We wanted to have Corbyn's family party before we moved and we decided it would be best to have it after we got the moving truck all loaded. I made the invitation sitting in the airport in Hawaii waiting for our flight home.
It was supposed to be a family party, but only my parents, McKae, and Rocky could come, so we ended up inviting the Woods and the Forsbergs at the last minute. (Friends that feel like family!) They saved the party because it would have been pretty pathetic with such a small group!
We had it at the Spanish Fork Splash Pad and did a beach theme because our house was going to be almost completely empty. There are so many fun beach party ideas on Pinterest, but I had to keep it pretty simple. As I was packing I made sure to keep out what I would need for the party and then I put it in a box and added it to the moving truck after the party.
I made the cupcakes the day before with a cake mix and my go-to buttercream frosting (except with all butter instead of half shortening and half butter). I sprung for the Duncan Hines cake mix since I wasn't going to be adding anything extra to it. And you want to know something crazy? They ended up being the best cupcakes I'd made in a long time! I decorated them with cinnamon Teddy Grahams, peach rings, gummy Lifesavers, crushed graham crackers, sour rainbow belts, and umbrella picks. (As I was decorating them I discovered that cinnamon Teddy Grahams dipped in frosting make a very tasty treat. Now I always keep a box on hand to use up leftover frosting with!)
The cupcakes were the only thing I made unless you count mixing a package of Kool-Aid with Sprite. Then I guess I made that too! The rest was just stuff I bought. Otter Pops...
Gummy sharks, fruit slices...
Grapes, watermelon, and Goldfish Grahams (the s'mores and vanilla cupcakes flavors). I put some of the food in beach pails and used sand shovels to serve it.
We didn't get to the park early enough to get a table in the shade and it was a super hot day. The Otter Pops were melting fast, so we started handing them out as the guests arrived.
I had all the food set up on a table in the sun, but ended up moving it onto the ground in the shade because my beautiful cupcakes were melting!
The kids (and Rog) had fun playing in the water.
After Rhys moved Austin became Corbyn's new best friend for a couple weeks, so it was fun to have him at the party.
When the kids were taking a break from playing in the water, we sang to Corbyn and he opened his presents.
When we were eating Logan stepped on a metal grate with his bare feet and burned his soles. He would not let us put him down and he cried anytime we tried to put shoes on him or have him walk for the rest of the day. It was so sad, but at least it healed quickly. He was pretty much back to his normal self the next day.
Other than that mishap, it was a fun little party to celebrate Corbyn's 6th birthday!
After we got home from our cruise and celebrated Memorial Day, we had to pack like crazy people to get done in time for moving day. I preferred it that way because it was easier to just pack everything instead of trying to figure out what we needed to keep out. We had to do a little of that, but not nearly as much as we would have if we had packed earlier.
I made it out for a run on Global Running Day (June 1st).
Grandma Dixie was in Utah watching Mae while Taylor and Martha were out of town. She brought her down to Spanish Fork one day, so she could play with her cousins. They ended up painting and Mae turned herself into a smurf.
Peyton had her dance pictures. She was an absent-minded mouse. Since the studio does this show (Alice in Topsy Turvey Land) every few years, they own all the costumes and we were just renting it. She ended up with a costume that was too big for her, but she was adorable nonetheless.
I signed Corbyn up for a sport's camp through Spanish Fork. I had to get special permission for him to do it since he was not technically 6 yet and it was supposed to be for ages 6-12. He would have been 6 in time for the second session, but he had to do the first session since we were moving. It was 4 days a week for 2 weeks. He went for 2 hours in the morning and each day they learned a new sport - the normal sports (baseball, soccer, football, basketball, track, etc), but also some less common sports including at least one sport that I hadn't heard of before (and of course I can't think of the name of it now). He had fun doing it and it gave him something to look forward to each day since Rhys had moved and he couldn't play with him anymore.
I had spent a lot of time working on this Nativity puzzle early in the year, but didn't finish it before we moved (and still haven't finished it, but it's on the list of things to finish this year!). Rog didn't think we could move it, but I found a way!
We loaded the moving truck the morning of June 4th. We had missed National Donut Day on June 3rd, but celebrated a day late with donuts for everyone who came to help us. We had a good number from our ward show up to help (plus my parents and Taylor) and many hands made for light work. Rog worried we wouldn't be able to fit everything in the moving truck, but we actually ended up with room to spare.
That afternoon we had a family party for Corbyn's birthday. (Post coming soon.)
Our last day of church in the Willows Ward was June 5th. It was Fast and Testimony meeting and it was Rog's turn to conduct and bear his testimony. I also bore my testimony and many ward members mentioned us in their testimonies. We didn't mean to turn it into a farewell Phillips meeting, and we were a little embarrassed that it ended up that way, but it was nice to have a chance to say goodbye to the ward.
After church Rog and my dad started the drive up to Oregon with the moving truck and Rog's car. They were planning on towing Rog's car behind the moving truck, but decided at the last minute to have one of them drive the truck and the other drive the car since they had heard bad things about towing a car behind a moving truck.
They spent Sunday night in Boise and then finished the drive on Monday. A good number showed up from the Sunnyside Ward to help them unload. Portland was having a freak early heat wave and it had been in the 90s and had hit 100 the week before they got there. (Very unusual for that early in the summer.) Our house didn't have an air conditioner (yet), so they spent a couple uncomfortable days there putting furniture together and doing what they could to get the house ready for us.
My mom stayed with me and helped me clean our townhouse and take care of the kids while Rog and my dad were in Oregon. We were left with practically nothing since we could only keep what would fit in the minivan. The only piece of furniture we had was our entertainment center. We were selling it since we didn't have a place for it in our new living room. We stressed and stressed because it wasn't selling, but lucked out that someone bought it the night before we moved. We watched movies on my laptop sitting on a couple camp chairs we had left out.
