Happy Valentine's Day!

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New York City Trip

Richard has had to travel to New York many times over the past year, so naturally New York has been a frequent topic of discussion at our house. Connor wants to read about it all the time, look at pictures, and watch shows set in New York. He has been dying to go there! So, we were able to arrange to take him at the end of one of Richard's business trips. My parents took care of Abby for us. Since I would be on my own some of the time, especially traveling in a big city, we decided this would be the best plan. It was extremely cold there also, and there is no way Abby would have liked that! It was really nice for her to have her grandparents all to herself! (A big thank you mom and dad! She had so much fun! Melanie also for the playdate!) I really enjoyed spending some good quality alone time with Connor. I can't believe he is about to start school, so it was so nice just to be with him! We had a blast on our trip! We were only there a few days but we saw so much and it was so much fun!

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Christmas Round-up

We had a great holiday season this year filled with lots of fun activities with friends and family!

It has become a tradition to go to the city tree lighting with our friends Christina, Darren, Ryan, and Matt. Connor loves Ryan and they have so much fun together! Here are some pictures of them climbing the fire trucks at the tree lighting. And yes, Abby brought a wand to the event. This particular wand she calls her "bippity boppity boo" wand. It is hilarious when she twirls the wand and says, "Bippity, boppity, boo!"

We went to church with Grandma and Grandpa.

What would Christmas be without torturing yourself and your children trying to capture the perfect picture in front of the Christmas tree? Actually, this year was fun. The kids were very silly and cute. (We bribed them with a treat of course!)




Another tradition we have is to go to the "Santa Train" with our friends Melanie, Ryan, Makena, and Brody. The kids always have so much fun riding the train to go see Santa. This year it rained so much and we were all so busy, we couldn't do until really late into December. Unfortunately, the same thing happened to everyone else. It was packed! But, we had a great time despite the freezing cold temperature. (OK, not freezing cold compared to places where it actually snows. But to us it was Arctic conditions!) As you can see from the picture, Abby is still a Santa fan in theory, but likes to admire him from a far! There were so many cute pictures, I made a slide show if you want to see more of them.

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My friend Lisa has a cookie decorating and craft party every year which is always a blast. The kids just love decorating cookies with their friends and doing fun holiday crafts. Check out how much stuff they piled on their cookies!

We also decorate cookies as a family every year. We have been doing it at Grandma's house with our cousins the last couple of years which has made it even more fun! Abby of course chose to frost her cookies with pink frosting. She was so excited about the pink sprinkles!

Christmas Musical Munchkins Shows

This year both Connor and Abby performed in a Christmas show as part of their Musical Munchkins class. They both did a great job and were super cute!

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Mommy Ornament Day at Preschool

I got to go to preschool with Connor during Christmas time for a very special day. We went to all of the different classrooms and made Christmas ornaments and projects together. We had a great time together. Connor really loves art projects so this was like a dream come true...Mommy all to himself doing art projects! It was so much fun!

Connor's Preschool Christmas Play

Connor was in the cutest Christmas play ever at his preschool. The kids got to choose their parts and he chose to be a star. He was so adorable in his puffy star costume. When he came out on stage, my heart just melted! He was so cute waddling on stage in his costume. The stars sang "This Little Light of Mine" into microphones. Connor was so loud and he was so adorable. You could even hear him giggle during the song. He was so excited and proud. He was especially glad that Grandma and Grandpa came. It was a really special night!