We can Rock!

For Halle's birthday we adults decided we could either sit and watch the kids play or we could pull out the rock band. Uh, hard decision. As soon as we got it out, the kids had to join in. Being the good parents we are, we of course told them, it was our turn first... We eventually let them play though and it was a lot of fun. I love the seriousness and concentration of Payton's face.
Most of us stunk of the drums but our solo's and guitar rocked! Even the little kids could hang....well, for a little while. The only thing I don't like about Rock Band is that you have to sing it exact. I like more of a Karaoke where you just have to say the right words.
Oh yeah, my girl can sing.

This is a classic Payton. This boy LOVES to sing. He actually has a nice voice. He's more of a Pop, Disney, Soul kinda guy though. Metal/Rock is not his forte.

Gotta start em while their young. They didn't like that if you mess up, you get booed off the stage.

Happy Birthday Halle

Last week our sweet...well, temperamental but sweet little girl turned two! I can't believe how much she's grown. When we moved to NY she was just 6 months old, a little blob on the floor. By 9 months she was walking and fighting to keep up with Payton. She can hold her own now and does a lot of teasing herself. She is notorious for taking something you want and running away laughing. If you chase her it may take a while but ignore it and she comes back with a smile saying, "here ya go!"
She talks so much. She can sing her ABC's, several High School Musical and Christmas songs, I am a child of God, and our song, "I love Halle."

We had a little party with our friends while Grandma was here visiting. It was a full house and so much fun. Thanks you guys for coming in a snowstorm! Halle was so excited for her birthday. If you told her Happy Birthday, she would say it back to you. Didn't quite understand it was just HER day.

She is just the cutest little girl. I can't say enough good things about her. Yes, she makes a huge mess of our house and rips the flaps off the books but she brings so much excitement to our home. We love you so much Halle! Here's to another exciting year.

City Lights

So it's probably not the best idea to see the city lights the week after Christmas. But we finally had a warm day and just had to go. Though my hubby said he would, and I quote, "never, never, never.never,ever, ever, never, ever, ever,ever, etc,ever,ever...." you catch where I'm going? "Ever go there again!!!" I think he had about 25 more ever's but who's counting. The kids and I loved it and had a great time. My mom was here so we took her up 5th avenue to see the store windows and such. It was so interesting to see all the different displays. There were millions of people, everywhere! We made it to Rockefeller Center but sadly for Payton, couldn't get to the ice-rink. He was really upset. He loves watching the skaters. We got right next to the tree but since we got separated we didn't have a camera for a picture. ugh! Mom got lost and since she forgot her phone we spent about an hour looking for her. This added about 10 more ever's to Andy's list. Thankfully we re-united and was able to enjoy a few things before heading home.

My snuggle bug!

The kids just plan on seeing Elmo and Cookie Monster when we go to the city. This time they also got their picture with Shrek. Some Santa wanted to take a pic with the kids but Payton told him he wasn't the 'real' Santa. Luckily the creepy guy walked off. :) Sometimes ya just gotta love when they say inappropriate things.

In front of Macy's (one of our Favorite stores). They have the BEST sales!

Somehow, our house seemed not quite as festive when we got home.

Home for Christmas

Contrary to the look on her face, she had a wonderful Christmas. From the moment we put up the tree and lay the first present beneath, it's been a constant trial to keep them from opening the packages. They would literally sit and stare at them asking if it was time yet. And each day we would mark another flap on the calendar, smiling and jumping the days away.
We had our first Christmas alone as a family. It was definitely different but nice. Andy worked a 24 hour shift the day before and since the kids and I had to take him back and forth, we all spent a lot of the time sleeping and playing in our pj's. In fact, we took the kids for a ride to see some Christmas lights and by time we reached the end of our road, they were asleep. We didn't get to bed early though since the kitchen took forever to put together!

Halle is a tough chick and a fireball to say the least, but she LOVES all things girlie. Dolls, make-up, princess, pink. Thanks to grandma's and grandpa's she got a kitchen, doll set and princess dress. Though Payton loves the kitchen too, he was excited to get a camera, puzzles and some train accessories. (It will be nice not finding pictures of random things on my camera. I one time found 40 pictures OF pictures on the computer.??)

"I'm just like dad!" Thankfully the stethoscope really works.

