Our trip to New York was wonderful and fabulous! It was my first time there and I loved every minute of it! It was just a girls weekend and we went with Mitch's mom, his sisters and their daughters. We also saw the Nutcracker and ran into Kelly Ripa who was with her kids! We also had a crazy experience in Chinatown and we are glad we survived that one!! We did get some great knockoffs:) The highlight of the trip for AJ was Mary Poppins as it was for me!
We also saw Mary Poppins the musical and it was so good! This was my first Broadway production and the song that I came home singing was "Practicly Perfect" it was cute and fun and totally reminded me of myself:)
Times Square was amazing and crazy . . . I loved all of the lights, but was glad I didn't live nearby since you would never be able to sleep!
Dum dum give me some gum gum!! At the museum of Natural History, very big and very cool.
Up on top of the Empire State building. It was extremely windy on the other side of the building and cool to see all of New York and New Jersey.
This sculpture was on top of one of the twin towers. It stands for World Peace and it survived the collapse. There is now an eternal flame that stands next to it in the park where you get on the ferry for the Statue of Liberty.
This museum was very cool and I wonder if my ancestors came through here on their way to the west!
At the Statue of Liberty with the city behind us . . . such a beautiful sight.
On the ferry on our way to the Statue of Liberty.
We are so tiny next to this huge statue . . . it was so cool to see this in person.
AJ and her cousins on the ferry . . . we had to sit on the top and it got very cold.
We spent Monday night at Radio City and saw the Rocketts Christmas Show with the Nativity at the end. It even had real camels, donkeys and sheep. It makes you want to pick up dancing . . . I think I might be able to kick my legs up that high:))
What a cute little "New Yorker" cruisin around Dylan's Candy Bar!
Monday morning we had breakfast at the American Girl Cafe and the girls had a blast shopping afterwards!
Tree at Rockafeller Center . . . this was the first night and it was so cold! The line to ice skate was crazy so we just watched and walked around the beautiful promenade.
The cousins playing on the escalators in Trump Towers.
Me and AJ had so much fun shopping by ourselves before the rest of the family arrived. We had dessert at Serendipity's. It was so neat inside the restaurant with tons of bizzare trinkets:)
I just had to try the frozen hot chocolate! Looked very cool . . . but didn't taste all that great! But it was still tons of fun experiencing new things:)
Dylan's Candy Bar . . . this was so neat and the kids had fun picking out their favorites.
Big helpers peeling potatoes!! We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving. We stayed at home and had one of my husbands employees with his 3 kids over for dinner. It was relaxing and lots of yummy food!
My kids had a fun FHE making these yummy apple turkeys. For the snack, they got to eat them:)
Cardinal fans!! These were in my daughter's camera. They were from September and we had tons of fun watching them play the Marlins!
Love these kids!
I am so mad right now!!! I was outside this morning blowing the leaves in the yard and then mowing it so it was nice for winter. Well, my five year old comes running outside and tells me I have to come quick and see what my three year old just did. Now, that is never a good thing. So I go running in the house and he has dumped out all of the cinnamon in one of those big containers all over my floor. Then he tried to clean it up and put a wet rag all over the floor. So now, the floor has wet sugar and cinnamon all over it and the cabinets. So I just left it, and told the boys to stay out of the kitchen while I finished my yard and my neighbors. I have decided that my little guy should now be named Curious George!!
You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.
Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.
We all dressed up for our Trunk-or-Treat at the church. It was a total blast and I got to be the "Queen B" for the night. Hits a little too close to home for my liking:) Mitch got to dress up in his boys cowboy attire, minus the hat, it is his and I love it!!
We had dinner at our friends house. She made some yummy pasta, salad and pizza for the kids!!
They had so much fun dressing up for Halloween!
Each of them designed their own pumpkin, cleaned out the seeds and the older kids got to help carve their pumpkins. This was one expensive pumpkin year! I got them late and so 4 days before Halloween we ran to this little church pumpkin patch down the street and after $40 worth of pumpkins later we were off and the kids were happy and excited. I definately learned my lesson and I will not wait to buy pumpkins ever again:)
This one is the Outlaw package for his horseback ride!
This one is the Sheriff package for his horseback ride!
They are just a couple of rough ridin' cowboys!! They got to ride Festus and had so much fun!
I got to hang out with the boys down at Big Cedar while Mitch took our boat to get winterized and put away for the winter. We left the older two with friends so they could go to school. It was a quick trip, but so much fun to just go to breakfast, go horseback riding, play mini golf and go to lunch and dinner with the little ones!
These were cool horses made out of corn stalks!
How cute and sweet they are!!I had the funniest conversation with my 5 year old today. I was busy tying his brother's shoes so they could go play outside and he comes and asks me this question, "Is Jesus invisible?"
Me: What?
5 year old: Is Jesus invisible?
Me: Humm, well?
