Phillips Family Christmas Card

Here is our seasonal greeting card. No need to wait for it in the mail, it's here!

2015 has just flown by! It doesn't seem that long ago that Paul had just started toddling around, now he's running, climbing, jumping, and diving all over our lives. Not to mention talking! Most of what he says in unintelligible, a lot only Lee and I can translate, but a few words are very clear. He's also invented his own pantomime sign language for those oh so important things he can't figure out how to say. Paul is into planes, trains, and automobiles. He loves books, movies, playing outside, and general dare-devilry. This weekend we visited Tubac to see their Luminaries and Paul got to meet Santa Claus. Paul was doing this hilarious face and I am not really sure what it means.



Lee has been kept busy at work, but not so busy that he hasn't been able to do fun things with us. With all the fun trips we've been able to do as well as fun weekends around here, we've really appreciated the 9/80 schedule that gives him every second Friday off.

I've had the chance to do some projects with a local theater this year. I taught musical theater for a week long arts camp, I was also in a production of "Almost Maine" in November. It's been nice to get back into theater scene, I am looking forward to more of that next year.

I'm going to keep this short, you can learn more about our exciting year on past blog posts. For now, just know that our weather is better than yours (finally!) but we hope you enjoy a white Christmas, I certainly miss the chill, snow covered nights of Christmas up north.

Merry Christmas or, as we say in our neck of the woods, Feliz Navidad! Have a happy new year with all the challenges and blessings life brings.

Love, Claire, Lee and Paul

The Big Two

Two years old. The terrible Twos. 730 days. Paul turned two last weekend and now he is exactly as cute as he ever was, he just knows more words. His latest word is "Ham." Fear not! We documented his big day with pictures. Enjoy!
Grandma Jamie visited us and we celebrated all week long. We visited the Desert Museum:

She sacrificed her feet so the mean ducks wouldn't bite Paul.

Paul insisted on sitting on every brass Javalina at the entrance.

 

 

 

We also visited the Air and Space Museum. Hundreds of planes, jets, engines, missiles...

Paul and Lee head to the Moon!

You don't want to ride on a plane that Paul is flying

 Paul's Birthday happened to coincide with the Pecan Festival this year, so we went there to get some treats, a balloon animal, a pony ride, and see lots of tractors.

Paul is way into tractors now.

All the fun of a fancy carnival birthday party, none of the expense or stress, I don't think we're going to do better than this for Paul's 3rd Birthday.

A Very Potter Halloween

We tried to fit as much Halloween fun in these past couple of weeks as we could. We went to the Stake Halloween Carnival:

Lee and I were assaulted by several young Hogwarts students.

Paul cheated at all the carnival games to get maximum prizes, but no one seemed to mind. We also had a ward Trunk-or-Treat which Paul enjoyed with a little help from his friend:

Not going to share that candy!

We went to Buckalew Farms with cousins Katie and Kasey to feed and pet farm animals, go through the corn maze, and ride in a tractor pulled wagon to the pumpkin patch and choose out a pumpkin.

Paul loved the goats and this turkey.

And to wrap it all up, we had a Halloween party and did some Trick-or-Treating. What a sugar overload!

I have no idea how many cookies Paul ate. I lost track.

Margo Poulsen and Paul Phillips

Professor Quirrell, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Dobby.

Now we have far too much left over candy and junk food, so please come to my house and eat all my sugar. Please.

All-Terrain Fun

This weekend Lee ran in a Mud Terrain Obstacle Dirt Race 5K thingy, Paul and I cheered him on.

There was a big ole tank of water right at the finish line that all the racers had to climb in and out of, so Lee finished the race not so much muddy as soaked!

I took a video at one of the obstacles, excuse my poor camera-ship. Paul kept trying to join the race so my attention was more than a little divided.

We got free admission to Old Tucson after the race so we took some time to walk around and take Paul on a couple of train and "horseless carriage" rides.

