Phillips family update

Happy New Year

2009-01-15T20:56:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since we've posted anything here. So here's some new pics and video.
Everyone's doing well. Judah enjoyed Christmas, especially loved Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and doesn't understand why Rudolph is no longer on TV. Leandro is starting to show more personality, smiling a lot and taking great interest in whatever Jude is doing.
Matt's in DC now, so we've gotten to see him a little more often. And we're all thrilled to be watching the Eagles in the playoffs -- Go Birds.

Click here for more pictures.

Videos:
Jude tickling
Jude reading
Jude and Uncle Matt
Leo hanging out

November in Rahway

2008-11-18T18:37:00.005-05:00

Just some new pictures from a fun month. I took a buyout from The Star-Ledger, so I have a month off between jobs. Enjoying the quality time at home with Amy and the boys, and also trying to get some projects done around the house. (Who knew plumbing was so challenging?) I'm starting a new job at the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 1.

More pictures here.
Little Leo video.
Jude and Amy playing in the leaves.

Introducing Leandro

2008-09-29T12:57:00.004-04:00

Leandro was born Sept. 26 at 9:26
Weighed 6 lbs 10 oz.
19.5 in long

His arrival was a week late, but everything worked out better than we could hope for. We're home from the hospital, Amy's feeling great, Leo is sleeping and eating like a champ, and Judah just loves his baby brother.

Click here for more new pictures
And click here for a great video of Judah meeting his baby brother for the first time.

Calm before the storm

2008-09-11T22:17:00.003-04:00

We've had a very busy summer: planning for baby, buying a new place, moving, considering a job change. But all is going well. No baby news just yet -- we're expecting the little one to arrive any day, just not sure WHICH day. The due date is Sept. 20, and originally we were told that we'd likely deliver early. Now we're getting closer and closer to the due date, and we've been told they likely won't let us go beyond then.

So for now we're just getting settled in the new place, getting things set up for the baby, and spending lots of quality time with Jude. Poor guy has no idea what's in store.

Hope everyone's doing well. Here's a random assortment of new pictures.

Contemplating the unthinkable

2008-07-18T21:48:00.003-04:00

There we were, happily enjoying the summer, playing with our increasingly active toddler. And, of course, preparing for the arrival of baby two in September. And then our realtor called ... the condo we'd been waiting three years for was coming on the market. Long story short, we're buying it and trying to fit in a modest rehab and moving in the 6 weeks we have left before the baby arrives!

Very exciting. It's a nice condo in a building four blocks from where we live now. So the neighborhood won't change much. The reason it's all worth it -- we hope -- is that we got a pretty good price and it's slightly bigger than our current place. The real motivator, the feature we'd been patiently waiting for, is a large rooftop deck. The building is an old high school, built in 1909. It was turned into condos in the 80s. But having a rooftop deck is what we've always wanted: safe, light-maintenance, outdoor space in our little urban haven.

Here's some shots we took. And yes, we're replacing the purple carpets.

So that's the schedule: Close by the end of July >> Move by the end of August >> Baby due in early September.

In case you missed them, the latest additions to our shared album.

Gail & Harry Meet Shane

2008-06-21T12:47:00.003-04:00

On saturday Gail and Harry were first and second in line at the PNC Bank to meet and get an autograph from Shane Victorino from the Philadelphia Phillies.

Welcome home, Matt

2008-06-16T21:05:00.004-04:00

We're all glad to have Matt home, safe and sound after his 7-month deployment. Matt's back in Norfolk now, and he'll stay with this ship for a few months more, doing some shorter cruises from time to time. But no more long ones. No word yet on where he'll end up for his next assignment -- but we're hoping for East Coast.

Here at home we're doing fine. Amy's 7 months pregnant, and doing just fine. She's going to stop working at the end of the month, to concentrate on gestating. Jude's getting to be quite a handful, but still a lot of fun to be with. He's a smart little guy, developing quite a vocabulary and a handful of party tricks.

