Santaland at Macy's and The Rockefeller Christmas Tree

Today we went to Santaland at Macy's. Santaland is a portion of the 8th floor where you venture through a magical wonderland and get to meet the big man himself. My pictures don't really do it justice, but the kids loved it! Elliott was a little hesitant and reserved, except for looking at the trains and Lillie and Jack just enjoyed it all. The main reason for going to Santaland is, of course, to see Santa. The big moment at the Macy's Day Parade is when Santa closes out the parade and makes his grand seasonal appearance. At that moment Jack became very frustrated because he knew right away it was not the real Santa Claus. The real Santa comes out of the sky, not in a sleigh on a float. So, we went to check this one out. I don't know what his thoughts are about the "realness", but he liked it nonetheless. Jack's big thing he wants for Christmas this year is for our family to get Jet Packs, so we can all fly. He relayed the message on to Santa. From the look on Santa's face, my guess is that was a new one to him!

"Getting on" the train to the Northpole.

In one of the cars.

Entering the North Pole

They all loved the trains and I love this picture of Lillie and Elliott.

This reminded Freddy T. of the train station in New Brunswick, NJ (where I lived for a year and where Freddy T. joined me for a few months after we got married) and George Street that is kind of the main stretch of road in downtown New Brunswick.

This is our first ever picture with Santa Claus and all the kids.

You get to visit Santa Clause in his own little house. When you leave you are directed to the exit. If you look back you'll see about 5 or 6 other houses. There is a Santa in each one! They work hard to make sure the kids go the right way so they don't discover there is more than one!

Afterwards we went down to the 7th floor to eat at McDonald's and then off to Rockefeller Center to get our annual family picture at the Christmas Tree. I'm way ahead of the game this year. Last year it was the night before we were leaving for TN, when I hauled the kids down there to meet Freddy T. and it was a blizzard out there.

This one won't go down in the books as the best picture ever taken. The man who took it for us got more of the pavement in the picture and didn't even get the whole tree, you can't see the top, and you can barely make out that it's even our family, but oh well... here you go!

Jack has to wear one of my jackets until his arm is out of the sling. He has been such a sport.

Freddy T. had to make a big deal of the ornaments and get Jack to tell me about them in order to get him to look at the camera.

This was our first trip during the day. It was easier, but the tree is much prettier at night. You can barely tell there are lights on it here.

There are Elmo's and Cookie Monsters floating around during the holidays offering to take their picture with your kids. You take a picture then they pull out their bag for money. It's worth a dollar or two, especially this year when Elliott is pretty fond of Elmo and his Sesame Street Pals.

Thanksgiving 2010

Back in 2006 when Jack was born, I went into the hospital on Christmas Eve and came home the day after Christmas. We had a unique Christmas that year. It kind of felt like we missed it. Missed it in the sense that it was not like "normal." You know what I mean....

This is how I feel about Thanksgiving this year. I did the majority of the cooking this year for about 10-12 people, plus my children. It really was not all that bad. Katie Lyche came over Wednesday evening and prepped our turkey and made our stuffing. Katie is an aspiring chef/ personal chef and a member of The Gallery. We got her to do this last year too and we will continue to as long as she is available. I did some prepping for the rest of the meal on Wednesday then basically finished everything up Thanksgiving morning while Jack and Freddy T. were at the Macy's parade. They left around 6ish and I just stayed up and got to work. We had a nice day at the apartment. Friends started arriving around 3:30 and we were set to eat at 5:00. Jack was exhausted from being up so early, so he took an extra long nap that afternoon. We were about 10 minutes away from cutting the turkey, who Jack named Coffee Cutter (don't ask, I have no idea where that came from) and I heard Jack crying. I went to see what was wrong and Freddy T. was in the room with him. Jack had fallen out of the bed(first time ever) and was complaining about his neck/shoulder hurting. We finally got him calmed down, but he was still complaining. After calling my friend Melissa, who is a nurse, and getting her advice, we decided to take him to the ER. He wanted me to take him, so we headed out the door. My best friend Ellie flew in from Nashville that afternoon and had been at our apartment maybe 30 minutes, so she went with us. Thankfully the ER was fairly calm and we were in and out in 2 hours. Jack had x-rays and the result was a fractured collar bone, i.e. broken collar bone. So he is in a sling and can't act like a 3 year old boy for a few weeks. He is not in any pain and has handled everything very well. He'll go back to the orthopedic doctor in a week to make sure the bone is healing properly. Pray that it is. We leave for TN in a few weeks and we want more than anything for Jack to be able to play with his cousins without any major concern.

This is Jack when we got him home and in his p.j.'s. He put someones hat on and got right back to playing.

This is a few days later. He is getting to watch a lot of movies in efforts to get him to stay calm and still.

We'll we got home from the hospital and heated up leftovers from dinner. It was still good. It will be a Thanksgiving to remember for sure!

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November

What a month! It's been good, full, busy... maybe we are really more tired than we even know! The month of November proved to be pretty busy for our family. Freddy T. had to travel on several occasions so he was way for a few short periods of time. My mom and grandmother came to visit during one of those times. It was nice and helpful to have a few extra helping hands. I hosted a girls night one evening, an open invitation to all the girls at The Gallery to just come over and hang out for dessert and coffee. We had probably 10 girls here. It was fun to get together with them. Other than those things, we've been plugging away like normal. We've had a few play dates and outings, a few people over for dinner, a few dates, just a little bit of everything.

The main reason for the lack of blogging is that I now have 2 two year olds. I think that says enough and needs no explanation, but sometimes I think that unless you've actually experienced it, you just cannot understand. They feed off of each other. They encourage each other in bad behavior. They can be really sweet and they can be nothing but trouble.

One day I was in the bedroom folding clothes and the kids were playing. May I remind you, we live in an apartment, one room is not far at all from one at the other end of the apartment, we are in close quarters. I noticed the apartment was nice and quiet and then I got worried. I went to go check on everyone and found Lillie and Elliott in the kitchen. They had opened the freezer and pulled out the baking soda and dumped the whole box on the floor and were sitting in it playing, having a great time!

A few mornings ago, after my shower, I went into the kids room to get them out of their beds, where they were supposed to be having some quiet time and book reading time. Again, it was strangely quiet in there. When I walked over to Lillie's bed this is what I found. Elliott had thrown his pillow over to her bed, she took the pillow case off and unzipped the pillow and pulled out all the stuffing. Fluffy stuff was everywhere. She started crying when I noticed it.

I made play dough the other morning. It held their attention for a little while. Jack played forever, the twins not quite as long.

This is Freddy T. reading to the kids before bed. This is typically a time for Lillie and Elliott and Daddy. This particular night Jack joined in. Clearly he is not headed to bed at the moment.

And this is how our living room looks on a semi-regular basis if we've been home all day.

We also had a big Thanksgiving feast at our home Thursday night, 12 people plus my kids. I'll post about that in the next post and last night Freddy T. and Jack went on their yearly adventure to buy our Christmas tree. Just wait till you see the size of the one he brought home. It's a big, beautiful tree.

Joe Garrad Photography

Joe Garrad is not only a good friend of ours, he is a gifted photographer. Check out a few shots he's taken recently that involved our family in one way or another.

This is Mark and Becky Gebel. They got married on our anniversary this year and Freddy T. had the honor of being one of the pastors to marry them. You can tell it was late in the night, Becky is sporting her red converse and I'd kicked of the heels and got comfortable in my flip flops. Mark and Becky have been at the Gallery since the start and are faithful servants in our church. They were married in a park in Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Bridge was the backdrop. It was really beautiful! The reception was held at the Salt Space, where we gather for worship and where the Gallery Church offices are held. It was fun to celebrate our friends wedding in NYC. Most of the time people go to their home state or just somewhere cheaper to get married.

"I've never seen a TV like that before"

These past few shots were taken at The Gallery Church retreat. About a month ago we loaded up 4-5 big 15 passenger vans and headed out of the city to the Schooley Mountains. The church retreat is on of the best events we have each year. It is so great to get away with church family and have 2 full days of uninterrupted fellowship. You can see a group shot on Freddy T.'s blog.

Happy 2nd Birthday Lillie and Elliott!

Happy Birthday Lillie and Elliott!

2 Years Old

So hard to believe! We took cupcakes to the park yesterday and met some friends there for a small, birthday celebration. I've tried to get cute pictures, they don't really care to cooperate, so to document their second birthday, it is what it is!

Lillie and Elliott are lots of fun. They certainly keep us on our toes. I can only imagine, maybe I have no idea, what the next year will bring for them. Terrible twos times two.... here we come!

We gave Lillie and Elliott their gifts yesterday morning, because we were headed to the park for their "party" and knew they would want to take it with them.

Before you shake your head in shame, let me explain the gifts :)

(The shame being my little boy got a doll and stroller for his birthday)

There were several factors that went into this decision:

1. Lillie loves playing with other kids strollers in the park, so I knew she would get one for her birthday.

2. At this point in the game I refuse to get a gift that is going to be fought over, so I had to buy 2 strollers.

3. I found a pattern online for the baby doll and wanted to try to make it, so I did. Then I decided I would give it to Lillie with her stroller. Then I needed something for Elliott, so I made one for him (free handed, no pattern, clearly I needed on). I know Elliott's is not the cutest thing you've ever seen, and I had no idea how to make it look boyish, so I made him a hat, but to a 2 year old who doesn't know the difference I believe it will be loved!

See he just uses it as a snack transporter.

At the park. She put some miles on this thing yesterday.

He climbed up and down a lot of steps with his.

I made cup cakes. Our friend Jen babysat Friday night and she and Jack decorated them. There was a special "L" and "E" made out of M&M's.

It was so windy, so we could only get one candle to light and only for a second, so we sang real quick and then dug in!

Last year I ordered "1" shirts from Etsy. When I got them in the mail I realized I could make something similar on my own so that's what I did this year for their "2" shirts.

I really wanted to get a cute picture of them alone and together in their shirts, but they were not interested in it, so here's all I have.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY LILLIE AND ELLIOTT!

Fire Fighter, Kitty, and Monkey!

Halloween on a Sunday is a bummer if your Dad is the pastor of a church and has to preach at the exact time that trick-or-treating begins! I wasn't going to venture out with the kids since Freddy couldn't come this year. I knew Lillie and Elliott were clueless and I don't think Jack really remembers last year, so it would not have been a big deal to relax at home, but I had this "guilty mom" feeling if I stayed in and didn't let them get out and enjoy the holiday. Plus, they did all have costumes, so this morning, with Freddy's encouragement, I enlisted my friend Regina to come along with us.

We hopped on the train and went down to the Upper West Side to meet Regina at her apartment. I think I blogged about this last year, but just to refresh your memory, trick-or-treating looks very different in Manhattan than most places. The majority of trick-or-treating is done in stores, not at houses/apartments. I'll show you in a minute. There are 2 little streets on the Upper West Side that are blocked off and the residents go all out with decorating the stoops of their brownstones, and it is a lot of fun to walk through those. Fun and crowded!

Onto the pictures! This year I present to you...

Jack the fearless firefighter!

Lillie the cute, pink kitty. When I ordered the costumes I just looked at pictures, not any descriptions, and thought I had ordered a pig. When I opened the package I realized it was a pink cat instead. Oh well... a cute one she was!

Elliott, our silly (and cute) little monkey!

On the train.

This is the only group shot I have. I don't know what happened to my camera. I only took 30 something pictures and it told me my card was full.

Stop 1. A nail salon called Dashing Diva.

Dunkin Donuts

This is West Side Kids, my favorite toy store in the city. How on earth they were out of candy, I don't understand. I figured they would be fully stocked. Since they ran out we let Jack play at the train table for a few minutes.

A deli.

Some Thai restaurant.

Spice, our favorite Chinese take out when we lived in the neighborhood.

Some decorations on 90th between Columbus and Central Park West. This was our street of choice this year for the more neighborhood feel.

A few of the Flintstones handing out candy.

This was the lobby of a building on Amsterdam.

Our last stop was dropping Regina back off at her apartment. Jack ran inside and got one last piece of candy from her doorman.