We had a wonderful time celebrating our friend Bella’s 5th bday on Saturday.

Photo album

Or Photo Slideshow

Video of gift opening time:

Video of cake time:

Our gift unwrapping ceremony was once again a very pleasant experience this year, reminding me of how extremely fortunate I am and all the good that God has done in my life. I did realize afterward that I was so preoccupied with making sure the event got video-recorded that I failed to ensure the perpetuation of the very important family traditions of firing wrapping paper balls incessantly upon one another while unwrapping the presents, and sticking the bows all over ourselves for added festive flair. Sorry charlies! We’ll pick the traditions back up next year, especially at Uncle Tom’s house…

wink

For hardcore Phillips fans,
I’ve put the complete 27 minutes and 10 seconds of the video documentary below, broken into nine
segments for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Kimberly ~ aka Ty Pennington Wannabe ~ treated the kids this afternoon to “Extreme Room Makeover” Christmas gifts. After weeks of behind the scenes preparations, the kids were rounded up and surprised with the news, and we were sent off to Petsmart to buy a hamster (as good a stocking stuffer as any) and then out for some greasy KFC while she proceeded to bulldoze their rooms and remodel them from the ground up… Well maybe it wasn’t that extreme, but definite improvements were made and the kids were really happy with the results.

The raw recorded footage is viewable below. I could have edited it and put the Extreme Home Makeover music to it, etc., but what can I say? I am lazy, and so I leave it to your imagination… The recording is 9 minutes and 9 seconds long.

wink

Another wonderful Christmas celebration at Poppa and Campers, with lots of gifts and a deluxe prime rib dinner. Thank you
Poppa and Camper!

Thank you to Grandma Gail who sent us money!

Thank you to Grandpa Mike who sent us money!

Thank you to Uncle Tom and Aunt Kathy who got the kids a bunch of toys, and got Kim and I a really nice memory foam mattress pad, and got us a big flat panel lcd monitor.

We love you and wish we could all be together on Christmas! You’ve all helped make ours very special and we wish you a merry one!

Happy Birthday to our June 14th bday girls - my Mom, and Abigail! We love you!

Welcome to the world Ava Nicole! Born 1/17/06 @ 0747 5 lbs 8 oz and 18.5 in. Mom and baby are doing fine. Congrats Steve and Mindy!

Welcome to the world Mackenzie Lynn! Born Sunday January 22,2006 19 1/2 inches long 8#’s 1 and 1/2 ounces. Mom and Baby are both doing fine. Congrats Steve and Becky!

the b-day list has been updated

about a month ago, we put abigail’s hamster named hamsty in the garage for the night because we had someone staying over. being a nocturnal creature, all his routine wheel spinning exercises and scamperings in his cage during the night would have disturbed the sleep of our guest. well as fate would have it, hamsty managed to break out of his cage that night, the clever little thing that he is. we soon reaped the reward of having a garage packed full of needless junk and realized that there was no way for us to catch him. as abigail worked through the emotions of her loss, we tried to make do, and hold out from buying hamsty’s replacement to console abigail. we left his cage out and open in the garage with food and water, and quickly noticed that he had no hesitations about going in there and snatching a quick bite. as the days wore on, we’d have an occassional hamsty siting, as a ball of fluff would quickly dash behind cover, but we had no real hope of catching him, unless we were willing to remove everything from the corner of the garage where we knew hamsty had made his home. we even talked about possibly setting up a hamsty cam pointed at the cage so we could catch him at his breakfast, but i never got around to it. we began to fear for his health and safety, and the hamsty sitings became less frequent (especially after the last siting when we had him cornered behind a mountain of junk with a flash light locked on to him, and tried to force him out with a broom) to the point that we thought he may have passed on to hamsty heaven. but to our excitement we did find that he had removed some food from his cage a couple days ago, after his reserves had thinned out, and we found encouragement…

to much surpise and excitement last night, while we were getting out of the car, abigail heard a scratch and rustle coming from the corner of the garage. she and kim narrowed it down to the golf bag that was standing upright in the corner. they yelled for me ecstatically to come back to the garage and sure enough, i was able to retrieve hamsty unharmed from the bottom of the golf bag. we even had a moment of alarm when one of the golf clubs slipped from my hand and went slamming back into the bag.. but hamsty wasn’t smashed..

so hamsty is now back in his cell, sleeping the day away. there was a sense of hamsty’s shock and dissappointment last night. we could sense him wondering how he can go on, now that he has tasted true freedom. and so he lives, but the question remains; does he really live???

we will ponder that question from time to time for the rest of his life i am sure… little does hamsty know, he is getting a special hamster leash for christmas, so at least he will be able to get out for an occasional walk. we will be sure to walk him in the garage too, and take him to his favorite hamsty hideouts. there are also the whispers of desire that have arisen now to get hamsty a bigger cage, but my response to that is that the garage is plenty big enough.

September 2005

jonathan and abigail were finishers today in the dana point turkey trot benefit race.. gobble gobble!

brother mario:

our little angel:

final count: jonathan 137, abigail 90