Logan was not a fan of sitting in this turtle booster seat without a chair.
Corbyn slept in his and Peyton's room on an air mattress. Logan slept in his room in a pack n' play. And the 3 girls slept in the master bedroom on air mattresses. Peyton and I shared an air mattress since I figured she'd end up with me anyway. It's hard to tell, but in this picture she's actually on the floor in between the two air mattresses with her head on the air mattress.
She had a few practices and a dress rehearsal for her recital.
I took Corbyn and Peyton to see Zootopia in the Spanish Fork theater to use up some passes we had. We've decided that sometimes Disney does a terrible job with their trailers because based on the trailers we thought it was going to be so dumb, but we ended up loving it! (Same thing happened with Frozen. We didn't even see it while it was in the theater because the trailers were so dumb.) I ended up buying it at Costco right after seeing it, so the kids could watch it on the drive up to Oregon.
I fit in a couple last runs on my beloved Spanish Fork River Trail.
Wednesday (June 8th) was crazy and the details are fuzzy now, but this is how I remember it going down. After we picked up Corbyn from his sport camp my mom took Corbyn and Peyton to Seven Peaks for one last hurrah there. I can't remember what I did with Logan while they were there (maybe errands?), but I do remember picking them up and stopping at the Disney Store really quickly (for their Half Yearly Sale) before we drove up to Salt Lake to pick up my dad and Rog at the airport. Jared and Cailey wanted to make us a farewell dinner, so we planned to stop there and eat and then head down to Spanish Fork for Peyton's recital. They were running a little late and we didn't think we'd all fit in their tiny apartment, so we went to the duck pond at BYU to wait for them. We thought they could bring dinner there when it was ready and we could have a little picnic.
It turned out that they were running more late than we thought and we needed to get back, so I could do Peyton's hair and makeup. We stopped by the BYU Creamery and bought a half gallon of Graham Canyon ice cream to eat after the recital. I did Peyton's hair and makeup while we waited for Jared and Cailey. We ate quickly and then went over to American Leadership Academy for the recital.
I was adamant that we not move before this recital. Rog could not understand why it was so important to me and he really wanted to get up to Oregon to get us as settled as possible before he started work on June 13th. He gave me more crap about it than anything else in our whole 9 years of marriage, but it was worth it. Cuteness overload! (She's second from the left.)
While they were waiting for their turn to dance, they made bracelets (she's wearing the one she made in this picture) and did other fun activities.
I'm grateful to Peyton's teacher for helping her have such a great experience for her first year of dance.
Thursday (June 9th), we got up early, said goodbye to our first house (the house we brought all our babies home to), and hit the road.
Rog was a trooper and drove the whole way (other than one measly hour that I drove).
We did the drive in one day (with many stops for the little people), since we were anxious to get to our new house.
Logan was a trooper and didn't give us any trouble (that I can remember now anyway).
Then we started the fun job of unpacking and making our new house our home.
*Wants to read ALL THE BOOKS before his nap and at bedtime.
*Is obsessed with hot chocolate. He has it at least once a day if not more!
*Splashes in the bath and makes a huge water mess.
*Says ow anytime he's hurt or if he doesn't want to be touched or picked up.
*Folds his arms and bows his head for prayers, but only for a minute or so. When he decides he's done, he'll say amen and start eating or playing again.
*Sticks his hand down his diaper when he has a messy diaper.
*Says dadasaur for dinosaur.
*Can point out his hair, head, eyes, nose, teeth, tongue, ears, bee bo, tummy, and bum.
*Is terrible at the grocery store. The last couple times we've gone too close to nap time (which definitely doesn't help) and I've ended up giving him my phone and letting him watch a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that I have downloaded. I'm not proud of it, but sometimes it's the only way our grocery shopping is going to get done. (Don't tell me I should do Grocery Pickup. I like to shop at Winco and they don't do Grocery Pickup there. I could do it at Walmart, but our Walmart has a very small grocery section and I wouldn't be able to get everything I need.)
*Loves pointing out his favorite Disney characters anywhere he sees them.
He frequently sleeps with his arms behind his head and I think it is just about the cutest thing ever.
Pointing to the fish at the Chinese Garden in Portland.
He wasn't a fan at first, but he loves jumping on the tramp Santa brought us for Christmas now. He says jump, jump, jump the whole time he's jumping.
Peyton will occasionally take pictures with my phone. Most of them are not the best, but sometimes I find a few cute ones of Logan.
He found all of his friends when we stopped in the Disney section of JCPenney on our way out of the mall. "I'll take one of each, mom!"
Laundry day best buds.
One day we got home from the store and he must have been really hungry because he found a bowl of cereal in the sink from breakfast and started eating it.
Peyton's little shadow.
Can you tell he has a big sister? He's always wanting to put on Peyton's necklaces and loves playing with her baby.
Licking his plate. He got this habit from me.
But not the ketchup part. I definitely don't lick my plate when I have ketchup on it!
The kids are doing a marathon, so twice a week we go to the park and run a mile. I usually push Logan on the swings while they run or push him in our running stroller and run with the kids. But last time we went, he wanted to run with the kids.
Our neighbor watched Logan and Peyton for me, so I could go to a Date with Mom activity they were doing in Corbyn's class. She sent me this picture and said he did this for at least a half hour.
I can't believe this little guy will be TWO in only 1 month! Time to start planning the party! Spoiler alert: if you had any doubt, it's going to be a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme.
I am a BYU Grad, an accountant, a champion sleeper, a crafter, a (retired) dancer, a mother, a perfectionist, a quilter, a runner, a reader, and sometimes a nerd!
