2.26.2016

Friday Five


ONE - The weather on Saturday was ah-mazing.  While I was at a baby shower Bryan took the girls on a scooter ride at the park then we spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the backyard and on our porch with the back door open.  Spring, you're welcome here any time! (Can you see our last tiny patch of snow in this picture?)


TWO -  On Monday I found these two cuddled up and totally asleep at 6:07pm.  Not sure what's  more exhausting- a full day of work or 2.5 hours of preschool but they were both toast.  


THREE - My girls love reading Pinkalicious: Crazy Hair Day and one day while we were getting ready Mattie insisted on a hair style like Pinkalicious (in the book Pinkalicious has a fancy hairdo like Marie Antoinette.)  I did her hair a few different ways but she kept saying "Nooooooo, I want a hair STYLE!"  Finally, I put it in a pony tail with a big flower and she deemed that acceptable.  Jilly also decided she needed fancy hair so she made a headband with a variety of bows.  I let her wear it to the gym and she caused quite a scene.  


FOUR - Mattie is at the stage where she wants to dress herself.  I'm all about self-sufficiency but right now it takes soooooo long, it's kind of painful.  Ah, two year olds.  (Also pictured, the paint sample on my wall that will hopefully be the color of the whole room someday soon.  I've never managed to decorate our bedroom in any of our houses and I'm determined to finally do it here!)

FIVE - I spent a good part of this week ignoring all my responsibilities and reading The Lake House.  It was excellent.

Happy Weekend!

2.19.2016

Five on Friday

1. On Tuesday I met up with my mom to get my kids back.   It was a very nice weekend break but I was missing my girls!  We met at the Ikea in Potomac Mills, which is exactly halfway between us. We were so happy that Katie and baby Joey came too, and we got the cutest cousins picture!


2.  On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons Mattie usually takes a nap so Jilly and I get some time together.  Since I'm constantly aware of the clock ticking away toward kindergarten (wahh!) I've been trying to really savor my time with her, which usually means playing Chutes and Ladders, practicing reading, and making banana bread whenever she asks.



3.  After all the salt and snow our black van was looking awful so I drove through a car wash and the girls thought it was the best thing ever.  Jilly asked if we could go to the car wash every day now (not likely since it cost $9!)

4. Bryan's great-grandma passed away a year and a half ago but when I was looking through BYU Magazine this week I noticed that they had included her death in the most recent issue, and she was the oldest alum on the list.



5.  Before our trip Bryan told a co-worker that I wanted to go to the Empire State Building because of Sleepless in Seattle.  Somehow word spread around and everyone started joking with him that we were going to NY to recreate movies.  When he got back to work on Tuesday, this picture was on his desk.

2.18.2016

NYC

Bryan and I had the best trip to New York.  It was his first time there and my first time as an adult and it was freeeeeezing cold but we had an amazing time!  And my wonderful parents kept the girls for the weekend; we're so lucky that they were willing and that the girls think going to Gigi's house is the ultimate vacation.

Day One- We woke up early to catch the early bus up to New York and arrived in the city around noon then caught our first ever uber ride to our hotel.  Bryan was fantastic and planned pretty much the whole trip; he found a great deal on a hotel in a great location in midtown.  We dropped off our luggage and headed out into the city.  We wandered through Rockefeller Center stopping for a sandwich from Pret and banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery (just as delicious as we'd heard.)  Then we walked down 5th Avenue, stopping in the New York Public Library on our way to the Empire State Building.  We really debated going to the top of the Empire State Building because we'd heard of long lines and it not being worth it but the romantic in me felt like we must go up with it being Valentine's Day weekend.  So we did and it was fantastic.  One of the benefits to visiting NY in February is that it's not terribly crowded at all.  We made it up in no time, and really enjoyed the views and the fascinating audio tour- we especially loved seeing the pictures and videos of the workers in 1931 climbing and shimmying down poles without any safety gear at all!  We walked through Bryant Park on our way to Times Square (I've never regretted more not having a fitbit, we walked miles and miles and miles this weekend.)  We arrived in Times Square just as it was getting dark and it was just so exciting to be there.  This was the warmest of all our days there (a balmy 25 degrees... haha) so we didn't mind wandering around the stores and stopping for some dinner while we waited for our show to start.  We saw Phantom of the Opera and it was really fantastic- definitely a highlight for me and an excellent first Broadway show for Bryan.  Now next time we just have to find a way to get our hands on some Hamilton tickets!



