Five on Friday

1. CheapShots Photography was at the Lighting of Riverwoods doing free pictures last week. They posted them on their Facebook page this week and we ended up with this (pretty cute) picture. If we didn't already have a picture for our Christmas card, I might have used this one.



2. I'm kind of obsessed with chalkboard prints right now, so when the Wood Connection posted this one on their blog, I had to make it! Today they posted another one and yeah, I'll probably have to make that one too!



3. I realized that I'm hosting joy school the week after Thanksgiving, so I decided it would be wise to plan ahead. I still have a few things to get ready, but I know all the activities we are doing, I printed everything out, got the books I'll need from the library, and bought all the supplies I'll need. Um hello, this is so unlike me! It feels so good to be on top of things and I know I'll enjoy Thanksgiving so much more not having to worry about it!



4. Today Rog and I went to the temple to do sealings. We were able to seal together Grandpa Phillips' grandpa and grandma - so Rog's great great grandparents. We've been doing their work for the past few months - it was great to get it done!

5. Tonight for dinner I made District 11 Bread in honor of the Catching Fire movie that just came out. I don't know when we're going to see it, but it will likely be soon!

Coldest Game Ever

Last Saturday was the last home game of the season and it was the coldest game ever!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. That morning Rog braved the elements to go on a run. (I did not. Instead I made Baked Oatmeal from Our Best Bites' Savoring the Seasons Cookbook. Yum!)



I crashed my mom's Super Saturday to make this advent calendar.



Then it was on to the game. The weather was ok enough for our tailgate - just a very light rain. Corbyn ate a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie (after refusing to eat any soup or bread). He immediately started complaining about his tongue - uh oh, now we're pretty sure he's allergic to macadamia nuts. But it seemed like a mild enough reaction, so Rog took him into the stadium ahead of everyone else to get him some water. And look who he got to meet! I'm so mad I missed this!



As soon as the game started, the rain really started to come down. We were prepared with ponchos, layers, coats, hats, gloves, and even hand warmers, but it was just cold and really really wet! My parents had taken Peyton with them on an errand to Target, so luckily she was warm and dry. Corbyn fell asleep, so we decided we'd have my mom pick him up when she dropped my dad off at the game after running their errand. But when they got there we all just decided to leave (before half time) - it was that miserable. We were playing Idaho State and totally beating up on them, so it just wasn't worth it. (The final score was 59-13, but they were playing 3rd and 4th string players the entire second half. It was 49-3 at half time.)



Corbyn threw up on the way home (we're pretty sure because of the macadamia nuts because he was fine the rest of the day). He ate an entire bag of popcorn while watching shows on the iPad when we got home (while we listened to the rest of the game on the radio) and then had 2 hot dogs and ran around like crazy with all his friends at our ward chili cook off that night.

It was a total shame that this game had to be the 2nd Cosmo's Kids Club game. When we were putting Corbyn to bed the night before he was all jazzed about the game and said he wanted to stay for the whole thing - next year, buddy! At least he got to meet Cosmo - he can't stop talking about it!

Five on Friday

1. I decided that this year I would get all the Phillips' Christmas presents done before we go to Colorado for Thanksgiving. I have been working like crazy to pull it off. Usually I'm totally against listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I'm only a little ashamed to admit this has put me in the Christmas spirit a little early this year and I have been listening to the Christmas music they're already playing on FM100.

2. My mom bought a Mickey table for the kids to eat at when we have dinners at their house. She was saying that it kind of has a squishy top. Corbyn's immediate response, "Like my baby." We haven't really called her our squishy for awhile, so I was pretty impressed that he remembered. We all got a good laugh out of that one!

3. Amid my homemade gift making, I got a few Thanksgiving crafts done this week. I'm most impressed with myself because they are crafts I purchased this year! That never happens! Originally the tan stripe on my Give Thanks plaque was yellow, but you couldn't read it from any sort of a distance, so I had to fix it. I'm happy with the finished product.



4. This morning I saw on Instagram that Waffle Love was going to be at the Lighting of Riverwoods tonight. It sounded like a fun event and we didn't have anything going on, so we decided to go. It was a great way to kick off the holiday season and a great excuse to get a waffle. We got the pumpkin pie waffle to share and it was a hit!



5. Tonight was the first night of our Friends Countdown to Thanksgiving tradition. We don't watch on Sundays and we are actually going to finish up on Tuesday before we leave for Colorado, so if you want to join us in this tradition, you still have time.

Weekend Highlights

*Watching the BYU game. We lost, but not too badly (17-27) and against Wisconsin, a ranked team. And it didn't hurt that we ate good food while we watched. Really good food.

*A breathtakingly beautiful sunset.



*Cafe Rio.

*Finding Peyton like this when we went to pick her up from nursery. She fell asleep in one of the leader's arms and then stayed asleep when they put her down. Poor tired girl. Thank you Daylight Saving Time!



*A most delicious taco pizza for Sunday dinner and an equally delicious (and yes, homemade) peach pie for dessert.



*Playing Guillotine with the Petrosinos.

Five on Friday

1. The end of Daylight Saving Time has meant early mornings, grumpy kids, early naps, and sucker bribes to do things that are basically routine around here (i.e., getting Peyton in the running stroller without her throwing the world's largest fit). Benjamin Franklin, we are not friends!



2. Tuesday afternoon I decided to live on the wild side - I drove all the way from American Fork to Spanish Fork with the gas light on after a trip to the Wood Connection. I wanted to fill up at Costco and I was 99.9% sure we could make it (we did). It was not the most relaxing drive and I'm not sure it was worth whatever I saved, but at least this story has a happy ending!

