Football and a Ward Party

On Friday (the 21st) my parents came into town. I was taking dinner to a family with a new baby and had a lot of cooking to do for our ward party on Saturday - my mom saved the day by watching Corbyn while I got it all done. Then we all went to Red Robin for dinner.

On Saturday (the 22nd) we had our regular tailgate party before the game. The game was hot hot hot! It was only in the 60's, but it felt more like 90 as we baked in the sun. We were worried Corby was getting too hot, so we stripped him down to his onesie, rolled up his jeans, and took off his shoes/socks. Despite the heat and having his nap cut short, he was a perfect angel.

He got a little restless during the 4th quarter, so I walked around with him down below the stands where it was much cooler.

We were killing Idaho State (final score 56-3), so we left a few minutes early. (Something we practically never do.) On the way home, Corby pulled his hat down over his eyes and took a good nap.

The Ward Mission was in charge of our ward Harvest Bash that night and as Rog is the Ward Mission Leader, he was over it all. It was a chili/dessert cookoff. I made chili, cornbread, apple cider spice doughnuts, and cupcakes for the cakewalk. My chili won "Chili to peel the paint off your car." I guess they thought it was spicy - although Corbyn ate it, so it couldn't have been that spicy. And my dessert won "Bishop's no no" - which I took to mean it was good.

The party had a good turnout (even though it was UEA) and everyone seemed to have a good time - especially the kids. They loved the potato sack races and corn hole. Surprisingly they weren't really into the cakewalk, so we came home with a lot of cupcakes! We were just glad to have it over with!

16 Months

This post is long overdue as Corby turned 16 months over a week ago. But here it is!

The Corb at 16 Months:

*Feeds himself pretty much everything. Up until 15 months I was still spoon feeding him baby food with baby cereal (barley, mixed grain, etc) for breakfast and yogurt. When he turned 15 months I decided he was too old for me to be buying him baby food, so I gave up on the baby cereal (because he'd only eat it mixed with baby food) and started giving him regular cereal. And I started letting him feed himself yogurt (despite the mess). He has done very well with it.

*Graduated to a booster seat. He would try to climb out of his high chair after just a few bites, so we decided it was time. He has been much better at mealtime, but has also become much more messy! I have to sweep that section of the floor after almost every meal or snack. Good thing I don't mind sweeping!

*Says ba for balloon and hot on a regular basis. Says dog, hi, and a few other words occasionally - when he's in the mood.

*Tries to jump while saying 1, 2, 3, GO! (Sometimes he skips the 1 and 2 and just says 3, GO.)

*Goes down steps without turning around. He needs help if the staircase is steep, but does it on his own if there is space between each step down.

*Likes to climb on EVERYTHING - he used to just climb easy things that I felt were pretty safe, but now everything is fair game. I get especially nervous when he climbs our tall kitchen chairs.

*Finally got used to just having one nap. It's still not super long (usually 1 1/2 hours), but I think that's because he gets a long stretch at night (12 hours).

*Loves to get piggyback rides. If we're lying down and he wants a ride, he'll get us up and in piggyback position.

*Gives high fives and bones.

*Loves ducks. He'll point the duck out in his animal book and other books with rubber duckies in them every time. (He'll also point out other animals sometimes, but the duck he'll point out every single time.) I took him to the BYU duck pond a few weeks ago because I knew he'd love it. He carried his ducks around the whole time.

*Has 2 new teeth - bringing his grand total to 8. 6 on top, 2 on bottom.

*Likes to shoot hoops with his basketball hoop we got from a neighbor.

*When we ask him where his nose is, he'll point to our noses. He also does this with ears. He knows where his nose and ears are, he just likes pointing out ours more than his.

*Walks around on his tippy-toes and RUNS!

*Is our super active, outside-loving, mess-making little dude and we love him!

Corbyn's Announcement

That's right, Corbyn's going to be a big brother!

I'm due Cinco de Mayo, but because Corbyn was such an elephant baby, I'll probably be induced before then. At my first appointment, the doctor asked if I had any complications with Corbyn. I said that he was 10 pounds and he replied, "Yes, that is a complication. We'll keep an eye on that this time." So maybe baby #2 will be born on our anniversary - April 27th!

I'm 12 weeks along and feeling good. I've been tired and a little queasy - especially in the mornings - but I haven't been as sick as I was with Corbyn. And I wasn't even that sick with Corbyn, so I'm feeling lucky. We heard the heartbeat on Thursday which really made it seem a lot more real. With Corbyn I had an ultrasound at 8 weeks, but they didn't do one this time. So that little heartbeat was the first proof that there really is something growing inside me!

Of course we'll be happy with either a boy or a girl, but we're thinking pink. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I had a feeling it would be a girl - but we'll see. My mom wasn't as sick with me and Diana as she was with Jared, so that's another indication that it might be a little girl. We'll find out just before Christmas!

If it's a girl, we'll name her Caitlyn Joan Phillips and if it's a boy, we'll name him Logan Ririe Phillips.

We're very excited! Corbyn loves babies right now, so hopefully that will last for the next 6 months until we get a new baby of our very own!

Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday evening we went with Bill and Mariah to the Red Barn in Santaquin to pick out our pumpkin.

We had to wait to get on our hayride to the pumpkin patch. We'd always been with our BYU ward on a weeknight and we'd never had to wait before!

We had to take a picture in the pumpkin cutouts. Love little Corby poking out!

Corby was very excited about holding the pumpkin on the hayride back. Ok not really, but he sure looks excited in this picture!

After we got home we put Corby to bed and watched the BYU vs. Oregon State game (delayed on BYU tv) while we had a late dinner of autumn soup, wassail, and sourdough bread with pull-apart cinnamin sugar pumpkin bread for dessert. It was all good, but the pumpkin bread was especially delicious! It wasn't the quickest dessert to make, but it was so worth it! And BYU beat Oregon State 38-28, so I'd say it was the perfect night!

BYU vs. SJSU

We made sure to plan our Texas trip so that I wouldn't have to miss a football game. It's a good thing we did because we got to sit in my grandparent's awesome seats. The game was scheduled for really late at night (8:00), so they decided not to go. When they asked if we wanted their tickets, I jumped at the chance. I've always wanted to sit in their seats for a game. They are on about the 45 yard line on the west side. They are the very last row before the box seats. You take an elevator up to them and have someone escort you to your seats. The seats have backs on them and there are only two seats in the row, so you don't have to climb over anyone. They are awesome!

We saw President Uctdorf ahead of us in line for the elevator which was pretty cool! As you can probably imagine, it was such a different experience than other football games we have attended. We enjoy attending football games in our regular seats, but it was fun to watch one from this perspective.

We could see the Provo Temple and the Y lit up for homecoming from our seats.

And it didn't hurt that we beat San Jose State 29-16!

Thanks for sharing your seats with us Grandpa and Grandma Ririe!!

Texas

We flew to Texas Sunday night after a full day of driving from St. George to Salt Lake. We chose flights that were later in the day because we didn't want to have long layovers in Denver without realizing that we would be keeping Corby up way past his bedtime. Despite this fact, he was pretty good.

While we were waiting to board our first flight from Salt Lake to Denver, Corby made friends with a little boy who was about 6 months older than him. He shared his favorite ball with him and they played catch.

Corby fell asleep during takeoff - I was shocked. That made the first flight a breeze.

We practically had to run to make our next flight from Denver to Houston. That flight Corby just watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He wasn't very happy when we had to turn it off, but other than that, it was a good flight.

When we arrived in Houston, we got our bags, rented a car, and then had to drive 45 minutes to Galveston. It was about 12:30 am when we arrived at our hotel. Luckily Corby fell asleep on the drive and pretty much just stayed asleep as we changed his diaper and put him in his pajamas. The first thing we saw was a cockroach outside our hotel room. When we opened the door, it ran under one of the beds. AWESOME. There was also a dead cockroach and cricket in the bathroom. Welcome to the South!

We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Galveston. It was good to see where Diana and Jason have been living. They took us to all their favorite places to eat and showed us some of the sights. Tourist season is pretty much over for the year, so sometimes we would go to do something and find that it was closed which was a bummer.

The first day they took us to an authentic southern BBQ joint. Corby loved climbing on all the fun stools they had. And I very much enjoyed my pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw.

We took Corby's pumpkin costume from last Halloween for Blake to wear this year. We tried it on him one morning and he was NOT happy. Hopefully they'll have more luck on Halloween!

We took a Duck Tour around the island. Corby was very good. He just sat on my lap the whole time and enjoyed the tour.

Diana and Jason even saw a few things they'd never noticed before and learned some stuff about Galveston.

One night we walked around "Downtown" Galveston. Most of the shops were closed for the day, but Corby had fun playing in the telephone booth.

And playing with the life size chess pieces. Corby would move them and Jason would put them back.

One morning we went to the beach. We weren't planning on getting in the water, so we didn't wear our swimming suits, but Corby had other plans.

He had fun playing in the waves (except when a big one would push him over) and got completely soaked!

