For Mike...

This post is dedicated to my dear brother-in-law. I figure updating our blog is the least I can do for free medical advice. Here goes...

We've been having a busy and fun summer--hence the lack of blogging. I told my sister the other day, "I can either live my life, or I can blog about it, but I can't do both." I'm sure most people can relate.

We started the summer off with a bang by attending Matt's graduation. High school graduations are always a joy and bring back so many memories. My big 10 year reunion is coming up this year, so let's just say the nostalgia was in full bloom on this particular day. Enjoy the lovely pic of Matt with his two nieces (and Cathy).

"But you'd look sweet upon the seat of a tricycle built for THREE..."

I smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

MERRY CHRISTMAS IN JUNE!!! We had a difficult time deciding what to get my parents for Christmas this year. They've been wanting a sprinkling system for several years now and aren't getting any younger (haha), so my siblings and our spouses told them we would provide all of the labor for it if they would buy the parts. They took us up on the offer and after a few days of sweat and tears, their Christmas present was complete. (For the record, we all decided it would be much easier to just buy them sweaters next year.)

Grandpa Willy (Greg's dad) showed up to see his grandkids and got stuck helping. He was such a good sport and kept telling us, "This is fun. I love stuff like this." My mom said, "I feel bad that he got stuck working here, but I'm sure glad he is. I think he actually knows what he's doing out there."

Brian was too busy working to look at the camera.

Garrett enjoys any opportunity he can get for a "popso." Luckily, the Otter Pops were being passed around in abundance on this particular day, so Little G was a happy man.

My Uncle Ric also chose a really crappy day to come and visit on his way home from Casper's. Lucky for us, he stayed and worked for awhile and provided us with Cascos. What a guy!

Chels represented the womenfolk of the family when it came to doing manual labor. Em and I were busy chasing kids and providing nourishment for the fearless workers.

Self-portrait of Miss Brooklyn.

Garrett was too busy "helping" to have a nap that day. I finally made him come in and have a bath. He was out for the count before he even hit the chair.

Uncle Eric brought this darling little dress back for Abby Baby from New York. I love her little face in this pic.

Miss Abby is officially a mover and a shaker. She rolls all over the place these days and gets herself into some pretty interesting predicaments because of it. One of her favorite places to chill is under the coffee table.

Apparently Greg finally got through to Abby and has been successful in teaching her to rip off her headband and bow. She did this one all on her own.

My darling friend, Lisa, gave Abby this little outfit and I had to take a picture of her because it was just too cute! Oh how I love dressing this little gal!

I loved the way she had her little feet resting up on the bar while she played with the toys.

I didn't post anything on Father's Day, but I did at least get a picture of Greg with the kids. Not the greatest pic, but it will do. These two kiddos sure love their daddy!

Garrett loves his hat and now has to put it on himself, which means he occasionally looks like a gangster. Awesome.

Garrett has been sleeping in his big boy bed these days. He is currently obsessed with tractors, so we gave him a toy tractor for sleeping in his bed all by himself the first night. He loves it and it goes with us about everywhere we go.

The transition from crib to bed is going okay. He's getting more used to it all the time, but we still have our rough nights. It's taking him longer to go to sleep and sometimes he wakes up in the night, so he was pretty tired the first week or so and fell asleep in some pretty interesting places.

Garrett decided to help Abby put her headband on one day. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but it was pretty funny.

We enjoyed attending a lovely fireworks display at the park by Greg's parents' house. I thought Garrett would love the fireworks and Abby wouldn't be such a fan, but it was a complete reversal. It wasn't so much that Garrett didn't like the fireworks, but he happened to notice the playground and slide at the park and wasn't very happy with just sitting on a blanket with a new park to explore.

Abby, on the other hand, was content to sit on Grandma's lap and enjoy the show!

Greg and I enjoyed being able to sit back and watch the show while everybody else took care of our kids. (Such a flattering angle, I know.)

Abby enjoyed her first Oreo cookie with a little help from her father. Garrett was only 3 months old when Greg let him eat a Twix bar, so I'm feeling pretty good that Abby made it all the way to 5 months before Greg introduced her to one of the finer things in life.

We enjoyed a delightful Fourth of July weekend at my family's cabin in Bear Lake. Garrett and Abby were dressed for the occasion and just oozed patriotism!

Not such a fan of the hat, but isn't she just precious?

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but my friend Karen gave Abby the cutest little swimsuit. She didn't actually make it into the water this day, but at least she looked good!

The kids loved playing in the water!

The G-Man doing some wading in the kiddie pool.

Emmy and Brookie.

Garrett loved the waterslide at the pool. My cute cousins were so sweet to help him with it.

And that will do it for now! More summer fun to come...

6 Years...

• 6 Years
• 3 apartments
• 2 kids
• 1 house (Finally!)
• A few tears
• Lots of love

Greg said it best in our prayers tonight, "I'm thankful that Nat could put up with me for the past 6 years and hope she can do it for at least six more."

I think I just might be up for the challenge, Mr. Phillips.


Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this will most likely be our most romantic anniversary ever. Greg has been running a fever for 4 straight days and can't keep anything in his stomach. I finally took him to the doc today and they think he has some sort of stomach infection or something. Considering the fact that Greg can barely get out of bed without a major pain attack, I don't think our anniversary will be too spectacular this year. :)

I asked Greg tonight, "So when do we want to give each other our anniversary presents?" He got a momentary look of panic on his face until I said, "Because yours just happens to be sleeping in the other room. Her name is Abby." Greg laughed and said,"It took you 9 months to give me Abby, and 8 months for me to build you a house. I guess I owe you one."

Another Massive Update...

