Santa Was Here!

Julia and her many presents. I thought she might go a little more crazy, but she was anxious about the stocking and the Dora electric toothbrush that was inside. It took me a little bit to get her to start opening her presents, and when she did it took nearly an hour to get them all opened. She wanted to open and play with everything she received. It did make it funner for her to really enjoy each present. She was very excited about everything.
This is Julia's first Barbie doll. It even came with a crown that looks quite fetching. Julia was far more fascinated with the shoes. I suppose they are awesome shoes.
The purse, oh the purse. I don't think Santa could have found something she would love more. It has been emptied and refilled probably four hundred and twenty three times since she recieved it. It includes a phone, keys, makeup, sunglasses-seriously what more could a little girl ask for. She would get all dolled up and find a necklace and say, "See ya, I'm going to the store for groceries." But of course not before she applied the fake lipstick it came with.
Julia is baking cookies with her Dora apron. I just wish she could figure out pretend eating. She just slobbers all over fake food and I don't know how to get her to "pretend" to eat the food. I'm sure she delights others when she's at their house slobbering all over their fake food. And behind Julia you can see her favorite gift of all. The beloved doll house. I praise Preschool for their ingenius design to make a doll house that can fit all kinds of dolls. I also praise them for including things like a fake toilet and kitchen with a fridge that opens and closes. But most of all I praise them for including a front door that opens and closes-I tell you that part alone occupies her for atleast a good ten minutes. Christmas was so great this year and I don't think you ever appreciate Christmas enough until you have a child of your own to share it with. I have LOVED watching her play these past few days and watching her pretend and imagine. Santa is always welcome at our home.

Some Santa Video

This is a video of Julia's favorite toy from Santa. This is pretty much all she's been doing for the past three days. As you can see the little sister doll is going potty, and giving the daddy a hug. She also likes to add in some of the Disney Princesses and ponies at times as well. Dora also makes an appearance in the house on occasion. Let me tell you this doll house is one rocking place to be. I'm glad that she's enjoyed it so much and I'm pretty sure we owe Santa big for bringing it to us and keeping her so busy.

Julia also got a purse with all of the accessories included. She wore the sunglasses upside down the majority of the time. It came with fake lipstick and eyeshadow and my eyes have been gouged at least ten times over the past few days. Once again Santa came through. She is singing the ABC's and doing a pretty good job at that. The color in the video goes a little psychodelic so bear with the awesome lighting.

Christmas Eve and Morning

Julia caught a bought of flu while we were in Evanston and had a high fever for a few days. She didn't even get off the couch. She had recovered about a day before we flew home, but I don't think fully. We flew back Christmas Eve and as you can see she's a little bit tired. She wouldn't sleep on the airplane, but did sleep on the drive home. I made her open her pj's so she could wear them Christmas Eve, but she wasn't too excited about them. We put her to bed at 9:30 and she slept until 10:00 the next morning and has been doing that for several days. I think we wore her out. She loves her pajamas now though and especially her "jammie shoes" as she calls them.
This is a much happier Julia Christmas morning. We went to some friend's for breakfast and Julia was so excited to go and play with friends. We talked to Santa before hand and requested a visit during Julia's nap because of how late she's been sleeping in. This is Julia with a Santa beard. We had such a nice Christmas and Julia loved every minute of it. I have more pictures of Santa's visit to post later.

A Little Announcement

Well I guess it's probably about time to make this little announcement. Bryan and I are expecting another baby on May 23rd. We figured this was probably the best way to make the announcement since it is so hard to tell everyone at once. I am feeling really good and I am especially glad the first trimester is over since that part wasn't so good. We had a fifteen week ultrasound and they are pretty sure it's another girl, even though it is still early. We are so excited and every time Julia sees the ultrasound picture she says, "baby sister." We'll see how excited she is about it when the baby actually comes and takes away some of the attention. We think she will do really well and are excited for our family to grow.

The Palmer Home

During our trip back we spent several days at Bryan's mom's house in Salem, UT. We had a great time making gingerbread houses, seeing the fantastic lights at Salem Pond, going to the JV basketball game to watch Phillip and watching the Disney Christmas which became Julia's favorite movie ever. Pictured above is the final product of our gingerbread house. Bryan's brother James and his wife Natalie joined us in a friendly little competition of who has the best gingerbread house. Despite much mocking of Bryan's spiced gumdrop roof we determined that our's was far better because of the crushed candycane stonework (in honor of Jason) and the big M&M OSU on the roof. Though I must say the competition took a new level when the tweezers were brought out for more meticulous placing of candy (I'm not naming names, James). I do believe we can all say that we rocked Amanda and Ryan's gingerbread house which is in the middle. They didn't get a chance to finish but we threw them in the picture for effort even though they did cheat by hot gluing the entire thing. We tried the frosting but gave up on the roof. Your patience can only take four or five collapses due to ineffective binding frosting.
Bryan's mom totally spoiled an already spoiled Julia and gave her some fun gifts. She received a snowman purse which upon opening she slung over her shoulder and said, "see ya!" Not sure where she was going with an empty snowman purse, but she certainly had places to be.
The favorite gift of all time. Dora's backpack which to our delight every time you push the mouth sings a song or has a saying. You can only listen to, "Backpack, Backpack, Backpack, Backpack" so many times but to see her face made it completely worth it. She watched Dora probably twenty times on our trip there and she LOVED the backpack. The next morning when she woke up it was the first thing she asked for. I had to fight to get her to not have to take it to bed.
Cute dress! Bryan's mom got her the most adorable dress that we had to try on for a picture. Ironically enough she was video taping me with her Dora "camara de video." She ran around the house to anyone that was willing, "say cheese!" and "Oh cute!" We had such a fun time with Grandma and we are so glad she let us come and visit!

