I cry the day that I take the tree down.....

Well - I don't. But Sophie had a hard time. She was NOT excited about taking our Christmas tree down at all. Here is an excerpt from her prayer the other night..... "please help us to be happy that we had to take our tree down. And we're thankful that we'll have Christmas again next year....."

Christmas

Christmas Eve jammies
Christmas morning smiles
The girls with daddy (holding the dad that came with their doll house - we thought it really looked like Brian!)
Christmas dress
Cute girls
Sophie wanted a picture by the poinsettia
All of us by the tree
Sophie and daddy

We had a wonderful Christmas in Michigan! We missed seeing our families, but we had a good time just being together and relaxing! On Christmas Eve we had dinner with our friends and neighbors the Seedall's. Sophie had a hard time going to sleep on Christmas Eve and kept coming upstairs and peeking into the living room to see if Santa had come yet. She finally went to bed around 10:45. Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Sophie and Nora got a doll house and barbie's and numerous other "girly" things to play with. I think Nora's favorite thing was the candy necklaces she got in her stocking- she loves those things! Brian received a Ken Barbie doll (picked out by Sophie and Nora) so he can now participate in playing Barbie's with them. All Sophie's idea. We had a great time hanging out in our pj's, eating, ichatting with both of our families on the computer, playing games, and being together. Since we had no family to visit Brian and I ended up taking down our tree and all our decorations on Christmas Day. I felt like a scrooge but our tree was dead anyway and although I love having Christmas stuff up I am always ready for it to be put away once it's over. Hope your day was as nice and relaxing as ours was!!

Merry Christmas!!

From our family to yours!

World's LARGEST Christmas Store

Ummm, Santa - we want it all!


That's one huge Santa!

Feeling a little "snowman-ish" myself!

Inside Bronner's


Looking at all the Christmas stuff!

Two cute snowgirls!

There is a store about an hour from our house called Bronner's that is the World's Largest Christmas Store! It is open year round and is HUGE - and very magical! We figured we had to go and see it. We had a great time walking around and seeing all the Christmas decorations - I think there were hundreds of thousands of ornaments! We let the girls each pick an ornament to hang on our tree. Sophie picked a ballerina and Nora picked a kitty holding a purple ornament. The girls got to see Santa there as well! We had a great time!

Binky drama

Nora adores he binky. Loves it! And so do I. Crying in the car? No problem - just plug it in. Falls down and hits her head? No problem - just plug it in. Feeling overall sad and grumpy? Again - just plug it in and voila! Instant happiness. So when I decided to get rid of that wonderful piece of plastic before our next little one comes I didn't know how hard it would be on Nora - and me! I came up with this brilliant plan to let Nora pick out a baby doll at the store that we would buy for her once she was ready to throw all her binky's away. So every time we go to the store we would go see the baby and look at it and talk about how she could have it when she was ready to throw her binky's away. She's a smart cookie. She totally understood that part of it. On Saturday she was ready. We went to Wal-Mart to get the baby, once we were back in the toy section she changed her mind. So we went back home. On Monday we thought we'd try again. I took her to Meijer (a Michigan version of Super Wal-Mart) and she was excited! I had her remaining 3 binky's in a plastic bag and went right back to the baby and put it in the cart without any hesitation on Nora's part. She kept saying "Fro binky in garbage, cut strings off mine baby!" She really wanted that baby out of the box. I bought the baby and we stopped at a garbage can and she happily tossed in the bag of binky's without a second thought (from her at least..... I felt the beginning stages of sheer panic!) Once home she was quite proud of herself, showing Sophie and Brian and our neighbors her new baby and telling them she threw her binky's away. The rest of the day went well and I was feeling very hopeful. Moments before she was supposed to climb into bed she fell and hit her head and immediately started crying for her binky. I offered her the new baby with a gentle reminder that she threw her binky's away and she threw the baby across the room and yelled, "NO baby! I want mine binky!!" Uh-oh. We tried for an hour to calm her down, reminding ourselves that she'd have to fall asleep eventually. Then I started questioning my motives for taking the binky away. Does it really matter that much if she has it for a while longer? Was I feeling pressure because she is getting older? Do I feel like a bad mom because she still has it? Then I started telling myself that making her not have it was worse than taking it away too early. What if she started sucking her thumb? Or her blankets? Or her clothes? Her pediatrician says it won't do any harm to her teeth until she's 4 (not that I'm shooting for 4) So I gave in. I sent Brian down to the nearest Rite-Aid. And we all went to bed happy. And yes, in case you were wondering, we did take the baby back - until she's more ready. At first I felt like I'd failed - okay, I guess I did - but letting her have it a while longer isn't going to hurt anything - especially since she's gotten so darn good at finding it by herself during the middle of the night! :)

December activities

Sophie wrote a letter to Santa this year and was so excited to put it in the mail box. However, each time she see's another toy that she likes - she wants to send another letter! I keep reminding her that Santa can't bring everything she wants!

