Our New Toy

Several weeks back we were given this fun new toy from my parents. My kids have been asking for a telescope for quite a while, and finally they got their wish.

Unfortunately the weather in the evenings is still a little bit too chilly to be outside, but this past weekend it was just right. We had a great time examining the moon and all it's craters.

The hardest part was waiting for dad to line it up right, and then being patient while each took a turn.

Abbie is our little science fanatic. She was really loving it!

My favorite feature is the remote control. Not only does it find the planet/stars your looking for, but while your looking at it a recording plays with all sorts of information. While we were looking at the moon it talked about it's temperature, craters, landmarks, and much more. What a fun learning tool.

We may have some future astrologers on our hands. Thanks mom and dad!!!

St. George Trip

We were able to head to St. George last weekend for a fun get-together with Micah's side of the family. Now that we have moved away we don't have many opportunities to have ALL of us together at the same time. We were only missing one of Micah's brothers, but everyone else was there.. It was totally worth the trip to just let our kids play with their cousins and feel like they were having a big sleepover. I think one of the things my kids miss most about not living in Utah is being with their cousins. It's a unique friendship that doesn't matter if they are different ages, or have different interests. They just love each other.

We spent part of Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Park which was beautiful. The kids loved being able to climb all over the beautiful red rocks. For some reason Aliza was being camera shy and would duck every time a camera was in sight.

I didn't even attempt to make it through this tight squeeze. Of course the kids had no hesitation in climbing all the way to the top.

This is Avery climbing with her Gramps. It's funny how being up high doesn't even phase these kids. They have no fear.

It was tricky, but we did try and squeeze in a quick photo of all the grandkids. Twelve grandkids in all with one on the way. It's very hard to get all of them to sit still long enough to take a picture, but we got it. The weekend flew by way too fast so hopefully we will see everyone again sometime soon.

Valentines 2011

Having Valentines Day on a Monday this year sure put a damper on doing anything too time consuming on actual Valentines day with homework and it being a school night. Abbie and Avery's classes in school actually celebrated the Friday before Valentines which I thought was smart from a teaching perspective. In all of my kids classes this year they made their own valentine boxes at school which was nice. This was Aliza's masterpiece from pre school this morning.

I tried to pack the girls lunch boxes with everything red and valentineie (I know that's not really a word) which was fun. Abbie had a well child check up that day so Abbie and Avery were able to get out of school a little bit early. They really enjoyed being checked out of school since that hardly ever happens. At her appointment we found out that she missed a chicken pox vaccine somewhere along the way, so she had to get a shot. That wasn't the greatest Valentines present, but she handled it well. We haven't seen this particular doctor for any well child check ups yet, so when she noticed that she was only in the 4th percentile she wanted to confirm with me that all my kids were very petite so she wouldn't be worried about her. Trust me, we have done all the testing before, and we just have small kids. We ended the day with a candlelight dinner and our favorite jello heart jigglers. It was a good day.

We have some friends in the ward who put together a really fun valentines party a few weeks back for adults. We were able to get a babysitter for our girls, and had a great time playing couple games and just being with other couples in our ward without the kids running around. The picture above is what Micah drew of our first date. It's crazy to think that our actual first date was in high school and we really didn't know each other very well. We just wanted all of our friends to be together and have a fun night out. We went to several school dances together, but never really dated until after his mission. Then it just all fell into place I suppose. There is nothing better than marrying someone who was a great friend first. I feel lucky to have married one of my best friends.

I'm not sure if I should post this picture because Micah was trying to be silly, and I look pregnant in the lovely shirt I'm wearing. But I'm choosing to post it to remember our fun evening. Thanks Sondrup's for a fantastic Valentines party!

Abbie Turns 10

Abbie turned ten years old last week which is still CRAZY to me. She keeps reminding me that she is now in the double digits. AHHHH! How did this happen? Time really does go by too fast!

She started her day with her favorite breakfast of crepes with strawberries. Yum! Then I was able to go eat lunch with her in the courtyard of the school. It was really fun to have some one-on-one time with her on her special day.

Then, for dinner, she asked to have "Emily's Chicken" which is not it's name, but thats what we call it at our house. It's a recipe that my sister-in-law (Emily, hence the name) gave to us a while back, and Abbie just loves it. She decorated her own birthday cake which was fun, and she loved being creative with it.

Wow, ten candles can possibly start the smoke alarm. It's a good thing it didn't.

She is so lucky to have such wonderful family who sent her gifts so she could have them for her birthday. It was like Christmas for her at our house that evening. She had a great day!

Ice Skating Party!

