It is Better to Look Up

This is a post for me.  Since I've already admitted to everyone that I'm my biggest fan I'm writing a post for my own benefit so some future day I might read it and it will be a good reminder to me of how much I am loved.

I feel like sometimes I have two separate people living in my body.  There is normal sane Jessica who usually runs the show and keeps things going quite well.  Then there is crazy Jessica who is a tad bit annoying and likes to mess with normal Jessica and make her extremely emotional.  Unfortunately crazy Jessica was rearing her ugly head and as much as normal Jessica kept trying to fight her the only thing that would happen was a rollercoaster of mood swings.  Crazy Jessica is still there and fighting for control so I'm writing a list of all the good things that has happened in the past 24 hours.  There is a lot.  I think Heavenly Father must have known I needed some extra love today.

• My morning walk; good friends, no kids, cool weather, and I totally rocked the socks off my sprints.
• My favorite young women coming over to hang out and then agreeing to help me when I got the urge to start remodeling my kitchen. (That must have been crazy Jessica in control.)
• My neighbor coming over and helping with the mess that is now the kitchen and actually agreeing to come back again tomorrow to help me.  She is the bomb!
• My mom taking me to lunch and for an awesome excursion to the dollar store.  I go there about once a week and it is hit and miss and today they had everything I wanted.
• Spending an hour at young women's with the best girls ever.  How can I not be in a good mood when I'm with such bubbly people.
• Texts from my little brother who I adore and wish/need to talk to more.
• Finally getting my car wreck resolved and being able to move on from that really not fun ordeal.
• My Bishop stopping by to check on me and make sure I was doing okay. (other than my house is a war zone due to the kitchen leading to my most embarrassing moment ever.)
• Phone calls with the best mother-in-law in the whole world who may not live nearby but always listens whenever I need someone to talk too.
• Huntley telling me she loved me 5 million times and not causing any havoc today.
• Paisley for being so chill and taking a good nap so I could shower.  
• Fresh Brigham City peaches for dinner.  Thank you Dad for going all over the state for your calling and bringing home treats for the rest of us.
• Getting my utility bill and it seeing it went down from last month.
• My husband for talking to me and texting me more than normal.  The hardest part of fire is the lack of communication during the season.  Chris tries really hard to call and and be involved in our everyday life but I'm sure it's not easy for him.  I can't imagine doing what he does for 16 hours a day 14 days in a row and then trying to still be a dad and husband via phone, it's got to stink.  For the most part phone calls are short and I'm usually okay with sharing him with fire for 6 months out of the year but when crazy Jessica is around it's hard.  Luckily tonight's phone time was more than normal and I really really really appreciated him losing sleep to keep me sane. 

I'm sure there is a lot more than this but these are the things that really stood out to me and I need to remember.   I also read the following quote from Carl B. Cook in a talk titled "It is Better to Look Up":

"Experience has taught me that if we exercise our faith and look to God for help, we will not be overwhelmed with the burdens of life.  We will not feel incapable of doing what we are called to do or need to do.  We will be strengthened, and our lives will be filled with peace and joy.  We will come to realize that most of what we worry about is not of eternal significance-and if it is, the Lord will help us.  But we must have the courage to follow his direction."

So from now on, no more looking down but I'll keep my eyes up and have faith.  I am loved, most importantly by a Heavenly Father and he will always take care of me.

and then there where three

The past two days we have been a whole family. It was nice. We went hiking up the canyon, swimming, started preparing for two little girlies birthdays, and even on a real life date with out kids. It was awesome and then 5:30 this morning it was just us girls again. 12 more weeks to go. We can do this!

The lost princess

Huntley's hair has been out of control lately. Actually the past 4 months since she gave herself a trim. I didn't want to cut it all off so I've just dealt with it and tried to hide it in cute hairdos that always fall out and end up looking worse than if I would have just left it alone. It's finally grown long enough to cut it all even so off we went to The hair salon.

The second haircut of Hunts life went much better. She wasn't scared at all and hopped right up in the chair and said she wanted to look like Rapunzel. Umm okay but typically you associate Rapunzel with ridiculously long hair not cutting your hair off but we will go with it. The whole time we kept telling her how pretty she looked and Katie even gave her a special Rapunzel braid. The next morning she woke me up and told me she was the lost princess. I'm really hoping that doesn't make me the evil mother.

Camping

The girls and I finally embarked on our first camping trip without Chris. Be impressed, but not really because we went to the Phillips family reunion so it wasn't like we were really alone. Although it did give me the courage I need to try it on my own. Huntley loved playing all day long with Anna who she hardly ever gets to see and Paisley loved just about everything. Except sleeping in the tub. Note to self next time it will be worth it to bring the pack'n'play.

Steel Days 2012

I'm a Strawberry Days girl at heart.  The rodeo, strawberries and cream, parade, and everything else that comes with that blessed week of the year just makes me happy.  Unfortunately we were out of town during Strawberry Days this year and didn't get to participate in any of the fun.  Last week was Steel Days and now that I'm a resident of AF and if I stay here much longer Steel just might overcome the Strawberry.  There are just some things when it comes to town celebrations that AF knows how to do right.

My favorite activity is the picnic in the park.  Last year we were newbies to Steel Day celebrations and happened upon this glorious activity with Linda.  I don't think we will ever miss it again as long as we are around.  Quail Park fills up with inflatables, food vendors, and millions of carnival type games with really good prizes and the best part is it's FREE!  There is usually a lot of people but there is so much to do the lines don't take long.  Plus we came away with some pretty sweet princess crowns that have been worn 24/7 ever since.

 Saturday was one jam packed day full of fun.  Main street is closed down starting at 7 am for the parade so we decided to take advantage of the wide open space and ride our bikes down the road.  Not really but it did make walking down to the breakfast really nice without having to worry about cars.  One of my YW is in the marching band and sold us tickets to the breakfast they put on before the parade. 

The parade was fun but Huntley needs to work on her candy grabbing skills.  She gets more excited about getting the paper flyers than the candy.  I did end up with some sweet coupons and if anyone needs an appliance repair I've got plenty of $10 off service calls to Lamars.

Possibly the greatest thing ever about Steel Days is the presale carnival tickets.  Instead of paying a fortune for the rides everything is one dollar so Hunt was able to ride to her little hearts content.  She even rode the big yellow slide a million times which killed me.  I still vividly remember my first time riding the big yellow slide and I was probably 8 and it scared the crap out of me.  I rode it this year with Hunt and it still scares the crap out of me.

Paisley was such a good sport and chilled in her stroller without making a peep the entire time.  Best. Baby. Ever. 

 And what does Chris do while we are off having fun without him.  Why he decides to be in a parade and give poor Smokey the Bear a wedgie.  Yes I married a 12 year old boy.

Pounding out the Posts

The last two weeks have been crazy.  Chris has been fire hopping all over the west and I've been doing a bad job at keeping him updated on life at home.  I just wrote a couple of posts but this is just going to be the randomness that was everything that is anything in our life lately.

Huntley's new "thing" is striking a pose.  All day long she does these weird movements and says "take a picture."  It cracks me up.  She also had to wear pants and long sleeves since it was only in the 90's and she was freezing.

 Paisley has went cannibalistic on us and eats little people.  Must be the reason Fisher Price is really lame now compared to when I was a kid.  She kept this guy in her mouth the whole afternoon, he was tasty.

 Both of the girls loved helping Ta'Merra with the goats. Huntley wanted to spend the day doing nothing but petting them.  As much fun as that sounded it wasn't high on my list of priorities for the day and lucky for me Earl helped me out by head butting her.  She quickly changed her mind about the goats after that.

