A Big Question

Here's a little sampling of the dialogue between Brooklyn (my 4 year old niece) and I as I'm tucking her into bed:

Brooklyn: "Nat, I have a big question for you."
Me: "What?" (I'm a little nervous thinking how I really don't want to be the one to explain the birds and the bees to her at the tender age of 4...)
Brooklyn: "Do you have any college training?"
Me: (Ironically, my college training made it possible for me to not burst out laughing.) "Yes, I do."
Brooklyn: "Oh good. By the way, what is college training?"

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

As could be expected, Garrett's first Christmas has been a delight! It's been full of family, yummy food, parties, fun, and lots of laughter and memories. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Greg's family and Christmas afternoon and night with my family. Garrett loved the lights, wrapping paper, ribbon, and lots of new and willing people to feed him the good stuff while mom wasn't looking. Merry Christmas to all!

WICKED

So once again I'm only a week behind posting this. December is CRAZY (but in a good way)!

I must be nuts...Why else would I wake up at 5 in the AM and stand in line in downtown SLC in the freezing cold??? It was a crazy experience, but if all is well that ends well, then I’m in luck, because I’m going to WICKED!!! YEEHAW!!!

Thanks to the brilliant efforts of Sparky (my dad), my cousin Jan, sister-in-law Mal, and yours truly, we were able to secure the coveted seats!!! We attended the MOTAB Christmas concert last Thursday night (AMAZING!) and then stayed over night at my bro Brian and sis-in-law Sher’s house Thursday night. We went to bed at about 1 and woke up before 5 so we could head downtown to stand in line. Tickets were going on sale at 7:00 AM at the Capitol Theater, so we figured we’d be in great shape if we got there at 5. HA! Apparently we forgot to account for the 600 CRAZIES ahead of us in line who camped out in the freezing cold. It’s a good show and all, but seriously??? We had been in line about 5 minutes when the folks behind us started talking about how unlikely our chances were of getting tickets standing in that line. Tickets were going on sale at a few other locations, over the phone, and online beginning at 10, so we realized our chances might be better of getting tickets at Abravanel Hall. Mal Pal and I headed over to Abravanel Hall and took our spots as the sixth and seventh persons in line, while Jan and Sparky stayed in the crazy line at the Capitol Theater. Despite the freezing cold and insanity of the whole situation, we actually managed to have a good time. Mal and I made some new BFFs and enjoyed witnessing the people in front of us fighting over letting others in line. Our new friends held our spots while we walked across the street to JB’s for some hot chocolate, muffins, and cinnamon rolls. When the clock struck 10, we marched our way right in to Abravanel Hall and successfully secured our blasted tickets, all while Jan and Sparky were standing patiently in line at the Capitol, likely hours away from the ticket window. We are BRILLIANT!

Notice our sweet spots in line...Mal is standing by the girl wrapped in the blanket.

Mal Pal and I (Did I mention it was really cold?)

Sadly, we didn't get any pictures of Sparky and Jan. They did have a Ferris Bueller moment, though. Jan had a doctor's appointment later in the day in SLC and had taken a sick day to miss work. It just so happened that the news reporter was standing right next to Sparky and Jan while they were filming and the secretary at Jan's school called her on her cell phone (while they were standing in line) to tell her they had seen her on TV. (OOPS!!!)

It was a crazy, but really fun morning. Definitely one for the history books. (Thanks to Sparky for coming along--he knows nothing about the play and wasn't even planning on going to it, but said he would come with us to stand in line. Father of the Year material, don't you think???)

Gordy's Good Ole Family Christmas Party

Every year we look forward to the Phillips family Christmas party in Helper (it's by Price--I'd never heard of the place until I met Greg). Greg's Uncle Gordy, who passed away unexpectedly a few years ago, had the idea to get the family together at Christmastime for a party at the bowling alley. Since Gordy has been gone, we have kept the party going to honor his memory and enjoy being together as a family. It was a long day in the car for us--three hours to Helper, a few hours at the bowling alley, and three hours home--but worth every minute.

Good food + Family + Bowling = FUN!

Garrett even enjoyed a nice little pony ride. I love his smile in this video!

