Christmas 2010

Since I never was able to finish adding pictures, I went ahead and decided to post this since Christmas was well over 2 months ago!!!



Okay, this blog will probably be much longer than I anticipate, but I want to capture every moment from this Christmas so that I can look back on it and remember every detail!!

We started our "4 Christmases" the weekend before Christmas by going to Tullahoma to celebrate Christmas with Dennis' dad and Barbara. We met Daren, Rachel and McHaney down there on Saturday and we all spent the day there. We had a wonderful dinner and opened presents and then we had to head back to Gallatin because we had to be at church on Sunday morning! Here are a few pics from the day. We hardly got any pictures because we were so busy talking, playing and laughing, but here are just a few!

Our next Christmas event came on Thursday night. My dad came by our house to get his Christmas gift and then we all went to Jeffrey and Rachel's for dinner and to open presents!! We had so much fun, as always! My dad cooked a delicious prime rib dinner and we had wonderful desserts as well.

Poppy with the kiddos after he opened his electric smoker.

Sawyer LOVED his train tracks from Poppy! It was definitely the hit of the evening!!!!

Sadie got some great Cabbage Patch angels and a Snoopy puzzle that she put together about 40 times!!!!

Rach, Dad and me!

Sadie rang the "dinner bell"!!!

All of the cousins playing with Sawyer's new racetrack!

Thank you daddy for all of the wonderful presents and memories!!!!

The next day was Christmas Eve. We got up and got ready and headed straight to Grammy and Captain's house. We opened presents right away because Grammy has never been one to want to wait on that. She's always WAY too excited!! The kids got so many fun things! The biggest surprise was for Sadie and McHaney. They both got new 4-wheelers!! Sawyer had already gotten one for his birthday, so Grammy had to get them for Sadie and Mc too! They were both so excited. We ate a wonderful lunch and let the kids play until Sawyer was about to fall over.

Grammy and Captain coming down the stairs with more presents, just as they do every year!!!

The kids having a ball riding their 4-wheelers together for the first time. No more sharing!!!

The girls were sent to the garage to get their "big surprise"!

This was shortly after we gave Grammy and Captain our picture of the kids. This picture says a thousand words. Grammy was touched. She sure loves her grandbabies!!!!

Deda played princesses and horses with the girls. He was cracking me up!! I thought it was so sweet!!! He was really getting into it.

We came home and let the kids take a nap while Dennis and I cleaned and got things ready to prepare for Christmas later that night. When they got up, we went over to my Grandma's house with Rachel, Jeffrey and the kids to visit with her for a while. She's such a precious, precious lady. I love her dearly. Before we left, we hugged her and she said "I love you. I know I don't tell you that very much, but I mean it". Broke my heart. Dennis said she was crying as we were leaving. God bless her soul.

Afterwards we headed over to my mom's house to have Christmas with her! We ate a delicious dinner and then opened lots and lots of presents!!

When we got home that night, we got things ready for Santa to come! We let the kids put out "reindeer food" (new concept for me!) outside on the front lawn. It was oats with glitter in it and it was meant for the moon to glisten on the glitter and attract the reindeer. Hilarious!!! Then, we got Santa's cookies, milk, and cheerios for Rudolph. (We saw Santa at Chick fil A one night and he informed us that Rudolph's favorite cereal was Cheerios. Who knew, right??) The magic was beginning.
The kids took their baths and got ready for bed and we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in Sadie's bed. Then, after much convincing that Santa was not going to come until they were asleep, Sadie finally fell asleep.

That's when the real work began! Dennis and I spent hours putting toys together, cleaning, laughing, playing and of course eating freshly baked Monkey Bread!! YUM!!!! It was also snowing like crazy outside when we were getting ready to go to bed. Dennis even went outside and found some real live Rudolph tracks right outside our back door!!!!!!

We finally went to sleep and we woke up on Christmas morning much earlier than the kiddos. We were so excited! We woke up to a White Christmas too!! The first recorded in 17 years!!