Here's a series of pictures of Jude growing, we shoot one each month. And we'll keep adding to it each month, so check it out from time to time. It's amazing how much he's changed in such a short time.

And here's a lot of other random shots. In this new format, you can view the pictures whichever way you want, and you can even post your own pictures to the collection if you'd like. Let me know if it doesn't work for you.

I've got some good videos to post, too. I'll try to get those up soon.

Latest from Rahway

2008-04-19T19:37:00.004-04:00

I just posted a bunch of new pictures. Click here to see them all.

Things here are going well. Judah is a handful now, he knows how to ask for the basic things he needs (food, sleep, a good vantage point to watch us cooking), and he's not shy about letting us know he needs it. He understands us more and more, and the baby sign language has really helped us to understand him. We're enjoying going for walks now that spring is here. It's fun to watch how he interacts with the world and explores strange new places.

Amy's feeling pretty good, too, with her pregnancy. She's starting to look more unmistakably pregnant, which she prefers to the "possibly just fat" stage. But we still have a while to go and we're trying to enjoy the time with Jude before the baby gets here.

I'll post a couple videos here, too.
Got a postcard from Uncle Matt
Playing train conductor
Jude and Henry, playing with Elmo

Some new pictures ... and some big news

2008-03-12T23:32:00.004-04:00

We celebrated Jude's first birthday last month, and he's just changing so quickly now. He's walking all over the place, playing with everything he can get his hands on. He's beginning to use baby sign language (or his own particular dialect of it) and he's using a few words and sounds, too. He's a sweet little guy, we just can't get enough of him.

Some more pictures.
Here's a little video from last week.

In fact, our first year with Jude has gone so well that we're adding another soul to the family! Amy's pregnant again, and the baby (Little Two, as we call it) is due Sept. 19. We're very excited about it -- at least Amy and I are excited about it. Jude has no interest in the topic. The kids will be about 19 months apart, which is just a little closer than we'd planned. But we'll manage. If Little Two is half as fun as Judah has been, we're in for an adventure.

Judah's Birthday

2008-02-12T12:15:00.000-05:00

A pretty funny video of Judah eating his birthday cake. I guess we'd never given him anything so sweet as that icing, and he decided the best way to eat it was to dive right in.

Click here for the video.

Some short videos

2008-02-03T10:03:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I got a video up here. So below are a couple recent ones of life with Jude.

Learning to feed himself.
Playing around.
Getting ready for bath time.

Christmas pictures

2008-01-11T11:38:00.001-05:00

Some pictures from December and Christmas. Jude's doing great, we can't believe he'll be a year old next month. He's very mobile and playful now, crawling all over the house and enjoying all the toys he got for Christmas: musical instruments, blocks, cars. He's still a very happy guy, and we enjoy the heck out of him.

Click here for all the pics.

A.

Big news from Matt

2007-12-06T17:24:00.000-05:00

Matt's off on deployment for the next six months in the Mediterranean and along the African coast, but we were all thrilled to get this message from him this week:

"Hello from the Eastern Atlantic Ocean! I just received word that I have been selected for Command of my own ship! It’s a big milestone and I am happy to have been selected. I have no idea what ship it will be and won’t find that out for a long time…it will be about 3 years before I take command. But its definitely the goal I have worked toward for a long time."

Congrats to (future) Captain Matt!

Happy November

2007-12-06T17:07:00.000-05:00

A bunch of new pictures from a busy month. Jude is doing great, he's been so much fun lately. He's such a patient guy, but also very silly and playful. On trips into and out of NYC he makes friends with everyone on the train. (It's kind of embarassing at times). He's especially fascinated by the conductors and he stops and stares while they walk through the train taking tickets. He's 19 pounds, and eating mostly solid foods now. And he sleeps 12 hours straight at bedtime now, which is a huge achievement.

At home he mostly plays at climbing things, and we make tunnels and forts out of the couch cushions for his amusement (or maybe it's for his dad's amusement).

