The apple doesn't fall far from the Tree

This is a funny picture of Phillip watching TV.  He LOVES watching TV and any time I complain, Pete says, "I wonder where he could have got that from."   

His favorite shows are Dora, Diego, Thomas and The Backyardigans.  However, I think he does enjoy the food network as well.  When I'm watching my cooking shows and turn it off or pause in the middle of it, Phillip says, "Turn it on!" as if he was really interested to see how the recipes turned out.  

We have been trying to gradually get Phillip to sleep in his bunk bed.  He sleeps in the lower bunk and calls it his 'cave bed.'  The problem is that he gets up  in the middle of the night and wakes me up.  

Also, with the 'cave bed' night routine Phillip likes us to tell him countless 'Silly Stories.'  They all are about a boy named 'Phillip' and his sister 'Lily.'  His favorite story is about the giant green M&M (Phillip calls them 'Happies') who comes and leaves m&ms under kids pillows if they are good.  I did put m&ms under his pillow one night.  Ha!

 

Chubba-dub dub!

Lily has definitely been growing! She is smiling a lot more and holding up her head. She has rolls everywhere. It makes me feel better about nursing. Phillip didn't gain weight very well nursing, but did fine once he switched to formula. Right now I have the opposite problem. Lily is having a hard time taking a bottle. She is definitely a 'Mama's girl.'

Her hair is coming in slowly but surely. It sometimes look likes red or strawberry blond hair.

She's sitting in one of Al's garage sale finds. Someone had twins and had two of these cool little seats. Lily is going to give it to Henry in a few months. Jonathan is using his now. We'll have to see how many babies get to benefit from this great find.

Got 'er Done!

Well, the most common comment about our house from neighbors is, "I never noticed that house before." The old owner was a little bit of a recluse and the way they had their yard and porch definitely was not very inviting.

1. Remove trellis (Pete's dad did this right as the old owner was packing up).

2. Paint the door black (it was Maroon before)

3. Make black shutters for large and small window

4. Paint Porch. They had a green and black marble effect which was really ugly.

5. Dig up Bed and get some rocks. We saved all of the perennials and had a rock company come in and excavate the dirt, place the rocks, and dig up some really big root balls.

6. Re-plant all of the perennials before they died! I was getting stressed about where to plant things. There is so much to think about .. how big will this get, when will it flower .. WHAT IS IT?! Pete wanted to clean up the mess so I GOT 'ER DONE :-)
I started with the big plants and gradually went to the smaller plants. My strategy was to fill the empty spots. We'll see how it goes.

I also planted my vegetable garden. I didn't have a tiller, so I dug up some dirt with a shovel, and mixed it in with the compost. I still need to cover the dirt with dead leaves and newspaper to prevent weeds and get stakes for all of the tomatoes. But at least I GOT 'ER DONE!

First trip to Hogle Zoo

Phillip was excited to see all of the animals. He was really glad to hold "the map!" (He is obsessed with Dora lately).

We went with my brother John and Al's older kids. It was me John and 7 kids under 8. It was a little crazy but still fun!

We went on a trip!

I am such a home body and with a new baby it's hard to get me to go anywhere. But I'm glad that we went to Becca's house in St. George. It was a great vacation because it wasn't too far to travel, and we had all of the comforts of home and strip mall shopping. We even had 'In and Out!'

We swam in the pool a lot. Phillip is getting a lot more comfortable swimming on his own with the ring. Lily liked the pool, but I tried to keep her out of the sun.

We went to Zions National Park. This was our first family hike. It took about an hour and half to hike 1 mile. If you watch the video you can figure out why. Phillip seems to have my skill for walking, which is kind of scary when hiking.