And Colin's 2nd recital.....he needs a bit more practice but is very easily distracted by lots of other stuff......to include lots of 5th grade "accelerated" homework.

Ashlynn's first Piano Recital!  And yes she used one of my old books.....for some reason I saved a few from my lessons (that I wish I hadn't stopped.....) and she thought it was so cool that she could play one of them :)

Boy I'm Behind!

Ok I am SO much better at updating facebook than this blog....sorry to those that don't have FB and use this as their way to track us down!  I will add "update blog" to my monthly tasks so you don't get so behind!

Mike was pointing out to me that I hadn't even updated how long we had been married......where did those two years go?  Time is just moving too fast with these two munchkins keeping me busy :)

I don't even know where to start with updates so I will just start with today!

We are finally "mostly" settled in CA!  Just a few more things to find homes and then to clean the place back up before Nana and Papa come for their first visit this weekend!  The kids are loving the area and the house so far and we will see if that lasts after they start school on Monday!  We toured their school and they were very impressed (it's only 4 years old) so they are actually excited about getting started....and really ready to make new friends!

Well....I'm not going to reenter all of our past pics BUT I will link the last several facebook albums here so those of you without FB can catch up!

 

This album is our "Summer 2011...Goodbye VA Hello CA and everything between" Lots of summer fun AND of course our cross country trip to CA!  Lots of fun entertainment :)

 

This album is the 4th and 1st grade album.  I put all of their pics from first day to last day in one album! 

 

and this album is just a beginning to pics of our newest family members Lenny and Kelly, the Irish Terrier Dogs!  There are many more of these that need to be added.

 

Ok....I have to get back to cleaning so that will have to be enough of an update for now but will get more on later!

ALL the Christmas Pictures

As the kids finished their Thank You notes I realized that some of you may want to see the picture of them opening your gifts.....so I uploaded the pics of them opening EVERYTHING for Christmas......hope you enjoy!

SOOOO MANY PRESENTS.....HOW DO WE GET THEM HOME?

Welcome 2011!

Well I have lots to catch up on here.....it seems i just never have time for blog posting and most of my updates are on Facebook in real time!

I will take a few moments to connect our facebook photo albums here for thos of you who would like to "catch up."  Most of our 2010 update was in the Christmas card and letter so I will try to post that as well for those who may be interested but weren't on the snail mail list.  Thanks for checking in and I will attempt to do better and keeping this somewhat up to date.

These photo albums are starting with most recent and going back a few months.

Christmas if FL with Daddy!

Coutdown to Christmas with Daddy....Thanksgiving up to Flight!

Halloween 2010!

Colin Turns the BIG 1 0

Fall New England Trip

Ash Turns 6!

1st Day of School....4th and 1st????

HOW can it be that my kiddos are in the 4th and 1st grades?  It just doesn't seem like they should be that old! 

They really like their schools though....here are the first day pics!

Wow! I'm behind :)

Ok...I am SO behind with postings for this site!  Sorry Dad!  I put pictures on facebook but forget to update this!

Here are a few photo albums with some brief comments on our summer craziness!

We did a TON of things in the last week before school started....Pictures here!

Swim Team Pics!

DISNEY!

Mike always gives the family gifts for his promotion, and this time he decided that we all needed to get away for a magical vacation.....what could be more magical then Disney?

The kids had the BEST time and were absolute angels the whole week.  We are glad to be back home now, but certainly had a REALLY good time and can't wait to have Beth back again for another special vacation!

Mike only took about 1400 pictures so we will never be able to post all of the pics,

but you can check out THIS and THIS album to see the highlights

(still a work in progress so it will take a few days to share the whole week!)

Lt. Col Michael E. Phillips

WOW!  We just can't believe OUR Mike is a Lt. Col now....just doesn't seem possible that he's been in the AF that long, but he has worked SO hard to get here and we are SO proud!  We were lucky enough to have a ton of our family and friends here with us to celebrate and it was a crazy few days of activity and fun!

Click HERE for more pics!

Winding up another year

HOW can we be at the end of another school year?  Where had this year gone?  It seems like we were settling into our house and getting ready for the school year just last week!


School and "extra" stuff has been gradually coming to an end over the last month, just in time to gear up for daddy's BIG promotion/Vacation, a summer full of swim team AND mommy's new job!  Yes, Mommy is now working part time for a local Lutheran Church as the Director, Communications!  We are VERY excited about all the new adventures the next couple of months will bring to our family ..... while also being a little overwhelmed at the schedule :)


I'm gradually creating and entire album of "school ends" pictures on facebook so keep checking the link over the next few days for all the details, and next week we will have promotion pics, and then begin the kids' "surprise" tirp to Disney pics!

Winding down 2010 School Year

Hope all is well with the rest of you!

Soccer Season!

And this time we have 2 practices to make every week and 2 games at different fields every Saturday....boy how life get busy here....

Mon:  CCD Class (and book club once a month)
Tues:  Cub Scouts
Wed:  Girl Scouts
Thurs:  Soccer Practice x2 (at least they are at the same time and same place!)
Fri:  Dance class
Sat:  2 soccer games at different time (mostly) and different fields
Sun:  Church and Swim lessons...


AAAGGGGHHHHH!  Can we say we are VERY busy!

All of the soccer pics are on facebook as well .... click here!

Colin is becoming quite the little soccer pro!  He has decided that defense

is his calling and really gets into the position! 

Last season while watching Colin play, Ashlynn said..."Why don't I play soccer?" 

Well because she had never asked...she had always been happy with dance, so this season

 we are trying out soccer...and so far she REALLY likes it and is VERY aggressive and fast! 

We will see if this sticks or if we just stay with dance!

School pics!

We finally got the kiddos spring school pics!  They've grown OH so much!

Happy Easter!

What a better way to end a WONDERFUL spring break, then with a wonderful Easter Day!  The Easter Bunny left us lots of treats, we read our Easter Story eggs as we sat waiting for church and after a few Easter pics, spent the afternoon with our fabulous friends for lunch and an egg hunt!  Yep....that's a perfect Easter day!

Spring Break

What a busy but AMAZING week together!  We started out the week on a boys/girls break.  The boys needed to make a raod trip to take papa the truck, so while they were having a blast in the truck and hanging out as 3 generations of Phillips men....Ash and Mommy stayed home for lots of craft/girly movies time and a few small outings with the Dunne girls!

The boys came back on Tuesday night, we washed laundry, re-packed and were back on the road Wednesday morning!  We headed down south, stopped to tour the Jamestown settlement...

Thurs we were off to the playground and Beach for a day in Virginia Beach (and a FABULOUS reunion dinner with our old neighbors from Suffolk, the Deans...or as we told Colin...his 1st girlfriend, Savannah, her brother Ethan and Beth and Jamie, and of course a drive through the "old stomping grounds")...

Friday we headed back to check out Yorktown, strolled through the VA Living Museum and then enjoyed a very nice dinner with our great friends the Spanos!  We were even lucky enough to catch Steph home!

After a LONG drive through traffic back to DC...we unloaded the car, changed clothes and were on the road again.  We jumped on a VERY crowded metro and were off to the Red Sox/Nationals baseball game (a total surprise to the kiddos) where we watched the Red Sox WIN!