^ NYC Public Library







Day Two- This morning we walked north on 5th Avenue.  We stopped to see St. Patrick's Cathedral (so beautiful!), the Trump Tower, and I chose next year's Valentine's present at Tiffany's.  We eventually made it to Central Park, which was a huge relief because it wasn't as windy as it had been walking between the buildings.  I loved walking through the park, even in its wintery state and couldn't get "That's How You Know" out of my head.  We saw the Manhattan Temple then got lunch at a deli and went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was incredible.  I loved the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware; I hadn't realized how enormous and powerful it was.  After the museum we were exhausted from all the walking and took the subway down to Eataly for the most delicious dinner.  By this time it was really quite cold and windy so we headed back to the hotel (it was like 7:30!) to watch a movie and crash in bed.





^ I love that you can see my breath in this picture













^ view of the Empire State Building.  I was hoping they'd light it up for Valentines, but they didn't this night (the 13th.)  They maybe did on actual Valentine's Day but we never had a good view.


Day Three- This was the coldest day.  We took our time getting ready and eating breakfast and didn't leave til after 10am, but it was still one 1 degree.  We rode the subway down to Battery Park and wisely decided it was too cold to take the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty.  We walked all through Wall Street stopping at the Stock Exchange and beautiful Trinity Church.  Then we made our way up to the 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center.  By this point I was the coldest I've ever been, and we were so grateful to get inside the warm 9/11 Museum.  It was so well-done and so heart wrenching.  They had recordings of a few of the messages passengers on the hijacked planes had left for their family members that were incredibly sad.  When we left the museum I was shocked that it was 2:40, we'd been inside for over 2 hours and hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast!  After a cold walk to Chinatown we ate the most delicious dumplings at a restaurant recommended by my friend.  Chinatown was so fun because it was Chinese New Year and confetti filled the streets.  We bought some poppers of our own and t-shirts for the girls.  Next we walked on the Brooklyn Bridge, which probably wasn't the best idea given the weather, but still it was amazing.  Bryan wanted to eat at Katz's Deli so we made our way up to the East Village.  Bryan is a great person to travel with because he has an excellent sense of direction and got us all over the city with no problem (okay, some problems, but much fewer than we would have had if I was in charge.)  We shared a sandwich and plate of fries and it really was delicious and worth the long walk in the cold.  We stopped at Magnolia Bakery for some more banana pudding and a cupcake to take back to our hotel.  Later we saw on the news that this was the coldest day in NYC in 100 years.  






^ the Survivor Stairs - thousands of people escaped the burning towers by running down this staircase.







Day Four- This was our last morning and we had done pretty much everything on our list so we just kind of wandered (for about 4 miles, ha!)  It was President's Day so it was fun to see all American flags at Rockefeller Center, and we stopped to watch filming for the Today Show for a bit (I'm a huge fan so I loved that.)  We walked down to Levain Bakery for the most delicious cookies then back to our hotel to check out.  We had planned to have lunch at Grand Central Station before taking the subway to our bus stop but the power was out so instead we were interviewed by a local radio station on the power outage.  We found lunch somewhere else then caught the bus home.  We were sad to go but also grateful to finally be out of the cold and off our feet.  We're excited to go back another time when the weather is a little more temperate, but we couldn't have asked for a better first trip together.



^At this point my face was frozen and it was hard to smile

2.12.2016

Friday Five

1. The girls had dentist appointments this week and by some miracle they've decided they love the dentist and are extremely cooperative.  Jilly even had her first x-rays, which still make me gag, but she did amazing.  Hip hip hooray


2. We got to babysit this sweet little girl for a night and my girlies were in heaven.


3. We had a talent show at church last weekend and though we didn't share any talents on stage our cookies did win third place.  I used this recipe, which is my new favorite.  

4.  Nana sent the girls a Valentine's package that had stick-on earrings, which were a HUGE hit with the girls.  They love choosing a pair to wear every morning and Mattie says "I look like a mom!"


5. We had a fun Snow Day this week.  We only got a few inches but in Baltimore that means everything shuts down (except Bryan's company, boo.)  But the rest of us had a fun day snuggling at home.  In the afternoon I found the girls surrounded by all their sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets looking at our old photo albums together.