Halle pushed this around ALL DAY. I'm glad we didn't buy much because she wouldn't have known. She sleeps with her babies and when she walked in to see a NEW baby, she immediately threw her 'old'one. Poor doll, good thing they can't really talk like 'Toy Story'. Who knows what would really go on at our place.

Payton wakes up early so Andy and I set little 'booby-traps' to hear him wake up. We didn't want him snooping around before we all got up. We piled a bunch of stuff in front of the bedroom door, everything except a pit and a lion. Didn't stop him though. We of course didn't hear him and he came in to wake us up. He told us everything that was out there and gave us a tour when we came out to look for ourselves. The funniest thing was when he found a bell in his stalking. He looked at it, shook it near his ear and then staring at it again said, "I believe!"

Nice to meet you!

Last week while Grandma Lori was visiting, we made a trip to the city to see the lights. The kids love riding the train, especially since it's been 'Polare Express' season.

Halle kept hugging and kissing Payton. She'd say, "Nice to meet you!" Then hug and kiss him. Hopefully they aren't quite so friendly the older they get.

Fun before Freezing

With days of rain and cold it was getting hard to keep the kids in check. The other morning we heard the city horn go off two times, which means school is canceled for the day. I looked outside and it was cloudy, nothing else. By noon, however, we had a few inches of snow. This is what the kids did all morning... stare out the window... Boring!! We decided to bundle up and go play. Now, my kids don't have any boots or anything really fit to play in the snow, with the exception of a coat and hat. We've only needed boots and suits at my moms so they stay there. Oops. We found a few layers to last a little while.

The neighbor from downstairs came out with a sled and his mom was kind enough to pull the kids up and down the side walk. They had so much fun. This was Halle's first time really playing in the snow and she loved it. They certainly had winter rosy cheeks too.

We build an awesome looking, strange, safari, pear shaped snowman. This small man took a long time cause all the kids kept knocking it down when trying to pack it. We used a carrot of course and then malt balls for the rest. Hey, it's all I could find. Thanks mom for sending the candy. Halle kept trying to eat them with each one I put on.

We then were getting cold and went to go inside but the door was locked. I hate my door. The lock turns easily and I didn't have a key cause we were just a few feet away, playing in the snow. UGH!! Thankfully, the landlord lives two blocks away and my neighbor let me take the kids in the sled to get a key.

My 2nd thankfully, she was home!! She gave us a key and chocolate candy! What could be better than that. The kids jumped in for a long bubble bath to get warm. Payton is of course Santa Claus. I asked him what he wanted to ask Santa for. He replied, "I want his Santa coat." This is because he is of course an 'actor' and we got the kids Santa hats. I told him I didn't think Santa would let him have his coat. :0

Since all the kids were out of school, they were still outside playing when Andy got home from work. They kids went out for a very quick snow throw. Luckily, they decided it was too cold. I bet they are glad I made them wear a coat and hat unlike going out barefoot and half naked like they tried prior.

They snow is still here and it's too dang cold to even get my mail out the front door, let alone do my laundry downstairs. Burr....I was happy that they had a fun time though. It was nice to get out of the house and run around without even one spot of yellow snow.

That's the way the gingerbread crumbles.

I've missed a few fun events lately, like our ward Christmas party, which was actually pretty dang fun. They had an international Christmas so we had a ton of yummy food. I couldn't believe how much food there was, especially since normally they run out at our shindigs. Other than that, I can't remember a lick of what we've been doing.

I've been trying to get the kids to do a few Christmas projects around the house. Last Sunday we made the all-famous Ginger Bread House. Ours was a pretty sad house. It's probably the ugliest house I've ever seen. The kids helped a lot (last year I did it myself) so it was very unique. It was so much fun though. This picture of Halle is basically what she did the entire time. I think she put a few candies on but she ate most of them. Notice the cheeks full of sweets.


The house kept sliding down the icing because of course, we don't read instructions, (who does?) We didn't let it set before adding the candy which upset Andy since he wanted it to look like the picture on the box. Consequently, I decided to just throw the box away.
We've been stuck to our house quite a bit with colds, but mostly due to the fact that Andy has ended his Peds ER rotation of night shifts and is now doing OB-gyn. Fun, I know.