 We went to the free swim for Steel Days with our neighbors.  Normally Huntley is cautious about playing on the toys at the pool but that day she had to show off with her friends and stand under the buckets dumping water.  She wasn't the only one being brave that day.  Her friend Cassidy also had a little dare devil in her and decided to jump off the diving board even though she doesn't know how to swim.  Luckily a "nice lady helped her" get out of the water after she jumped.  Apparently six children and two adults is bad odds for the pool and won't be happening again any time soon.

 A little excitement I could have done with out was a car accident on Sunday.  I got t-boned by a cyclist (have I mentioned how much I hate bikes before!) and it knocked the mirror off of the truck.  Luckily he was okay but not a fun experience at all.

 Last but not least I have my own little pooper scooper now.  My life just got so much better.

Early Early Mornings

Paisley is the perfect baby.  I'm constantly getting comments on her blue eyes and smiley face and people wonder if she ever cries.  Rarely, very rarely.  Huntley was not like this at all and since she was my first child and I didn't know any better it didn't really bother me.  If I would have had her second I think I would have went crazy.  She is my drama queen and I wouldn't have it any other way but she is loud.  Back to Paisley.  This is a story about her and her one non perfect moment.

The key to Paisley's perfectness is her pacifier.  She loves her binky and as long as she has that everything is right in the world.  The negative side about the binky is one minute I can see 10 of them from any given place in the house but the next I can't find one to save my life.  Tuesday night was one of those nights.  I put Pais in bed with her pacifier and she went to sleep like normal.  Around 2 she woke up and I went to see what was going on and couldn't find her binky anywhere.  I then spent the next hour with a screaming Paisley searching the house for a binky but not finding anything.  I was able to get her back to sleep by feeding her but it only lasted until about 5:30.  The screaming woke Hunt up around 6:30 and she looked at me and told me we needed to do something about this noise.

I loaded both the girls in the stroller and ran over to Target.  Unfortunately Target doesn't open until 8 and not wanting to go home and wait until then with a screaming child we decided to wait it out at Paradise Bakery.  Huntley picked out a cinnamon roll and in order to keep Paisley from screaming I broke my no sugar until you are one rule and gave her a piece.  She then devoured half of the cinnamon roll all on her very own and Huntley did the other half giving me a small taste and it was heaven.

 We left Paradise very happy, went to Target, bought our binkies, and came home ready to survive the day.  The best part was later that night I was telling my neighbor the whole story and Huntley pulls out a pile of pacifiers she'd been hiding in her step stool.  It sure would have been nice if she'd given them to me when she was complaining about Paisley's noise earlier that morning. 

Pirate Camp

Lately I've been a little MIA from my blog.  A friend and I got a crazy idea to host a week long day camp for our kids and a few others.  It was her idea since she couldn't find anywhere cheap to send her kids to do something like this and I was just along for the ride.  Boy was it a ride.  We had 10 kids come for four days, three hours a day and every single minute was jam packed with stuff.  I am now stuck to my couch and probably won't be able to move for a good 24 hours.  It was a lot of work but so much fun at the same time.  I loved that I spent quality time with Huntley doing things I normally wouldn't do because they are messy, time consuming, wet, and actually take effort on my part.  This week helped me to take a better look at how I'm doing as a mom and figure out how to do better.  Plus after having 10 kids dealing with my two is nothing!

Pool Time

Green with envy is how I feel towards the ladies at the pool who lounge in their chair and read a book while their kids swim. Don't get me wrong, taking my girls to the pool and splishing and splashing with them is one of my favorite thing to do but the readaholic in me is dieing to have summer days of reading time and not having to do anything else.

Last night I took my YW to the pool and thought it would be a preview of what I had to look forward to. Boy was I wrong. It was more work than taking my kids and I didn't even swim. Are those lounging book reading ladies just a figment of my imagination because if my girls are like my YW girls there is no way I'll ever get to read a book.

