Tax and Spring Season

There have been many times over the past two months that we have tried to sit down and dream up a wonderful blog post...but, unfortunately for us, we just haven't done much. Camille has been very busy working tax season hours. Adam and Grady have been managing just fine, especially because Grady got a new high chair and can effectively eat anything and everything. In other breaking news at the Phillips' house...Grady is now sporting this wonderful ensemble to church. Many a young lady were swooned by this James Bond look alike. Adam's big news: As many know, Adam loves basketball. He loves to watch, but especially loves to play. He had a great city league team this year. The season started in January and ended in March with a tournament. His team was undefeated and won the championship. He, much to his dismay, was not named the MVP, but still got a championship sweatshirt and trophy. Adam called himself Kobe, while everyone else on his team called him Danny Ferry. Note: If you don't know who Danny Ferry is...Google him. He was a slightly balding NBA basketball player who could shoot the three...very similar to Adam...with the three that is.

Adam's Big News part II: These pictures were taken by Camille and she was sitting high in the stands, and so they are not very clear. But, Adam is out on the court. He was personally invited by committee members to represent our little town in a basketball game against the Harlem Ambassadors Basketball team. Adam hit five or six threes, but said he desired to play more above the rim...like he usually does. Note: Adam does not jump let alone run. After the game all of our friends and fans took pictures and talked to us. It was a fun evening. Grady is now 10 months old. We cannot believe he is getting so big and doing so much. He is quite the little boy. He is a mover and shaker and destroys everything he can touch...especially if he knows he is not supposed to have it. Our friends gave us this hippo toy vacuum. Grady loves it!! However, his walking is still very shaky and within seconds of this picture being taken, fell and had a perfect bruise line down the middle of his face. Ah well...good to be young.

Other accomplishments for Grado-tato: Adam's mom has been staying with us this past week to help out while Camille worked insane tax season hours. During her stay she was able to get Grady to clap and play patty-cake. He loved clapping so much, we couldn't get him to stop. That night we put him in his crib and for about 40 minutes we could hear him doing little claps until he fell asleep. He is quite proud of his clapping skills. Adam is just happy he can now clap with him during BYU games.

Grado-tato accomplishment part II: Grady can almost wave. It is not a great wave, and is actually the one armed action for "Throw it in the oven!" from patty-cake...but, he has been doing it when we leave...so we are counting it.

Grady's non-accomplishments: Grady has failed to produce any teeth yet. Camille jokes that he will need dentures. Adam says he is Benjamin Button and aging backwards and will get teeth at 22. We are actually not too sad he doesn't have teeth because Grady loves to chew on everything. We don't want teeth marks on the TV stand.

The Land

As we previously mentioned a couple of posts ago, Adam's parents were good enough to give all of his family a trip to Disneyland for Christmas. We planned and planned, and finally the day came. When we left Wyoming it was cold and snowing, and the roads were terrible...but when we landed in California, it was nice and warm. This is the first day that we were there, and oddly enough, the only picture we have of all three of us together. Upon our arrival there was an immediate need to eat. We had heard the hand dipped corn dogs were out of this world. Adam had to have one, and so we went straight to the corn dog cart and purchased him a dog. He said it was heaven on a stick and with each bite angels would sing their hallelujahs.

Grady was rarely alone on this trip and always had the best company: COUSINS!! Odd Job (Audrey is her real name, but Adam gave her this nickname) was never far away and was the sweetest girl.
We were interested to see how it would work out going on all of the rides and enjoying the entire Disneyland experience with 20 Phillips's running around; but, it turned out to be the funnest time of our lives. We would joke around as we waited in line, torment the younger nieces and nephews, and generally heckle each other, which is what Phillips's do.

Here we are waiting to go on Indiana Jones, which was definitely a family favorite. Speaking of family favorites, we probably went on Pirates of the Caribbean 20 or so times. All of us, including Grado, could go on one boat (with all the corn dogs consumed by Adam, the boat was well weighted). After the hills, the pirates would sing Yo Ho! a pirate's life for me. Of course we would clap and sing along...funnest and most memorable experience ever!!

Adam and his nephew Dylan were pumped to go on Pirates. Although, many in the family assumed Adam was more excited that Dylan was wearing his BYU shirt.

The first few days we were there we could practically walk on the rides...however, as the weekend got closer and closer, the lines got longer and longer. The last day we were there (Saturday) we waited for close to an hour to get on one ride. However, the family still had a blast as we all waited in line.

As part of our fun times in the Land, we made reservations for everyone to eat at the Blue Bayou, which is the restaurant located on the Pirates ride itself. Grady slept through most of the meal, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. Camille was very excited to go in. Note: Disregard the Amazon woman standing over Camille's shoulder...she was not with our group.