I'll let him write about that. :)
Thankfully, some of our friends have came over to keep us company.
Reagan and her son Jack brought fun foam to make Christmas trees and snowmen. The kids had fun for a minute and then she and I finished them. She and I had a great time though. The kids had more fun jumping on the bed. They actually made some cute cards though.
Some of you may be getting them for a Christmas card since they've since found more interest and it's become a daily project.




Payton takes it very seriously. I love the concentration. When he's not doing this, however, he is acting. For real. My kids are singing songs all day and acting out some movie. He goes back and forth from 'Polar Express' and his old fav, Larry from 'Night at the Museum'. Thankfully, we've had a break from his Botox routine of 'Christmas with the Kranks'.




Payton and Jack are so cute. Jack just had a birthday. We went to a gym called Playrobics and the kids all ran around for hours. It was awesome. Afterwards, they were so hungry they all sat down at the restaurant and ate without a fuss. I've never seen so many kids sit so good.
Jack also shared one of his Favorite Christmas Cd's with us and the kids are now addicted too. So much that I can't get them to GO TO SLEEP!!! They are too busy singing in their beds.....

MY NY...

When most women think of NY they want to go into the City and get in the traffic, trains, buildings, Subways, Broadways, and Parkways on the Expressway and throughways. In fact there are many "ways" to get to NYC, but maybe the best way is not to go west at all, but east. I am not a woman (last time I checked) and hence have the tendency to flee from any situation where I'm obligated (I signed the contract I know) to carry the purse or a half eaten gummed hot dog and stuck carrying that huge stroller up those two flights of subway stairs. That's not me. The city is OK maybe once a month (at best), but it can be like herding hamsters when you have little kids. I prefer to go East--further on Long Island (FYI--nuclear fallout falls 10% per mile--hey I think about that stuff), and carry my 3.5 inch Mossberg Semi Auto instead of a purse and a stroller. They actually have country stations and 60 miles of Sod farms and beautiful Oak forests. Long Island remains somewhat warmer than the other parts of NY, thus enticing tens of thousands of Canadian Geese to winter here all year. Canadians can reach 12-15 lbs and people here hate 'em because they leave their huge droppings everywhere in the parks. There are actually companies that are hired(they drive Prius's and have this crazy EPA logo) to scare the geese out of your park, yard, or Golf Course or put this nasty stuff on your grass as goose repellant (pictured above left). There are better (and funner) ways New Yorkers...Guys like me who have goose hunted the dream hunt areas of Eagle Lake in TX for years with Dad, can continue the tradition of really scaring them and grow even fonder of NY. For most of y'all who don't know how goose hunting is done, I'll give you a quick talkin' to. In TX you usually haul 700-1000 wind sock decoys through the mud after driving a few hours to then sit in the mud and wait for the skies to come alive. It is a blast, we've done it for as long as I can remember. In Tx you shoot mostly smaller snow geese which can sometimes number 40-50,000 in a field, but with lots of hunting pressure, it can get quite tough to have them committ to landing within 40 yards, or with my gun--within 60 yards. On Long Island, it's not a well known thing and it's only about a 45 minute drive to reach miles of beautiful Sod fields, in this case right behind the big Splish and Splash Waterpark (you can see it in the background in the very first pic). And with no hunting pressure, the birds are let's say, very naive. It definitely makes for a more comfortable hunt. In fact I wore my Crocs (open heeled shoes)on this hunt. The temp dipped to about 28 degrees with a slight NW wind, perfect to get the geese moving. With just about 35 full body decoys put out in two groups next to(within 40 yards) a dug out box blind to conceal Me, Toby and my good friend Tom Casey from Long Island Waterfowling, we were all set up in about 15 minutes compared to the 2 hours it takes when hunting Snow geese in TX. The Geese leave their roost (home) at about 8am, fly down the riverbank to work (us) and hit this field by the hundreds. They see our full body Goose set up and hear the calling, and land---in my freezer...Long Island has a 3 bird per hunter limit. We don't use the dogs here, that would be just plain laziness. The season usually runs from Thanksgiving till Feb 7. We limited with 9 birds by 9:30am. The interesting part is always bringing home that many birds home to debreast without a shed or a yard, you can get some crazy looks from your tree huggin environmentalist neighbors...that garbage man sure was surprised I bet. While I was cleaning 'em the conversation went like this... "Dad, you killed it? Yes son. Did it hurt? No, son. That one's bleeding dad...I know son. So there are no more to feed at the park? Fortunately for us...yes, son." Anyway, so if you're only seeing 1 turtle dove or haven't seen any at all this year, chances are--they could be in season. Merry Christmas y'all.

