Happy 10th Birthday, Nathan!

Ten years. Ten years ago I started this blog when our first son was born. I just can't believe he is TEN! Double digits. I still remember so many baby memories (as you maybe especially do with the first, experiencing parenthood for the first time?) He hated the car. I just prayed I could get through the Starbucks drive thru. I remember inhaling food like all of the time, trying to get something in my stomach before he would start to fuss. 

Now this guy is in 4th grade, is very responsible, follows rules to a T (thank goodness, such a relief), enjoys traveling, wants to be an airline pilot when he grows up so he's fascinated with learning about airplanes right now. He enjoys reading chapter books (currently he is reading the Diary of Wimpy Kid books), still likes to play outside and play with his brothers! He's very good at telling me or watching to be sure Preston isn't getting into trouble. (Generally he's good at watching both of his brothers in that regard!) He has been on the Honor Roll at school all year long. Still enjoys kid food the most :p He is up to my shoulders now in height! I pretty much treasure any hugs or snuggles he gives me because they are fewer and far between nowadays. He doesn't like to smile for pictures, or really have his pictures taken much anymore. Ugh. In general, I can just tell he's moving more towards being a tween! :( I can't even believe I just said that. He was a toddler just like his young brother only a minute ago I swear. 

For his birthday, Nathan wanted to get family and friends together to golf. We had a little party the day before his actual birthday.

 With his friends Riley, Mons and Ben

The actual day of his birthday he asked for donuts for breakfast. He wanted to attend Sunday School yet that day because he knew it would be kind of a bonus day - he would get something for his birthday AND Valentine's Day. After that, he used some money he got and bought something for himself at Target. He proceeded to play with it that afternoon for a while before going on a bike ride. That evening, we went out to his favorite pizzeria for dinner. The boys played some more and he ordered something online using more of his money, and that was pretty much the day! 

Happy 10th Birthday, Nathan!

A Cabin Christmas

Just moving right along! We decided this year, since we have never done so, to spend Christmas up north in my sister's cabin in Flagstaff. We mainly did it because we wanted to have a white Christmas for the first time (at least for me and the boys!) While normally there would at least be snow on the ground, this year has been very dry and warm and the city hadn't even had it's first real snow storm yet. That meant...no snow. No snow falling and no snow even on the ground. There wasn't even snow on the high mountain peaks. Dry, dry!

While we were disappointed with that (guess we'll try again another year!) we were happy that we did get the other part of what we wanted, which was a relaxing holiday. We're used to bouncing and rushing around both days, so it was really nice to be planted in one place the whole time, and in our pajamas nonetheless! It was very laid back.

The day we got there (day before Christmas Eve) was the only time we had any kind of plans, which was to see lights at a nearby zoo that night. However, Nathan was under the weather a bit so we just stayed back.

On Christmas Eve, we did go to the store to buy what we needed to cook for dinner that night and Christmas Day. Otherwise, back to the cabin we went again just laying around, the boys played...on Christmas Eve we watched Home Alone together. We made a gingerbread house (which we proceeded to take apart and eat).

We made hot chocolate and had the fireplace going...

Mommy had nice baths in the jet tub with spiked eggnog that daddy made!

That night for dinner I made lasagna, something different and easy to put together. Once the kids went to bed, Josh and I stayed up and watched more Christmas movies. I don't remember the last holiday where we have taken the time to do that. Cabin vibes, I guess! 

Bringing up gifts was tricky, but thankfully it worked out and the kids didn't know we brought any up (wrapped gifts in a suitcase). We just brought what Santa gave them because of space. 

Christmas morning the older boys patiently waited for Preston to wake up. I heated up cinnamon rolls for breakfast. 

Because we weren't having a big meal until dinner, it allowed us to have a relaxing (how many times have I said that word?) morning. We opened gifts, took our time with breakfast, actually just got to sit and watch the kids play with their new things while wrapping paper, bows, ribbons and such were everywhere...it was wonderful..

Early afternoon I began prep for dinner. I made pomegranate glazed prime rib, garlic red pepper broccoli rabe, and truffled gratin potatoes. I'm used to and enjoy having prime rib for Christmas but I wanted to play with a different recipe. 

The following morning we left to come home. We opened the gifts we got the boys (rather, that we said were from us) the day we got home, opened gifts with my family the following day and just last night, gifts with Josh's family. While I know it means having to get together multiple times for some people, it was nice to have some of the craziness (and all the gifts) spread out over a period of time, versus being overwhelmed and hectic in the 48 hours. Now we are just enjoying the rest of Winter Break and having daddy totally off of work for a bit! 

Thanksgiving in NYC!

This is the first year we have gone away for the holidays! We had this trip planned to NYC since last October...patiently waiting for it to come around. It finally did and went very well! We left the littles at home with my family while we went from place to place (literally)with the older boys the whole time. It would not have been a very friendly trip for Preston having been on the go the majority of the time! Let's see if I can remember to go day by day...