5 year old: I think he is because . . . under God invisible, with liberty and justice for all!! So he is invisible!
Me: (Trying hard not to bust out lauging, but with a huge smile on my face) Oh!
He didn't know the first part of the pledge of allegiance. He learned it in school today and he is so cute for really thinking hard about the part with God in it:) I just couldn't help laughing, but he was so serious and kept asking what, what? This is the best part about being a mom when the kids come up with stuff like this . . . love it!
I took BJ to his soccer game this morning and I left Mitch to finish cleaning the garage. When the game was over, I was talking to Mitch on the phone and he said that MJ was riding his bike without training wheels. He was excited since he was going to buy some new training wheels and had saved $15:) I laughed and told him that was great and that this was the first child he had taught to ride a bike - he was surprised! When I got home, MJ was ready to show me how to ride his bike. He did a great job and I am so surprised since he is only 3 1/2 years old! My kids have gotten younger and younger when riding their bikes:) It is so much fun to see him growing up and he was so excited! He told me he wanted his grandma and grandpa to come and see him ride with no training wheels - that won't be that soon:)
I never do tags, but this was fairly easy!
8 Favorite TV shows
The Biggest Loser
Samantha Who
Dancing With the Stars
American Idol
Lipstick Jungle
The Hills (pathetic I know:))
Notes of the Underbelly (when it was on)
Reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond
8 Favorite Restaurants
PF Changs
Bristols
Cheesecake Factory
Maggianos
Chic-Fil-A
Los Hermanos (when we visit Utah we always go, it's a memory thing:)
Strouds
Pey Weys!!
8 Things that happened yesterday
Watched general conference
Organized my kitchen
Set up a tent in my basement
Made fried chicken dinner (kids favorite)
Cut the boys hair
Talked to Mitch on phone (he was out of town)
Played outside with my kids
Read my kids some books
8 Things I look forward to
My kids going to school
My trip to NYC with just AJ
The weather getting cooler
Checking on my kids after they are all asleep
Dates with Mitch
Running that next marathon (Oct. 2009!)
Watching kids play sports
Christmas!!
8 Things I love about Fall
The cool weather
The smells (fresh crisp air, cinnamon and pumpkin)
Pumpkin pie
Fall clothes
Soccer games
The color of the leaves changing
Playing in the huge piles of leaves with my kids!
Carving pumpkins with my kids
8 Things on my wish list
Trip to Europe
I want my kids to get along better:)
Visit DC and other historical sites
Dates with Mitch
More play time with kids
No more stress!
Hawaii - again!
A chef to cook all my healthy meals:)
8 People I Tag
Brooke
Melanie
Candace
Ashli
Alma
Stacia
Sasha
Melinda
CJ went with his Dad to the Nascar races in Kansas City. They had a couple of friends and cousins that met them there. As you can see they had lots of fun building their own race cars in the Home Depot tent, doing pushups and situps in the Army tent and getting pictures inside the Dupont racing car!! They get to do this every year and always have lots of fun since it is just a "boys" weekend. You would be surprised at all the rednecks that come out for these races:)
So I must be incredibly crazy!! Today was the Louis and Clark Marathon and Half Marathon. Well, early this morning there was lots and lots and lots of rain and tons of wind. It totally felt like a tropical storm! I signed up for this race in hopes that it would provide me some great motivation to keep running. (I have been getting kind of sick of it.) Anyways, so I didn't do much training, but I figured once you have run a marathon the half isn't really that hard:) When I left my house this morning it was raining a little bit, but there was no wind. Once I got to the race at 5:30am, which was 20 minutes away, I could hardly see anything and the rain was just pouring down and the wind was crazy! The parking lot had at least 4+ inches of rain and I sat in the car by the starting line until it was time to line up which was around 6:30am. In just a matter of seconds I was completely soaked and there was nowhere to go to escape the rain. They kept all the runners in the starting area for another 30 minutes while they were assessing the course. Then we were off, I still can't believe I ran in that weather. The wind was coming towards us most the time, especially up the hills, and the rain was coming down in sheets like pellets in all directions. I was running by myself and my family stayed at home all snug and warm in their beds. However, I found a girl to run with and we talked the entire time. It saved me! When we got to the mile 8 marker they sent us in a different direction. The course was flooded and they closed it all down at mile 10 which was the finish line. No one got to finish the half or the full marathon. But, it was tons of fun and I laughed the entire time! What a great and cold Sunday morning to remember!! By the way, a lot of St. Louis was flooded due to Hurricane IKE:)
BJ's team won the championship game! They won all three games and did a great job!
Here are the champions: The Blue Sharks!
This is BJ's first soccer game that he has ever played and I was quite impressed! His coach is great and teaches the kids the game very well. He came home after the first practice and was all upset because his coach has them do 5 pushups every time they touch the ball. Needless to say he doesn't touch the ball with his hands anymore!