Abbie had her friend birthday party yesterday. She chose to go ice skating at Lake Las Vegas which was fantastic. I'm all for birthday parties that you throw down a birthday table cloth and some snack foods and just let them have fun. It was the easiest birthday party we have ever done by far.

We were a little limited on seating since we had to drive to the ice skating rink, so she chose five of her closest friends. They were the perfect age to just head out on the ice without much help at all (again, very nice for the parents.)

It was such a beautiful day outside that it didn't take long for them to be too hot in their jackets. Ice skating and T-shirts should never even be in the same sentence. CRAZY!

They have these cones for you to hold on to if you need a little extra help skating which was nice to help you get used to the ice. Or you could just use it for making long trains with your friends which is fun too.

After a few hours on the ice we went back to our house for cupcakes and presents. I was so relieved that we came home with everyone happy and no broken bones. Yes, I was a little worried about that latter part.

Of course she chose green icing for her cupcakes (her favorite color), and I enjoyed listening to all these girls giggle and have fun together. The ride home from skating was really fun just listening to them talk about Justin Beiber all the way home. Who is he dating, who likes what songs, or what they think of his hair. Very important discussions for a ten year old. :)

We ended the party with "Heavy, Heavy Hang Over." It must be really old school because they had never heard of it before. Abbie was thrilled with her party which made it even better.

That night while we were eating dinner we started talking about the Chinese New Year. We pulled up all sorts of interesting facts about it and figured out what animal each of us were according to the year we were born. I remembered hearing about them having a huge flower bunny (for the year of the bunny) in the conservatory at the Bellagio, so we just decided to go check it out. It worked out perfectly because just by luck we hopped on the elevator and it let off right at the conservatory. We stepped outside and watched the fountain show, and called it a night. Nothing like cheap entertainment when you have nothing else planned for the evening.

Well, I did purchase a new camera this week. I did all the research and have been happy with my decision except for the fact that I didn't realize that you have to manually open the flash when indoors. There was a nice lady who offered to take our picture and I'm so sad it didn't turn out so great. Hopefully I'll figure this new camera out real soon.

Bubble Blowing Champion

A few weeks ago Abbie's school did a bubble blowing contest. They pulled this off by saying it was a science project of some sorts in recording the different sizes of bubbles, but really I think they were just having a lot of fun. It started with a contest within her classroom which she won, and then it went to each grade level. She was really nervous to go up against all the fourth grade class winners, but she did it and won that as well.

This was getting serious so we made a special trip to the store to buy her a new pack of gum to practice for the official school bubble blowing championship. It was cute to hear her come home at night and talk about all the fourth graders wishing her luck throughout the day. The pressure was definitely on to represent her class. I'm proud to report that she came in second place for her whole school. She lost only to a third grader that must have really had some great bubble blowing skills. She was just thrilled that the fifth grader came in third. As long as she beat the fifth grader she was a winner in her books.

Whenever we have a day without a lot to do we always head over to this fun hike not to far from our house. We love it because it has a beautiful view of the city, it's just the right distance that you get a good amount of exercise, but it's not too long for the kids.

Everyone had to take turns with my silly sun glasses. They really look big on their little heads.

Cute Lizzie even had to take a turn.

Strike a pose!

It's just crazy to think that most of you still have snow. Not to rub it in or anything but the weather is so fantastic this time of year. LOVE IT!!!

Andrew Jackson Phillips

We joke that Andrew was our million dollar guinea pig....but, he was a good pet. He was looking really sick last week with obvious weight loss and hair loss, so I took him into the vet. The Veterinarian came to the conclusion that since we have gone through several doses of antibiotics in the past year with Andrew that he must have some kind of internal bacterial/fungal infection that his body just can't fight off. He passed away on 1/15/11.

He was a cute little guy that loved the girls to talk to him, and I will miss his cute little squeak when he wanted to be fed. Abbie took it better than we thought she would, but Avery is our sensitive one who has had a few little crying spurts throughout the weekend. Abbie of course, being the activity planner that she is, planned a cute little funeral for him in our back yard. We were told at the vet that it was illegal to bury your dead animals in your yard which I found interesting.

So, we found a nice little rock to use as a headstone, but the vet will bury him somewhere nice by Lake Mead. Abbie placed the headstone in our yard so we will always remember him. We had a nice little service where we each had to talk about what we liked about Andrew which was nice for the girls to have closure.

You may have heard of funeral potatoes, but we apparently have funeral cookies at our house. Abbie made these cookies with a flag on them that read:

Andrew Jackson Phillips

We will always remember

You and love you forever

The girls have started a money jar to start saving for a new pet. I think I'm going to enjoy not feeding or caring for one for awhile...but, we'll see how long I can hold them off.