Ryan eating like a big boy! Finally!

Good gosh, time flies!

I know I've been awful at updating lately! Something about having two little boys and barely keeping our clothes clean comes to mind! Anyway, Jonathan just turned one yesterday! Here are some pics of our celebration!

 

Absolute cuteness!

Jeffery LOVES being a big brother!

Race for the Cure

I just wanted to let everyone know that Neal and I will be participating in the local Race for the Cure here in Jacksonville on October 23rd. This is a cause that is close to our hearts, as we both have very close loved ones that have or had breast cancer. We intend to run this race in their honor.

We have a fundraising page as part of our participation, and we ask that all of our family/friends would consider donating. I know we are all a bit tight these days, but even a $10 donation makes a difference!

http://www.komennorthflorida.org/goto/nealandjaniephillips

Neal and I both will be running in the 5k, though he will be running for time, and I'll just be happy to finish! I will also have the boys in their stroller with me, so this will truly be a family event! We'll post pictures and a post-race update as soon as we can. In the meantime, check out our page even if you can't donate!

We love you all!

Our precious littlest guy!

This was even after having gotten his shots today!

Video

(You'll have to click on the link. The video was too big to post here.)

Another cute video!

Jeffery really loves his little brother!

I swear I will update soon!

I swear I will post some pictures and information on how things are going here. But in the meantime, enjoy a video of our sweet boys!

P-Nut is here!

Jonathan Wesley Phillips was born at 12:48pm on Tuesday, June 29th - his due date! He weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 22 inches long!

He is a great baby so far: eats well, sleeps well, and is developing his own little routine, which for the last couple of days includes napping at the same time as his big brother! He's already back up and past his birth weight, so he's doing well.

Mom and Dad are absolutely in love, and big brother dotes on him. He didn't really pay him much attention at first, but now goes to him when he cries, looks for him in the Pack N Play every morning, and kisses him and tries to hold him! He tries to give him back his pacifier when he loses it, and he loves to push Mom and Jonathan in the rocking chair while singing to them. He's going to be an awesome big brother!

The delivery went great! We were able to avoid a C-section this time, and the recovery has been much smoother on both Mom and baby. I was up and moving within hours of the birth, and am about 95% now. Neal goes back to work this coming week, so that's encouraging.

My mom and sisters were here staying with us when he was born, and were able to spend some quality time with him in those first few days, as well as take some of the burden off Neal with caring for a toddler and a newborn while I was down. They were hugely helpful! And Neal's mom is coming in later today for a week to visit and meet the newest little man. We are SO glad that everyone is able to see him almost immediately this time, as everyone waited 3 months to meet Jeffery! This is much better!

Thank you to all those who have sent their congratulations, and we can't wait to introduce Jonathan to each of you eventually! We love you all!

Some pictures:

Wanna play a game?

So because I'm dying waiting for this baby, I decided to start an online baby pool! Anyone can guess, just go to the link below:

http://www.expectnet.com/games/BabyPNut

I can' wait to see some of the guesses!

We are alive, I promise!

I am SO sorry it's been forever since I last posted. The move back to the US, checking in and learning our new area, looking for a house, and growing a baby while tending to a toddler have kept me just a bit busy!

We're doing well though! Neal loves his new command, and is excelling there (as if anyone's surprised). He has some really great people that he works with, and it makes for a much more enjoyable work experience.

We're in an apartment temporarily, as we weren't able to find a house as quickly as we had hoped. We're in the final stages of the process now, and have hopefully found one, but it's not set in stone yet. The apartment was a HUGE improvement over a hotel though, as Jeffery now has his own room and a big boy bed that he has adjusted very well to, and we got all our stuff back so I can now cook again!

The baby baking is going well! This pregnancy has been a bit harder because of chasing after a toddler, and all of the life changes going on right now, but we don't seem to know how to do it any different! It's going well though: all my vitals have been great, the baby's healthy and now in birthing position, and with the exception of a bit of anemia, everything's great! Now we are just waiting. Less than four weeks until our due date (June 29th)!

Mama Carcello, Karen, and Sarah will be coming soon to help me out during that last week-plus of the pregnancy and will be here to keep Jeffery while we're in the hospital. I am looking forward to the help! Daddy Carcello will come visit once the baby's born. Then, Mama and Daddy Phillips will be visiting in July. We're so glad everyone will get to see this baby almost immediately this time, instead of 3 months old like Jeffery was!

I am settling into being Stateside and staying at home. It's much different when you can go grocery shopping and not have to think in/speak a different language! It's also nice to have WalMart, Target, and Publix available again! Fast food, stores open in the evenings, and dependable internet are all great too! I will admit that I'm still getting used to some bad drivers around here too though. But nothing like Italy.

There are some things I miss about Italy: capuccini, amazing pizza, fresh (and cheap!) produce ... you know, mostly the food! I couldn't believe I paid $2 for a wimpy head of wilted lettuce the other day. It would've cost me about 50 cents in Italy. So that will take some getting used to.

