Happy 30th Birthday Carleigh!

This is Lori, I wanted to take some time to raid Carleigh's blog for her 30th birthday week!
Carleigh, you know the true meaning of a best friend! We can totally share anything and know that it is safe in the vault of friendship. I remember back in college when we were RA's together and played intramurals! We loved playing anything related to sports. You had the most awesome dorm room on the 4th floor of Spence and we used to pile up serious blankets and take turns napping there!
I'll never forget all the times you have said "That's what friends are for!" It might be my favorite phrase. We've cried together, laughed together, talked about boys together (Dave and Brian!) and now our kids can play together! Carleigh, I love you! You are a great mom to THREE KIDS!
If you are reading this make sure to stop by, leave a comment and wish Carleigh a Happy 30th Birthday!

my birthday weekend!

my 30th birthday was so much fun! it all started on saturday, when my 2 sisters, sister-in-law, and my mother all took me out to breadwinners for brunch. it was soooo good! brian had the kids for the day. after we ate, we all went to get manicures and pedicures together, which was fun. the only time i usually get a pedicure is before a wedding, or when i am so greatly with-child that i can't reach my toes. so this was a special treat! after that, we went and picked up some ice cream and a video, and went back to stacy's house to watch and eat!! here we are at stacy's eating our ice cream from marble slab. we watched the movie sydney white, which was pretty cute.
then, monday, my birthday, brian let me sleep in a little while he fed and diapered the kids!! gotta love that! when i came into the kitchen, there were flowers, a huge balloon, and one of my favorite combos since college: powdered donuts and orange juice. the kids especially enjoyed the donuts since we rarely have them! we spent the morning lazing around the house (i spent the night before cleaning so that i wouldn't have to worry about cleaning on my birthday!). for lunch my little sister karis brought me schlotzsky's and a shake, which was yummy. then the 2 of us headed off to see our other sister, kristin, who was in the hospital having a baby!!! yes, my nephew tysen joel was born on my birthday. the funny thing is, kristin's last baby, ian, was born on brian's birthday! anyways, i spent the afternoon up there, but had to leave before he came because my husband had planned a party for me at the skating rink.

here i am with robby, audrey, promise, and claire

amanda and vanessa came to join in the fun!!
posing for the camera
here i am with all of my nieces and nephews (except for kristin's boys, logan, ian, and tysen!)

austin, lauren, mary, aubren(trey and stacy's daughter), promise, sarah, kayla, and timothy!

me, jilian, and hilary- friends for 25 years!! i've known them both since i was about 5. we homeschooled together for a long time, and now jilian has 6 kids, and hilary and i have 3 each!! it was so sweet to have them both come to celebrate my 30th.
the next day we went to visit tysen, who arrived during the skating party. zachary and audrey were so excited to meet their new cousin! he weigh 7lbs, 8oz, but he was 3 weeks early, so imagine how big he would have been if he came when he was supposed to!!

cousins!!

we went to keller on friday night to visit brian's brother and family. my kids love to see them, and they always play so well with each other! i really missed having cousins that were close when i was growing up. that's why i try to foster a good relationship between my kids and their cousins. they are our best friends, and the kids favorite people to play with (all the cousins, not just phillips kids!). family is such an incredible blessing.
here is zach with sarah, who is about 6 months older than he is. he had the time of his life driving this jeep... thank goodness they didn't crash! there were a few near misses.

here is mary, who is 6 months older than kenzie, with lauren, who is 6 months older than audrey!!
lauren loves to hold kenzie. every time we go over there, she always asks to hold her, though now kenzie is almost too big to hold.
audrey, sarah, promise (age 6), zach, kenzie, and lauren. they are watching a movie.
kenzie and promise

baby ethan

please be praying for one of my friends from college, kasey krawiec. she just found out that her 11 week old baby, ethan, has a very rare form of luekemia. check out her blog, baby ethan, under my blogging friends section. then don't forget to pray!

big news for kenzie

well, this week has been an emotional one to say the least. makenzie, who is now 9 1/2 months old, is officially weaned! i started on sunday, after attempting to nurse her for 45 minutes. she is just at that stage where she wants to watch what is going on, and doesn't want to stop to eat. and who has 45 minutes on a sunday morning to try to get one of her children to eat? not me. i've been wanting to do it for a while now, because of the distraction thing, but part of me remembers when i did it with zach at 6 months. i gave him formula, and that is when we found out that he was allergic to milk, because his mouth, tongue, and eyes swelled up to dangerous levels. part of me was afraid that kenzie would be allergic too. i also remembered that there was a day or two where he would barely eat, because he didn't want the bottle, and i didn't want that fight. so sunday was the last straw. there were many tears shed, because she took very little the first day, and only a little on the second day. but, thank the Lord, she is doing great now and actually smiles when she sees her bottle coming. i call her my little "love bug". she is all over the place and pulling up on everything. here she is on one of her favorite toys.

here she is with adoring big sis. please be praying for audrey. and for my temper. she has fallen back into peeing in her pants- we are now up to 2-3 times a day. i don't know what to do. i've tried rewards (good ones!) sticker charts, getting in trouble, ignoring it.... i am at the end of my rope!!!!! i told her the next step is that she will have to start wearing pull ups again, and she doesn't want to do that, but she already peed in her pants today... any expert advice????
and also be praying for zach. he has been almost out of control lately. crying about everything, whining, and more crying. i don't know what is wrong with him, and not much seems to help him either. i think that he has a couple of cavities, and has an appointment with the dentist on monday, so i am hoping that maybe his teeth are hurting and can be taken care of. i know that sounds awful, but i don't know what else it could be! i just love my kids, and want to do the best i can with them, but right now i feel like a failure- i quit nursing, my 4 year old pees in her pants constantly, and my 2 year old cries and has tantrums about everything!!!!

frugal friday

well, my friend lori, also known as the bargain shopper lady, is doing a blog on frugal friday. she asked me to write a bit about my latest bargain shopping experience... i haven't done any of the specials that she wrote about, but i did find a cute photo album for 3.49 (reg. price 14.99)! it is my favorite kind of album because it has the lines to the side of each picture so that you can write the names of people or events to the side. i also got a lot of tissue paper for .44 cents each (reg. price 1.50)

next i went to lori's blog and printed off a couple of coupons... then i went to victoria's secret and bought a lollipop for 1.50 and got a free body scrub. i also walked next door and bought a purse sized hand lotion and got a free regular sized lotion!
today lori talked about the crazy cvs deals that she gets, and i think i finally understood for the first time how she does it. i'm going to try it soon! Thanks for helping us save (or if you're like me, trying) to save money, lori!!!!

also, if you are like me, you are struggling with potty training, getting chores done, etc. i found a great website today that let me print out fun charts for the kids to keep them on track... check it out! it is called printable checklists. let me know if you think they will help you in your day- to- day chores!!

makenzie's first crawl, dishes, and easter bunny

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

she is now doing it all the time!! she sees zach with something, and goes for it- it is so cute to see them starting to interact a lot more. she is also starting to pull up to her knees. she is still a wonderful baby!!

crawling in action

here's the scene i found a few weeks ago when i walked into the kitchen... audrey and zach were washing the dishes in the sink. unfortunately, most of them were already clean! they had pulled a chair from their little table over to the sink, and were standing on the same one. it was so cute. big helpers!

we were at the mall and didn't know the easter bunny was there. the kids loved him. kenzie did really well until the end when she looked up to see who was holding her and then looked back at us like, get me away from this thing!