Happy Valentine's Day!

love,

Noah & Gabe

Snow Day!

NYC was pounded with snow on Wednesday closing down schools and leaving us no choice but to get out and play! We met up with some neighborhood friends and set out to make the biggest snow man ever! The boys had a blast (even Gabe didn't mind the blizzard-like conditions) and luckily Eddie's dad was there with his serious snowman building skills. They were all so proud of the finished product... especially Noah (even though his contribution was mostly the "eating snow" part)!

***One of my favorite things about living in NYC is being just short blocks away from so many friends. We literally just bumped into friends on our way out and had an instant playdate. We feel really lucky to have so many good friends here which makes our decision to stay so much easier... (yep I said it -- lots of decisions lately, hence, the lack of posts... stay tuned for more details :)***

An Oregon Christmas

I know, I know... it's been forever! Talk about technical difficulties lately. We had camera issues over Christmas (i.e. our camera finally died and when we opened up the new camera box Santa brought us for Christmas, that's literally all it was! a box, no camera!) Needless to say we finally got a new camera but I had to gather pics from other people's cameras which is always a little tricky (but thanks Cathy and Chrissy for getting me those pics!) AND I forgot my memory card in the picture printing kiosk at Rite-Aid which had our ever-so-precious Macy's Santaland pics on it! We seriously stood in line for like an hour-and-a-half and I've got nothing to show for it! So, I guess that's my excuse for not blogging since Thanksgiving -- lame, lame, lame. (whatever... I can blog whenever I want to blog... cuz it's my blog... so there!)

Anyway, we headed out to Oregon for Christmas this year and had a really great time. Even though we always said we'd never fly across the country with 2 young kids (especially around the holidays!) we did it anyway. The boys were at really good stages to fly and luckily the flights were uneventful (we even missed the huge snow storm that shut down NY airports for the whole weekend... LUCKY!).

We spent 2 weeks with Jon's family for Christmas and had a great time catching up with them. It was only the second time they had seen Gabriel, so it was fun for them to get to know him (even if it was at 5am every morning because of the time difference!) Noah loved the masses of attention he got from everyone and Christmas was really fun for him this year. I was worried we would have similar issues to Halloween (i.e. huge build-up to the big day and then melt-down... but he was pretty stoked about all of his presents!)

We had loads of Oregonian fun: cutting down our own Christmas tree, a ride on the Polar Express to the North Pole to see Santa (i.e. the Mt. Hood Railroad at Hood River), trips to the zoo, the Children's Museum, and the Science Museum, and lots of family fun in the rain, snow, and sun! (who said it only rained in Portland?)

**Noah did seem very confused by the weather. He kept saying, "is it daytime? do I have to go to bed?" because it could get so cloudy and gloomy during the day. The funniest part was when we were flying back to NYC, we took off in Portland and finally got above the clouds... Noah said, "look Mommy, it finally stopped raining!" HA!** I felt like I was in Forks, Washington the whole time...

Thanks to the fam for a great visit!

Here are the pics...

(isn't this so Forks, Washington?!?)

Bella.... Edward?

a fine Horey family tradition!

the fam...

the star!

spotting the North Pole

Santa finally made it to our car!

Gabey's first Christmas present!

Noah not nearly as excited about the dinosaur playset as I thought he should be!

baby-elf on the loose!

a little elf-fight...

awww... an elf make-up hug!

Jon opening up our camera... box.

oopsie!

elf-nap with grandpa!

(too much excitement on Christmas Eve)

I call this: "baby-elf-robber"

(watch out... he might be coming down your chimney!)

Christmas Eve dinner with Mike & Amber

birthday cake for Jesus!

storytime with grandpa

trip to the zoo

a little New Year's Eve bowling!

SNOW!

lots of kitchen time with grandpa!

trip to OMSI to see the T-Rex exhibit!

Thanksgiving

Have I mentioned how much I love our new computer? I uploaded 650 pictures in like 2 minutes! The catch-up game continues...

Here's another update:

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. I really wanted to take Noah to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. We've never been as long as we've lived here so we decided to stay in the city and convinced my parents to come down and hang out with us here instead of travelling upstate to their place. So, they watched Gabriel while we took Noah to see the balloons! Jon had to work an overnight shift the night before and didn't get home until almost 8am, so we didn't get a super early start to get a good spot (poor Jon got dragged right back out the door as soon as he got home!) but it was still really fun. Noah had kind of a confused look on his face the whole time. He was up on Jon's shoulders most of the time because we were about 40 people deep in the crowd and could hardly see anything on the ground, but whenever a balloon came he would get really excited. Unfortunately we would only see the balloon for about 30 seconds as it passed between the buildings we were standing in between! But it was so much fun to be outside and see it close up (sort of) and be around lots of people enjoying themselves and getting into the Christmas spirit. I was actually kind of bummed out that we hadn't done it every year we lived here!

After the parade, we headed back to our apartment where my mom had single-handedly prepared Thanksgiving dinner! (thanks again, Mom!) We had a lovely day with the grandparents and Gabriel celebrated his first Thanksgiving like a champ. He loved his home made sweet potatoes (i.e. non-Gerber baby food) and corn!

We're so grateful for good friends, family, and especially the gospel at this time in our lives.

(an obvious favorite)

(not so obvious favorite... when I asked him what

other balloons he liked he kept saying the "baker one")

sweet Gabriel

ready to eat!

Lawrence Farms!

Our computer has finally arrived... so here's update #2!

We headed upstate to Lawrence Farms last month for our annual apple and pumpkin picking fun. I grew up going to this place and it's been so much fun to watch my kids enjoy it too. We spent the weekend at grandma's house and then headed over to the farm on Columbus Day. The location is so picturesque and we always go away with a great pick of apples. This year was no exception. Noah had been talking a lot about apples at school. They made apple pie and did some great apple artwork at school, so he was very excited to see where they actually came from! There's a great little children's village that was a lot of fun this year and we were able to get a few little decorative pumpkins too. Gabriel enjoyed being strapped to me (his favorite place) most of the time while he napped and then woke up in a good mood to get some good pics. Oh, and I also finally decided what my favorite kind of apple is... Gala!

To Infinity... and Beyond!

Our new computer is on its way! In the meantime, one of our friends let us borrow her netbook so I figured I could start playing catch-up with a few things I wanted to post.

This year the boys dressed up as Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story. Noah has been completely obsessed with this movie all summer... just in time for it to make a comeback too! I really wanted them to have a theme to their costumes especially since Noah LOVES for him and Gabriel to match. So, whatever helps them bond more is fine by me! So, I picked up these costumes at good ol' Tar-jay and then crafted a jetpack and wings for Buzz. It ended up being quite the little project, but came out really great.

I think I might have played up Halloween a little too much because it was actually a really hard day for Noah. Who would have thought asking people to give you free candy would be so traumatic, but it was! On our way to a neighborhood trick-or-treat parade to local businesses, the dry cleaner lady and the nail salon lady saw Noah and ran out to give him candy. He totally freaked and refused to say "trick-or-treat". They were very gracious and gave him the candy anyway, but I quickly realized we were not off to a good start! So, I tried to remind him on the train that he needed to say "trick-or-treat" so people would give him candy. His response was: "I'm a little stressed about saying trick or treat, mom!" HA! I couldn't believe he said that... but I totally got it (and now I realize that I must say "stressed" way too much!). So, as you can imagine the trick-or-treat parade was a total bust because he didn't want to talk to anyone. He would only go if his friend Lexi was there to help him out or if I dragged him in. So, he didn't get much loot (total bummer for us!) and I also kind of think he didn't like people recognizing who he was. Everywhere we went people were calling him "Buzz" and saying "to infinity and beyond" and he was totally embarrassed. I was kind of sad for him, because I totally thought this would be a great age for him to finally 'get' Halloween, but apparently not!

I guess there's always next year...

here are some pics:

Buzz and Woody

(BFFs eventually...)

Woody

Buzz

(taken the week before... when he was still excited about it!)

on the train after our little pep talk...

'stressed' little Buzz refusing to trick-or-treat

Woody chillin' in the stroller!

technical difficulties

It happened. Our computer officially died... hence the lack of posts these past few weeks. I am dying to post pics of the boys in their Halloween costumes, Gabe's 7 month update, and a few other recent adventures. But it looks like it will have to wait another week until we order a new computer :(

I've gotten a lot of housework done in the meantime!

until then...