We made "gingerbread" houses one night. I saw the gingerbread house kits you buy at the store and decided to just do it the old fashioned way and make my own. For some reason the gingerbread I made didn't turn out so well (I think I didn't cover it good enough in the fridge so it was too dry by morning) and we ended up using graham crackers instead. Next year, I'm buying that kit! (A picture is not included of Nora because she was decorating in her diaper)
The girls and I have all taken turns being sick this week (Nora on Friday, me on Tuesday, and Sophie on Thursday) The day I was sick the girls were so cute and "cleaned" the kitchen for me and did the dishes - which consisted of taking the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and stacking them underneath the table or putting them in the sink with the dirty dishes and "washing" them. It was so sweet of them. They also kept bringing me big glasses of water and telling me I could just lay down and rest. I love my girls!

Here is a recent picture of our Christmas tree. It changes each day because Sophie has taken it upon herself to find new things to decorate it with each day. As you can see it currently has stuffed animals, Christmas ribbon, and one string of popcorn around the top. Luckily I am not a picky tree person and don't really mind how my tree is decorated, I think it looks very creative!

Baked Caramel Popcorn

We LOVE popcorn at our house. And if it's drizzled in caramel and baked to perfection, well that just makes a good thing even better! So here is a yummy recipe for baked caramel popcorn - sticky fingers not included!

Ingredients
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 quarts popped popcorn (or about 3 bags microwave popcorn - light butter kind works best)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Place popcorn in very large bowl ( I have to divide mine between two semi-large bowls).
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt, stirring constantly until it comes to a boil.
Boil without stirring for 4 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.
Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat. (You may not need all of the popcorn so you might want an extra bowl so you can add the popcorn a little at a time).
Place in two cookie sheets/baking dishes ( I use one big cookie sheet and one small) and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and put into large bowls, letting cool before breaking into pieces. (I have found that if I let it cool on the cookie sheet it will stick to it and make it very difficult to remove!) Now wrap some up and share it with a neighbor before you eat the whole batch - and you will!

One sad little shepherd....

When she thought she was going to be Mary!

Looking pretty sad!

Still looking pretty sad!

Cheering up to sing the songs!

Last night was our ward Christmas party. The girls were so excited for it all day long! The only problem was that Sophie thought she was going to be Mary for the Primary Nativity. I guess in Primary they had her play Mary a few times but didn't really "assign" the parts to anyone. But she has been telling us for a few weeks that she gets to be Mary at the party. When we got there I was told Sophie was going to be a shepherd, and instantly I knew we were in for some drama! First, Sophie was very upset and sad because she wasn't wearing her "Mary" dress. She had to be wearing her blue dress because Mary wears blue. So I ran home and brought back the correct dress - I had tried telling her she may get to be a shepherd instead but that didn't go over well so I figured I had better get the dress she wanted - even if she wasn't going to be Mary. When the Primary started getting ready for the Nativity I figured it would be better if her teachers told her she was going to be a shepherd and maybe she would handle it better. I have to say she did a pretty good job. She stood by Joseph and looked pretty sad the whole time, only casting a few jealous glances towards the unsuspecting girl being Mary. But I was expecting worse so that was fine with me! She did a great job singing the songs and we were very proud of her, we promised we'd do a Nativity for Family Home Evening and that she would get to be Mary!

I saw this on my step sister Angie's blog and had to try it! My girls have loved watching it. I think Brian makes a pretty good elf! Thanks, Angie! Just click on the link below:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1214905927

4 going on 14?????

When Sophie was about 3 weeks old I realized that this girl had some serious spunk. And the last four years of her life have proven me right. I've gone through all the typical questions over and over again; Maybe it's just a stage? Maybe I'm a bad mom? Maybe it's how little girls are? Maybe it's just her personality? Of course I'm not saying she's a bad child, just very feisty. And stubborn. And already talking to me like she's a teenager. Today she colored with red crayon all around the perimeter of our rug in the family room (not that big of a deal - it's linoleum and will wash off) But when I brought her a rag to wash it off she first refused, then rolled her eyes at me, and then said with major teen attitude, "Mom - just forget about it", with a big annoyed sigh at the end - you know the kind you used to make when you were totally annoyed at your parents for bugging you about something? So then I sent her to her room where she kicked the door and cried, "You don't love me!!" for the next 5 minutes. So either I am going to be well prepared for her teenage years or they are going to be even worse - which frankly I don't even want to consider yet! Luckily, she is super sweet as well and a wonderful big sister to Nora. So although I get frustrated with her and figuring out how to help her I wouldn't change anything because then she wouldn't be Sophie! :)

Oh my darling Clementine...

