If the fates allow...

This is Christmas Eve dinner at the Phillips’ house…I love looking at Adam’s face in this picture…he's such a hoot!!! I was lucky enough to have my mother come out this year as well…we also sang in the Kemmerer Community Christmas Choir, again, this year and at the end of each performance we sang Have yourself a Merry Christmas as our farewell song...one of the lines struck me as very touching this year...Faithful friends who are dear to us gather near to us once more. Through the years we all will be together...If the Fates allow...I felt very blessed to have so many loved ones around during this most exciting of Christmas seasons. I hope next year the fates will allow both my parents, brother, grandmother, Annie & Bryan (and the girls) and George & Joan to be around, too!!!


After dinner we were all full and felt the tug of tightness around our wastes from our unforgiving pants…so, we politely asked Jim and Julie for our much anticipated matching pajama pants…here are the guys hamming it up in their Comic book pants…


the girls got Tinker Bell pants this year with the moms in black and multi colored stars…


Carli got a wii (amongst other things as Carli must have been a VERY good girl this year) and Rock Band I & II…and so the obsession began…here are Carli, Adam and Eric at the beginning of the day…


Here’s Eric looking like a Rock Stud!!!! You can see Jim wearing the Wyoming shirt we got for everyone in the family...

Eight hours later, Adam, Carli & Geoff were still playing…we were all impressed/horrified at their diligence! Later, when my mom and I were shopping at a store, she shuddered when she heard one of the Rock Band songs being played… “oh no…not again!,” was her only comment!!!


Eric surprised me with a flat screen TV for Christmas…I really wasn’t expecting anything…I THOUGHT we had agreed to just relax this Christmas in preparation for the baby! Well, I stuck to my part of the deal! OOPS!!!

Christmas 2008

So, Christmas 2008 was a blast…here are a few pictures…This is in our living room...the nativity scene was a gift from Julie last year. I was excited to finally get to use it!!



This was at my work Christmas party…

Here I am with my prize…which I would have thought was "cooler" (sorry for the lame pun- it was a cooler) had the man next to me not won a 56' flat screen tv!!!

Baby shower… part Deux

Here are pictures from the Kemmerer shower.
This is a cake Sister Backman from my ward made…isn’t it adorable? I love the colors…it has swaddling blankets, diapers, toys, lotion, baby spoons, baby powder, socks, onsies…I was almost a little worried I’d find a little baby hiding in there…CREEPY!!!

We played some games…here’s one where everyone was supposed to draw baby Max on a plate whilst balanced on their head. Here’s Kristi and cute little Arianne Dearden.

The winner was Jill Allen. I got to be the judge and while they were all great, I was impressed with Jill’s detail…the baby not only has eyes (which are shedding tears) and a mouth, but also has a diaper and booties on…that’s pretty extraordinary!!

We also played the diaper game where you have to figure out what candy bar is mashed inside the diapers…they do look pretty realistic, don’t you think?!? It was pretty disturbing…after the shower, our friends’ daughter was riffling through the diapers with her hands and eating the remnants….she was way too young to understand the game…she was going on pure instincts …SICK!!!!

This is Emily Sandel looking WAY too eager to smell the poop-y diaper!!!  She couldn’t stop laughing when she thought about how Eric had told her a story about being a nursery leader. Someone had asked him to find out which child had soiled their diaper. Eric, having seen many a parent deliberately and whole-heartedly shove their nose into the bum of a baby, followed suit…well, first try, he got the winner and could not stop gagging for quite a few minutes. Emily’s consolation is that it doesn’t smell as bad when it’s your own… that’s what we’re counting on!!!

All in all, it was a great shower and we had lots of fun, food, games, laughs…thanks to all of those who came and who helped make it so great!!! (Cindy, Sis. Connelly, Kristy…you ladies rock!!!!).

SLC Shower

Here are pictures from my Baby shower in SLC…Here is the gorgeous cake Jody and Julie made me. I LOVE IT!!!


Here’s a close-up of the Max and the Wild Things ornament they put on the cake!!! Not only did they spend hours on this cake, they drove in the CRAZIEST of weather, made TONS of the best food, desserts/posters (even though some mysteriously didn’t make an appearance at the shower even though they were ridiculously adorable and yummy) and are just absolutely the most wonderful-est family!!! Thanks, Julie, Jody and Carli!!!


Here’s a picture with me and Meradith. Thank you Meradith & Linda for planning and hosting the wonderful shower!! Am I really THAT fat?

