Thanksgiving in CT

We were so excited to make a trip out to CT for Thanksgiving. The night before I was so nervous/eager to head out at 6 am that I slept only two hours. I couldn't understand what I was so nervous about considering I have flown millions of times on flights even longer, and the boys are pretty good about going places too. When we woke them up at 4 am to go to the airport I noticed Ryker was gagging. I sat with him for a second to make sure he was ok, then he smiled at me and I thought nothing more about it. We were waiting at our gate to board when Ryker walked up to me crying, and I picked him up. Seconds later, he threw up his breakfast all over himself and me. Jared took him to get cleaned up while I scrounged around my bag for a new shirt. We wrote it off as a fluke and got on the plane.

Well, it wasn't a fluke because he was sick two more times on the flight. Once we got to JFK we were desperate to wash our clothes and take a shower. The next day was Thanksgiving, so we made our typical holiday meal, but neither me nor Jared had much of an appetite. That night Jared was sick, the next night my brother was sick, the following night Nicholas was sick, and then the last night to round it out me, my mom and my dad were sick too. All in all, not a bad way to keep off the holiday pounds.

But it wasn't all bad... We had a really fun time spending time with my siblings, watching movies, and we even fit in a little girl's afternoon at the mall. We were disappointed we couldn't do the city one day, but it was very relaxing and enjoyable nonetheless. I appreciated having a washing machine, not to mention tons of people to help entertain my kids or clean up. We saw the movie Tangled and loved it. We even got a tiny bit of snow one afternoon, so we grabbed our snow gear and ran outside.

Best Marriage Ever

What could be a better combination than Christmas and Disneyland?!

Ryker's Firsts

This has been a fun week for Ryker. It seems like all of the sudden he has crossed the threshold from baby to toddler. He had his first haircut on monday, and seems to be learning some new words every day. For the sake of preserving our memories, we have tried to write down his favorite things to talk about.

Rykie's words

Ball

Football

touchdown

fumble

up/down

on/off

all done

amen

mama

dada

opa

mamma= grandma

purple
Green
yellow
red

bread

water

more

please

shoes

elmo

no!

choo choo

mine

uh oh

cheese

banana

cookie

cheerio

pasta

pooh

bear

dog

buzz

yee-haw

show

pat-pat (his name for Little Einsteins)

all the characters from Backyardigans

toothbrush

eye

go

bye-bye

hi
Jesus
Temple
Bed
Boom Boom
Diaper
whoa
lights

Friends

Some weeks, like this past week, can be just plain rough. I am grateful to have good friends to bolster me up when I'm feeling down, and encourage me when I am feeling disheartened. (A little distracting with fun activities doesn't hurt either)!

Jen, Courtney, and not to mention Jersey and Westin; we are so glad they came this year!

Karyna and Macy, who are always up for anything, especially if it involves the beach.

Nicholas' preschool class, who all happen to be kids he calls his friends, even before the classes started. He loves talking about them and being super silly, especially with Gaige, his partner in crime.

Matt and Mykel; Nicholas is pretty much in love with Mykel, and its hard not to be! She entertains the boys and me all simultaneously.

And of course, each other. Some days we don't play as well together, but there's always a cute moment or tender comment to make me smile.

Last but not least, family. The boys love their family, and especially enjoy monthly visits from Grandma and Grandpa. I'm still picking the Pop Rocks out of the carpet from the last one :) They remember everyone, and Ryker begs me to skype with "Opa" or "Mamma" all day long.