Pre Chirstmas at the Farm

The weekend before Christmas we all headed to my parent's house to celebrate.  We were there in time for lunch and naps.  It is fun to watch the kiddos get SO excited about Christmas.  The first order of business post-nap was presents!   

This funny kiddo insisted on wearing every piece of clothing he received.  In this picture he is wearing 4 layers and he refused to take them off for hours.  

The kids received a bunch of Radio Flyer stuff.... scooters, wagons (or "monster truck wagons" in Kamden's words), and more.  It was a huge hit!

B is very into games right now.  We play a lot of UNO.  We gave him a new game this year... Spot it.  Quite a bit of fun for kids and adults alike.  

We got a healthy dose of ice and snow overnight.  Luckily, we had all planned to spend the night and were prepared to be around for awhile.  The kids loved playing in the snow...

 

Trains & Santa

I think it will be an annual tradition to visit the Union Station trains and Santa at Crown Center.  Last year, K loved it but this year was even more fun.  Brody was with us, of course, but not super involved quite yet :)

After the trains we went to the "Big Bird's Adventure" at the Union Station Planetarium.  Very cute but Kam wanted to dance around.  After the show, we went to Fritz's for lunch.  It is pretty much the perfect restaurant for kids.  The food comes super fast... and it is delivered by toy train.  What more is there?

The Crayola fun area while waiting for Santa...

The "scary" Santa.  We all had to be in the picture just to get Kam to participate.  Heaven forbid we get a smile...

NYC

Joe was working in NYC Sunday - Thursday and I left the kiddos with our fantastic families and headed out of town!  It was a much needed break.  Joe's travel schedule has been bananas the last few months.  We didn't have much of an agenda since this was our 3rd trip together and Joe has been countless times for work.  And honestly, we just didn't have a lot of time to research.  Our biggest priority was sleeping :)

All of these photos were taken with my phone.  I didn't think I was going to need a nicer camera for anything I was seeing... and I was right.

Here is a quick breakdown of what we did (mostly for my memory):

Thursday - I got to hotel around 7:30 pm and Joe had a glass of wine waiting... good man.
Dinner at Anejo and drinks at Long Room and a late night search for pizza that was futile.

Friday - Rockefeller Plaza.  Saw Willie, Meredith, and Al from the Today Show.  Fought some crowds to check out the Lego Store and some Christmas window displays at the fancy department stores.  Got a picture with a greedy Cookie Monster for our little Cookie Monster back home.  Headed over to Brooklyn.  We hadn't had much to eat all day and it was 3 pm.  The pizza at Grimaldi's was epic.  Not sure if was actually epic or if we were starving.  Luckily, we walked back across the bridge to help burn the epic pizza.  Tried to visit the WTC Memorial.  That was an epic adventure of a different sort... as in an epic failure.  Regardless, we headed back to the hotel and then out for dinner at Hudson's Clearwater and drinks at Village Tavern.

Saturday - We didn't plan a ton for this day because the forecast was for snow.  And it did...all... day.... long.  We went to the Meatball Shop for lunch but didn't get too full because we wanted to hit up some places in Chelsea Market.  We shared a sandwich from Num Pang (amazing Cambodian sandwich shop.... wish I could open a local branch).  We did a little shopping and then went to buy tickets for a movie (American Hustle).  The time we wanted was sold out so we had over a hour to kill.  We were in Times Square because only a few theaters were showing this movie.  In our defense, it was STILL snowing outside... so we headed next door to Chevy's.  Yes, we were those people... drinking beer at a ridiculously overpriced chain in Times Square.  I told Joe we needed to pay in cash so it was like we were never there.  He said that if we were paying this much for a couple of beers... he wanted the rewards from the CC company.  HA.   Then we went to THE. BEST. THAI. PLACE.  Pure Thai in Hell's Kitchen.  Amazeballs.  We proceeded to head across the street for a few drinks at a gastropub after dinner.

Sunday we just slept in, and went to lunch down the street from the hotel.  Joe graciously gave me his first class upgrade.  Once again, Good man :)

We were so excited to get home to see the boys!  They were lovingly cared for by multiple family members and had a great time!  

Thanksgiving

Pre Thanksgiving was at Nana's house a few weeks before the day.  We had some delicious steaks and time to visit together.  Post Thanksgiving we were supposed to get together with Joe's Dad but we were riddled with the stomach flu so there was no leaving the house.  In fact, Joe didn't come downstairs until the evening.  I quarantined him away from the kids :)

Thanksgiving Day was spent at the farm.  Always crazy when trying to coordinate a meal and 4 kids.  Grandma got all the kids some shirts for Halloween.  We decided to have them wear them and grab a couple of pictures together.... not the easiest but we got some cute ones.  (Brody was asleep ... and his shirt doesn't fit yet)

I thought it would be fun to get a few shots of the boys playing in the leaves.  Unfortunately, the leaves weren't pretty anymore and it was really cold

I told them to throw the leaves in the air... they ended up throwing them directly on me.  

Kids = 1, Stacy = 0 

We had planned to eat the big meal around 11 so it seemed completely normal to bust out a pumpkin pie martini at 10:45.  In our defense, when everyone has been up since before 6:00 am 10:45 doesn't exactly feel early!

The beautiful bird was delicious!

3 Month Update - Brody

For reference:

Brody's 1 and 2 month

Kamden's 3 month

Zona Rosa Lighting

Oh boy... was this a chilly night.  I think it was about 11 degrees that night.  Luckily, it was really quick and we were able to park very close.   It was fun and I am glad we went but it will be most remembered for being frigid :)

ahhhh.... there she is :)

Family Pictures

My Mom scheduled a photoshoot with an family friend that has started a photography business.  I loved the results!  It was NOT warm but the trees were beautiful so we made it work.  Thanks, Denise