Good Times in November!

"The Great Blizzard of 2010" has come and gone and I should be sleeping, but I figure I'm about due for a blog post with pictures. It's been a busy couple of weeks and we have lots to catch up on!

Abby and I attended the Aggie game a few weeks ago while Garrett went pheasant hunting with Greg. The Ags even won this particular game and Abby was a very good girl. (Sorry, no pics of the mighty hunters.)

Abby is a crawling machine and likes to explore and make messes. She loves to crawl underneath the end table in our living room and eat the magazines. Does that mean she's deficient in a mineral or something if she likes to eat paper?

The past few weeks have been full of sickness for our little family. Every single one of us has had a yucky stomach bug of some sort. As previously mentioned, Lucky Greg got sick enough he ended up in the hospital, but the rest of us were just miserable for a day or two.

Garrett woke up fevered on this particular night and thought the thermometer would make a great phone. (He's really into talking on the phone these days and can turn just about anything into a phone. When we ask him who he's talking to, his usual responses are "some everybody" (my personal favorite), "Claudia," "Grandma," or "Jenna.")

Look at how red his little cheeks are in this picture. My poor little guy.

Abby has discovered a new friend and thinks that she is just the greatest! Maybe one day I'll actually get this mirror hung--until then, it provides some nice entertainment while it is propped up against the wall.

I'm afraid that Miss Abby might be just as adventurous as her big brother. Heaven help us! She is quite fond of climbing in the laundry basket and thinks it is just hilarious when she falls out. She has also discovered how to climb up the stairs. (We didn't know she knew how to do this until I found her halfway up them one day. Awesome.) We need to get a gate, but just have a box in front of them for now (W.T. babyproofing, I know). She is a sneaky little thing and watches for the box to be moved. If she sees even the slightest opening, she checks to see if we're watching and then makes a beeline for the stairs. (I really need to get a video of her doing this. It's pretty funny.)

Greg is not such a big fan of pictures of himself while in the hospital. (I wonder why.) Some pics of him getting loaded into the ambulance to be transferred from Logan to SLC probably would have gone for big money on this blog, but no such luck. (He did insist on putting on his regular clothes and looked pretty funny as he was being wheeled out in his jeans and cowboy boots. He tried to talk the ambulance drivers into just letting him walk out, but no luck there.)

The life-flight helicopters took off and landed right outside his window--much to the delight of Garrett and cousin Annabelle. We spent some quality time looking out this window!

The rooms in the hospital in SLC had these nice boards in the room for the patients to fill out. Greg's board got filled out a few times, but I never saw Greg anywhere near it even one time. It gave us a good laugh and his visitors something to do. :)

I did manage to sneak a picture of Greg in his hospital bed, just because this was so funny. He was reading a double-issue magazine (thanks to Sher) and from where we were sitting, it looked like he was reading it upside down. Another good laugh!

More fun facts about my dear Gregory...

Some lovely visitors! Sorry to everybody else who visited and didn't get your picture taken. I know the only reason you came to see Greg was because you were really hoping to get some public recognition on our blog. :) I just happened to have the camera out because I was taking a picture of Greg's board and of him reading the magazine upside down, so I snapped a picture of this crew while I was at it.

My niece did borrow my camera to take this awesome picture of her dad totally sacked out in the waiting room. (Yes, he's really asleep. Like, REALLY asleep. We're talking drool on the bench and everything. Doesn't that just look so comfortable?)

Once we were finally home again, Abby didn't waste any time getting herself right back in the laundry basket!

We had only been home for a day or two when Garrett woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me he had barfed all over his bed. Great. After getting him bathed and cleaning up the mess, I got him back to sleep and my head had just touched the pillow when Abby started fussing. I went to get her and was thrilled to discover she had had a major blowout. ARGH! I got her cleaned up and back to bed and it seemed like I had barely closed my eyes again when it was time to wake up. It wasn't too much later that the stomach bug bit me and I wasn't feeling too hot, either. Needless to say, we had a rough day or two at our house.

The next evening I was worn out and dare I admit it, maybe feeling a bit sorry for myself. Everybody was asleep and I was cleaning the bathroom floor (Did I mention that Garrett has decided to potty-train himself in the midst of the madness? Great timing, huh?) when I glanced out the window and noticed this:

Seriously the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. I've seen some good ones in my day, like the sun setting over the beach in Hawaii, but this one takes the cake. I was tempted to keep my rotten mood and just keep cleaning, but I set everything down and walked out onto the front porch. I tried my darndest, but it was impossible not to feel hope while in the midst of such incredible beauty. It sounds corny, I know, but I realized that this is life--my life--and it is always going to be full of ups and downs and highs and lows. The trick is learning to enjoy the ride and to find the good things, even during the hard times. I thought about the story I had just seen on the news about all of the people sick with cholera in Haiti. I realized how lucky we are to be sick in a house with running water and toilets that flush and tubs to bathe in and sinks to wash our hands in. I don't particularly enjoy cleaning up barf or the other stuff, but at least I can wash dirty sheets and clothes in a washing machine--and I have extra of everything we need, so I don't even have to wait for it to be washed to have clean clothes and a comfy bed. It didn't take me very long to decide that my life isn't too bad after all.