When the kids finally got up, they were so excited! They came into the den to see that indeed, Santa had come!! They played, opened presents and had the best time. After the initial excitement and after Dennis and I opened our presents from each other, we started cooking our Christmas Day breakfast. Mornin' Glory Oven French Toast with egg nog syrup, eggs and bacon. I can still taste it!!

Most all of our parents came by to see the kids and what all Santa brought them.

We hung out all day long and let the kids play and rest. Sawyer barely made it to naptime. He was so exhausted.

Dennis cooked a Boston Butt in his new electric smoker and we were supposed to have it for dinner, but it was a bad piece of meat, so we were left with nothing for dinner!!! What a bummer! He ran out and got himself some Subway but I ended up having Cheerios for dinner. Oh well. :)

We busted out the Kinect that I had gotten Dennis for Christmas and we played forever! LOTS of fun!!! I can see many family memories coming from that electronic device!!!

What a perfect Christmas!!!!!

The day after Christmas we had gotten more snow, so hunkered down and decided to stay in and take down all of the decorations. The kids were busy playing all day, so we thought it'd be a good time to do it.

That afternoon, we all went to Grandma and Grandad's for Christmas with them. It was a lot of fun. Sadie was kind of ill the whole time because for the first time that day, we didn't make her lay down and take a nap. Well, that's the last time I will try that! She proved to me that she still needs that rest time!!! But, all of the cousins had a blast playing together for the most part. It was a good ending to the Christmas holiday!!!!

Christmastime Pics

Sawyer had to taste-test his cookies for Santa!!

Working so intently...

Sadie has always loved the frosting. She is MY kinda GIRL!!!

The carload of gifts that our Small Group bought to take to a single mom in need!!!

Our 1st snow of the season! We weren't out in it for very long because I think the temp was only around 15 degrees!

The above shot is of my dad and Sawyer when we went to look at Christmas lights one night. Sawyer looks like he's more interested in watching the Christmas movie!
Our friend, Mr. Elf got into the pantry one night and snacked on some delicious Oreo cookies!!!
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Sadie did a great job helping me decorate the tree this year. She really was very careful with each and every ornament!

Getting all of the decorations out and ready to put up!!

Christmas, Feet, and other Phillips happenings...

Christmas is just around the corner...approximately 3 days away to be exact! This Phillips household is super excited!!!! Our kids literally have been acting like they've been on crack for the past few days. It's been so fun!
Sadie wanted absolutely nothing to do with seeing Santa this year. She pretty much ran from him. It was quite funny. She kind of talked to him at Chick fil A one night, but that was while she was pretty much hiding behind me! Sawyer loved Santa this year, but I'm sure that will change next year. I am convinced that one of these years, I will actually get a picture of both of my kids with Santa Clause!!
They are growing up so fast! I've always been obsessed with my kids feet. I know...very strange, right? But, I can remember how much I loved to smell their feet when they were tiny babies and how much I just love, love, love to kiss on their precious little feet! I looked at Sadie's the other day and they just don't look like tiny little baby feet anymore. Sawyer's are disappearing right before my eyes. My little boy is getting so big. Just a sign that I don't really have "babies" anymore.
They are so sweet to each other. They definitely have their moments when they have wrestling matches in the den, but usually within minutes, they are best friends again. The other night, Sadie and I had gone to see Tangled together and Dennis had taken Sawyer to get his hair cut. When we got home, Sawyer was already in bed, but Sadie insisted that we go in and tell him good night anyways. I let her go in there while I was putting my stuff up and when I went to go in there, I stopped and listened to Sadie talk to him. She was kneeling down, and had her hand through the slats of his crib rubbing his belly and she was saying "good night buddy...if you need me, I'll be right on the other side of your wall". Okay, as a mom, I about fell in the floor bawling!!! I just thought it was precious. The look on his face was as if he knew everything in the world was just as it should be simply because his big sister said so. Priceless.
We are all settled into our home. We love it. We are very "cozy" in here, but it's just how we wanted it to be.
Dennis and I are both doing the AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge. We've never felt better. It's the most amazing product I've ever gotten my hands on. My Challenge finishes up tomorrow and I've lost a little over 10 pounds. Dennis still has about a week left and he's already lost around 13 pounds. We joined the AdvoCare team a couple of weeks ago and can't wait to jump in and start helping people after the 1st of the year. We both believe so much in this product and know that it's going to continue to make a difference in our lives both physically and financially.
We are making lots of memories this Christmas and continue to start new traditions while keeping the old ones. We continue to realize how blessed we are. God has been so incredibly good to us in 2010 and I cannot wait to see what He has in store for us in 2011!!!!!

