It's a Girly World

This is more for my own purposes than anything else. I never want to forget how funny she plays! I watch her and she just cracks me up. She isn't a super advanced talker yet and so when her ponies or princesses have conversations it makes me laugh. I just wanted to catch her playing a little bit on video so I would remember. They just grow up so dang fast! She is really particular about how the ponies or princesses line up and what order they are in. Everyone also has a name. I had her name all of her things for the video because I just think it's cute and I can't believe she can remember all of the names we gave those ponies. Some of them are legit, but some are totally made up and she still remembers my made up names. I'll let you know now there are not any ponies named Firecracker or Strawberry-but to Julia there definitely are. These are those little moments I just don't want to forget.

Does It Taste Good?

This has been our biggest struggle lately. Julia has to put everything in her mouth. I thought this was a seven month old problem but apparently it is something a two year old goes through. She got these cute princess dolls for Christmas that she loves but some of them have their heads chawed on because she can't keep them out of her mouth. It isn't just princesses but any other small toy or thing she can find. I guess must be what we get for taking her binky away.
Princess out and Princess in. Poor Cinderella didn't know what she had coming.

Happy Birthday Nana! Because of Julia's extreme dislike of the phone we decided this would be the best way to wish you a Happy Birthday. We hope you are having a great day. Julia is potty training today so we have spent the majority of the day on the potty. That is why she has such a cute hair-do. We are not leaving the house or going anywhere until we get the job done. We love you and miss you! Enjoy Julia's beautiful singing!

Is it Worth it to be a Cheapo?

This is a really long story so bear with me. So we took a trip to Inidanapolis this past weekend. Bryan interviewed there and really liked the program so he wanted to have me go and take a look and see if it is a place I would enjoy spending the next four years. The offer of a free hotel and free lunch made it an easy decision and we embarked on our journey early Friday morning. Because I am such a cheapo we have a dvd player that we got last year, and a few months ago the screen shorted out and it blinks on and off, mostly off, for about twenty minutes before you can get it working. Because Julia watches it while I teach piano it is a necessary item in our home. So I watched the black Friday ads and got up at four thirty to get a great deal on a dvd player so we could take it on our flight to Utah. Julia is a GREAT movie watcher and I am a great mother that lets her so on the flight out to Utah I anxiously awaited the two or so hours of peace this wonderful machine would give me. Well someone, BRYAN, forgot to charge it. So the trip to Utah was not as peaceful as I would have hoped. Well given that, we made sure it was charged for the trip home and it gave us two fantastic hours of quiet. Well that is the last time that the dang machine worked. When I got home I tried to plug it in and it no longer works. Absolutely no power whatsoever. After calling warranty companines, writing emails and very nearly throwing the thing out the window we took the old piece of junk on our trip to Indianapolis. Well in addition to a dvd player that takes atleast twenty minutes to get up and running, my blinker is spastic in my car. One day all of the sudden the ticking noise just started going off at spastic speeds. Some days are worse than others but it has been particularly bad lately. So as you can imagine we hit the point where the blinker was tick tick tick tick tick tick ticking non-stop and Julia was yelling, "I want to watch Lazy Town!" non stop and I am shaking and hitting and pressing buttons on that piece of junk dvd player praying in my heart it will start working soon. Eventually it did and we only had to endure the tick tick ticking for the three hours of the trip. So needless to say it was a long three hours.
Upon arriving in Indianapolis we had a really great visit with the Residency director and residents and enjoyed the hospital. That night we went swimming and had a great time wearing Julia out so she would sleep good which is a worst nightmare to have her screaming in a hotel for all to hear. Well luckily Julia slept great. Bryan and I on the other hand were not so lucky. Some freaks next to us had the loudest conversation ever from midnight until one in the morning when Bryan finally went and complained to the front desk. I was so annoyed I thought I should wake Julia up like at seven in the morning and have her yell just to pay them back. I didn't even have time to do that, because they picked up their conversation, slamming of doors, and general noisiness at five in the morning until six. So we all woke up a little groggy and not in too good of a mood. I think Bryan said, "We will never leave Columbus ever, because to go anywhere is just such a pain!" And I must agree after that night I shared his feelings. We did take Julia to the largest Children's Museum in the country, which was pretty fun except for the extreme crowds of people, Julia having a stinky poopy diaper with the diapers in the car, two total meltdown fits and Julia running full speed into a mirror because she didn't think it was a mirror (we cruelly laughed for a good while over that one). It really is a nice museum though and I think that Indianapolis would be a fine place to live. The drive home was great and Julia slept most of the way and the dvd player actually worked the first try. SO the moral of the story is....don't buy cheap dvd players! It is not worth it. Pony up the extra fifty bucks and save your sanity. Also don't buy cars with faulty blinkers. It will drive you crazy! So much so that you find yourself hitting the dash of the car with great force. Anyways I suppose I only dwelled on the negative parts of the trip, there were some fun parts but they aren't nearly as interesting or comical, but it is safe to say we are going to avoid road trips at least in the near future.

New Years

Well even though it is a week past, it was pretty uneventful so I haven't posted anything unless the thought of eating nachos and playing Connect Four until midnight thrills you, and I know that you are on the edge of your seat even as you are reading this. After three weeks of traveling and traveling it was nice to have a quiet night home. New Years Eve consisted of nachos, which are Bryan's favorite food (easy for me!) Julia enjoyed the nachos as well, or actually the chips and olives which is pretty much all she ate.
After we put Julia to bed we bored ourselves to tears with about ten minutes of the New Years Eve programming on television. I don't even know half of the bands that performed nor was I interested in most of the lame music. So then we whipped out the games. Connect Four lasted for about an hour before Bryan got too frustrated because I was winning. So we moved on to Scrabble which is an intense game. I think we finally gave up halfway through because no one was going to win with words like "big", "nap" or "fat". Yeah we rock that game. So then I decided to jump start my New Years Resolution by emptying out all of my kitchen cupboards and reorganizing. I did rush over at midnight to swap a kiss with my hubby and then we went to bed. I really am lucky to have such a great husband and I wouldn't want to ring in the New Year with anyone else-even if it was a quiet night at home playing Connect Four-which I am totally a rock star at.

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.