Thanksgiving

My little sister Jillian came to visit us for Thanksgiving week, and we LOVED having her here. I tried to get out with her as much as I could... her first day she went to the Frick Museum, and then we headed out on the town later that night. We just waked around in TImes Square area, and went to Rockefeller Center where they were putting up the HUGE Christmas tree, which by the way is REAL. Jill and I were looking at it thinking that for a fake tree it was a little stout, but when we got closer and the scent of pine started penetrating our nostrils, we decided we could forgive it's stoutness since it was real... and did I mention it was HUGE? We checked out the ice skating prices... yeah, it would cost one person $30 to ice skate at Rockefeller Center. I'll just watch, thank you.

We also headed down to Macy's and watched them paint the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade star on the street. It was so exciting for us, as we have been watching that parade for years.

One night we went and saw Mike Babiglia's "Sleep walk with me" one man show. It was hilarious. After the show, we saw Oscar from the Office. He was nice enough to take a picture with us. Bold color combo for a man I'd say!

On Thursday, we decided to brave the crowds to see the Thanksgiving Day parade. We didn't leave nearly early enough to get a decent view, but we still had fun.

Josh and Asher waiting at the bus stop. Asher loves Josh!

First we stopped on 79th street to see the balloons and floats all lined up and ready to go. Asher loved seeing the balloons up close.

After that, we went down to 76th to see what we could of the actual parade. It wasn't easy, and we didn't see much, but it was still a fun experience.

Getting a better view

And of course, what would the T.D.P be without an appearance by SANTA?! I can't tell you how excited I was when he came into view. I don't think I have ever been so excited to see Santa. It was such a fun and magical atmosphere, I just couldn't help but get into the spirit. I may or may not have gotten a little teary eyed. Probably just the wind in my eyes! What can I say? I love Christmas!

When we got home, I got right to work on dinner. I have this thing where I feel like meals for holidays have to be made from scratch. It's more of a sickness, I think. I really should have just bought pie crusts to help simplify my life, but NO, I just HAD to have everything homemade, or how could I face myself?! I was glad the we made everything though, it was stressful, but so yummy! Jill helped with chopping and rolls. I tried a new Rachael Ray stuffing recipe, which was good, although a little too sweet for my liking. We had Turkey, asparagus, garlic mashed potatoes with sour cream (YUM), stuffing, homemade rolls, and gravy, and for dessert, chocolate chip pie, and then I tried this delicious apple pie. I am not normally a big fan of apple pie, but this was a little different, and oh so scrumptious, and very easy. I definitely recommend it.

Here is a picture of our meal...

I was really sad not to have any of my nice dishes or serving ware. So don't mind the ugly plates and bowls... so not aesthetically pleasing!

The pies...

These were my best pie crusts ever. I usually have a really hard time rolling them out. But this year, I consulted the Smitten Kitchen blog for her recipe and tips on rolling out.

And just a little reminder of what we cooked our thanksgiving dinner in...

Ok, so I did use my neighbors oven for the Turkey, and Jillian did roll out the rolls down there too. But still! Yay us!

All in all, we had a really nice Thanksgiving. We were so grateful to have Jillian and Josh come into town for it. We have so much to be thankful for, and family and great friends are on the top of the list. Thanks guys for being here!!

On Friday, Jillian, Josh, the kids and I headed down to Macy's, which I realized after we got there, was a HUGE mistake. Your normal Macy's would be crowded, but the Macy's in Manhattan was HORRIBLE. I had a stroller, and there was literally no where to go. Oh well, I did get some ornaments, and at least I will know for next year not to try that again (at least not with kids).

I Muvrini

A couple of weeks ago, Nate and I went to our first concert at Carnegie Hall. We saw a group called I Muvrini, who are from Corsica and sing Corsican music. Nate was SO excited to go to this concert, and I was more along for the ride. But I ended up LOVING it. Those of you who are folk dancers, who have seen Christmas Around the World, the songs are a similar style to Sto Mi E Milo, which was my favorite song that we did. Some of their songs were so melodic and beautiful that they almost put me to sleep... they were just so soothing. A couple of the songs we got to sing a long with which can be cheesy, but I loved it. They were so pretty, especially the a cappella ones. Great show!