Thankfulness

Today, I am filled with gratitude. The Thanksgiving "holiday" is officially over, but I feel even more thankful today than I did a few days ago! Here is why...
On Thanksgiving Day at my Memaw's house, she told me that there was a box of "my stuff" up in her attic. She asked if I wanted to go and get it all because she was afraid it'd get ruined. I didn't even realize that I had a box of stuff up there. What I found was priceless. It was my journals from high school. I did not remember that I had journaled EVERY SINGLE DAY in high school. Thank you God that I did. I came home with all of them and immediately became addicted to "revisiting" my past. I felt like I was one of those teenage girls reading the Twilight Series!! I couldn't put them down. Only, it wasn't a book someone else had written. I was addicted to my own books!! For several hours over the next couple of days, I read every single page of those books. To spare you from going into all of the melodramatic details, I was filled with thankfulness that God allowed me stumble upon these journals. They were FILLED with mine and Dennis' journey! What joy it brought me, along with some hurt, to relive our journey together, day by day, year after year. Wow. Crazy. I had forgotten so many things about our past together. Some, I wish I could still forget. More, I am so glad I got to remember! So, today, I am thankful that not only did I give Dennis a second chance (and a third...and I think maybe a fourth), but I am thankful that he gave me a second chance as well! I found a part in my journal where on my 17th birthday, he took me to eat at Texanas and just did some other special things for me, and I poured my heart out on the pages of that journal and said "I looked at Dennis tonight and saw my husband in his eyes". Never did I ever imagine in my wildest dreams that those visions would one day become a reality! What a sweet journey we have shared together and continue to share. I cannot wait to show those journals to Sadie one day. I feel like they serve a greater purpose than just to give me a glimpse into my past. I feel they will serve a more greater purpose in the future maybe when Sadie experiences heartache or maybe just when the kids want to know how "mommy and daddy" began!
The 2nd reason I am filled with gratitude today is because I feel as though God has brought a special opportunity into my life to start a little side business with AdvoCare. I will explain details later, but tomorrow I start not only my road to a healthier lifestyle (and hopefully a little weight loss!), but I also hope tomorrow begins a journey to some sort of financial freedom for Dennis and I.
Thank you God for continuing to show me that YOU are not finished with me yet. I am STILL important to YOU and YOU love on me in ways I can't imagine.
Stay tuned...

My Dream Home!

