Today was the perfect lazy day.  After all our running around yesterday, I was wiped out.  So wiped out that we slept until noon.  I can’t remember the last time I was able to do that!  It was glorious.  Knowing that today was going to be super cold & windy here, we saved some indoor things for today.  And by super cold & windy I mean, like child chills dipping below zero.  I don’t mind cold, but that is too cold for walking around a city.

So after waking up and enjoying a “breakfast” of Dunkin Donuts, we went down to Macy’s to check out the infamous Christmas window displays.  They were so amazing…but again it was cold so we didn’t stick around too long.

Then we went straight a movie theater where we spent the rest of the day.  Ok, not the REST of the day but we caught 2 movies.  Nine was our first stop.  It was good!  I recommend checking it out.  And later in the evening we saw Up In the Air which was also great.  Plus it was just fun to watch that one & try to spot the St Louis landmarks.  Oh & who doesn’t enjoy 2 hours of watching George Clooney, I mean seriously?

Yup, that was pretty much our day!  And it was great, exactly the day I needed after how insanely nuts our month of December has been.

Soooo.  I just had the most amazing couple hours.  Let me give you the backstory.  In college, Joe spent a semester in Martha’s Vineyard at this little tiny music program.  He came away from that semester with several friends & they have all remained close over the years.  His friend, Phil, now lives here in NYC.  So today we met Phil for lunch.  After lunch he gave us a little walking tour of the West Village where he lives with his partner, Vince.  So we got to see SOOO many famous Sex & The City sites with my new gay best friend.  It was amazing & incredibly hard not to squeal like a girl…although I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded (he knew much more about the show than I did).

Here is my little photo tour:

"Cowgirl" Where Carrie & Miranda stumbled upon Steve & Aidan with their new girlfriends

Carrie's Street

You can’t see it in this picture, but the home owner got so tired of people posing for pictures on her stoop that she put a chain up so you can’t get on the steps.  Can’t say I blame her!  She did put a little collection box next to the chain that says pictures are free, but donations are welcome.  You could donate in a little locked box to some animal shelter.  Why am I assuming that the homeowner is a woman??  Probably because it’s Carrie’s house

Carrie's house is so pretty

We also went to Sarah Jessica Parkers real house.  Well, when I say “went to”, I mean that we walked past it.  I didn’t take a picture because I was in shock that I could be standing mere feet from her.  I was trying to hard to to wet myself.  Oddly enough, her house looks JUST LIKE Carrie’s house & is just around the block.  Seriously, the backs of the houses probably line right up.  I had no idea.

And to top it all off, Phil took us here:

Friends!! I'm not sure they ever shot there, this was their apartment building. It's RIGHT down the street from where Phil lives. I wonder if he needs a roommate?

Ahhh….New York City.  There’s no place like it!  Yesterday after church Joe & I kissed the girls & hopped on a plane.  Our 7th anniversary is in a few week so when our boss closed the church for the week we decided to take advantage of the extra days off and celebrate in style.  We came to NYC on our honeymoon (& one other time since then too) & we kinda love this city.

We started off the evening by dinner at Schnippers where Joe had one of the “best burgers of his life”.  He decided that if a movie is ever made of our life it would be a romantic comedy (heavy on the comedy) titled “You Had Me At Bacon”.  I kinda agree.

Oh & as we were walking into Schnippers we saw Batman riding a bicycle.  See…only in New York, there’s no place like it.

After dinner we got on the subway & went down to Greenwich Village, which is a part on the city that I had never been to.  We stumbled upon Washington Square Park where I immediately started thinking about Gilmore Girls & When Harry Met Sally.  Here I am at Washington Square Park (where Sally dropped of Harry when they first arrived in the city):

Then we got a little lost & Joe got a little frustrated because we were trying to find the ONE thing on this trip that he wanted to do.  Cafe Wha? was his only request…but we did find it eventually.  We even got there before the house band began playing.  They were great & Joe really enjoyed it.  I enjoyed it too but he enjoys music a lot more than I do…plus I was super tired & had enjoyed my 1st (2nd) adult beverage in over a year & I was reminded how little alcohol it takes to effect me.  Whew.

And now the shower is calling my name.  Joe ran to get Starbucks so I’d better hurry!  Oh wait!  Did I mention that we slept in until 10am??  Oh & I haven’t changed a diaper in 24 hours??

For Christmas my AMAZING husband shocked me with the most exciting gift I’ve ever received.  A MACBOOK!  I pretty much freaked out.  I had zero idea.

Joe, Elle & I had a little fun with it tonight (Paisley was in bed already, plus she doesn’t make funny faces):

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So, I don’t want to brag or anything but I’m pretty sure we have the best Christmas Cards EVER this year.  Sara over at Less Ordinary Designs created them for us.  She did an amazing job!

