The Letter S

Last week when I taught joy school we learned about the letter S, the number 18, and squares.

The first day was snow/snowman themed. I was going to bring in some snow and show them how by the end of school it had melted, but there was no snow to be found outside! 

We read Snowmen at Night and There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow!.

Then we did this magnet page (based on There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow!) to learn about the number 18.

We also did this snowman magnet page.

And covered up all the S's on this page (found here). (I didn't worry about having them cover up the big S in blue and the small s in red.)

We did some puzzles from this Winter Wonderland Pre-K Pack. (I made them back in December for Christmas, but they also worked well for our theme.)

For our snack we had melted snowman (water), snowman arms (pretzels), snowman buttons (craisins), snow balls (powdered donut holes), and snowman noses (mini carrots). (Idea and printables here.)

They ate everything except for the snowman noses.

We made snowmen out of Play-doh which they loved way more than I was anticipating.

I also attempted to have them make snowflakes out of paper, but that was a little advanced for them.

We sang snowman songs (found here) - Including Once there was a Snowman (of course) and a few others. (They liked holding the snowmen and having them melt away one by one.)

Finally we did some snowman bowling. I cut out the noses from orange foam and punched out the eyes and mouths from brown foam then hot glued the pieces onto the mini water bottles. It really didn't take that long, but I definitely will be keeping these to play again in future years!

The second day we did snakes, superheroes, strawberries and squares.

We read My Snake Blake, The Spaghetti-Slurping Sewer Serpent, and Batman!.

We did a superhero magnet page. 

For our snack we had strawberries, strawberry wafers, and strawberry Kool-aid. 

We did a hero and villain sort (found here).

And a Batman color by number (also found here).

We made a snake craft (with squares instead of spaghetti). All the boys wanted their snakes to have more than two eyes - Corbyn's snake had 4 eyes!

We played Snakes and Ladders, but they didn't make it very far. 

And finally I let them dress up and play superheroes (which is pretty much what they always end up doing the last 15 minutes, but this time it actually fit with our theme).

Another fun week of learning!

Five on Friday

1. On Tuesday I was rushing to get ready for the day before teaching joy school. I wasn't paying attention as Corbyn climbed up on the counter and burned his foot on my straightener. I of course felt terrible. Luckily it wasn't that bad of a burn. He kept an ice pack on it for most of joy school and soaked it a few times that morning, but since then hasn't complained too much about it other than to want a band-aid on it.

2. We've enjoyed warmer weather this week and have had a lot of opportunities to get outside. I've been working with Peyton to try to get her to pedal her tricycle. So far she is more interested in just making it go any way she can!

3. I finally got my Silhouette out of its box to cut out an S for this craft we did at joy school this week. It is much bigger than I could have ever cut out with my Cricut. That's enough to excite me and I know I'm barely just skimming the surface of what it can do!

4. We've continued to enjoy watching the Olympics this week. Our favorite moments include Bob Costas returning after being out a few days with an eye infection, the USA (Davis and White) winning gold in the ice dance competition, and the entire women's figure skating final (a favorite of mine since I was a little girl watching Michelle Kwan).

5. Tonight for dinner I made my first pork tenderloin. I made Mel's Roasted Maple-Glazed Pork Tenderloin and it was amazing! Rog went so far as to say he wants that to be the last meal he ever eats. 

Be My Valentine

Because Valentine's Day was on a Friday this year I got to spend the whole day with all 3 of my Valentines!

Rog got up with the kids and let me sleep in which was the best gift he could have given me. He insisted he had to get me something though and what he got me totally cracked me up! He knows I love Little Debbie cakes, but when he went to the store they were out of the Valentine ones. So he transformed some Easter ones.

The kids got the Jungle Book (newly released from the Disney vault) from my parents and shirts from us. Corbyn's says I put the me in Romeo.

My gift to Rog was a fancy dinner. He's been wanting me to try an Indian dish for awhile now, so I made Chicken Tikka Masala with Naan.

With Sugar Cookie Bars for dessert. 

I made a few different treats (Cinnamon Cookie Crunch Popcorn, Valentine Dipped Wafer Cookies, and Chocolate Covered Cinnamon Bears) and bagged them up to take around to some friends. I slightly adapted these cards for the tags.

I let the kids pick out Valentines while we were at Walmart one day to give to some of their friends. Corbyn chose Batman and Peyton chose Disney Princesses.

On Saturday my parents took us to dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe and that night after the kids went to bed we had some friends over for games. And because we didn't have enough treats I made a cinnamon version of this delicious trifle to go with our Sunday dinner.

