Single Digits!!

By the way, Nathan will be home VERY soon...we are now in the single digits (less than 10 days) and can't wait!!!!  Elizabeth and I have been busy cleaning house and getting things ready for the big homecoming!  And, Santa is coming a little late to the Phillips house this year!  Can't wait to share all our homecoming and Christmas pictures with you soon!  

Christmas in Texas!

Elizabeth and I spent about 5 weeks in Texas for the holidays! It was so nice to be with all our friends and family, and spend quality time with them all! Elizabeth loved all the attention and was so spoiled when we got back to SC. We have one more Christmas celebration left and we are anxiously awaiting Nathan's return home in the new year. Here are the pictures from our Christmas in Texas!!

Jill and AaronMammaw
Caleb, Aunt Ann, and Cara
Christmas with the Phillips

with Uncle Caleb and Aunt Cara
playing with her cousin Cade
With Grandpa and Grammie
Elizabeth loves her new American girl baby she got from Grammie and Grandpa!
The girls opening presents.
Elizabeth LOVES chapstick...she found a stash in her stocking!
The girls! Me, Jill (younger sister), Keri (older sister), and Mom!
With my girlfriends in Concan...Tina with Teghan and Judge, Me and Elizabeth, and JoAnna with Westin and Cate!
Getting ready to go see Santa...SO excited!
I wonder what she told him she wanted....hmm!
The next several pictures were taken of the girls when we went to the lake house in Burnet. We decided to spend some of the day in the town at the arts and crafts fair, and took some great pictures of the girls playing.
Elizabeth in her Christmas dress!
Elizabeth loves spending time with her cousins Kaitlyn and Kylie!
The girls took some pictures on the rocks at the lake house!!

Elizabeth with Pop and Karen
Uncle Aaron and Elizabeth on the swing

Visit to Los Angeles to see Jenna!

One weekend in December I went to visit a good friend of mine from Charleston in Los Angeles! It was such a fun visit and I really enjoyed getting to hang out with Jenna and her wonderful family! Jenna and I went window shopping on Rodeo Drive. It was decorated so beautiful for Christmas!
The first night we went to see the show Wicked at the famous Pantages theater! I LOVED the show...definitely would recommend it!
My friend Jenna and I at an L.A. club...fun times!
Jenna and I went to Neiman Marcus in Newport for lunch one day. We had to try the amazing martinis they make! I had the Alpine White martini...doesn't it look so festive?
Jenna had the Lemon Drop martini!
Jenna and I attempted to go the Newport Harbor to see the infamous boat parade, but unfortunately it was rained out, but we wanted to try and see some lights anyway. Yep, it was raining!!!
The lights were still so beautiful!!
This was the view from my friend Jenna's parents house!! You can see the snow covered mountains in the background!! So pretty!!
On the last day we went to Santa Monica, and it was a beautiful day!!!
We walked along the pier for a while and took a lot of pictures of the beautiful beach!
Thanks to Jenna and her kind family for hosting me for the week!!!

Only 25 days to go...

Only 25 days until Nathan returns to the US, especially to South Carolina and home! Elizabeth and I have been in Texas with our family and friends for the last few weeks and I apologize for not keeping up with the website like I should. I decided to put a bunch of my pictures that I have been taking into a small slideshow to view. It starts with the Disney On Ice show that Elizabeth and I went to in Charleston with some girl friends. Then, we headed to Texas!! Elizabeth had SO much fun playing with her cousins, Kaitlyn and Kylie over Thanksgiving! We even had a big fish fry at my grandmothers house with our family and the girls played in the leaves all day! Elizabeth LOVES riding on Grandpa's horse, Carrot, and she loves to feed the horses grass at the fence in the afternoon. We even went to check on the ranch in Valley Wells, and Elizabeth enjoyed running around and playing in the old house...she even got to see an Armadillo! And, of course I have had a chance to hang out with my friends and catch up. It has been a great visit so far, and I will try to be better about posting recent pictures! Hope you all are having a wonderful Holiday season!!! I love this time of year!!!

