Thanksgiving!

There is a lot to be thankful for this year - namely, NO MORE SYRINGES! At least for the time being... Both boys weaned off Prevacid this week and Zantac is a thing of the past! AJ still needs his daily does of Miralax to prevent turds that resemble tree stumps but all in all we'll take it. No more waiting after meds for meals - BRING ON THE CHICKEN NUGGETS!

In other news, Thanksgiving was a success. In other words, I didn't cook and enjoyed a fabulous meal. Seth sampled a little of Four Loco which made tending to the kids a little more bearable during dinner time (notice Seth chilling at the head of the table).

"Look Ma, my 5th biscuit!"

"I will do anything to piss you off, including clanging forks and spoons that cost more than your camera. "

As always, things get a little wacky at the Phillips household around the holidays. Grandpa swears that the boys are both musically talented (banging on the baby grand for 20 minutes confirmed this claim) and showed them how to play chess.

And it wouldn't end there - a ride on Nana's giraffe rounded out our amazing evening!

Of course I tried to get Seth to capture a great photo of me and AJ (ahem, I really just wanted proof that my hair looked amazing as Deniz styled it like Blake Lively's).

But instead we ended up with this big-nosed shot of AJ grabbing his noggin'

A special thank you to Nana and Grandpa for hosting yet another fabulous Thanksgiving - we will return the favor at Christmas when we serve you boxed potatoes on Chinet (the good kind though, with the silver plastic utensils!) Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

(typical)

Dutch Wonderland and Day Out with Thomas

Last weekend we took a mini-trip with the boys up to Amish town to treat them to a fun adventure. Figure they may not get a chance after #3 arrives. Saturday afternoon we started out at a fabulous hotel - the Best Western Eden Resort (which comped us a free meal and upgraded room since they were running 30 minutes behind check in). Perhaps it was that they just felt terribly sorry for me- pregnant, holding a Pillow Pal and pack-n-play as I clutched Ben's hand as he did the pee-pee dance in the lobby. The room and yummy food made up for any downfalls with the overbooking.

After we settled in, we hit up Dutch Wonderland and the boys were skeptical at first. Seth had to drag Ben down this slide to get things rolling. After that it was a little smoother sailing, though AJ still seemed frightened. Perhaps his cold had him down, poor guy!

Here is a video of us on the Train at Dutch Wonderland. It only took 20 minutes in line and some heavy coaxing on AJ but it was certainly fun! Check out all the fun lights in the background!!

Sunday we awoke and grabbed a fab breakfast buffet and set off to Strasburg to see Thomas! They were already dressed for the part and they were a huge hit with the patrons at the hotel.

Arrived at Strasburg, immediately spent $30 on unecessary toys and waited in line to ride Thomas.

Ben enjoyed it, AJ was still a little timid. In the end it was the highlight of their trip (according to Ben)

Video of Thomas

Another fun pitstop was visiting the Choo Choo Barn - a 1,700 foot space set up to house an amazing model train display. We were impressed.

Arrived home, safe and sound thanks to a little help from Toy Story 3 and Sonic. Can't wait to take the trip again - it was definitely something we'd recommend to others!!!

AJ and numbers!

AJ takes after the Phillips side in more than just looks. Is he a future accountant? Or is Umizoomi more than just 20 minutes to kill while I need to distract them?! We may not be relying on a football scholarship after all!

AJ at 22 months old

Happy Halloween!

The boys had a great Halloween! Our new neighborhood is filled mostly with older children so the houses were a lot more 'scary' than in the past, but Ben was brave and walked up and eagerly shouted "Trick or Treat" (sometimes to closed doors) and always asked for a 2nd piece to put in his brother's bucket who was waiting in the wagon (AJ was not quite as brave as Ben)

Needless to say, I was NOT impressed with the selection they brought home this year. Thankfully we had some left overs of our own which I will get into before I finish this blog post.

Ben is excited hoarding his candy bowl (and snagged all the goodies from AJ's bucket, who was happy to oblige). This is the first year Ben can actually ENJOY his Halloween candy so it will be interesting to see how he rations things out.

Also, a few photos from the pumpkin patch when we took the boys back earlier in October - I neglected to post them. They had fun, as always and loved Layngs!

Eating popcorn (for the first time)..

Painting pumpkins...

Not sure this was the best idea, letting Ben go down on his own. If only there were video.