Trip to Phoenix

My parents gave us the best Christmas present ever by watching Julia for a few days so we could go to Phoenix together for Bryan's interview. We had such a great time and the weather was absolutely beautiful. We hardly needed even a jacket the entire time. this picture is Bryan outside of the Scottsdale Fashion mall. The sunset was so pretty and it was great to see the palm trees with Christmas lights. We did a lot of walking and hiking to enjoy the weather. I must say it was a little weird being away from Julia and I think my mom got sick of me calling to see if she was behaving herself, but it was great for Bryan and I to get away and we enjoyed every minute of it.
This is on top of Squaw (no longer Squaw but something we cannot pronounce) Peak. It was a great hike and the view from the top was amazing. You can see Camelback behind me.
This is crazy Bryan on top of some rock that I wouldn't climb up because I'm a chicken. I actually needed to be there to take pictures-otherwise it wouldn't have been nearly as cool. We were at Papago park and they had these random rocks to climb within the trails. It was so pretty.
More crazy Bryan. He mocks me because I can go up just fine but when I come down mountains I suddenly turn into an 80 year old lady and take these little steps or end up sliding down on my bum. Bryan was very patient though, and hid the laughter as much as he could. He did encourage me to take bigger steps.
This is once again at Papago Park. Bryan finally talked me into climbing one of the big rocks and I must say I didn't regret it at all. It was right as the sun was setting and the desert sunsets are so beautiful. It was nice to sit and enjoy the quiet instead of having to deal with an active two year old. Thank you SO much mom and dad for watching Julia and giving her the time of her life. She didn't even ask for me or Bryan once because she had so much fun. It made our trip so much better to know we didn't have to stress at all about Julia.

Christmas Dress

I know lots of posts at one time, but these pictures are on my mom's camera and I know I wouldn't get them otherwise and so I am blogging them all at once so I have them when I get home. This is Julia in her adorable Christmas dress that her Nana bought for her. She loves dressing up and I must say she looked pretty cute. It is difficult to get her to look right at the camera and smile, but she looks cute anyways.

She really wants to touch the ornaments on the tree. We have had several talks about how we don't touch the ornaments, and yet it is so hard. I love little girl's Christmas dresses and my mom got her an especially cute one. She was spoiled rotten what more can I say.

Christmas at the Phillips Home

Since we are leaving Christmas Eve and missing the official Christmas day we celebrated a little early so that we could have a mini-Christmas with my family. In Australia it is tradition to have poppers which have a little favor and a crown inside. My mom and I found some at Costco and that is why we are wearing the beautiful crowns in this picture. We had prime rib and a delicious dinner and my entire family was together which doesn't happen very often. It was a great time and I ate way way way too much.

Julia and Brookie in their matching outfits that Nana bought them. Their hair color is identical and so they looked almost like sisters. They were so cute all night holding hands, dancing and playing together.

In the name drawing Bryan got a fishing vest along with my brother Eric. He is pumped for some serious fly fishing and is all geared up for the event. Now all we need is a good place in Ohio for fly fishing.

Julia was totally spoiled as you can tell by her face in the picture. She couldn't open enough presents. Her cousins gave her the strawberry shortcake doll which she loves. She also got a pony book, another Strawberry doll, books and princesses. I don't know how I'm going to get it all home! I also need to figure out what I'm going to do with all of the new toys. She has loved it though and it has been fun to watch her get so excited.

Sledding!

We took Julia sledding in my parent's driveway to enjoy all the crazy snow that we get in Wyoming. Carli took the first run with Julia and she loved it. She's my little daredevil. Even though in this picture she appears a bit concerned, she really did have fun going down.

A little family pic. Bryan tied a string to the tube and would drag her all around my parents ginormous yard. She loved it until she started tipping and then she would freak. She also hated it when the snow would get on her and she couldn't get it off, though the snow fascinated her. She would sit in it and hit her hands in it like it was the craziest thing she has ever seen.

