A Very Phillips Christmas 2010

Christmas was great this year...Christmas ever was full of yummy food and fun.

We had a delicious ham and hung out with the fam...

The traditional Phillips Santa hats.

Jim read some scriptures and helped teach us the real meaning of Christmas...

I know it's sacrilegious...I don't know how this picture came about...but how cute is my little pray-er?!?!

Then Julie played the piano (with a little help from the Max) and we all sang Christmas carols and danced.

I love this picture of Adam...Max loved his uncle Adam!

Christmas day....Max was excited just to get to open presents! He was so cute this year...there was a definite theme to his gifts this year: ELMO! I used to hate Elmo, then you have your own child and spend hours watching Elmo and somehow he grows on you.

Our theme for Julie's gifts was Hawaii!n Lucky duck!!

Eric and his spoils...Annie gave him some Utah Jazz paraphernalia...so he can go to church basketball properly decked out!

I got an iPad from Eric, a sheep skin rug from Carli & Chuck and Eclipse and Justin Bieber (well, not the real Justin Bieber....unfortunately!).

I had Carli this year...which was fun because she's pretty easy to buy for.

This was from Carli and Chuck to Jim...but it was one of my favorite gifts of the year...Santa Snuggie!!!

We got Jim a wall hanging for his office..."courage is being sacred to death and saddling up anyway..." gotta love that John Wayne.

Eric had Adam this year...we got him a custom made BYU quilt...we hoped he liked it...it was hard to top last years BYU helmet chip holder!

That Grady is ridiculously cute...oh how he can melt your heart!

And the final gift everyone got was news that we are all going to Disneyland in February and a sweatshirt to commemorate it! wE'Re gOiNG to dISneYLanD!!!!!

Foothill Ward Christmas party

Max did so well this year with Santa Claus...he really is growing up so fast!

Santa just asked Max what he wanted for Christmas..."Ummmm..."

This was our first activity as members of the Foothill ward in the Rock Springs stake.

We've already met some awesome couples and Max has so many friends that are his age in the nursery.

Jim & Julie will attest to the fact that Max loves pulling those "balls" from the tree!

This just makes me laugh...his son dropped a pitcher of hot chocolate and it landed perfectly square on the ground and just shot up like an erupting volcano...her you can see him trying to reach it.

Max playing the piano...

Dancing with some of his new friends...

This adorable little girl was dressed up as a Christmas tree...

Me and the Max!!!

Twas the night before Christmas...

We're horrible and did not really get a chance to send these out...know that we were thinking of you all and wishing you the season's best!

December Catch up...

We know that we've slacked on our posts lately...we've just been busy moving, getting Christmas underway...anyway, here are some pictures....Max riding a horse (for about two seconds!)

Riding around with the horse drawn carriage...

Max enjoyed it...after he thawed out!

Annie and her girls came to visit...unfortunately we only got to spend a day with her...she is so fun and her girls were a blast, too. We decided to go to the pit and roast some marshmallows...and sing some Christmas carols...I'd forgotten what a pretty voice Annie has...she even sang harmony to Jingle Bells.

It was pretty cold...but Max had his Spiderman protection!

Annie and Julia...she was so excited about s'mores...she kept telling us over and over that she wanted to roast marshmallows...Julia was excited about s'mores, too!

The pay off for enduring the cold!

Delicious!

We also got to spend some time with Meradith & Jason and her girls...Max loves kissing babies...Scarlett didn't seem to mind, either.

We went out to eat at an all-you-can -eat that was so good...but we had to do the faces afterwards...you all know that one...the freaking full fat face!!

Nawlins!!

I just got back from New Orleans. I was there for a week on business. The atmosphere in New Orleans was awesome. I listened to a lot of jazz music and ate some really tasty Cajun food.

On Bourbon Street they had these Slurpee machines all over the place. Upon closer inspection I realized these were alcoholic Slurpee's and I remembered a story Aimei told me about visiting New Orleans as a child. Lets just say they really should have carded a confused 9 year old with a sweet tooth.

The French Market was really cool. It was this long tunnel of shops. They had exotic meats, spices, and other local trinkets for sale. I bought a bunch of local spices for Aimei and was all excited when I brought them home. She then showed me where I could buy all these spices at Walmart. Curse you Walmart!

They had a bunch of voodoo shops in the area. There were spell books and magic powders for sale. They don't let you take pictures inside the shops but I snapped this photo from the outside window. They had shrunken heads in one of the shops. I wanted to ask how much a shrunken head would cost but I was too scared.

Street performer. Not really a baby.

There were painters all along this street. I thought this guy was amazing until I saw he was painting the same portrait over and over again.

This guy was sitting on the street. After I took the picture of him he became furious with me. He screamed "How dare you take a picture of me. How rude." As I walked away I thought, "If you have tattoos on your face and a snake around your neck, don't be surprised if people take pictures of you."

I walked and walked every single day after my business meetings. There was so much to see. I actually put holes in the heels of my socks. I think I bought them at Walmart. Curse you Walmart!

One of the Worlds largest Gingerbread houses

After Thanksgiving and my grandmother's funeral we needed some levity...so, off to San Francisco we went!

This shot was for Eric since he had to go back to work!


I left my heart...
Look at that face!
Eric and I took a picture in front of this tree three seasons ago...

Man, I forgot how fat I was! Me and the Max-ers!
And the WoRLd's largest Gingerbread house!
Happy Holidays!!!!