Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a warm and cozy Christmas morning at our house with just our small little family and spent the rest of the day with David's family. We spent the weekend in Tucson with my mom's extended family for the grandparents' 50th anniversary and now we are back in Ogden Valley with David's family building snow caves, playing games, and eating delicious food. We are excited to be back in our home this weekend, preparing everything for the little one who is due to come one month from today! We love you all and hope that your holiday was full of happiness. I finally found my camera cord, so we will be posting pictures of our eventful month of December soon. We have a lot to catch up on and pictures of the new house to show you!

P.S. This pictures was taken by our friend Camille Garrison who is an amazing photographer (check her out at http://camillegarrison.blogspot.com). She and her husband Ben had a "sleepover" with us a few days before Christmas and these were taken the next morning when Hazel decided to be a HAM. We love you Camille!

The furniture is in, the toilets work, the kitchen is stocked and unpacked, the floors are swept and mopped, the walls are painted....and tomorrow we'll be in. Ah, at last.

the phipps

Trials and Blessings

I was motivated to post some new pics, but now I can't find my camera cord. I even made it down the stairs and back up again in search of that darn thing, which in my present condition shows a huge amount of ambition, ha! I am quite pregnant these days; I feel bigger with this little girl than I did with Hazel although I've gained less weight so far. David loves to point out the fact that I weigh just two pounds more NOW, seven months pregnant, then I did at the lowest point of my mission. Sick, I know. The biggest problem is that this little baby has decided to jam her feet up into my right rib and refuses to move, even for just a little bit. I also get winded more easily this time around--thus the problem with the stairs. It's good practice though since our new house has stairs.

An update on our little family...We are still staying at David's parents, hoping to move into our house the first week of December. Things always take longer than expected don't they? Our contractor is great, but he's been short a few men so things are just taking longer. We finished painting the office and Hazel's room--I can't wait to post pics of Hazel's room because we did an accent wall with rows of diamonds that turned out really cute. Pictures will come one day, I promise! They've started the new tile in the bathroom and our master is drywalled and ready for paint. I'm so anxious to get into our house!

We're leaving tomorrow night for Fresno where we'll spend Thanksgiving with my Dad, grandparents and two sisters. This weekend we'll drive up to Livermore and visit my mission and our good friends Ben and Camille and Bradley and Jackie--yeah! I'm so grateful that David will be with me on the plane this time. Hazel is quite a handful when she's cooped up on your lap for a few hours. Hopefully all will go well. I can't wait to be back in my mission and see so many people that changed my life forever.

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year! We have so so much to be grateful for. It is true that in the midst of trials and tests come rich blessings. Just last week we had a handful of mishaps: the big deal of the year at work didn't work out like we planned, we got a flat tire and then our car broke down while I was driving in a snow storm. Our spare went flat and to top it off we lost our keys for a few days so we couldn't take it in to the shop. We had some extended family drama that caused concern, we lost our tile guy and the demo guys accidentally knocked out large chunks of the walls adjacent to the bathroom. Last but not least, my editing job dissolved due to the economic downturn and a change of direction for the company. What a week!

In the midst of all of that, I was starting to wonder what on earth we were doing wrong! But now that a few days have passed, I can already see the hand of the Lord so clearly in our lives and how everything is working out just as it is supposed to. Honestly, I'm not just saying this to sound extra righteous and I'm not just being an optimist (that's a quality I haven't mastered yet), but we are so happy. We have grown and learned so much this year and especially these past couple months as we've seen our closest friends face some of the most difficult trials and as we've faced trials of our own. I am more aware than ever of the importance of relying wholly upon the Lord and doing everything possible to be worthy of His spirit at all times. A man in our Sunday school class today said something to the effect of "The kite of happiness flies highest against the toughest winds of adversity." That is the point of this life after all, isn't it? Not to escape our trials but to use them to our best advantage.

Blessings have already come pouring in: our car miraculously works just fine; all we needed to buy was new tires. The deal at work is still going to work out and maybe even for the better--just not in the time period we expected. The bathroom is being tiled and the walls have been repaired, and I was offered another job by the same company (editing and writing) that pays more! And the greatest blessing of all: we have a healthy little girl and another on the way. Could we ask for more?

Life is beautiful. Thank you to our dear friends that have been such great examples of faith and endurance and to our family that surrounds us constantly with love and support.

We love you all,
Janelle

Hazel Jayne

We love her.

My birthday....a little bit ago

David, me, my step-dad, and little brother Bradley.

Hazel in her Hello Kitty slippers from her Grandma.

David and I on our way to Tucano's.

Six months and counting.

Backtracking a bit....October 17th was the best day! In fact, the entire week leading up to my 26th birthday was a blast. My husband knows how much I love surprises, so he decided to surprise me each night, starting the Friday night before my birthday, with a fun and unexpected date. Thanks to our many babysitters, we were able to go out just the two of us almost every night for a week! What a great husband and what a great birthday.

On my actual birthday weekend, my parents and little brother came into town to celebrate (and help us pack up our garage). On Friday, David took me out to Tucano's (delicious food and some of the best birthday singing I've ever heard) after which we watched a movie with my mom accompanied by very rich chocolate cake, yum! Saturday we packed our entire garage and had a family party with our families. Thanks to everyone for a perfect weekend!

Happy Halloween

Friday, October 24th we went to our ward's Halloween Party which was a blast! It took most people a few seconds to put together what our family was supposed to be: A little lion, a witch, and a wardrobe! Hazel even kept her "mane" on her head the entire night. It was fun to pretend that we were still part of the Sugar House Ward. We love you guys!


We bribed Hazel to wear her mane with candy corn and belief it or not, it worked!





A week later...we took Hazel to our new neighborhood in Ogden and went Trick-or-Treating. She carried her own little pumpkin basket and put every piece of candy she received inside of it. If we chatted too long with the candy giver, she would continue to pull treats from their bowl and put them into her pumpkin. We even got her to say "Trick or Treat" in her own one year old way.

We've moved!

Well, Tuesday October 21st was officially our last night in our old house. With the house completely empty except for Hazel's pack 'n' play, some clothes and leftover Chinese, we slept on our neighbor's mattress pad on the living room floor. It reminded me of how we entered that house, sleeping on the living room floor while we renovated the bedrooms. I'm so glad we're moving on!! Yeah!

We're currently staying at David's parents house in Ogden valley while we do some work on our new home. We learned our lesson about the headaches involved with "live-in" renovations, especially while I'm pregnant...not our thing. While there's plenty of things to do on this house to make it "ours," my favorite thing is that the plumbing, electrical, heating and air and anything else major is already in good shape and doesn't need any immediate attention. What a blessing that is to me!!

What we are doing before we move in is changing the hot pink and black tile in the bathroom (yuck!) There are five houses on our row that are all very similar and were built around the same time (40's). We just found out that each home had a unique color in the main bathroom upstairs--orange, pink (ours), green...all of which are pretty loud and obnoxious. So we're renovating the main bathroom as well as the master bedroom which had some wall paper we didn't love. The other two bedrooms are in good shape but just need new paint on the walls, so we're doing that part ourselves in the evenings. Hopefully in about two weeks, we'll move in!

I will send out pictures soon, I promise! We already miss our friends out in Sugar House so much; I'm sure we'll convince everyone to move out here to Ogden eventually.

love,
The Phipps