Cute sandy toddler toes!

One night we went to the Kemah Boardwalk which is about a 45 minute drive from Galveston. They had lots of restaurants, rides, a haunted house (for Halloween), and a splash pad. We spent most of our time trying to decide where to eat dinner, so we didn't get to do a whole lot.

Corby loved the splash pad. He loved watching the fountains and running around the outside. Luckily he didn't run in the fountains, so he didn't get wet. I'll be honest, this isn't the most exciting video, but it's a cute one that some of you might enjoy.

After we had dinner, Diana and Jason went through the haunted house really quickly and then my mom and Diana went on a roller coaster ride while Corby and I road the train.

Corby loved giving baby Blake hugs (nice gentle ones), but almost every time he did, Blake would get the saddest look on his face and then start to cry. This was one of the rare times he was ok with it.

On Thursday we drove to San Antonio. It was about a 5 hour drive and my mom (who hates driving) had to drive the whole way because she didn't want to pay to add extra drivers. Diana's sister-in-law works for Marriott, so we got to stay at a Marriott right on the River Walk for a super good deal. That night we only had enough time to eat dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and walk along the river a bit.

Then we put the little boys to bed and my mom got a piece of cheesecake because that's what they had at the hotel restaurant and she had to eat a piece of pie (or something like it) because it was "pie day". I know what you're thinking... Pie day is March 14th. Well not for my mom. See October 6th was the day Elder Ririe had been on his mission for 3 months and 3 months is 1/8 of 24 months. A piece of pie is normally 1/8 of the pie, so "pie day" was born.

The next morning we went on a boat tour of the River Walk. Again Corby was great. Just sat there and pointed out all of the ducks.

Then we took some pictures by the River Walk.

And Corby played in one of the fountains.

We finished packing and checked out of our hotel and made the long drive back to Houston to catch our plane home. Corby adopted this bag of my mom's and dragged it around everywhere. Such a big boy.

When we got to the airport we learned that our flight from Houston to Denver was delayed, so we wouldn't make our connection to Salt Lake. So they had us drive to the other airport in Houston and catch a nonstop flight from Houston to Salt Lake. There was a nice BYU couple that now live in Houston who were going to Salt Lake for the weekend that had the same thing happen to them, so they offered to drive us. The airline would have given us a voucher for a cab, but this seemed easier and they were so nice to offer. They did give us some vouchers for $40 work of airport food of which we made sure to spend practically every penny.

Corby was tired of his stroller and wanted to walk everywhere (with Bo Bo the monkey of course).

Corby was good for the first hour and a half of the flight, but then he decided he was tired and had had enough! He screamed his head off until I finally got him to sleep for the rest of the flight. He woke up when we landed and picked up right where he left off. In the midst of all that screaming, I accidentally left our DVD case with about 20 movies on the plane. I didn't realize until a few days later when we went to turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I reported the loss on Continental's website, but I don't have high hopes of them returning it to me. Of course they were all of Corby's favorite movies!

All in all, it was a fun trip! Although we wish Rog (and Grandpa Ririe) could have been with us.

St. George Marathon

Like I said, Rog ran the St. George marathon on October 1st. When we ran the Utah Valley half back in June, he was ahead of schedule in his training. But then he got an ingrown toenail over the 4th of July weekend. That should have gotten better in no time, but it kept giving him problems for months. In fact, the week of the marathon he was back at the podiatrists' office for like the 5th time. They decided it was infected (again) and he went on antibiotics. Of course all his toe problems put him WAY behind in his training. He put in a good 16 mile run a few weeks before the race, but he knew it wasn't going to be his best marathon.

He ran it with our sister-in-law, Edda, and her brother Mark. Edda was suffering from a bruised bone and a severe shin splint, so she was also running at less than her best.

Rog got sick along the way (from the antibiotics) which totally wiped him out and caused his back muscles to cramp up. Luckily he found a nice lady who gave him some pain medicine and rub for his back.

We planned to meet him at mile 23. We got there at the time we figured would be the earliest he could make it there. We waited and waited and waited.

Corby got a little bored.

Then finally we saw him coming!

He stopped for a minute and told us his woes before continuing on. What a trooper!

We hopped in our car and after a quick stop at Arby's to get Corby some lunch, we saw him cross the finish line with an official time of 5:12:03.

We were just so proud of him for pushing through and finishing the race!

Run, Daddy Run!

Edda and Mark finished just 3 minutes after him. Too bad we didn't know how close they were or we would have stuck around the finish line to see them cross as well!

Way to go Phillips Finishers!!