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.

Thanksgiving Happenings

So I am a slacker. I didn't even take any pictures of Thanksgiving. Our friends the Bailey's had us over and we had such delicious food and I didn't even document. This is the only picture I have of recent and so it is the only one I can post. We had a great weekend though and enjoyed every minute of being together. The Bailey's were great hosts and we even started dinner out with going around the table telling all what we are thankful for. I'm not too sure they were impressed with my answer. To be honest at the moment I was thankful for some genius for building Kohl's and Target right by my house and making all my shopping dreams come true. I now barely have to pull out of my house and be at the store of choice. Though this is a very unimpressive and shallow answer it did make for a great Black Friday. A cheap Portable DVD and an even cheaper printer made 4:30AM and getting hit by atleast six shopping carts totally worth it. This was my first Black Friday experience and I must say being there that early revving up with the rest of the millions of shoppers was a rush-though I was nervous of being trampled a few times-CRAZY. The rest of the weekend was spent watching BYU beat Utah and setting up Christmas decorations. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and I assure that I am thankful for more than just retail stores.

Go Buckeyes!

There's nothing better than beating Michigan, and we have beat Michigan every year that we've lived here in Ohio. It makes me laugh to see how much disdain Ohioans have for their northern neighbors. We find the song they sing about Michigan particularly amusing-we had to listen carefully to realize what they were really saying. I must be honest, we kind of get in the spirit. Bryan had some pants that were yellow and blue and he refuses to wear them now. I had to get him some with the scarlet and gray. We enjoyed watching Ohio stomp all over Michigan yet again and in honor I had to post Julia as a buckeye fan through the years. She was actually born right after a game. She was kind enough to let us watch the whole game and right when it was finished I started pushing-for two hours, yeah she's not that kind. Anyways, I think you can see we are forever Buckeye fans and we are sooooo glad they beat Michigan!!

Julia and her cute friend Alyssa in their matching cheerleading outfits. So cute!

Wild Lights sure are wild....

Last Thursday they had the preview night for the Wildlights at the zoo for members so we ventured out in freezing temperatures. It was not too crowded and the lights are so amazing. They really do a good job. Julia loved every minute of it and didn't even make a sound the entire time we were there she was so mezmorized. Every once in a while she would point out a snowman or animal, but she pretty much stayed in the zone.
The pictures aren't great, I know, but you can't capture the lights very well with a camera. They gave us these 3D glasses when we walked in and it made all of the lights look like snowflakes. It was so cool.
If you get a chance this Holiday season I highly recommend going to the Wildlights.

Cabin Fever!

So I don't know about you, but between daylight savings and the colder weather, I have been getting cabin fever like crazy. I know I have a long winter ahead of me and I shouldn't already be complaining, but I feel like I haven't left my house much in the past two weeks. The past few days have been pretty warm so I finally took Julia to the park yesterday and let me tell you, some fresh air and running was needed for us both. My camera's rechargable battery died so I apologize for the no posting of anything interesting for a while. So enjoy the pics of the park and of me regaining some of my sanity.
I'm not sure if you can tell, but there was alot of running involved at the park. I had a hard time getting her to stop. She was so happy to be outside.
I put two french braids in Julia's hair this morning and I always question my decision considering how hard it is to get her to keep still long enough for me to get it done. It looks far from perfect, but I think she looks really cute anyways. Unfortunately for her, she has become my little human barbie doll.
This is the bush in front of our house. I think it turns the prettiest red color in the fall. Last year it changed at Halloween as you can see in this picture.




It's funny how each year is different. I really shouldn't complain about my cabin fever at all seeing as it was colder last year than it was this year.

