AMNH: New Year's Day trip

We headed to the Museum of Natural History on New Year's day -- a new tradition that we wanted to start this year. It's one of the only museums that is open on New Year's day and it's a great cold-weather activity.

Unfortunately, Noah stayed up way too late partying on New Year's Eve with the church youth and crashed on the way there. But Gabey enjoyed running around and seeing all the animals - even if they were stuffed! He especially liked the tiger and the cheetah, calling them "kitties"! It's probably a good thing they were stuffed.

The Nutcracker

So, I finally got a date with that doctor husband of mine...

He got me tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet for Christmas. I've been wanting to go ever since we moved here - so it was a very nice surprise. We had a great time!

Lincoln Center

here's the contraband photo I snapped during the encore bows...

I thought you just couldn't take pics when they were dancing.

I totally got busted.

Oh well, it makes for a good blog photo!

Happy New Year!

Snow!

There is no doubt about the fact that winter has come to NYC! We've had a few pretty major snow storms already this season and it's only January. The first big one came the day after Christmas which was pretty fun. It was nice not to have to worry about getting Noah to and from school because he was on winter break. So, we just hung out in our PJs most of the day and played with new Christmas toys. I didn't manage to get them outside until that evening. As we were playing around in front of our building (it was REALLY cold! - Gabey hated it and was happy to hang out in the lobby while Noah and I kicked some snow around), Jon got home from work and we hit the sledding hill. One of our favorite perks of our new apt is the proximity of Fort Tryon park. There's an amazing sledding hill just a block away. Noah and I were the only ones there (because we were crazy enough to go after the sun went down!) and we had a blast!

all bundled and ready to go!

Daddy to the rescue!

first run down the hill

We headed up to gma S's house the next day for some more fun in the snow. They had several more inches than we had gotten in the city and it was so much cleaner there! Noah was pretty excited that he was the first one to make steps in gma's backyard. Uncle C was home from college and came out with us to enjoy some snow fun. This is the hill that I grew up sledding down. It's still totally fun. Noah also got to build the snowman he had been dying to build since the first snowflake fell. It was a pretty good one if I do say so myself! The best part about snow fun at gma's house was that Gabey got to nap soundly inside while we played!

Trailblazer Noah

Uncle C and Noah on their first run

Weee!!!!

gma's treehouse

"Jingle Bells" the snowman

Christmas "wrap-up"

My last Christmas post, promise.

We really did have an amazing Christmas. It was so nice to be with my little family and make some nice memories. We have been seriously blessed and are so grateful for our family, friends, and knowledge of the gospel.

On a less serious note:)

Here's my top 5 for Christmas 2010:

1. If mom gets sick 3 days before Christmas, the whole operation temporarily shuts down.

2. Hosting festivities in your home = mucho housecleaning-o.

3. As much as I tried to avoid it... there's no way around staying up until 2am on Christmas Eve to get everything done. (picture: Jon with powertools putting bus-slide together, cursing me - I mean Santa!)

4. I never thought I'd "call Santa" on my cellphone SO many times before Christmas even came! I used and abused that one for weeks! And now I totally know why... As a parent, you're so stressed out with all the bazillion things you need to do to prepare for the holidays that one wrong move by your preschooler and toddler sends you into a Santa-calling/no-present-threatening/coal-giving mommy-grinch. Happy Holidays, right?

5. I think I may have even called Santa after Christmas was over so he could take back some presents too. That one only lasted a few days, until Noah was finally like, "Um, mommy? Christmas is OVER!" Oh yeah, sorry.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

the stash

awesome kid-camera from Nana

the cool-4-year-old-present this year: Zhu Zhu pets!

new watch!

new wallet for Dad

surprise bonus present in the playroom!

bus = Gabeyheaven

awesome batcave from Grandma S

(i.e. a dollhouse for boys)

Christmas festivities

We decided to stay in the city for Christmas this year. We were really excited about starting some of our own Christmas traditions with the boys at home and not have to travel during the holidays (besides the fact that Jon couldn't get the time off work anyway!).

We love attending our annual ward Christmas party and this year it was especially nice. Noah is finally old enough to participate in Primary activities and this year they did a live nativity for the party. Noah sang in the angel choir. He loved getting ready for it and insisted on having wings! I thought wearing white and tying some tinsel around his waist would suffice, but apparently not! My tinsel soon found itself wrapped around a wire dry cleaning hanger along with straps from his old Buzz Lightyear wings! He looked great and did a great job in the choir.

Santa also visited the Christmas party and Noah had a little chat with him (lucky for us because we never made it down to Santaland this year!). I was totally loving this year because he didn't really have anything in particular that he wanted. So when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he just replied, "whatever you bring me!" Then Santa said, "Well, you'll probably get lots of cars and trucks!" And he was like, "Awesome!" Unfortunately, I didn't really get him any cars and trucks this year, except for his traditional Hot Wheels car stocking stuffer. So, I found myself at Target on Christmas Eve purchasing some kind of Hot Wheels car- track-thingy that I hoped would cover it. Luckily, it ended up being his favorite present, but he was also confused when he got things other than cars and trucks. I'm pretty sure he thought that was all he was going to get. So, I guess he was pleasantly surprised :) Gabey had a total freak out when I put him on Santa's lap (also part of the reason Santaland didn't seem very appealing this year!) so no pics of him!

We also had a little Christmas Eve party at our place where Noah played Joseph in our live Nativity. He had a blast dressing up and acting out scripture. Good friend Addi was Mary and her baby sister was baby Jesus. She was SO good... apparently she loved her starring role! Forrest and Abbie stepped in as the angel and the shepherd and Rhett gave a ground-breaking rendition of the wiseman. It was fun having our first Christmas Eve party at our new place and I'm sure this will become a great tradition.

Santa's lap!

the wings!

singing "Silent Night"

angel choir

Nativity

shepherd and angel

the wiseman

Joseph, baby Jesus, and Mary

Our Christmas Eve (day) trip to the playground

(wouldn't be a day in the city without it!)

O Christmas Tree...

We had a fun Saturday a few weeks before Christmas... a trip to the playground, Columbus Circle Winter Festival, Five Guys, and then back home to get our Christmas tree. Gabriel cooperated and took a nice nap in the stroller while we had lunch and did some shopping. Then it was back home to pick out a tree. Jon lugged it the 10 blocks home (what a dad!) and we decorated it that night. Noah is SO into any craft/decorating/project these days so this was right up his alley. We had a nice family day and it got us in the Christmas spirit.

Christmas PJ picture

These 2 boys are at the WORST ages for pictures! Just check out my attempt at our annual Christmas PJ picture and you'll see what I'm talking about! Noah just wants to be grumpy and not smile in any pictures and Gabey is SO squirmy that he can't even sit still for 2 seconds.

1st picture... not bad, caught them off-guard, but BLURRY!

2nd picture: Noah gets silly, Gabey is outta there!

3rd picture: wrestling match ensues!

4th picture: after a stern talking to, Daddy tries to lighten the mood...

Gabey just wants to see himself in the screen...

Daddy attempts photo shoot #2 the next morning... too sleepy to smile!

FINALLY! A smile :)

Gabey finally smiles too...

Too bad it's not in the same picture!!!

Thanksgiving!

We stayed in the city for Thanksgiving and I was determined to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade again this year because we had such a great time last year. Unfortunately Jon was not as enthusiastic about my plans and decided to stay home with Gabriel (probably the best plan as Gabriel would have most likely made it hard to enjoy the parade!) So, Noah and I met up with the Cope girls and snagged a great spot at the beginning of the parade. We didn't get to see every float and balloon because of our location, but we did get to see the most important ones -- Buzz Lightyear, Spiderman, Santa, and Usher of course! The kids were right in front and we had a great view of the balloons. Especially when the Energizer Bunny turned out to be in the wrong spot and had to jump ahead in front of the Smurf balloon. It was quite the scene as the two balloons almost got tangled up with one another... but luckily the Energizer Bunny made it without any casualties and got to his spot in time!

Good times!

Jon's parents and sister also came out to visit us for the weekend. It was actually our first time hosting Thanksgiving dinner and cooking a turkey! I even bought my first gravy boat and butter dish... I know! We had a great time with them... the boys especially couldn't get enough of the attention. Our post-Thanksgiving activities included a trip to the Winter Festival and carousel at Bryant Park, a visit to the Transit Museum, and the Christmas Spectacular show at Radio City Music Hall. Thanks for a great weekend, guys!