Lots more pictures here.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-29T00:01:00.001-04:00

The benefits of hand-me downs: two Halloween costumes.

A bunch of new pictures (sorry it's been a while since the last update). Included here are some photos from family events with the Garcia's, Judah's christening, and a Halloween party at Amy's studio. We're all doing well. Judah's getting a lot more active, and beginning to crawl. He's still a very pleasant guy and we're having a great time with him.

And a couple videos:
Monkeying around
Playing with Dad
Juggling
Singing and eating

New pictures posted

2007-09-22T22:31:00.001-04:00

A bunch of pics from all over the place. We visited Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim, and got to meet their puppy Chancy. Judah enjoyed watching him run around. Jude's pretty good on long trips in the car, as long as he gets to ride on my lap while I drive. (Just kidding.)

I guess the rest of the pics are self explanatory: click here.

Boys out camping

2007-09-02T17:07:00.000-04:00

More pics here of our August canoe trip. We had a great time, as always, and this year we had the best weather of the summer. Which was a good thing, because we had just one tent for the four of us.

I can't wait to bring Judah on these trips, once he can pull his own weight.

Congrats to Megan and Jason

2007-08-23T09:50:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Megan and Jason, who announced their engagement last month. They plan to marry in May 2009.

Pictures from here and there

2007-08-20T11:44:00.000-04:00

Some new pictures. Jude's a little over six months old now. Getting more active all the time, which is both fun and a lot more work for us. He's getting a lot of personality, generally he's a very happy little guy, and he laughs a lot.

More pics here.

Some videos:
Judah singing
Laughing at Nonna and Yayo
Judah hanging out.

New shots

2007-08-06T10:26:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been a while since I posted pics. These have been on my site, I just forgot to put the link here. Some pretty cute ones. Click here.

Jude's getting so big. He's very talkative now, and starting to roll all over the place. He can even hold himself in a sitting position, but not for very long. I'll post some videos soon.

Week at the beach and more

2007-07-04T13:50:00.000-04:00

Here's a bunch of pictures from our week at the beach with the Garcia's, along with a few other shots. Click Here

And some videos:
Judah sings with his mama.
Judah talking to his Nonna.

Latest stuff

2007-06-08T10:59:00.000-04:00

Lots of new pics here.

And some new videos:
Jude plays
Jude babbles
Jude rolls

Spending Time with Judah

2007-06-04T19:19:00.001-04:00

grandma and grandpa had a wonderfull weekend with Judah. He has grown so much. That face is priceless and he is such a joy. Andy and Amy are doing a great job with him. Judah also had a good time with his Uncle Matt.

San Jacinto

2007-05-24T23:02:00.000-04:00

Some pictures from my trip on Matt's ship. It was a fun time, really cool to see everything that Matt does on the ship. And impressive to see how neatly the ship is run. It's all very professional, but at the same time it's less rigid and regimented than I expected.

Everyone treated me well, especially once they found out that the XO was my brother. But despite his title, I didn't see him exchange any hugs and kisses.

More pictures here.

Baby boy is growing up

2007-05-24T22:28:00.000-04:00

Amazing how quickly he's changing ...

Latest from Jude

2007-05-14T00:18:00.000-04:00

Random pictures from all over. Jude's getting more and more active, and does lots of smiling and babbling. It's pretty adorable.

Latest pictures are here.

Some videos...
Chattin up the ladies.
Happy Jude.
Working on his tummy time.
Talking to mom.

Latest pics

2007-04-25T16:42:00.000-04:00

Judah went to the doctor today for a check-up and got a clean bill of health. He's up to 12 lbs (!), has a large head, but he's still kind of short.

Latest pictures, click below. (I hope to add videos later.)
Click here for pics.

Happy Easter pictures

2007-04-10T22:01:00.000-04:00

Some shots from a lovely Easter weekend together. We missed you, Matt.
Click here for the latest.