Picture tag... finally

Ok, so I know I am shamefully behind on my blogging. I don't know what my deal is, but whenever I think about writing a blog post, it just sounds like the hardest thing in the world. Sad, I know. I used to be so on top of my blog posts. Oh well, I will get caught up. So to start it off, I just wanted to do a tag that I have been tagged for about 4 times. I couldn't do it however, because my computer wouldn't turn on, so I didn't have access to my pictures. But I have since braved the 5th Avenue apple store... you know, the really cool glass one? which was a MAD HOUSE by the way, to talk to the guys at the "Genius Bar" (seriously what it is called... so awesome!), and got it turned on, my pictures backed up, and my computer is now running well again. Thank you Genius Bar!

So anyway... here is the 4th picture from the 4th folder in my picture library...

This is a picture of Nate on our trip to Turkey. We are in Cappadoccia and he is standing in the doorway of our cave hotel. It was cool for the first day, but after that, it started to get a little claustrophobic in there. Not a very exciting picture, but there you have it.

Cruisin' the Riviera!

Nate and I were so lucky to be able to take a whole week off and enjoy family and sunshine sans kiddies for a whole week. It was all I hoped it would be.... relaxing, eating, reading, swimming, hot tubbing, shopping, bonding, laughing, beautiful views, card playing, fun, sun bathing, and a whole lot of sleeping.

I am the lucky girl that happens to have the best in-laws in the entire world! I love all of them, and am so grateful that we are close to them. Of course my family is super awesome as well, but we'll save that for another post! :)

I won't get into the play by play of the cruise, but we stopped at Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, they were all beautiful and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Here are some pictures...

Landing in L.A... we were so excited!

When I imagined my goals for the cruise, this is pretty much what I pictured. Perfect!

Nate's brother Duffy and his wife Tessa did the rock climbing wall. Duffy started before Tessa, and she still almost beat him. It was like a 2 second difference.

On the being tendered to the shore on Cabo.

Nate and his older Bro Andy on Cabo

Andy's wife Kacey and their kids Ashlyn and Drew jetskiing. They let me and Nate use some of their time. I am a fan of speed! Oh yeah, and Nate and I went parasailing their too. Fun!

We also came across this gem... I thought you would all enjoy that! ;)

The shrimp factory in Mazatlan

Notice the Wal-Mart totally obstructing the beautiful view of Puerto Vallarta from the boat?! Of course we went there... it was a real treat for me and Nate as we don't have one here. Which is good.

Andy, Erin (Bart's wife, who by the way is 8 months pregnant and she made it on the boat! The cut off is 24 weeks! :) Nate's bro Bart, me and Nate, riding the bus in P.V.

My cute MIL Heidi, sportin' a mini pink sombrero

Formal night

Sunset

Our waiter Ramil from the Philipines, and assistant waiter Arnaldo from Chile. Ramil was going to be leaving in 2 weeks, so I think he was a little burnt out, but Arnaldo was super awesome! Oh, and don't mind my chubby arms. That's Duffy and Tessa with me.

Thanks so much to my cousin Robyn who was brave enough to watch two 2 year olds, who did not always get along. She said they did well, which makes me feel so much better. Asher was SO happy to see us, which made me so happy. Sayer was confused at first, but then seemed to get it. I think it took Asher all of last week to get back to normal. He was Mr. Grouchy pants last week, but today he woke up after 7, and was so happy all morning. Hopefully last week was just his adjustment from being left for a week, and not his new 2 year old attitude. He already has one of those! ;) We were ready to come home, and missed our little guys so much. It's great to go away so that you can miss your kids and remember how much you love them!

Mmmmm...