Better watch out.

See these smiling faces. Yep, that's because the day after Thanksgiving we slept in and opted not to shop. Oh it felt so good! After finally deciding what to do we headed to Manhattan to check out the lights and all the crazy happenings. Our good friend Mike was here for the weekend and thankfully took some pictures with ALL of us in them. That is a rarity I must say. On a side note, the day after this pic, we watched ELF and Payton said, "hey, I was there!" He was pretty excited. (they have a snowball fight on this bridge.) In fact, he said to me the other day while watching 'Santa Claus', "Mom, so have we been to the North Pole yet?" "No honey, we haven't." "Oh, well we still need to do that."
It was a little chilly but the kids still had fun running around in Central Park. I wish I would have taken my camera when it was Fall time and all the leaves were gorgeous! Payton loves having his picture taken but it's hard to get him to not pose all 'model' like.??? He's the next Zoolander, what can I say. We call this Gold steal.
What awesome parent doesn't take their kid on the dirty subway, I mean come on. Actually it's just a joke we have but the kids think it's cool. Jazelle road the subway Payton will tell you.
This picture would be perfect if Andy just had a fluffy hat with on ball on top.
We saw, Cookie Monster, Elmo, and of course Santa. (the one ringing the bell on the corner) Payton only said, "I saw Santa." Later however, when we were of course threatening him to go to bed the conversation went like this...
"You better go to bed cause Santa will see you and put you on the naughty list."
"Mom, I already saw him in NY!"
"Well maybe he had to do a little shopping too." :)
"But I saw him in NY! He's not at the North Pole to see me."
"He's magic. He goes home just like we do."
"Are you kidding me! Fine! I'll go to sleep!"

Mr. Mom

This week has been just fabulous! Well, if fabulous includes everyone throwing up for 4 days straight. Just have to share a little love for my hubby who has been tired, caring, somewhat grumpy, yet mostly wonderful this entire week. The kids and I all got sick, actually, VERY SICK, and he took care of all of us. He stayed up all night cleaning up the kids throw up while I slept on the bathroom floor dealing with my own sickness. He went from room to room and then finally threw a big blanket in the living room and put us all in there to lesson the damage. He did loads of laundry, filled lots of juice cups, and gave plenty of hugs to help us get better. And any guy who can put up with watching Disney movies for 4days straight is a hero. Did I mention that he has this great quality that he can tell you what is wrong with you and why your body is reacting a certain way, the treatment, recommendations, reactions, etc. Made me want to throw my shoe at him! But I guess it's good to be informed. ??? I'm sure he was exhausted and I'm so grateful to him and all he does for us. You're the best babe.
Thankfully we are feeling much better and thank goodness for Lysol and bleach. I've cleaned all day and at least till morning we are germ free. Ha!

Just thinking...

We use these posts as a kind of journal so I figured I should write a little bit before all gets lost in time. The last 3 weeks I have been doing a Pediatric Emergency/trauma rotation in Brooklyn that has been at times like a fast and testimony meeting--sometimes a little slow and boring, then other times trying to detach myself so I don't look soft. And other times like testimony meetings in Texas where you're left wondering what the cotton pickin' heck just happened in here?
Most of the time it is asthma, croup, pneumonia and the diarrhea/vomiting or a few stitches here and there, broken bones,etc. But sometimes it's the kid who gets a 22 bullet (unfired) lodged in his ear or a toy truck fire engine antenna through the top of his mouth into his brain, swallowed a safety pin, or who's face lost a fight to a pit bull, or swallowed roach spray, or car accidents, gang fights, or not alive at all. Most are hispanic and no one else speaks spanish so I get funneled to being the guy up front on most. Those experiences when you're doing CPR for an hour and they ask if you're tired and you are but say you're fine and the mom is in the back of the room screaming not to stop, "save my baby!!" moaning and wailing...for the 2nd time tonight another kid in heaven for Christmas. When the night's over and you quietly get back in your car, slowly, and hit the Expressway and the roads are empty and quiet and get home and climb into a warm bed after going into each of the kids' rooms and giving them each a kiss on the cheek...and you wake up---and all is well.
I started reading Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" for the season and Payton said he wanted to go "feed the ducks down by the water too" like tiny Tim so we did today down on the Sound. These were mostly seagulls and Canadian geese with a few ducks, but with the sun out and watching him try to get the birds closer and closer and start pointing out the ducks from the seagulls...and then watch him get scared when they were fighting over scraps on his shoes...it was a calm moment to just sit back and think "Thanks Lord, for giving me these darn kids."
And all reading this with little ones, maybe sometimes impatient like me, frustrated with everything no one ever warned us about kids--then realizing that their Decembers at home are numbered... and you start taking every funny face, awkward question, tight hug, bit of astonishment, all of their little dreams, and for me this year, calling it Christmas.

