The Big Apple

What a trip!

Last week Jason, myself and two other couples (Scott and Christie Hostetler and Tim and Heidi Stamm) went to New York City. It was such a wonderful time. The first time I went to NYC I was overwhelmed and sick (10 weeks pregnant) so I didn't get to enjoy it too much. But this time around it was a very different story. We did all the touristy things (a Broadway show, taking a 3 hour cruise around the island, Little Italy, China Town, Greenwich Village, Central Park, street fair, lots of shopping) and had a great visit from my sister, Cindy, who is about an hour or so away. We went to the Today Show (we were on TV for a few seconds but just a profile shot), enjoyed our first Korean meal (which was awesome--yeah dumplings!!), went to see a movie (Fireproof--it was so good--cried some good tears), did a ton of walking, took the subway, etc. I am tired just typing that!

There are lots and lots of pictures in this post; consider yourself warned. But if there aren't enough below for you, here is our family online album to check our more:

The view from our hotel room. Amazing, right? We were at the Hilton Times Square. Scott and Christie were across the hall and had a view of the Empire State Building.

Today Show here we come!

Heidi, Tim and I getting ready for the Today Show.

Jason and Tim in front of the famous Dean and Deluca.

Hey camera, I am ready now! I guess the camera man didn't hear my calls.

An inside shot of the studio

Look how close we got to Ann Curry.
She is so beautiful!

We got there at 7:30 AM and had a good spot but
quickly realized we needed a sign to draw some attention.

Although we were only on TV for about 3 seconds we loved the experience.
We got to see Ann, Al, and Meredith but too bad Matt was on vacation!

I was so glad that Cindy and Mike drove into the city for a day visit!
We went to Central Park, China Town, Little Italy, and Greenwich Village.

Central Park

The Willetts and Hostetlers

One of the many street performers at Central Park.

Cindy and me in Central Park

fountain at Central Park

Cindy and Mike

Enjoying some lunch at The Boathouse in Central Park

Look at that little man pushing a rather large rock....go J go!

Scott and Christie

We were ready for shopping!

Jason was loving this idea of parking the cars.
We could use one in our garage.
Not for our cars but for the girls' stuff!
Just put it on a lift and carry it all away.

On Friday we took a 3 hour cruise around the island.
Here is our Lady Liberty.

Postcard material, right?

Taking a breather and sitting inside. My feet were killing from all the walking we did. Note to self, although gym shoes are not the most fashionable, wear them when in NYC!

The sign said "Sarah Palin, Live Here, See Wall Street."
This was on the Jersey side of the Hudson.

Jason and the mini statue of liberty.

It was a beautiful, yet windy day.
The lady behind us had hair that kept whipping us in the face!

Scot and Jason enjoying a beer

The amazingly large ferris wheel inside Toys 'R Us.
What parent doesn't go there for their children?
Or to ride the farris wheel?

Jason and Cindy on Jason's first subway ride.

It was pretty uneventful as far as subway rides go, but it was still momentous.

Getting ready for the musical Hairspray. This show was a perfect Broadway musical to see. The energy in the theater was exhilarating! The mom (who is played by a male) was played by Norm from Cheers (hysterical to see a large man dressed as a woman) and one of the main male characters was played by Tevin Cambell (a singer from the early 90s if any of you remember him). Highly recommend this show!

The national debt clock.

This picture was about 10 seconds later. Notice the change of over $150,000!
I am sure my shopping didn't help this.

Although we missed the girls, it was a wonderful 4 day trip. Thanks to my parents and Jason's parents who watched the girls. I know it was tiring for the four of you, but the girls had a blast, and we really appreciate it! We certainly needed a break :) Thanks, Cindy for meeting us--it was wonderful to see you!

Jon and Kate Plus 8

Many of you who read this blog are addicted to the same show I am, Jon and Kate Plus 8. For those of you who don't know what this show is about, it's about a Pennsylvania couple who has two sets of multiples (twin girls who are about 7 and sextuplets who are 4--the picture above is a few years old). I really love this show, DVR it every week and heck, it keeps Ella entertained.

Tonight, Jason and I were wondering how much money they were making and we started to do some research online. They used to live in a very small house and now they are looking for tons of land to build a new house. I do believe they should be compensated well....hey, they let us all watch their kids grow up!

In our "research", we came across this blog written by Jodi's sister. If you are familiar with the show, you know that Jodi is Kate's sister-in-law but Jodi has not been on the show for a while. It gives a very sad depiction of Kate and although I wanted to believe it was just hate mail, I later found a video of Jodi herself telling the story of how she was booted out of the childrens' lives. The details start on the blog dated Sunday, October 5, 2008 entitled Summary of Events.