The day before Thanksgiving, our departure. Our first time traveling around a major holiday.
It went pretty smooth, even at JFK - though, getting into Manhattan took at least an hour- hour and a half. We rented an apartment which also went very well! We didn't have much time that evening before we wanted to go out and see the Macys Day Parade balloons nearby. We got dinner and began I think at least an hour's wait weaving in and out of different lines. The balloons had already been blown up, they were just tied to the ground (so in other words, get there during the day if you want to actually witness them being blown up!) Once we were done doing that it was just time to get back to the apartment and collapse since we were going to be up early the next day for the parade!

Thanksgiving Day - all I can really remember is that we were up early and got to our standing spot two hours before the parade began, 9AM Eastern time. I purposely had booked an apartment near Central Park and the parade route and I was ever so happy I did that - all we had to do was walk down our street and down a few blocks and bam our standing spot. We brought books, etc for the kids to read and do while we waited. Having been in NYC for New Years Eve, this was a MUCH MUCH better experience. I think since the parade is stretched out over a few miles, it gives more space for people to spread a bit, where as NYE is only in one prime spot. Once the parade got under way, the few people in front of us were kind enough to let our boys to the front of the viewing area. I was really stoked for them! Not only did they have prime viewing but they also got to interact with people in the parade. We were also around a lot of other pleasant people, which makes it nice :p I think the parade lasted somewhere around an hour and a half. It was great to see all the floats up close and just pretty surreal that I wasn't watching it on TV. After it was over we went back to our apartment for the most part of the day, to relax, and watched the parade again on TV :) We had reservations at a restaurant in Central Park for dinner, so we got to Central Park a bit early and explored in there. We walked around, rented a boat on the lake...it was a nice way to spend Thanksgiving afternoon.

A typical Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixin's!

Ever so glad we brought some things for the boys to do, as our meal was just about three hours long. Josh and I would have enjoyed that had it just been the two of us, but antsy kids make for anxious parents!

Friday - After sleeping in and having breakfast out, we decided to take the boys to what they were most excited about doing and seeing - the Statue of Liberty. We also visited Ellis Island but didn't get any pictures there. 

Statue Island at sunset 

Waiting in lines and doing both activities took all afternoon into evening. We stopped on the way back to a bakery, called Magnolia Bakery, to pick up an early birthday cake (while in NYC, why not pick up an early cake near your birthday, especially from a delicious place?) 

Saturday -   We saw the Empire State Building! We had tickets to get to the observation deck outside.

It was neat to see the city from high up. 

That afternoon we had Broadway tickets to see Aladdin in Times Square. By far, was that the busiest area of the city!

We did some shopping in some of the stores in the area afterwards. I was so relieved to get out of that part of town and back in our quiet, more secluded street near Central Park! We were tired from our day out so it was dinner back in the apartment. 

Sunday - More of a chill out kind of day. We went back to Central Park for a while, just to let the boys get some energy out running around. 

I have to just say, Thanksgiving time is a wonderful time to be in Central Park - leaves are red, orange and yellow. It was nice to see some Fall color! For being New York our weather was mild and I think we lucked out on temperatures, too. Daytime was in the 50's or so. 

We had a late lunch reservation at Serendipity 3 - mostly for their frozen hot chocolate, but I wasn't able to make a reservation if we didn't promise to buy food, so we got a little bite! 

Aaron opted for the hot version, too

We decided to go to Brooklyn to see the bridge and had dinner at the original Patsy Grimaldi's (we were not impressed and missed ours at home!)

Monday -  Our last day! First we visited the Museum of Natural History. We were there for about two hours when the boys got tired so we retreated back to the apartment for a bit. We went to Macy's and got to meet Santa that evening. I also had a ticket to see a taping of Seth Meyers, but didn't feel up to going. 

The following morning we woke pretty early and headed home! We were thankful for a reliable, early ride back to JFK and a smooth flight. The only bad thing about our apartment was the lack of ventilation - if anything we were taking clothes off! Here I was worried about us being cold. 

The boys would say their favorite part was seeing the Statue of Liberty. Mine was getting to watch the parade and having a really nice Thanksgiving meal out, something we never do. 

The boys were also overjoyed with all the different modes of transportation they got to use that they hadn't before -- taxi's (which, thank you to all of them for not driving like crazy you know what's and for not cussing, yelling, or even honking their horns when we were in them!) subways, a ferry.... that seemed pretty neat to them. One time Aaron was so excited to go down the platform of stairs to get to the subway that he slipped and fell down the whole flight! :( He was okay though. 

Going to NYC to watch the Thanksgiving parade is something we think we could do again (versus like going for NYE!) I think sometime we'd like to go back and bring Preston. We're really happy with everything we saw and did, the boys got the true NY experience I think! 

15 Month Comparison

Answers : Nathan, Aaron and Preston. Preston sure has a lot less hair than his brothers!