St. Patrick's Day

Since St. Patrick's Day was a Sunday this year, the kids kind of missed out on the normal school parties and other festivities we'd normally do (like going to collect all the fun "green" treats at stores). Luckily for them though Grams came through with a great St. Patrick's Day dinner.

A goldfish rainbow with a pot of cheese "gold" at the end for appetizers.

Shamrock glasses- just because they rock!
I don't even remember the rest of the dinner and toys but it was fun. Lots of green and of course corned beef and cabbage for the main course. Taylor was in heaven!

Mardi Gras

Even though we live right next door to Taylor's parents, the truth is that we hardly ever see them. The one tradition we have in place though is Sunday night dinners at their house. His mom usually cooks and we bring some sides. Since his sister and her fiance have moved back to Salt Lake, our dinners are even more family filled and more fun. Plus Taylor's mom has started trying to plan dinners around a holiday theme. And when his dad is in town that means they end up taking a trip to the party store to make everything more fun- including the food.

So in March when it was Mardi Gras time they went a little crazy at the party store and then we in turn went a little crazy with all the fun toys.

Masks, beads, and noise makers are of course a necessity.

And since no one wanted to eat frog legs (or try cooking them) we had plastic frog jumping contests instead.
And my boys learned how to use a kazoo (oh joy!).
And there were spinner contests.
A double kazoo? Why not?
So much fun! So nice to have family around!

Grandma Tina and NYC

When we first moved back to Salt Lake and Taylor started traveling a lot, he tried to convince me that we should get a Delta Skymiles card so he could have the card perks every time he travels. Unfortunately for him I disagree with paying an annual fee when there are so many other cards who actually pay you to use them.
But after seeing how much he traveled and after hearing him give me the speech several times I finally relented. So he gets free bags, free upgrades to 1st class (about half the time), he gets to skip to the front of the security line (and in Salt Lake he doesn't even go through normal security), he gets to go in the Delta lounge and have free wi-fi and an office to use and all the snacks he can eat, priority boarding. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them. And the last benefit is that each year he gets a free companion ticket. This is actually what sold me on the whole card. I figure the card's annual fee is covered by us taking one trip together a year and not having to pay for one of us to fly. Plus a forced trip each year with just the 2 of us is good for our marriage. That's my rationalization anyways.

So this year we squeaked our trip in between renovations and the baby being born. My mom flew out to watch our kids which made leaving them super easy. See they don't even need us around- they're already more interested in her than in us.

Of course when you make all their favorite meals and take them to sled with the cousins you can't go wrong.
We left on a Wednesday afternoon and flew into NYC. We stayed with Taylor

brother and fiance to balance out the cost of the trip. Then we had 4 days to visit sights and friends and eat, eat, eat because apparently that's what you do when you go to NYC. Seriously, when we'd ask our friends what we should do or visit, the answer was always another bakery or another restaurant. And they were right of course. The food their is scrumptious!

On my personal visiting list was a visit to The Cake Boss shop in Hoboken, NJ. Just a quick train ride across the river and a 5 minute walks brings you to heaven.
Must remember this cake for Ethan's b-day. He LOVES mario and the vintage is just too cute.
This is the one prego shot I allowed. I had forgotten how exhausting NYC is. So many stairs and so much walking. Next time I'll be glad not to be pregnant.
Taylor was happy to be in the photos for me.
And while I was feeling good the first day I took lots of pictures. Don't worry, I gave up pretty quick.
Taylor's cousin suggested we visit a few of the lesser-known museums so we hit of the American Bible Society's museum and the Tenement museum. Both of which were amazingly interesting and well worth going to see. Here are some of the bibles from the Civil War.
This one on the left even had a tin-type inside it of the soldier who was killed. The tenement museum didn't allow photography but it was fascinating to see how people actually lived in NYC at the turn of the century and all the trials they endured to survive. I am VERY thankful to live now!
And no trip to NYC would be complete without going to the regular museums- we hit up the Natural History Museum and the Museum of Art.

Breathtaking to see all the beautiful works of art.
We met up with several of our friends from GW law school and GW undergrad as well as Taylor's cousins and then again his brother and fiance. So fun to see everyone and to take a break from all the walking. Taylor's brother took us to this great restaurant under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Next time we bring the kids back hopefully the new Brookly Carousel park will be open.
We had a fabulous trip and it was SO nice to be without the kids. So much easier to fly, to get around on the subway, to eat at restaurants, and to go to see things. Luckily they didn't miss up one bit while we were gone (okay so Miles might have missed us a little but he might have missed his nap even more everyday since they were off doing so many fun things!). Can't wait for next year and I'm happy Taylor talked me into a tradition that benefits him almost weekly and benefits me and our marriage each year!

