44 weeks & a Weekend Visit

I'm late in posting because we took a weekend trip.

 Friday night, we headed to Austin to visit our good friends, Kevin, Kellie & Jake. We arrived in time for spaghetti and garlic bread. Yummy! (Kellie went out of her way to make sure I had stuff to eat this weekend too!) We got the kids ready for bed and visited a little before heading to bed.

Saturday morning, we got up and headed to a local garden center to look at their pumpkin display, petting zoo, bounce houses and, of course, candy. Emily enjoyed looking at the animals but wanted nothing to do with actually touching them. No biggie. Just means we didn't have to use hand sanitizer! Jake was fired up about the bounce houses. Guess who wasn't! Emily said she wanted to watch "him" in there. So, we stood off to the side and watched. After a little while of that, we went and picked out pumpkins to take home. Emily & Jake picked theirs out immediately. Easiest decision Emily's made in a long time!

   

We went to Cheddar's for lunch. It was beyond time for lunch and the kids (all three of them) let us know! We finally got some food in everyone (even me, though it was made a bit more difficult by the fact that Cheddar's doesn't have an allergen menu).

We headed home for naps and everyone crashed for a while! Then, it was time to play baseball in the front yard. Everyone had a great time and we got to see just how well Jake (at almost 3) can hit the ball!

The boys cooked fajitas for supper, then we carved the pumpkins. Having not done that since probably middle school and certainly never by myself, I let Phillip follow Kevin's lead on this. (I did take mental notes so we can do it next year though). The kids really enjoyed watching and helping when they could. They turned out great. (Yes, they actually got carved. Unfortunately, my camera battery died after this picture, so I'll have to get the rest from Kellie. I'll post the family picture we got with the pumpkins later.)

Sunday was church (where we saw one of our employees!) then lunch at Pei Wei (yea for Honey Seared Chicken being dairy-free!). The drive home was a bit longer than the drive down there. I think everyone was just ready to be home and was cranky because of it. But, we made it home and got settled and ready to hit the busy week ahead of us (amazingly, one of the busiest weeks we've had in a while!).

New York

Mommy's been busy getting us resettled at home after our trip to New York, so I thought I'd share the highlights with you. (You can read more details at my Aunt Jenni's blog here, here, and here.)

Our trip started in Abilene, with a visit to Granddaddy. He loves holding me!

I opened a few presents from Grandpa & Pearlie. (No one else had any because the trip was their present to each other.) I love my blocks!

I took my first airplane rides and did pretty good on them.

Here I am in the Baby Bjorn. I spent a lot of time in here on the trip and took lots of naps here too!

Mommy & Papa just had to get a picture at Toys R Us. This was the only place in the store we could stop...I guess two days before Christmas is a bad time to go to a toy store!

Here's me with Aunt Jenni in front of the Statue of Liberty. This is as close to it as we got.

We got a little lost (okay, maybe not really), but I sure helped Pearlie & Aunt Jenni figure out where we were. Good thing they had me around!

I turned 28 weeks on the trip so we had to take my picture. I like the signs now so it's a little harder for Mommy to keep the signs looking good for long!

Santa found us in New York. I even knew which stocking was mine!

On our way to see the Rockettes in the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, we found these fun ornaments. I wish Mommy would have let me play with them!

I was pooped after a long day and slept for two hours on Grandpa!

I decided that we needed to see a basketball game so we went to a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. Too bad they lost!

We went to FAO Schwarz...

...and rode the carousel at Central Park...

...and I got to swing at Central Park. I LOVED it!!

On our way home, we visited Mommy's cousins Todd...

...Teresa...

...and her Aunt Neva. They were fun people. I hope we can visit them again.

Ross even let me hold on to his jersey.

Papa and Ross played football while Mommy & I watched.

I met Grandma Trietsch and we took another four-generation picture.

Noah wanted to play with me too, but I was just too tired so I sat in Pearlie's lap while he played with me.

Hmm....Mommy's cousin Randy looks a lot like Grandpa!

I think I've figured out this Gravitation game.

Grandpa read me a really neat story called Santa and the Christ Child.

Once we got back to Grandpa & Pearlie's house, Mommy did laundry and put me in the basket!

Now we're home again and Mommy's ready for school to start so we can get back to our routine. We did add one thing, though. Mommy & Papa decided that I needed to start eating cereal. It's okay, but I think I still prefer the good stuff!

(Remember to pause the music on the right before you start the video!)