Luckily today I figured out how to make it happen. I was babysitting the neighbor girls and not really feeling up to cleaning up messes inside. I figured my options were watch a movie and still risk a mess or play outside. I chose the latter and decided to fill up our pool. After getting them all sunscreened and situated I sat back to referee and was bored stiff. They all played together nicely and I was able to sit and read. From now on forget the public pool the 2 inches of water in the kiddie pool is totally working for me!

Favorite Color

I'm back to stealing post inspiration from fatmumslim. I don't know why but for some reason there is time when I can't come up with anything to write about. Life is just it's same old regular routine and while it is good to document that for my memory's sake it just seems really boring to write about. At least by doing the photo a day challenge I can actually try and think out of the box a little bit.

Today's topic was favorite color. I don't really have a favorite color and it's making Hunt mad that I won't tell her what it is. She on the other hand loves pink and that has always been the answer she gives me ever since she could start answering that question.

Since I don't have a favorite color I do have a color I despise, orange. Why do I hate orange so, baby food. I don't know what it is about peaches, sweet potatoes, and squash but it stains skin and I can not get it off. Since Paisley insists on giving herself facials when eating she is now our very own little oompa loompa.

Summer Nights

On the mend

I think she is feeling better.

This Post Brought to You by the Letter F

I've been anxiously awaiting the chance to steal this post idea from Aubrey and I've finally been able to. Our past 24 hours have been F filled. Don't worry this post will remain G rated, mainly containing good F words.

First of all we spent yesterday celebrating the Fourth of July and the Freedom we have. We live in the greatest country in the world and are extremely thankful to those who keep it that way.

In true Phillips fashion we started the celebrations by going Fishing. Hunt caught a little bass right off the bat and Russell ended the trip by catching a big rainbow. Other than that we threw lots of rocks in the lake.

Since we went fishing that morning we had to have a Fish Fry at Grandpa Phillips's house. There was a whole lot of good Food to be had!

Afterwards we watched the Fireworks for a little while. Hunt was torn between loving them and thinking they were out to get her. Pais was crashed out on the floor and had no reaction.

Driving home the girls crashed before we left the driveway so I decided I'd go watch the Fire since that's a whole lot more fun than fireworks. It was weird to see the firefighters at the base camp. One in particular caught my attention. He was off to the side talking on a cell phone and looked like all he really wanted to do was crawl in his sleeping bag under the blaring lights and die. Normally I'm the person on the other side of that phone call telling my hubby the mundane details of our day. Now that I've seen what he probably looks like and is enduring while I talk about nothing in particular and he actually sounds interested I really appreciate him so much more.

Four'o'clock that morning Hunt woke me up to let me know she had spit all over her bed. I assumed she wet the
bed but she kept saying "no pee, spit!!!". I couldn't figure it out so I told her to sleep in my bed and rolled over immediately falling back to sleep. At six I found out what spitting all over the bed means when she did the same thing to my bed. Which brings us to our last and worst F word, the Flu. Other than having to clean up after Hunt it has actually been kind of nice to have a do nothing but lay around day. As long as the flu stays only with her and is gone tomorrow.

Pictures

I have lots of pictures of the last week. Chris was home the whole time and although it was really nice and we had lots of fun it was extremely frustrating too. Instead of venting my frustrations, my poor mother and mother-in-law deserve a break from my constant whining, I decided I'd write a little list of all the things I loved about the last week.

1. Baby Della

2. Someone else to get up with crying girls in the night while I was dead to the world.

3. Picking our first tomatoes of the season.

4. Taking back my yard from all the weeds that grew while I was in California.

5. Paisley learning to growl.

6. Buying Hunt new shoes and watching her "run faster" everywhere we went.

7. Late night talks with Chris after the girls are in bed.

8. Spending a day at Girls Camp and enjoying some solitude in the mountains.

9. Day date to unsuccessfully try and find some new clothes but didn't hear one bit of whining when dragging my hubby around.

10. Freezing cold water flowing into Tibble Fork that numbed my toes but felt so good on a hot summer day.