I just changed my Scentsy scent to "coming home", a very delicious smelling holiday scent, and I am LOVING it! I am SO excited for the Holidays, and cannot believe that they are already here. I have already spent a couple of hours perusing the web for cute stockings, tree skirts and ornaments, as we left all of ours buried deep in the storage unit. :( 

There is so much to do here around the holidays, I hope we can fit it all in. Especially seeing as how it is already quite freezing! Getting out the door with kids is such a process. I think it literally takes me 10 minutes just to get my kids' shoes, socks, coats, gloves, and hats on, and then put them in the stroller. That's not even including all the time it takes me to get all their snacks and food and sippy cups in order. I have to be prepared for everything when we leave the house, because nothing is just a quick little trip.

Well, that's pretty much all I wanted to say. I do have some more posts to catch up on (not tonight), but I just wanted to do a quick post to express my extreme joy in the lovely scent of my candle, as Nate is not expressing the proper amount of excitement.

Piggy

The last few days, I have been thinking a lot about how much my example affects Asher. I have been telling myself that I need to shape up and really concentrate on being more patient with him, as he picks up on everything, and I am sure he is bound to pick up on that one of these days. But today, I felt a little better about it while watching him play with Mr. Piggy. He has been lovingly carrying him around, talking to him and taking care of him. He found a swim diaper and asked me to help him put it on Piggy. Then he said "you wanna go to swim park Piggy?" He then proceeded to put him in the stroller and push him around while asking "are you having fun Piggy?" Then it was time for Piggy to go "na-night". When Piggy woke up, he had a "poopy diaper". Asher got the wipes and proceeded to wipe Piggy's bum saying "icky poo-poo", "eew, gross". He then came over to me and asked me to help him with the lotion. I opened it for him, he took a little, and proceeded to put it on Piggy's bum while saying "oh, Piggy has a sore po-po" Just now, Asher was pushing Piggy in the stroller again, and accidentally rammed into Sayer. I ran to comfort Sayer, telling him "it's ok" and things like that. I turned around to scold Asher only to find him holding and comforting Piggy... "are you ok Piggy?", "it's ok Piggy", "sshhh-sshhh". I couldn't help but laugh a little. It is now time for Piggy to go "na-night" again, so Asher announced he needs to "read a book" first. Now he is singing "na-night Piggy". He just came to tell me that "Piggy went na-night", then saw Sayer's bottle and decided that Piggy needed it, so he took it to him. 

Uh-oh... I think I'm in trouble. Asher just came to tell me that "Piggy is screaming", so he went and opened the door to his room and said in a firm tone, "no Piggy, enough screaming... it's time to go na-night", "SSHH!" I am dying right now, it is hilarious. 

Ok, so the point of this post was to point out that maybe I wasn't doing such a bad job after all, but I guess he showed me. By the way, I don't go in every night and scream at him to be quiet... just some nights! ;) Oh well, Sayer still thinks I'm perfect. :) The good news is that he is still treating Piggy with love, even after he screamed during his nap! There is hope after all. 

Ok, I'm sure I could do this all day. Just thought I'd give you all a play by play of Asher pretending.

Apparently, it is now time for Piggy's lunch. He asked "wanna (s)nack Piggy?" I just got Piggy some raspberries and cheese. Which Asher took and started eating and said "no Piggy, this is mine." Oh man, he is such a crack up!!

Sayer just sitting by, watching everything... loving me!

Saw me some shows...

While Maren and Julia were in town, they invited me to go to some shows with them. We saw Altar Boyz, which is an Off-Broadway spoof on boy bands. It reminds me a lot of that movie called Sons of Provo, as they were a Christian boy band. It was hilarious, and Neil from So You Think You Can Dance was in it. I had no idea he could sing.

We also saw Phantom of the Opera, which I hadn't seen since I was little, and it was spectacular. The guy who played the Phantom was amazing. When I got back home, I listened some YouTube videos of Michael Crawford and the guy who played ours, Howard McGillan I think, and I did not think Michael Crawford was very good at all. He had kind of a whiny voice, except when he hit the super awesome high notes. I am surprised he was so famous for that role. So anyway, yeah, our dude was awesome. I could listen to him sing "Music of the night" all day long.

