11- 21

So, I skipped a few days? Oh well.. Here are a few things I am thankful for today..

1) fun filled weeks. I don't get the opportunity to go out all that often in the evenings, but this week for whatever reason there was a lot going on and so I was able to enjoy some great girls' night outs and a great date with my husband and some friends..

2)Gavin's example. The other day Eli pulled all the books from our bookshelf. Boyd had not gotten a chance to clean them up yet. Boyd was working on something else, but when he came back into the room Gavin was cleaning up the books. Eli started cleaning up as well.

3)Patience.. I don't have much of it, but I am working on it.

4)Eli's cuddle. He doesn't do much cuddling with me these days. I don't get a lot of cuddles from Eli these days, but this week I did.

5)My mom and dad. They are serving a mission in Mexico and I am so proud of them. We are excited that we will be getting to see them in February!

11.11

I am grateful for

1. good friends who open their home and their backyard for a city escape.

2. big piles of leaves to play in

3. 2 days of no school

4. my husband who made dinner for the family

5. All those who are serving our country and who have served our country

Thankful

I am following the lead of some friends who are posting the things they are grateful for everyday for the month of November. I missed several days already, but I am going to start anyway!

1) Boys who wake up happy
2) A Husband who makes breakfast
3) brothers who play happily together
4) a clean house
5) Spending time in the park on a mid-November day that reached 68 degrees.

Go Yankees

As the Yankee's are poised to win the World Series tonight, I decided I better post a blog about our visit to the new Yankee Stadium before baseball is old news.

About a month or so ago some great friends were given 4 tickets to a Yankees Game and so they invited us to go along.

We arrived at the new Yankee Stadium and attempted to find our seats. We are used to going to the very top to the cheap seats so we were confused when it appeared we didn't have to make our way to the very top. It appeared that we were supposed to go to something called the Delta Suite, but we thought that there had to be some confusion and apparently the guy taking the tickets thought we didn't look the type, so he told us to go upstairs. It turns out, our seats were in the Delta Suite. One of the workers there, informed us we were in for treat. He excitedly informed us "that there are really nice bathrooms!" He was right. It was a real treat. We were directly behind home plate on the second level. We had waiters that served us personally, nice seats, a deck with tables and chairs and nice bathrooms.

The best part of the night was that because we were behind home plate, there were several foul balls that came our way and that added to the excitement. We hoped for a chance to catch the ball and Boyd got the chance!

It was even an exciting ending with the Yankees winning in the bottom of the 9th.

The weather was perfect, the game was exciting, but the company was even better. The Nixons made the night so much fun. Thanks for the free tickets and for allowing to spend the evening with you! It was exciting to go in the inaugural season of the new stadium and possibly in the year they win the World Series! Go Yankees!

Happy Halloween

Gavin as a SCARY Bear and Eli as Elmo.


Can I just say that I actually made Gavin's costume this year? Gavin and his buddy Lucas wanted to be bears so Mackenzie found a do-it-yourself kit on Etsy.com. So, it was semi-homemade. I was very proud. :) Eli was Elmo and it was a hit. Everyone loves that costume. It almost always brought a smile to someones face and random people would yell, "ELMO!".
Especially, when Elmo rides his scooter.

Can you believe that is a 2 year old riding that scooter?


Our festivities started last week at the ward Halloween activity which was fun for everyone! T

Then Gavin had a Halloween Party at school (Healthy snacks only. HA!)

Today, we carved pumpkins for the first time as a family. I even roasted the seeds.

Then tonight we went down to 69th St. where they close 3 blocks down and all the apartment buildings and brownstones decorate for Halloween and where there is trick-or-treats. We met up with Isaac the Lion and Brandon (I mean Max!).

Then we headed up to Lucas and Mackenzie's apartment building for more trick-or-treating!

What a fun, sugar filled day!

Refresh

Do you know that wonderful feature on your browser's tool bar that refreshes whatever page your are working on? Well, I feel like Boyd and I did that a couple of weeks ago with our relationship. Thanks to our very kind, generous friends, we were able to escape to Block Island for a little getaway without our kids.

Monica, one of our kind, generous friends, recommended this little island off the coast of Long Island. You can get there by a ferry from Long Island and since we were dropping off our kids on Long Island we thought it would work out perfectly, and it did.

We were there from a Friday morning until a Saturday night. The trip involved a lot of relaxing, like taking naps, sitting on the beach and reading books. We stayed at The Blue Dory Inn. Yes, the flowers were a bit much. But, the sunlight is what we love about this room. Since our apartment gets very little sunlight, we loved the sun drenched room.

The island is known for it's biking and so we brought our bikes on the ferry and we used the bikes the whole time. We didn't set foot in a car, not even from the ferry. We biked our stuff to the hotel. I have to say that it was a lot of fun, but there were a lot of hills and it killed me! We would bike and then get out and hike to the different beaches or view points.

Eli - not so terrible two?

A blog post from Boyd:

It has been fun watching our little Eli achieve his two year birthday. He has come along way! He still doesn't talk much, but I suspect he knows more than he lets on. He and Gavin probably have intellectual conversations after we turn out the lights at bedtime. When he grins, Eli has that little mischievous twinkle in his eye that says he has just hatched his next scheme. Even though he doesn't speak much, he has his phrases: "Me too" or "I do" or "I want this" whenever Gavin has something he wants. But mostly it's just a pointing finger, a jumbled indiscernible phrase, and a definitive "yes" with a nod of his head after we've recited the correct interpretation of his request.

He loves food. He has a healthy appetite and will usually eat a second full dinner when Daddy comes home from work. Mommy swears that she fed him, but you wouldn't know it the way he plops himself down in daddy's lap to divert bites on their way to daddy's mouth. He can eat fruit - apples, berries and watermelon - nonstop. He can fish a snack out of nowhere and will make you sorry if you refuse to open the packaging for him.

He is physically gifted. Since he could walk, he was the fastest and most fearless roadrunner in central park. Keep an eye out because without warning he will take off running through the trees. He may hold the record for laps around the apartment in a single day. He already rides Gavin's scooter very well and is no longer content to sit in a stroller or carrier out on the town.

For much of his life he has seldom reciprocated our affection. Not that he didn't care or love - he just was too interested in making his way around the next bend. Sure, he gives precious kisses all around as part of the bedtime routine (and will almost plow you over with a hug when you walk through the front door). But spontaneous, self initiated gestures of affection? Don't hold your breath.

But Eli aged two seems to have paused to notice the rest of us. In recent weeks Emily has receive several unexpected, heart-melting hugs. This morning, first thing after climbing out of his crib (another new trick), Eli crawled into bed to give daddy a tight embrace, tenderly resting his head on daddy's chest. 20 minutes later he returned to give dad a bowl and fork to use for breakfast (hint hint). He seems concerned that we all have what we need when we need it, whether a shoe, a cup, a grape or a hug.

Now if we can just lose the pacifier.