The Last Few Months

Okay, so I haven't updated this thing in forever and because of that, I don't even know if people are checking it anymore but here goes... As of September we had a new addition to the family. Little Riley Scott McPhie arrived on September 3rd, late in the evening. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces. Mom stayed to help out for awhile and it was nice to have an extra set of hands, as three children has been quite an adjustment for me. This new little guy is a sweetheart and is always ready with a smile.

Austin turned 4 this year on September 30th. Despite the new a baby we still had a birthday party with a dinosaur theme. It was a lot fun. He has also began attending preschool this year and is really having a blast.

In October we made our traditional trip to the pumpkin patch. We went with all fully ripe orange pumpkins this year. Jared made quite a fashion statement by tying plastic bags over the kid's shoes as well as his own because the patch was a field of mud. We enjoyed the fresh kettle corn they always sell there and had wonderful time as a family.
Halloween/ Beggar's Night was pretty wet and cold but the allure of candy was strong enough to keep the kids going. Austin was a panda bear, Tyler was a giraffe, and we dressed Riley as pea pod, which he hated.

November was actually unusally warm this year and we had a quiet and relaxing Thanksgiving at home.

Christmas is always a lot fun with the kids. They are getting old enough to really get into it and it is fun to watch the anticipation and wonderment in their eyes. We did all the usual stuff. We went to the mall to see Santa and ride the Christmas train. We opened new pajamas on Christmas Eve and read all the special stories especially Christ's birth. Christmas morning was a whirlwind of wrapping paper and excitment, which was also fun to watch. It was a nice holiday, the only thing missing was extended family. Hopefully we'll see more of them in the years to come.

So Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year everybody!

Tyler is Two!

June 15 th was Tyler second birthday. It is hard to believe that so much time has passed. When we moved out to Iowa, Tyler was just a tiny newborn. He is still our little smiley but toddlerhood has brought about a desire to be totally independent and he has some attitude to go along with it. He had a fun time opening presents and this was the first time he was more interested in the gift than the paper it was wrapped in. He decided on an Elmo cake this year. He calls him "Melmo." He managed to stick his hand in his cake before we couldn't even get it in the car to bring it home. He lifted his frosting coated hand and said"uh-oh" as if he didn't know how this happened. The good news is that the cake still tasted good. So now we are looking forward to all the challenges, changes and growth that come with having a two year old. Happy Birthday Tyler!

Boy, Oh Boy!

On Wednesday, April 22nd we went in for our 5 month ultrasound. We are blessed to be expecting another baby boy. Jared was very surprised, he was pretty sure this one was a girl. I was not so easily convinced, as we have an established track record of having boys. Austin and Tyler are pleased to be getting another brother and I know they will all share a special bond. We are excited to welcome this new edition the beginning of September. Thankfully, the baby is growing well and all is as it should be.

Happy Easter (better late than never)

Well we had a fun Easter holiday this year. It was a lot warmer that last year, which we were thankful for. Both boys enjoyed dying the eggs this year and they were thoroughly dissapointed when there weren't any more eggs left to dye. Austin forbade anyone from eating the eggs; to him they are almost human.
We attended a community egg hunt. It was a total bust. All the parents jumped in and grabbed the eggs. Austin was lucky enough to get one egg. Poor Tyler just ended up with a bite-sized snickers. There were a lot of kids crying while other children walked by with overflowing baskets. Austin, however, was so proud of his one egg it did not occur to him to cry. I was grateful for that.
We later had our own Easter egg hunt at home and the kids had a blast. I divided the back yard in half and the kids each hunted for their own eggs. Since this was so much better than the other Easter egg hunt we will just continue with this tradition and forgoe the community hunts.
The Easter bunny came through and brought lots of goodies for the kids baskets. We explained to Austin that the Easter bunny is a wiley guy and he would hide the baskets and we would have to find them. This was also fun. Jared found his basket the night before because he was going to put my basket in the same spot that the Easter bunny has already hid his.
Despite all the fun cultural and secular Easter activities we most of all want to remember the Savior, his sarifice, and that he rose again so that we all might. Happy Easter everybody!

Merry Christmas

Well this year was a lot fun. This is the first year that Austin really understood what was going on. Therefore there was a lot of anticipation for the big day. Austin picked out the gift he wanted from Santa back in October when we first starting receiving toy magazines in the mail. He saw gorilla mountain and his mind has never wavered. Tyler, of course, loves Elmo so that was the natural choice. Santa came through for both of them and they couldn't have been happier.

We didn't travel this year, so we missed family and friends but we did not miss packing and hectic traveling. It was a nice quiet holiday at home.

Thanks to all our family for the wonderful gifts and thanks to our Heavenly Father for the matchless gift of his son, The Savior of the world.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Santa

This year our ward had a primary breakfast so the kids could see Santa. Santa is actually a memeber of our bishopric but he does a really grat job playing Santa. Austin asked for the Fisher-Price Gorilla mountain and asked Santa to bring Elmo for Tyler.

Let it Snow

There is one thing that Iowa is never lacking in the winter and that is snow. Austin is really enjoying the snow this year and Tyler likes anything his big brother does. So on the days that are a little warmer than sub-zero I bundle the boys and they explore this winter wonderland.