Happy Birthday Claire!!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Claire!!!
We love you so much and are happy you are a part of our family!

love,
Mom, Dad, Emma, Mack and Mo Mo

What a week!

This past week Kent was out of town and you would have thought I would be a reasonable parent and stay home with my 4 kids 4 and under. Not me! I had too many things on my list to do and being the only person who can put shoes on, coats on, clothes on and everything else it takes to get out of the house did not stop me. Man am I glad it didn't!

On Thursday we went to the Festival of Trees with my mom and sisters. I love this little tradition that we have going and the girls love getting their nails painted. It is the only time of the year they get that to happen with my blessings. Claire also had a great time calling Santa's elves. I hope he brings her a baby doll with a bottle!

Then that night I had to play the Nutcracker. Liz and Glen had 2 free tickets and since they couldn't use them I took them off their hands. Emma had her first Nutcracker experience with our great friend and former babysitter Chrislyn. She met us before the show for some dinner and then they went to the show while I played in the pit. Oh my gosh! I had no idea how delighted Emma would be. It was general admission and so she got to sit right on the front row and the entire show she would stand and watch between the pit and the stage. At the very end she yelled into the pit "Good job mom!" and gave me a thumbs up. That made me laugh and a bit of a celeb with the other musicians. They were really quite jealous that they didn't have a fan club!:)


Then on Friday my studio combined with 4 other harp teachers had a recital at the Farmington Community Center. It was so much fun and a lot of work but well worth it. Emma performed along with 55 other young harpists from the northern Utah area. They all did a beautiful job and I am so proud of them. Well done everyone!!!


Then today we had Claire's 3rd birthday party. She doesn't officially turn 3 until Wednesday, but she wanted to have a "gymnastics" party and they only do them on Saturdays. It was a blast and Claire was in heaven with all her cousins. Thanks everyone for coming and supporting her! I can't believe she is going to be 3!!!




After all that Kent got in last night and made it to the birthday party and I am grateful for that! It was a lot of fun this week and I would totally do it all over again but I do realize once again how much easier it is when you have at least one more set of hands to help get 8 feet,and 4 bodies dressed and out the door!

Tickets are gone!

If you were interested the tickets are now owned by my lovely neighbor. She has never seen the Nutcracker and is excited to go!

Thanks!

Two Free Tickets to the Nutcracker!!!

I have 2 free tickets to the Nutcracker is Salt Lake for tonight if anyone wants to use them. I can't and would love to not see them go to waste.
The show starts at 7pm and it is opening night. Kids can go as Emma went last night and it is so much fun. So if you want them let me know by noon today or something like that. I have to leave for a harp recital by 1:30 so you would probably need to come and pick them up.

Thanks!
Maria

End of a long day...

Kent is out of town this week and I think Mack has captured my feelings exactly!

Thanksgiving

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving and a lot of firsts in our family.

We started off the day with the 1st ever Turkey Leg 5K in Farmington. Kent's brother Darrell put it on and it was SO MUCH FUN! Kent and I ran the 5K with all the kids. (I had never ran with a jogging stroller so that was fun) and the girls ran the kids 1K. Well...Emma ran and did great and Claire ran half of it with Kent. It was the most amazing thing and I swear I was holding back tears as she ran across the finish line. She kept saying to Kent "Dad. I'm running Dad, I'm running!" I can't tell you how happy it made me feel to think a year ago she wasn't even walking and now she is running! (I am kind of tearing up now as I think about it!)

Then we went onto my mom's house for dinner. My brother Pete introduced the first ever Pie bake off. (I was not very smart and didn't take my camera but if you want to see all the entries check out Peter and Dree's blog on the side.) The rule was that each adult in the family could enter a pie. I took this to heart and made 2! Apple and banana cream.


Not many people in our family had ever baked pies including me and it was really fun to try and compete. I was lucky to have Kent's family secrets and sisters. His family used to own a pie shop back in Pocatello and they had all the secrets. I am proud to say the Heather's recipe for Banana Cream Pie won! Thanks to her I made the crust, filling and whip cream all from scratch! No one was more surprised than me. To be honest though I am not sure the votes were really accurate as there were 2 banana cream pies and everyone who voted were not really sure which one was which. :) I will take the win though and hope that I can compete again next year.

I just want to say one more time how thankful I am for a loving husband and fantastic children. I feel totally blessed and know that I am extremely lucky to have what I have!!! Now onto Christmas!

Ally and Bobby

Where has the time gone? I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted but a lot has been going on!
Here are the two newest pets in our family. Let me explain. About 2 months ago Kent and I decided that it was time to let Go Motor's go so to speak and as of October 1st Kent joined the ranks of unemployed. To say the least it was a bit stressful. Kent told the girls that when he got a new job they could get fish. So here are the two newest members of the Phippen clan. Claire named her fish Bobby and Emma named hers Ally. Don't ask me why but they are good names and I am so happy that Kent found a job.
His new job is with Ragnar events. They are the guys that organize and put on the Wasatch Back relay race every summer. This is an amazing road race that requires teams of 12 runners to run different legs of a 200 mile course from Logan to Park City. They start on a Friday morning, run through the night and end on Saturday. It is a crazy experience but one people tend to do over and over again because they have such a great time!
Kent will now officially be in charge of their Washington D.C. race that is held every September. It does require some traveling and since we have never had a job that requires that I am a bit nervous. We feel like this is such a blessing in this economy and time of our lives that we will be helped along the way. He started today and like I said before we are sooooo excited for him to be part of such a great company and experience. Thanks Ragnar!!!!

Besides that the boys are now 7months old, Claire started at Shriner's hospital, and Emma now can officially hit 5 balls over the net both forehand and back hand. Let alone Halloween. Hannah made the M & M costumes. She had no pattern and had to make something that Claire could wear to hippotherapy. I had no idea that she was so AMAZING at sewing and I want to thank her once again for making my kids so happy. Especially Claire. Her "lellow n&M" costume was perfect!!!!