We are finally moved! We are settled! We are giddy with excitement! This move was QUICK! We've never moved all of our stuff in ONE day. ONE day! We got up early on Thursday morning and we were 100% completely moved into our new home by about 1:00 the next morning. So, I guess technically speaking, we moved in one day and 1 hour. What a LONG, LONG day. I almost had a major breakdown when I left my "old" house for the last time. Almost. Except that I was too tired. Thankfully, I was too tired because it could've gotten ugly. It wasn't the fact that I was leaving our old home for a new home. It was the memories that we made in that home. Both of our kids took their first steps in that home. My sweet baby boy came home from the hospital in that home. We've made some of the greatest memories of my life in that home. I walked into Sawyer's room at one point and I smelled "his smell". All of you mom's out there know exactly what I'm talking about. It's that delicious smell that only your kids have. It's a familiar smell. That smell you LOVE and just want to taste sometimes. That smell was what about caused my breakdown. I had to just leave the room and move on. His sweet little smell will move with us.
We love our "new" house, which is definitely not "new". It's OLD. I actually think it might be older than me. But, it's exactly what we wanted. I told Dennis last night that although I know it sounds a bit corny, I feel like I'm living in my dream home. This house reminds me a lot of my own that I grew up in. It's got the big porch, big trees, big yard, etc. But the house itself is nothing big. It's precious and we love it, but it's not the house itself that makes the home. I knew it was home when I saw the kids toys sprawled out all over the floor and there were sticky spots on the kitchen floor from spilled juice and I could hear the laughter of them playing up in the play room. It's home. It's our new home and I absolutely cannot wait to make lots of memories here. And, it doesn't hurt that we can be much more financially stable in this home too!!!! :)
We had so much help while we were moving. Grammy and Captain kept the kids for us for a few days so that we could get moved in. My mom came over and "helped" which mainly meant sharing lots of meaningful conversations, keeping me fed, laughing and maybe unpacking a box or two....oh, and she helped me clean my old house after the movers got out. I love you mom!!!! We had FUN!
My dad was with us for about 48 hours straight! He helped move TONS of loads of stuff from one house to the other. He built storage shelves for me in the garage. He hooked up my washer and dryer, and so on and so on and so on! We couldn't have done it without him. He was Dennis' right hand man all day on moving day and he didn't leave us until late Thursday night and he STILL had a huge smile on his face. He came right back over on Friday EARLY morning and he stayed all day again to help me while Dennis had to work. Oh yeah, AND he cooked all day on Saturday and brought us dinner too. Wow. Machine.
The kids love the new house. Sadie squealed with excitement when she saw her room. Sawyer is so proud of his. They love having a playroom with ALL of their toys. God picked this house out for us a long time ago. He knew the desires of our hearts and he satisfied every stinkin' one. WAIT ON THE LORD! He never ceases to amaze me! Thank you God for picking this house out for us. We love it!

Long Time, No See...

It's been a very busy past 2 months! Sadie absolutely loves school! She loves it 10 times more than I ever thought she would. She has learned so much over these past 2 months. I am amazed at how quickly she has learned certain things. I am extremely impressed with the teachers and the preschool that she is attending. I am very thankful that God led us there. I can't wait for Sawyer to start next year. He is going to love it. He already runs into Sadie's classroom every day and wants to be a part of it so I know he will fit right in and love every minute of it!
We recently got back from the best vacation EVER! We never thought anything could ever top last year's Hilton Head trip, but this year's DID! God blessed us so much with wonderful weather every day again this year. The kids were so awesome. They were both so much more independent this year. Dennis and I actually got to relax quite a bit and it was wonderful. We made so many memories and shared so many special moments. I literally already can't wait to go back next year. Sadie also gave up "Big Orange" on this trip which was a huge milestone! Praise the Lord for that one!!!
We also recently sold our house and bought a new one all in the past month. Thankfully, we sold our house in about 3 months, which was much sooner that I had ever anticipated. What a blessing!!! Then, we stumbled upon the exact house that we've been searching for! We wanted an older, one-level home with a bonus room and we found just that! We move next week and we are super excited to have a smaller space. We never built this house that we are in now with the intentions of wanting a huge house. We built it with the intention to sell it and make enough money to pay cash for something and be debt free! Obviously, our plans fell through when the economy when PLOP!!!! So, we had to sit down a few months ago and see what was best for us and that's when God laid it on both of our hearts to downsize BIGTIME! Our church has recently gone through the Crazy Love Campaign and we both felt led to try and get rid of our big house, which comes with BIG bills and get into something more comfortable so that we have the opportunity to help others more. We are excited to see what God has in store for us next. I truly feel that God is about to do something big in our little family. He keeps dangling things here and there in front of our face to show us clearly that He is at work in our family and He definitely hasn't forgotten about us!!! So many times over the past few months, I ask Him..."God, what do you want us to do about this (or that)"...He just keeps saying to me "Baby girl, I'm right here and if you let me, I will lead you down the right path. Just keep your focus on Me and I will take care of the rest". So, that's what I'm trying to do on a daily basis!
So, that should catch everyone up to what has been going on in the Phillips household.
Sadie is just precious. She is growing up so fast into an amazing young lady. She is super protective of Sawyer, but loves to pick on him too!!!! She has started to have a huge opinion on what she wears and it drives me crazy. So, I try to give her choices of what she can wear each day. I never thought she would care what she wore at 3 years old. She also has started to have real "fears". She wants her door cracked when she goes to bed and she wants the light on in the laundry room so that there's some light in her room. I never want her to be scared of anything, but she's definitely become somewhat of a scaredy cat. It breaks my heart. She's still just like me in the fact that she's super shy around people when she first meets them. She is full of love and energy and she has a huge heart and I love her more than life itself.
Sawyer...oh, Sawyer. My little man. Full of more energy than any boy I've ever seen. We've started to nickname him "Taz" because he reminds us a bit of the Tazmanian Devil!!!! ha ha He still loves his momma more than anything and would be perfectly content if I sat and held him all day long. He is so precious. His goofy little smile and big brown eyes absolutely melt my heart. He's super smart and talks really well for his age. He absolutely adores the ground that Sadie walks on. He wants to do every single thing she does. He is definitely her little shadow. They are so much alike, yet so different. I'm so thankful for their closeness in age because they seem to really like a lot of the same things. Sadie has taught him everything she has learned in school. He's just edible. I love that little guy.
That's about all for now. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to document what's been going on for the past few months. I had planned on posting a bunch of pictures, but I'm having computer issues, so I'll have to come back and do it later on.

