Christmas is near!

On December 3rd we let Jacen open a gift from us. We put it together for him to play with so we could put up the tree. He loves his new toy.








Here is Jacen putting up his very first ornament.

On Saturday we went to Menifee to see this little one. Kendyl was born the day after Thanksgiving. While there, Jacen decided he wanted to climb up the stairs.

Yesterday we took Jacen to see Santa. He wasn't scared one bit.








Santa gave Jacen a See's stick....and he couldn't wait to take a taste.

Thanksgiving--Still trying to catch you up!

This year we had Thanksgiving in Utah. It was cold. Would you believe that I forgot to pack my jacket? Well, here is the clan. Three of my sisters and their families couldn't make it. We also got to spend time with Scott's family. We really need to get a family photo of the Phillips.


We had to get Jacen a hat and some gloves. (It was bound to happen anyway, we are going to New Hampshire for Christmas.)









And we had lunch with these crazy people. We really enoyed our visit with the Elmers! It was a fun trip. Next trip, I will have to take out my camera more often!




Oh, I almost forgot, Jacen cut two teeth on our trip. One tooth came on Wednesday, November 21 and the other on Saturday, November 24th...and he has 3 more working their way through.

Update #2

What have Scott and I have been up to, you ask?? I don't really know. I actually had to ask Scott when I talked to him during his lunch break.

Well, Scott decided he wanted to do 3 plays and a musical at the high school this year. So, he is rather busy. November 14th to 17th were show nights of Mother is a Freshman. It was a really good play. January 30th is opening night for Bye Bye Birdie (mark your calendars if you live close, it will be a good one), and it will go on through February 4th. They have been rehearsing for some time already. Cool thing actually...a lady from the school board attended the last play and asked Scott why they didn't use the sound system. Scott went on to explain that they didn't have one to use and then was contacted about pricing one. It has been approved and the hope is that it will be here and installed before Bye Bye Birdie starts. Scott is also the advisor over Improv and they have shows twice a month. They are quite the funny bunch.


In October, I was called to be Activity Day Leader at church (I am still Relief Society Secretary if you were wondering...they want to be sure I keep busy :). I work with all the girls in the ward that are 8 to 11 years old. They come over to my place twice a month and we do some fun activities. I have 10 girls that come. Last week we worked on humanitarian aid wall hangings. The girls were so excited that they got to sew. I am so grateful a friend of mine, Bridella, helped with them. She worked with the girls on the two sewing machines while I helped them cut their fabric (can you imagine if I didn't have the high school sewing teacher to help me out??). If you have any ideas for me, please, please share!


We got our family photos taken. Just click here and type in "Stacia Phillips" on the provided line. They turned out cute. Jacen takes good pictures :)

Update #1

Okay, it has been a while since the latest update....sorry! So, here is what Jacen is up to. The following were all taken between Halloween and Thanksgiving. (Sorry the clips are short and without sound. They were taken with our digital camera which has a 15 second clip function and no sound option. Hopefully, we will get some on here from our video camera soon.)

This first one is Jacen's crawl. He would face plant every time he got both feet behind him...so he figured out a way to get around without face planting. I think it is cute :)



Here Jacen walking along the furniture. He does it so well. He is getting super fast.







This is Jacen getting brave. His first time walking along the wall, taken November 13th. (Now, he always walks along the walls.)

This is one of my favorites. He was cracking up at himself in the mirror.







Oh, and last but not least...Jacen feeding himself. Thank goodness for potatoes, they are just the right consistency for him to feed himself. Jacen is growing up so quickly. He is such a happy and good little boy.

Sleep Anyone??

Okay so we are probably to blame for Jacen's messed up sleeping schedule. BUT staying up until 5:40am is a bit much. For those of you who don't know, we were in Utah for the holiday. (Which was great, nothing like getting family together and enjoying a huge meal.) Well, this last Saturday we did not arrive back to my sister Holly's place until 12:30am. Jacen woke up on the way in and was not going to go back to sleep. We tried everything...and I mean everything. We nursed, we rocked, we sang, we played in the sink, we prepared a bath (but he wouldn't go in), we tried our bed and the couch, etc. We gave all the meds for those 5 teeth that are coming in. Why?? Why the crying and not sleeping!? We got up Sunday and took Jacen to Sacrament in his PJs (not wanting to bother his much needed sleep). Then on the way home to California he slept and slept and slept some more! We left Pleasant Grove at 11:00am and arrived home at 8:30pm. He only woke up right before pulling in to St. George (staying awake for our 2hr visit) and then again an hour before pulling in the driveway. Then he stayed awake until 5:40am. I was so relieved when his playing started to slow down and he started to get fussy. He fell asleep :) Only sleeping for 3 hours....but at this point I will take what I can get. I am tired but at least I got most the laundry done from our trip, clipped coupons, and ate ice cream :) Hopefully another nap is in the near future...I sure am sleepy.