Our biggest concern was that Grado-tato would be an ornery cuss because naps were hard to come by. However, we were pleasantly surprised. He did very well, and really LOVED all of the rides that he could go on.

Another favorite for everyone was the Pineapple Whips located just outside the Tiki Room. Camille was very focused and would not be deterred from eating her daily whip...that is until the last day we were there...the line for whips was a 45 minute wait.

Once again, waiting to get on the Indiana Jones ride. This picture made us all laugh because Adam's brother, Geoff looks to be in terrible pain, Camille's got the crazy eyes, Dylan is flashing gang signs, and Sis-in-law Jody is a little stoned....a lot stoned.

We cannot tell you how fun it was to run from ride to ride as a giant family. We would practically take up the entire line. This was the fam at Big Thunder Railroad. Almost everyone loved it...but Dylan (in the front) looks as though he is about to hurl.

The Blue Bayou was a great meal...Adam got so into the pirate spirit that he sported a hat and consumed large amounts of rum (well water, but you get the point). Note: Grado-tato is sleeping in the stroller directly in front of us...technically, this would be family picture number 2.

Adam is notorious for choosing poorly at restaurants. He has been his entire life. Camille and others are generally good pickers. Adam got some chicken thing, that was ok, but everyone else got the Monte Cristos...they were to die for!! Adam still is living with the pain and regret of his decision.

Grady was actually awake for some of the trip, and when he was, he was generally strapped to Adam's or Camille's chest. He was a happy boy and loved the cousins' goofy hat.

On our last day at the Land we had reservations to Goofy's Kitchen. We didn't know much about it, but Adam's brother and family had been before and said it was great. They did not let us down!! The food was fantastic, and there were a ton of characters there to entertain us as we ate. It was also Camille's Birthday, so they gave her special treatment. Note: As Adam was taking this picture he was wondering if Baloo was getting a bit too friendly with Camille. However, after checking the bear's size, decided to let it go.

Of course we wouldn't be a cheezy family on vacation at Disneyland if we didn't get matching sweatshirts. They actually turned out very cool and we dominated the family themed t-shirt/sweatshirt scene. This picture is of the adult boys. Note: Adam is a little too ambitious with his smile, Eric (first, left) was tolerant of having to take this picture, Chuck (middle, red) was flashing a confident bro-in-law smile, Bryan (next to Chuck) was giving a judgmental bro-in-law stare down of Chuck for stealing his thunder, Dad was giving a half-hearted ready to eat smile, while Geoff (last) was sleeping. The adult women: We actually had a much better picture, but it is hard to not put a picture up of Adam's sister, Annie making that Jurassic Park Dinosaur face while everyone else was smiling. Annie truly is a Phillips.

The entire family together for one big picture at Goofy's Kitchen. Well, Grady missed this pic. He was about two feet from Adam, asleep in his stroller. This was possibly one of the best and funnest vacations ever taken as a family. The magic Kingdom truly was magical for us.

Been a while

We are ready for the big game this weekend!! Adam does this thing that has bugged everyone around him his entire life. What is 'this thing' you ask? Well, he cannot just sit still when he is at home. He always has to be throwing a ball around. His mom says it came from his dad, who always is throwing a racquetball around...Adam's choice is a beach football or any ball for that matter. He throws it around when he is on the phone, when he is watching a game, when he is cooking dinner. He has broken more picture frames and home decorations than one can fathom at both our house and his mom's house. So, you can imagine that Grady also loves this football. One day he got a hold of it, and thought he was the coolest little boy in the world. Grady's other big thing is his hat. Adam has always loved hats. He wears them all the time. Grady is also into hats and will never rip them off when wearing them. For Christmas he got a little golfer cap. He wears it to church with his little sweater and corderoy pants. However, in this picture, he was too busy looking at his dad throwing the ball around.
He was a little more focused in this picture...and disregard the large amounts of drool on his sweater.
Grady's other big accomplishment has been his food consumption. He is a big eater and loves his solids. We heard from a friend (shout out to Tiffany!!) that MumMums rice crackers were great for little boys. Adam calls them Birdy Num Nums, but Grady loves them and devours them within seconds. Adam thought this picture was funny and so it was included...Camille says that someday Grady will pay Adam back.

Our other big news is our Christmas present finally came. Since Grady has come into our lives we have found it harder and harder to get to the gym, so collectively we gave ourselves a new elliptical machine. Little did we know it would require so much work. The box was about five feet tall and full of parts just waiting for assembly.

