A Flood of Doughnut Goodness

We have been making strong efforts as of late to get Camille going with this whole labor thing. Our latest remedy is walking and eating pineapple...neither of which has worked. At any rate, this past Saturday we were abruptley awakened by lots of dump trucks and loud noises. We ran outside to see the river, which is about two blocks from our house, had overrun its banks. So, we did what everyone else in a small Wyoming town did...got our camera and ran over to take some pictures (don't judge our white trash ways, we needed entertainment!!). We were one of about 15 or so people there with our cameras. (Note: As Adam was taking this picture Camille said the river isn't the only thing overflowing...as she pointed at her belly...)The river was raging!! Adam kept singing the primary song, "Give said the little stream..." However, we strongly doubt the people in these houses would have found the humor in that song. They had sandbagged their yards. On Sunday we went to the same place and the river had exceeded the banks up to the sandbags.
The city was forced to make sand walls near our house to prevent flooding. Adam was then forced to sing "Enter Sandman," to which Camille said the little stream song was funnier...Note: With each passing day Camille has grown less tolerant of Adam's lame jokes...the baby must come soon!!!

The biggest news of the week was not so much the flooding, but rather, DOUGHNUT DAY was on Friday (note: Doughnut Day is the first Friday of every June). Camille was not feeling the greatest throughout the week and we really thought Blasto would be so overcome with the Doughnut Day spirit that he would be born...but, no such luck... So, we passed the time by singing the happy Doughnut Day song and loaded our bellies with sugar. We are pretty sure that Blasto is an 'in utero' fan of doughnuts.

Our work station for the homemade tastey blasts of cinnamon and sugar.Adam was a man possessed...possessed with a sugar high!! Despite his evil look in this picture, he still remains a happy little doughnut elf...making tastey treats for neighbors. (note: His eyes are really creepy...he is more like a doughnut demon...)We tried a new wrinkle....in years past we have only done a sugar/cinnamon mix. This year we did a vanilla glaze, which was wickedly good (or in Adam's case, demonically good). The only downside to the glaze is that it is pretty much pure sugar. Blasto had so much energy after doughnut day he about kicked a hole through Camille's stomach.After finally finishing up the batch, we took them around to some friends. Camille had Adam drive over every bump in the road...in hopes of encourage Blasto's entrance into the world. (Note: another wrinkle to our celebration this year, we put our cards on a toothpick and stuck them in the doughnuts...Adam thought he was so clever for coming up with the idea.)Today (Monday) was the first official day of Camille's maternity leave. We are headed over to the hospital in a matter of hours to get Blasto here. We still don't have a name picked out, but are hopeful over the next few hours/days a favorite will emerge. Adam also had work off today and we decided to do what every mom-to-be would do...we went hiking in the mountains.We took a picnic lunch with us, but struggled to find a table to dine at because the river had flooded so much that all the camp grounds looked like this.

We also found a great suspension bridge. Adam was jumping up and down on it...which made Camille freak out. The river was so high it was almost touching the bridge. Adam didn't seem to mind and ran back and forth, jumping as high as he could.

Camille looking very nervous on the bridge. As Camille walked across Adam began to sing, "Like a bridge over troubled waters..." Camille once again...was not amused.

I feel the need, the need for speed!!