Preschool!

My baby girl started preschool last Friday. The days leading up to this day were not fun for mommy. I cried several HARD cries and had several random breakdowns. The worst being while I was at the grocery store one day buying snacks for her lunch. It hit me what I was doing and it broke my heart. I boo hoo'd the whole way home.
She seemed so excited about going though so I knew I was doing the right thing. When Friday morning, August 6th rolled around, I felt knots in my stomach and lumps in my throat bigger than I thought existed!!!! We had gone and met her teachers, Ms. Pam and Ms. Shannon, the day before and she couldn't wait to go for her 1st day!
Daddy even stayed and went with us that morning to take her.







She seemed great all the way up until we put her lunchbox down and I started to walk out. Then, the tears started. And, they weren't just tears. The tears came with holding my leg, screaming for me not to leave her and sobbing. I was trying to be strong, so I took her out of the classroom, (well, actually, I think she was running out after me at this point) and sat her down and told her that she was going to be fine and that she would have so much fun and that I would be back to get her very shortly.
This didn't work...at all.
She was still sobbing, yelling, flailing, etc. Yes, I had "the kid" that everyone was staring at!!!!
So, Ms. Shannon saw what was happening and came and just took her. She told her that she would take her to see Ella Claire and Greyson right down the hall. She was still screaming as I walked out the door and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I had to leave. I knew it was best for her.
I cried for a while, but then realized she was okay. Rachel Fontenot checked on her and said she was already okay and it'd been less than 5 minutes.
Since then, she has loved every single minute of it. She gets so excited about going and hardly wants to leave when I pick her up, although she gets REAL excited when she sees me at the door.
I love this time in her life. I want her to remember it forever. The hardest part is seeing her grow up so quickly right in front of me. Every time I pick her up from school, I feel like she's grown even more. She seems smarter, more independent, etc.
I want her to learn and have so much fun, but it's hard to let her go!
I thank God every day for being with her and giving her excitement that I was afraid would take a lot longer to come. She's such a big girl and I fall more in love with her every day.

Best Week Ever!

Last Tuesday, Dennis and I left for a much needed getaway. We decided to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary a few weeks early since the month of July gets rather crazy in our house. BOTH of my kids got sick 2 days before we were to leave...of course! But, I knew that they were on medication and I knew that they would be in the best of care with Grammy and Captain. So, we went on and left for our trip on Tuesday afternoon. I am soooooooo thankful that we went. It was the most wonderful getaway. Bryan and Cayce had been trying to convince us to go for a while and so we owe them a lot for recommending this place. It's called Ross Bridge Renaissance Marriot Resort in Hoover, AL, which is basically Birmingham.
We got there pretty late on Tuesday night because we decided to take a detour on the way and we stopped at Dreamland BBQ in Huntsville. It was okay. We've heard it's the best around, but I still don't think it's any better than my dad's and Dennis'!!!!
We walked around the resort and checked out the luxury that we would be staying at for the next 3 nights. There was also a Porsche conference there all week, so we enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful cars!