But overall, we are enjoying our new area. We've not made it to the beach as much as we'd like, but it's taken us a while to get used to Neal being on shift work again. We're in the waiting game again this year for Chief's results. This is the first year he's had a really good chance of making it, so we're a bit more impatient this time. He's got a great attitude about it, but that curiosity to see if you got a promotion is hard to resist. We should know around the first week or so of August.

I am settling in and trying to get going again selling Pampered Chef. It's like starting all over again, and having to work around my due date causes interesting issues! But I have a few leads here, and am working hard on getting shows scheduled so I can relax when the baby comes. I'm really enjoying it though.

I've also started selling my quilted burp cloths, and am trying to start on quilts and possibly other things as well. I was so thrilled to get back to the US where I could use my good sewing machine again (didn't want to use it with a transformer in Italy, and risk burning out the motor)! It's been like a dream sewing on it again! I did a craft fair a while back and am going to try (after the baby's born of course) to see if I can find any local boutiques willing to sell my stuff. We'll see.

I think that's about all the updates I have for now. There will obviously be lots more in the coming days (house, baby, Chief results, etc). We love you all and are SO glad to be back and closer to everyone! Please drop us an email (janie.neal.phillips@gmail.com) and update us on everything! In the meantime, we hope everyone has a great weekend!

P.S. I have TONS of pictures to catch everyone up on, so I will likely upload those as one big post over the next few days.

Jeffery's First Snow!!!

We've had a crazy weather day today! First it started out extremely windy and started raining around 7am. Then it cleared up and was cool and partly sunny. This afternoon turned a bit dark and gloomy, with thunder and lightning. Moments later, this is what we looked out to see!

















We've been told it hasn't snowed in this area for over 50 years! So much for that global warming thing, huh?!?

Half -Baked!!!

Well, today I'm officially 20 weeks pregnant! It seriously sneaks up on you! And if this one is anything like his/her big brother, we're about exactly halfway there.

We have a doctor's appointment later this week, as well as our big middle-of-the-pregnancy ultrasound! We've decided again to wait to find out what sex this baby is. We enjoyed the surprise so much with Jeffery, and really don't have any practical need to know anyway. So while we'll be posting plenty of sonogram pictures, don't expect a big announcement!

The pregnancy is still going well. I had morning sickness pretty badly in the beginning, but that eased up around Christmas. I am still easily tired (chasing a very active toddler doesn't help that much), and have learned to take it easy when I need to. A few weeks ago, I was told by the OB that I need to stop lifting Jeffery because I may have pulled a muscle in my stomach. I guess it isn't wise to be lifting a thirty-plus pound toddler while pregnant! But we're better now, and though I still try not to lift Jeffery unless I have to, it hasn't caused any other problems.

I am beginning to get some energy, and am definitely developing a bit of a belly. According to Neal, there's no denying it now! Though I did start getting a bump sooner this time around, and felt the baby earlier, it seems to be a bit smaller than Jeffery was, so here's hoping this one's not going to try and beat his/her big brother's birth weight record!

Jeffery is doing great! He's super busy, always on the move, and babbling up a storm! He says several words now (daddy, hi, bye, ball, up, boom, thank you, and even kitty cat, among others), and really tries to copy what you say. I've been trying to teach him a few signs, and so far he's learned please and more (or his versions of them). We're currently working on eat. He blows kisses and says bye, and loves talking to his Grammies on Skype! Any time we ask him if he wants to call Grammy, he instantly starts babbling, "hi, gee" while running to the computer!

There are so many things that he's doing right now. I can't even remember all of them to post! He is just SO easy, and is such a joy to be around. Neal and I are constantly saying how unfair it is that he's so cute and cuddly. It just makes it so hard to get onto him sometimes! He obviously has his moments just like any other kid, but we're so grateful for such a sweet little boy!

His latest thing is dancing. I try to catch him on video every time, but he stops when he sees the camera out. Here's the best I have been able to catch:

I'm late posting these

Sorry for taking so long to post new sonogram pictures. I've been trying to keep up with Jeffery lately, and that's increasingly difficult to do.

These were taken at 11 weeks and 1 day. The baby is measuring a week ahead (that's the 12w1d measurement), so it looks like we're on track for another large baby! I suppose that we just make big babies.

Doc said the baby's looking "great" and moving a lot, which is good. It was quiet at first, but then she poked at it a bit, and it really responded. It started stretching limbs and rolling around. The funny part was it did the same thing Jeffery did at this point when we were having a sonogram with him. When the doctor got a good front view, it rolled over and turned its back toward us! I think our kids are fond of their sleep!

All in all, we're doing well. Morning sickness is tapering off now, and I'm beginning to feel some weight gain in the midsection. Given that I've lost about 6-7 pounds now, there's no real baby bump yet, but it's definitely coming. It's starting to poke out every morning now when I wake up. I'm definitely out of my regular jeans, so it won't be long before I break back into the maternity clothes.

Our next appointment is at the first of January, and then we'll schedule our big ultrasound for later in January, so be ready for several pictures then! For now, here's the three we were able to get.