Snow Day

Saturday morning we woke up to more snow. The kids and I spent the morning making mini pumpkin cupcakes for no reason other than they are so good they demand to be made at least yearly. Corbyn insisted that some of them be blue for the football game later that day.

We let Rog sleep in because he has been sick with a terrible cough that has been keeping him up half the night. When he woke up he took the kids outside to build a snowman. Corbyn named him Branches.

After a trip to Costco with the rest of Spanish Fork (it was seriously so so busy), we headed to the football game. The kids didn't last long and neither did Grandpa, Jared, and Cailey.

Rog and I stayed almost until the very bitter end to enjoy a cougar victory (42-23). We were playing UNLV who is pretty terrible, but with the way this season has gone nothing is a given anymore!

Other than our popsicle feet that took most of the night to thaw out, it was the perfect way to spend our snow day!

Five on Friday

1. I had planned a pretty easy week as far as dinners go because I thought I was going to be busy potty training Peyton. When she decided she was going to have nothing with that, I just went along with my plan and it was kind of nice. I love cooking, but every now and then it's good to take a break too.

2. Tuesday was my Aunt Tracy's birthday. She's in Salt Lake for a few weeks, so we decided to go up and surprise her. We got dinner from Olive Garden and had a great time celebrating her birthday.

3. While up in Salt Lake, Rog and my dad helped rake my grandma's lawn. We don't have a lawn of our own to rake, so the kids had a blast playing in the leaves. I'm glad they got the opportunity before the weather turned cold the very next day!

4. We had our first snow of the season on Thursday. We got enough for the kids to go sledding and they quite enjoyed it. Of course it's all melted now, but it will be back.

5. We had a Relief Society activity about planning and simplifying Thanksgiving dinner and now all I can think about is our Thanksgiving menu. Turns out Logan really has a thing for cranberries because as of right now I've got my eye on 4 different cranberry recipes (Cranberry Punch, Cranberry Sauce, Cranberry Salsa and Cream Cheese Dip, and Nantucket Cranberry Pie).

It's a...

BOY!

We had our 20 week ultrasound last Friday afternoon. I already knew it was a boy (as in, I would have been so shocked if they had told me it was a girl), but it was good to get confirmation. Most importantly, everything looks just how it should and we are feeling so blessed! We can't wait for him to join our family in March!

Grandma watched the kids while we went to the ultrasound and we stopped by Macey's on the way home to pick up a couple balloons to share the news. They were both excited - especially Corbyn who would have been pretty upset if we brought home pink balloons! He has already decided that he will be calling him Dragon. (His best friend Rhys has a new brother that he sometimes calls Scorpion.)

This will be the 10th grandchild on the Phillips side (8th boy) and the 5th grandchild on the Ririe side (3rd boy). We definitely know how to do blue in this family!

Since finding out, we have been calling him Baby Logan and it feels right, so unless we have a change of heart, we'll be naming him Logan Ririe Phillips. My plan is to decorate the nursery in a blue football theme and I am most excited to make this football quilt!

Because Corbyn was born in June and Logan will be born in March, not all of Corbyn's clothes will work for Logan. I've already bought just a couple things that I know he will need. (A little brother shirt with a matching big brother shirt for Corbyn and newborn pajamas.) It's fun to shop in the newborn section again!

While we're talking baby, it seems fitting to do a pregnancy update. Thankfully, I can finally say that I am not feeling sick anymore. I was definitely sick the longest with this pregnancy. I am grateful to have that behind me... Just in time to start getting big and uncomfortable! I have been feeling pretty regular movement for the past month and Rog was even able to feel some kicks the other day. He seems to be most active at night after we get the kids to bed and I finally have a chance to sit down and relax for a minute. 

Anyway, here's my growing belly at 18 weeks and 20 weeks. 

21 weeks down, 18 to go! (Counting down to 39 weeks as I will likely be induced then.)

The Hobbs Visit and Tracy Aviary

Last week Aunt Diana, Cousin Blake, and Cousin Skyler came to visit for a few days. Peyton was so excited to take Blake to nursery with her and all 3 of the older kids played so well together the whole time they were here. I didn't get any pictures of Skyler, but she is at a fun age and we spent a lot of time making her laugh.

Diana and Blake have Pass of all Passes from when they were here over the summer, so one day we went mini golfing at Trafalga. (It was hard to get good pictures because of the black lights. This is Grandma helping Peyton if you can't tell.) 

Corbyn's favorite part was pretending to play the arcade games even though we didn't put any money in them.

I had a $10 coupon that needed to be used at Kohl's, so we spent some time there. The kids had fun looking at all the toys and finding things to add to their Christmas Wish Lists. And I got this table runner for free - like I really didn't even spend a penny!

