Dashing through the snow

Mom woke me up this morning so I could join in on a prime sledding adventure that I was about to miss out on! I quickly threw on the warmest clothes I could find and went to our huge hill to see what it was all about. Luckily I have my little nephew Bryce to sled with. With him in the drivers seat we made it all the way down, squealing the entire way! Then my dad and I raced down the hill. He beat me EVERY time!!!! He's too good :) I kept on crashing into huge piles of snow, and falling off. Apparently I need Bryce to be my sled driver every time.

Here is where the magic happens. Although, it is a lot longer and steeper of a hill than it appears. I zoomed in so you could see the people down below! Bryce and my dad are on the sled, and Lisa is at the bottom of the hill retrieving her sled and making sure no cars came.

Bryce liked to sled down AND up the hill :)

Bryce and Ha-ah built these wonderful snow-men creatures for our front yard.

Another precious snow creation!

I'm so glad they came to play in the snow with us! I wish we could sled every day :)

Twas the night before Christmas...

...and all through the house. The Phillips' were decorating, fast as a mouse!

Here are some pictures from "Blizzard 2009!" The news said we got 14" of snow! There were some drifts that were several feet deep, and the wind was really blowing!

There is an entire turtle sandbox buried under there somewhere! Mom pointed out the little glaciers of snow shooting half-way off the roof in this picture too!

Sometimes my family does holidays a little bit differently, which works out wonderfully for all of us! We will celebrate Christmas all together next week when Julie and Neil are in town. So since we are snowed in from Blizzard '09 Mom, Dad and I got to work decorating the house with some holiday cheer. Dad went and picked up a Christmas tree for us! It was covered with snow so we quickly ran it in to the shower to melt *laughs*

We had a great time listening to the holiday music and decorating the house. We got the tree to stop dripping snow and decorated it, put up the nativity scene, and put wreaths, poinsettias, and greenery everywhere!

I ended up going to bed without putting up my stocking! Luckily Mom & Dad found it for me and put it up in time for Santa to fill :) So when I woke up Christmas morning I was greeted with some wonderful Christmas treats!

Sunday afternoon I went to go babysit my sweet beeboo Bryce! We had a glorious time!! Snuggling up watching a movie, playing games, working a huge firetruck puzzle, and reading books. I love that sweetsie boy sooo much!



After I left I went to visit my lovely little (from the sorority) Amber! It was great to have some relaxing time together without having to worry about classes. She introduced me to "Pink Swirls" a frozen yogurt place where you can load on any and every topping you can think of. She made a cup of delicious chocolatey peanut butter goodness with all kinds of cookie dough bites and chunks of chocolate on it. I made a cup of cheesecake frozen yogurt with graham cracker crumbs and real berries on top! It was a spectacular find! After you load it up they weigh it and charge by the ounce. Too bad fruit is so heavy...



We went back to her apartment and talked and talked until i had to crash! I think I am still a little sleep deprived from finals week and our little trip this weekend. We had such a fun time. I hope we get to spend more time together next semester, than we have this past semester! She is wonderful!

Make a Joyful Noise

The Oklahoma Aquarium

Well, finals week is finally over and Matt and I both did really well! It's been a very busy semester and we are very glad for the break.

This weekend we got to enjoy a little vacation with my parents, Lisa, Bart, Bryce and Griffin! My dad had some free nights for a hotel that he needed to use before the end of the year, so we chose a neat one near the Oklahoma Aquarium! Friday afternoon, after Bryce got out of playschool, all 8 of us (2 carseats included) packed in the suburban and we were on our way! We stopped by a beautiful light display along the way, and drove through enjoying the season together. After we got to the hotel and settled in, Bart and Matt went to get us Chili's to go. We ate our delicious food and played around the hotel. Bryce was so excited to be on the trip, he was a little bundle of energy! He and my dad went swimming, and he and Matt had a never ending game of chase and tickle attack rough housing going on. We had a lot of fun.

Saturday morning, after a wonderful breakfast, we headed on to the main event: The Aquarium!! Even though Matt and I went to the Dallas Aquarium about a month or so ago, I was definitely ready to see more fish and sea creatures!

There were some massive tanks at the aquarium. Griffin loved watching the fish swim by. Grandpa gave him a close up with this silly fish!

One of the really exceptional parts of the aquarium is a touch tank. In the tank, there are stingrays and small sharks that you can pet and feel! (Luckily for us, the stingrays had their stingers clipped so we didn't have to fear for our lives) It felt so strange and exciting to touch these dangerous creatures! The sharks felt kind of sandpapery because apparently they have little bitty scales all over them. The stingrays felt soooo smooth and slick. It was spectacular.

I was also blown away by this giant octopus! It was so neat to watch it move around the tank and get to see it from all different angles.

Even though I am not a fan of Jellyfish (stinging in the ocean) Matt and I were mesmerized by these glowing beauties. It was almost enough to convince us we needed one in our future home. *laughs* How much maintenance could they require...really... there's hardly anything to them!

They also had a walk through shark tunnel. It is so neat to see the giant creatures swimming all around you. It also featured a huge set of chompers from a Megalodon: The largest predator of all time. Their teeth were about 7 inches long and they ate whales like they were grapes!

Together, Bryce and I were almost as tall as this Alligator Gar!

I am so glad Matt and I were able to go on this fun trip with my family! We had a blast!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh the Holidays!! Filled with love and joy, food and family. Since all my sisters are married with in-laws of their own, my family usually waits to celebrate Thanksgiving when we can spend the whole day together. That way everyone can spend all of Thanksgiving day with their husband's family so they don't have to split the day between the two. This means I get to celebrate Thanksgiving day with Matt's family as well! They are so sweet and always make me feel welcome at their family functions. We had a glorious meal (ate waaay too much THEN had desert too! ha) then a lot of us played dominos. I lost big time, but we all had fun! Then I headed over to my parents house. Thankfully, Julie and Neil got to come down and visit with us for the weekend! Lisa, Bart, Bryce and Griffin came to spend the evening with us too!

Friday morning, my alarm began buzzing at 4:14 am! Julie and I were on the hunt for some great after Thanksgiving deals. We grabbed some water bottles and granola bars and we were on our way! Our first stop was Kohl's and I think I went a little overboard... Kohl's was out of shopping carts so Julie and I had to carry all of our goods around the store in giant shopping bags. I was so loaded down by the size of some of my purchases and felt like a bull in a china cabinet! Finally we found a spot to make "home base" and took turns: one person watched the purchases and the other ran off to find the next item on our list. I bought a glorious memory foam pillow (in a giant box) at 60% off and a luxurious sherpa throw made of the softest material I have ever found in a blanket. I also scored some great Christmas gifts for some people on my list! Next stop, Target! This is where things got a little more hectic. Everyone had shopping carts, so it felt a lot more crowded, and the lines were backed up throughout the store. But, we fought through the crowds and no one got trampled. We found more good deals here and at Mardels and Hobby Lobby! Then we headed home for a food power up. Mom made us a wonderful breakfast: Eggs and bacon, biscuits and gravy it was deeeelicious! It was then that we reuinted with our old Game Cube. It was fun playing those old games again. We enjoyed spending the day together talking and laughing and ended out the day with a little more shopping until we crashed that night after our long day. I think you could say we shopped until we dropped.

Saturday is when our "Thanksgiving" happened. Karen and Kenny came back from visiting his family in Kansas and my whole family got to spend the day together. Matt came down to celebrate with us too! At the end of the day I caught these three racing Mario Kart together!

They look so serious :)