Our Halloween

Well, here are some pictures from our Halloween. First off I had to make something pumpkin. I found this great recipe for Pumpkin Bars (you should try them). For Halloween Jacen was Tigger which is very fitting since he loves to bounce. Kacie was Flounder from the Little Mermaid. They really seemed to enjoy themselves. After getting back home we had to have a photo shoot of Jacen. He didn't mind one bit. Then we finally got to carve our pumpkin. Jacen would put his hand in the pumpkin and take it out really fast. I couldn't seem to get a picture of his hand inside the pumpkin....oh well there is always next year. Our Halloween turned out to be a great one. We are looking forward to next year when Jacen might actually be able to say, "Trick or Treat".

Jacen danced

Okay I just had to share that Jacen danced today. It was the cutest thing. We happened to be at the high school's Homecoming Assembly. Scott has been acting as ASB Advisor since the school year began. The teacher is returning in November from taking care of her parents (her father was diagnosed with Cancer and mother is in a wheel chair), so Jacen and I needed to see what Daddy has been up to. The assembly was really great. When the Cheerleaders got up to do their dance Jacen totally started dancing, he was rocking his body back and forth and was moving his arms too. That would be Scott's good teaching, he is always moving Jacen to the music. I will see if I can get any of his moves on video to share with all of you.

I was "Tagged"

Well My dear, dear sister Holly "Tagged" me about a week and a half ago. I was caught at a busy time and am finally making the time to answer the questions involved. She said she knew I would do it...she is right. But first I am going to tag others. I love reading what everyone else answers for these silly questions. So lets see who has not been tagged yet??

1. Eliza Elmer-- I know you will be excited to do this :)

2. Lara Seaver-- Come on you know you want to do it.

3. Beth Robinson- Please, please, please :P

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What is his name? Scott

How long have you been together? Married nearly 3 years (November 13th)

How long did you date? Technically only 4 months, but we saw a lot of each other in that short time. We first met 8 years earlier, and knew each others families, which made things nice :). Scott says that his mouth dropped open when he saw me walk up the stairs in New Hampshire right off my mission.

Who eats more? Food--him, but I am not too far behind. Dessert--that would be me. Although, if I ask him if he wants dessert and he says no, there is a 50% chance that I too will go with out dessert.

Who said I love you first? Depends on who you ask, and what you think "saying I love you first" truly means. You decide, here are the details: He played me a song that expressed how much he loved me (the words didn't technically come from his mouth) . Song ends and I say "Scott, I am falling in love with you" (just a side note... remember I am just off my mission and the word falling is huge in this statement). Then he later states, "I love you". So who do you think it was? The song=Scott, Me with "falling", or Scott with the exact words :)

Who is taller? Scott

Who sings better? Scott does. I don't like my voice.

Who is smarter? Scott!!

Whose temper is worse? I don't know. What is temper really?? Why are you asking me so many questions?!

Who does the laundry? Me. It isn't expected of me though and I am thanked for doing it.

Who does the dishes? Usually me...although Scott helps with this on the weekends and such. He is very good to help around the house. He took care of all of these things while I was finishing up college.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Looking at the bed...Scott. Laying in the bed...me. It is always so confusing to answer questions like that.

Who pays the bills? Scott. He likes to do it together, but I am usually just sitting next to him while he pays them.

Who mows the lawn? Well, we don't have a lawn...but if we did it would probably be Scott.

Who cooks dinner? Usually me...but Scott does cook too.

Who drives when you are together? Scott does 90% of the time.

Who is more stubborn? We are both rather stubborn....trick question!

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I am.

Whose parents do you see the most? I would say mine since they only live 2 1/2 hours away...but we have seen Scott's parents quite a bit too.

Who kissed who first? Scott kissed me :) (when I was reading him all my responses he said...if we waited for you to kiss me, we would have waited forever)

Who asked who out? That would be Scott. He called me to see how the transition off the mission was going. I had no clue where Lancaster was until we had hung out as FRIENDS for a couple of weeks. I was shocked to find out that he was driving 3 hours to come "hang out".