I have to say that I didn't find too much of it appalling or out of character. I hoped that it was not true but felt that it probably was. Kate has always seemed a little over the top but she has 8 kids to take care of! Will I still watch the show? Yes. I think those kids are great, and I think Jon is a wonderful man to put up with Kate. Just wanted to pass along this blog of interest; we all knew Kate was a little (hahaha, a lot) controlling :)

When the mom is sick, the girls still play

I have been under the weather today so most of our day was spent inside. As I laid on the couch the girls entertained themselves with the plethora of toys. But of course dress-up was their favorite (no surprise there). I couldn't resist taking these pics although the pics had to be taken with my back up camera (as I was too tired to find the new one since there has been no unpacking around here) :)

The princess from her throne talking down to her people

(aka Laney standing on the stool talking to mama about what is hers).
Wish I could have gotten her high heels in this pic--never talk to your people without looking your best!


Ella waving from her thrown. I wish this picture turned out better as the outfit was hysterical. Beads galore, slippers that didn't match, a see through ballerina outfit emphasizing her blue underwear...it was all about black mail for her sweet 16 party!

Welcome home to a beauty!

We arrived home very late last night for NYC but when I came home from work today, Ella wanted to show me how beautiful her make up was. It's tough to see in this pic, but there was pink lip gloss, eye shadow and powder all over her face. Then I painted her nails; based on her wonderfully placed face makeup I had to control the nail polish so my couch didn't get painted as well :)

We had a wonderful time in NYC but surely missed the girls. Pics to come later this week! A little teaser...which morning news castor was I close enough to touch? Which musical did we see? What event did Jason do for the first time?

Pumpkin Patch

This morning we went to Russell Farms with my mom's group. It was a perfect day for picking pumpkins, and what was so refreshing about Russell Farms is that it was much more low key than the farm we typically pick pumpkins at. We could actually enjoy the day instead of rushing around from activity to activity. There were ponies, chickens, pigs, and goats as well as slides, putt-putt golf, riding toys, etc. The highlight of the day was hands down the hayride.

Laney feeding the goat. Both her and Ella needed some coaxing though!
Ella kept saying she didn't want to get her shoes dirty--that's my girl!

Driving the tractor

The girls and Gabby. Isn't Gabby's face hysterical?

J and Laney having fun!

Ella loved driving the horse!

Fun on the teeter totter

Josie and Laney hit it off!

Giddy up!

This is the pumpkin I want

Well, I would like this one instead but Daddy's pumpkin rule is that I have to be able to carry it in order for him to buy it......not sure I can muster the strength to pick up this one!

What a fun day! Now let's go eat, sis!

On the hayride

Most of the group (Jason and Laney are trailing on the left)

I didn't get any good pictures of most of our friends but here are some of their blogs to see a better mix of pictures.

Marielle
Josie

Oh Vera!

Ready, Set, Shop!

Yesterday, Steph and I drove up to Fort Wayne for the bi-annual Vera Bradley sale. Who knew that Vera Bradley would be made in good ol' Fort Wayne, Indiana (maybe I should have paid attention when we lived there)?

We took Ella and Abby and although there were many whines and some fits, they girls did great. Steph and I shopped for over 1 1/2 hours! We had the girls pretend it was Halloween saying "trick or treat" at each of the tables, and then we would give them a Vera bag. Better than candy, right?

I took these pics from Vera Bradley's facebook page to show how many bags there were!!!!

I wanted to get a close up one of the rows of stuff. The bags were probably 20 high! There were the typical bags but also belts ($2!!), shirts, umbrellas, dog leashes (what dog doesn't need those), slippers, bowling ball covers, purses, etc. And for the record, every guy that Steph and I saw there we made sure to tell them what wonderful husbands they were! Any guy to brave that many women is quite confident in his manhood.

Anybody seen my dog?

The other day Windsor wanted to go outside and greet Jason. He usually does this so I let him run outside. Jason came inside, we talked for a bit and then decided to go outside with the girls to enjoy the beautiful day. We hadn't seen Windsor in about an hour but really didn't think much of it (he often will lay upstairs in our bed when I am now keeping an eye on him--the life!). After playing outside for about a half hour it was time for dinner. As we were walking inside, Laney stopped dead in her tracks, points way down the street and says "My dog." I wasn't surprised...she loves dogs! What I was surprised to see was that Windsor was a street over just enjoying himself in many of our neighbor's yards. He must have been out of the house for at least an hour. I had to thank Laney profusely for saying "My dog" or else who knows
when we would have noticed he was gone. :)

Oh Windsor- sorry that in the past 3 1/2 years you have lost your king of the household status. You are now overtaken by two girls who pull on you in places that should be left alone, poke at your eyes, ride you like horse and put you through all the other torture that you have to endure. Yes, you get their scraps so I am sure it even outs, but you take it in such stride, Windsman! And thanks for coming back home!