Jude pics

2007-04-07T00:08:00.000-04:00

He's changing so much. Compare these to his first set.

Click here for the latest.

Cute movie

2007-04-02T10:46:00.000-04:00

Haven't downloaded any new pictures, but this is an awfully cute video. Kind of long, so give it a minute to load.

Jude taking a bath.

Growing fast

2007-03-27T11:51:00.000-04:00

The latest pics and video.

Photo album
Waking Judah
The dark side

Come meet the new boss

2007-03-25T14:54:00.000-04:00

Posting these from Matt. One is mean XO, the other is happy XO. You guess which is which.

Peter's 21st Birthday

2007-03-23T20:59:00.000-04:00

This is Tori and Peter at Texas Roadhouse on
his 21st Birthday with his first "legal drink"
Happy Birthday Peter

New Judah pix

2007-03-14T22:39:00.000-04:00

Some new developments today: Jude's doctor checkup went well. He's up to 7 lbs, 6 oz! And he's jumped the chart in weight, height and head size percentile. We're so proud. That said, he still does basically nothing. Here's some pictures and video of that:

More pics here.

VIDEO: Just looking around.
VIDEO: A new sound.
VIDEO: A huge accomplishment!

First Signs of Spring

2007-03-12T19:55:00.000-04:00

Maybe we should change the name of this blog ...

2007-02-27T16:32:00.000-05:00

More pics here.

Another awake video.
Jude doing his gas exercises.

The latest

2007-02-21T21:59:00.000-05:00

More pics here.

Stop me when you've had enough

2007-02-17T12:21:00.000-05:00

More pics here.

HERE for movie, Jude Awake

HERE for movie, Jude Hiccups

More Jude pics

2007-02-14T15:44:00.000-05:00

Stop me when you've had enough.
Bang it here for more.
HERE for a little Jude movie.

Jude pics

2007-02-11T18:04:00.000-05:00

Click here for lots more.

One month to go!

2007-01-23T08:56:00.000-05:00

New pix

2007-01-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

Who says you can't teach an old dog a new trick?

2006-12-21T21:23:00.000-05:00

Last weekend (12/16) we had Mom and Dad out to dinner at a Korean barbeque place in Herald Square. They managed to figure out the chop-sticks, and we all ate some things that we didn't recognize. Lots of fun.

More belly

2006-12-21T21:21:00.000-05:00

Month 7

Belly shot

2006-11-24T00:06:00.000-05:00

Three months to go ...

Belly shot

2006-10-25T00:12:00.000-04:00

Here's the latest update on Amy's midsection. She's feeling the movements inside now.

Show and tell

2006-10-03T14:27:00.000-04:00

A little thing I did for work, with some animated graphics that I made.

Click here

(You need Flash Player 8 to view it.)

Canoe pictures

2006-09-24T22:20:00.000-04:00

These are the pictures from our summer canoe trip.

Month 4

2006-09-22T09:47:00.000-04:00

Here's the latest belly shot. It's really beginning to show.

Matt and Megan Visit Block Island

2006-09-07T20:55:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from Matt and Megan's trip to Block Island. We took the ferry 13 miles from Pt Judith, RI out to Block Island.

Then we had lunch (hot dogs and lemonade) on the island. It seemed like a good idea to rent bikes and ride around the island. After several wrong turns, we found the right road which started with a big hill....

Megan almost had hot dogs and lemonade a second time!

We rode for about 2 miles before turning around and riding back. Then we walked around the town until the ferry was ready to take us home.

Overall a good day, but Megan says she's really tired....

Monthly pix

2006-08-28T23:55:00.000-04:00

We take a picture of Amy's belly once a month so that we can see the change. So here's the first three months, proof that Amy's belly is expanding, and that Amy is getting closer to the camera.

Matt's Ironman pix

2006-08-27T19:15:00.000-04:00

Here's the link to see or buy the pictures from Matt's half-ironman. (No, I don't know what the other half is.) This is a good example of the kinds of stuff we can post here to share.