Merry Christmas Pt. II

Merry Christmas

Finally, Winter

It seems like this has been the longest summer/sorta fall ever. It's finally cold and dreary and, while we may have changed our tune by mid-February, for now we're loving it.

Today is parties for Harper's friend, grocery shopping, tree-getting, tree-decorating, possible warm-cocktail-making and enjoying being inside in general.

More pics to come once we get all Christmased up.

In the meantime, we hope it's cold outside and warm inside wherever you are.

Fall!

We have some catching up to do...

We love Fall! It hasn't exactly been crisp but it's been eventful. We celebrated Mac Daddy's birthday (61!) in the mountains. We had a big time including Harper's first official touchdown!

We carved pumpkins and made pumpkin muffins, which believe it or not Harper actually ate! BTW, she also eats carrots now...huge deal around this place. We've been to several "on ice" productions including a very impressive Princesses on ice show (thanks, Nana!) that Margot watched every-single-second of (it was an hour and a half long) as if it were the most incredible thing she had ever laid eyes on. Professional ice skater maybe? (As long as it doesn't require much sleep, Margot will be great at it.) She clapped and smiled and waved at every performance.

As you can probably tell, we had an awesome Halloween. I think Halloween might be my new favorite "holiday" (as Harper calls it). Harper was a "pretty witch" named Spiderina, which thanks to Nonnie was quite an impressive costume complete with broom, hat and "armins" which is what Harper called the sleeves. Harper was so polite and told everyone Happy Halloween and thank you for the candy. "Margot the dog" toddled behind Harper and Jane to about 15 houses saying "twic twea" until she passed out from sheer exhaustion in the stroller.

Hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed making them!

The Lineup

It's still summer, technically. If feels like it should be fall already though, doesn't it? End of vacation, schools are back in session, football. Yet the temperatures make it feel like it's still summer. Which makes sense, I suppose, since it still is.

Anyway.

In honor of the reluctantly fading summer, here are a few more pics from our last little summer vacation up to a local state park.

Margot flies a kite...

...briefly.

Labor Day Perfection

Funny how one's idea of paradise changes through the years. We found a little chunk of it this past weekend when Amanda and the girls and I retreated into the local woods of a state park and set up camp for three days. And when I say camp I mean a cabin with central air, appliances and a DVD player. But still. Quietude, good food and wine and the Phillips Phour made for a flawless weekend.

We've been having some technical difficulties.

Hopefully this new computer that actually works will be a new beginning to sharing some more photos and painfully cute stories of the two littlest Philllipses.

I'm late for work though, so we're going to start slow.

Hope all's well wherever you are.

Nothing but love

So, Harper walks in on me while I am putting on my bra

And says, "Oh. Mommy, I didn't know that was how you put your boobs on."

If only it weren't so true...

Beaches, lakes, weddings, evening walks + seven-toed cats

We're having a fantastic summer. Harper's legs have grown about two inches in the last two weeks (no kidding) and Margot has developed a tiny curl at the nape of her neck. Harper and Aneliese were the cutest flower girls you ever did want to know and Margot is doing her best to perfect her blowing kisses and language skills.

Harper and Margot took their first solo road trip (with Nonnie and Poppie) to visit our SC family while Buster and I had a fantastic long weekend in Key West at Jamie and Hanley's wedding. We've still got another beach week ahead of us, plenty more evening family walks (one of our favorite summertime weekday activities), cook outs and firefly hunting left. Yes, we love summer!

Margot says "Hi" and "Ut Oh"

She also says "Mama" and blows kisses. Mmmwa!

Harper's FOUR!

It doesn't seem possible, but little Harper is four years old. She's such a hoot these days. She dances and sings and talks nearly all the time. She's obsessed with letters and how they sound and if my calculations are correct she'll be reading very soon. She asked me the other day if Pie (pine) cones were made of pie. She loves to tell people that she's four now, she used to be "free" and she will be going to pre-k next year where she will be completely grown up. She's still dating Ridge and she thinks Margie (0r Rocky Stone as she likes to call her - not kidding) is a great addition to our little family.
Now, here are some pics from her fantastic birthday party that took place the day the rain started but before we realized Nashville was in great danger so we all still had a really good time.

Well, I like cake...pretty good.

Margot's first birthday party was a success! She dove right into the cake and as you can tell, really enjoyed it. She also loved all of her presents and everyone starring at her and singing. We celebrated Margot's birthday on Friday, April 30 as that's her actual birthday with a party on the patio. The day before it started raining and nearly never stopped. Oh well. The gals didn't seem to mind at all.

Happy Birthday, Margie!

Happy Birthday sweet girl. You slept through the entire night (7:45pm-7:30am) for the first last night! Maybe one is your (and our) lucky number.

I'm so sorry that we've been so out of touch. We're so lazy.

For a very quick update, Margot started walking about two weeks ago and now she's off to the races! She cut her 5th tooth last week and is one of the spunkiest little gals you'll ever meet. She's a great eater and (other than last night) not a good sleeper. Gosh we sure do love you Margie. Happy Birthday, sugar bean.

Margot gets Daddy to sleep

This picture is from Christmas, but it's so precious I had to post it.

Happy Friday. More pics to come soon...

Happy New Year

So, it's 2010. It's been a great decade that started with two kids with very little responsibilty and ended with two kids with two kids.

Margot is turning into quite a little spit fire. She's a super crawler. Really has control over her little movements (thank you, Meghan). We are holding out hope that this means she's going to be a little less clumsy that her big sister who, according to her teacher, is the second clumsiest child at her school. She is also pulling up and walking while holding on to something. I think this is called "creeping" in the baby books. Anyway, she's doing it which is crazy considereing she just turned 8 months old. She's way advanced. She also eats like a small man. The only thing she doesn't do really well is sleep.

Harper is doing great. She has the vocabulary of an adult but still pronounces "three" as "free." She thinks that your shoe will rub a "blistard" on your foot and that some people would say that Rudolph's nose "blows." I love these precious little things about her and secretly hope that she doesn't figure out how to say them correctly anytime soon (maybe ever).

We had some pictures taken of the girls before the Holidays. See below and above and enjoy.

Here's wishing you all a very, very happy and healthy New Year. Love, The Phillies