Mom and Erica Jumping on the Trampoline

Welcome Logan!!

Logan Spencer Phillips was born on November 3rd in Phoenix. He is 9 pounds and 5 ounces and 20 inches long. Eden and Ricky are excited that he wasn't born on Halloween! Family is resting and doing well now. Eden's mom is at home with Lincoln, and they will both meet the new baby when they come home from the hospital. We are so happy to have grandbaby #13 join the family! Also, Nancee confirmed today that grandbaby #14 will be a girl, so our numbers continue to be even. :)

October Updates

Mom and Dad were able to attend Brayden's baptism in Temecula a few weeks ago. Congratulations on your big day Brayden!

Mom and Dad also spent some time in Arizona to tend Erica while her parents went on a cruise. They picked a great time to go... right during our first snowstorm of the season! Erica had lots of fun playing with her cousin Lincoln.

Following their time down south, Mom and Dad then went to help Ryan and Heather to move into their new house in Herriman, UT. It is really pretty and open feeling. The kids have a huge basement to play in too! Heather has decorated the kids rooms really cute too.

HOUSE UPDATE (for all those of you who have been asking)

This is the west facing side of the house, with the exterior stone and siding in place. Notice the red trim-- Moms idea.

This is how the kitchen looks when you walk in the front door. They just finished putting up the drywall this week. Now all we are waiting for is flooring and cabinets.

This is the east side of the house, notice that the cement has been poured, the siding is up, and the garage doors are in. The lights outside actually work now too! Very exciting.

Sept 20

This picture of Baxter was just too perfect! Reminds me of how I feel in the morning....



Dad has been working hard all week at our property. The picture above is the east wall of the guest house, which Dad has single handedly turned into....


A climbing wall for all the grandkids! Dad painted the wall himself, and then attached the brightly colored hand and foot holds, as you can see above. The holds go up to about 8 feet high, so it should be a challenge even for the older grandkids.


The west side of the main house, with the natural stone being put up on the face. The stone actually looks really good in person, very dark brown and random but classy too. Mom said they are going to put a rust colored mortar between the stones. More pictures to come....

Thanks Nancee for sending this darling picture of Erica and Papa! Happy 2nd Birthday to Erica!

Goodbye Summer....sigh

Papa, Aunt Heidi and Uncle Clint came to visit us for a few days. They also happened to be in town when Ricky and Eden were here for her brothers wedding. It was so nice to have a house full of people again! Thanks everyone for visiting!

The Eastern Idaho State Fair was in town last week, and I was curious to see what all the hype was about. (Yes, I said hype. People at my job were talking about it, and I heard a commercial on the radio... does that count?) Dad and I getting our ice cream on. (Notice the name of the dairy? Also, notice the weird little kid on the bottom left trying to get in on the picture. Haha)

Its kind of hard to tell from this picture, but this was a cute fountain at the fair that had a clear plastic tube in the center, so that it looked as though water was just flowing from the spigot above. Dad thought it might be a good idea for the Clean Museum and Mom thought it might look cool in the entry of the new house. I also love Mom's Vanna White pose.

Mom has been busy all month preparing for the ABC convention in Las Vegas (which is where she is right now). The above picture is a larger-than-life handcrafted sculpture of the new Baby Banana Brush Teether, with the attached handles. Mom will be debuting this new product at the convention, we hope it goes well!

This is a larger-than-life poster that will hang in the back of their booth at the convention. (I got to help design it!)

Here's Mom displaying the new packaging for the Baby Banana Teether.

Congratulations on all your hard work Mom! We love you!

House Progress

Last weekend JJ's company (Ernst & Young) flew him out to do some recruiting at BYU. He came up to spend a day with us before he had to get to work. (We are all looking into the sun in the above picture. Considering I took it with my outstretched left arm, I think it turned out pretty good!)

The staircase to the loft was too steep, so we re-did it and turned it into two levels, as you can see in the above picture.

This is the stray cat that took shelter in our house for a few weeks. Dad named the cat Baxter after Uncle Dale's stray cat. It took some convincing, but I was able to take the kitten to the vet. They told us she's a girl! Shortly thereafter we got her some tests, shots and had her spayed. She's been recovering from her surgery in our guest room for the last few days.

Baxters original habitat (aka the fireplace in the basement of the big house).

Although she's very sweet and cuddly, she's also very curious and energetic. I've been slowly introducing her to Freckles, and he seems excited to have a little sister. I think she's intimidated by him because he's so much bigger than her, so she tries to go on the attack. They chase each other all around the house, and its exhausting! I follow them around to make sure they don't seriously hurt each other, because I'm not sure where the line is between playing and fighting. Hopefully they'll start getting along better soon.

Here's an up-close picture of what our siding looks like.

Mom & Dad standing in front of the main house. The siding is all up, and now our next step will be to put up natural looking stone on the opposite side of the house. (August 2009)

The view of the houses from the driveway, with lots of construction work going on. (August 2009)
The guest house, with its siding mostly up. (August 2009)

Arizona

Mom and Dad went down to Arizona in July to help Ricky and Eden move into their new house. The first picture is of Dad and Lincoln swimming in Troy and Nancee's pool. The second picture is of the two Arizona toddlers, Lincoln and Erica. More pictures will be posted as I recieve them...