Sparky's Christmas Lights

As many of you may know, my dad's nickname is "Sparky." We gave him this nickname when I was just a kid and it kind of stuck--big time! Even my friends called him Sparky and many of them didn't (and probably still don't) know his real name. (In high school one of my friends said, "I was going to call you last night, but I couldn't find a Sparky Petersen in the phone book.") He earned the title of Sparky because of his deep and abiding love of Christmas lights. (Those of you who have seen "Christmas Vacation" may know what I'm talking about.) Hanging the lights becomes a family affair and you have to be "certified" by Sparky before he entrusts you with his precious lights. Chelsea began training on her certification this year and Sparky said she is coming along quite nicely. Sher is still working on becoming certified--we still laugh about the year she tried to help and Sparky tore down everything she did and re-did it because it just didn't quite meet his standards.

Brooklyn is also working on her certification. I'm sure you can imagine what a BIG helper she was. At least she came dressed for the occasion.


Gracie and Garrett are dreaming of the days they can "certify." Trying to keep the two of them away from the window was pretty much impossible. Thank heavens for Windex and tiny hands!

Em and I ran to town to do some Christmas shopping and left the kids asleep with my mom babysitting. Of course, they woke up shortly after we left and had what we like to call "a double meltdown." My mom had to call Brett in to help and here's what happened. (I'm very impressed my mom was able to take this picture with my camera. She's the only person I know who still uses a camera with film. Love ya, Suzy!)

Ta-Da! The finished product is well worth the work. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but it's absolutely gorgeous and we appreciate Sparky's efforts!

Turkey Day!

I'm a little slow getting this posted, but thought I should provide some documentation of our Thanksgiving. Sadly enough, I was so busy eating turkey and enjoying myself that I forgot to take pictures. I only took a few pictures the whole day, and only one of them even has Garrett in it. OOPS! (Let's just say he was well-cared for by many adoring aunts, uncles, and cousins and I only saw him for about 5 minutes the whole day.) :)

We had dinner at my cousins Kami and Marlee's house, which used to be my Grandma Ila's house before she died. It was so wonderful to be back in her house enjoying Thanksgiving together as a family. It brought back so many fun memories of Thanksgivings with Grandma. I remember her wearing her old-school aprons and housedresses and making rolls. I used to love to have a sleepover the night before Thanksgiving, so I could be there to help with the rolls in the morning. I LOVED making rolls with my Grandma. She would roll them out with a Coke can, brush some butter in the middle and on top with her fingers, and then fold them just so. I would always ask her for a "doughie" and, like a good grandma, she would let me eat the dough. I would usually be full of dough by dinnertime, but the food was always so good.

This Thanksgiving was just as fabulous as the ones from my childhood. Here are the few pics I took of the day:

Most people just have a slice of pie....Not my Greg! My assignment was to make the cream pies, so I made chocolate, banana and coconut cream pies. At least Greg liked my concoctions! (Take a good look at his attire--He said he strategically planned his outfit to show things he's grateful for. I expected him to walk out with a t-shirt with me on it or something!)

Garrett with his Jan (his BFF). You may notice how much his hair is coming in lately. Don't worry--still RED!

This is how the menfolk spent most of the day. One of the stations was having a Godfather marathon and I think Greg watched all 9 hours (or however long those blasted movies are).

A little bit of the gang...

And now for the main event...there's never a dull moment with this girl around. (FYI--Emily had her dressed up in a darling little jeans/sweater combo and Brooklyn disappeared into Kami's room and came out wearing this little masterpiece ready to perform.)

The End of the World as We Know It...and First Shiner!

It's official...our little stinkerbug is a full-fledged crawler. It was hilarious because he had the idea down several weeks ago, but just couldn't get his arms and legs to move at the same time and would usually end up with a nice face plant right into the carpet. Last week while I was at the concert, Greg worked his magic and Garrett was an old pro by the time I got home. He's been crawling like a mad man ever since and it only took him about 5 minutes of exploring to figure out how to pull himself up to furniture. (The nurses in the hospital when he was born told us he was STRONG, and they weren't kidding!) Let's just say life as we know it is OVER! He LOVES electrical cords (lovely thing to play with) and will find a way to get to them (and everything else he shouldn't) at all costs. Let's just say I'm currently trying to decide if we should even put up a Christmas tree. Do any of you seasoned mothers have any advice about kids and Christmas trees?


Here's some footage for your viewing pleasure...



The picture isn't great, but Garrett has had a few setbacks on his quest to discover the world and is currently sporting a high quality bruise on his cheek and a very nice shiner! Greg asked me at church if I was worried about somebody turning us in to social services. (We felt much better to see Garrett's buddy Kaleb with a black and blue forehead...compliments of falling down the stairs at the Aggie game.) Tis the season for bumps and bruises!