! 30 meals! Woot!!) So we ended up spending all of Corby's nap cutting off all the fat and cutting some of them into 1 inch cubes. I was glad to have 2 helpers! Thanks mom and dad!

Corby and I went over and visited everyone after they were all finished. Corby loved the piano at Grandpa and Grandma Phillips' house! (If he has any musical talent, we will be very puzzled about where it came from.)

For the first time since we've been taking the Corb down to St. George, he really took an interest in Cuddles. He sat on him, pulled his tail...

Gave him huge hugs, and generally just terrorized the poor cat!

But Corby's favorite part of the whole trip was throwing the billiard balls into the pool. He loved watching them sink down to the bottom.

And Rog loved fishing them out for him to do it all again!

Thanks St. George for another fun visit!

14 Months

The Corb at 14 months:

*Says "this" and "that" when pointing to things that he wants.

*Loves to unload everything. That's not new, but now he will try to put things back after he is done unloading.

*Is loved by all the neighborhood kids. When we go outside, they all run up to play with him.

*Loves Bo Bo the monkey. If we ask him where he is, he'll go get him. And he likes to have him in his crib when he takes a nap or goes to bed for the night. He also loves giving his Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal hugs.

*Goes up and down stairs like a pro! (Finally!) So we decided we could take down the gate at the top of the stairs.

*Colors with chalk and crayons. But he doesn't understand that you are only supposed to color on the sidewalk or on paper, so we have to watch him constantly!

*Will come sit in my lap and listen to me read him books - if he's in the mood. He absolutely won't sit still if you try to force him.

*Only takes 1 nap a day. It's been a rough transition for us, but hopefully we'll figure it out soon. If I try to give him a second nap, it's never a good experience, so even if I know he's tired it really isn't worth it anymore. That being said, he usually goes down for his first nap so easily and wakes up in the best mood.

*Makes lots of curious noises with voice inflection.

*Likes to flip things around - like his washcloth in the bathtub. He also has figured out how to pour water which sometimes makes for a very wet bathroom and dad!

*Likes to "tickle" us.

*Loves popsicles. Today he insisted he have both of these popsicles at snack time!

We love our little guy!

Guilty Pleasures

A few weeks ago Rachel did a post about her guilty pleasures. And it got me thinking... What are my guilty pleasures?

After much contemplation, here you have it!

Orange Slice Candies. These little babies are so good! They're kind of old school, but I love them. I try not to buy them every single time I go to the grocery store. But every so often, I give in.

Happy Hour at Sonic. If I'm out and about and pass a Sonic between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, it's really hard to resist a half-price beverage. Usually it's a Strawberry Limeade, but sometimes I get a Lemon-Berry Fruit Slush to mix things up.

Rod Works and Wood Connection. If you are a regular reader of this blog, this shouldn't surprise you. I love decorating my house each month and these stores make it possible. I only buy stuff at Rod Works when I have a coupon or when they have their seasonal stuff on sale. But with Wood Connection, coupons are hard to come by. So I splurge on stuff from there. I always tell Rog that it's better that I love wood than clothes.

What are your guilty pleasures?

Another one bites the dust!

When Rog got his job at KLAS, we were excited for many reasons... one of those reasons was that we wouldn't have to move away from our fantastic friends. We knew they would move away eventually, but we didn't have to say goodbye right away.

One by one they left us...

The Martinez moved to California last August. And the Paulsens to Maryland in January.

And just this month the Pughs moved to Wisconsin for medical school. (Luckily both of the Pugh's families live in Utah, so we will insist we get together when they come visit.)

They say, "Enter to learn, go forth to serve." And based on our group of friends from BYU, they weren't kidding!

Let's go back...

...to last Thursday - before our summer parties. I'm blogging out of order because I forgot to take pictures of this event, so I didn't think I'd blog about it. But then I decided I didn't want to forget about it. So you get flashback pictures for this one.

Last Thursday night we had a freshman reunion of sorts. We had Stacey and Amy (and their husbands) over for dinner, dessert, and games. Amy is currently living in Boston, but she was in town for a few weeks, so we decided we had to get together! It was my first time meeting Amy's husband, Trent, because we were in St. George for their reception. He is such a great guy!

We had so much fun talking and remembering fun things from our freshman year. I love these girls so much and am so grateful we could meet in good old Rogers 97 in Heritage Halls.

It was also fun looking through old pictures from that year. These pictures are from a trip we took down to Las Vegas the summer after freshman year. Stacey and Amy drove down to visit me in St. George. We were planning on swimming and playing in the sun, but it turned out to be a crappy day - which rarely happens in St. George in the summer. So we decided to drive down to Las Vegas.

We ate at the Rio buffet.

And then walked the strip and saw all the sights.

Now what blog would be complete without me telling you about something new I cooked? For dessert we had this. Rog had been begging me to make it for quite some time and it did not disappoint. I left out the malted milk balls because neither of us is a huge fan of them. It was so good - the perfect treat for a summer night!

Summer Parties

Friday night was the KLAS summer party.

They had a bounce house.

Cotton candy.

A huge blow-up slide.

And sumo wresting. (Rog got his butt kicked by one of the guys he trained on his mission who now works with him - Bryce LeBaron for those of you who know him.)

It was mighty hot, but we had a great time playing as a family.

Saturday night after a packed day of running, playing at Seven Peaks, and making freezer meals, we had our ward block party. They had a slip-n-slide which Corby was a little young for, but he had a great time playing in this fountain.

Again it was hot, but there was enough shade for the whole ward to hide under.

We had a fun weekend partying it up and enjoying lots of free food!