I don't know if jeans were my best choice, but it's all I had. I had to roll them up and when I took them off handfuls of snow came pouring out of the cuffs. We got really snowy, but it was well worth it.

Nana and Julia chillin in the snow. Julia didn't love tromping up the hills and so we had to carry her up. Talk about a work out. I think she looked cute in all her snow gear though and she had a great time.

Wheeler Farm

We had a family party at Wheeler Farm in Salt Lake. It was really snowy and so pretty. We took a sleigh, well tractor ride through the snow and saw lots of animals and Christmas lights. The highlight was when Julia got bit by a pig, but I have more pictures of that on my camera that I will have to show later. Until then this is my mom and dad in front of the duck pond. My dad is wearing his festive Christmas hat that he pulls out each year. It is nice to have them here instead of in Australia-even though I'm not too sure what they think about the snow.

This is before we took off on the tractor ride. Julia was so entranced by the whole thing. She really enjoyed the snow and seeing the animals-even if they did bite.

This is the whole crew feeding the crazy ducks. There were so many in the freezing water and they went nuts over the food.

Julia and I posing in front of the barn. They had a big bonfire for us and had it all fixed up really cute. It was such a fun way to celebrate the season and enjoy the snowy cold weather.

Julia and Her Cousins

Julia has been able to spend some fun time with her cousins. This is Hanky (Alex) and Brookie. They were wearing their santa hats and cheesing it up for the camera. Alex couldn't get his hat on right and so he just put it on sideways. They are such cute kids and Julia has enjoyed playing with them.

More cousin time by the Christmas tree.

Julia and Alex. They are so cute and had such a fun time playing all together.

We have been spending the last week or so in Evanston, Wyoming with my family. Bryan actually has had interviews and so we have been taking care of that. He interviewed in Phoenix and I actually got to go with him. We stayed for four days while my parents watched Julia. I haven't left Julia for more than four hours-so needless to say I was a little worried about how she would do. Well as you can see by the pictures she had the time of her life. She didn't even ask for us once. Nana and Papa have a new greatest fan. They spoiled her rotten, and even went out in the freezing cold to build her a snowman because she wanted to so badly. My mom found all of our old toys and bought her some ponies and Julia was as happy as can be.

This is Julia with Papa-her new favorite person. There is so much snow here and she loved it, except for when the snow got on her mittens. They had a difficult time getting her to come inside despite how freezing it was.

It was so cold that the snow was pure powder. My dad had to make the snowman with a shovel. Julia was fascinated with the carrot nose. Even after we have come home she still has Papa take her to the window so they can look at their snowman. I am SOOOO glad they had such a good time. When we live so far away you forget how nice it is that your child remembers that there are people that love her so much and that she can have so much fun with them. The night after we came home I actually think my dad was kind of sad that I put her to bed and he didn't get to. My mom said that she would run and play and occassionally run and give her big hugs. So sweet-she had the time of her life.

Julia's three favorite people-her cousins. They ran all over the house in the Santa hats and I'm sure it was Julia that initiated the wild running, but she loved it. I must say that getting away to Phoenix was so great and knowing Julia was having so much fun made it even better. I have pictures of our great trip, but they are on my camera and I will have to post them later. I haven't been to Evanston for Christmas time for four years, and so it has been so much fun to share this time with our family.

So we put up our Christmas tree over the weekend and now it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house. We are leaving on Tuesday and coming home Christmas Eve so we wanted to have everything up and ready so when we come back we can enjoy it Christmas morning. Our tree was a twenty dollar tree my mom bought probably twenty years ago, so needless to say it's not the fanciest, but it does decorate up nice.
This is my new addition to Christmas this year. I bought the reindeer at Kirkland's Homes (if you haven't been there you should) and I loved them so I had to have them. I figure two reindeer isn't a huge splurge so I feel justified.
This picture has a funny story to it as I'm sure you're wondering why I took a picture of Julia's ponies and farm animals. If you look closely you can see that there is a nativity scene behind the ponies large pink and yellow hair. Julia is obsessed with it and it is just a little cheap nativity so it is one of the one things I let her play with. She decided that all of the farm animals and ponies needed to see baby Jesus as well. She was talking to the ponies saying, "see the baby Jesus, so cute, give kisses." It cracked us up so we had to take a picture. When we took the picture Julia stood and directed, "Okay you guys say cheese!" I am glad the purple pony and little farm girl didn't get to miss out on the Savior's birth. We're just thrilled Julia is interested in baby Jesus and not just Santa.
This is Julia's new dress. We got her ready for Sunday and she was VERY excited about the pretty poofy dress she got to wear, so we took a picture by the tree. It was the easiest photo session I've ever had. She thought she looked very pretty and so she was posing all over the place. This is one of her bigger cheeses.
My funny girl-she certainly keeps life interesting and fun. We are going to have such a fun Christmas with her this year.