Sweet Baby Rae: Three Months & Christmastime

For Raelyn's three month birthday we were home in Maryland celebrating Christmas with family! She did fantastic on the plane rides from Yuma to Baltimore and it definitely helped that we were on a half empty flight! We took over an entire row so Rae was able to play on the middle seat between sleeping and eating.

It's always hard spending enough time with each side of the family since both of our parents live in Maryland but I think we did a pretty good job of splitting it as best we could. We spent Christmas Eve with my parents at our church service and opened gifts with them that night. In the morning we enjoyed time with David's parents and in the evening my family came over the Phillips' house for Christmas dinner.

Three Month Stats: 11.2lbs (I held her & stood on a scale to get an approximate weight since there is not a 3 month check-up.)

Raelyn is getting much better at tummy time and holds her head up for quite some time. When we hold her she always wants to be held upright so she can look around. Her neck is pretty strong even though she is still a bobblehead most of the time. She will be able to hold up her head without bobbling before we know it! She also rolls over from belly to back sometimes and is so close to rolling over from back to belly. That dang arm just needs to get out of the way.

Rae Loves: being held upright so she can look around at everything, playing with the rattle birds on her play mat, getting kisses from Mommy & Daddy, chewing on blankets and her hands, talking to Daddy, stretching her body after meals, sticking her tongue out - she just discovered her tongue not too long ago.

Rae doesn't Love: taking naps (we're working on getting her to nap longer than 30 minutes at a time as I type this), loud coughs & people who blow there nose - she gets startled EVERY time.

During our visit home Raelyn met one of her Great Grandmothers! Grandma Ruthie now has 8 great grandchildren and loves to tell everyone. She's so cute about it. Hopefully Rae will be able to meet Great Grandpa & Grandma Norris this summer at the Lake Cabin in Minnesota.

Four generations of Phillips & the Phillips Family

Here are some pictures from a successful tummy time (of course I had to photograph it) and then some three month pictures in her onesie.

I think this next  picture will have to be shown at Raelyn's wedding one day. I mean, those chin rolls are so amazing.

A New Addition

This isn't really new news, but I wanted to make sure I put photographs up from the Gender Reveal Party my sweet friend Erin put together.

Back in January, David and I were blessed with the news that a little baby Phillips would be joining our family come September! Honestly, there's a longer story behind trying to start a family and all that, but that's another post all together. We called our parents and our closest friends to share the great news. My mother of course bawled her eyes out and is so excited to be called Oma come September. David's parents guessed why we were calling because they literally were just in Yuma visiting and we found out the day after they left. 

I waited a while to tell my middle school students just because I really didn't want them telling me that I should name my baby after them. (Yes, that happened... a lot.) In the beginning of March, there were two girls in one of my classes who guessed it before I said anything. One class period, they were giggling and I decided to ask what on earth was going on (usually I ignore giggling during work time, but they wouldn't stop staring at me!). One of the girls said they couldn't tell me and they had a question to ask me but it had to wait until April. I guess to them, it would be obvious that I was pregnant or not by the time April came around. Eventually, I told only one of my class periods - because I know how quick news travels in a middle school. 

I asked one of the girls how on earth they knew I was pregnant and she said "You were moody." 

Oh lovely middle schoolers. They tell you how it is.

Then at the beginning of May, my good friend Erin (she's been on this crazy military ride with me since Virginia) put together a little reveal party for us. We just had a few families over, ate food, had fellowship, and made a huge mess to find out if we were having a little girl or boy.

When we went to get the anatomy ultrasound done, I gave the technician a card and had her circle the gender and seal it in the envelope. Right after the appointment, I dropped the envelope off at Erin's house so I wasn't tempted to peek.

Here's the tutorial Erin used to make the Poppers! You could easily make these for any event.

Here's how the madness went down!

After we found out a little girl would be joining our family, the hubster (David) said that he had to call my dad and ask him how he did it. Sidebar - I'm one of four girls... my poor dad.

One of my students gave me the sweetest gift of clothes for little Baby Phillips and although I won't be teaching next year, I can't wait to visit the middle school and show my previous students our little bundle of joy!

Two Thousand Fourteen

Well, it's been a while. sorry. again. I've even been on break from teaching for two and a half weeks and done nothing. I guess that's what break is for. I've decided to make sure I did something this last week of break. so I went to buy a new 2015 calendar, fill said calendar out with all the birthdays, anniversaries and upcoming weddings, and hopefully get some paintings done for the shop.

I also wanted to take a look back at 2014 and try to remember what we did. Here it goes!

warning: tons of pictures. that is all.

We started off the new year by camping in Yuma. Something we definitely don't do quite enough. In the future we have plans to camp at the Grand Canyon!

I traveled to Michigan at the beginning of February for my Grandmother's funeral. Obviously, not the most fun reason to travel, but I did get to see Vegas from the sky at night and I got my fill of real snow and cold weather in Michigan. I also got to spend time with all of my sisters!

A group from Yuma went to Big Bear, California to enjoy a ski/snowboarding weekend on the mountain. We made the best of it - even though the snow was more like slush during the day and ice at night. We really want to go to Colorado for some great skiing before we leave the west.

I think one of my favorite things to do is be a pit stop for people heading out to San Diego as they are PCSing. This year we had three friends stop by before finishing their cross country drives. We've been to San Diego many times since living in Yuma and it's truly a great escape especially during the hot summer months here. I traveled to San Diego for the NAEA Conference over Spring Break and was able to visit with some of my professors from JMU! 

I coordinated my first art show for the middle school students at the local library. The Spring 2015 art show will probably definitely be on the local news! One of the secretaries at our school said she could contact the local news channel and have them there at the show to interview students and such! 

In the spring and the fall, we celebrated lots of new babies in Yuma! Baby showers galore!

David promoted at the end of May - aka a day away from the crazy middle schoolers for me. ;)

I SURVIVED THRIVED TEACHING MY FIRST YEAR OF MIDDLE SCHOOL ART!
I seriously was in survival mode for a portion of that year. whoops. 

OPENED TULIPS&LACE!

TURNED 25! Hello quarter century. 

Celebrated our two year wedding anniversary & traveled to Jamaica! We went with our wonderful friends, the DeVines and really enjoyed time together. After Jamaica, we traveled home to Maryland so David could see everyone before he deployed at the end of June.

David headed out for deployment and then I headed to Minnesota for some cabin time with the Phillips Family.

Also EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: 

I READ ALL OF THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS IN THREE WEEKS. 

Probably sat on my reading chair more than I slept in my bed over those weeks. #harrypotterforlife

While David was gone I went with our good friends, the Ices, to the Grand Canyon for a whirlwind weekend trip. #NanNans

Started teaching another year at RW Middle School (I wish it stood for Ron Weasley). Decided to take a trip to Utah mid October to visit the marvelous Noelle Ulman. Once I got back, we were in the home stretch of deployment being over.

David came back on Veterans Day and then a few days later we went to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. I always love an excuse to actually dress up and take a day off of work ;)

Kathleen Payne Photography

My family traveled here from Maryland (and Uncle Buck Leo from Michigan) for Thanksgiving. We did the most touristy thing in Yuma aka seeing the territorial prison. Trekked up Telegraph Pass and ate lots of delicious food!

This December we've enjoyed weekends on the couch, the gorgeous warm weather and a great visit from Noelle right before Christmas.

Most importantly this year we've found a church family who truly has the word of God and the spirit flowing through them. We have both grown more in our relationship with Christ and can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2015! We've truly seen that Jesus is better than anything we could ever have or want and we pray that God continues to use us for his glory this next year.

CHEERS TO TWO THOUSAND FIFTEEN!