Logan's Blessing

We blessed Logan on May 3rd. We were grateful to have many family members come to be there for his special day. Especially Roger's parents who came all the way from Colorado and his grandparents who came from St. George (not an easy trip for them anymore).

We blessed him in our ward and he was the only baby blessed that day - as opposed to the 5 babies blessed the day we blessed Peyton!

Those in the circle were Logan's:

Great Grandpa Phillips

Great Grandpa Ririe

Grandpa Phillips

Grandpa Ririe

Uncle Taylor

Uncle Anthony

Mom's Uncle Kevin Ririe

Mom's Cousin Taylor Ririe

As well as Bishop Palmer and Cory Wood.

Roger gave him a wonderful blessing. He blessed him with an eternal perspective to be a guiding force in his life, to be healthy and strong, to be able and willing to serve a faithful mission, and to be able to find a wonderful girl to go to the temple with. He told him he is loved, that he will be watched over as he does what is right, and that his Heavenly Father and parents care for him. He said that he is a chosen son of God here to do great things and blessed him with the ability to do those things. Finally he blessed him to be a kind person, to help those in need, and to uplift those around him.

He was blessed in the same outfit Corbyn was blessed in. While we were taking pictures of him, he had perfect timing with one of his very first smiles.

After the blessing we had a brunch at our house. We had Applesauce Oat Muffins, Banana Zucchini Muffins (from Our Best Bites' Savoring the Seasons cookbook), Potato and Bacon Casserole, Strawberries, Pineapple, and Bananas with Fluffy Orange Fruit Dip (from the original Our Best Bites cookbook), Mixed Berry Salad, Orange Juice, Apple Juice, and Chocolate Milk.

We attempted a family photo - it turned out a little silly, but I kind of love it.

It was a great blessing day!

Five on Friday

1. To make up for the dry winter we had, it has done nothing but rain all month. A few weeks ago I heard that we had already gotten more rain this May than 2012, 2013, and 2014 Mays combined!

2. I finally started working on Logan's quilt again. Before he was born I had finished 10/12 of these football blocks. I finished the last 2 and then got them all squared up. Now I can move onto the colored blocks to go around them. I'm hoping to get it finished before Logan is 6 months old - hopefully that's not too lofty of a goal!

3. The Wood Connection posted a picture of this trailer on their Instagram and I've been trying to decide how ridiculous it would be for me to buy it seeing as how I have no intention of ever owning a camping trailer. Rog thinks it would be totally ridiculous, but I just think it's so cute!

4. Corbyn's still too young to play on a baseball team in Spanish Fork, but he's doing their Smart Start Baseball Camp. It's twice a week for 4 weeks. Rog goes with him and practices his throwing, catching, batting, and running. He's loving it! 

5. We started watching Parenthood on Amazon Prime and have been hooked since the first episode! It's fun to have a new show to look forward to watching after we put the kids to bed.

Six on Saturday

1. Rog started his internship on Monday. He's really enjoying it so far. His favorite part just might be only having a 15 minute commute and I am loving consistently having him home at 5:15 to help with dinner!

2. On Monday I made these Lemon Blueberry Pancakes for dinner for the first time. When Rog heard what we were having he said, "Why can't we just have normal pancakes for a change?" (I have been making these Whole Grain Oatmeal Pancakes a lot lately and if I have bananas to use up I'll make Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes, so it is pretty rare that we have "normal" pancakes.) Well this time he totally had to eat his words because the Lemon Blueberry Pancakes were pretty outstanding!

3. I started what I am calling Mommy Summer School to introduce the letters to Peyton and make sure Corbyn is ready for Kindergarten. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning we take a half hour or so to "learn" a letter. We do a craft from here and practice writing the letter using a worksheet from here. Our first week was a success - on Tuesday we made alligators and on Thursday we made butterflies. 

4. Logan has been smiling for a few weeks now, but just in the past couple of days he's really started smiling a lot. He smiles with his whole face and every smile is special because they are so new.

5. For the past month or so our Costco has had a bunch of the less popular, but still good Disney movies (like Pocahontas, Lilo and Stitch, Aristocats...) for $12.99. This week I gave in and bought Mulan (with Mulan II). Mulan II is definitely one of those sequels that wasn't very good, but the kids think it's great and they've been requesting to watch both of them all week.

6. Last night Rog and Corbyn went on our ward's Fathers and Sons campout. They braved the rain and had a great time. I think Corbyn's favorite part was hunting for bears because he talked about it all day long!

3 Years

Peyton's 3 year stats:

Weight: 34 pounds (75th percentile)

Height: 38 inches (75th percentile)

PJ at 3 years:

*Loves to play with my hair especially when it is in a ponytail.

*Jumps when she is excited.

*Wants to do everything her big brother does.

*Still comes in our bed at least once a night. 

*Whenever she gets hurt will come tell us how she got hurt, cry for only a few seconds, and then say, "I'm ok."

*Loves mac and cheese and would eat it for every meal if we let her.

*For the past few months she always asks for the same 2 songs without fail before bed - I am a Child of God and I Love to See the Temple.

*Is finally starting to sit still and listen to books before bed.

*Suddenly seems sooooo huge now that we have Logan. I knew this was going to happen, but it still took me by surprise just how big she suddenly seemed.

*Is such a good big sister to Logan and is my best helper.

*Loves to give hugs and cuddle.

Our Peyton girl is a ray of sunshine and brings so much happiness and joy to our family. We sure love having her around! 

PJ's Birthday

Peyton's birthday was on a Sunday (and a it was a pretty busy Sunday), but we did our best to make it a special day for her.

With 9:00 church, it was just our typical busy Sunday morning.

After church we had an early dinner (or late lunch) with the Riries. I made one of Peyton's favorites - Creamy Corn Chowder. Peyton got to open a few more presents from Grandma and Grandpa - a Sleeping Beauty dress, an Elsa dress, and a princess play-a-sound book. Then we said goodbye to Jared and Cailey as they left for Jared's internship with Intel in Oregon this summer.

When we got home she opened her presents from us. 

She got a Doc McStuffins bike with a doll carrier (want), a helmet (need)...

A Cinderella dress and a Tiana dress (wear), and the P is for Princess book (read).

(Little Adventures had a warehouse sale a few weeks before her birthday and at only $10 a dress, it was hard to say no to them!)

And then that night we had Rog's Wood Badge Ceremony where he got his beads.

We had a great day celebrating this big 3 year old! We sure love our Peyton girl!

Five on Friday

1. Rog finished his semester on Monday - 2 years down, 1 to go! He's had this week off, but he starts his internship this coming Monday. 

2. We're having Corbyn's friend party next week (a month early) before his BFF, Rhys, moves for the summer. It's going to be a Lego party, so on Monday we went to the Lego store to get some supplies. The worker totally made Corbyn's day by letting him pick out a mini figure for his birthday when he found out we were there getting stuff for his party. 

3. On Tuesday we went to the Payson Temple Open House - even Logan got to come! (Something I'm sure we'll be telling him about his whole life.) It's a beautiful temple and we're excited for it to be our temple after it is dedicated.

4. After the open house, my parents kidnapped Rog and took him down to St. George to help move all the stuff from GG's house down there up here. To make up for leaving me with the 3 kids alone, they gave me money for dinner, so we got Culver's and ate at the park.

Luckily the kids were great and they were back before we knew it.

5. Yesterday Rog took Corbyn to see the new Avengers movie. He loved every minute of it! (And apparently this arms folded cool kid pose is his new way to take pictures.)

PJ's Birthday: Family Party

We had Peyton's family party the day before her birthday. I wanted to use the waffle cone maker I got for Christmas, so we had an ice cream party. 

I really tried to keep things simple, so my only decorations were some balloons.

I tripled this waffle cone recipe and made a ton of waffle cones and waffle bowls.

I took the easy route and bought ice cream. We had strawberry, moose tracks, chocolate chip cookie dough, and vanilla.

For toppings we had sprinkles, toffee bits, strawberries, Oreos, Magic Shell (I totally forgot that stuff even existed until I was planning this party and I think it's going to become a staple in our cupboard now that I have been reminded how awesome it is!), and Buttermilk Caramel Syrup. I found these bowls and spoons at GG's house and they became my inspiration for the color scheme of the party.

We also had cupcakes because you can't have a birthday party without cake of some sort!

The birthday girl enjoyed her ice cream!

She was being shy and didn't want to be sung to or blow out her candles, but she eventually let us.

She was much more excited about opening her presents. She got a lot of fun Doc McStuffins toys and the Glitter Glider Castle (and some Glitter Glider Princesses to go with it) from Grandma Lori and Papa George. 

It was a great excuse to use my waffle cone maker! I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! 

PJ's Birthday: Friend Party

We had Peyton's friend party the Friday before her birthday. We did a Doc McStuffins theme.

For decorations I got a Doc banner...

And a Doc balloon that was as big as Peyton!

I ordered unstuffed bears from Amazon. We had the kids stuff them and then give them a checkup.

I made these little checkup checklists to check off as they were doing the checkups.

The girls with their bears - Elsie Wood, Calla Howard, Brynn Goodrich, and Peyton.

And the boys with their bears - Rhys Howard and Corbyn.

We had cupcakes and pink Kool-aid. I decorated the cupcakes with figurines from the Doc McStuffins Busy Book Peyton got for Christmas. 

For party favors we gave Doc cups, Doc stickers, and a Doc fruit snack. 

It was a fun party celebrating our big 3 year old!