What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?....

December is almost over and feel like the whole month has slipped away from me.
Christmas has come and gone. It was so much fun. Hanging out with family, playing games, eating until my food baby was ready to pop, watching tv, talking, playing with kids, and most of all seeing the faces of the kids christmas morning when santa had arrived. LOVED IT ALL.
And now it's time to catch up on sleep, put the decorations away, and get ready for the boring winter months ahead....maybe I'll work on a Happy New Year newsletter and family picture...cause you may have noticed a lack of a christmas card from Q and I this year...
see what I mean about the month just passing me by.

i heard it through the grapvine...

This past Saturday was Emily's big birthday bash and it turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

We had lots of people come, and a majority of them actually came in costume! It was super fun. We had areas for games, karaoke, lounging, and of course a dance party. We had plenty of food, treats, and pop

...good times!

Michelle, from work, was kind enough to watch Q overnight so momma got to participate in the festivities and even sleep in a little...it was weird.

but any night that end with this

is a good time indeed!

Party go-ers came as everything: twinkie the kid, the red baron, morton salt girl, mr. peanut, sugar daddy, doublemint twins, flo the progressive insurance lady, the wal-mart smiley, milton bradley, the pringle guy, tony the tiger, a shredded wheat, and the bubble bee tuna bee.

Michelle as "a poptart"


Emily as "Wendy"


Me as "the Sun Maid Raisin girl"

Happy birthday Em!

Flashing...lights...lights...lights...

I mentioned before about Qiana's rough day with her 1 year (approximately) pictures. Poor Melanie had to try and get some cute shots, amidst the crying, dirty looks, and complete fussiness of my child. But the final product is in, and I am so very pleased!














she is not smiling in this next picture, but this face cracks me up so much that I had to keep it. look at those eyebrows!

Ain't nuttin but a gangsta party..party

Jared is famous for giving his children multiple nicknames...and apparently I have inherited it.

Lately I have been playing around with Q's name and making up all sorts of nicknames using word play.

Q short
Q diamond Phillips
Q-san Lucci
Q live crew
Q bega
Q ball
Q edition
Q kids on the block

You get the idea...

but my favorite one, made me smile instantly and inspired this picture...





Q-PAC SHAKUR!

This is what happens when Em and I get bored. :)

i miss you most at christmas time...

You would spend so much time making sure all of us kids had the same amount of presents, so that no child would get done first in the present circle.

Each child would have the same amount of money spent, so that we knew we were equally loved.

You would write "From Santa" on the present, but we knew it was your handwriting.

When I got older, you allowed time for me to get ready christmas morning, so that I wouldn't look bad in pictures...you understood.

You knew that decorating the house and tree was incomplete unless the Jackson 5 christmas album was playing

You would keep your tree up, for weeks (sometimes months) after christmas because you "liked how it looked"

You always made sure we had the chocolate advent calendars. I loved those.

When buying things before christmas you would always say "okay, but this will count towards your christmas"....but it never did. You couldn't resist getting everything we wanted.

You would watch each child open their gifts with a smile on your face, just as excited about our reaction as we were about the actual gift.

You always supported our participation in the Earl Family christmas eve talent show...even the year I thought it would a good idea to play the clarinet. I cried, but you were so proud.

Shopping for you was always so difficult, because you never asked for anything

...just the family... together and happy.

'Cause I'm real (The way you stare, the way you look, your style, your hair)

Q debut her winter coat today. It's Auntie Em inspired...cause we all know she loves shiny, furry, and slightly "hood" looking clothing items. :)

But I think Q pulls it off nicely.

Now all she needs is some tight jeans, hoop earrings, and high heel boots.

i'm safe up high, nothing can touch me, but why do i feel this party's over?

I haven't taken a single picture in a whole week, and thus I feel at a loss of what to blog about.

Thanksgiving was good. calm. It was a small group, but nice. The rest of my weekend was filled with comfy pants, tv, and time with Q.

I was planning on decorating for christmas on sunday. Then I got sick. I am really getting sick of being sick. I will decorate later this week when I feel better. Besides, I really should decorate when Q is asleep...I have a feeling the trees, ornaments, and lights are gonna be a huge temptation for her. uh oh.

The harlem globetrotters are out of the amazing race. Do I even care to watch the finale? Can i stand to hear "shut up dan! shut up dan!" one more episode..I don't know if I have the strength.

I love glee. It is single handedly saving my sanity. I wait in anticipation every week for wednesday night. I have all the songs downloaded. I change my status on facebook to a quote for each episode the moment I hear it. I love it. love it.

I have settled on a costume for Emily's "advertisment mascot" birthday party. It wasn't one of the my original choices. But money, options, and sewing skills are all lacking so I had to come up with something.

my wig should be here soon.

I could brag that I'm pretty much done with christmas shopping, but I only had Q and a sibling to shop for...so it wasn't really a huge feat. Although that sibling was Jared...and he is NOT an easy one to shop for.

I have started playing my christmas mix at work and it makes me happy. When those jingle bells kick in on 'all I want for christmas is you' I instantly smile. Oh Mariah! Although I have taken a major liking to "holiday road" this year..maybe it's because Jimmy Fallon and the Roots sang it on his show...but man I love it.

Is it bad for me to like Justin Bieber's music. Sure he's only like what 15, but man that little kid has stolen my heart....in a very non-creepy way...I promise.

I have absolutely no trips, vacations, or fun activities planned in the near or distant future. This depresses me. I feel it's easier to get through the boring day-to-day happenings of life knowing you have an small escape coming soon. I don't have an escape.

I have always been a little on the pessimistic side, but my job has really made me not trust people even more. Some shady shady people in this world.

I understand the economy sucks right not, But hearing the word "economy" is like nails on a chalkboard for me. It's now on the same level as "bling" "connection" and "bromance" as most annoying and overused words ever!

Speaking of this economic situation....I watch tv to escape reality. So all you tv writers quit writing the recession, or references to the recession into your scripts cause it just bums me out. Especially you Nip/Tuck...I don't watch your show for it's realistic portrayals of life, so just get back to normal and quit making sean and christian go through money issues. it's depressing.

I watch a lady write a check for $450,000 on "Million Dollar Listing" last night...as a down payment on a condo....try telling her we are in a recession!

My new favorite guilty-pleasure show. "Platinum Babies". Think Platinum weddings but for baby showers, nurseries, and baby photos....oh my gosh talk about an absurd spending of money. wow! and has anyone else ever heard of a "push present"? apparently the husband is supposed to buy his wife something nice *preferably diamonds* as a thank you for "pushing out his child" and to make her happy after birth. WHAT!

hey look at that....I guess I did have something to say after all.

Moving in and out of consciousness/subconsciousness. Faster, faster, faster thoughts scatter

a few randoms for monday...

I had been meaning to get Q's 1 year pictures done forever, but it seemed like with sickness, schedules, and what not it just didn't happen. Well on Friday melanie came over and we finally got it done. Oh but Q was such a diva....seriously...it was annoying. She turned into some high maintenance little baby and couldn't stand not being held. Very frustrating. I fed her m&m's, other food, water..anything to make her happy...but it was a task. Melanie thinks she was able to get enough good pictures to work with so it might not have been a total waste of time for her. I felt so bad. Q is usually a pretty good baby....although I think Melanie might think I have been lying about that. Here is a little sample of what melanie was able to capture...she hasn't done any retouching yet so I'm excited to see the end products of the shoot.


Saturday night was super fun! I got a babysitter and headed over to Ephrata to have dinner and do some karaoke with the ladies. We kind of rocked it! It was super fun, and was a great little break. We are hoping to make it a monthly "girls night"...we can't disappoint our fans! hahaha.

When I was down in Idaho a few weeks ago visiting kimmy I noticed this cute glass block art that she had on her entertainment center. I was super jealous, so we decided to get crafty and make a couple. The craft store didn't have any vinyl decals that I liked so I searched online and found these cute ones. The project was super easy (my kind of craft), and i think it turned out pretty cute. You just pick your color, dye your block, then attach your vinyl....way easy.



I have mentioned before how much Q loves music and lately it's become very apparent. She has a few toys that play some sort of music, and lately she has decided to carry them around like an old school boom box and push the buttons over and over again.

She just smiles and wiggles her little booty...such a crazy girl.


Must download:
Alicia Keys: "try sleeping with a broken heart"
Jason Mraz: "live high"
Jay Sean: "do you remember"
John Mayer: "who says"

Did anyone else watch the american music awards last night? Why is Rihanna making it so hard for me to like her right now. First she's this little island girl singing pon de replay...then good girl got bad, still innocent enough but a little hard...and now with her new album "rated r", a horrible haircolor and style, and a ridiculous tattoo from her neck down her chest...I just can't help but think she needs some sort of intervention.

I really want the globetrotters to win Amazing Race. I just think they are so funny, and it would so piss off the rest of the players....which is a bonus in my book.

Although most of you may consider "new moon" the most anticipated movie of the year...I am holding out my excitement for "Sherlock Holmes"...I like my Robert to be Downey Jr. not Pattinson thank you very much!

My only faith's in the broken bones and bruises I display...

It started out innocent enough. Qiana was being cute so I wanted to take a picture

...and then my innocent little girl switched into G.L.O.W. mode and made her way towards me. I kept the camera in one hand and tried to document the craziness that followed.


I grew up watching WWF wrestling, but nothing could prepare me for my first real wrestling match with a child.

Q was going crazy.

Doing the "mankind" on my mouth, laying her whole body across my mouth so I couldn't breath, jumping on my stomach, flopping her body onto my head. pulling on my nose...you name it, this girl was out for blood.





A couple times I thought she was done as she would pretend to give me loves...but then she would smash her head into my face, and continue her complete desolation of me.


I believe usually it's the fathers that get to partake in this exciting event with their children...yeah for me that I got to wrestle (do you hear the sarcasm?)

Needless to say I was completely pooped, red in the face, and abnormally sweaty by the time it was done.


I thought mother daughter time was supposed to involve princesses, crafts, or other girly things?

bird bird bird...bird is the word...

Q is a goof....or maybe she just gets lazy.
But sometimes when we are snacking she chooses to eat like this...

like I'm feeding a bird...


apparently she knew someone was judging her...

so she went in for the hand grab instead...

does that make you happier?


on the attack...




But most of the time she eats like this...


the girl loves her waffles.

Lately it's been getting harder to get her to smile in pictures...usually she wants to just attack me and the camera or just stares at the contraption I'm holding. Especially when i"m trying to take one of both of us...but here she is..in all her smiling glory.

well almost smiling...