Angel Baby

You're all familiar with our sweet angel baby, Charlie, yes?  See below for his 11 month picture.  Where he sat perfectly still and smiled for the camera.  What a good boy.

Here is what really happened:

Ok, Charlie.  Sit down so Daddy can take your picture.

 

 

The kid has no fear.  He just dove face first off the chair.  ALL BOY.  This is going to get interesting.  He loves his bath, so we thought we might get a great picture in there.  Charlie had different plans.

So we only have one month left of the "months" pictures.  Stayed tuned for what 12 might bring.  In other news, we like to keep it classy at our house.  So we tailgate.  In the garage.  Bet you wish you lived in our hood.

Yep, that's my son playing in the back of his Dad's truck.  Keeping it real.  Because that's how we roll.

And for posterity, I had to include this AWESOME picture from last week's eclipse.  If only you knew how many times I asked Cy to not look directly at the sun.  But he doesn't appear to be blind and we do have these pictures...so win-win.

 Until next time!

Cy, Meighan, Charlie, Lily and Bridget.

New pics of Charlie!

So I am a little behind, but really, are you surprised?  This feels like a win...April and May posts are practically back to back.  It's getting wild at our house with this kid on the move.  Charlie eats dog food? Check.  Charlie eats dirt?  Check.  Before you call DHS, come to my house.  See if you can catch him.

I was actually motivated to write this post because we just got pictures back from Charlie's recent photo session.  Check them out on Mindy Myers' Blog!

And in an effort to highlight the stark contrast between the pictures Mindy took and our own amateur work, see below for Charlie's latest "month" pictures:

My favorite new picture of Charlie and his Daddy playing.  

And finally, some confirmation that Cy's little mini me has a bit of his mom somewhere in there...you can't see it very well (bottom left), but we were sharing a giant chocolate muffin from Muffins with Mom at Charlie's school.  Look at the grin on his face! 

Until next time! 

The Phillips Family

It happened.

He crawls.  Big deal.  Very big deal.  I'm incapable of discerning a way to turn the video, but you guys get the point.  And no, we haven't baby proofed...yet...so he's got a few more days of trying to eat Bridget and Lily's food.

In other news, Charlie made his first trip to Arkansas!  This kid is a champ.  I'm not kidding.  10 hours each way and I'm pretty sure Cy would tell you that Charlie's behavior was better than mine.  It was a really special trip because he met his namesake for the first time!  This is Charlie and the ORIGINAL Lance Phillips, better known as (Great) Granddaddy.

He also got to meet his cousin Katie and read books with his Nana, Angie.

This is my FAVORITE picture of our time down there...four generations of LCP...

Charlie also got to meet his Great-Aunts - Jean Ann, Joy and Leslee.  While he thought all three of them were pretty spectacular, he took an unwavering liking to Jean Ann.

Here it is.  THE tree.  This isn't just a cypress tree, it is THE CYPRESS tree.  As in the one that my Lance was named for.  Just to the right of the tree, you can see the bay house where they first lived and Cy was born.  Don't get the wrong idea.  He wasn't ACTUALLY born in this house...this is the house they brought him home to...haha.  

Cy was really busy teaching Charlie all about the farm...please note that my little city boy was rocking some preppy madras pants...

We stayed with Lynn and she taught Charlie all about the plants in her backyard.  He was desperate to eat them.

In the midst of all this fun, the little guy hit the 9 month mark.  I included a couple of additional pictures that are among my favorites from the past few weeks.  

And finally, the most important Phillips' Family news/request.  Send some prayers to our hero, Uncle Vill who is showing each of us what real courage is while deployed in Afghanistan.  We miss you, Vill!!

All of our love!

Charlie and Meighan

November was yesterday...right?

True or false: I haven't blogged since November.  True.  To be fair, it feels like it was yesterday.  I am mega-behind on all things blogging, but if it makes you feel better, I'm also behind on laundry.  Here's a quick recap on months 4-8 with the little guy. 

Just an editorial note here...Cy just walked into the office and asked how the blogging was coming.  I showed him how much I'd written, but said I'd made some progress picking out pictures.  He says, "we haven't blogged since that trip?!  Better make it a long one."  Um, no. WE haven't blogged since that trip.  Ok here goes...

Thanksgiving: We hosted family at our place for Thanksgiving.  Charlie got to spend some time with Grandma Lynn and Uncle Villy who came for a few days.  We Skyped with Alicia who had just wrapped up her Fijian-style Thanksgiving celebration with other Peace Corp Volunteers.   

Anni Trip: At the beginning of December, Cy and I went to the Bahamas for a weekend getaway to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.  Charlie and Grandma MJ got to hang out the whole weekend.  

While at our resort, there was a tennis invitational.  Cy is basically the Roger Federer of Iowa (this might be a stretch), so we decided to check it out.  Sure enough, Andy Roddick was playing!  It was AWESOME to watch and we had a blast.  Oh, by the way, his supermodel wife, Brooklyn Decker was there.  That's cool, Brooklyn.  I'm not mad.  I was really hoping to see a super model at the pool a few months after having a baby.  Really great.  Thanks so much for coming (she's the blond with the blue shirt around her shoulders).

Anyway, we saw them at dinner and I totally played it cool.  (Editorial note: this was the least embarrassing of the "playing it cool" pictures).  They are sitting at the table behind my right shoulder.  So now we are pretty much besties.  

First solid food: This is sort of a misnomer given you don't actually give them "solid" food.  Anyway, we started with sweet potatoes and it went really well.  A couple of days after this, he barfed peas.  I can't blame him, I don't like them either.  For your sake, I left that picture off the blog.  

Christmas: I could should have done a whole post about Christmas.  It was SO fun with Charlie.  He is sort of a whiz at unwrapping presents.  

Adalynn's First Birthday:  I'm not sure how the time went by so fast, but our Goddaughter, Adalynn, turned one at the end of December.  The picture below is literally a fraction of the cool stuff Amber did for the party.  I'm not showing you anymore because I don't want you guys to think I'm a loser when Charlie's first birthday comes around this summer.  Suffice it to say, the party was great.  

Adalynn decided to share her cake with her mom and dad.  Sweet kid.  I'd NEVER do that.  Unless you hang out with my work friends, I don't know many times when you ever get a whole cake for yourself.  And to be fair, I should clarify that my work friends don't eat entire cakes by themselves.  But each of us has come close.  You know who you are.  

New Years Eve: We hit up a super fun family party at the Kell's.  And we played some sort of dance video game where you don't have a controller.  I am hooked.  Charlie came dressed for the dance party:

Valentine's Day:  We had an awesome dinner at home and it couldn't have been better!  Charlie is ALL about the pups.  

While I am a horrible blogger, we have been keeping up with the month-by-month pictures.  See below for months 5 through 8 (just last week!):

 Finally, below are a couple of extra pictures I couldn't resist posting...like the one where Adalynn showed Charlie how to open the kitchen cabinets.  Thanks, Curtis.  

 

 

Until next time! And by next time, I mean sometime sooner than 4 months from now...

Cy, Meighan, Charlie, Lily and Bridget