winterwonderland

At least Arizona style. We took the kids down to Tempe Market Place last night to let them see the snow. It was so cool, down in the district as we were walking up, snow was just coming from everywhere, flying all over. The kids got so excited and just ran up to the stage and started dancing around in it.

It wasn't until we joined them that we we realized what looked like snow was really just frozen bubbles! They were giant bubble blowers!  We were dancing in dish soap suds. 

It was still fun, and it got the kids excited to really see the snow. (We're finally going to take them. In all of Gwen's four years she's yet to see it!)

Dang it!!! I sat down to blog and forgot that I was toasting coconut for the top of my coconut cream pie, and now my house is full of smoke and a cookie sheet full of black coconut is on my back porch. >:[

Christmas preparations

Attention all AZ parents out there: Bass Pro Shop at Riverview is doing FREE pictures with Santa!!  And it's such a nice little set up.  So we took the kids out there and got some lovely pictures of the kids with Santa.
Plus the kids love going to the "animal store" as they call it.
Sorry babies, I don't think Santa is bring that for you this year!
Future NRA member. Gwen was a crack shot at this game. And isn't it just so cute to see a little four year old holding a rifle!? ;) What!?
Then we also made our trek out to see the Christmas lights at the temple. So much fun! Do you enjoy Gwen's lovely hot chocolate mustache?
Our sweet kids loved getting to be on the temple grounds and loved seeing baby Jesus in the Nativity there. We all love this time of year and Ryan and I love teaching the kids about the real meaning of Christmas.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!  Three days left, get to work!

and look at how cute Ryan's hair is!  (he wants to cut it, but I like it long)

eavsdropping

The other day the kids and I went to the mall. Since it's Christmas time the parking lot was packed and we had to park in the back of the lot. So as we were walking up the aisles, a group of teenagers were walking behind us talking loudly. The conversation went something like this:

boy 1: hey are you wearing your size 7s?
boy 2: ya
girl: you were size 7s?! That's what size I wear!
boy 1: aren't size 7s really big?
boy 2: ya they're kinda big plus girl jeans aren't made out of real jean material like regular jeans, they're kinda stretchy so they're bigger.
girl: well I don't really wear size sevens, I mostly wear size 3 or 5. But sometimes I wear sevens.

Poor girl. She must feel so big hanging out with skinny little boys that wear tight girl jeans. And ironically enough was that the day before I got a pair of jeans in the mail that I had ordered online. On eBay they were listed at my size, and the picture looked normal, so I bought them. I got them and they turned out to be WAY TOO BIG. So I tried to make Ryan wear them because they were a cool brand and style. We barely zipped him into them, and he was dying to get out of them, but I thought he looked cute in them. So in this case my appreciation for Ryan's cute buns won over my thought that boys should not wear girl jeans. (but these particular jeans were very asexual so I don't know if that counts)

Oh, and that picture IS NOT Ryan trying the jeans on. I searched "girl jeans" on flikr and found that.

just take, take another little piece of my heart away baby

That would be my title for this video:

That is one of the towers of Deseret Towers (or DT) at BYU being demolished.

Some facts about DT-

the towers were built 1964

they were seven stories tall (with a sweet basement too)

each floor had SIX showers and about 40 students!!  (imagine getting ready for church when your whole floor is getting ready at the same time!)

the walls were a lovely painted cinder block

my mom lived there in 1977

In 1999 I lived in S Hall with these fabulouso ladies. We're missing Desiree who lives in Sacramento, but we're lucky enough to all be in the valley and we try to get together once a month.

Haya, Thera, Tiffany (new to our group), me, Ivette

Diana and Haya

Tiffany, Thera, Haya, Ivette, Diana, Kristin

Last night we had our annual Christmas gift exchange.  