Fun Fact: This very car was used in the film "The Three Amigos"

Yes, overall we had a very busy weekend. The race looked like so much fun, maybe I'll join Lee next year, but I will probably go a lot slower and fall off the monkey bars. And here's a final shot of our little monkey:

Labor Day Weekend!

I invited Megan and Mitch Jones to come visit us for Labor Day weekend as a late birthday surprise for Lee, and what a weekend it was! Lee was pretty shocked to see his niece Aubrie show up at a restaurant where he thought we were meeting friends. After a delicious lunch, we took the kiddos to the children's museum.

On school days the place is practically empty, so Paul and Aubrie had no competition for the most fun exhibits.

Paul loved to tickle Kaden and give him kisses.

 We were very fortunate to have a rainy Saturday. It kept things cool enough for us to do some hiking and a picnic at Madera Canyon.

We threw rocks in the river. Paul tipped in head first while trying to get a particular pebble, so we took off his wet shirt and soothed his wounded ego.

We played lots of games and had all kinds of fun, indoor and out, and ate great food. The kids exhausted each other, and us, and by Monday morning we were not at all ready to say good-bye. We can't wait to visit them and for them to visit us again.

Home Improvement: Seuss Edition

It only took me a year, but here is Paul's nursery! Fully decorated and whimsical enough to make Pintrest puke.

Welcome to Paul's Room!

Stylish, safe, and colorful crib.

I think the next step is to learn the Alphabet Song.

Fun photos hanging on the closet door.

Dresser decked with craftified lamp, favorite books, and some fuzzy friends.`

Homemade curtains styled after the head gear of a certain cat.

Green Eggs and Ham quilt By: Grandma Jamie ABC Pillow By: Me.

There you go! The only room in our house that deserves this many photos. I am very proud of how it turned out, I assume Paul will never notice how cute it is, but I will notice.

We did stuff again.

Every once and a while we do stuff. Sometimes we bring a camera with us to the stuff. Yesterday, we did a whole day of stuff and took some pictures of it.

Morning Stuff: Tucson Children's Museum

We got wise and got an annual pass to the Children's Museum. Now we can go somewhere that is fun for Paul and out of the heat, we even figured out where the free parking is!

Paul is a serious chef.

Paul would usually have to fight off a crowd to drive the fire truck.

After that fun (Paul really didn't want to leave) we had lunch with our awesome cousins, the Websters, and we all went up to Mount Lemmon to hike. It has become a favorite haven from summer. Near the peak, the aptly named town of Summerhaven sits at about 8000 ft above sea level, and about 50 degrees below Tucson's temperatures (assuming you go the same days we do.)

Paul pretends he is going to walk the whole way.

We got treated to a really foggy day. Don't see much fog in Tucson!

I pretend to be a good photographer.

Paul kept pointing the binoculars at things and saying "cheese!"

Our little family stares into the foggy abyss.

I thought a hiking photo would look more artsy than this. Oh well.

As we neared the end of our hike, Paul started thinking it was funny to run the wrong direction down the trail. We had to bribe him to come back.

Family Reunion

We had a great family reunion last month. I am going to share some photos and videos from our trip. Hope you enjoy them!

Weston and Cooper Johnston posed with me at Thanksgiving Point.

A whole gaggle of Burnett family at the Rose Garden.

Lee and Paul in the Italian Garden.

Paul and Liam (Sanderson) are kindred spirits. They both love dinosaurs, fruit snacks, and chasing geese.

Here's Lee at the grill, making Sonoran Hot Dogs for everyone!

At This is the Place State Park, we tried to walk on stilts. Contrary to what Garrett says, we were not born to do this. Lee, on the other hand, was basically a champ at it!

Paul just wanted to ride this train. Over and over and over again.

Up at Mirror Lake, we had a great time fishing and kayaking and getting sun burned. Paul is really into throwing rocks in water, so it was right up his alley.

Stella Burnett is so proud of catching a fish!

And now to share Paul's new tricks! I couldn't be prouder of the following two accomplishments: