Saturday Birthday celebrating

For Ashlyn's birthday, she didn't ask for a party or any presents. Just to spend the day with me shopping at the mall. So yesterday we did just that. Sure love this beautiful young lady. 

She got money from both sets of Grandparents and from my Aunt Brenda who folded her cash into a cute little heart. Ashlyn loved it and didn't want to spend it….well, until she found something she really wanted.

We started the day off at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch.

Then walked around the pond to feed the ducks. All we found were a WHOLE lot of turtles though. Luckily right before we left, we spotted a few little ducks off in the corner and once we threw some food in the water, they swam right over to gobble it up.

Once at the mall, we spent the bulk of our time at "Justice". We gave her money for her birthday, so that combined with the money she got from her grandparents and Aunt, she had a good little stash to buy some clothes and things. 

Then a stop at Menchies for some Frozen Yogurt.

And we rounded off the day at the Movies to see "The Giver". She had read the book in school last year and was really excited to see the movie. There were a few parts that were a little much for her, but she closed her eyes real tight and she was fine. Overall, she really liked it. And I thought it was great too!

Such a fun day just me and my cute girl! I think 11 has been good to her so far.

Ashlyn is 11!

My sweet, adorable, wonderful and loveable Ashlyn turned 11! I know I say this every year, but I can't even believe another year has gone by. It's fun that she is getting older, even though I miss having her little so much. I'm mostly just so grateful to have her. She is helpful and kind and always wants to do what is right. I love her to pieces! 

Leah was my super helper and did some shopping with me the night before and then helped me make Ashlyn a cake. We chose Snickerdoodle cake since that is Ashlyn's favorite cookie. I must say it was quite delicious!

A few little decorations to make the house birthday happy!

We woke her up with breakfast in bed and a lovely rendition of "Happy birthday to you"!

Then Paul surprised her and took the day off. We went to the last dollar movie of the summer. It happened to be Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Go Dreamworks! We all had a great time. Cute movie.

Then Paul took her out to lunch and shopping around Target.

That night she requested BBQ chicken sandwiches for dinner. Then Callie came over and we had cake and ice cream. I know my cake isn't that pretty. I was pretty sure the icing recipe would make WAY too much, so I halved it…..I was wrong. So my cake is sparsely iced. But it was still yummy and I think Ashlyn liked it.

I think she had a great day! And the fun isn't over. For her main present she requested to go shopping with me. So we are off to "Justice" in the mall on Saturday to spend her moola!

Squeezing more fun in…seriously my kids don't know how lucky they are

 The day after getting back from Henderson, I was crazy enough to load the kids up and head to the beach with Becky. It was a perfect day at the beach and the kids had a blast so it was well worth the trip out to Malibu. Sat in an hour and a half of traffic coming home, which wasn't too fun, but better than the 2 hours it took me last time. Ugh…why must so many people live in LA?! 

After the beach though and getting everything (including the car) all cleaned out, I was pretty much exhausted and told Paul I needed a break. So after swimming with Beth and her kids Friday morning and some school shopping Friday afternoon, I got a sitter until Paul got home from work and I took off to Cafe Rio and the mall for a little "me" time. It was much needed and much appreciated and honestly could have lasted a lot longer, except that the mall closed and I had nothing else to do. 

Just three more days before school starts and we still have dentist appointments, haircuts AND (most importantly) a birthday to celebrate! Yahooo….Ashlyn's turning 11 on Wednesday. I can't even believe it. I don't want to believe it. She's getting too old! 

One last trip for the summer

I've been wanting to go visit Tina and her family at their new home in Henderson all summer. Originally I was going to make a stop on my way to and from Utah, but that trip kind of got canceled due to our extremely busy July and me being too exhausted to do a ten hour drive by myself. I figured I could still make a visit out to Henderson though since it's only about 4 hours from here and wouldn't be too hard to do on my own with the kids. So we packed up our stuff Monday morning and headed out. The drive wasn't too bad but I did have to give her a hard time for being MUCH farther than she use to be (which was only 1 mile away). We spent half of Monday, all of Tuesday and half of Wednesday there, getting home just in time for YW and Activity Days Wednesday night. We had a great time. Mostly just hung around her beautiful new house, chatted, cooked together and ate lots while the kids all had a blast playing and entertaining themselves. Danny was super nice and watched all the kids while me and Tina caught a movie. Can't have a visit to see her without going to a movie together. It's our favorite thing. 

