Mardi Gras

Thanks to Our Best Bites, we had a most delicious Mardi Gras this year.

I made Jambalaya for dinner.

And Beignets for dessert.

Both passed the Rog test which is saying something seeing as how he served his mission in Louisiana!

P.S. I had a wonderful birthday on Saturday. A post is in the works.

Rachel Visits

On Monday Rachel and Jillian were in town, so we had a little brunch. It was wonderful to see Rachel and meet Jillian!

Corbyn felt a little outnumbered with all the girls. I suspect that's why he is so expressionless in this picture. Someday kid you will love to be surrounded by girls!

{Emily and Elise, me and Corbyn, Rachel and Jillian}

Anna, we missed you!

For your Viewing Pleasure

Mealtime tricks performed by Corbyn.

A cuter version of the scrunchy face.

"Look mom, did you know there are crunchy things in this big box?!! Woot!"

80th Birthday Bash

Last weekend we went down to St. George for Grandpa Phillips' 80th birthday bash.

While we were there:

I got a haircut that was wwwaaaaayyyy overdue! We're talking I hadn't had one since last August.

I got to go for a run OUTSIDE! A nice change from my normal treadmill run.

Rog and I went golfing with my dad.

I finally hemmed some jeans I bought in November. (Here is a great tutorial I found on how to hem jeans while keeping the original hem.)

Rog and I beat my parents at 3 puzzle races!

Corby perfected his scrunchy face.

And on to the main event - the birthday party! Roger's parents, all of his uncles and aunts, McKae and Anthony, Marti, a handful of his cousins, and friends of the family came to celebrate. We all had a great time - especially Corbyn!

Happy birthday Grandpa Phillips! We love you!

8 Months

The Corb at 8 months:

*Doesn't like to sit still for anything - especially diaper changes, getting dressed, and getting lotioned up after a bath. He is always screaming, rolling over, and crawling away. Not the most pleasant experience!

*Crawls all over the place! He likes to "gimp crawl" with his right leg up. I'll have to post a video because it's hard to explain.

*Says mamama and dadada all the time. Probably doesn't know what he's saying, but it's fun anyway.

*Loves to knock over our surround sound speakers.

*Claps his hands.

*Shakes his head like a bobble head.

*Is doing better at eating solids. Banana is still his favorite, but I can get him to eat most other things if I add a taste of banana.

*Pulls himself up to standing on everything.

I took these pictures on Friday (with A LOT of help from my mom). I can't believe it has taken me this long to post them!

Happy Birthday Monkey!

Two weekends ago my parents came up for President's Day.

Among other things, we celebrated Jared's 19th birthday. He requested clown cones from Baskin Robins instead of a cake.

We love you Monkey! Happy birthday!!

Sick Sick Sick

You may have noticed that the 17th has come and gone and no 8 month pictures have appeared on this blog. Well, that's because they haven't been taken. The morning of Corbyn's 8 month birthday (Thursday), he woke up with what I thought was a regular cold. But by Sunday we could tell this wasn't just some ordinary cold. On Monday we took him to the doctor and the verdict was Bronchiolitis most likely caused by RSV. Fortunately he said he was pretty sick, but not anywhere near sick enough to have to go to the hospital which was very reassuring news. Yesterday he finally started to feel better and today he is much better - almost as good as new. He even learned a new trick.

I'm hoping to take his 8 month pictures tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

I am SO ready for spring to be here. It seems like we have had more than our fair share of sickness this winter!

February Decor

I got my Valentine decorations up before Valentine's Day which I was super proud of because all of them are (pretty much) new this year.

I say pretty much because I did this stitchery last year, but when I pulled it out I decided I didn't like how I finished it. So I framed it and I like it MUCH better!

Emily and I had a much needed craft day a few weeks ago. We crafted while the babies took turns napping. She made a cute wreath with conversation hearts and I made this birdhouse. I love how it turned out especially because I kind of made it up as I went along.