Who proposed? Scott. I didn't know he already had the ring (even though we shopped for it together) I was not expecting it to happen that night. I was swept off my feet.

Who is more sensitive? I would say me.

Who has more friends? We pretty much have the same friends since marriage. I like to keep contact with everyone from the past as well though.

Who wears the pants in the family? Scott does although I am not afraid to voice my opinion :P

Some Pictures of our Little Guy

Jacen somehow pulled himself up on this unstable TV tray. I grabbed the camera (you have to document these sort of things), Scott grabbed Jacen. We are going to have to be on our toes from now on!! Just a couple weeks ago a friend said, "your life is going to change real quickly". I am afraid she is right!

Jacen with a piece of Celery, a very good teether by the way. I love this picture!

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Jacen really enjoys the swings! This was his second time and he was still all smiles.

Time for a good cleaning

Get out furniture come in Kirby. Our friends let us borrow their Kirby vacuum while they are out of town. I am excited to vacuum and shampoo the carpets throughout the house. I actually already started...took a break to tell you about it! :) Yippee for cleaning.

First time bowling

On Friday Scott had a staff bowling night. We took Jacen along.

Here are some pictures from the night.

Scott and Jacen

Jacen helped Scott bowl his first ball of the evening.
Jacen is in Scott's arms...can you see him?

Jacen bowling on his own..well kind of.

Here is Jacen's ball rolling slowly down the lane.

We had such a great time bowling.

Which city do you belong?

We found this quiz on our friend Erika's blog. Scott and I both belong in Rome. Go ahead and take the quiz for yourself.

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

On Saturday...

We had a knock on our door. Two boys were standing there. One then says, "Coach I didn't know you lived just down the street from me." Anyway these two boys were offering to mow our lawn...kind of funny if you know about Yucca Valley. He quickly corrected himself, "I mean rake and hula hoe your yard". Okay so you are probably laughing, who rakes their dirt, and what in the world is a hula hoe (luckily the previous owners left us one). We actually found it quite humorous when we first moved here and noticed that our neighbor has a gardener, that people rake their front dirt. But boy do our trees drop so much, and the rabbit poop. I started wanting to rake our yard for the first time this summer, about July. Scott knew I really wanted it done so yippee these boys did it for us. They worked for a long time on the yard and it looks GREAT!! Here is a pictures Too bad I didn't take a before picture.
I think they worked for 4 1/2 hours (Scott tried to let them go after 2 1/2 but they said they wanted to finish). I just took this picture of another tree on our lot. It is smaller but will give you an idea of what our front looked like. What a difference, huh??



Scott also had Jacen for a guys night. It was nice to be able to to eat dinner and watch the RS Broadcast without interruptions. It was weird not to have Jacen with me though. I left the house at 3:15 and Scott and Jacen returned from watching the BYU game after 9:00pm. Jacen just loves time with Daddy.


These are two pictures I couldn't help but share. We have a few magazines that have been designated Jacen's. Here he is ripping them. He loves doing this. Maybe I shouldn't have let him do this. Soon I will have to teach him that we don't rip books...but for now it is board books anyway.


The second picture was taken yesterday. He as able to pull himself up on his toy. The bottom of his feet are on the floor. Crazy! I keep him in the same room as me now. Not only to avoid crashes and eating things he shouldn't, but to see his accomplishments. He is growing up so fast. If you haven't seen him recently, you should plan a trip. We love company :)

Last Weekend

Well I had to start off with some pictures of Jacen from the weekend. This picture was taken in front of our home. We were checking out our rose (yes just one). I actually had to run in and get the camera...so I told Scott to keep putting Jacen in the air I would be right back with the camera. The picture turned out rather cute.





Here Jacen is sporting his new hat. He is always so happy. I asked Scott the other day if he thought all our kids would be as happy as Jacen and he responded "if we stop now". I love his sense of humor.




On Saturday, Jacen got his pictures taken at JC Penney's. They are available to view on-line already! Check them out at https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0808102004JCP. Just follow the link and type in Stacia Phillips.


On Sunday our friend Norma was baptized. Scott and I both spoke. We are so excited to have her as an addition to our ward. This is us with Norma and her daughters. Her youngest, Kacie, is 10 days younger than Jacen. Scott had the opportunity to bless Kacie at Church three weeks ago. Jacen and Kacie love playing and talking with each other. It was a fun weekend for us.

The Blogging Begins

We have discussed starting a blog since before Jacen was born. He is now 7 1/2 months and we keep saying we should start one. So here it is! Hopefully this will keep everyone a little more up to date with what is going on with our little family.