We took the kids to the splash pad, got snow cones and let them stay up super late. The boys played video games until they crashed and the girls did every girlie thing imaginable. 

Cute little Emberlynn snoozing on the couch.

Me and Tina at the movies. There are slim pickings for great movies right now, but we still managed to find a good enough one. And let's be honest, we rarely care how great it is. We just love the movies and aren't usually too picky. 

Ethan photo bombing the girls pic. Can you also find Brandon? He's a sneaky photo bomber.

All the kids, minus Braden (who was at Scout camp) and Brandon who was currently "missing" while this picture was being taken. That darn boy ran into the bathroom without telling me and I was frantically searching the GIGANTIC park looking all over for him for a good five minutes before Tina found him in the bathroom. Ugh…that kid! Scared me half to death. 

Cute Ashlynn and Ashlyn. 

Time for a shot with the boys. Notice none of the girls care enough to photo bomb them.

Snow cones in the parking lot. They were quite delicious and much appreciated after a warm day at the park. Actually, we pretty much scored weather wise for August. It was hot but not miserable. 

Tuesday night Tina and I stayed up until the wee hours of the night taking silly Buzzfeed quizzes. We found this one about which member of your friend group are you. Tina got the "Cool Uncle" which totally fits her. Although we should call it the "Cool Aunt". AKA, the fun one everyone wants to be around. Mine was most hilarious because my girl friends literally call me the "Mom" of the group all the time. So it was quite fitting to find that they've actually been right all this time. I particularly liked the all capped sentence there. Please friends, re read this often. LOL!

Wednesday came and my kids pretty much begged me to stay one more day. I finally was able to wrangle them into the car around 1 pm where Brandon crashed in less than five minutes. He slept for at least two hours of the trip home and probably would have slept longer if Carter hadn't of been so loud and woken him up. But I guess it just goes to show how much fun he was having. There was no time for sleep…just playing.

Till next time Phillips family! 

Busy Saturday

Started the morning with a Birthday Party at Chuck E. Cheese for this cutie. My kids all had a great time and it was really fun to see Baylee so excited for her 3rd birthday!

We got home, changed clothes and then headed to the Temple for a Primary Activity. The Sister Missionaries talked to the kids for a while and showed a couple of videos about the importance of Families and how we are all Children of God. Then we walked the Temple grounds and ended with a little presentation at the Christus. The weather was really nice for August and I'm glad we all got to go.  Love being at the Temple with my little family. 

We hit Fuddruckers on the way home and then Paul and I got to go out on a date to the movies. Turned out that a bunch of people from our ward were there too. And then we even ran into my brother and his boys at the end. "Guardians of the Galaxy" definitely turned out a crowd. It was a fun movie and we had a great time. 

This week...

We've been pretty chill this week. Trying to recoup after all the fun of July and my sister being here and such. I was totally worn out. Spent much of Monday trying to get the house back in order (it's still not but whatever). I did spend four hours cleaning out Leah's room. Love the girl to death, but she can't keep her room clean to save her life. Stuff jammed everywhere. I'm thinking of sending her to a hoarders rehabilitation camp. LOL…just kidding. But it was pretty bad. It's all nice and cleaned out now. And best news is she can finally find all of her clothes AND they are clean AND in their proper places. 

We've done a lot of swimming this week. Went to the pool twice and then to the beach today. The weather was perfect and if it wasn't for darn Friday afternoon LA traffic, it would have been a perfect day!

 Leah had Gracie over for most of Thursday so she was in heaven. We've played play dough, jumped on the trampoline, played games, read books (not enough in my opinion but I tried), and watched too much TV. Feeling bittersweet about school starting in two weeks. On the one hand it'll be nice to be back in a routine and to have more time to get things done that I need to do. But on the other hand, it sure has been nice to not have to worry about homework and packing lunches and getting out the door at a certain time. I've actually gotten to sleep in this summer some for the first time in 11 years since having kids. Finally have them all old enough to where they can get up on their own and get their own breakfast. It's been heavenly!

Tomorrow we have a birthday party for a good little friend of ours. Then a Primary Activity at the Temple and a date night for me and Paul. I can't wait!

Seriously this boy cracks me up. He LOVES the water and was boogie boarding tons. But then he's cold, so he runs to the "hot sand" and rolls in it to warm up. He had sand everywhere. I'm sure we'll be fishing it out of his ears for at least a few more days.

I helped the girls make mermaid fins.

And Carter wanted to join in and be a Merman with them, so Leah happily obliged.