This is my friend from college, Cathy and her daughter Devin…I can’t believe I used to baby sit Devin…we would sit around eating Astro Pops together. The cutest story about Devin…we were watching a movie and she said she wanted to give me a kiss. “Sure,” I replied and I turned my cheek to face her…”No,” she said sternly and put both of her chubby three-year-old hands on either side of my face and said, “I want to give you a ‘married’ kiss.” I was a little nervous…what did she mean by that…well, she put her little lips on mine and tilted her head left and right, left and right and triumphantly said, “There,…married kiss.” Oh, the things kids say and do…I have to admit, I’m a little excited to start having my own stories with my kids…


Julie and Jenna…is she not the cutest drool-y thing EVER?!?! And Jenna is so cute, too!!! Just kidding…Julie doesn’t drool…she only drives through horrible storms so other don’t have to!!! Thank you to all who came; Becky, Wendy, Kristee, Carrie, Jennifer, Sherla, Sue...and others...you all made it so special!!!

More shower pics...

Here’s a picture of the famous Blindaket…that’s what I call them…I love these blankets that Linda makes…they are so beautiful, washer friendly and luxurious feeling. There's Becky holding one side of the bLindaket.


She embroidered “Baby Phillips” on it and it has a border of basketballs, footballs, soccer balls and baseballs. In the middle underneath the name, she put a train…I don’t think she knew it when she was doing it…but trains have always reminded me of my maiden name, “Chiu” because elementary age kids aren’t very creative and Aimei Chiu Chiu Train, the Big League Chiu and Chiu-bacca were all anyone could ever come up with!


Here are Brooke and Jenna looking so cute...Brooke was so excited to be one of the girls!!!

More is not always better!!!

This last weekend, I had the fun of attending my baby shower. More details on that when I download the pictures…but, something happened that caught me a little off guard. I happily opened each present and mentally checked off each item that I would no longer need to get before the baby was born…well, pack n’ play (thanks to Kristee) was high on my list of priorities as I’ve been told it’s a life saver.

So, delight when I opened one of the gifts to see that I had, indeed, received a pack n play…the dilemma arose when, to my surprise, a second pack n’ play was opened. Which to keep, which to return? My initial decision was based solely on aesthetic appeal. For all those who have dated “eye candy” (and we all have at least once) we know what road that leads to…there has to be more to the decision. So, after much research on baby boards, consumer reports and amazon…I have made my decision.

On to the next dilemma…strollers. Did you know that you can’t just type in strollers and expect to find what you’re looking for? Oh no…there are categories…MULTIPLE categories…standard, lightweight, travel systems, doubles, jogging, brands, convertible…I don’t even know where to start…with the pack n play, I only had to weigh the pros and cons between two specific brands…choosing a stroller from the thousands of choices is too much…so, call to all of those experienced moms out there…what did you like (and not like) and why?

So far I've liked this Jeep Liberty Limited in Energy stroller...

Thanksgiving fun, California Style

We spent Thanksgiving in California (again) this year as the doctor didn’t particularly want me flying during Christmas so close to the due date. It was great being with my family.

After Thanksgiving dinner we drove to SF (as is tradition) and looked at all of the lights.

Here’s a picture of my brother and his girlfriend (Kristina) at an Indian Restaurant we went to (everyone kindly catered to my choice as Wyoming has about zero in the department of foods of the world).

I got to see one of my dearest friends, Tamara. She was my maid of honor and was fabulous (as always) and drove us in her fancy BMW to get ice cream and a video with Blue Ray as my mom joined the after Thanksgiving madness and bought a 46 inch flat screen!!! She stayed even though she had to study for her oral exams. She's the best!!!

I was just sad I didn’t get to see Tamara’s husband Curtis (oh Curty…we have to get together and eat some fudgesicles!) or the Hoppers! Next time for sure!!!!


Here's this random car we saw on the streets while we were shopping...random!!!

Fossil Fest Funnies...

These pictures are from July during the fossil fest. Eric and I were cast as the hero and villain…but as pregnancy and stunts (however rudimentary) don’t seem to coincide very well, our friend Nick Baird was kind enough to step in and fill the role of the villain. Nick did an awesome job!!! The entire crew did!!


Here is a scene where Eric, the hero, has to swim to confront his heroine’s captor. Dylan (our nephew) did not like the part with Eric in a swim suit…he said he only liked the parts where Eric was a cowboy.

Here’s where he’s reincarnating the spirit of the Karate Kid!! You can do it Eric, san!!!

One of my favorite scenes in the melodrama is where Eric is knocked out cold by one of the “sexy Native American women.” Whilst his character is unconscious, the villain is unscrupulously trying to woo the heroine…the funniest part was during the matinee there were three little African American girls about 4 or 5 years old tugging at Eric and screaming, “Cowboy…wake up, he's stealing your wOmAN!!!”

