Go Cardinals

We've never been to the Cardinals stadium for anything NFL related but considering we live so close, and the Cardinals practice is open to the public, we thought it was a good opportunity to check it out. Lincoln has just recently started to get interested in watching football. Last year with the Superbowl close by it helped the excitement. Logan could really care less. He watched for a total of two minutes before retuning to play in the isle on the stairs. We watched the practice for about an hour and then sent Lincoln to the front to score his first ever autographs. The three players that came over were super nice to him....probably time we learn who they are. Lincoln and I are going on a date to the Cardinals vs. 49ers game next month so this was a good ice breaker. I have a feeling we'll have many more activities like this in our future.

 Tight end #85 - Darren Fells

Tight end  #80 Ifeanyi Momah

 Tight end #89  Gannon Sinclair

Keeping Busy

There is always something going on to keep us busy. If it's not a project or chores then it's something fun. Here are a few of the things recently that's been keeping us busy.

 We've had several doctors appointments recently as we try to get to the root cause for Logan's stuffy sinuses at night and for Lincoln's GI problems. All appointments have been in downtown Phoenix so we've spent some time in the car which often means there is likely to be a dance party at some point. 

 Krispy Kreme recently opened near us so we thought we would support the new business and stopped in for a snack while out running errands one day. 

 Since I have two little artists we took out the canvas and paints for a couple days and let them paint. Logan drew this train scene on the canvas first with pencil and then went back and painted it. I was blown away at how well he did with both he drawing and painting. I let him do the first run on the paints and then I went back over some sections to give them another coat and clean up some lines. 

 We've since framed this and it hangs on the wall in his train themed room. 

 We got a special visit from my sweet long time friend Londi and her husband Jim.  It was an extra special visit because it also happened to be Londi's actual birthday. They were in the middle of birthday road trip through Arizona so we arranged for them to stop in. We celebrated with some always delicious cupcakes from Kreative Kupcakes. 

Logan served as a hand model for the new Ele-fun training toothbrush. Who needs to wear pants when you're a hand model?!

New School Year

I can hardly believe that Logan is now in kindergarten and Lincoln just started 3rd grade. My babies are growing up! We decided to leave them at Rosefield this year since Logan got an amazing kinder teacher and Lincoln got accepted into the accelerated program and got a really good teacher also. Logan has a lot of his friends from his pre-K classes in with him this year, including Braxton and Lucci who are his two best friends.

I think both boys were a bit nervous to start school as neither really knew what to expect. Usually the kids in the accelerated program don't change much so I think Lincoln wasn't sure if he would start off the year knowing anyone in his class. Turns out at meet the teacher night we found out that he had 3-4 friends already in his class. Logan was very excited to start kindergarten like a big boy and is quick to want to get out the door in the morning. One day last week he told me "I love kindergarten, it's so much fun!" I couldn't ask for a better response.

 This was at meet the teacher night the day before school started. His classroom is decorated with superheros!

 Logan started school on Wednesday, 8/5 with a short two hour day that began with donuts and juice in the cafeteria so the parents could say goodbye to them from their. 

 When he grows up, he wants to be a train conductor.

 My precious and adorable baby boy is off to his first day of kindergarten.  There's no way to keep him from growing up!

Handsome dude. When he grows up, he wants to be an Army Solider. 

 Lincoln was great about telling Logan all about the "big kid" side of the school. 

Brothers are best friends. 

 Logan's teacher sent me this earlier this week. These two are inseparable at school. 

I got this from Logan's teacher today. Lego master. 

The Triplets

Not many people can say that they are the older sister to a set of triplets...but I can.  The triplets just turned 30 but in my eyes, they will always be my little brother and sisters. It's fun to look back on these pictures and remember the good, bad and chaotic times and see how far they've come.
These pictures were flying around Facebook on their birthday but I wanted to capture them on my blog so the boys can see them when they grow up.

I think this is the only picture of my mom pregnant with the triplets. She carried them a full 40 weeks.

 Mom was always good about getting the kids their own birthday cakes when they were little. 

 Mom was always good about getting the kids their own birthday cakes when they were little. 

 I remember pushing the triplet stroller around when I was about 5 years old.

 This was at Mom and David's wedding.

 There was enough noise and mess that yes, sometimes it was like taking care of monkeys. 

 Michaela, Micah, Calee

 Michaela, Calee, Micah

 This is the picture that was on their baptism program.

 Nikki was one mutual friend they all had She was a neighbor for many years in Whittier and her birthday was the day after the triplets. 

 They all were in high school band together for one year. 

Salt Lake City

A day after the Phillips family reunion there was a Savage Family Reunion in the Salt Lake area. We decided to stay in town for a night and attend the reunion before making our drive home to Arizona. Since we had all afternoon we decided to head to Temple Square. We shopped through the mall, walked temple grounds and had a tour of the conference center. We ate a delicious lunch at the Lion House and stopped in for a visit to the Joseph Smith Memorial building. All Logan wanted to do was ride the Trax so we promised him we'd go over to the Gateway via the trax.  He was over the moon excited. He exclaimed that it was the best day ever and could hardly contain himself. He was cute to see the joy such a simple thing brought to him. We spent a couple hours at an arcade in Gateway before returning to the hotel.

The next day we did some shopping at a few local stores and headed over to the park where the family reunion was. It was great to see so many of Ricky's cousins and their kids. There were even a few new spouses and second cousins that we had never met before. It was an awfully windy day but everyone made the most of it.  We had a picnic, followed by time on the playground for the boys and visiting for the adults. The last time we saw that amount of family was at Papa's funeral. It was a nice visit and we're glad we stayed to enjoy their company.

From SLC we started our journey home with plans to stop for the night at our usual spot in St. George. We went swimming as a family and Lincoln swam across the pool on his back. Logan is still working on learning to swim. We ventured out and tried a Mongolian BBQ place for dinner. I've seen the resturant several times on our previous trips but never had the guts to try it. It was the boys first time experiencing Mongolian. They really liked seeing the chefs cook with the sticks on the circle stove. It also was nice allowing them to pick exactly what they wanted in their bowl. It was't the best flavors we've had but it was an enjoyable meal and the staff took great care of us. The best part was the we didn't get sick.  Since we got home home we went to a local Mongolian place and it's now one of Lincoln's favorite types of food.

 Handsome boys on Temple Square

 Joseph Smith statue in the Memorial Building

 Salt Lake City Temple

 Inside the conference Center with that fabulous organ in the background.

 Selfie using a mirror on our tour of the conference center.

 The fountain in the background is directly over the speakers pulpit in the conference center below where we were standing.

 On the roof of the conference center with temple square and downtown in the background.

 Two adorable boys with SLC temple behind them. This was their first time on the roof of the conference center. 

 Lincoln loved the home cooked meal from the Lion House. 

 Logan was entertained by the jello squares. He was happiest about being out of the sun and in the air condition for a bit. He was pretty over heated. 

 This is a statue of CR Savage who is an ancestor of the boys and was a famous photographer in the pioneer days. 

 Logan riding the Trax.

 Playing a game together at the arcade. 

 In keeping our family cupcake tradition, we made a stop into the Sweet Tooth Fairy for dessert.

 Logan only likes to cuddle on his terms...and usually it's because he wants to actually play rough and tackle you. 

 All dressed and ready to play with family at the Savage reunion.

 I was impressed that both boys insisted on eating with their chopsticks and did a great job with them.