Houseboating Holiday

Our Houseboating trip will definitely be a highlight of our year. It was one of the most relaxing vacations ever! We didn't have the hottest weather but we still took advantage of the beautiful lake and scenery.

Our Houseboat (Ketch 23)

The water was pretty chilly so we definitely put the hot tub to good use!

One night we docked by Albas falls and walked the 6km hike to the 4 sets of falls. It was gorgeous.

We finished our holiday with a couple days visiting with my family in Vernon. We came back to their house to find that the huge tree in the backyard had split in half during a storm earlier that week. We had felt the storm out on the houseboat but hadn't realized how bad it actually was. It's sad that this beautiful tree will now have to be taken down, but we did get some fun pictures of the damage.

On Monday while everyone was at work, Josh and I took advantage of the beautiful Okanagan and brought Emmett to Pebble beach. It's a little dog beach with such clear water and was the perfect temperature. I wish we had something like it to bring Emmett to in Bonnyville, he just loves the water!!

Then we said our good-byes and headed back to Bonnyville. Now we're starting to realize just how quick the due date for baby is approaching. So our life is now revolved around getting ready for baby Phillips' arrival.

I lose…

If any of you had read the post about our anniversary you would know that I lost the bet with Josh, since Pittsburgh didn’t win the Stanley Cup. So for our anniversary get-away I decided to do something a little simpler and we headed out to Josh’s grandparents cabin. It’s about a 15 minute drive out of town and we stayed for Friday and Saturday night. It was amazing! We did pretty much nothing for the whole day Saturday. Just soaked up some sun, played card games, took a nap, went for walks…it was exactly what we needed. And it was a cheap little get-away too :)
Then Sunday we headed to John and Tammy’s to swim in their pool. We've had amazing weather for the past week, and it was great to soak up some sun for the afternoon. Brad and Sarah also came up for the afternoon and we even had a little pool for Isaac :)

Tomorrow Josh and I head off for BC with the family again for a week of houseboating. Can't wait!!

Trip to Vernon

Josh and I had a chance to head to Vernon this past weekend for our cousin Amanda’s wedding. It was a wonderful weekend spent with lots of visiting with family and friends and of course getting to share in Amanda and Ryan’s special day.
Their wedding was so beautiful. Amanda looked amazing in her mother’s wedding dress, and everything went very smoothly. The reception was held outside and we got through most of the program before having to move into the gym because of the rain.

The Phillips Family

Amanda and Ryan dancing in the rain…so romantic :)

On Sunday we took advantage of the hot weather and went for a hike. It was so nice to be in the Okanagan again and enjoy all the beautiful lakes and scenery.

Driving down and back we saw a total of 5 bears!! I had never seen a bear in real life until this past weekend…

The weekend went by way too fast but we'll be heading back to BC in a couple weeks again for some houseboating. Should be a nice relaxing vacation...

26 Weeks

The fun and not so fun changes that pregnancy brings:

• Having an excuse to eat more and not feel guilty :)
• Heartburn
• Feeling the baby kick and move more everyday...such an amazing feeling!
• Getting to wear new maternity clothes
• A hairy belly...yuck!!
• Cravings: Milk, and Subway :)
• Getting amazing deals on baby clothes and toys at garage sales. The best one yet: A baby swing for 5 dollars (regularly $160). They were selling it cause the motor for the swing wasn't working properly...but everything else was perfect. Josh fixed the little motor and now it works great!
  

The Month of May

Seeing as May is almost finished and I haven't posted since the beginning of the month, this is going to be a post all about our month of May....
It started off with us buying a new car. We were already looking because we knew we’d need a 4 door and something bigger for when the baby came. So one day a 2006 Ford Five Hundred came into the dealership where Josh works to be traded in. The guy that had owned it had worked at the dealership and taken really good care of it. We had to decide right away so we took it for a test drive and had it bought by the end of the week. It’s quite a fancy car, not something we would have normally picked, but it has so much more room and a lot of great features.

Our New Car
Also this Month Josh and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary on May 6th.

It’s crazy that 2 years has already passed. It’s been a very busy month so we haven’t had a chance to do anything to celebrate. So we decided on this: We both have different picks of who is going to win the Stanley cup. Josh says Detroit and I say Pittsburgh. So whoever loses this bet has to plan a get away for our anniversary. The way the series has been going, it looks like it's going to be me planning something :) Well that’s if we can find a weekend before the baby comes where we don’t already have a wedding to go to, a baby room to get finished, a deck to take down and build…wow it’s going to be a busy summer!
We also had a couple great weekends of family visits this month. First Sarah and Isaac came up to spend the weekend while Brad was in Edmonton for hockey. It’s been so wonderful having Sarah close especially with the baby coming. She’s been so helpful with tips on buying baby things, and lending me maternity clothes…it’s been so wonderful!
On the Saturday morning, Isaac woke up a little earlier then Sarah so we had a little photo shoot. I love all of his expressions

For May long weekend we had my whole family come up for a visit. Jason flew from Toronto and Shelley and my parents drove up from Vernon. It was such a wonderful weekend relaxing, eating my mom’s wonderful home cooked meals, playing lots of games, and just hanging out as a family.
Here are some pictures of us playing "Quelf". Such a fun game!! It brought lots of laughs....

We were all pretty pooped after the weekend...especially Emmett!

This past Monday, Josh and I got back from a weekend in Edmonton for YC. It’s a big youth conference of about 16,000 people with bands and speakers and all that fun stuff. It was an amazing weekend that I know impacted a lot of our youth.

There were many great concerts and the baby was definitely dancing and kicking through lots of them. Let's just hope he/she doesn't come out addicted to loud rock music and greasy food because of this weekend :)
Well that's the update for now. Sorry about the long post. I’ll try and split it up a little better next time :)

Happy May 1st

What, it's May already!! Wow, so sorry about the lack of posts recently. There's been a lot to post about, but I've just been a bit lazy :) First of all, we'll start with baby :) Here are the pictures from our ultrasound a couple weeks ago. It was amazing to see how much the baby has grown from our last picture...

Here is the outline of the baby's face and belly.

Here you can make out the little toes and legs.

Here is the updated belly picture. People keep telling me that I'm pretty small, but I'm beginning to realize that it's not such a bad thing. As long as the baby is the size it needs to be (which he/she is) then I'm happy. At least I'm bigger then Josh now :)

21 Weeks (Over Halfway!!)

We also have some sad news...Dr. Pepper, our goldfish that we've had for a year and a half has passed away. We're actually surprised that we had him that long so we're pretty proud of ourselves for keeping a goldfish alive for more then a day. Now we'll have to move up the scale and get something a little more tricky...any suggestions?

Paul Brandt Concert

Last night we went on a triple date to the Paul Brandt concert with Brad & Sarah and Tim & Jesseca. It was amazing! We had such good seats, only 4 rows from the stage!

Tim and Jesseca

Brad and Sarah

Josh and I

Shane Yellowbird opened the concert. Loved his shirt and his concert :)

Then came Paul :)

He played all my favorites...Alberta Bound, Convoy, small town & big dreams, and a lot of other good oldies.

April

Happy April Fool’s day everyone. Not that I actually do anything for this day but I’m still happy it’s the first day of April. Josh and I went for our first spring walk last night but it didn’t last very long cause it’s still pretty chilly. I can’t wait for “spring” to actually come!! It’s been a very long winter…
Well there hasn’t been much new in our lives these past couple weeks. The pregnancy has been going great. I’m not too big yet, but it's slowly growing. We’ll just say that Josh still has a bigger belly then me :)
Here are a couple pictures...

Baby at 10 weeks

Baby at 14 weeks

Josh is still bigger :)

I'll be 17 weeks this Wednesday and I've grown a bit since this picture. My pants have started to feel pretty snug lately. I actually went to church on Sunday without my button done up because it was just too tight. Thankfully my zipper stayed up:) We'll have to make a trip into Edmonton soon for my new wardrobe...how exciting!!

Tomorrow night we’re heading to a Paul Brandt concert. He’s actually coming to our small little town of Bonnyville and I’m very excited to see him live. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures...