Number 25 – New York, New York

Mom, Desha(my best friend since high school), and I have been talking about going to New York for over a year and finally made this trip last weekend and I was able to check number 25 off my list.  Even better was that my mother in law and two of my sister in laws joined us too.  What a better way to ring in 30(a few months early) than on a great girls trip!  Not even a few inches a snow(more like 20) couldn’t stop these Texas girls!

Before I can get into my trip, I have to explain that this was a new adventure for Chris too.  Four days on his own with Taylor and I have expected that they would spend the days doing this:

That would be Taylor on her chair just like her Daddy on the couch with mountains of toys all over the place.  But instead I came home to a clean house and my favorite two people missing me. 

Back to the trip:  Days before we left there wasn’t a drop of rain predicted on the radar and then all of the sudden a massive snow storm came out of nowhere.  The snow didn’t slow us down too much, but I coined the word ‘flaked’ for when you get a huge snow flake in the eye as you are walking.  Best not to even bother wearing mascara during snow.

Day 1 – wow snow!, NBC Studio tour, wow more snow!, dinner at Rockefeller Center, wow what is this white stuff and why is there so much of it?, taking in the gorgeous Times Square view from our hotel, 

      

Day 2 – Look at all the snow, a few snowball fights in Times Square, amused by NYPD station in the middle of Times Square, Titanic exhibit(my person survived)

 

Desha, me, Kellie, & Shelly ~ Sister-in-laws <3    

  

Tour of Radio City Music Hall and I totally geeked out getting to meet a Rockette and ask questions!

             

Walked by St. Patrick’s cathedral and reveled in it’s glorious beauty!        

Then a snowy walk down 5th Avenue past all the great shops, a detour into FAO Schwartz, a stop into Serendipity to warm ourselves up with a frozen hot chocolate, and then off to see Wicked on Broadway.  Pictures after the show with me and Desha, and then me and my Mom!

     

Kellie had a wild idea that she wanted to wait out in the freezing cold A.M. hours Saturday to take a chance at getting tickets for SNL.  So we left the Moms at the hotel and froze our butts off for over 2 hours to get standby tickets.  Keep reading to find out what happened.  Here are some pictures of Kellie, Desha, and Shelly all bundled up.

After a good NY bagel and some coffee to thaw me out, Mom and I headed over to see Lady Liberty.  The snow had stopped and the sun made a few appearances to remind us of her glory.  A look back at NY while my Mom takes a few pics. 

Then we had lunch in Little Italy, shopping in SOHO, better shopping in NoLita, and since the sun was still out we headed to the top of the Rock(Rockefeller tower) for a great view of the city.  If you look really closely in the middle picture you can see a tiny Statue of Liberty.

            

Then on to dinner at TAO to celebrate our last night in NYC and to my surprise a little birthday celebration too.  The giant fortune cookie was stuffed with white chocolate mousse on one side and dark chocolate on the other.  Yummy!!!

      

I wish I had pictures of the rest of our evening, but unfortunately NBC does not allow cell phones or cameras on the set of SNL.  Yes, that’s right, we got in on our stand-by tickets just a few minutes before the show started.  I don’t know if it was the snow or what,  but I am still very thankful that the four people with front row tickets decided not to show up that night so that we could all get in.  What an experience!(and it was the only free thing we did in NYC)  I loved seeing how they change sets so quickly and was amazed how the show I’ve been watching since I was ten is done.  Since I don’t have any pictures from the show, I’ll leave you with pictures from Times Square on a Saturday night.

    

Taylor Tuesday

I know each week some of you look to your inboxes for your picture of what Taylor is up to.  I hate to say that I don't have a great picture for you this week and I'm even a day late too.  So often I get caught up in playing with Taylor that I don't stop and find the camera.  So this week I give you a picture of a typical day in our household.  It involves a little girl asking Momma to 'play too', 'dance too', 'build too', or whatever else she can think of and add 'too' at the end to include me.  I hope many years from now I can still remember her sweet little voice wanting me to play with her when she is a teenager and wants nothing to do with me.  So if you feel like playing legos, come on over to our house and Taylor just might ask you to 'play too'!

Snowy Taylor Tuesday

I would like to take a minute to interrupt our normal Taylor Tuesday with a special snow post.  After watching all other parts of the state get snow we are FINALLY experiencing some of the snow here in Austin.  I would like to think the short lived white stuff we had back in December counted, but we got the real stuff today and it’s still coming down as I type this.  Not only did Taylor have fun playing in it, but realized that it is also ice.  This kid loves to eat eat.  I truly think she is going through snow cone withdrawls.  Here are some pictures of our adventures this morning. 

  

Hmmm… I wonder if I can eat this stuff??

                  

Once she let me put her mittens on she discovered that she could get larger bites of ice at one time.  It was clean and wouldn’t hurt her so I went with the it’s only been on the chair for 5 seconds rule.

Taylor wasn’t the only child that was excited about the snow.  Sadie was loving running around the yard.  She’s seen snow a couple other times and always has the same excited reaction.  Here are some pictures of my fur kid.

        

Here’s a video of both my happy girls enjoying the snow!

Taylor Tuesday

I admit that since having Taylor I rarely wear heels, but it's really bad when your toddler is better at walking in heels than you and can multitask too!

Big Girl Bed

It seems like a lifetime ago when we moved Taylor from the bassinet in our room to her crib.  She seems so tiny in such a big bed.

**Take note of the aquarium because it will be a big role later.

Taylor moves a LOT during her sleep and even threw me for a loop after her first night in the crib.  I thought Chris was playing a practical joke on me.  When I went to get her up she was flipped completely around in her crib.  It looked like someone had just picked her up and laid her back down with her head at the other end.  I think her bumper saved her head from many a bumps with all the moving around she does.  After hearing her hit the edges of the crib over and over at night we decided it was time to move her to a bed. 

Friday night as we set her new bed up she enjoyed jumping and playing on it.  We left her crib in the room just in case she wasn’t ready yet.  Don’t look at the giant gap between the mattress and headboard.  We decided to not get a box springs so the mattress is lower to the ground. 

Once Chris got the rails put together and Taylor’s new Dora sheets(thanks Nana!) on we were all set for a little girl to try it out.  Here’s our sweet girl’s first big girl bed.  It wouldn’t be complete without our dear friends bunny(that scary gray/pink thing), Elmo, Kitty, seahorse, elephant, blankie, and aquarium.  Props go out to Chris for figuring out how to keep aquarium since it usually hangs from the crib rail. 

I love the clean look, but it wouldn’t be Taylor’s bed without even MORE animals and plenty of books to read.  

Friday night went great and she even laid in the bed like you’re supposed to with her head on the pillow.  Slowly through the night she worked into her signature sleeping spot on top of the pillow and against the headboard.  She slept good all night until 6 am Saturday when she wedged herself between the headboard and guard rail and frightened herself.  That was issue number one of the weekend.  Luckily it didn’t scare her too bad and she was excited to sit and read books in her bed later that morning. 

Problem 2: Chris attempted to save us our retirement in batteries and hard wire a plug into Taylor’s aquarium and killed it.  Not just needs new batteries killed, but like fishy is floating at the top of the aquarium dead. 

Problem 3:  I know what you’re thinking.. just go to Target, Walmart, or Babies R Us and get another.  Keep in mind that we got this 2 years ago as a shower gift and Fisher Price thinks their rainforest and melodies lines are cooler.  You can only get our aquarium only now.  We currently have 4 different types of soothers in our house in an attempt to find something similar.  Baby Einstein’s is pretty close and will work until her true replacement gets here on Wednesday.  The great thing about the one she loves is that she can easily turn it on and off by herself and it plays soft soothing music.  I highly recommend it!(especially after trying out 4 others)  It’s the Ocean Wonders if you wanted to know.

Problem 4: By Saturday afternoon, we had a stressed Mommy, tired toddler, and a big girl bed for naptime.  The only perk to naptime was that Taylor did remember to ask for Mama to get out of bed.  By the end of so called naptime we had a cranky toddler and a Mama that didn’t get anything done over the past 2 hours.

Solution: Play outside for 1.5 hours in the warm sunshine in attempts to wear out kiddo so that she sleeps soundly through the night in big girl bed. 

Naps have gone better and bedtime is still iffy since she’s not quite sure of her surroundings when she wakes up at night.  I am so proud of her for transitioning to the bed.  Now pray for nights full of sleep and a toddler that will stay in bed during naptime!

Sweet dreams!

Taylor Tuesday

Taylor still enjoys the 'pretending to be asleep' game.  Did you know that the stairs are a great place to play this?  I love how she is working so hard on keeping her eyes shut.

Sneak Peek Revealed

I never realized until I had Taylor how many birthday card, baby shower, and thank you cards I would need.  I would love to have the time to sit down and hand create each card to fit the recipient but it is much easier for me to have a stash of these in my craft room and just add an appropriate sentiment.  Well here are some cards I created for a Stampin’ Up party I did yesterday to help other Moms have the same thing on hand.  They are all made using the Fox & Friends stamp set that is way too cute!

Both of these first cards are made using the same stamp sets and card layout, I just changed the colors and the animal I used to make it more gender specific.  I also stamped the animal once of the inside because they are so cute.

The next two cards are also similar with only the change of paper and the animal.  On these I showed everyone how to do dry embossing using the new Dot Impression folder.  It gives such a nice touch to the card without much effort.  I added a piece of the embossed cardstock to the inside of the card too.  The pink/owl card has touches of scallop trim using one of the new punches that you can get for free right now.

    

 

Hope you enjoyed a close up of my cards.

Supplies:

Stamps: Wow Flowers, Fox & Friends

Ink: Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Regal Rose

Paper: Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Regal Rose, Whisper White, Kraft

Other: Scallop Circle punch, 1 3/8” circle punch, Scallop Trim punch, Dot Impression folder, Modern Label punch, Certainly Celery satin ribbon

Sneak Peek

I am doing a Stampin’ Up party for a friend this weekend and had SOOO much fun coming up with projects for us.  I figured I would give you a sneak peek at what we are making. 

 

Aren’t you now curious what we’re making???  Anything with that little owl turns out adorable and I plan on doing some more with him soon.  I know you are thinking the fact that I am stamping more than twice in a month is crazy but my new craft room has made it much easier to stay organized.  Stay tuned early next week and I’ll reveal the images of what we made!

Bonus Taylor Tuesday

I couldn't resist taking this picture today and thought it might be a nice way to end your day at work.  Taylor's pigtails could not decide if they were for or against getting up from nap today.

Taylor Tuesday

Chris and I took Taylor for frozen yogurt the other night.  It is so nice now that she can feed herself and I don't have to share mine with her.  Momma doesn't share well!  Needless to say that one little girl was very happy about 'i ceem' or ice cream and kept asking for more sprinkles once she ate all of hers.  Hope everyone is staying dry and warm today unless you are cooling off with an 'i ceem' break.