We Love New York

Taylor had a conference out in NY during November and since he had trips every other week all semester he asked me to come out and meet him at the end of his last trip. It was a really quick visit to NY, I arrived Tuesday afternoon and we left Thursday night but we managed to do a lot and have a ton of fun. And it was cold of course, but we totally survived and wore a ton of layers.

We stayed in a itty bitty room in a hotel right off Times Square so we wandered around there...visiting the Hersey store for James and somehow going to the giant ToysRUs all three of the days we were in NY. We took the ferry past the Statue of Liberty, wandered around NY and stopped at cemetery because of course I always have to visit the cemeteries. We found some good food and some okay food. 

Went to Little Italy, the Empire State Building, the Manhattan Temple, Grand Central Station, the MET, the 9-11 memorial, Central Park. We also found the most amazing pizza place ever crammed in a hole in the wall just down the street from the MET. Eating there at 4 pm on Thursday with a whole bunch of random locals was one of the highlights of the trip for me. And Central Park was our favorite spot to visit...the one bit of NY city that isn't city. Go figure. And we found an awesome castle in the middle of the park. 

Taylor got a stiff neck starting on Wednesday so he had a hard time looking around. At one point he couldn't turn his head at all so he would have to turn his whole body to look at me. And at Grand Central Station he couldn't even look up to see the cool constellations on the ceiling so I took and picture and showed him. While we were standing under them. Poor guy.

Super fun. Such wonderful friends to take our kids for 3 days! And then we got home 1 am Friday morning and moved out on Saturday. Because we're crazy like that. 

Thanksgiving

We moved just in time to unpack and be ready for Thanksgiving. Got in on Saturday and had Thanksgiving Thursday. I had everything unpacked and so I was happy. And calm. Somewhat. =] 

The leaves we hung on the cupboards when we got the key to the apartment the week before we went to NY and moved so they were the first thing in the house. Besides the cockroaches. Haha. Jk

Taylor invited Jiong from his group at school and Jiong's wife Lily who is expecting. It was fun to try to explain to them why it was necessary to eat more food than you could possibly hold. And then they skipped out on pie saying they were too full. What??! The must not have internalized "the eat more food they you can possibly hold" conversation. 

And then of course we put up the tree. =]

Pokemon Club

The current obsession at our house. My boys carry their decks back and forth to school every day...they are almost never without their Pokemon cards. All their allowance is saved to buy more Pokemon cards. I like Pokemon cards because they are small and easily contained. =]

James said to me a few weeks ago "I think there are enough people who like pokemon that we can start a club." And so yesterday we hosted a Pokemon Club Meeting at the park after school. It was pretty awesome. The boys (and one girl, plus 4 younger sisters) had a blast. There was trading, pokeball cupcakes, new cards, battles and tons of fun.

Hyrum's Antics

Taylor pushes Hyrum heart attack high in the swing and I give small, leisurely pushes. So today I was out pushing him and chatting with the other kids, but Hyrum kept grabbing the rope and trying to lean out of the swing.

 Me: Do you not want to swing anymore? Are you all done? (signing/talking)
Hyrum shakes his head no.
Me: What do you want, what are you doing? 
Hyrum grabs the rope some more and leans out of the swing.
 Me: Oh, you want to go high like Daddy does.
 then I push him really, really high and he smiles and laughs. just what I wanted mom.

His magic blanket is of course needed for every nap. He has been sleeping with the small "car" one since he was just a few days old and still does. He loves to rub the silk edge in his fingers and cuddle with the softness. I pulled out the normal size one a couple weeks ago and he was beside himself. Now whenever I pull it out he laughs and laughs and then rolls around on the floor with it. 

He loves looking through books and will pull lots of the shelf before he finds the one he is looking for and settles down to read. 

Hyrum can stand now and he thinks it's really funny when he does so. He can still only do it for a couple seconds.

"Look mom, no hands!"

This kid is a crack up. He also has like his tenth ear infection. And a really cute new diaper. Love him.

Did You Hear What I Said?

Three "conversations" I had with James today...in all three instances my line is the first thing I said to him.

Me: So I looked up some cloak patterns today for your Halloween costume.
James: In my pokeman game I had to fight this guy....(continues for a full minute).

Me: What do you like most about 3rd grade?
James: There is this pokeman I saw that you can't even buy any more. Only you have it if your older sibling had it or something since it's so old and he's name is....(on and on all the way to the pack meeting).

Me: So we'll have to enter all these things you did at scout camp into scout track and see what else you need to do.
James: Today when you told me to stop playing and save my game...
Me: Did you even hear what I just said?
James: Yes.
Me: Honey, you should respond to what I say when we are talking. It's polite in a conversation.
James: I didn't know if the conversation was over or not yet.

First Day of School

James--3rd grade

Matthias--1st

My boys are getting big!

Six Flags Over Texas

We took the kids to Six Flags and they had a blast. It was so much fun! Taylor took the day off and we didn't say anything to the kids until the morning of when we said we were going somewhere and to get in the car. They were so hilarious coming up with where they thought we were going. In the end they decided we were going to this big splash pad and out to eat because that was the coolest thing they could think of. 

It was such a fun day and Hyrum did well and the kids loved the rides. They were all pretty daring and I was happy to just push Hyrum around. =]

All the kids got to pick one game to play so everyone came home with a prize. The log ride was a big hit and the boys loved the swings, went on them like 5 times in a row. We went on a random Wednesday so we had almost no lines, the longest was maybe 15 minutes. We got there right when it opened and stayed until the fireworks and closing. 

So much fun. 

(as of end of October Hannah still talks about Six Flags almost daily...when we'll go again, what she will ride, etc. It's an obsession.)