So it really would be easier and faster to just post a simple picture and update here and there, but I keep putting it off until I have about a billion pics and things to write about and then it's too overwhelming. ARGH! Here goes another crazy post with tons of pics... (I also just remembered I still need to post about Abby's blessing. I need to get some pics from my mom's camera--I decided to put my camera away and enjoy the day, but I'll get around to it sometime soon.)

We got out the BebePod and let Abby give it a whirl. She likes it, but gets pretty ticked off when she can't eat the toy quite as well as she'd like. (Yes, she's teething. Her bottom two have just about popped through. She's actually done pretty well with teething and it hasn't been too big of deal thus far.) As you can see by those cheeks, she's practically wasting away.

Another milestone--she is a roller! I was in the process of changing her diaper and getting her dressed one morning when I had to stop in the middle to deter Garrett from his path of destruction. When I got back to her, I found this.

Aaahhh....help me!

I told you she gets mad in this thing! Love that pouty face. :)

Garrett has finally started paying attention to Abby and is so cute with her. For the first few months, he was pretty indifferent to her. He didn't not like her, but he wasn't that interested in her, either. Now he says, "I luf (love) Abby Baby," or "I need to pet Abby Baby," (at which point he rubs her head and says, "soft") or "I need to hold Abby Baby," all of the time. He loves to give her kisses and play with her. She likes to eat him, so it works out pretty great for both of them.

Who needs a brother when Abby makes such a great wrestling opponent? As an added bonus, she might even have some cute friends one day Garrett can hit on. Definitely better than a little brother, right? :)

I will admit that I have a little too much fun getting Abby dressed and dolled up every day. It's a good thing she looks good, because my appearance is leaving a bit to be desired these days. I think I've given all my energy and style to my children. Maybe one day I'll get it back!

Greg's brother, Mike, was in town from North Carolina, so we spent the weekend in SLC hanging with the Phillips crew. I think Annabelle's mama would pay big money if anybody could capture of a picture of this kid smiling at the camera. She is so funny!

Garrett giving Uncle Mike some loves (right before or maybe after he smacked him with that lovely baseball bat).

Annabelle was too busy driving to drink her bottle, so Garrett helped her out. What a nice cousin!

Mike came up to visit us at our house and I caught this classic pic of him and Greg dozing on the couch. Love it! I kept telling Mike I felt bad we were so boring and should have been doing something fun. He said, "Do you know how often I get to sit around and do nothing and doze off on the couch? This is perfect." That made me feel a little bit better!

Greg's dad told me I better get outside and get a picture of Mike cooking on the grill. He said, "How often do you get a surgeon to cook your steaks?" By the time I got out there, the "surgeon" was sampling the meat and Greg was doing the dirty work.

We went back to SLC the next morning for family pics. (Super cute--I'll have to post a few later.) Becky, Mal, and I all needed something to change into and Mal hooked us up with these killer high school volleyball t-shirts. We made a great "team" and were so proud to wear our matching shirts to Target. Awesome.

Brian (my big brother) got put in the bishopric of his ward so we visited him and Sher to attend Church/slash celebrate Sher's birthday. B and Sher have the cutest friends, Dan and Sara, who came over to eat dinner with us. Lucky Sara got a makeover from Miss Brooklyn.

The kids helped Sher blow out her candles!

Aunt Sher and Abby-Cakes. (Side note--Garrett is currently obsessed with B and Sher. He tells me often how much he loves Sher and that he NEEDS to go to Brian's house.)

Brooklyn came for a sleep-over and fell asleep right in the middle of her makeover!

Quite possibly my favorite picture of this Spring. What a kid! (Don't worry--those are Gracie's glasses and her bike. We have a lot of pink at our house these days, but Greg is desperately trying to keep it away from Garrett!)

We spent Memorial Day back in SLC with Greg's family. Willy found this awesome park in West Jordan we took the kids to play at. It was so fun!

Check out cute Matt--what a stud!

Awesome pic of me and the top of Abby's head. (At least her hat was cute!)

How many adults does it take to play with one kid???

Friends Kaleb and Jenna came to play today. The kids got out the "M" (as Garrett calls it) dispenser and had a blast. I was going for anything that kept them all occupied and out of trouble, so I kept passing the pennies along. :)
Brooklyn also came to visit and took right over as the babysitter. She made Jenna sit on the couch while she read "No David!" Sadly enough, "No David!" has been shelved at our house and taken away from Garrett until further notice. It is the CUTEST book and Garrett loves it, but all he seems to want to say lately is, "NO!" He'll take the lines from the book and yell them at me when he's mad ("I said, NO MAMA!" "Stop that this instant." "Go to your room."), so we've put the book away for a bit. Maybe we'll pull it out again when he goes to college.
The kids had a delightful tea party on the deck. Such great fun!

Abby is now four months old and growing like crazy! Our doctor is out of town until the middle of June, so we haven't been able to have her check-up yet. I made an executive decision and started her on rice cereal. It seemed like she was constantly eating and wasn't sleeping as well. We weren't sure if it was teething or if she was hungry. We can't do anything to stop the teething, but thought we could work on the hunger, if that's the problem. She does pretty well with the cereal and is getting the hang of it.

This video is of her very first time eating the cereal. It's pretty funny. I think she was a little bit too hungry and got mad when she couldn't get it fast enough, as you will see by her attacking the spoon. Poor kid! (We did have to stop feeding her the cereal after her epic meltdown so we could feed her some milk and calm her down a bit. We returned to the cereal later and she did much better, but it wasn't nearly as entertaining.)

That's it for now! We do have a busy weekend planned with Matt's graduation and installing a sprinkler system at my parents' house. Should be fun!