TAG

Apparently Sara tagged me and these are the rules:
Each player list 6 facts or habits about themselves. At the end of their tag the player then tags 6 others, list their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment letting them know they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. I was born in Evanston, Wyoming. I lived in the same house for 18 years before I went to college. Evanston, WY is generally famous for fireworks and booze, but it was actually a good place to grow up. I was unique to Evanston because I did not own a horse, live on a ranch, or ever own a pair of Wranglers. In fact, I think I've only been to two rodeos my entire life. Wyoming is the least populated state so a 2 hour drive through empty plains is required to get to the next large city. There are more people living in Columbus, OH than the entire state of Wyoming. I love Wyoming and I'm very proud to call it my home state.
2. After my senior year of high school I had major jaw surgury. They cut off my top jaw and cut out a wedge of bone, cut off the tip of my chin and pushed it out further and pulled my wisdom teeth. After the surgery my nose was on the right side of my face and my upper lip was swollen to the left of my face. When my brother Eric saw me after the surgery he kindly quoted, "I am not an animal, I am a human being!" I couldn't eat solids for two months and my mom would try to make me drink Ensure and to this day the thought of Ensure makes me wretch. I guess the good side is I lost a ton of weight but I had to start my freshman year of college with braces. I had a roomate from Albania that would bring her friends to come and stare at me because I looked like I was fifteen. There's really nothing more awesome than a girl and her friends mocking you in another language. I survived it though and that roomate from Albania actually became a really close friend. If you ever want to see some awesome scars on the inside of my mouth let me know.
3. I was dating Bryan's best friend from high school when Bryan and I went on our first date. We had to date in secret. I went to BYU Homecoming with his friend on a Friday and then to a haunted house with Bryan on a Saturday. Obviously, Bryan was the man of my choice and it was a bit akward when Bryan had to tell his friend that he was pretty serious about me and that he was going to continue dating me. His friend is happily married now and he and Bryan are still good friends, but it makes for a good story.
4. I am not good at sports. I wish that I could say I had a hidden talent in basketball or I was a killer volleyball player but quite the contrary. I was on a date in college and they were playing volleyball and I dislocated my pinky. I thought for sure it was broken and my date had his orthodontist father pop it back into place. When I was younger I was in Junior Jazz basketball. Our team set the awesome record of losing every single game. I had the personal record of never scoring a point. My only claim to fame was I finally got the ball and attempted a shot at the opponent's basket. I do think this story would be better if I actually made the shot at the opponent's basket but alas I did not. So when it comes time for Stake Basketball I am not going to be your best bet.
5. I used to hate, hate, hate tomatoes. The thought of them made me sick. But after I got pregnant and had Julia I love them now. I still can't eat them alone, but I really enjoy them on other foods.
6. I am addicted to Vick's Vapor Rub. I cannot sleep as well unless I rub it on my nose. I think it's a family thing, but I love the smell. I also have to put Hydrocortizone ointment on my eyes before I go to bed because I get eczema on my eyelids. So before I go to bed I am completely greased. I must say that this is not Bryan's favorite habit. He thinks Vicks stinks and I look like a greasy nasty before bed, but this is a habit I CANNOT break.

Farm Days

We took a field trip to the OSU farm with several people in the ward. Julia loved it. This is a picture of her with the horse. She would get so close that it actually made me a little nervous. She always wants to kiss whatever animal she looks at-sanitary I know-luckily I wouldn't let her get THAT close to the animals.
This is Hannah and Julia looking at the horses.
These are the cows. They didn't have any babies so they weren't as exciting as the pigs or lambs, but it's not too often Julia gets to see the farm animals up close, so she really enjoyed it.
The baby pigs were Julia's favorite. They are really warm and soft and she would pet them and then spaz. She was so excited she would just giggle. I'm pretty sure that the baby pigs were pretty traumatized by the time Julia was done with them. So cute though. They were so nice to let the kids pet the pigs.
These were the baby lambs. Julia wanted to get in the pen with them so she could pet them properly. Instead the guy there just brought one out to pet-but Julia really liked that as well. We actually got to see a day old lamb which was tiny. It was a great day at the farm. Thankyou Cara for organizing this!