Week 11

I am going to apologize because this is going to be a long post!! We did so much this week! I feel like my camera is attached to me at all times :)

First off, Veteran's Day was this week! I thought it would be nice to recognize our wonderful Veteran!! Veterans Day is intended to thank living veterans for dedicated and loyal service to their country. I can honestly say that I had not paid as much attention to this holiday until this year. Like most people, you recognize the holiday because you have a day off from work, or hear it on the news, or just remember that it was on a certain day that you celebrate. It brought a very different meaning to us this year! It was truly a day that I really needed to thank Nathan and let him know how much we appreciate him and everything that he sacrifices!! So many people tend to thank the families too, and I agree...but a part of me feels so guilty that I am sitting in my comfortable chair, in my wonderful house, with my amazing daughter and it is all because Nathan is over there protecting our right to have all this! I am very happy and proud to loan Nathan for a few months, because I know he is doing something remarkable that he takes SOOOO much pride in doing for others!! So, I just wanted to thank my special veteran this week! We miss you!!

Here are some pictures of Nathan video chatting with Elizabeth. You can see Elizabeth in the upper left hand corner. She loves talking to Daddy on the web cam. In the bottom picture you can see Elizabeth cracking up because Nathan is playing peek a boo with her on the screen. It was SOOOOO cute!!

One of the big highlights this week was on Friday when I took Elizabeth to her very first movie at a theater!! We went to see Madagascar 2 with some good friends. Elizabeth did really well!! I went expecting to spend money on a ticket and have to leave after 30 minutes, but I thought it was worth the try. Elizabeth was very fascinated with the movie at first....until there was a sad part and she kept saying "OH NO...OH NO" really loud. Good thing there were hardly any people in the theater at that time. Then she started to get a little bored, so I got her some popcorn. That did the trick!! She just ate popcorn and watched the movie like a big girl. It was SOOOO much fun!! I wish Nathan were here to share it with us!! But, I am going to suggest a Daddy-Daughter movie day when he gets back :)

We sat with our good friends, the Oelrichs!

Oh, the excitement!!

On Tuesday, we went to one of Elizabeth's best friend's birthday party!! Sydney turned two this week, and we went to the park and had cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate. Elizabeth had so much fun playing with her friends, and even knew how to sing Happy Birthday!

Here is Elizabeth with the birthday girl, Sydney! They are such sweet friends!

Elizabeth and I spent our Saturday night at a Rock Band party!! A good friend of ours invited a bunch of girls over to her house for Chili and Rock Band!! It was such a BLAST, and the kids were really into it!!

A future American Idol!

One of Elizabeth's current favorite toy is her (very annoying!!) singing Christmas Tree. It dances to "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree". She picked it out at Walgreens when I was picking up my pictures. She was just standing there in AWE of the singing and dancing tree, so I could not resist. Boy OH boy do I wish I could have resisted!! She has been playing it over and over lately. And, she even has to take it with us in the car when we run errands or she goes to school. She loves it so much!! She even made the babysitter tonight dance with her and the tree...hahaha!!

On Sunday, we went to the Summerville Taste of the Town to watch a friend of ours play in the Summerville Community Orchestra. They had a concert with all patriotic music to kick off the week and in honor of Veteran's Day. It was a beautiful day and the music was so wonderful and inspiring!! Elizabeth eyed the jump castles right away, so of course I had to lure her away with a rice krispie treat to go listen to the music :)

58 days to go!

With 58 days to go we are trying to keep ourselves very busy! I know we are over the hump, but we are so ready for Nathan to come home! In the meantime, we have been doing a lot of fun things around Charleston. We went to the Aquarium one day with our good friends Sheree and Sydney Lowe. The girls had a lot of fun looking at the fish, but it seemed like Elizabeth was looking for a playground the whole time.

And, the Coastal Carolina Fair has been in town this week and it was such a beautiful day that we just had to go check it out. It comes every year around this time, but we have never been. So, I went with my good friends Jenna and Samantha, and Jen and Christian. We had so much fun, and Elizabeth was mesmerized by all the bright lights and loud noises. We are ready for the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo :)