Bocce Ball

Look at those toofers! Her top two teeth are huge, and there is a big gap between them.

Gave Crew some chocolate today. . .

Gingerbread Houses

I have really been in the baking spirit this holiday. . . printing recipes left and right, and just waiting for the opportunity to make them for some event or gathering. I had been wanting to make gingerbread houses this year. So when our friends invited us over, it was the perfect opportunity. I spent one night rolling and baking the pieces. Then let them sit out for a day or two to really harden. Then the day of decoration came. Henry was really into it. He had just been telling me all about building houses, and really knows his stuff.

Crew was happy because his face was stuffed with candy the whole time. He let Ryan do most of the work, while he took care of the candy. Parent fail: When we visit other people's house its nearly impossible to get Crew to eat anything because he is too overwhelmed with so many new toys. This particular day I just decided we would feed him on the way home, or when we got home so I could enjoy my dinner and avoid force feeding a resistant 2 year old. I wasn't really paying attention, or realizing what was going on, while he ate LOADS and LOADS of candy during gingerbread house construction and then wouldn't eat much real food later. I layed in bed pondering my decisions of the evening.

Finished product! Cute cute kids!

And, I had been craving sugar cookies, and found this cute idea on pinterest. Printed it out and waited. . . and the perfect opportunity to make them just came my way, so I had to. Aren't they so cute?! Melted snowmen!

Live Nativity & Trains

This year I had a few Christmas activities that I really wanted to do, so we squeezed them in one evening as our FHE activity. We went to see a train display in a nearby town. It was pretty big, with lots of trains - I was even surprised by how long some of them were. It was fun to see, but kind of hard for Crew to stay behind the crowd rail and not run up and grab the trains. . . so we weren't there very long :)

That same night we went to a live drive through nativity that was done at a local church. Right when we drove up, there was this crazy guy dressed up like a scientist that told us he was going to take us back in time to Bethlehem. He was very loud, and came right up to the window, so Crew didn't quite know what to expect. I HAD to get a picture of his face - we had his window rolled down.

Here is the crazy mad scientist. Man, this guy really got into character! It made it fun. Then we drove though this tunnel that had a projector with an image twirling in front of us, so it looked like we were being transported to Bethlehem.
I didn't get any other shots of the Roman soldiers guarding the gates, the nice inn keeper who told us there was no room, the shepards with the angel, the wise men following the star, or the actual scene with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus - and a cute little girl dressed up as a lamb who kept waving and smiling at Crew. But I caught my kids riding through, looking at all the people who came right up to our window to chat with us.
This is when we were still in the time machine.
At the end, they even brought free hot chocolate to our window!

Videos

Jared Comes to Town

It was so much fun having Jared come visit us for a week during Thanksgiving. We got do to lots of fun stuff, and had plenty of down time as well . When Jane woke up from her nap and she saw Jared for the first time she went right to him and was all snuggly. It was pretty cute.

We had been telling Crew about Jared's visit for a few days, so by the time he was actually here, crew was READY for him to be here. Note to self: don't tell 2 year old about something that isn't going to happen for a whole week. He still doesn't grasp the concept of weeks and days yet. He still says that everything happened "last night".

In the city we rented bikes for 2 hours and rode all the way around central park. This was our second attempt at this. We tried to do it when Crew was around 9 months old, and didn't get very far. This time both the kids LOVED it. It was PERFECT weather that day.

Look at the colors on that tree. Its like a rainbow - so pretty!

Stopped at a park about halfway around to let the kids out to run and play. They were happy.

We went to the museum of natural history that day. It was so cool. All of the fossils were real! Definitely could have spent more time there if it hadn't been such a long day already. We were pretty tired by the end, so we didn't even go to all the different floors - and we still had one more stop to make.

Uncle Jar spoiled Crew and they shared an ice cream cone together.

We also hit up Grimaldis Pizza under the Brooklyn bridge on the way back to Long Island. It made for a late night, but it was totally worth it. The boys got to go into the city one other evening while Jared was here and see Rockafeller center and do some other stuff. We loved having Jared here, it made us very reminiscent of the time he spent with us - and made us extra excited to spend time with our families in December!

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we made turkeys for family home evening. Crew had something stuffed in his mouth for this timer shot from the couch.

Below you will find the only picture I took on Thanksgiving day. We had quite a delicious feast at Josh's parents house. This picture is of Jane with Josh's brother, Danny. Jane just loves Danny. She likes to be right where he is. In this pic, she sat herself down right next to him, played, and shared crackers for quite some time. One of Danny's favorite things is to play with these squishy balls, and Jane loves to stand right in front of him smacking her own squishy ball right in sync with him. Danny even gave Jane one of his squishy balls to borrow because she couldn't part with it - and she carries it around our house every day. It is her current favorite toy. I just think their friendship is so cute.

Flashback

We recently went to a murder mystery dinner that had a 1930's theme. Thanks to a borrowed dress from Katie, a borrowed fedora from a ward member, and a you tube "how to finger wave" video, I think we looked pretty good. It was a fun evening.