Turkey Trot

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here at our place. For the first time on Thanksgiving, I actually got up and ran 5 miles. My friend Cindy told a bunch of us about the local race and we decided to go for it. I actually didn't register since Andy had to work the night before, but with the thousand or so people they had, I just jumped in and ran it anyway. It was a good course with lots of hills. I'm very sore, even now a few days later. It felt good though and gave me the mental edge I needed to go home and eat my favorite...pumpkin pie! I think it should be a tradition now to go race on Thanksgiving.
Some of our good friends then came over and helped make some delicious food. We are so thankful for wonderful friends and family who show us such love and support.

Powder Fresh

Why is this kid so smiley and clean? Oh he's just being Payton 'Mo' Doodle. He's also just had the best time laughing and making a mess in his bedroom.
Andy and I were just laying in bed talking the other morning while the kids were playing. They were obviously having a great time judging by their screams and giggles of excitement. When Andy got up I heard, "Oh my Gosh!"
Now, if you should every come across a circumstance in your life where your neighbors cook Chim Chi and your trying to find a way to get rid of the disgusting smell in your apartment, may I suggest this: leave your kids alone for a few minutes with a bottle of baby powder. The one hidden behind the diaper stuff but not far enough away that your FOUR YEAR OLD can still see it and for some crazy reason be tempted to throw it everywhere!

There was a basket of laundry on the floor that needed to be washed so I figured they were throwing the clothes around. Nope... In case you wondered the room smelt nice and powder fresh. And much quicker than any candle could have released that sought after aroma. I especially love that there are hand and foot prints on the floor and bed. When the kids left the room, a trail followed. And when I changed Halle's diaper, a pile of white was left on the floor from her hair. They were like little walking Fabreeze's.

We had a quick laugh and momentary thought of, "should we let them do the rest of the house?" (Inner struggle) I decided against it. Hey, it could always be worse.

So Cute

This is how to put your child in time out. I'm only kidding people! Generally the kids like to play 'airplane', but we found they can go higher and farther the other way. :) Payton is in to trying to climb the wall. He was so excited that he 'climbed' up and touched the ceiling.

Halle LOVES her babies. She puts them in the high chair to feed them and gives them naps. Andy walked in to catch her changing a diaper. What a good littla mama!

This is just a random pic I have to show cause she's so dang cute! The kids are very excited for Christmas this year. It's going to be so much fun.

The kids are so cute when dad leaves for work. Kisses, hugs, and lots of "I love you's." Only wish I were a better photographer.

Happy ThanksChristmasgiving

Though Thanksgiving is yet another week away, we are just so festive at our house already. The kids have been watching a few Christmas movies since all the stores here have trees and decorations up. They keep asking if tonight is Christmas and I sadly have to tell them "No."
Everyday I wake up to hear, "Can we put up Christmas yet?"
"After Thanksgiving dear."
Well, Andy put the kids to bed the other night when I was at the gym. Payton was giving him a hard time and so he told him we could put up the decorations if he'd be good. So today I had no choice but to pull out the little fake tree we have. A week earlier isn't really a whole lot of difference I guess. But I don't want to take down the two cute Thanksgiving items I have. I just finished an Autumn wreath I made and was excited to put it up. Acutally, we don't have a lot of any decorations since we didn't really plan on being here originally for the holidays. But I must say our house is very interesting indeed with our Christmas tree, Christmas wreaths, angels, pine cones, and Autumn vines all mixed in together. I wonder what our Thanksgiving guests will think? Oh well. The kids are very happy and it makes me even more excited for Christmas. They are at such a fun age. We are teaching them the carols every time we drive. We'll show those Osmond's!
Thank goodness they aren't really into Easter yet. That would really be a sight.