Adam is not so handy and was nervous. Once he spread all the parts out, he said, "Maybe we should ask someone in the ward to do this." Camille said, "Why don't you just try." He tried for a few seconds before Camille had to jump in and give him a hand. The nice thing about us as a couple is that we compliment each other well. Whenever we drive anywhere Adam is the driver and Camille is the navigator...the same goes for home projects, Camille is the teller of things to do, and Adam is the grunt laborer.

The grunt laborer and teller of things to do actually did a decent job. We got it together in about 3 hours and only had one little problem, which we did have to call someone in our ward to help us out with...but, we are happy with it, and Adam says he hopes to keep his girly figure up to date. Note: Please disregard all of Grady's crap in this picture. Note II: Adam also at one point had to assemble Grady's crap in this picture.

So, we are off to being more healthy and enjoying our Christmas present. Grady is now sitting up, getting big, and crawling everywhere. We have to keep a close eye on him. The other day while eating lunch it got a little too quiet. When we found him he had made his way into a plant and was eating the dirt.

Santa's Little Helper

We had a fast and furious Christmas. And like all Christmases we had our fair share of good times, bad times, drama, and delight. It started with bad times: Adam had to work up until Christmas Eve. He left work in the early afternoon, but when we checked the roads to head south, they were covered with snow and ice. So, our drive was long and a bit scary, but luckily Adam has the reflexes of seasoned truck driver and we got there safe. Note: Grady looked sharp in his new Christmas outfit...melting hearts around the world.
Our first stop on our Christmas tour around all of Wyoming was at Gma and Gpa Cartwright's. Grady was so inspired by Gpa's work ethic that he decided to check the personal ads with a highlighter to see what the job market looked like. Actually, this picture demonstrates that grandchildren can do and have whatever they want when at Gma and Gpa's house. Grady was very excited about Santa's visit (well, as excited as a 6 month old could be). He appears, in this photo, to be jumping for joy while clicking his heels while reaching for some stockings. It was at this point in the day that Adam decided Grady is a force of destruction. Shortly after this photo Grady had lost both socks, pulled the stockings down, and pooped.

Christmas Eve we headed over to Gma and Gpa Phillips' house. Grady was Santa's little helper...and was dang cute doing it. That evening we cooked/ate some great food (to the point that Adam was so uncomfortable Camille heard him say "Bye, bye belt!!"), sang some Christmas songs while we watched Cousin Max dance around the room, read the Christmas story, and quickly went to bed because we thought we heard Santa on the roof.

Lucky for Grady he was on the nice list and the next morning...Santa came!! He clearly did not understand the entire thing, but sure did know he got new toys and immediately played with them.

Uncle Eric's present from Aunt Annie was some killer Utah Jazz head and wrist bands. He rocked them throughout most of the day. While we were eating Adam could swear he saw Eric wiping the sweat from his brow after his 14th piece of bacon.

Grady's real Christmas present was the wrapping paper. He loved to stare at it, shake it, then eat it.

Santa's little elf helper made another appearance later on Christmas day. His job was to bring joy to his parents all day long...and allow them to sleep in...he failed miserably at his job. Note: On New Year's day he slept in until 10...a late Christmas present...and we all rejoiced!!

Um...much to Adam's displeasure, Grady thought this doll was very cool. He loved to stare at it, and would smile and talk to her. Adam says he is just practicing his moves for later in life...yeah, that's it...practicing. Note: Camille says it also looks like a little girl sitting on Santa's lap...

The best Phillips' tradition is the GIANT breakfast on Christmas morning. We always have TONS of bacon, poached eggs, Hollandaise sauce, english muffins, Finn and Haddie, fruit, hash browns...hmmm, bye, bye diet - hello gut!! Note: the incriminating photo of Uncle Eric eating bacon with sweat pouring from his brow.

We also opened presents, and there were presents to be had. This picture was taken at the moment everyone was informed that Adam's parents gave us all a trip to DISNEYLAND. Notice Aunt Jody's face of pure shock and awe...Uncle Chuck is Happy and Carli can't keep her mouth shut. The kids have only presents on their mind. The day after Christmas we headed back to the Cartwright's for part II. Grady got a new phone and jumped right in the box to play with it.

The box was a little hard to open and required not only one grandparent, but two to finally get the toy out.

Finally, Grady and Gpa had the phone out, and ready to play.

The big gift of the day was a Radio Flyer wagon. Grady will have hours and hours of enjoyment in this wagon. He was already excited to mess around in it.

And...at the end of a few hectic days, Gpa couldn't keep up with Grady.

It was a very fast weekend, but a great one, thanks to both our wonderful families!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!!!