3. Corbyn drew his first family portrait this week - in dry erase marker on our bathroom mirror. (Look for the 4 circles.) I was one proud mamma especially since I have been trying to get him to draw something, anything for months now! I think joy school is paying off!



4. Yesterday Corbyn came home from joy school with an Indian headdress he had made while learning about the letter I. Apparently the boys wanted nothing to do with them, but Peyton wore it for a good hour. Just call her little chief!



5. Last night I made Slow Cooker Refried Beans for dinner group. I was excited because it was my first time making something from dry beans, like ever! I wish I could say I loved them, but I thought they were just meh.

Weekend Fail

Last Saturday was kind of a dud. We had good intentions and tried to do fun things as a family, but nothing really worked out as planned.

We wanted to get some more use out of our Pass of All Passes, so we thought we'd take the kids mini golfing. They had fun, but so did not get the point that they were supposed to use the club to get the ball in the hole. They'd let us help them tee off, but then they just wanted to pick up their balls and put them in the hole.



They wanted to put their balls in this windmill thing over and over again. We had a hard time keeping them moving and didn't want to get in the way of other groups actually golfing, so when Corbyn had to go to the bathroom, we just called it quits.



We had tickets to the BYU Basketball game that night (from Corbyn's Cosmo's Kids Club membership), so we decided to stay up in Orem and get dinner at Chili's (where we had a gift card) rather than go all the way home to Spanish Fork, have dinner, and drive back up again. That was actually the most successful part of our evening. We got there before the dinner rush which was absolutely key - things wouldn't have gone so smoothly if we had to wait. We had the kids split a kids' meal and got the 2 for $20 deal for us (so our gift card covered everything but the tip).

The BYU Basketball game was against Alaska Anchorage and it didn't start until 7:00. Peyton loved it at first - she was clapping and cheering like she was the hugest fan ever - but soon lost interest and just wanted to climb all over everything. Corbyn was super tired and just done for the day.



We didn't even make it through the first half. We took a picture with the huge Cosmo and called it a night!



On the bright side, it was bascially a free day - we can't complain about that!

Halloween

For FHE the Monday before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. Or rather, we started carving our pumpkins... We actually only got one done that night, so I finished them the next night. We did an owl, Frankenstein, Wreck-It Ralph, and a bat (that Corbyn said was Batman).



On Halloween we had our Halloween Joy School party in the morning. My parents watched Peyton for me and when they brought her back I enlisted their help to take a few pictures. I wanted to make sure I got some good ones before the costumes got dirty and the kids got grumpy. I'm so glad I did because we ended up with some really cute ones!



That afternoon I made a little Halloween treat. Earlier in the month while waiting in line at the grocery store, I saw a magazine with these cute monsters on the cover. I snapped a picture on my phone because there was no way I was going to buy the magazine just for the one recipe. They were basic rice krispy treats dipped in chocolate and then covered in mini M&M's with mini Oreos for the eyes. Obviously the magazine picture is better, but I think they turned out pretty cute and they were so good - especially when thrown in the microwave for like 15 seconds to soften them up just a tiny bit.



Rog normally has a late class on Thursdays, but he went to the same class they have on Tuesdays so he could be home for trick-or-treating. My parents are one of the only houses on their street that is actually finished, so they decided to spend the night with us. They brought pizza for dinner and even candy to hand out to our trick-or-treaters!

After our dinner Grandpa stayed to pass out candy while the rest of us headed out trick-or-treating. Peyton was so cute saying trick or treat and thank you at every door. Corbyn was a pro - he wanted to fill his bag to the top!



Many of our neighbors were out trick-or-treating and just left their candy bowl on their doorstep, but a lot were just not home. We had pretty good luck on our side of the town homes, but when we went to the other side it was dead! We figured everyone went to bigger neighborhoods, so I think next year we'll be going to Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood to trick-or-treat!



We didn't get a ton of candy, but that was actually good because that means I won't have to hear the kids beg for candy for months. They've actually been pretty good and only ask for a few pieces a day. Peyton's favorites are the suckers.



We put the kids to bed and then watched Hocus Pocus - my favorite Halloween movie of all time! It was a great Halloween!

The Letter H

Last week was my week to host joy school. We learned about the letter H, the number 7, and the color black.

On Tuesday we did Hippos.

We did a hippo puzzle and a hippo pom-pom magnet picture (found here).



For our snack we ate hippo cookies made from Nutter Butters, Cheerios, and mini chocolate chips.



We made hippo paper plate masks.



Carver didn't want to hold his up for the picture.



We played Hungry Hungry Hippos. (I borrowed it from a neighbor, but it's on Corbyn's Christmas wish list because he loved it so much!)



And we hammered golf tees into styrofoam blocks.



On Thursday we had a Halloween party. (Very fortunate that we were doing H on Halloween.) Everyone wore their costumes - we had a cowboy, Ironman, Batman, and Fix-It Felix.



They liked the pom-pom magnets on Tuesday, so I found a witch picture from this Pre-K pack for them to do.



We also did some puzzles and other activities from this Pre-K pack.



I told the Colored Ghost story.



For our snack we had mummy dogs and jack-o-lantern peaches. Carver was the only one to eat his peaches (it was worth a try). I let them watch Ghoul Friend (a Mickey Short) while we were waiting for the mummy dogs to finish cooking - it was probably their favorite part of the whole party!



We did some cutting practice and colored pumpkins different colors (also from this Pre-K pack).



We collected spiders from a spider web.



And did a pumpkin walk to practice our numbers.



I had a lot of fun hosting and I think the boys had some fun too! (And hopefully they learned something while we were at it!)