Thanks for the fun ladies!

my new permanent accessory

I don't know what's going on lately, but Drake won't let me go!  He can't even sit down and watch a show without me sitting right next to him, or underneath him.  He is constantly following me around saying, "want you mommy".  And while it's very endearing, it's also very inconvienent.  He's standing outside the shower while I shower, sitting on my lap while I put on makeup or am at the computer, and wants to be held while I shop, cook, and clean!  I can't even go to the bathroom with out him being in there, and sometimes he even insists I hold him while I tinkle!  (tmi?)  And if I don't hold him, he does this.  He holds onto my leg so I can drag him around!

So I have to keep him constantly entertained, like by building a gingerbread house!

Gingerbread houses are one of those few things that are way better to buy rather than make!  I will never again bake and cut gingerbread, make frosting, and buy all sorts of gingerbread house candies.  Why?  Because I can get this fabulous gingerbread house kit at Costco (I almost just called it Price Club) for $10!

It's unbelievable that his much candy actually made it on the house, 

because Drake was stuffing his face the whole time!

And if you haven't read the post below, if you want a Christmas card from us,

 email me your address!

Christmas cards

I just got my Christmas cards in and went to address them to find no addresses!  

Apparently when it's the man's job to pack the office, things like files labeled "ADDRESSES" get thrown out.  

;)still love you Ryan!!!

  So if you'd like a lovely photo Christmas greeting card from the McPhie family, 

please email your address to

kmcphie(at)gmail(dot)com

Thanks soooo much!

I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation...

Because first, at the Palmer family Christmas party tonight, Gwen AND Drake both sat on Santa's lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas, and then when we got home, Gwen was already asleep, and Drake just crawled into bed!!!!! So easy!  So I got to clean the house and blog!  Tonight was the bestest.  :)

But before Santa came, all the grandkids acted out the Christmas story.

Isn't Drakey boy the cutest little lamb you've ever seen?!

Gwenny and her cousins (of sorts) Haylee and Addlyn.

I heard there were 73 kids this year!

What kind of angel makes faces while on stage?

Here's Gwenny telling Santa that she wants a doll house, and real doll clothes!  Gwen was so excited to see Santa that as soon as she knew it was time for Santa to come she almost in a panic says to me, "quick mom!  Wash my face!"  What?  I have to fight her to get her face clean!

And Drake (who I thought would be terrified of Santa) was so excited to see him that while Gwen was getting her turn, Drake walked up and kept tapping Santa's knee.

Here's Drakey telling him that he wants cars and motorcycles for Christmas!

My sweet kids with probably their favorite person in the world.

Thanksgiving weekend update

Started the holiday out with a girl's night. What better than Gecko Grill and Twilight?

So my review of Twilight:
I liked it. Maybe even better than the book?! Because let's face it, Bella is kind of a wimpy protagonist, but the movie made her out to be cooler than her character was in the book. And Edward? At first I thought eww, Rob Pattinson is NOT my Edward, but um yah, maybe he is now. Obviously they had to leave out a lot since the movie can't be 8 hours long, and it was low budget, but I'm not a guy so I don't really care about special effects anyway.

Things I didn't like about the movie-BELLA'S BLINKING!!!!!!!!!! and Jacob's extensions.

Then Thanksgiving morning Jasmyn joined me for the Turkey Trot. I was a little nervous for this since my feet have been KILLING me lately and I hadn't run in a week and a half. But I pushed it anyway. My feet were hurting before the second mile, and I really took it slow the last two, but I was still able to run the whole time. Nevermind that I was limping the rest of the day. But I just got some sweet new insoles to try out!

I finished the kid's Thanksgiving clothes.

We had a SCRUMPTIOUS feast!!! We tried some new recipes too like Sourdough Artichoke stuffing (way good!), and Spicey Turkey (didn't care for the curry in it, but thankgoodness we had two turkeys).

And we got a Christmas Tree!!!!! It's really only the second tree we've had since we've been married. The first was a real, but this one we'll have for a long time! The kids love it and just hang out by it a lot!