The Phillips Family

      We christened the new van by going on TWO road trips this month. The first was to Oklahoma (and I guess, technically, Branson, MO as well) and the next weekend was to Utah to celebrate Rex's sister's wedding! So so so happy for her and her new hubby.  We got our first picture as a family with EVERYONE wearing a suit, well, except me of course. What handsome men surround me!  

Just like last year, we went to Oklahoma for Spring Break, but this time as the pandemic is coming to a close (or at least more under control now that the vaccine is available) instead of just beginning like it was last year.  Last year after we came back from Spring Break, all schools went in to remote learning and the kids started learning from home. Now it's the opposite! After Spring Break this time, ALL the kids can go back to school full time. Yay!! I took the kiddos to "The Gathering Place" in Tulsa which is this amazingly, diverse giant park with so many fun things for the kids to play on. Then another afternoon, Uncle B took us out on the lake on his new, huge pontoon boat. So sweet of him to take work off to entertain us! He and Cooper had a pirate "ARRRR-ing" contest. It was a close call.  Then, I REALLY splurged and bought season tickets to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri where we stayed the night in a motel and then went to the amusement par...

For the past month or so, Sam has been dropping little comments here and there about how cool it would be to eat in a restaurant one day. I was thinking along the lines of Covid restricting access and whatnot, so I'd say, "Well you can eat in some restaurants. It's just limited seating."  Then he'd say how he wished our family could go to a restaurant sometime, to which I'd reply with, "Well, it's kind of expensive to take all you kids out to eat and you guys never like your food anyways!" Really sweet mother stuff.  Then after he mentioned it AGAIN another day, I decided to go about it a different way and asked which restaurant he would like to go to if he could. He said he'd like to go to Chipotle's. Surprised, I said, "Oh! That's Dad's favorite restaurant. Maybe he can take you there sometime." Then sheepishly he said, "Well, I'd kinda like you to take me." Awwwwww!! That just melted my heart.  So of cou...

        Cade and Cooper got in the Valentine spirit and made their valentine boxes (bags?) together.  Cade was so sweet and cute to Cooper, explaining to him how to peel off the sticker backs and place the pieces in the right places.  Such cute brothers. This is Sam's favorite remote learning attire.  He is all about being comfy and snuggle-friendly. :) This is Cade's favorite trick to pull on his teacher.  He writes on the front "Look at back. Do not look at back. It's a trick!" To which he has something nice to say on the back for the lucky "sucker." I may have strongly-urged (::cough::forced::cough) the boys to write Valentines on Valentines Day.  They only had to write one and it couldn't be to themselves. (Trying to teach selflessness here!) This was written by Cade to Aiden, who wrote pretty much the same thing back to Cade.  It would have been sweet, except I'm pretty sure they were just sending a message to the brothers who were ...