Phillips Family Fun

We loved having the "East Coast Siblings" visit last week and enjoyed just being together. It doesn't happen nearly enough these days. :(

Garrett and Annabelle were thrilled with the skiff of snow on the ground and loved playing outside.

We went to Golden Corral to celebrate Aunt Mainie's birthday. The kids loved the place--especially the chocolate fountain. We loved it when Abby threw up in the truck and we got to re-live (via smell) the whole GC experience all the way home from Salt Lake.

The kids were so excited to see Uncle Mike and Aunt Mal Pal. We also loved meeting Irina (Mike's girlfriend) and enjoyed visiting with her and getting to know her. She is darling and so sweet.

We had a great time at Gini's baby shower.

That Mal is so hot right now... (I couldn't resist.)

Abby loved "Rina" and could have spent all night playing with her jewelry.

Mike and Irina brought back the most amazing cupcakes from The Cocoa Bean in Provo. Apparently this cute little cupcake shop is right across the street from the apartment complex that Mike, Greg, and I lived in while we were in college. It's a good thing that place wasn't there ten years ago...I had a hard enough time just resisting these!

P.S. I didn't resist very well. I think I had a sliver of every single one and it was worth it! Don't even think about asking me to choose a favorite.

Abby is slightly obsessed with "Caffy" and thinks she needs to be near her at all times--especially while Cathy is taking care of Lydia. Abby is such a huge helper and thinks Lydia either needs to be eating or have her binkie in at all times.

Garrett absolutely adores Mal Pal and was so excited to see her. He was especially impressed with her iPhone and asked if she could leave it here when she got on the airplane to go back to Virginia. (You may notice I said "back" instead of "home." Her real home is with us and always will be!)

We took a nice little family trip to Delton Lanes to get our bowling on...so fun!

Greg took this awesome picture of me and said he is going to start a new blog called "Awesome Pictures of Nat" and fill it with crap like this. I hope you're excited. I know I sure am.

We ATTEMPTED to get a nice picture of Mike and Irina with the kids. Valiant effort, but no luck.

I'm sad it's over. Please come home again soon. :(

Silly Kids

Our Abby will celebrate her second birthday this week and is acting more like a little girl and less like a baby all of the time. It's a bit sad, but mostly just a whole lot of fun! With much help from her older cousins, she is starting to appreciate the art of dress-up and I have to admit it melts my heart every time.

She comes up with some pretty delightful combinations--here she is wearing two beanies and three tiaras. Awesome, I know.

Or how about four different headbands? Everybody knows that just one (or two, or even three) will never be enough!

We've had lots of fun cooking in the new aprons Chelsea made the kids for Christmas.

Garrett loves to make "mean" faces at the camera and then giggle at his own pictures. I can't help but laugh along with him, so we usually end up taking lots of pictures every time. Thank heavens for digital cameras with handly little "erase" buttons, huh?

Notice how his pants have a little hole in the knee? Most of his jeans are looking like that these days. I am now officially the mother of a true-blue little rascal (holey pants and all) and couldn't be prouder. Our lives would be so boring (and I would be so "with it") without this little ball of rambunctious energy. Now we just need Grandma Jan to give us a nice little lesson on mending/patching and we should be set for the next fifteen years or so.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was rockin' this year--just like it always is for our family! My Uncle Ric and Aunt Paula always host a fun and very family-friendly party and we look forward to it every year.

Abby was looking stylish in her jeggings and Garrett's old cowboy boots. (I may have mentioned once or twice this little gal has a mind of her own...)

My parents gave the kids matching outfits for Christmas and we attempted (unsuccessfully) to get a picture of all of them.

We had a great time playing games, visiting, hot-tubbing, and of course, enjoying yummy holiday treats.

My cousin Kami sells Scentsy and gave each of the kids a Scentsy Buddy for Christmas. Garrett and Abby opened theirs at the party and they were an instant hit. They are the coolest things--a stuffed animal with a removable scent pack. Abby insists on taking her sheep everywhere with us, but it is awesome because it always smells yummy and just like a newborn baby. Garrett sleeps with his dog every night and I love it because his bed and room always smell fresh. Coolest stuffed animal ever!!!

MIDNIGHT!!! (Or maybe it was really 10 PM, but close enough!)

In keeping with tradition, we had a New Year's toast after ringing in 2012. Garrett and Gracie were hysterical and loved clinking their glasses and taking a sip after each toast.

Best moment of the night--my cousin's dog climbed on my non-animal-loving mom. This doesn't do it justice, but the look on her face was priceless.

2011 was a great year for us (much better than 2010) and we are looking forward to good things in 2012!

Christmas Day

Christmas was the best this year! Garrett and Abby were old enough to actually understand the whole Santa Claus and gifts thing, so it was really fun. Our Church was at 9:00 and the kids were so worn out from the previous days' excitement they were still asleep at 8:30, so we got them ready for Church in their rooms and then walked out and acted totally surprised that Santa had come and there were presents. That Santa is a smart man and left one small unwrapped present for each child to grab on our way out the door. Going to Church on Christmas morning makes planning the day a bit more complicated, but it was great to be there and a perfect way to start a wonderful Christmas Day. Greg and I even said it would be nice to have Christmas on Sunday every year. It definitely helped keep the day in perspective and remember what we were really celebrating. My lucky dad even got to speak. He gave an awesome talk in Sacrament Meeting and then we came home to let the fun begin!

Greg couldn't even think about joining in the festivities until he got some Oreos and milk in him.
Garrett was so thrilled with everything he got to open and was so sweet.

Brett and Chelsea came down to watch the kids open presents and Abby noticed Chelsea putting on her chapstick (or "wips" as Abby calls it). Chelsea handed her the tube of chapstick to play with and Abby was completely disinterested in opening anything from that point on. She was more thrilled with the chapstick than anything else she got that day...sometimes I wonder why we try so hard.

Greg laid his head in Abby's lap and she loved rubbing his head. He tried to get up and she kept pulling him back down and saying, "Stay!" She is such a little stinker.

This toy crane is awesome! I'm not sure who had more fun playing with it...

Abby got this play kitchen and was more excited to use it as a stool to turn on the lights than play with it. (May I just say what a bargain shopper Santa was this year. The crane was on the clearance rack for less than half the orginal price because it didn't work...turns out all it needed was a fresh set of batteries. SCORE!!! Santa also bought the kitchen at a yard sale for 1/4 of the original price. It is in great shape and you could barely tell it's been used. Double score!!!)

Garrett was also thrilled to get a train and more track for his Geotrax.

The absolute highlight of the day was Skyping with our favorite Elder in Spain. Garrett even sang him the Chipmunk song in its entirety, so it couldn't have been any better.

The rest of my family came over and we enjoyed a nice breakfast and some "high quality family bonding time."

Chelsea made darling hats and aprons for all of the kids. They were a huge hit!

We made this picture quilt for my mom--another huge hit!

Greg's family arrived in the afternoon and we loved spending the rest of the day with them. Cathy was especially thrilled with my present to her. Now she can be "one of THOSE families that put their cereal in plastic containers." (Inside joke for the Phillips siblings...I hope I made you proud.) Abby had to change immediately into her new Cougar outfit from Grandma and Grandpa.

It was a perfect Christmas. I'm sad it's over, but now I can start planning Abby's birthday party. HOORAY! Plus, Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so I'm also pretty excited about that. Aren't holidays wondeful? There is always something to look forward to!