"We"

I just experienced a frequent scenario that takes place in our home. No, it's not the kids crying for "2 more minutes" before bed but rather a famous quote by my sweet husband.
"Hey babe, 'we' need to do (today he said the laundry). "
Now, as much as I love my dear hubby this cracks me up because what men really mean by 'we' is you, aka, the wife.
It's used for numerous terms and instances such as laundry, diaper changes, dishes, cleaning, cookie making, having a baby, writing the newsletter, etc.
What generally happens is 'I' end up doing it and he watches the kids so I 'CAN' get it done. I'm ok with this.
I was trying to get dinner ready and the kids were really looking for attention. They wanted to play baseball. Yes, we're awesome parents and let them play in the house. The balls and bats are soft, who cares, it's freezing cold outside.
Andy pitched the ball to Payton just as I walked in and "smack," right in my forehead! It was a dang good hit, a line drive I should say. This time 'we' all laughed and by the time we were done playing, dinner was still not ready. So, we went out for a big dinner at Wendy's. Yep, the high life here in NY.

Primary Program

We had our ward Primary program today. While the kids are nice, they are terrible when it comes to reverence, obedience, you know, qualities one should use at church. The few weeks prior I kept thinking, "this is going to be a disaster." But, thankfully, the program was really nice and went smoothly. Honestly, I was a little shocked but very happy. Until of course we go back to class and they are jumping and running around crazy. UGH!!!!
I had a proud mama moment though. This is the first time to have my kids participate and it was so fun. Especially since they both looked so dang cute today. Payton had 3 parts to say and he wasn't scared at all. In fact, after each one, he sat down very confidently. It's just so good to hear him give a talk in church. Last year he wasn't even hardly talking at ALL and he has now came so far. He still has a long way to go but it gives us hope that things will continue to get better.
Halle came up with the Nursery to sing 'I am a child of God.' I was a little nervous because last week at practice she saw her friend Zanna and ran over and dragged her over to stand by her. While also shouting, "Hi Zanna!" Today she found Payton and tried to go sit by him but eventually gave up and went back to sing with her class. Being the feisty red she is, she of course told them all to move so she could fit. She then flashes a huge grin. Girls!

Cause we have to watch it everyday anyway

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And the Oscar goes to....

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Classic

When we switched our cable (so Andy could get BYU football) we got 4 months of free movie channels. So I've been recording a bunch of stuff I want to have for later. I love old movies and came across one I've heard of, but never actually seen. Well that's not completely true, I remember seeing about 10 minutes of it when I was like, 11.
Anyway, I actually had the kids to bed early so I watched "Barefoot in the park." It has Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. It's actually a cute movie and I laughed quite a bit.
Got me to thinking that I have seen probably only a hand full of the top 100 American Movie Classics. Yes, they have an official list. I've never even seen "Casablanca." So I decided I'm going to start watching a few more of them. My husband is so excited I know. (NOT)
In fact, he and Payton have already started watching Christmas movies. They insist we are going to put up our tree and decorations next week but I said, "Not until after Thanksgiving!" Payton does watch "Santa Claus 3 a lot though and is now acting out Jack Frost. If you've seen our previous posts, you can only imagine how interesting that is...

Enough movies for a while though. The Twilight movie comes out soon and I promised my mom I'd read the dang book. Apparently I'm some freak for not doing so already. Don't want to be a wandering non-vampiric (yes I made up this word) blurb who doesn't know anything! Ya know what they say about those people...(I can feel the glares of my mom through the computer. Oh the shame she has felt) Hey sweet, 'Roman Holiday' is on, HD too. Guess I'll start the book tomorrow. :)

Privacy Please

Well, we're finally gonna do it. I've decided to go to a private blog. Personal reasons of course but hey, it's my blog. :)
For those of you friends from school who check, you are always welcome to keep looking, just send me your email and I'll add you to the list. I have a lot of your addresses but in case I miss someone, don't get all offended. Just let me know. I should have most of the family addresses.
I'll leave it open another week or so and then we're sealing the vault! (did you here the dramatic music? I was picturing Lord of the Rings.)
Anyway, I have a pile of laundry to iron. Ugh, I hate ironing. Luckily once I do it, it will be done for a while. Andy is back to wearing scrubs this week. Sweet! Never thought I'd miss those things.

Why, thankyou!

I haven't really been in a blogging mood lately but today I received a phone call that cheered me up a little. My dog had puppies about 4 years ago. Nine puppies actually and we sold them all to wonderful families. Anyway, I answered the phone and I had no clue who the person was and couldn't really understand him. He finally explained that he had bought a dog from us and wanted to call and tell us how happy he has been. At first I thought he was calling to say he wanted his money back or something but he told me how great of a dog it was and that it was the best thing they'd ever done. The dog is smart and very well behaved. He also said that he is going to breed the dog and wants to give us one of the puppies. Well, that's a ways away but it made me so happy to hear that. It was sad to give away those dogs and it makes me feel so good. We often wonder about them and hope they are doing ok. I only know of one other puppy and that's because we gave it to a doctor we knew. It was the most beautiful dog I'd ever seen and I was really sad to see him go. He is a white lab and that doctor takes him to work and everything. Makes me miss my dog even more now. I can't wait until we're done with school and she can come live with us again. The kids miss her too. Anyway, just one of those rainy day stories that make you go, "Awe!"

Eeeww!

This picture is actually taken at my moms, but in our house, sitting down is the signal for Halle to jump on your lap for a story. I have never seen a child so in love with reading books. Of course I only have two kids but still, she loves it! I literally cannot sit down without her jumping on me with a book. We've even had friends over who sat on the floor and then she jumps on their lap too. I have to admit I secretly love it though. Payton wasn't really into books until she came along. We now have a nightly routine of story time before bed. I have had to start earlier and earlier because like most kids, they say, one more book!
We've been reading the book, "Everyone Poops." I don't know how many of you have seen this book but it's pretty funny. It's a little more........graphic, maybe, then I'd probably do but hey, kids gotta learn I guess. It actually shows people and animals pooping, (illustrations of course). Halle is so funny. She opens the book and goes, "EEEWWW!" She turns the page again and I hear, "EEWW, POOP!" Turn page, "Eeeww! EEWW!"
It's so funny. She talking so much and it's fun to hear all the things going on in her little head. Especially when she jumps in our bed and tells dad, "MY bed. Stop it dad!" She then waves him bye bye and blows a kiss. She is definitely a sweet, feisty red and I love it!

texan kids

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Halloween Fun

Halloween night we joined our friends for a party at their "mansion" of ghouls and goblins. This is us with our friend Cindy.

We have finally recovered from our Halloween weekend. I say recover because we ate so many cupcakes and cookies that I still want Andy to check us for sugar shock. Don't think I'll look at the scale tomorrow when I hit the gym.
We had a fun week though. My mom came out last Sunday night and the kids have been so happy to have her. Heck, we all have enjoyed it!
I'm sad to say that we didn't get to do any sort of pumpkin search of hay rides because my kids are just getting over being very sick and with the cold weather we stuck to mostly indoor activities. I did let them pick a few pumpkins out at the market though, yahoo I know! How lame! They didn't care though. We carved them basically to say we did it because the kids had no interest in it until we put the candle inside. Then they thought it was very neat.


We took the kiddos to the primary Halloween party and they had a great time. Halle didn't really understand the trick-or-treat part but she loved knocking on the doors.
Payton is of course a NY Giant and Halle is Strawberry Shortcake.
I found out that the Natural History Museum and FAO had big Halloween parties but with the cold weather I didn't want to have them walk all over the city. I felt bad we had to miss it but we had a great time hanging with our good friends. If only we could get dressed up more often.
On a side note, Payton said," it's time to do Christmas tomorrow!"

More Adventures

Quick update, Andy's almost done with his 4th rotation, he's at a hispanic Pediatric Clinic rotation in Richmond Hills, Queens. It's not so much of a scary area, even during halloween. The kids were actually behaving for this picture!!With the weather finally turning cold, we had to bring the kids in to his clinic with colds and for antibiotics. Andy said it was like it was 'bring your kid to work day' earlier this week because all the staff had their kids there sick. Halle was the first red head many of these mom's had ever seen...it was hi-larious. Lots of asthma, newborns, ear infxns, etc, with a little bit of scabies and lice to keep him wanting to scratch and on his toes. He's enjoyed the nice hours though for once and feels a lot more comfortable of how to handle the teeny ones. His next rotation is a Pediatric trauma rotation in Brooklyn. I'll update y'all on Halloween later, we had a blast!!