Baby's First Visitors

We had Grandparents come and stay over the Holidays. Here are some pictures. My brain is scattered and exhausted so I can't really come up with anything more eloquent than that.

On Christmas Eve, we played in the backyard in the sunshine (please don't throw things at me.) Paul was bouncing off the walls to have Grandma Karen, Grandpa Dave, and Uncle Kody to play with him. Laszlo stared indifferently at the new faces and pooped.

On Christmas Day we attended our abbreviated church service before opening gifts. Paul really tore through his presents and Laszlo's and is still convinced there are gifts waiting for him to unwrap nearly a month later. Laszlo stared at the Christmas tree indifferently and slept.

We got a little bit of snow this year!...Because we went to Kitt Peak Observatory which is at the top of a mountain. Paul loved throwing snowballs and making foot prints. Laszlo stared indifferently at various astronomical instruments and dozed.

Not a solar telescope, just the regular type.

We went with Grandma and Grandpa to the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix. It is the kind of place that is just as fun for the adults as the kids, so if you are in the area and looking for something to do it is always a good choice.

Most of the photos I took were in this water area because it was Paul's favorite. If we had spent our entire day in that one spot it would have been just the same to him.

We made sure to see some Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple before heading back home.

We had Grandma Jamie and Grandpa Duane come for a visit too. Laszlo was blessed on January 1, 2017, all his Grandparents were in attendance.

Grandma and Grandpa Phillips

Grandma and Grandpa Burnett

I had to get some cute photos of our boy, of course:

 And I can't help but embarrass my parents by including these photos:

Our final big holiday outing was with Grandma Jamie at the Phoenix Zoo. Since we had to get Pa Duane to the airport, we thought we would make a day of it and go to this really big and fancy zoo:

Paul had so much fun and Laszlo slept through the whole thing. That is what I call a successful day at the zoo!

Now all our visitors are gone, our decorations stored, and Paul is asking if it is Halloween yet.

2016 Christmas Card

I don't mail out Christmas cards. I don't know all the addresses and I am way too lazy to find out. This blog is now a Christmas card. I will talk about all the stuff we've done this year and how wonderful and charming we are, punctuated with pictures from our December outings: Tubac's Luminaria, and the Sahuarita Winter Light Parade.

Jumbo marshmallows in Tubac!

Paul had a nice chat with Santa and got his wish: "Treats!"

We kicked off the year with some globe trotting, for details review all my travel blog posts about how cool our trip was. I could say that now I can scratch seeing Paris off my bucket list, but I wanted to go back as soon as I got home. I am already imagining a second trip.

I asked Lee what he achieved this year, he said his achievement is not aging. Touche. I was in my first melodrama this Spring, I survived another Arizona summer, and I created a human being, so a pretty productive year.

Paul's big achievements this year include: Quoting his favorite movies at me, his latest is from the Lego Movie: "Honey, where are my paaaaaaaants?" He has learned bits and pieces of a few songs and he sings his life recitative style kind of all the time. No idea where he gets it from. I am most proud that, as a family, we made sure Paul had no accidents for 6 days. Yes, it was a group effort, but Paul is pretty well potty trained and is well on his way to saying good-bye to diapers for good!

If I had a dollar for every comment we got on Paul's cute little hat, it would have covered the cost of all our gifts this year.

Laszlo's greatest achievement thus far, in my estimation, is last night sleeping from 11 PM to 5 AM. The single greatest gift he could give me is to do a repeat tonight and every night until he is ready to sleep even longer.

People seem to feel that 2016 was a crappy year, and yes, losing Professor Snape was a serious blow, the whole election stunk worse than Laszlo's sour milk burps, but we have seen some miracles in our home. We have been blessed to have now two sons to make us laugh and drive us crazy. Focusing on the positive, I have seen what a great year this was and I hope everyone who reads this can re-examine their own lives and see all the wonderful thing they have seen and experienced even through the hard times.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and God bless you all!

Love,

Claire, Lee, Paul, and Laszlo

Mamma's Ghetto Photo Studio

Between Christmas, new baby, and landscaping, it was hard to justify spend hundreds of dollars on professional newborn photos. Especially when I would rather have professional family pictures done when Laszlo is a little older. Like, he smiles and holds up his own head.
So I decided on a DIY approach to newborn pictures and read a few tips on how to get good baby pictures. Here are the results:

One day old, in the hospital.

4 days old, give or take a day.

Brothers! Three weeks old.

3 weeks, 2 days old.

3 weeks, 5 days old

It may be a while till I can get anymore brother pictures, getting Paul to sit for those was like pulling teeth. I manage to snap like 7 photos and half of those were blurry. Next time I will have to use duct tape.

Outdoor Thanksgiving

While most everyone else was toiling over their ovens to create the perfect feast, we lazed about in the sunshine in our backyard. A newly landscaped backyard! In three days, the good fellows of Red Desert Landscape Renovations transformed our yard from plain dirt and weeds into this:

The artificial grass is so soft we had to kick our shoes off immediately after going outside, and Paul refuses to wear shoes in the backyard now. We had a nice little picnic and ran around playing "tickle and chase"--Paul's favorite game--while Laszlo napped on his blanket.

Now we are prepared to plant some shrubberies and flowers and call the yard finished! This year, I am especially thankful to have a backyard for us to play in!

Our Family of Four

With the arrival of George Laszlo Phillips on November 12th, that makes our family a party of four. We are lucky that baby Laszlo has been such an angel and Paul has graciously taken to big brotherhood with minimal acting out. Paul is always concerned about where the baby is, what he's doing, and likes to hold the baby on his lap. Laszlo likes to eat, occasionally open his eyes, and poop in his sleep.

7 lbs 4 oz, 19.5 in, born at 8:55 A.M. 11/12/16

If I look pale in this photo, it is probably because my body was in shock. If you are into harrowing birth stories, give me a ring and I will tell you all about it (but probably a slightly toned down version where I in no way sobbed like a toddler or panicked or anything totally un-macho) I will spare the rest of you and let you go on enjoying your pristine visions of the miracle of life.

This guy is just relieved he didn't have to play doctor
in the front seat of our Prius.

I am not shocked by how tiny my baby is, I am shocked by how big my 3 year old is. I swear he was smaller last week! He suddenly looks bigger and older and in all things more grown up than he did 6 days ago.

We are extremely glad to have only had to spend one night in the hospital this time around. It meant only one night of nurse-interrupted sleep, less hospital food, and we were able to spend Paul's birthday at home. We played with his gifts, ate cupcakes, and now Paul thinks there is a never ending supply of presents coming his way. With his birthday so near Christmas he isn't wrong.

We really love our little Laszlo! It seems that the dearest desire of his heart is to be held as much as possible, which we are happy to oblige.

Halloween 2016

I love Halloween and I am thrilled that Paul has picked up on spirit of the holiday. I can't count the number of times we watched "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" this month, and he loves "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Paul was super excited about getting pumpkins and painting them:

For those of you who have never lived through a hot Halloween, you need to understand that if we carve a pumpkin on October 31st, it is molding by November 1st. They just don't last here in 80-90 degree weather. That is why this year we decided to try painting them instead. Then we can have them for a couple weeks instead of a couple hours. It was a definite success!

I took Paul to a few houses trick-or-treating. he actually wanted to go back home after about 10 houses, which was the right amount of walking for this waddling mama.
Here is our annual family group costume photo: Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Christopher Robin:

The gray blob is a stuffed animal Eeyore, by the way.

And, for those of you who love adorable things, I let the camera roll and accidentally caught this:

I think Paul is a musician at heart because he knows that once you get to "G" it is time to start over again with "A".