The Phillips Family

Category: Family

  • Corona Chronicles

    Corona Chronicles

    We’re in the midst of a global pandemic of Covid 19 or Corona virus. Life is changed and we’re finding a new temporary (god I hope!) normal. Cataloguing an event our generation will always remember…

    Day 1: Social Distancing.

    School is cancelled for the next two weeks and it’s highly recommended we stay home and stay at least 6 feet from others to help contain this virus.

    So we went exploring in the park, mommy went for a run while pushing two snacking babes and then rode bikes at the empty pool parking lot. While away from friends and family, we’re outside and ‘enjoying’ this break from our normal hectic lives. Life could be worse.

  • Family Hike

    Family Hike

    Grabbing a little fresh air on Sunday at Natirar!

  • Quick! Make a silly face!

    Quick! Make a silly face!

  • Last Legs of our Christmas Road Trip!

    Last Legs of our Christmas Road Trip!

    After Christmas in Middletown we headed to DC for lunch with Preethi and Shiwali! It was quick (and sadly no pictures) but always great to reconnect with old friends…especially with the whole family in tow!

    From DC we headed to Fallston, MD for the night to check out the Barba’s beautiful new house. The Sullivans even joined us for a festive Christmas celebration!

    And from Fallston we headed back down to Baltimore for the night to visit the Harrells. The kids had a blast at the aquarium, eating pizza, playing skee-ball and having another sleep over with buddies!

    And after a week of festivities, that’s a wrap for Christmas 2019! It was a lot of moving but a ton a fun.

    How did we manage it all you might be asking….. well, I did have a little help from my good friend Bailey in the morning! 😉

    2020 here we come!

  • Christmas 2019!

    Christmas 2019!

    So much excitement, so much happiness, so much chaos!

    • Sitting in the ‘present chair’
    • Checking out his new Paw Patrol vehicles
    • A new robot!
    • Classy
    • Testing out his new dinosaur light up shoes!
    • Obsessed.
    • A new crane truck that makes noise!
    • He got the Sea Patroller!

    After a few sugar highs, more gifts and some naps, we headed down to Carol Creek with the whole crew to view the boat lights. Our motley Christmas crew in their pjs and hat!

    • Trying to get Teddy to stay in the picture

  • Our Christmas Highway Trip

    Our Christmas Highway Trip

    We put a lot of miles on over the last week visiting folks for the holidays! But despite all the ‘highway time’, it was a great and a beautiful reminder of how lucky we are to have such a wonderful community of friends and family in our lives! ?❤️

    Before we could leave, we had to make sure Santa knew how to find us in Maryland. So the boys and Andy drew a map of course!

    First stop, the Fear family farm! We had a great time visiting with everyone and getting to see their beautiful property! Plus the boys were in heaven getting to ride on the tractor, ATVs and being able to see the animals! The excitement in their eyes was awesome!

    Thank you Jimmy, Grace, Kaitlyn & Abby for having us! Next time we need a group photo!

    Next stop, Grandma and Grandpa’s in Middletown! Grandma and Grandpa arranged for everyone to go swimming on the first day. The kids had a BLAST and the parents were happy to see them use up all that energy. On the way home from the pool we stopped off at Carole Creek in Frederick to see the boat lights on the canal. My boys love to look at ‘pretty lights’ during the Christmas season so this was a hit!

    And then it was Christmas Eve! We took the kids to the park in the morning to run off some of their excitement. But before we could leave, Charlotte helped Andrew finish is school work. 🙂

    We also may or may not have stopped for lunch (and Margaritas) on the way back to Grandma’s!

    Christmas Eve festivities; including a visit from Santa!

    • Consulting his ‘Naughty & Nice List’
    • Kids Table!
    • Too much eggnog!?

    Off to bed kiddos, Santa comes tonight!

  • Santa Fire Truck 2019!

    Santa Fire Truck 2019!

    Annual tradition! Here comes Santa on his firetruck spreading holiday cheer!

    • Attentively listening for Santa’s sirens all morning!
    • Here comes the big guy himself!
  • A Ride to the North Pole

    A Ride to the North Pole

    Annual train ride to visit Santa!

    • A little cold waiting for the train
    • Tough questions: are you on the naughty or nice list?
    • Merry Christmas 2019!
  • It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

    It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

    We’re writing our Christmas lists for Santa:

    Andrew’s big requests this year are (1) light-up dinosaur shoes and (2) a Paw Patrol Sea Patroller. Meanwhile, Teddy wants a loud, talking truck.

    Our Elf, Mr. Stinky Fee, is back in the house. We search for him every morning since he’s always in a new hiding spot. Because as we all know, he goes the North Pole at night to report back to Santa! Are we nice or naughty!?!

    Who do you think is nice and who do you think is naughty?!

    We’re watching Christmas movies. The Polar Express is still our favorite!

    And we’re getting our Christmas tree!

    Another trip to Cherryville Farm to find and cut down that perfect tree!

    • Back at the car eating snacks while the Dads do the hard lifting…
    • Post-tree beers and lunch. The children are quiet and the parents are happy!

    It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

  • Happy Thanksgiving from Florida!

    Happy Thanksgiving from Florida!

    Not many pictures but a whole lot of fun in the sunshine state!

    And we’re off! A fairly uneventful flight minus the fact that Mommy’s diamond fell out of her engagement ring and was (as far as we know) lost forever somewhere in Newark Airport. Queue the tears and drama!

    Insert happier times teaching the boys to play golf. They did really well!

    For a week we rode bikes, went to the playground, swam in the pool, golfed, played a little tennis, built forts with Aunt Kiki and ate delicious food! We even went to the Naples Zoo with Coco!

    Before we headed home we also managed to bake some Christmas cookies; the traditional Kleinfelter Sandtart recipe!

    And sadly (without even a family photo), we had to head home- and back to an ice storm no less! The boys did really well despite a nearly 4 hour delay! While there is often NOTHING positive that comes from multi-hour airline delays, our captain was amazing! He was out talking to passengers, showed all the kids the flight path, gave Teddy his 1st pair of wings and invited Andrew to take a peak into the cockpit. Very cool!

    Back in New Jersey and full steam ahead towards Christmas!