7 Years

7 years ago I married my best friend and what a wonderful 7 years it has been!

Here's to an eternity more! Love you Bunches!

2 Years

2 years ago today I held this little girl in my arms for the first time. She's had my heart since day 1!

Happy birthday Peyton girl! We love you!

Happy Easter!

From our two cuties

and their little chick friend!

Five on Friday

1. A friend from my Monticello days (who is now a physical therapist) made me a physical therapy plan for my ankle. After just a couple weeks on it I am back running at almost full speed and with almost no ankle pain! Now I have 10 weeks to increase my distance and prepare for the Ragnar. My longest distance is 6.3 miles, so I think I should be able to do it as long as I can keep my IT band from acting up too much. (It's been feeling pretty tight, so I've been rolling it out like crazy!) Thank you Taylor (and Kristen) for getting me back in the running game!

2. On Monday I decided to put a little more effort into our FHE than normal. I whipped up these Resurrection Eggs to talk about Christ's resurrection and the reason we celebrate Easter. They were a hit! 

3. On Wednesday night we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my parents and Jared to celebrate my mom finishing her taxes on time and not having to file an extension this year. (That hasn't happened since Rog has known her, so it is kind of a big deal!)

4. Today I went to Old Navy to get Corbyn a couple new church shirts. His are all too small and they were having a great sale this weekend. Of course I also came away with a few things for Peyton - a new shirt and two new pairs of shoes. As soon as I showed them to her, she had to try them on. Then she absolutely insisted on wearing one pair when she went down for her nap and holding the other. I think we're in trouble with this little fashionista!

5. My dad has been working on installing his sprinkling system and putting in his backyard the past couple of weeks. Rog and Corbyn have been good helpers along the way. Corbyn has been in little boy heaven digging and playing in the dirt. We're excited for many fun times playing in their backyard when they get it finished! 

Bathroom

When we moved into our house 4 years ago, I put absolutely no effort into decorating our half bath downstairs. I got a white soap dispenser, a white trash can, and used a blue hand towel from the bathroom in our Union Square apartment. It was really boring and ugly.

Finally in September 2012 I decided I should do something with it. I picked out hand towels, a soap dispenser, rug, and toilet seat cover from Kohl's.

Then I came up with the idea to paint stripes around the top of the walls. It seemed like a simple enough idea - much more difficult in execution. I started with the brown stipe and it turned out terribly. By then it was the holiday season - October I was busy making costumes, November I was gearing up to host my first Thanksgiving, and of course Christmas in December...

I was considering just painting over the brown stripe and abandoning that idea, but I decided to give it another go during Rog's Fall Break. For the brown stripe we used the calk trick, but because that turned out so poorly, I just used a vinyl applicator to make sure the tape was pushed down really well on the blue stripe. That worked about a million times better! In March I finally got around to the tan stripe and repainting the brown stripe. Then on Friday night I touched them up and Rog helped me hang everything on the walls!

Sometime along the way I saw this bathroom shelf from the Wood Connection. I had to order the 2 foot shelf because they only stock the 3 foot and 4 foot shelves in their stores. I got the daisies and stones from Michael's. And I decided to use these daisy lids for the mason jars because I like the way they make the flowers stand straight up.

I made these plaques way back when I originally started the project, but I waited to hang them until the stripes were done to figure out the right placement. 

I'm so happy to finally have this project done! It has seriously been on my to do list forever! Even though Corbyn keeps telling me he hates it (lol, that kid doesn't like change), I'm really happy with how it turned out! And as much as I like the stripes, I will be much more hesitant to do something like that in the future! If it weren't for those, I would have been done ages ago.

Six on Saturday

1. I finished my 4th book of the year, Little Princes. It is about a man who spends a few months volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal and ends up making it his life mission to bring home the lost children of Nepal. It was excellent.

2. Taylor got us free preview tickets (through his work) to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. It was fun to get to go before it opens to the public. The kids had a great time and I'm sure we'll be back!