Happy Valentine's Day

We

"MUSTACHE"

you a question...

Will you be our Valentine???

Ethan's Indoor Soccer

We've had an amazingly mild winter this year but by the beginning of February I was already feeling antsy to get out of the house more (it might have been the 3 little boys running up and down the hallway kicking balls that clued me into the fact that they were going stir-crazy too). Of course I'd missed sign-ups for basketball season so the next option was indoor soccer. Ethan LOVES Soccer. He tells me that that's all he does for every recess. And even when the 1st graders aren't playing, he goes and joins a game with the 3rd graders.

So we decided to give it a try. Ethan is in LOVE! He even says he loves it more than outdoor soccer since the play is continuous and he likes kicking the ball off the walls and even behind the net.

His team played in the gym of a middle school. His coach started teaching them positions where before they've really tried to let everyone play every position. So part of the time Ethan was the goalie (which he's pretty good at) and the other part of the time he was attacking (which he's better at and LOVES).
They've built this little barricades so that 2 games can go on at once and then all the spectators can sit in the middle of the gym and be protected. Unfortunately they're just a few inches too tall for Miles to see over but luckily for his the hand-holes are just the right height and size for him to peer through.

Of course looking through a tiny hole doesn't last long so it's good Grams and Grandpa come along to entertain him with coins from their purse and snacks.

Ethan scored more times than we kept track of and he always did his little victory lap in front of the crowd.
And of course he was ecstatic to get a trophy. His outdoor league doesn't give these out so this was extra special for him. What a great kid!
And here's the whole team.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taylor doesn't believe it and actually asked the Dr. if they offer gender insurance to cover the cost of all the pink that's about to come into our house in case they're wrong again and we have another Ethan moment.
Taylor thinks the baby's profile looks like Ethan. I can't tell. I guess we'll all see on May 17th (or sooner) if they're right this time about the gender or not. At least with this one I won't be overdue (Miles was induced 10 days late and it was terrible). Taylor's sister is getting married on May 26th so my Dr. has agreed to induce me on my due date so we don't create any drama for the wedding planners. Looks like I get to make a cute flower girl dress. YEAH!!! Very tiny! She'll be all of 9 days old!

Cute footy!

Had to include this photographic evidence of the Dr.'s guarantee. Of course Taylor insisted the photo be censored a little to avoid baby porn.

Ethan doesn't know yet since he's at school but he's been saying he wants a little sister so I know he'll be excited. Isaac, not so much. His comment was. "Yuck! I don't like girls! I only like my brothers!" Oh well, he'll come around sometime. And Miles... is totally clueless that he's about to be unseated from his baby-throne. And it will be a rude awakening for this snuggly bug. What can you do?

PS- I'm WAY behind on my blogs (since I've been feeling rather yucky the past few months- morning/all day nausea + getting the flu twice + holidays= no blogging from me) so I'm backdating entries, most just through October but a few as far back as January. Happy reading!

And yes, in honor of the 2 females that will now be in this family, the blog has now been turned pink :) What? My 1/5 minority is now 1/3. Woohoo! We're movin up!

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday

One of the main reasons we ended up staying an extra 5 days (besides Taylor's cousin suggesting it) was that we figured out that flying home on Tuesday (the day we had to disembark the cruise ship) cost $800 more per ticket than if we stayed and flew home on Sunday. And since Taylor works for his family's company and can be flexible with his work schedule, we figured $800 x 5 tickets would more than cover our 5 days of extra vacation.
So we spent Tuesday to Saturday morning totally relaxing in Moorea. Saturday afternoon we leisurely made our way back to the ferry and back to a hotel next to the airport in Papeete. We had a 7am flight so we figured staying close enough to walk was a good idea. We went to bed early Saturday, got up early Sunday, and flew 8 hours back to L.A. where we arrived at 6pm. Time for dinner and sleeping again.
Monday morning we got up and leisurely made our way to the airport and took our short flight back to Salt Lake. Traveling was actually not too bad for once. The kids were well rested and happy to watch movies or play games on their ipods and we had short, manageable travel segments (I say short realizing that an 8 hour flight + a 3 hour check-in and wait before hand + an hour afterwards to get bags and get to a hotel really isn't short, but compared to every other trip with the Woodbury, that IS short!). We may in the future be insisting on making our own travel plans because this was so nice!
A good Christmas, but time to get back to the cold and snow and back to real life which started on Tuesday!