Trip to Texas...Part 1: Amarillo.

The week after Thanksgiving we left for Texas for Travis' brother, Bret's, wedding.

We were in 4 Texas cities in just over a week.

And we drove.  To all of them.

First stop.  Amarillo!!

We were met with big hugs,

the sounds and smells of Christmas, 

(my sister does an awesome job of decorating for Christmas)

a warm fire, 

and Ruby's! 

(our favorite Mexican there)

The kids ran around and played.
E found JD's stash of hats!
And SG stumbled across Allison's peppermint candy display.

Oh so delicious.

And then, since Ellie's birthday was officially the next day,
my sister had gotten her some YUMMY cupcakes to celebrate.

All the cousins.
Living so far away it was so fun for her to get to
celebrate with them.

Caroline in the background..."and many more??"

 Ok...Gracie's face!!  Priceless.
(guess the "wide eyed wonder" applies to birthdays, not just Christmas!)

 And of course.  We are at Aunt Allie's, so there were PRESENTS.
For both. 
Check out those boots.  So cute.

Bedtime stories read by John David.
We are SO proud of you!

And this: E's last pic as a 3 year old.

(not that I'm sentimental or anything!)

And that, was Amarillo.  Just one night.
But we packed it in.
And knew we'd see them soon when we came back for Christmas.

Goodbye Thanksgiving (but we're still thankful). Hello Christmas!

That's what Travis told the kids as we took down the pumpkins and started

getting ready for Christmas...

Ellie's party was over around 1:30 on the Saturday after Thanksgiving

and we knew this was our chance to get Christmas up before we left for Texas.

We had gotten tree the night before and just left it in the garage.

A beauty.  Our best one ever.
Or so we thought.  More on that later...

So SG is way into smells...she can catch a whif of anything before
anyone else does, sometimes even her momma which is saying A LOT.

 Maybe she just has heightened senses in general...(they were using
a chainsaw to trim down our tree when I took this pic.  Guess it was too
loud for her.

So after E's party we got the tree out of the garage and
started the Goodbye Thanksgiving Welcome Christmas party!

It actually ended up being a lot of fun.

It was kind of a let's do a couple of fall activities we never got to do

while Trav got the tree put up and lights on it!

We decorated pumpkins...
sad faces because the pumpkins were sad to go.

Happy faces because they are excited that we get to celebrate Christmas!
(you don't need a lot of logic with a barely 4 year old and 2 year old!)

And fall sugar cookies that were forgotten in the fridge
in the midst of the Thanksgiving week.  We said Goodbye to
Thanksgiving by eating the Thanksgiving cookies...

And on to Christmas!
Helping hang the first ornaments...

Is this what they call "wide eyed wonder"

They were pretty into this...such a sweet memory.

We also got out their Christmas books and the Little People Nativity set Mimi gave them

that's always a favorite.  They play with it multiple times a day during the Christmas season.

One afternoon during December I walked into the living room and found this.

Something had been added to my nativity.

For some reason I loved this.  It brought me to tears when I saw it.

Ellie had done it.

It was as if she knew that her toy, her angel needed to be worshipping Baby Jesus too.

Oh that they got the message this Christmas.

Of Jesus.

Not of presents and parties and decorations.

But of Jesus.

I have sweet memories of decorating our house as a little girl growing up, then decorating our first house together as a married couple...and now it's so fun to share it our kids!

Ellie's Birthday Party

So after the craziness of Thanksgiving we started getting ready for E's birthday party.

We would be in Texas for her actual birthday so we had a little party before we left.
She was SO excited about it.
It was super easy, low key, kid-friendly.

And there were KIDS at her birthday party.
Her parties were always very full, but never really full of kids!
Since Ellie was born she has never lacked for people to love on her or celebrate her. 
But since we were college pastors of a young church and most of our friends didn't
have kids yet, the average age at her parties was probably 25!

So this party was very different than any she'd had before.
Trav pulled out all his best games...of course.
We played a 4 year old version of corn hole.
 "Volleyball"
Limbo.

Love this 2 year old.  Such a fun age.  Who ever said 2's were
terrible?  I think they are terrific! 

Clockwise...Gracie, Hannah, Jack, Garrett (not in his seat, not pictured),

Birthday Girl, Ellie Grace, Wade, McKenna

Hot dogs for the kids, chili for the adults.

It was another perfect, beautiful Arizona day.  Cool but far from cold.
The kids played outside the whole time.

Ellie Grace and Rebekah

Wade

Garrett

And of course, Emily made another fabulous cake!

 

So fun!  Rainbow...at Ellie's request.

And then before we opened presents, Travis talked about Ellie.

I had heard a sermon from Jimmy Seibert that talked about this...

he said at each of his kids birthdays they always told the story of when that child was born

and promises they felt like God spoke over their life before they were even born.

I loved this idea, so we decided to make it a tradition.

I'm sure it may embarrass her when she's older, 

but I want her to know that we rejoice in her life and are excited about who God has made her.

Even though she got a little shy, I could tell in her eyes she was beaming

as her daddy spoke so highly of her.

I so love the heart of a Daddy for his girl.

I know it is shaping who she is becoming.

And a few presents...

(love little Gracie's face, excited for her sister)

Another awesome, personalized birthday card by John.

(this is Ellie in her favorite outfit, by the way...her soccer uniform)

And the beloved BIKE from Grandmommie and Papa!

After the party she and Trav went on a bike ride together.  A first of many.

He kept saying he couldn't believe he was going on bike rides

with his little girl!