If you haven't noticed to this point, we have taken a picture of Camille every four weeks of her pregnancy...and we cannot believe this could be the last one. Camille has reached the uncomfortable, get this baby out of me, stage. She gets up four to five times a night to go to the bathroom or to have a visit from her good friend, Braxton Hicks. Which, hasn't been the worst thing to happen. The worst thing to happen is that she put a water proof mattress cover on our bed in case her water breaks in the night. Adam HATES the cover. It feels like one is sleeping on a giant diaper. Last night Adam said he felt like he was in Pampers heaven. It even sounds like a diaper. Oh, the joys of pre-parenthood...sleeping on giant diapers.Part of Camille's little nasty nesting ways has been to create a "Car Seat Canopy," She got the idea from pretty much every mom in Utah, but also Adam's sister's good friend, Kara (If you followed that) helped with the planning. Camille slaved away at the sewing machine for a few weeks. The finished product is well worth it. Adam calls it a hot box, and is very worried about Blasto being stuck in a small, covered location with a dirty diaper (hence, hot box). Despite its cuteness, it could be a stink bomb waiting to happen. We will tolerate simply because the cuteness factor outweighs the stinkiness.The underneath part (not sure if that is the technical term) is a different pattern. Adam was worried that it was too girly, so Camille tried to get neutral patterns. We are both happy with the finished product. Blasto can now be a little cowboy baby in his little covered wagon. Adam now wants to name him either John Wayne the Duke Phillips or Clint Eastwood Cheif Red Tomahawk Phillips. Camille said both names are offensive in so many ways. The name search continues for our little pilgrim.In other shocking news....Adam acutally did well in a pinewood derby (He took third and was awarded a trophy consisting of a matchbox car screwed onto some wood). When Adam was young, he and his brothers always got very excited about doing the pinewood derby. Heck, what little boy isn't!! However, the Phillips family is not known for their skills with a saw. Generally, their dad would saw off the front part at a slant, and their Grandpa would carve the specific stuff with his pocket knife. The boys would paint it, and then to top it off, a GIANT metal washer would be glued to the top for weight. Not the most attractive vehicle on the track...nor the fastest. Every year Adam's mom would sit him and his brothers down and say, "You all have lots of wonderful talents...but, pinewood derby is not one of them. So, when...I mean, if you lose today, have fun and DO NOT CRY!!"So, when Adam was asked to do a car along with all the young men he works with at church, he decided to turn the tables a little....He totally cheated. He told Camille he had never won, but wanted one day to make his mom proud of winning a pinewood derby. So, he ran down to Ace Hardware and purchased as many metal washers (in honor of his Grandpa) and super glued them all over his car. It actually looked cool!! Then he greased the heck out of his axles. In the picture below, he held up the scout sign and told Camille, "On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty, and I will do all the cheating I possibly can so I can win one pinewood derby in my life!!"Here is his car. He called it Mr. Roboto, however, as the night went on, it took on many names, such as: The widowmaker, wing nut, black sabbath, Midnight Run, Your Mom, The Shadow, Deacon's Death March, and The Machine. In the end it weighed around two pounds (Official regulation size for a real pinewood derby car is no more than 4 ounces).Camille was so happy for Adam and his victory, she quickly took an artsy picture showing off both the trophy and the car. As soon as Adam walked in the house he ran straight for the phone to tell his mom he had finally won!!! No more tears to be shed over pinewood derby!!

When you're going to San Francisco

Camille is looking great so far as Blasto continues to get bigger. This picture is actually a few weeks old due to the fact that we have been so busy as of late. We are still struggling with a name and have been given lots of good suggestions...buuuuutttt....we just can't decide on one. Maybe he will be one of those cool kids with five hyphenated names.Luckily for Blasto, Camille had two showers thanks to her mother and mother-in-law (thanks to both of them and everyone else who helped, they were wonderful). Without these showers poor Blasto would be coming home buck naked and we would be forced to call him "Nature Boy".
But, alas, everyone was extremely generous and gave Blasto lots of great clothes, toys, blankees, diapers, wipes, and lotions. Adam was very sad Blasto recieved no XBox games.
Shortly after the showers ended, Adam was off to San Francisco for some good ole lawyer training (Camille was unable to attend because Blasto and the Doctor said "NO"). Luckily for Adam, both sides of our families have Aunts and Uncles in the bay area. Adam first met up with the Zollingers for some great Vietnames food. The waiter took the picture and some of us look better than others in this picture. Poor Adam looks as though his shirt is flowing in the wind and Aunt Lez is front and center...but, despite the picture, Adam loved hanging out and eating the great food.

Adam's hotel was next to Ghiradelli Chocolate factory. He would walk over almost every night and get their world famous Hot Fudge Sundaes. When he got home he asked that everyone call him Jenny Craig.

Adam's favorite part of the entire trip was his tour of Alcatraz. The day he went out there the wind was blowing really hard, it was raining, and it was cold....nothing new to him considering it was snowing in Wyoming.

Another one of Adam's favorite meals was the clam chowder. He claims this is the best one he had on his trip and it was right before he went out to Alcatraz, so he knew he would walk a lot and not feel so fat...sadly though, after he got back from his prison tour, he went back to Gharidelli's.

On his last day in the bay area he went and visited his Uncle and Aunt, George and Joan. He loved his visit with them. However, he was forced to do hard labor while there. He climbed a tree early in the morning and picked a bucket of oranges, then squoze the oranges for fresh orange juice (he wont lie, his arm was a little sore after that). After breakfast, he then became a mechanic and had to jump start the car. It was hard labor, but very worth it. Adam had a great time. As a reward for the hard labor, George and Joan took Adam to Half Moon Bay (what a great place!!) and we ate at Barbara's Fish Trap...BEST FOOD EVER!!

Adam, just to top off his diet busting trip, consumed all the fish and chips in site...Note: If you look over Adam's right shoulder there was a man wearing a terrible wig. Adam's uncle was intrigued and wanted Adam to ask him to take the wig back to Wyoming to keep his head warm. Adam declined.