We got up Wednesday morning and played golf at their premier golf course. Wow! It was the first golf course I'd ever been on and it was fantastic. Breathtakingly beautiful. Dennis assured me that not all courses look this way. We were treated like royalty. It was a beautiful day. I enjoyed getting to watch Dennis play. I was rather impressed with his golf game!




That night, we drove over to the Summit and we shopped around for a while. They have all of the best stores there!! We went to eat dinner at the Tavern on the Summit (we thought it was the "Village Tavern", but later found out we were in the wrong place), but ended up walking out after waiting for 45 minutes and getting sat at a table right in the middle of the bar that was so loud we couldn't hear each other talk. No thanks! So, we ended up at this local joint that was pretty disgusting...but, we were starving!
The next morning we got up and ate a great breakfast and went down the pool all day long. It was probably the most relaxing day of my life! We just played in the pool and on the slides and had a wonderful lunch on the patio.





That afternoon, we went and played golf again. I just drove the cart again, which was perfectly fine with me. I just enjoyed looking at all of the wonderful scenery. The resort also has a bagpiper that plays the bagpipes every afternoon to "call" the golfers in off the golfcourse. Fascinating!



That night, we got dressed up and went to the Village Tavern, which was also located at the Summit. It was DELICIOUS!! Again, we were treated like royalty. Not sure why...but, it was soooooooo nice! The manager even ended up giving us 2 free appetizers because he found out that we had tried to come the night before and ended up in the wrong place. We also found out he was from Centerville, TN. Small world, huh?


We went by the Cheesecake Factory to get dessert to go and we came back and enjoyed our dessert in our PJ's.
Friday morning, we got up and headed home. Boo!!!!!!! I was actually a little depressed when we were leaving because I wanted to stay so bad!!! But, I missed my babies and it was time for reality again!
I was soooooooo excited to see them when we picked them up from Grammy's. Sawyer just climbed in my arms and layed his head down on my shoulder for the longest time. It was precious. I think he thought I had left him forever. ha ha
Saturday morning, we got up and started getting ready for our "Fireworks Party" as Sadie called it. We had lots of family and a few friends over for some delicious BBQ, lots of desserts, and a HUGE fireworks show. Dennis cooked 4 boston butts. The most he's ever done and it was the best by far! We ended up having over 30 people here to eat and watch the fireworks! My dad bought tons of fireworks over the past year and we so appreciate him putting the show on for all of us. It was awesome!!! Sawyer loved it. Sadie had to sit inside the whole time and was scared to death. Thanks to Grammy for sitting inside and missing the show to sit with Sadie. A few others came in to join her during the show too that got a little scared.





Sunday night, we had dinner at Aunt Pam and Uncle Corky's house, but we left before the fireworks started that night.
Monday, we got up and went to the farm for the day. It was a wonderful day! It was a last minute decision to go, so we had to pack up quickly and get down there, but it was well worth it all. We played all day and stayed until after 9:00 that night! It was so much fun though. What I will remember the most about that day was after the sun started to go down, we all 4 jumped on the Kubota and headed down into the woods for a drive. The lightning bugs were AMAZING. You just had to be there, but it was gorgeous! Sadie thought it was so neat. The one picture below of Sadie's leg and hands was the most precious story! The story behind that is that we told the kids to "hang on" while we rode on the Kubota and Sawyer reached over and put his hand on Sadie's leg the whole time and I almost cried. It was so sweet!!! Just one of those "mommy" moments, I guess.





So, I said ALL of that to say that me and Dennis both thought that week was the most perfect week. We got to not only enjoy quality time together, but we got to spend lots of time with our family, friends, etc. It was wonderful!!!!