Official count of boxes of Clementines consumed by the Phillips family during the month of November: 4

Oh Christmas Tree....

We always get our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and this year was no exception. However, we usually hike up into the mountains scouring the countryside for the perfect tree - which is beautiful in it's own way, but we've definitely had our share of "Charlie brown Christmas trees". This year we went to a tree farm near our home called Tannenbaum's. We absolutely loved it! They pull you out on a trailer through fields of beautiful trees, drop you off by a big campfire and a building that serves hot cocoa and donuts. They have a saw and a tree-wagon for you to take out into the fields of trees where you cut down your own (they are each individually priced) They were all so beautiful it didn't make the hunt for the "perfect" tree very hard. In fact after a few minutes of looking Sophie said, "What are we waiting for, let's cut one down already!" The hard part is trying to decide what type of tree to get. Then you load it onto your tree-wagon and they have a machine that wraps it up nice and tight for you. Did I mention they have a reindeer? They had to de-horn him because his antlers were so big they didn't want it to hurt anyone. After some cocoa and donuts by the fire we loaded back up onto the wagon and they pulled us back to the main building where we paid for our tree (only $27.00) and headed back home. This will definitely be a Michigan tradition! Another one of my family traditions is to sleep under the tree the day we put it up. We gave it a try but with a 4 year old and a 2 year old who were bouncing off the walls it didn't go so well, but it was a lot of fun to try. Maybe it will go better next year! The best part for Brian was putting the lights on the tree. In past years he would always wrap each individual branch on the tree (it helped it not to look quite so bare) and it was always a very long process. This year all it took was a few strands draped around the outside of the tree and it still looked great! Hurray!

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Brian's family has a tradition that on Thanksgiving everyone makes turkeys out of gumdrops and toothpicks. Since our Thanksgiving dinner ended up being delayed a few hours we didn't get time to do them on the day of actual Thanksgiving. So we did them all together on Sunday. They all turned out quite nicely (I think the colored toothpicks really helped!) The girls had fun doing them and there was a lot of extra candy left over - yummy!!

One tired little girl!!

Our family is usually pretty prepared on Sunday morning, but this morning was pretty hectic! Five minutes before we were supposed to leave for church Brian was ironing his shirt, I was trying to print some things off for Enrichment and the girls were both crying; Sophie because she suddenly decided she wanted her hair to be straight for church and Nora because - well mostly because Sophie was crying. Anyway, we were late for church and then during church Brian and I were called to be in the nursery (he is the Young Men's secretary and I am on the Enrichment Committee already) and then we ended up substituting in the Primary and teaching a class of rowdy 8-12 year olds. Not that it was a bad day, honestly we won't mind being in the nursery and Brian did a wonderful job teaching Primary at the last minute. The day just felt long. Well, Nora must have felt the same way because at about 6:30 right in the middle of her and I playing with a princess sticker book she lay down on me and about 5 minutes later I realized that she was sound asleep! Brian was at the computer and Sophie was at the desk "scrapbooking" (she's the only one who uses it these days!) It was so funny and so cute I had to post the picture Brian took. Poor, tired girl!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So here I am at 4 am blogging on my computer. Why? Because In just an hour Ashlee and I are braving the weather and the crowds (the crowds being the worst of the two) to hit the sales at Toys 'R Us, Wal-Mart, and Target and I can't sleep!! It may be crazy but I love the after Thanksgiving sales. I don't love the long lines and selfish people that undoubtedly accompany the experience but if you go with an open mind that you probably won't get 1/2 the stuff your planning on getting and just enjoy the holiday excitement and shopping without kids it is actually very enjoyable. So I woke up at 2am (pregnancy = multiple nightly potty trips) and once I was able to go back to sleep Nora woke up at 3:15 and 3:30. After that it was pointless for me to even try to sleep, I was dreaming about shopping anyway so why bother! Definitely pointless. So I am now waiting..... Yesterday was a very nice and mostly relaxing Thanksgiving. We ate over at Ashlee and Andy's and the kids had a great time playing super hero's with their dinner napkins, not eating the food Ashlee and I had worked so hard to make and watching Ratatouille. We were planning on eating at 2:00, but I was in charge of the turkey and since it was my first time I didn't realize the darn things take so long to defrost so we ended up eating closer to 6:00 - but we were definitely hungry! It was a delicious meal with plenty of leftovers (a must!) and too much pie (of course!). We missed our families but are happy we had Andy, Ashlee, Laynee, Shay and Maggie to share it with! So thankful for all we are blessed with! Off to the sales! :)