She looks like such a big girl riding it!

We love you, Ellie!

You are our little light!

Catching up...Take 2. Thanksgiving

Right after our weekend in Sedona we came back to a crazy Thanksgiving week.

By weeks end we would have almost 100 people come through our house for one event or another.

Lifegroup Thanksgiving party on Tuesday night which ended up being way bigger than expected...so much fun.  And just like that, the holidays kicked off for us--and things never really slowed down from there.  Until now...maybe!

After the party came Thanksgiving where we had 20 people come and hang out and eat with us.

I knew this season would be especially crazy for us but we really wanted to be intentional with the kids during the holidays...so we tried to make the most of our "free time".  

Thanksgiving morning, once the turkey was in the oven and the table was set, we got the kids up and ran our second annual Phillips Family Turkey Trot...all the way to Bosa donuts!

As we ran we took turn saying what we were thankful for from the year...something I want us to eventually take time individually and write down, but until they can write, we'll be thankful on our Turkey Trot!

I was so impressed and encouraged by some of the things they remembered and said.
Of course they were thankful for Mommy and Daddy...and their sisters and cousins and grandparents.

They were thankful for their new friends here in Arizona.
Thankful for lots of friends in Boston.

This was one of my favorites...it came from Ellie. 
She said, "I'm thankful that when we were about to leave
Boston, Mommy let me go play at Annie Kate's house
for a long time."

Trav and I looked at each other and I choked back my tears.
I never know what she'll remember about our years in Boston,
but that was a sweet reminder that she'll remember more than I think.

May she and Annie Kate be friends for years to come.

With all the cooking craziness I have very few pics.

The Thanksgiving spread...
Thanks to my sweet friend Natalie we had PW's delicious homemade rolls,
sweet potatoes (the good kind that's like a dessert), and great pecan pie!

Thanksgiving night play.
They crack us up all the time (when we're not trying to
keep them from hurting each other!).

Another fun Thanksgiving with friends.
We feel like we have so much to be thankful for this year.

Reflection on Emily's life...and mine.

A year ago right now I was pacing the halls and walking the stairs of our little house on Brooksdale.  Trav was getting some sleep and I was about to wake him as the contractions were getting stronger and I knew we'd need to go to the hospital soon.

My due date was the next day...and she would come right on time. 

Born at 8:53am

January 4th.

(Not to recount the whole story here...but I got an epidural which didn't take at 8:15,

was at a 7 at 8:30, and with the help of too much pitocin delivered at 8:53...on the second push.  Yikes.)

It's so hard for me to believe that a year has passed.  I don't know that I can even comprehend much less recount all that has happened in the life of our little family since January 4th of last year.

For me, her birth marked the beginning of a crazy year.  Since just 5 weeks later we would pack up and move our lives to Tempe.  Via Texas and a 6 week fundraising trip.

I have felt like with each of our kids the Lord has given me a word describing what they would usher into my life personally as I loved, cared for, nurtured them.  For her, the word was strength.

As I look back over this year, it is with tears that I can say that yes, she has ushered in strength.

She made a way for God to pour strength into my life like I've never experienced before.

I would not have made it through this last year without it.

He has been my rock.

He has been my strong foundation.

He has been my strength.

Everything around us started to change just after she was born.

I remember sitting on my couch nursing her and looking around my house and thinking, I don't know if I can do this.  Leave everything.  Go somewhere where I don't know anyone.  Start completely over.  Build a church.

I called a friend and shared my thoughts.

And what she said has been written on my heart ever since...

"Yes you can.  Because you're about to walk into your destiny 

and you don't want to miss it."

From then on, there was a conviction and resolve in my spirit that no matter how hard it got in the weeks or months to come...I was all in.

I knew my destiny in God was worth giving up everything for.

So little Emily will never know the crazy year that was her first.

But we will tell her stories of how the Lord used her to bring strength to her Momma, joy to her sisters, and even more love to her daddy.

Our lives have been turned upside down this year and she has hung on all the way through it.

She is a joy and a delight.

She is our little "rivaler" and our gift from God.

We love you, sweet Emmy.

Catching up...Team Retreat to Sedona!

So I'm a month and a half behind.  We'll see how I go catching up.
Bummer...I was doing so good.
Life is always busy around here, but these holidays, we were unlike any I remember
when it comes to being super busy.

BUT NOW WE ARE HOME!!
Done with traveling and Christmas parties.

Home sweet home.

I love family.  I love travelling.  I love the holidays.
And I LOVE coming home.
Not to the laundry and the unpacking but to life as we know it.
Our normal (we're still trying to find our normal is, but all the same...)

Here we go...back to November.

Our Team Retreat in Sedona.

When everything started rolling a few months ago we decided that three months in we would take a team retreat...to rejoice, reflect, and recoop!  So in mid-November we went as a team to Sedona (about two hours north of us)...life has been full and fun in these first three months of planting the church but we were all in need of a little break.  

To worship, rejoice, give thanks for all that God's done.

To enjoy the beautiful red mountains of Sedona.

To just be together as a team...

We love who God has called us to walk with.  They are some of our dearest friends in the world and we love living life with them.  They have become like family to us here in Arizona.

Such a beautiful view! We are loving the beauty of our state!

A hike...thanks, Adam for helping us carry the kids!

All the girls

I forgot to bring anything for Emmy to sit and eat in so we made a
"high chair" using Adam's belt!  She didn't seem to mind.

Walking around the town...

Emily and Emily

Great food.  Great connecting with each other.  Fun games.
More memories.
We love our team!