3. Peyton learned to ride her tricycle this week! She's not a pro yet, but she'll get there with a little more practice.

4. I finished our taxes this week. We are feeling very blessed to be getting a very substantial refund - thanks to the Earned Income Credit and the Child Tax Credit, much more than we had deducted!

5. We had some errands to run up in Orem yesterday. We decided to pack a picnic lunch and visit a park while we were up there. It was the perfect way to enjoy the beautiful weather. (And how adorable is Peyton in that outfit?!)

6. We went on a fun date with the Woods and the Petrosinos last night. We played frisbee golf and went to Waffle Love for dessert. I wasn't terribly excited about the frisbee golf part, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would! We all had terrible frisbees and none of us were any good, so it was just fun.

Conference Weekend

We had an incredibly busy conference weekend - seeing lots of family and watching very little conference. I think next conference weekend I am going to say we can't leave Spanish Fork and if anyone wants to see us they have to come here! Thanks to technology we have been working on watching the talks we missed and we will read them when the Ensign comes!

 Saturday morning was the only session we watched at home. I was busy getting myself ready, making a salad for Mae's blessing, and gathering everything we needed for the rest of the day.

In between sessions we went to Mae's blessing. Some of Martha's family came down from Canada for conference, so it worked for them to do it then. In addition to the Canadians, Roger's mom, Anthony, McKae, and Rocky came from Colorado. We were glad to be there to represent the Phillips family and share in Mae's special day!

We caught some of the afternoon session in the car on the way to the outlets (to find Corbyn a shirt to match Peyton's Easter dress) and then on the way to Toys R Us (where Grandma Dixie let Peyton pick out a few things for her upcoming birthday). She got a new stroller for her dollies (the one she got for her first Christmas was very well loved and ready to be replaced!), a bath doll, and a tea set. We decided to save the tea set for her to open on her actual birthday, but the stroller and new dolly have been a huge hit already!

Not to be left out, Corbyn got to pick out one toy. He chose the Imaginext Batwing and has loved it! 

We had dinner at Cafe Rio and then Rog watched Priesthood with Bill while Mariah and Charlotte hung out with us.

Sunday morning we went up to Salt Lake for the Ririe waffle breakfast. We had a short meeting with the Ririe members of our Ragnar team and then watched the morning session there. I actually got to listen to that session, but Rog was entertaining Corbyn who insisted on playing superheroes.

Peyton loved holding Brady and Kiera's new baby, Miles. She'd hold him for a few minutes, go play, and then come back to hold him again.

We had lunch at my Grandma Ford's house in between sessions and then drove home during the afternoon session. I really tried to stay awake to listen while we drove, but didn't make it long!

We also exchanged treats with some of our neighbors. My original plan was to make blue raspberry cake pops, but those tasted like Smurfs (popular with the kids, but not with adults). So I ended up making lemon cake pops and giving out both.

Spring Crafting

Last Monday night I watched the General Women's Meeting with my mom. (We missed it live because we were out to eat with the Riries.) While we watched I put together these Easter blocks from the Wood Connection.

I loved the paper, so I decided to make a bunny and carrot banner out of it. I cut the bunnies and carrots out on my Silhouette (with Corbyn's help while Peyton was napping), glued some puff balls on for the tails, and taped them to some string. Easy, quick, and pretty darn adorable! (If I do say so myself!)

I tweaked a few things on my table and I love how it all came together.

I'm usually finishing up crafts at the end of the month (and then immediately packing them away), so it was nice I was able to get these done early to enjoy them all month long!

Mmmm...Dessert!

We get together with the Riries a few times a year to celebrate birthdays. Usually that means we get together in March because we have a big clump of birthdays the end of February through March. 

This time we went to dinner at Golden Corral. Corbyn and Peyton were literally in heaven. What kid wouldn't be with mac and cheese, pizza, and an unlimited supply of desserts? Peyton loved hamming it up for the camera while devouring her treats. 

Enjoy! (She certainly did!)

Photo credit goes to the Jar and Grandma Lori.