Our Fearless Leader and the dog

Kronk got to come with us to Mt. Diablo yesterday. He was so good and had fun climbing the rocks. He ended up sitting on my lap in the front seat of the truck on the way up the mountain. I dont know what is wrong with my dog. He thinks he is still a baby. He may weigh 100 pounds and scare most of the people as we go for our neighborhood walks- but to him, he still thinks he's my little baby and I can carry him around everywhere. Oh Kronkie Pooh !! Oh and my real baby Ava- rules the rocks. She is such an awesome climber and just does her own thing while out there. I just stay in the back and try not to freak out.

Proper use of eating utensils

During our saturday family lunch date Drew and I decided to have a "who has the best resturant manners" contest. The winner got to pick the treat for the day. Needless to say, Tyson was not the big winner. As soon as we set the rules- Tyson had his napkin unrolled and spoon on the nose !! I just want to say a big Thank You to Bob Jackson for teaching my child that talented skill. We got a big laugh over it and realized how much we miss our hockey family from last season.

Shasta July 4- October 11

We were finally able to give Shasta a proper burial. We ttok her up to Mt. Diablo and help a memorial service for her/him.
Thank you Shasta for being such a wonderful pet!! We enjoyed every moment we had with you !!!

Update

I think its been a while since I posted un update on our crazy busy family. Its been wild but a lot of fun lately.
Dman is a full blown " tweener". He spends all his time texting, listening to his mp3, acting way more mature than he really is and goofing off to much. The kid is always having fun. Sometime we have to remind him that we are his parents- not on of his " homies". He also has become the " babysitter". He is doing a great job at it. Drew and I have gone on 3 dates to the movie theater ( which is 4 mins from the house ) and he has done a great job. Dad has talked to him about being a good babysitter and not being mean to his siblings like he was when he had to babysit. So far so good. Of course I text him every 10 minutes to check in and he is always sweet and reassures me then says " go enjoy your quiet time with daddy we love you". I have saved that text and read it often....

Amber is taking a hip hop class and the dance studio by our house and she LOVES it. We can be anywhere and she will bust a move. We get some weird looks from the " snooty's" out here in blackhawk when she start to pop and lock it down the ailse at safeway. I just smile my proud momma smile. She got a new phone for her birthday so she has also become a texting queen. Thank goodness for verizon and our ulimited text plan !!

Tyson is tyson. He just finished a rocking soccer season. He hasnt decided if he likes to be called " beckham" or " ramses- the greatest luchadore of all time". His team did great and he will be joining them for indoor this season. He thinks he is a spy and sneaks up on us all the time. I caught him out of the corner of my eye while in the shower- do a james bond roll from one side of the hallway to the other- leave me a note that he wrote me- then roll right back and outta the room.

Ava is just stinking hilarious. We try so hard not to laugh especially when we should be disciplining her, but sometimes you just cant help it. Her prayers are so long and latley she has been asking to get help winning the games she plays with her siblings, especially bonoboly. yes, its monopoly but not in her language. At church a while back, of course loudly during sacrament meeting, she said " daddy look- you match that guy right there- you are both wearing white shirts with cupholders !!!

As for us old folks- we are having a blast hanging out with these creatures. Just taking it one day at a time and enjoying every one of them

Figi Anyone??

I was surfing the blog world and checking in with some friends of ours who joked about moving to Figi due to the outcome of the election- I agreed sounds good to me !! Of course we're thinking of somewhere not so tropical. Canada of course- me and the beach got out voted for ice rinks on every corner !!

Watch out Canada- Here we come !!!

Halloween Pics

The Tooth Fairy

what an exciting week for Tyson !! He lost his 2 front bottom teeth this week. One on the way to school on tuesday morning and one on saturday night. He is so excited !! He woke up on wednesday morning with a % dollar bill under his pillow. Of course we went to target that very day to buy another light saber ( we now have 6 in the house). He was surprised to wake up this morning to another 5 dollar bill. Shopping will have to wait until monday but what are the chances that we are going to have another light saber added to our collection !!! Love you, Tyson

HALLOWEEN 2008

Another great halloween has come and gone. We had a name tag, candy corn witch, bumblebee transformer and a cheerleader. Trunk or treat at church was a blast and we had our traditional trick or treat with the thompson's and pizza after. This year we went to a fabulous neighborhood that made me feel like we were at " wisteria lane". The neighborhood was beautiful, full of kids, and every house was decorated. It rained lightly but was not cold. We all agreed that this was the best halloween ever !!! We finished up the night at garlex pizza with the thompson's where suenn and I enjoyed watching all our cute kids in the costumes have a blast playing with each other and our men playing video games all night. I cant wait to do it again next year !!

With a pinecone, please

This pinecone has been a part of our family for years now. It has moved 3 times with us and has been on several family vacations. It's Tyson's pinecone. He picked it out of a million others outside the condo in Tahoe. His pinecone lives on the desk in his room and is goes to school once a year when he is star of the week. Mr.Pinecone has been watching his back lately....

Little miss Avarie cracked us up at baskin robbins the other night.
Ava ( in her most valley girl voice while flipping her hair)asked for " um I want a scoop of the purple and pink ice cream with a pinecone please " The cute ice cream scooper went right along with it and asked her is she wanted a sugar or regular pinecone.

I promise Mr. Pinecone- I will protect you and keep you safe from Ava !!

