Only 3 more months...

until my baby turns ONE! How can he already be 9 months old?! Craziness. This year is flying by.

We went to the doctor yesterday for his well child visit. Here are stats for those interested:

Weight: 17 lbs and 6 oz. That puts him in the 10th percentile. (He's my little peanut.)
Height: 28 inches long. That is about the 50th percentile (He had quite the growth spurt since last time in this category.)

He unfortunately has a little cold and I think he might be cutting some new teeth. He is unusually cuddly in the last few days. His eyes got really gunky, so the doctor prescribed some eye drops--those are fun to give him. (Note the sarcasm.) It was easy the first time, now he knows to shut his eyes when he sees the bottle. I have a smart one on my hands.

Finally, he is starting to pull himself up on things. He sits on his knees, which I find slightly amusing. Yesterday, when we put him to bed he cried a little longer than usual, so I went to check on him and there he was sitting on his knees, about ready to pull himself up. (The mattress will be lowered shortly.) Here he is on his knees. You will also see the mirror we bought for him...he likes being held up to the mirror in the bathroom, but it is hard for us to really let him do that, since we don't have a counter to let him stand on beneath our mirror, so we got a cheap one to set on the ground for him.

Here he is with Lewis the bear at 9 months.
Make sure to check out the post below...it is about our trip to West Michigan. Two posts in one day. :)

Trip out West

Kyper and I made a trip out west...that is west Michigan...last week. It was Joel's last week of surgery, so he had long hours and lots of studying for the test he took on Friday. My mom was hosting a wedding shower for Jen (Jeff's fiance) on Tuesday night, so Kyper and I drove out on Monday morning to spend a week on the west side.
Here are a few highlights from our days there:

1. On Monday, Kyper was a super rider! After a nice drive, Kyper and I had a playdate with my old friend Renee and her daughter Abby. Renee and I grew up down the road from each other and now have kids less than two months apart.

2. On Tuesday, Grandma Phillips watched Kyper while I ran errands and prepared the house for Jen's shower. At night, we had Jen's shower. It was fun.

3. On Wednesday, while I got my bumper fixed and went to Carter's outlet while Grandma Phillips watched Kyper again. I also got to have a nice chat with Mariah--my 15 year old niece. For dinner, Kyper and I ate with Grandma and Grandpa Phillips.

4. Thursday, Kyper and I spent the day with my nieces Sydney and Peyton. We were babysitting--it was a lot of fun. Although, at one point in the morning, I thought we may have lost Brutus their dog. I had hooked it, but the hook came loose and the dog ran. I had Kyper in my arms, so Syd (5), Peyton (3), and I were all trying to get him back inside. After calling my brother, Syd had started chasing the dog and chased him into the house. Good job Syd! Other than that it was a fun to spend some time with those girls. While Joel does his rotation in Grand Rapids this summer, I might babysit once or twice a week for them if they need me to. :) Thursday evening was spent walking the pier!

5. Friday, Kyper and I got to hang out with Rebecca B. Rebecca is one of the mellons-close high school friend. I hadn't seen her in a long time, since she now lives in Florida with her husband. She was up in MI for spring break. I now think all he mellons have met Kyper. :) We just had a great afternoon sitting and talking. Joel got done with his test early and was able to come Friday afternoon. He got to say hi and took Kyper while Rebecca and I had dinner with Erin, Matt and Lucy. Matt left after dinner and we had girl's night. Joel took Kyper to spend time with Tim and Melanie. (This was a nice break, since Kyper had become quite a mommy's boy this week and was on my hip the majority of the week.)

6. Saturday, Kyper had some 9 month pictures taken with Awakened Images-Cara and David Williams. They turned out great. I'll post a link when they put them up on their blog. But you can see one, that they used to show their prices for children's sessions. Here is the link. After the shower, Joel took Kyper to his parents and to Grand Haven to see GGma and I went to Rebecca's baby shower. (Did I mention that Rebecca is pregnant and due with a baby girl in July! Yay!) I had fun at the shower with Erin and Brooke. Friday night, Kyper, Joel and I hung out at Joel's parents house.

7. Sunday, we went to church with my parents and then dressed Kyper up in a dutch boy costume that we are borrowing from my cousin. The tulips are blooming now, so instead of taking pictures of Kyper in front of stems during the actual tulip time, we decided to take Tulip Time pictures early. (We still plan on going to Tulip Time--Mariah dutch dances, so we want to see her dance.) After pictures, we headed to church coffee at my grandparents, and then had a nice steak dinner with my parents. Kyper and I headed back out to Detroit during his afternoon nap! He again did a super job riding--slept almost the whole time. Joel stayed on the west side for an extra hour or two to play tennis with his dad and then drove back later.


Kyper learned how to go up the stairs a my parents. He only did it once and now he won't get much practice because we don't have stairs. :) He was crying, because I wasn't holding him. Silly mommy's boy.

Zoo Day--finally.

So, I had been trying to get to the zoo for 3 days and we finally made it on the third day! You have to realize that we live 5-10 minutes from the zoo.

On Friday, Mo, Lisa and Samuel came. Lisa didn't want to go to the zoo, because she wanted Jerel (her husband) to be there for Samuel's first zoo trip. So, instead we did a picnic lunch at a nearby park. It was fun to hang out with some friends from Des Moines. Both Mo and Lisa's husbands are working in Michigan.

On Saturday, Aren and Leah came to visit for the day. Our plan was to go to the zoo. Aren and Leah brought lunch and then we were going to go. We got in the car and drove to the zoo. It was crazy busy seeing as there was an Easter event going on. We got in the car and even made it to the gate. I stopped at a booth to buy a year membership as Aren and Leah went to buy their tickets. While, I was buying our membership, we heard over the loud speaker that a thunderstorm was imminent in less than 30 minutes. Joel stopped Aren and Leah and we got back into the car and went home. Ky took a nap while we played games. We then had a delicious dinner--pork tenderloin. After dinner, we went to a local spot and got milkshakes.

On Sunday, we headed to church and had a good Resurrection Sunday worship service. Joel and I didn't have big plans for dinner, so we got home made some hot dogs. Then the three of us took a nap. Canaan came over around 3 and we headed to the zoo. This time we made it through the gates and spent a few wonderful hours there. We saw the red pandas, tigers, lions, giraffes, polar bears, and a blind, but happy seal. :) We saw other animals too, but those were the animals we watched the longest. You can see pictures from the zoo below. After the zoo, Canaan stayed and had pizza with us. Then while Joel studied, Canaan and I played cards. It was a great Resurrection day!




Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I now have a zoo membership, so I plan on going to the zoo quite a bit this year!

Happy Resurrection Day!

Christ our LORD has risen
He has risen indeed.

Creeping Crawler Kyper and our Seder Dinner

We captured more video evidence of Ky crawling. Here it is:



We are off to the zoo today, so I'll probably have some pictures to post from that adventure later in the week.

Seder dinner--actually not too much to report on. We basically learned about what happens at a typical Jewish home to celebrate Passover. It was more of a lecture type thing, and not the actual dinner. I was a little disappointed, I thought it would be more interactive and that we would actual recite some of the prayers and scripture that they go through. I also thought the person leading it would talk a little more about how Jews in the Biblical times would have celebrated it. Finally, he didn't really touch on the fact that this was the dinner that Jesus had the night before his death. He did talk a lot about about how Jews can't see Jesus as the their savior. (The leader was a Messanic Jew--so he believes in Jesus as the Messiah.) I guess I felt like I didn't get as much as I wanted out of it. But, it was still cool and I learned a few things.

Good Friday

Here are my thoughts on Good Friday. It is a repeat post, but my thoughts haven't changed, so I figure why write a whole new post.

Throughout this past year, I have been invovled in a Bible Study with some other women in my church. We are going through the book of Genesis and I have realized that this is an amazing book in the Bible--probably one of my favorites. Through the Bible Study I am again reminded that God shows his mercy and grace to even the least of us. Think about some of the characters in the book of Genesis. One example is Jacob. Jacob was a con artist, but yet God uses him in the big picture of salvation and extends his promise of grace to him as well. (Side note: you all should read the book "Peculiar Treasures" by Frederick Buechner which drives this point home. Iti s one of my favorites, because it reminds me that God can even use me, a sinner, to redeem Creation and show people God's grace. I own it, so if you want to borrow it you may!)

Let's move on. Christians all over the world will be celebrating Good Friday. I think it probably seems weird to non-Christians that we would celebrate the death of Jesus. But, his death brought salvation to the world. God promises this salvation already in Genesis 3, when he says to Adam, Eve and the serpent that "he [Eve's offspring/Jesus] will crush your [Satan] head and you [Satan] will strike his [Jesus] heel." (Genesis 3:15b). Wow! God has a plan to save his creation from the very beginning. God is good all the time! He promises this again in Genesis 15.

Genesis 15 is one of my favorite Bible stories, which may seem weird. Genesis 15 is quite bloody, but after learning the context and what this story really means it became one of my favorites. (Here is a link to the passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2015&version=31) I had a wonderful Bible teacher in high school who taught us a lot about Hebrew culture and drove the meaning home to me. I have been thinking a lot about this story since we are celebrating Good Friday. In the Abram's culture when someone made a covenant, they often would seal it with a blood path. They would take animals and cut them in half and lay them across from another. Thus, the blood would pool and there would be a blood path. Each party in the covenant would walk through the blood, thus saying if he broke his part of the covenant it was punishable with death. Now, in Genesis 15 the parties consisted of Abram (mankind) and God. But, Abram never walked through the path, rather God walked through it TWICE!! This means, that God would take Abram's (or mankind's) place if he broke the covenant. God knew we couldn't keep the covenant and instead of punishing us to death, he promised to take our place. Hence, Jesus came to this earth and died for us. He took our place on the cross to forgive our sins and offer us salvation. Because of this Romans 8 is true: nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." God is good all the time!

Now, Christians celebrate Good Friday to remember what God has done for us. He suffers with us. Isn't this good to remember in this day and age. There is so much suffering in this world, but God knows what it is to suffer. He experienced the ultimate suffering on the cross. So, yes we are celebrating his death today. It is a sad event, so we also lament that he suffers and we can lament for the suffering in this world. But, we also must remember that there is hope. The cross is not the end of the story. God is good all the time!

On Sunday we will celebrate Resurrection Day. Jesus may have died on Good Friday for us, but he rose again in 3 days! So on Good Friday when I remember the death and suffering of my Savior, I will also remember that there is new life in Christ and HOPE for all those suffering. God is good all the time! (Side note: To really understand what this means you may want to read Romans 6:1-14. Verse 14 is especially meaningful to me because of grace. It states this: "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under GRACE" Our salvation is a gift of grace from God through his son Jesus Christ).

I hope this touches some people.

My Savior, My God
by Aaron Shust

I am not skilled to understand, what God has willed, what God has planned.
I only know at his right hand, stands one who is my Savior.
I take him at his word and deed, Christ died to save me:
this I read and in my heart I find a need of Him to be my Savior.
That He would leave his place on high and come for sinful man to die,
You count it strange, so once did I, Before I knew my Savior.
My Savior Loves, My Savior Lives, My Savior's always there for me.
My God: He was, my God: He is, My God is always gonna be.
Yes, living dying: let me bring, my strength, my solace from this spring:
That He who lives to be my king, once died to be my Savior.

God is Good All the Time!

Go in God's Grace, Peace, and Joy!

Kyper's Cave and Other things

Other things first. Kyper is crawling all over the house. Cupboard latches are going up this weekend and bathroom cleaners need to find a new home in locked cupboards or top shelves. :) Here he is crawling toward the camera with a runny nose and what looks like some leftover dinner around his mouth. Sorry no new videos.Spring is here!! Kyper and I went outside the other day Yay!

This is the best self-portrait I got of Kyper and mama. :) Sorry it is dark. I had one with better lighting but Ky was not cooperating.
Here is Kyperman's Cave.

Look what he found--JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) Do we have another Dr. Phillips in the future?
More other things:

I didn't get the job at my church. They changed the job description on it when a fourth candidate suddenly applied. (I had the job, but then I didn't) Long story, still a little upset about it. Oh well, I guess God has other things in mind for me. I made two contacts about non-profit consulting, which is what I would like to do eventually. I also have made a request about being our church representative on a community organization's board that we partner with. I think it would be good to be on a non-profit's board for me professionally. Not only would it be good for the resume and it would also provide more networking opportunities for me.

Joel loved his neurology rotation and is unto his surgery one. He likes it more than he thought he would. but still doesn't want to do it long term and I am happy about that one. This rotation has been the roughest on him hour-wise and homework-wise. He has a lot of studying to do on top of long hours. Fortunately, today they are letting him off early to go to our church service--we are having a Seder Service lead by a Messianic Jew since it is Maundy Thursday. Okay back to his rotation. The nice thing is all rotations are only 4 weeks, so he is already half way done tomorrow. The bummer about the next two weeks, we hear the hours are worse because of who the residents are. (Residents change every month.) He potentially could not see Ky at all seeing as Ky goes down around 7:30pm. (Actually, he won't see us the last week, because Ky and I are going to west Michigan for the week . Joel will join us on the weekend.) After this rotation he will have completed 9 rotations and will have 3 more to go before he is officially a fourth year medical student! It will fly by!

Ky is beginning to eat some finger food! He loves toast and stuffs all the little pieces in his mouth at once if I let him. I am learning quickly how far his arms can reach.

I am excited because we are going to have Kyper's 9 month pictures taken professionally! Not that I mind doing our own at home, but Cara and David Williams are going to take his 9 month ones in two weeks--check out their blog on my sidebar. Cara graduated with Joel and I. I've told Joel after looking at their work on weddings that I wish they had been doing weddings when we got married--I would have totally gone with them. So, I am excited. You can start praying early that Kyper will be in a good mood for them!

Upcoming Posts:
I'll have to write more about the Seder Service. Plus, I plan on re-posting my Good Friday/ Resurrection post tomorrow. I hope an pray that all my blog readers are taking time to reflect on Jesus and what an amazing gift of grace has been given to all of us.
I think Joel and I are going to take Ky to the zoo this Saturday with Uncle Aren and Tia Leah. I'm sure we'll have some pictures to post from that adventure.

(Wow, I thought for sure I would get interrupted while writing this. Kyper has been sleeping since 2 and it is now 5! Oh well, I am going to let him go a little longer--maybe he won't be as crabby aka tired during nursery this evening seeing as the service is at 7 and his bedtime is at 7:30.)