Thanks to the Zollingers and Phillips Families for putting up with Adam

April showers bring May snowstorms in Wyoming

In mid-April the weather turned beautiful, and so Adam broke out his lawn mower and declared himself king of the lawn.Because we have had such nice weather our tulips have finally come up. We slaved for a couple of days to dig out a garden and put in a border. Within days of all our work, all the grass and weeds had grown back, which is why Adam hates gardening. We also have another nemisis beside weeds...DEER!! We came out one morning to see our wonderful plants gnawed down to the ground. Adam was so full of rage. He looked across the street and saw the cursed deer sitting there staring at him. So Adam charged them yelling...they didn't even move. They are so used to people and eating our flowers they just stood there. So Adam grabbed a rock and threw it at them, and then called them "Jerks!!"
A few weeks later, they bloomed (with the help of some deer repellant that smelled like a mix between urine, poop, and pure death...sure kept the demon deer away). They were so pretty. We ordered them from Holland and were a bit worried that they would not come up in cold Wyoming. They fought through the winter and came up.
Adam then decided that it would a great idea to add those little lights. They look very cool at night and you can see a couple of them here. Sadly enough, as we type this the snow is coming down and has been all day. Our poor tulips are now slumped to the ground and covered with almost three to four inches of snow...stupid spring in Wyoming!!

Leggo my Eggo!!!

We guess an Easter post is better late than never. Camille is deep in the throes of tax season and is rarely seen outside of her cubicle (Adam and others call her a Cubite, because she is of the people of the Cube city). Because of this, the entire week before Easter, both of us were looking forward to getting out of town and visiting Camille's family. Saturday morning we woke up and Camille went to work a few hours while Adam got everything loaded in the car and ready to go. As the morning wore on it started to snow, and the wind blew, and soon, we were worried we wouldn't make it out of Dodge. Well, despite bad weather, we still got out of town. When we got to Camille's house this is what our hub caps looked like (totally iced over). Adam thought it was way cool!! He said it reminded him of the video game "Spy Hunter," which he played a lot as a kid. In the game, some of the cars had spikes on the tires and they would take out other cars. Adam then said he is even more excited for Blasto to come because he would have thought it was as cool as Adam did. Of course we had eggs...although, Adam can be very eggcentric and eggotistical...ahahahahah.
Camille was very happy to be painting eggs and not doing taxes. She is very concerned about the eggonomy...ok, that one was pretty lame.
Adam thought his BYU egg was eggcelent (one more, anyone? any laughs? no?)

In all the years we have been married and painted eggs together, one thing has certainly become apparent. You can clearly tell the difference between the eggs girls color and the eggs boys color.

Camille's family was very happy to participate in all the Easter festivities. Camille's sister, Jill was so happy she made an intense face and shook her hands so fast the camera couldn't pick them up in the picture.

The nice thing about Easter this year is that it was LDS General Conference. Camille had been reading about the various traditions of LDS families while watching Conference. Almost all of them involved food and breakfast. One of the traditions was that a person would make something from their mission. So, Camille thought it would be great for Adam to make Crepes (from France). So, he woke up from his post conference nap (he looks very tired in this pic) and went to work. He makes the crepes from scratch and flips them with his bare hands. Of course there was plenty of fruit to eat with them, but there was also Nutella. Nutella is very french, and Adam said a Crepe is not a Crepe without Nutella. It is a fun tradition that we will try and keep it up.

Sewing the seeds of love

Blasto is progressing nicely and Camille is cruising along.Although in this picture you cannot tell she is pregnant...weird. Anyway, Camille has been hit with the 'Craft Bug' in which she feels an overwhelming need to sew millions of burp clothes, blaknies, and other little things for Blasto. In her search for the cutest fabric ever, she was lucky enough to get a great tip from our good friend, Nicole (shout out to Nicole in Utah!!). Thanks to her tip, Camille was happy. Adam was even more happy when he was given the ok to get both Batman and Spiderman fabric so that Blasto will feel more manly. G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Star Wars were out of stock...the search continues. Camille was very hard at work, and you don't mess with Camille when she is at work. As many of you who have attempted to call Camille during tax season have found out.Camille was very pleased with the finished product. It is a burp cloth for those of you who didn't know. Adam thought it was very cool until he found out that this is what Blasto will puke all over. He then began to second guess his decision for Batman fabric...Adam exclaimed, "I mean, who pukes on Batman!!??"

On another baby related note...we got a car seat. Blasto will now be able to safely travel with us outside the womb. A brave bear volunteered his services to be our test run. Note: No animals were harmed in the making of this blog...however, shortly after this picture was taken Adam did throw the bear around like it was a basketball.

They're Magically Delicious

When Camille was a little girl her mother would get up on St. Patrick's day morning and make her and her sister green pancakes. Camille thought that since we didn't really do anything to celebrate the day we should carry on the tradition. Camille was very eager to stir the pancake mixture that was sprinkled with magic pixy drops to make it green.Adam's job was to make the green eggs, which, by the looks of his face, he too was very eager to carry out.
The eggs turned out to be a lot more 'festive' than we anticipated. They were so green!!
The magic pixy drops even made their way into the milk that we drank.

In the end, the overpowering green eggs turned out to look more like salad. If you closed your eyes they would taste like eggs, but to look at them while you ate made them taste different. Mind over matter...

The green pancakes were fit for a leprechaun king...or Adam, becuase he ate a lot of them. His insides had to be stained green for weeks.