This one is 4 you, Aubrey

I am risking being in trouble with my man, but I could not help myself. Last winter Drew had a little adventure in our side yard that included the mustang and my excursion. Thank goodness Aubrey came to my rescue with her AAA card and giggles. Aubrey and I and the tow truck guy we cracking up the whole time while we were trying to get my truck out of the mud. Who would have figured that my big truck would get stuck in the mud trying to pull my little car out of the mud before it got stuck. Let me just tell you how embarrassing the phone conversation was with AAA.
Me: Hello, i need to get a tow service for my truck.
AAA: are you in a safe location?
Me: ummm yah
AAA: where is your car located??
Me: umm in my backyard.
AAA: is it near concrete??
Me: uummm... yah
AAA: how far away from the driveway?
Me: about a foot and a half..
AAA: should I even ask how it got stuck in your backyard so close to you driveway?
Me: Nope, please dont ask, ( then laughter on both ends of the phone)

Aubrey an I had such a blast trying to get this thing out off the mud. It was totally raining but we were out there with our cameras> I had to include the picture of the mustang. That baby still looks great !!

Well, Just Because.....

How sweet is that !! Thank you to my awesome husband .... I love ya...

email address

We have a new email address. For those of you who have our old one... our new one is the same its just @ att.net. Update your address books !!

Ava's Sunday

I should have known when Ava woke up that she was going to be hot on her game today. She woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing this morning and was going strong every since. The primary kids were taught by the young mens and young womens today. Ava had her teachers in stitches the whole time and check out the size of the flower that she got for me on their walk. The ym/yw were just cracking up when they brought Ava in to give me my flower. Later after church we were all relaxing watching tv when Ava came running around in her awesome get up !! You like it?? I tried so hard to get a picture of her in action but of course she smells a camera from a mile away and has to strike a pose.

Day at Lake Siskiyou

Lake Siskiyou

We spent one day at lake Siskiyou. I had forgotten how much the kids love the beach (the beach incident from last year- see old posts). We went to lake shasta but its basically a boating beach, Lake Shastina water is low, and Siskiyou has a great beach so thats were we went. Amber and Drew went out on the boat we got. They got pretty brave and went out as far as they could (to the ropes) and back. Tyson loves hanging on the beach playing in the sand. And Ava was on an extremly short leash and did fine. Drew and I hung out on the beach watching kids and relaxing. I actually got a tan...mission accomplished.

Kronk's 2nd Birthday

It just so happens that Kronk's 2nd birthday is only a couple days after the the 4th so he got to spend the week with us at the lake. He did a great time. He is so big but he is still such a baby. My favorite picture is the one where is is hanging over the seat watching Dman play his gameboy. Happy Birthday Kronkie Donkie !!

More Shastina

We had a blast at the lake but there were no fireworks on the 4th. With all the fires the area decied not to do any fireworks. This was the first year in our married life ( drew's whole life) that we did not watch fireworks. We have promised the kids that we would go to an A's came with firworks. We cant let a whole year go by without fireworks. We did have "sparklers" for the kids to do. There were the ugliest big flying bugs everywhere, so of course Drew decided to include them in our fourth of July celebration. The pictue is what the bug looked like the following morning. But we learned our lesson- you leave them alone- they'll leave you alone. For the rest of our week there we dealt with hundreds of these bugs, I am afraid that we killed there leader.

Golf at Lake Shastina

What the Phillips have been up to...

Wow, Its been a long time since I have sat down in front of the computer to update my blog. We have had so much craziness going on I dont know where to begin. We have been fortunate lately and have been able to enjoy some great time with each other. We have also been blessed with some great job opportunities as of late. One of the great perks of Drew's job is that they have a land development in Lake Shastina. So of course we had to go up there for the 4th and take care of some business. They have one fully furnished duplex for us to stay in whenever Drew needs to tend to any of the work needed up there. It is a gated complex on a golf course. The streets are paved so the kids got to have free rein of the neighborhood. They set up a cool track for their bikes and had a blast collecting stray golf balls.

We had some thrilling experiences with wildlife. We got there pretty late on thursday night, but friday morning when we woke up we found a cute little frog in the kitchen sink. We all were fascinated by the frog but decided to let it back into his natural habitat. Amber of course fell in love with the frog and wanted to keep it. We told her that if it came back she could keep the frog. Who knew that the stinkin' thing would hop right back into the house before we could even shut the door. Therefore, one hour long trip to petsmart later, Shasta our pet frog has a new home and now lives with us . We also experienced some playful foxes running on the course. A couple black and orange snakes trying to golf with us. And Ava was out on the bike course by herself when an 8 point buck and his family decided to cross right in front of her. Lets just say she cried, mom panicked and Dad rode dmans bike faster than it had ever gone.

Just a couple pics......

Dman had the opportunity to play for a summer tournament team in anaheim for memorial dayy weekend. It made ofr a great weekend for the family, and uick trip to disneyland and a much needed break from reality. He played great and had 8 points for the weekend.

Another father daughter Dance

This time is was a hoe down. The achievement day girls put on a fahter daughter night. Dad and Amber had a great time. Thanks Paige for taking me to the "shed" to find Amber a swinging outfit !!

Howdy partner !!!

One of the many uses of hockey tape

We have this on going thing in our house that no matter what is broken- hoceky tape can fix it !! We have used hockey tape for several school projects and household repairs but I think Tyson has definetly found the best way to use hockey tape. Apparently he lost his laces so why not use hockey tape !!!

Ava's Big Day !!