Cornbelly's

We had so much fun going to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point with our cousins Anna and Lilly. There was so much to do and so many things to play on. Here we are checking out the pumpkins.
Anna and Kira meeting the Pumpkin Princess. They were SO EXCITED! Isn't she pretty? I want a dress and a crown like that:)
They even got to sit in the Cinderella carriage. Fun Fun!
Bryce, enjoying the scenery.
Kate, Kira and Anna playing on the train.
Kira loves to milk cows at Wheeler Farm, so she was really excited about milking this cow:)
Kira and Kate had the most fun playing in the farmer's market. Want to buy a pumpkin anyone? Kira, Kate and Daddy riding "bella" and "gertie" on the cow train. It was so funny to see Dave, the only adult, on this little train. Rid'em Cowboy:)
The carved pumpkins were amazing and they were especially fun to see because Dave knows the guy who carved them all. What talent!

I love this one. Aren't they cute!

I love NYC!

So I am finally getting around to posting about my most amazing birthday trip ever to NYC! It took forever to get all the pictures together from all of the cameras and we have over 300 of them, so it took me a while to narrow this down and it still going to be the longest post I've ever written. We had such a fun time walking all over New York and seeing everything there is to see. It was my mom's first time there, so that made it extra fun to see her reaction to everything. Our hotel was right in the middle of Broadway and Times Square so we had easy access to everything we wanted to see, and believe me, we squeezed as much into 4 days as I think is humanly possible. Here are some of my favorite highlights:

The biggest reason I wanted to go to NYC in the first place was to see WICKED on Broadway and it was AMAZING. We got to be up close and personal on about the 15th row and the voices, the music, the set decoration, the costumes, everything was worth every penny. I want to see it again so bad!

I loved this connecting flight we got to take from Cincinati (how do you spell that?). This plane was so small that we got to climb up the stairs like in the olden days and I've always wanted to do that. It was awesome!

We had a fun ride in a taxi from the airport into Manhattan. I can't imagine driving here. I swear we almost got into many, many accidents, but it was fun to see the city at night from the cab.

Our first night we saw The Little Mermaid. We almost missed it because our plane was so late, but we made it and they put on a great show. My girls were so jealous that I got the see the "real" Ariel.

After the show we walked Time Square - what a beautifully overwhelming place with all of the lights and huge posters. I loved it. Then we are dinner at Planet Hollywood where I had the BEST SALAD EVER!

The picture doesn't do it justice. There was spinach, peaches, strawberries, red onion, blue cheese, grilled chicken and crunchy chopstick things. It was to die for.

The next day we went to see the Manhattan Temple which is a lot smaller than I pictured it. It is in a beautiful part of town and it was fun to see it among all of the huge buildings around it.

After that we walked around Central Park in the pouring rain. It was only a drizzle at first, but then we got drenched. I love the park. It is gorgeous and there are so many fun bridges and things. We ate breakfast at a little vendor at the entrance and then we just walked all over. We visited the IMAGINE memorial for John Lennon, saw all the famous fountains and bridges, rode the carousel, and saw the boathouse from the movie 27 DRESSES.

After the park we ate lunch at Carnegie Deli and had their huge sandwiches with the famous cheesecake for dessert. The cheesecake was a dream come true.

That afternoon I got to meet Jennifer Aniston...

Rachel Ray...

and Michael Jordan - Madame Tussauds was SO fun.

WICKED was that night at the Gershwin theatre (1 block from our hotel) and it was so incredible. I wish we would've had tickets for every night we were there.

The Chrylster building is one of my favorites and I loved seeing it lite up at night.

Some of the highlights from day three were seeing my mom on her first subway ride, which was a blast. She was really excited. Can you tell?
Riding the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty,

Walking down Wall Street,

Seeing Ground Zero,

(I loved this memorial near ground zero. It said, "Dedicated to those who fell and to those who carry on...

...may we never forget." I was really touching.),

seeing this beautiful graveyard and Trinity Church,

and standing where "Her Majesty" stood at another church that I can't remember the name of.

Then we hit Gray's Papaya for a quick hot dog on the go (I had to go here because on FOOL'S RUSH IN it says these are the best hot dogs in the world and they were right!)

Then it was on to Chinatown for shopping and Little Italy for eating. There is a story about this car, but I am tired of typing so you'll have to ask me about it late if you want to know...

The guy on the bench with the cigar is the car's owner and the people are dancing behind the car because it is BOOMING Frank Sinatra music out the windows. So FUNNY!

Yummy Food, just like in Big Italy. MMMMMM!

Dinner was on the sidewalk of one of the little Italian restaurants and I had the Gnocchi - also to die for! (Have you noticed that a lot of these pics are of food - just another thing that I love:))

That night we went to the Empire State Building and here is one of the many amazing views from the top.

Our last morning we walked all around uptown. We hit Rockefeller Center,

Peeked in the window of NBC studios to see if we could see any celebs. We just missed Kelly Pickler:(.

Next we powdered our noses and met a Rockette on our tour of Radio City Music Hall,

And just before we had to leave for the airport we had delicious frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity's. All in all it was such a fun trip and I can't wait to do it again! NYC Rocks!

Tag I'm It...again:)

So I'm "IT" again. This time it's a fun, random tag and here are the rules:
Link the person that tagged you, mention these rules on your blog, tell 6 quirks about yourself and tag 6 fellow bloggers.
I think it sounds fun so here goes nothing...

1. I love to sing and I am horrible at it! I will sing at the top of my lungs in the shower, car, around the house, to Dave (which he loves, by the way!), and while dancing with my kids in the living room, but I really am tone deaf and cannot sing to save my life. I can pretend though!

2. I HATE wearing shoes. They are so confining and I can never find anything I like at the store that I would even want to buy. I guess my feet are like my personality - I'm free spirited and so are they. I love to be barefoot. My choice of shoe, if I have to wear them, are flip-flops. Even in the winter. The funny thing is that when it's cold I do like to cuddle my feet up in socks. Go figure.

3. I am afraid of things coming to get me from under my bed. I am serious! I love to read murder mysteries and sometimes I let my imagination get the best of me. I can just feel someone's cold, white hand creeping up the side of my bed and coming to grab me...I'm getting the chills right now just thinking about it. I jump into the middle of the bed and I have to fall asleep with my face towards the outside of the bed so I can see what is coming. Dave loves this about me too:), especially when he is already asleep.

4. I love the smell of new children's books. That new plastic-y smell is like christmas morning. I just shove them up to my nose and sniff away.

5. I've tried to get rid of my freckles by rubbing lemon juice all over them. I read it in a book somewhere when I was a teenager and figured it couldn't hurt, right? All it did is make me smell like a lemon. Duh, I should have seen that one coming.

6. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my birthday!!! It is my favorite day of the year and it has to be perfect. My idea of perfect is different every year, so that makes it easy on everyone else, especially Dave, ha ha. No, I'm not totally unreasonable, there is some wiggle room, but I just love it so much that it has to be my special day. I even watch the clock every day and if I see it at 9:26am or pm, I tell myself that it's my birthday. I've stopped telling everyone else because they all think it is so crazy, but I just blew that one because I told all of you. Oh, well. (I realize that this one is A LOT quirky, but that is why it's on this list!)

So here are my 6 people that I tag...Jenny Hansen (yes, again), Julie Mulcock, Katie Thalman, Jodi Powelson, Amber Morris, Sarah Mickelson and Bethany Baker. Okay that is 7. I just want to know all about all of you.

We Did It!

So we finally did it! We bought a house in BC! It took us forever to find something in our price range that would fit our family and have all the things we wanted and we found it. Yea! It is a cute little rambler with bedrooms for everyone and a big backyard. It is in a cute neighborhood and really close to the elementary school that the kids will go to. There are tons of kids around for our kids to play with and I am just so excited. I can't wait to start cleaning and painting and moving in. We will be moving around the first part of November because we are still waiting to either sell our house or wait for the buy out offer from Dave's job people, so we will be in before Christmas - yea - and we are all so excited. So there you have it. That's just an update on what's going on here.

MilkFace

I thought that this was so cute! Bryce is learning to feed himself, but he still has a little trouble keeping the bottle in his mouth:) When I turned to check on him he was shaking the bottle all over his little head and there was milk everywhere. It made me laugh out loud.

High School Tag

School: Murray High

1. Did you date someone from your high school? I was SO shy in high school and SO afraid of boys - so no.

2. What kind of car did you drive? An old, baby blue, chevy nova. One time it stalled in the parking lot when school got out and no one could get around me. It was so embarrasing.

3. What was your most embarrassing moment in high school? The one above was pretty bad, but probably the most embarrasing was when my best friend's boyfriend told the boy I liked that I liked him while I was sitting right there. I was mortified.

4. Were you a party animal? I never even heard about, let alone went, to a party.

5. Were you considered a flirt? The complete opposite.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Nope. I was more into the arts classes.

7. Were you a nerd? I don't know. I had good friends and even the "cool" kids would talk to me and eat lunch with me and stuff, but I was so shy that I never really let anyone get to know me too much. I don't think I was a Nerd nerd though.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? I tried out for the volleyball team, but I didn't go back the second day because I was to scared. Duh! So no.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Nope. I never did anything good, bad or otherwise. I was pretty boring.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? If someone started it, but I can't remember off the top of my head.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? The only one I really liked was Mrs. Wolking because she was cool and looked like a classy witch. She taught english and it was fun.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? On the stairs in the main hall with my friends.

13. School Mascot? Spartan

14. Did you go to homecoming and with who? No.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Not in a million years, for a million dollars. It was the worst time of my life. I've learned so much since then and changed so much. I would never go back.

16. What do you remember most about graduation? The guy next to me with a mini tv watching some game. Also throwing pennines in the air every time someone said Class of 1997.

17. Where did you go on senior skip day? No idea.

18. Have you gained weight since then? Uh yeah. Way to much.

19. Who was your prom date? Didn't go to prom - I was so pathetic:)

20. Are you planning on going to your 20 year reunion? Nope.

21. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? To not be so shy and scared of what everyone else thought of me. To have fun and be myself.

Tagged by Amy T. I tag Jenny Hansen, so she will update her blog:)!!!

Book Review

This is my second time reading this book and I LOVE it. It is so inspiring and has so many good quotes and I just wanted to recommend it to everyone. It really brings to your mind the importance of what you are doing and why you are doing it. It is easy to relate to and I am glad we have the testimonies of others to help us along the way.