We also enjoyed dinner at Pizza Factory and introduced Diana to Waffle Love. It was fun to have them here!

On Saturday Rog had an activity up at the Tracy Aviary for school. Families were invited, so we all got to go.

Our good friends, the Woods, were there too because Cory started his MBA this semester up at the U. 

Peyton and Elsie were the cutest little friends walking around holding hands the whole time. 

And the birds were pretty cool too. It was a fun way to spend our Saturday afternoon!

Peyton at 2 1/2

Peyton is 2 1/2 now and she is definitely not a baby anymore! 

At 2 1/2 Peyton:

Will say, "Don't talk to me" when she is mad and goes to her room to cry.

Is obsessed with the letter P. She is constantly pointing out P's and other letters from her name.

Loves Doc McStuffins, Minnie, Hello Kitty, and Princesses. Cinderella is currently her favorite princess, but that is constantly changing! She has already decided that she wants a Doc McStuffins birthday party next year and that she will be Doc for Halloween - we'll see if she changes her mind before then.

Has decided that she wants us to feed her again - mostly her cereal and soup, but she can also be fiercely independent. If you do something she wanted to do herself, you are in so much trouble!

Loves her friends Elsie and Calla.

Doesn't nap unless we go somewhere in the afternoon and she falls asleep on the way home.

Loves to snuggle with me at night. When she first started sleeping in her big girl bed, she was pretty good about staying in her bed, but recently she has been ending up in our bed multiple times a night. I love the snuggles, but we all get a better sleep when we sleep in our own beds, so we are working on this!

Will sometimes go climb in our bed and fall asleep there after we have put her to bed in her bed.

Loves singing songs and knows the words to most of the songs we sing to her at bed time. And she is never ever satisfied with just one or two songs. If she had her way, she'd get 50!

Loves to color and put stickers on paper.

Almost always has a runny nose. It's gotten to the point where unless she has other symptoms and is acting sick, I take her to nursery because otherwise she would never go!

Was so excited about being potty trained and today was the day I was going to do it, but at the last minute she had a major freakout and decided she was too scared... I don't want to push it, but I'd really like to get that taken care of before the baby comes in March!

Halloween Week

The Monday before Halloween we carved pumpkins for FHE. We got Corbyn to stick his hand in once, but it didn't last long! Peyton wouldn't go near the pumpkin guts. So Rog cleaned out the pumpkins and I carved.

Peyton wanted a Minnie pumpkin and I definitely felt like a rockstar mom when it actually turned out!

Corbyn got to dress up for preschool Thursday and Friday. (On Thursday with the Tuesday/Thursday class and on Friday with the Monday/Friday class.) They had a little party and went trick-or-treating to some of the classes in the high school.

Thursday night our ward had a chili cook off and trunk-or-treating around the cultural hall. I was flying solo that night because Rog was up at school, so I didn't get any pictures. Corbyn was a great big brother to take Peyton around the circle, so I could pass out candy.

For lunch on Friday we had mummy hot dogs, jack-o-lantern peaches, and orange soda in monster cups. The kids surprised me by actually eating it all!

For dinner we tried out Mel's Dinner in a Pumpkin. It was delicious (and easy) enough that we just might make it a Halloween dinner tradition!

Peyton was Minnie and Corbyn was Batman. I made Peyton's bow, but other than that I went the store-bought route this year.

We did a little trick-or-treating around our neighborhood before heading up to Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood where we had much better luck! We ended up with way too much candy and I can't wait for it all to disappear!

Rog and I didn't dress up, but I did wear my skeleton baby shirt. 

On Saturday we enjoyed watching BYU beat Middle Tennessee (27-7) to end their 4 game losing streak! After the game my parents sent us out on a date while they watched the kids. We had dinner at Panda Express (They have a honey sesame chicken right now that is amazing!) and then did a few errands because we're cool like that. 

It was a fun week celebrating Halloween!

Ghoulish Feast 2014

We had our annual ghoulish feast the Sunday before Halloween. This is my favorite Halloween tradition and it did not disappoint this year.

I whipped up a menu using fonts found here.

Graveyard Dip (Just in case you're wondering, the tree is not something that can be made ahead of time! I learned that the hard way...twice!)

Headless Horseman Dip

Witches Brew (I added a few drops of green food coloring.)

Haunted Salad (with croutons cut out using mini Halloween-shaped cookie cutters to make it haunted)

Spooky Squash (nothing spooky about it, just gave it a fun name so we could use some of the squash from my parent's garden)

Skeleton Ribs (idea from here, recipe from here)

Wicked Witch Cupcakes

Everything was delicious and maybe even a little scary!