It was a most delicious Valentine's Day weekend!

Five on Friday

1. Like most people, we've been enjoying the Olympics this week. We put the kids to bed and then turn them on for the rest of the night. Rog has kind of a love/hate relationship with the Olympics - he loves to watch them, but hates how late he stays up when they're on. I stay up that late anyway, so I guess mine is just a love relationship.

2. I finished my first book of the year this week - The Help. One of my neighbors started a book club and this was our first book. I don't think I'll be able to be a monthly participant, but if I like the book they're reading it'll give me incentive to finish in a timely manner and it's fun to have a night out. And in case you're wondering, The Help is just as good the second time around!

3. We're officially 20 weeks away from the Ragnar, so it's time to get serious about training! I'm following this training plan, but only running 5 days a week and shortening some of the long runs a bit. 

4. Corbyn and Peyton have been obsessed with the story of the 3 Little Pigs the past few days. They'll ask us to tell it over and over and over again. And Corbyn is most definitely having a growth spurt. I haven't been able to keep him full for more than an hour at a time. He's already the tallest kid in his Sunbeam class (and definitely not the oldest). Where did we get this tall boy?

5. Jared's roommate who had a toaster oven moved out a few months ago. He's been missing having a toaster oven, so my parents decided they'd buy us a new one and give ours to him. Our old one was white and didn't match our other appliances (and was stained), so I'm loving this new sparkly stainless steel one! And as a bonus, it's digital!

Phillips Weekend

We had more Phillips visitors last weekend - Marti came down from BYU Idaho and Dixie, McKae, and Rocky came from Colorado. 

The highlights - Sports Authority, In-N-Out, BYU Bookstore (lots of stair sliding), wandering the HFAC (unsuccessfully looking for the Animation department), and dinner at our house (Chicken Enchilada Soup - YUM). 

It's always fun to have family in town! (Some more than others!)

Super Bowl

We're not huge NFL fans at our house. We'll watch an occasional game if it's on at my parent's house, but we don't schedule our lives around it (as opposed to BYU football). Rog was a 49ers fan growing up. After his mission in Louisiana he became a Saints fan. With most of the Phillips family living in Denver we now have pretty strong ties to the Broncos. If I had to pick a favorite NFL team, it would be the Broncos. I would like to go to a Broncos game someday.

So we were pretty excited that the Broncos were playing in the Super Bowl and we definitely knew we would be cheering for them. (Some years we honestly don't care who wins and watch just because it's the Super Bowl.) 

Zane Beadles (#68) who now plays for the Broncos went to my high school. We had Health together when I was a junior and he was a sophomore. We sat together and became pretty good buddies. I distinctly remember watching the Miracle of Life with him and let's just say you can't watch that with someone without becoming a little more than casual acquaintances. We didn't hang out and we didn't keep in touch after high school, but of all the football players, he's one of the only ones I can honestly say I was friends with. So of course I was excited to watch him play in the Super Bowl. I mean how many people actually know someone playing in the Super Bowl?!

An inside joke with my family is that Jared went to high school with one of the BYU football players. Whenever he does anything in the game we always call him Jared's best friend, so all night we were calling Zane my best friend whenever we saw him (which was a lot).

You can't watch the Super Bowl without some yummy food. For dinner we had Cafe Rio nachos. Peyton enjoyed them to say the least. 

When Our Best Bites posted Game Day Colored Candy Popcorn the Monday before the Super Bowl, I knew I had to make some in blue and orange. Mine didn't turn out as pretty as hers (especially the blue) and we didn't love the taste of it, but it was fun nonetheless.

I also made Brownie Batter Dip which is one of those things I can only make a few times a year because it is too delicious!

Turns out the game was a horrible blowout and not in our favor! That was a total bummer, but it was still fun to watch Zane play!

January

For the most part I was able to stay on top of January while I was catching up from December. Of course there were a few things that slipped through. 

Corbyn got to go to 2 friend birthday parties. Early in the month Rhys Howard had a Batman party and later in the month Johnny Kramer had a Spiderman party.

Our whole family got to go to the Primary Pajama Pizza Party. Corbyn to meet his teachers, me to meet my new class, and Rog because he's the counselor over Primary. So Peyton got to tag along. 

Lots of fun times playing outside in the snow. Corbyn had a great time sledding down the big hill across the street with his friends Stockton Goodrich and Hazel Howard. The big hill was a little much for Peyton girl.

The kids spent a lot of the month pretending they were puppies.