Here isthe front:

and the back:

Elle LOVES it!  It did take her quite awhile to be convinced that “Noel” is a word.  We would sing the song & she’d request that we’d sing “NoPais or NoMom” next.  But now that she know that Noel means Merry Christmas in France (where Madeline lives) she loves it.  In fact, when someone tells her “Merry Christmas” she’ll reply with “Noel”!  It’s adorable.

So…Noel everyone!

I am so sorry that I haven’t been around too much lately. I can easily come up with a dozen excuses for my absence, but nobody likes excuses so please just forgive me. Over the past couple weeks there have been dozens of short blogs floating around in my head. I thought that today I would just share a couple of those with you.

Blog #1

Potty words have become a HUGE issue at our house. Elle finds them all hilarous & honestly when they first started creeping up it was hard not to laugh. But now it’s incredibly easy not to laugh, it’s gotten out of control. I think the highlight of the potty words was about 2 weeks ago. Elle & I were at the grocery store. It was pretty quiet there. As we were walking down an aisle, it was just a man in his mid-thirties, elle & myself. As we walked past the man, Elle starts marching and singing rather loudly, “I love my buttcrack! I love my buttcrack!”. Needless to say, the man started laughing & I quickly appoligized. At that point I knew we had a problem that needed to be addressed.

We have been talking a lot about nice words & potty words the past couple weeks. Elle is well aware of what she should & should not be saying. Yesterday we were helping my dad do some Christmas shopping. As we were leaving the mall, Elle shared a secret with my dad. It was a secret that she made him promise not to tell her mom. What to know her secret? She whispered in his ear, “You’re a tooty-head!” Sigh. I’m considering it a victory that she knows that she isn’t supposed to say those words. Now we’ll start working on why she shouldn’t say those words.

Blog #2

Paisley is the sweetest little baby. She bring joy to my day. Her babysitter often tells her to stop smiling and eat. Oh & she has entered the jabbering stage. The child “talks” all the time. It’s adorable, but it frightens me. If she talks as much as she jabbers she will totally talk more than Elle. I didn’t think that was possible. Poor Joe, 3 talkative women.

Blog #3

Last night we were leaving the mall (yup, we had 2 mall trips in 1 day). As we were walking past the escalator there was a mom & her teenage daughter getting on it. Elle looked right at the 2 strangers & says, “What’s the big idea!?!?” They were cracking up. There’s not a shy bone in her body.

Blog #4

All Christmas presents are purchased, 50% are wrapped. Joe helped me wrap last weekend. It was seriously the highlight of my week. He was such a trooper trying to help, but frustrated that he didn’t do a great job. If you ever need a good laugh, I highly recommend having a male help you with your gift wrapping. It won’t disappoint.

Blog #5

Have you seen how big this child is getting? And this picture is 3 weeks old!

Thanksgiving Day

Ok, dear friends, I promise to be around more often. I’m quickly realizing that if I don’t write down the details of our life I quickly forget…and that would be a shame.

Oh Dear. That’s all I’ve got to say… (oh that & apprently she was too tired to stand through the whole thing, sheesh).

Guess what I’m doing today.  I had some vacation time to use up before the end of the year so I took the day off, sent the kids to the sitters (had to pay her anyway so they might was well go…shucks ) & I will finish the Christmas shopping.  I may even start wrapping tonight.  Shocking, right?  Wish me luck!

Good Morning, friends!  Hop on over to FundamentalElements.net real quick .  You can download a free MP3 of their latest Christmas song.  It’s a cover of Ray Charles’ “That Spirit of Christmas”.  I know I may be a tad biased, but I actually prefer the FE version.  Let me know what you think!

Also, for all you St Louis folks, they have a Christmas show here on Dec 19th.  I’m so excited, I’ve got my sitter booked!  Come on out, it promises to be amazing.

So I have come to the point in baby parenting where every time I get 2 seconds to sit still, I fall asleep. Seriously it’s bad. Paisley has been a good sleeper for quite a while but seems to have regressed a bit. And it makes matters worse when I get up with her in the middle of the night & I fall asleep (sitting up) feeding her on the couch. Now I’m not talking just dozing for a few minutes, I’ll wake up like 2 hours later. So the sleep I’m getting isn’t quality sleep at all. Plus when she’s up 3 times a night, it makes for a lot of non-quality sleep. I keep trying to remind myself that this will pass, it’s only a stage. BUT I’m ready for the next stage of sleep.

Earlier this week I convinced Elle to lay in bed with me at her bedtime. My plan was to snuggle with her for a minute in my bed & then move her to her bed (I get tired of us all squeezing into her twin bed). Didn’t work, I fall asleep seconds after climbing into my bed. I didn’t even get to pray with her because I feel asleep before that part of the process. Joe had to finish up the bed time routine for me.

So, if you see me out in public & I’m looking a little haggard, it’s because I am.