The Phillips Family

Love, Hattie

PIT - Torrie Style For those of you who are not familiar with this card game, this is how it goes. 1.) Deal eight cards to each player and sort into suits. (This is a farmer's game, so instead of spades, diamonds, and hearts, you have wheat, corn, oats, etc...) 2.) After the dealer says, "Pits open," everyone begins trading suits. 3.) For example, "Two, two? two..." (meaning I want to trade two-of-a-kind cards with someone.) 4.) Then the yelling begins. "Three! THREE!!!! THREE!!!!!! " 5.) More yelling, cursing, and threats ensue. 6.) This continues until someone collects all the same suit and yells, "CORNER!!!!" 7.) Losers pout like little girls and blame others for holding onto their barley or whatever. 8.) Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Pony Rides While we were all at the pumpkin patch, my parents treated the grandkids (minus Sam, of course) to a pony ride. They LOVED it!! (Left to Right: Aiden, Kimi, Grandpa Tricks, and Austin) How appropriate that Aiden's horse's name was "Lucky." That kid has so many close calls it's not even funny!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Phillips Boys! Hmmm which one, which one...? I love his overwhelmed look here. Ha! Got it! Yeah, this is the best shot I could get of the boys sitting on pumpkins... yes, I know I'm a crazy mother. I couldn't let matching khaki overalls go to waste! Behold! The GREAT pumpkin!! "What? ... What?? What's wrong with knowing where my brother's eyes are located?" Poor kid. He's going to have to go through a lot with Aiden as an older brother...

Sam Meets the Cousins Little Kimber just LOVED Sam! She wanted to hold him a lot and gave him lots of loves. What a goofball already. And here's cousin Austin. I think he was more interested in running wild with Aiden than holding Sam. :)

The Tulsa State Fair With excerpts written by Monica Dah'ling "Even from the makeshift parking lot a mile away, the smells of greasy food, cows, hay, and twilight overpowered my nose. I inhaled, inviting those smells - the smells of my childhood - to become a part of me once again. A smile crept onto my face, growing with each step I took towards the Tulsa State Fair... Clutching my ticket stub, I took one step towards heaven -- holy, greasified, hick-man heaven. Two steps later and I was in..." "Since I was a child, my family made a tradition of attending the fair and stuffing ourselves with the delectable, heart attack inducing fair food... For the first time in years the entire family attended the fair together..." "My siblings and I were giddy with anticipation and acting more like children than the grandbabies were... Bellies grumbled because we had gone through a ritual fast the entire day, preparing for the feast we ...

A little while ago (okay... about a month ago) my Mom drove here to help paint the upstairs. What an angel. While she was here, we took the boys to this AWESOME indoor playground called "Monkey Bizness." I've never seen so many COOL unique jungle gyms. And there were lots of slides which were a big hit with Aiden. Sam didn't quite know how to handle all the chaos, but Grandma took good care of him. Oh, and there was an art room just for the kids to come and go as they pleased. Talk about FUN! This was Aiden's first painting - complete with blue handprint.

(yes, I am stealing this idea from my Hadfield girls' blogs. Usually it's 'Overheard at Our House', but since Aiden can't really talk cohesively yet, this will do for now.) Setting : A 3AM feeding with Sam As I was feeding Sam last night, a car alarm goes off outside. Right as it stopped I heard Aiden moan awake and open his door. We have a kiddy-gate barring the door for such occasions as this so I didn't worry too much. The moaning eventually stopped and all was well. When I finished feeding Sam, I crept over to Aiden's door and closed it as carefully as I could without waking him up again. When I walked into our room, I saw a cute little bundle cuddling up next to Rex. Aiden had escaped (very sneakily I might add) and hopped in bed with Rex. It was cute, but I wasn't about to put up with a kicking, shoving toddler the rest of the night. I carried his limp body back to bed and laid him down without waking him. As I'm about to go, Aiden r...

Eats with cars. Sleeps with cars. Plays with cars.

It's a piano!!! Rex's mom found a FABULOUS deal on this beautiful 5'3" grand piano. I mean... A-MAZ-ING. Rex was going to surprise me with it, but once it became apparent that a big chunk of money was going to be missing, we decided to play "20 Questions" to help me guess what Rex was up to. This is how it went: "Is it bigger than a bread box?" Oh yeah... Hesitantly asked, "Bigger than our kitchen table?" Oh yeah. "Is it a table?" (I'm not very clever.) Nope, but if it's used as a table you'll get in trouble. "Can you sit on it?" It comes with a seat. "Is it something for the kids?" Yes, they'll enjoy it, too. "Is it something I've wanted?" Oh yes, since we've been married. "So it's not a double stroller?" ...No... "That didn't count." Yes it did. "Dang." And so on until question #19 when I was still clueless. Rex gets up and ...