Videos

Jane is fearless when it comes to slides. This one is small compared to many she has attempted of her own free will and choice.


Just a cute one of Crew playing in the leaves. I'm told that Crew's most requested song in nursery is "Leaves are falling all around," and that they usually can't get away with doing it just once if he has anything to do with it.


"I had to hide behind the couch to get this one. I've tried video taping Crew singing SO MANY TIMES. He knows lots of songs and sings all day long. Its so cute, but as soon as he sees me video taping, he starts talking baby talk and says nothing that anyone can comprehend.

His current favorite song is "Praise to the man" which he calls "The Grandpa Song" and asks to hear it literally every 2 minutes when we are in the car. The version we have is a group of adults singing, and at one point, there are only adult men singing. He has told me several times while listening to the song . . . "There are 5 grandpas and 2 grandmas singing to me."

This is a combination of "the more we get together" and "here we are together". You'll hear him saying Zoe (Jane), Cookie Monster (myself), Big Bird (Ryan), and even Super Duper Elmo (Crew), amongst other jibberish. Super Duper Elmo is even wearing his cape :)

Jane's Birthday

Sweet Jane turned 1 this last Sunday. She had a little bit of a rough day and didn't get a good nap, so by cupcake time she was getting tired. But she got totally spoiled, and has had lots of fun having girl toys. She got babies with bottles and binkies, a crib and stroller, and even a my little pony. Crew loves her new toys just as much as she does. I did not do a very good job of photographing the day, so here are the few that turned out OK.

She has been able to take several steps for some time now, but still favored crawling most of the time until about 3 days ago. She learned how to get up on her own, and now she is a walking machine. I can't believe how fast she has gotten in just a couple of days . . . and she always prefers to walk now instead of crawl.

We gave her that bottle and she knew right what to do with it.

AND, the birthday video. . . that is kind of sad. We scared her when she tried to grab the flame and we all kind of freaked out. I was holding the camera, and didn't even think about that being a potential hazard. . . DUH MOM! Oh, memories.

Costumes 2011

Crew was Bob the Builder, and Jane was a Kitty Cat. Crew had a blast this year. We only did a few houses, but he kept saying "Should we go to another one more house????" His official favorite candy after trying so many. . . suckers.

Thanks to Selden thrift and Target for really coming through for me this year. I had already planned to do both of these costumes, and while shopping at target found BOTH Crew's hat and Jane's cat ears in the $1 section. Booyah!

Race Day (The Long Story)

I have been wanting to do a half marathon for a while now. After we got a running stroller, I started running several times a week. Once I realized that I was in shape enough to start training, I found a half marathon in Hartford, CT and signed up. It was a very exciting step for me. The first 2 nights after I signed up, I could hardly sleep because I had running dreams all night. I felt lots of anxiety and excitement. It was 7 weeks of training, and I felt pretty good about it. Just really excited to finally tackle this long time goal of mine.

Ryan and I drove out Friday night, without the kiddos. Huge thanks to Katie&Josh! It made things much simpler for us, and I got a good nights sleep for the Saturday morning race. (As good as can be expected. . . There were more running dreams). It was so nice to have Ryan there with me, who ALMOST ran with me, but hurt his calf in the weeks preceding the race. He was quite the supporter.

Pre race. . . in the very long line to use one of the hundreds of stinky bathrooms.

Thank you Ryan, for getting this lovely shot of me coming out of the port-a-potty pre-race. Just wanting to document all of the special moments :)
Getting lined up. It was pretty chilly, but minutes before we took off I handed over my sweatshirt.
5200 people ran the half marathon, as well as 2000 something who ran the full marathon. We all started together and split up after the first mile or so. It was A LOT of people.
Waiting for me, checking out the capitol building.
Post race. During most of my training I ran a 10 minute mile. My goal since this was just my first half marathon was to run at my own pace, and finish. During the entire time I trained, I told myself not to worry about time, just to worry about finishing. Once I got out on the course, I couldn't help but run my best. I ended up running the first 9 miles much faster than I normally do. I felt pretty good until mile 10. My knee started hurting very suddenly, and just got worse and worse. The last three miles were really tough. I had to slow down quite a bit. I was a little frustrated because I hadn't had any problems with my knee up until that point, and it got very painful. I finished in 1hr 57minutes. I was really surprised and happy with my time. It was quite an emotional finish for me, partly because of pain, partly because I was SO HAPPY to have done it.
I have to have a pony braid when I run. Its just one of those things. But in case you wanted to know what happens to my hair after I run 13.1 miles with a braid. Sheesh. I lost a lot of hair trying to detangle that thing.

Punkins

Went to the "pumpkin patch" to pick a pumpkin. Not quite what I was looking for. . . but Crew was in heaven. Couldn't get the kid to stick with us for a second. He was giddy running up and down the rows of pumpkins. Sam joined us for the trip - we have really enjoyed spending more time with her. And my goodness, Crew & Jane are crazy about her!

We settled on this beauty. "Hold up your pumpkin Crew!"