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! :)