BOYS vs GIRLS

I admit, I, along with virtually all of the 12 year-olds in America have fallen prey to the Twilight saga. So, when I told Eric that I was going to stand in line in Evanston for tickets, he scoffed. He retold a sad story of how when Star Wars came out, they dropped Jared (his cousin) off at the theater and left him for over an hour to wait in line while they got food…so, an hour passes and they return to find a lonesome Jared still standing all by himself. Eric insisted that there would not even be a line and that I may know about big cities, but he knew Evanston…how he foolishly underestimates the hysteria women can create!!



So, here is a picture (for proof) of the line that formed to get Twilight tickets (even in little Evanston)…within the first 15 minutes the first two shows were already sold out…so, this just proves that there is no force to be reconciled with when it comes to the hormones of young pre-pubescent girls (and slightly older young women). Geeks, boys and Star Wars fans included…

New Kids on The Block...let's Rock!!!

Eric surprised me with New Kids concert tickets for my birthday...

You can see the excitement and anticipation on our faces...well, at least MINE!!






The sad part about seeing all of the fans out there was that they were all so OLD and FAT!! There were so many middle aged women...I remember going to my first concert and wishing that I could be in the double digits so that I would have a chance to have one of the New Kids fall in love with me...I'm pretty glad, now, that I was still just a kid!

New Kids Continued...

Jordon Knight (still rocking after two kids- not that a guy's body really changes after having kids...no bitterness there) singing his classic, "I'll be Loving You Forever..." I'm not that kind of guy, who can take a broken heart...so don't ever leave...

Joey Joe McIntyre, pointing and posing for a picture...

O.K., this picture is a little embarrassing...but, hey, when in Rome...cheer your heart out!...Just get on the floor and do the New Kids dance!!! Oh, oH, Oh, OH, oH!

I liked the stark contrast of expressions on our faces...as you can see, I don't think Eric enjoyed himself quite as much as I did!!! Eric really is too kind...he also got me a pedicure and a really cute figurine. I've never had a pedicure for no reason before (it was always because someone was getting married and I was a bridesmaid...)! Eric works so hard during the week and then has to endure New Kids and a nail salon...he's a catch, what can I say?!?

I call this: New Kids a la Temple Clothing. Actually, it's my sad confession that I once gave their security guard a Book of Mormon to give to them...on the front cover I wrote, "Dear Joe, I love you...let me tell you about another Joseph I love...Joseph Smith..." Ironically, I went to dinner when them years and years later and asked about it...and to my dismay, they remembered, "Oh my goodness, that was you?!" I was so thrilled that it took me about five minutes to get that they were TOTALLY MOCKING ME!!! Oh, well, it would have been a good story...

The Laughing Cow 笑牛, Den leende ko, Krówka Śmieszka

So, I had the opportunity to spend the day with my neices, nephews, in-laws and fun, fun Carli...so, we were at the store and I saw my childhood favorite...the Laughing Cow Cheese...or, as they call it in France where it was originally launched in the 20's, "La vache qui rit." My mother-in-law, Julie, always the good host, indulged me and bought a package of the versatile and portable blend of cream, milk and fresh and aged cheeses in bite-sized little silver cubes. Did you know that 125 portions of the cheese are eaten every second around the world?

Oh the joy I felt as I pulled on that all too familiar red string...memories of being a carefree child feeling so happy because my mom loved me so much that she would buy the real brand Laughing Cow cheese for my lunch (since it's pasteurized it is able to sit unrefrigerated for a limited length of time). Some of our neices and nephews did not like it,...but true to form...cute, cute, Hanky LOVED it...as I love him!!! Sad that the love you have for a child can grow based on their mutual love of a food product!

Carli and Julie (neither had ever partaken or heard of it) happily tried & enjoyed it but referred to it as, "vleveeta-like" (which in all fairness is probably a fairly accurate description of it). I couldn't help but feel a little insulted for my childhood friend, the happy red cow...velveeta is not my cup of tea, it's processed and plastic-y and cheap...but the Laughing Cow is French...somehow that adds validity to it's authenticity and quality...right? It's next to the Brie...that has to count for something...or maybe it's just a ploy to make consumers like me believe the farse that it is somehow better than kraft singles. Any cheese coniesseurs out there that want to back me up or tear me down...go ahead.

Don't judge me...I love the Laughing Cow!!

Dinner at the Legal Tender.

Yesterday Eric's parents treated us to a birthday dinner at the Legal Tender in Evanston. Here, Eric and I are happily enjoying our Prime Rib dinner,...Eric, not so much, as they gave him horseradish instead of butter for his potato...oops!!!


What studly men!


The love birds!


Here I am blowing out my candles (the number of candles on the pumpkin cake are totally arbitrary so don’t try counting!). Of course I made a wish…we’ll just have to see if it comes true!!!