The Phipps Family

November 28th thru December 4th:

On the way home from our Thanksgiving trip, my mom called and told me that she found some hair clippings on her desk in her office, close to the scissors. I checked Hazel and Charlotte's hair and asked them if either one of them had cut their hair and they both said no, quite innocently. The next day I took the girls to the library and as I was holding Eloise, I saw this:

I never thought to ask the girls if they had cut ELOISE'S hair...

The night we got back from Phoenix, we went straight to Home Depot to get our Christmas tree!

I love decorating for Christmas. I always listen to the same Christmas CD with the classics and let Hazel pull out our family ornaments that we collect each year, each one showing something special that we did that year.

Eloise helped untangle the beads...

Christmas is so much more fun with these little ones!

Five months belly shot.

I love having a real tree up in my house.
Eloise has really developed her personality this month.

I started stripping and painting this antique furniture set for the girls' room. Feels like it will never be done! At least it's off my back porch and in progress (in our crowded dining room!)

Love those pigtails and love that she is obsessed with animal books.

Ellie's pudgy hands.

So this is actually a really sad picture because she is really constipated but I was just so impressed with her perfect plank position. Future yoga queen here.

I love December! So much to celebrate as we remember our Savior and count our many blessings.

Like I said in my last post, as soon as David arrived at the SLC airport around 10:30 p.m. we took off right away for my mom's house in Cedar City. The next day we got some much needed haircuts...

I LOVE this picture of these little girls.

Ellie got bangs! And then it was back on the road again on our way to Arizona.

(Hazel sleeping with her eyes partly open)

We made a pit stop in Kingman for the night, which was SO much fun for the girls. We stayed at Brett and Jaymie's house (Jay's daughter) and their girls had loads of dress-up clothes to try on:

After a good night's rest, we were back on the road for another three hours or so to my Uncle Jay's house in Phoenix.

Five month belly shot.

Eloise loves my mom.

And then the big day came! It was SO nice to be with the Leonard clan again. I love being with all my aunts and uncles and cousins. It was worth every hour of driving.

Oh, and the food was awesome too.

My Uncle Derek has the magic touch with all children, but I as still amazed that he won over our little Mama's girl.

My first apple pie with lattice crust; oh my goodness, I love pie.

I do believe my Aunt Jenny can win over any child in the world as well.I just have the best aunts and uncles in the world.

David really loved the turkey.

I love that some of my youngest cousins are close enough in age to my oldest kiddos to play together. Hazel adores Kinsley and Gracie.

And Spencer--yet another family member that Eloise warmed up to and even fell asleep on...All these Leonards with the magic touch!

Is this not the cutest picture of these two? Eloise is loving the ride.

Two of my favorite people in the world: my brother Bradley and my handsome cousin Josh, whom I used to carry around EVERYWHERE when we were little. Now a grown-up return missionary. These two rode in our car on the way to Tucson to visit Grandma and Grandpa Leonard.

And after just a little while in the car, everyone was OUT.

I am so glad we got to visit with Grandma and Grandpa since they hadn't yet met Charlotte or Eloise! We spent the afternoon at their house and Grandpa made us an amazing meal of chicken and dumplings. (Isn't it cute how Charlotte is cuddling up to Grandma here?)

Remember these crazy things? I used to play with this all the time at my grandparents' house when I was a kid.

Five month belly shot.

And here's David getting the camera in the right spot for group pictures:

Group Shot, Take One: Serious

Take Two: Silly Faces (do you see my mom's Jay in the very back?)

Another serious one...

So my camera was set to take five rapid shots and once we realized it, we would pose nicely for the first one and then change poses for the last four. So fun.

(Again, take note of Jay's pose in the back. I love it.)

And then we were off to see Grandma Great! It was so good to see her and brought back many good memories of my childhood (except Grandpa Great wasn't there to give me a butterscotch candy. Miss him.)

So I think my mom is the most beautiful woman. And for that very reason, it's just so unfortunate that she does this in most group pictures:

And...

haha. love you mom.

Cutie tooties.

This is what the back of our car looked like on the drive home. Wow. And then another highlight of our trip. As we were on our way home from Phoenix, we drove past Hoover Damn. Any time we've passed by the damn in the past, David has mentioned that he'd love to stop sometime and walk through the Visitor's Center. He said the same thing this time and then followed it up with, "Want to?"So we did. (I love that about him.)

We were mostly in our pajamas and I kept laughing at us, thinking that we looked so raga-muffin with our three kids and my pregnant belly. Raga-muffin, but very happy.

Can't get over that tush.

I love seeing David with all three girls hanging on him. It takes a special man to take that on.

This Thanksgiving was my favorite ever. I felt a completely RENEWED gratitude for my sweet husband and how much I love having him around me every day. I loved every moment spent with my amazing extended family and hearing all the wonderful wisdom and advice from aunts and uncles who look at our toddlers and our exhausted expressions and shake their heads and smile. I loved our late night conversations and left over PIE.
Happy, happy Thanksgiving.