Happy Chinese New Year!

Welcome the year of the dragon!!! In light of the New Year, I decided to give Lia, Kiri and myself matching Gold pedicures. I would have done red the other good luck Chinese color...but the girls were still too squirmy to allow me to do a red pedicure well. You can tell that Kiri has the Phillips' second toe and Lia has more of a Chiu second toe!

For New Years, I decided to host a dinner party. The hardest part of the party was deciding who to invite. We have enjoyed our new ward so much that there seems to be an endless supply of interesting and fun young couples to get to know.

I made mochi sticky cake.

Soy sauce eggs, lettuce wraps, peanut meat balls, red Chinese BBQ chicken legs, long life noodles, and everyone got an orange and a red pocket with lucky money (though, surprisingly, most of our guests didn't take their lucky money).

It was a great evening with good conversation and lots of laughing. It's been great having the finished basement because all of our kids just played their hearts out the entire evening and the adults got some much needed adult interaction! Chris, Beth, Ruth & Eric.

Chris, Beth, Ruth, Me, Matt, Crystal, Nick (and his wife April is missing from the picture).

The girls are getting such cute personalities

Here they are showing their glasses...we call this Lia Librarian and Cool Kiri.

The kiddos watching a movie...that's right, Max's slim bum still fits into his Bumbo chair...gotta love it!!!

Lia is so quick to smile and laugh!

Kiri has the sweetest, kindest disposition and always loves to be cuddled and will often pat you on your shoulder if you are cuddling with her.

They are just a pleasure to have in our family and we are so grateful for our three blessings. I remember when Max was a baby, this woman came up and said that my next child would be a 'terror' because nobody is that lucky...well, I might not deserve it, but I am sure thankful for them.

Snowdays and Church...

The girls have been doing so well...they're both about 11lbs and just thriving and have such good dispositions. They're both smiling so much and Lia and Kiri both had their first laugh two days ago. They both sleep through the night, I'm talking 10p.m. to 8 a.m. I'm too anal to let them slept that long without food...so, I wake them up once or twice to feed them.

They still don't have that much to do with one another...they don't seem annoyed at the others' existence...just totally unaware!

We finally went to church all together last week...I figured, they've been blessed...it's time.

We've had such a mild winter this year...thank goodness!!! Sadly, Eric's parents and brother and sister-in-law and baby were going to come visit last week but got snowed out!!!! We were so sad...but at least we got some snow to make snow angels and...

we played around and even made snowman for Max...

It was HUGE!!!! It took us forever to make!!!

Just kidding!!! It was all we could manage to stick!!!

80's Bunco Night...

Yesterday was 80's Bunco night...and I had to pull together an outfit in 20 min...luckily 80's fashion has been creeping itself into the main stream for some time. My bangs, which I raved about cutting myself after a Youtube instructional look terrible in this picture because I sprayed an entire can of hairspray trying to get them to do 'the 80's wave' which my hair was not meant for!

Here are some people who did not pull from their closet, rather went all out and went to Eileen's closet (the local thrift shop). Yes, those are jelly shoes Hillary is sporting! Mandy is just a hot mess on the left of 80's craziness!!!

You will be impressed as she googled '80's make-up!'

...whenever there is fun there's always, coca-cola!!!!

...I think we're alone now!!!! April was literally on the ground dancing with Tiffany's, 'I Think we're alone now." her favorite song of all time, 'Baby pick your head up...come on and look me in the face. Is it the rumor, that another guy, wants to take your place...don't you know I'm forever your girl!' (By Paula Abdul...pre X Factor, pre American Idol, Post Lakers Cheerleader).

Top three best dressed!!!

The whole group...I'm making the ugliest pose...but that's because I couldn't help 'getting on the floor and doing...a dance...cause they put me in a trance with a funky song' (my all time favorite band ever...can you name that song?!). Hint, I went on a few dates with one of the singers (after giving him a Book of Mormon at a concert)!!

The Girls' Blessing

This is my favorite picture of the entire day!

The girls and I sported our matching bracelets (courtesy of Charayye).

Max and Lia. She was a little tired, but they both did fabulously at their first sacrament meeting.

Family shot.

Everyone...thank you everyone for coming, we know the drive is a long one and we appreciated it so much!!!

Max and Lucy...is there anything cuter, seriously?!?!?!

O.k., maybe this one...

I love pink and have always wanted a pink party...so, I made sure we were pink galore!!! I even made pink heart shaped ice cubes to go in the pink punch! Some women have to learn to embrace the pink once they have a daughter...not the case with me!!

I made a pink trifle with three different pinks!

Kristee, Linzie, Adam & Eric eating...

Jason...

Kenzie (Buzz Lightyear), Max (Woody) & Lucy (Jessie). Lucy found a brilliant way to torment Max's soul by saying that Woody is a girl...Max could not handle life while she taunted him...it was hilarious!

Me & Meradith. Don't be fooled...I'm not wearing a dress...that's my apron.

Julie & Carli...we were sad Chuck couldn't make it!!

Jared and Kristee...

Our new friends in the ward happen to be two of Camille and Adam's best friends! So, we invited them to come over for lunch! Ruth teaches relief society and I am always excited when it's her Sunday.

Among other things Adam & Camille gave Max some silly putty and Eric and Carli were being mean to Kiri...I didn't get a good picture of the pig nose he put on her...

Max and Julie share the same birthday, so I made Julie and strawberry lemonade cake with purple fondant roses I learned how to do online. Here she is making a wish and then never had a single piece of my cake!!! I'll try not to be offended! :) Happy birthday, Julie!

Happy Birthday, Max!

Max turned three this past weekend. He requested a superhero party. So, with the invitations, we attached superhero rings to set up the theme. Max also loves dressing up so much that we asked that everyone come in costume...which was not met with much resistance from three-year-old boys!

The girls were also being blessed we had lots of family come up for the party and I didn't want to disappoint with a lame cake...so, I tried my hand at making a cake with fondant. I think it turned out o.k. The bottom layer is Spiderman, the middle is The Hulk (notice the fist imprint- Hulk Smash!!!) and the top is Captain America.

Hanhy, Linzie, Kenzsie, Brookie and Max eating their 'Hero Sandwiches' and their Captain America Drinks before activities began... I made these red and blue star shaped ice cubes for the Captain America drinks.

We had all of these games planned out...and in the end, they really enjoyed running in a circle!

Eric came up with a great game of Superhero and Villain that was similar to Musical Chairs and involved a lot of dancing and Super Hero theme music. It was great! Notice in almost every picture, Kristee is standing somewhere...without her there to help, the party would have been a disaster. I think I was way in over my head and I'm so grateful that she was there as another helper. Also, a special thanks to Julie for watching the girls and bringing Hanky and Brookie (who was also a spectacular helper) to the party!!!

Then, no party is a party without a Pinata...Lucy, Kenzie & Linzie were so cute but were no match for Brookie's strong swing!!!

This was the first year that Max actually understood and was capable of blowing the candle out on his cake...my baby is growing up!

We handed out capes to everyone who came (thanks Meradith for picking those up for me!!!) and let each person pick out what design they wanted on the back...max wanted an Mr. Incredible cape, I think it turned out pretty good! Happy Birthday, Max, you are everything I could hope for in a son and enjoy everyday that I get to spend with you! We love you so much!!!