My plates for February have hearts and cupcakes, so I did cupcakes on my table to match.

This and That

A few months ago our trusty clock that we got when we were first married died on us. (If you want a visual, it can be seen here in this picture of Rog going back to school.) So we looked and looked and looked, but we couldn't find anything we liked to replace it. Finally we found this one at Tai Pan, but it was missing the pendulum. The manager said we could have it for 50% off, so we took it. But when we got it home and put a battery in it, we discovered it did not work. We had my parents look at the Tai Pan in St. George and it was there (pendulum and all)! Woot! So they bought it for us and my dad brought it up when he came for Jared's mission call opening. We love it - even more than we loved our old clock!

We have the hardest water here in Spanish Fork, but for some reason we didn't even consider getting a water softener until about a month ago. One day I just decided it was time. So we started getting some bids. The first company that came to give us a bid tested our water and it was way above what is considered "very hard" water according to some measurement they do. But we learned that water softeners are so so expensive! We got a few more bids and randomly Rog found an independent guy that would put it in for a lot less than the big companies. So on Wednesday we had him come and now we have soft water!! Hopefully this will help Corby's excema because it has been way bad lately!

For Rog's birthday he decided he wanted to get a backpack to take Corby hiking in. He researched different brands and finally made his purchase. It came yesterday, so he had to try it out. Corby seemed to like it. Now it just needs to warm up and a hiking we will go!

Last year I did pretty good at my goal to be a reader until Corby came. After that I didn't finish a single book I started. Lame, I know. I had heard about the Hunger Games, but the story didn't really sound like something I would like. But finally I decided to give it a try. I finished it yesterday and I loved it! I immediately started reading the next book in the series, Catching Fire, because I had to know what happens next. Read it, you won't be sorry!

Valentine's Day

On Saturday we had a reception to go to up in Cedar Hills. We thought we'd make a date of it and go to Olive Garden before. But as soon as we got to Olive Garden, we realized that we had forgotten the diaper bag! We were both pretty upset. I mean, seriously, how long have we been parents?! So we ended up picking up some Cafe Rio, eating it at home, remembering the diaper bag this time, and heading to the reception. It was my good friend, Bud's reception. He actually got married in January, but they had to postpone the reception. It was fun to see him and meet his wife. And we got to hang out with Kyle and Britt! So even though it started out a little rough, it ended up being a good night!

On Sunday I made these tiny pies and hand pies for Valentine's Day. I used cherry filling because it seemed appropriate. But both Rog and I agreed they would have been better with another filling. I should have gone with the apple!

On Monday I made lasagna with garlic bread for dinner because Italian seems like the most romantic kind of food. And because we didn't get our Olive Garden on Saturday! After we put the Corbs to bed, we watched Despicable Me. Haha. Doesn't that just scream Valentine's Day! Really, it was just the next movie on our Netflix and it came that day. But we both liked it.

On Tuesday I was feeling a little sad that my dessert didn't turn out to be as amazing as I had imagined, so I decided to Valentine up some homemade oreos. I had them sitting on the bar when Rog came home from playing basketball with some guys in our ward and I think he was pleasantly surprised!

So that was our Valentine's Day this year. It was a little disjointed and nontraditional, but what matters is that we got to spend time together!

Oh and Rog made me a cute certificate for a DVD player and shelf (to go with a TV he got me a little early for my birthday) for my craft room! What a cutie!

Big Boy

Corby is becoming such a big boy. Not in size - he's actually quite a little skinny dude now. But in the things he does.

He sits in the cart at the grocery store.

He sits in high chairs at restaurants.

He spills water and plays with the ice.

He sits up and plays with toys.

He crawls and makes cute faces.

He plays with power cords.

{You moms with girls have bows, but I get frog hats.}

He pulls himself up on things. (As of yesterday!)

And he works hard on the computer.

Yes, this little dude is growing up right before our eyes!