NYC Marathon

On Halloween evening, my old roommate Maren and her friend Julia, who I had become blog buddies with, came into town to run the NYC Marathon. They stayed at our place for a few days and did an awesome job running 26.2 through NYC's 5 burroughs, and got to see the city and see a few shows as well. It was great fun having them and so good to finally meet Julia.

My brother in law is an elite wheelchair racer, and was racing in the marathon as well, so he got Nate and I VIP passes to all the cool stuff. We got to go hang out and eat yummy food and sit in the stands at the finish line, which apparently, you have to pay tons of money for. I was right there when Paula Radcliffe and Kara Goucher crossed the finish line... so cool!!

Paula Radcliffe

Kara Goucher

Asher had great fun driving his trains on the curb, until he got a little tired, and completely lost it. He was laying in the dirt throwing a tantrum while I just stood there watching him. Some guy started freaking out wondering where his mother was. I told him it was fine, he was just having a moment. After I got him calmed down, he was content to play in the dirt until Nate was ready to go. Sayer sat happily in the bjorn for the first part and slept through the rest. He is truly an angel!

After my BIL finished...

We took the boys home for naps, and I went back by myself to see the girls finish. I only saw Julia and for some reason I missed Maren, so I didn't get any pictures. There were definitely some interesting characters running. There was this one guy who was wearing nothing except this neon green elastic band that went around his neck, under his groin, up the backside (g-string style) and back up to his neck. It was NOT a pretty picture. He must have been freezing, not to mention extremely uncomfortable.

It was such a fun thing to watch though. I felt very lucky to be able to watch all those awesome runners finish, and I always love watching people finish races... it's such an accomplishment. Way to go Maren and Julia!!

Halloween

We had a buy day on Halloween. I put Asher in his chicken costume (same as last year... it still fits!) in the morning just to make sure it fit ok...

Here he is watching a little snippet from a Thomas episode on YouTube...

After naptime, we headed over to Nate's school, where the early childhood development students were hosting a little party for the kids. They had coloring...

Musical instruments...

music and dancing, as well as story telling. I think Asher got a little pooped out there. We came home and left to do the trick or treating that was going on in our building. Asher must have been tired and/or hot, and/or hungry, because he did not enjoy the trick or treating. At the first house, he wanted to eat the candy right then, and wasn't interested in getting more. We went to a few more apartments, and he just kept trying to go into people's houses, and didn't really care about the candy, and he started getting mad, so I thought we'd better call it quits before things got ugly. He did understand things a lot better this year. He kept saying "trick or treat" and "Happy Halloween" and knows all about pumpkins. Now when he sees the bag of candy in the cupboard, he says "I want some trick or treat!"

After the trick or treating, we took a break from the costume, gave the kids baths, and then headed down to the Halloween pizza party that was being held in the community room in the basement of our building. It was great fun, and all the kids LOVED it! I was in charge of the fishing pond and made some delicious sugar cookies for it.

Sayer looked super cute as a monkey. He kept looking at me like: "what am I doing in this thing??" He is such a doll!

Halloween cookies

A few days before Halloween, I thought it would be fun to let the kids decorate some sugar cookies. The actual decorating lasted for about 10 minutes, if that, but they had fun. Pretty sure their favorite part was eating the cookies. After the kids finished decorating, the adults took over while the kids played with trains and other fun toys.

Here is the end result. We went for monster/grotesque looking, instead of pretty and cute-sie!

They're comin'

Ok, so I have quite a few posts that I need to catch up on. I meant to do some before we left on our cruise, but things were a little crazy... sorry you've had to keep looking at that downer of a political post for so long. Now it will be back to the good old fam. So stay tuned over the next couple of days for pics and recaps of what we've been up to!