NY Botanical Garden Train Show

We finally made it to the NY Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show this year! I was really excited about taking the boys to this -- especially because of Gabriel's ridiculous obsession with ANYTHING trains! The added bonus was of course that there was a special Thomas the Train "performance" complete with Thomas himself, his conductor, and a photo op with the him. Gabriel was so excited! This definitely made me feel better about not making it down to Macy's this year to see Santa! Who needs a picture with Santa when you can get one with Thomas?!?

We had a great time and will definitely be making this a yearly tradition!

it's finally our turn!

a little star-struck!

Cheese!

George Washington Bridge!

another peek at Thomas

It's a...

GIRL!!!

We can't believe it either!  I'm pretty sure I was convinced that my body wasn't able to produce one :)
But we found out the good news today, and can't be more thrilled.  Noah is especially excited.  When we told him we were expecting another baby, he said, "it's a girl, right?!?"  We explained that it's possibly a girl or boy.  He responded by saying that he already had a brother and doesn't want another one.  Understood.

Luckily, he got his wish!

Gabriel's response was much more age-appropriate.  When I told him there was a baby in my tummy, he said (as any competitive younger brother would say), "Well, get it out so I can race it!"  (He's been losing several races lately and probably figured he'd have a good shot at beating a baby.)  At least he understands some of his role in all of this.

It's going to be quite the adventure with 3 kids in this crazy city, but we feel really blessed and excited to have another child and can't wait to meet her.

Expected arrival date: July 3, 2012

Christmas 2011

We had a very relaxing Christmas this year. We opted to stay close to home and celebrate with close friends and family.

Noah's class had a holiday party where we decorated sugar cookies which was loads of fun. I had volunteered to make the cookies because it seemed like the people planning the sugar cookie party didn't actually know how to make them! So, I planned on this being my once-a-year-sugar-cookie baking experience (not a huge fan of making sugar cookies!). Six dozen cookies later, I brought them into his class and someone had bought a bunch and had already handed out them out! I felt a little frustrated by this especially since I was pretty sure my homemade cookies tasted way better, but just ended up keeping my cookies and giving them out to friends as gifts! After all was said and done, it was a fun party and the kids had a great time.

The boys made out like bandits as usual this year. Thomas trains, Angry Birds, and Transformers seemed to be the general theme! We spent a nice Christmas at home after going to church and had Christmas dinner with my parents that evening.

The next day we ate Danish pancakes that I made with my new Ebelskiver pan (yum!) and then headed down to mid-town to be tourists for the day. PS -- the day after Christmas is a great day to see the Rockefeller tree and other such Christmas sights. So, we saw the tree and then went to the Top of the Rock. We've done the Empire State Building before but the Top of the Rock was a first for us. It was really fun! The boys are really into maps right now, so it was fun to have our map out while we checked out the different sights from 70 stories up.

Merry Christmas!

Karate!!!

Noah has been taking Karate this past year at the Y and has really excelled. It's been exciting to watch him take interest in something like this an get excited about it. He took a class with some of his church buddies so that added some extra excitement each Wednesday evening. He's learning to count in Spanish and in Japanese and has already tested for his orange belt.

I still can't believe he's old enough to be in Karate and have a schedule of afterschool activities! Maybe it's more that I can't believe I'm old enough to have a son in afterschool activities! Ha, I'll save save that for another post!

Anyway, here are some pics of his orange belt testing day. Very exciting!

'horse' stance!

stretching!

Noah leads the knuckle push-ups... so tough!

little orange belts

showing off their moves!

Orange belt!

Orange belt test

Family Photo Shoot 2011

So, we finally bit the bullet and hired a professional photographer to take some pictures of our family this year. And I'm so happy we did! Whitney Hardie is a good friend of ours and worked magic with our 2 energetic (and very cranky that day!) boys. It could have been disasterous... I mean really horrible. But she managed to capture some great shots amidst the tears and tantrums. Wow, family pictures can be really stressful... who knew?!?

I was really worried we wouldn't get any shots without Gabriel red-eyed and red-faced and Noah chewing on his sleeve while making a funny face, so you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to see the end result! And our genius photographer had us finish off the shoot at the playground, a place that pretty much always makes them happy!

Thanksgiving in Oregon

We decided to fly out to Oregon and spend Thanksgiving with Jon's family this year. It was a fun little adventure and a great way for me to get out of hosting :) We ended up taking the whole week because it just isn't worth flying all the way out there with 2 kids and that wicked time change only for a weekend. So, we made nice trip out of it and had a great time.

Nana and Grandpa were exceptional hosts as always and the kids made themselves right at home! They love all of the extra attention (and pretty much avoid us at all costs) from their grandparents and aunts and uncle. Baby Eliza is not so much a baby anymore and that was really fun to see the cousins interact with each other and get along so well (at least Noah and Eliza got along really well!) Gabriel soon realized that Eliza was taking attention away from him so playtime was closely monitored from then on!!! Noah was really sweet with Eliza and they became fast friends.

We filled our week with lots of INdoor activities, seeing as it rained pretty much everyday we were there! Not surprising, but I think I am slightly surprised everytime we visit Oregon as to how little we actually see the sun! Luckily, we have awesome relatives that found super fun indoor playspaces for the kids and we had a great time. We hit the Children's museum, did a little bowling, and we even went to an indoor water park! The rain stopped for one day -- just enough time for us to go help Nana and Grandpa cut down a Christmas tree and see the Zoo lights at the Oregon Zoo!

Noah was a little concerned about missing the few days of school before Thanksgiving (so obsessive!) so we talked to his teacher and she suggested making a travel journal of our trip as a homework project while we were gone. He's pretty much in love with his teacher and will do anything she says, so it didn't take much convincing that that was the awesomest thing to do ever! So, now we have a lovely travel log of our trip and some fun pics to boot...

Enjoy!

Cousin time at the Portland Children's Museum!

a bowling lesson from Grandpa... starting him young!

(the Horeys are serious about their bowling)

Christmas tree farm

3 generations hard at work!

awesome Christmas colored kettle corn --yum!

Zoo lights!

making Grandpa's famous Christmas cookies

(wouldn't be a Horey family Christmas without them!)

helping Nana and Grandpa decorate their tree!

After all of those Christmas preparations, we were ready to head home and get our apartment decorated!

Thanks for such a great trip!