The Perez family came into town one weekend for Kenzie's work, so we had them and Tay and Martha over for dinner. I was in a tropical mood, so we had Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers, Tropical Slaw, Coconut Rice, and Key Lime Tarts. Of course we loved getting to see baby Mason again. And Corbyn had fun playing with Jaxon although he was a little intimidated by him. (Jaxon is used to playing rough with the older cousins in Colorado, but Corbyn not so much.)

Rog finally said goodbye to Xavier - the laptop he got before we even got engaged. It hasn't been used in years, but he's been hanging onto it.

One Saturday we decided to run errands up in Orem. While up there we used a gift card to have dinner at Mimi's. They have changed their menu since the last time we were there to go back to more traditional French cuisine. I ended up liking what I got, but I am disappointed that some of my favorites are not on the menu anymore.

I finally decided it was time for some new bras. I've been wearing ones I bought in high school over 10 years ago, so it was definitely time! I tried them on in the store to figure out my size and then bought them online with a 40% off coupon! While I was trying on bras, the kids and Rog played in the Disney store. Peyton couldn't get enough of the shoes.

On another errand run up to Orem, the kids thought it was hilarious to try on huge shoes at Sports Authority and run around the store in them!

We finished my Thomas Kinkade Little Mermaid puzzle I got for Christmas. 750 pieces, but it actually wasn't too terribly difficult.

While Rog was taking pictures of my bike to list it on KSL, Corbyn wanted to be in the pictures. He even posed himself!

And now we can move on to February!

Five on Friday

1. Rog had late nights at school Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. I was grateful my parents were back from Texas to help at dinnertime. One of those nights my dad was a good sport and helped Corbyn put together a tiny lego robot Jared got from Google.

2. I tried Peyton's hair in pigtails a few days ago. The hair on top isn't long enough to reach, so I think I will have to wait a little longer to do them all the time. (It wasn't so cute when I tried to do them again today.) But it was fun seeing those little pigtails for the first time.

3. A few weeks ago I saw a deal on Disney Movie Rewards to get the Dumbo Blu-Ray for only $3.96 when you entered in 3 reward codes. While I was at it I entered in all the reward codes I could find and had enough points to get the You Can Fly Sing Along DVD for free. I also had put Aladdin on hold at the Provo library (the Spanish Fork library only has the VHS version) when Jared got his card. It just so happened that both movies came in the mail this week and Jared got the email saying Aladdin was ready to be picked up. So we had fun watching new (to the kids) Disney movies this week.

4. Rog was offered an internship for the summer at a group of clinics owned by Intermountain Health Care. It's not a paid internship (most healthcare internships are not), but Intermountain is one of the best in the business, so it will be a great thing to have on his resume.

5. I ordered some new spring shirts for the kids when Carter's was having a sale last week. The package came yesterday and I opened it after the kids were in bed. When Peyton saw them this morning she had to try on each and every one including Corbyn's shirts!

Mini Advent Ornaments

I saw these mini advent ornaments and knew I had to make them. They were a lot an insane amount of work. I finished the first set while we were in Colorado for Thanksgiving, but didn't get any done the first week we were back because I was hosting joy school that week. Then I had to finish one every single night or there wouldn't be one to open up in the morning. Most nights I got them done, but a few nights I didn't. Luckily Corbyn was excited to open one when it was there, but didn't really notice when there wasn't one. I had to abandon the project a few days before Christmas or Christmas wouldn't have happened. I finally finished the last ornament on Monday. I am so in love with them which makes all the late nights and Rog's constant complaining totally worth it!

I decided to buy a mini tree rather than make a felt tree. Saved me time and I actually like it much more than the felt tree she made. (Shh, don't tell her!)

Set one. The snowman was the first ornament I made and it ended up being my favorite (from this set and overall)! I also really like the hot chocolate mug. And the glove.

Set two. My favorite from this set is the letter to Santa. It has a really cute back too!

I was up way too late one night making the angel from her set and then ended up messing it up so badly it was beyond fixing. I decided I didn't like it very much anyway, so I made a Baby Jesus of my own design. This isn't a very good picture of it, but I like it infinitely more than the angel!

Set three. I can't decide on a favorite for this set. I love the truck, the dove, the ice skate, and the snow globe! 

Set four. All of these got made after Christmas except for the fireplace and that one just so happens to be my favorite from this set! I also really like the reindeer. And the rocking horse. 

All 24! My plan is to make an advent calendar (like this one Rachel made) to put them in. Each pocket will have an ornament and a Christmas activity for the day.

I'm so excited for these ornaments to become a part of our Christmas for many many many years to come!