I walked back in the house and couldn't resist taking a picture of my sleepy little buddy. Notice the cute little giraffe sleeping by him. This giraffe once belonged to a very sick girl who eventually died of a brain tumor. Her family sold her stuffed animals at the Relay for Life to raise money for cancer research. Garrett fell in love with this little giraffe and we brought him home to live with us. Garrett sleeps with Mr. Giraffe every night. I often wonder what stories this giraffe would tell if he could talk to us. I can only imagine the heartache and tears he has seen. My mom would always tell us when we were growing up and feeling sorry for ourselves, "No matter how bad you think you have it, you don't have to look very far to find somebody who has it worse."

Thank you, Mr. Giraffe for reminding me that our sicknesses were only temporary and you've seen much worse.

And just like it always does, the sun shone brightly the next morning and life goes on. The kids and I are all better and Greg is working on it. As Thanksgiving approaches, I have realized this year that we have so much to be thankful for. Especially times like this:

Tips for a Romantic Weekend Getaway

I was honestly thinking last week about the fact that Greg and I haven't spent a night alone together since we had Garrett over 2.5 years ago. Adding Abby to our family has only added to the craziness, so let's just say Mr. Phillips and I were overdue for a few quality nights without the kidlets.

Because Greg is just that kind of guy, he's arranged for us to spend the past four nights in a luxurious suite in beautiful Salt Lake City. Our room is fabulous! We're staying on the ninth floor of the tallest building on the whole block and we have a great view of the snowcapped Wasatch Mountains. Someone checks on us every couple of hours, even in the middle of the night, just to make sure we're comfortable. We have high-speed Internet and all-you-can drink Diet Coke. We even enjoyed the weekend football games on cable TV, a luxury we don't have at home.

There are a few drawbacks--Greg and I had to drive down here in separate vehicles. Actually, my mom drove me in her car and a couple of fine gentleman strapped Greg down and drove him in their fancy ride (minus the light/siren show, thank goodness). We also have to sleep in separate beds--actually, Greg sleeps in the bed and I'm stuck on the couch on the other side of the room. The folks here are kind enough to bring in meals for Greg, make his bed, and even provide him with fashionable clothing. (Did I mention they do his laundry, too?)

The four nights we spent here probably cost more than a summer of backpacking in Europe, a trip to Hawaii, an African safari and a Disney cruise combined. Greg is not such a big fan of traveling, so he was smart enough to arrange for this little outing. Not too far from home, but definitely exciting and full of drama, suspense, and mystery. The best part of all--he even got our getaway sponsored by the good folks at SelectHealth. I told you he was a great guy.

So, if you're ever looking for something extra special you can do with your sweetheart, we highly recommend spending a few nights at the Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. It's a bit tricky to get a room here, but it really helps if you were sick most of the summer and spent a week in the Logan Regional Hospital. If there is any way you could make sure your system is still vulnerable from your previous bouts of infection and surgery, it should be pretty easy for you to pick up another bug that makes you crazy-sick. Don't worry--it's kind of scary for a little while, but you'll quickly discover that this hospital is AWESOME and the perfect place to be if you're fighting back-to-back infectious diseases.

Sadly enough, we will be kissing this place good-bye tomorrow morning, picking up the kiddos from Grandpa and Grandma and making the trek home. Our hearts are full of gratitude and love for everybody who put their lives on hold (again) and took care of our precious little family while we were living it up on the ninth floor. Wish us luck--heaven knows we need it!

All I Wanted for Halloween...

...was a decent picture of the Mean Dragon and Tinkerbell.

This is what we got instead. Oh well.

This one is especially nice...

Check out that whiney face. Can't you just hear her saying, "Mom, do I have to?"

And she's out of there!

Note to self: Maybe next year we should try the photo shoot BEFORE 15 hours of trick and treating, 27 times in and out of carseats, and 13 tons of sugar and soda pop have been consumed.

On a positive note, Garrett loves to sing and learn new songs. We've been singing some Halloween classics and Garrett has been quite taken with, "I'm a Mean Old Witch with a Hat." He caused quite a stir on Halloween night. At each house we took him to, he would say, "Trick or Treat, " get his candy, say "Thank you," and then top things off with a little performance of his song. After he finished singing, he would alternate between saying, "That's funny, huh?" or "That's scary, huh?" As you can imagine, the old ladies around town just couldn't get enough of him. (He did this all on his own and totally unprovoked.)

He totally made us look like overachiever parents. It's quite the contrary--occasionally the kids get whiney in the car and I try to distract them, which usually involves me singing whatever silly song I can think of at the top of my lungs. I pulled out the "Mean Old Witch" song one day in desperation and Garrett's life has never been the same. :)

Here he is performing, although it's not really his best performance because he's too distracted. He usually sings the whole song, but I posted this shortened version anyways because it's the best I had and it's awfully cute.