Christmas and New Years

 Every Christmas the Fire Department pulls Santa and his sleigh around the neighborhood with sirens blaring while he says hi to the kids and hands out candy canes. Well we were too late the first day he went by and we missed him. So, the following day I heard the sirens start up and I knew Santa was on his way again. I did not want to miss him this time so I threw our coats on and ran down the street with Taisley where I could see the fire trucks and his sleigh parked outside a house. I was just standing outside the house holding Taisley, wondering where Santa was. All the fire trucks were parked there and his big sleigh was sitting right in front of the house but no Santa. Pretty soon the fire department guys came out and asked if I wanted to take Taisley inside to see Santa. Apparently Santa was visiting a special friend at this house but was so sweet with Taisley and picked her right up to take a picture. I think she was in shock because she didn't make a peep the whole time. He gave her a candy cane and wished us a Merry Christmas. 

We missed out on Becky's yummy sugar cookies this year so I snagged the recipe from her and we made a batch at home. They turned out pretty good! :) 

Poor baby Taisley was sick on Christmas this year :( We took her to the doctor on Christmas Eve morning and discovered she had her first ear infection. It just broke my heart. Even though she wasn't her normal energized self she still had lots of smiles and loved opening her gifts. We missed our families this year for the holidays but enjoyed them together as a little family here in NY.

 She was a spoiled little thing and got so many fun gifts from her grandparents. Shanna drew her name this year and sent her a Minnie Mouse doll which she LOVES and our sweet neighbor gave her a Minnie dress-up outfit with ears...so cute! (look at her sick droopy eyes, poor baby)

She got 3 new baby dolls...one from B's House & Papi, one from Grandma Ria & Papa Ken, and one from mama & dada. Playing baby dolls is probably her favorite thing to do right now. She walks around, sometimes trying to hold all 3, and says "shh shh'' while she pats their backs. She feeds them "ba ba's" and gives them lots and lots of kisses! She loves to push them around in the grocery cart or stroller while holding her purse and keys. She is such a crack up. 

Santa brought her a new play kitchen! She loves to pretend to eat all the food and for mama and dada to eat it too. The play kitchens are all high tech now and make sizzling noises and boiling water noises and they have marble counters!

Ellie girl was in the city the week of New Years and we were so happy to spend New Years Eve with her! The one night we had with her definitely went by way too fast!! :( 

Taisley started crying when her buddy got out of the car at the airport. 

Since we were so close to the city after dropping Ellie off at the airport,we decided to finally go see the big tree in Rockefeller Plaza. New Years morning was the perfect time to go because the streets were so bare! It was a cold day so we made sure Taise was all bundled up!

The tree was AWESOME! It was so cool to actually be there instead of seeing it on TV. 

The ice rink right below the tree

Taise cruisin around the city.  

 This is Taisley's little friend, Jerry, from downstairs. They are good little buddies. He got an iPad mini for Christmas so he was showing Taisley all of his new cool stuff. So cute! 

Grandma Ria & Papa Ken got her cow girl dress-up clothes for Christmas. Her new thing is to climb up on her pony and say "yee haw"...it's really funny! 

First Snow

We had our first snow back on November 7th! 

(I'm a little behind on putting the pictures on here)

It was a Nor'easter storm that arrived about a week after Sandy hit. The snow only lasted about 2 days and then it was gone. It was very strange to look out the windows and see WHITE everywhere. We didn't get any pictures outside in the snow but we definitely will next time. Taisley finally has a full water proof winter attire so we are ready for the next snow storm to come...maybe :) 

 Taisley LOVES to look out this window no matter what's going on outside

She always enjoys a ride on her pony 

She is getting very good at stacking her blocks.

 She gets frustrated when they fall during her stacking process.

 These glasses are from her Arthur doll she has, it's SO funny when she puts them on

Trav trying to teach her how to play football

She met a friend while we were at the field 

Love this girl so much!!

We put up our tree and stockings! We are ready for Christmas! 

Fun Before Hurricane Sandy

As I said in my previous post, Cassie and Chris came to visit!! Luckily, we were able to do a lot of fun things before Sandy hit. We went to the Fire Island lighthouse on Robert Moses Beach and took turns watching Taisley while we climbed to the top, all 192 steps! The view was so gorgeous but I'm nervous to find out what it looks like after Sandy hit. So sad. We are still not allowed to drive across the bridge to see what is left of the beach. :(

Cass and Chris on the boardwalk to the lighthouse. There was so much more color than the last time we walked to it in September.

We stopped to take a quick walk on the beach before we left. Taise still loves the sand but she didn't eat this time!

I'm so glad Cass and Chris were able to go to the city one day by themselves because Chris had to catch an unexpected early flight home before the hurricane hit.

They saw WICKED on Broadway! They found these last minute tickets on the 3rd row for a great deal! So glad they saw it because it's awesome!!

We made it to another Pumpkin Patch/Petting Farm which Taisley loved of course.

Cass and Chris being good sports and entertaining Taise on the playground :)

The pigs there were huge and quite disgusting but they amused Taisley

Her favorite were the goats again because they talk to her :)

They had adorable little red wagons you could pull around the farm. In Taisley's class at the library they sing a song about 'bouncin up and down in my little red wagon' so I thought it was cute that she was really in one. 

We bought tickets to this Jack O Lantern Blaze near Hudson Valley and it was awesome! It was over 5,000 jack o' lanterns made into all kinds of formations. We took a lot of pics but they don't do it justice. 

Spider made out of jack o' lanterns

The blaze was awesome!

 It took us an extra hour to get home due to construction at 10pm which was not awesome. 

So before the Jack O' Lantern Blaze we went to dinner. It was a very small Mexican restaurant and there was only one other customer besides us. Well if you have a toddler you know going out to dinner isn't always a smooth ride. Taisley was getting fussy and the waitress was very friendly with her and picked her up out of her seat to hold her. So we got to enjoy our dinner while the waitress babysat behind us! (notice Taise in the background) That was definitely a first timer for us! Of course Taisley, being the friendly baby that she is, didn't hesitate at all. We made sure to leave her a good tip for babysitting! I wish this place was closer to us.

Chris was supposed to be in this picture too but he had to catch his flight home due to Sandy. Cass and I had tons of fun in the city...we took the ferry to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, went to the 9/11 Memorial and also went to China Town. I really enjoyed all the "sister" time we had the following week since we were mostly stuck inside from the hurricane. I was so glad Cass was there with us! 

I'm so glad their trip was mostly before the hurricane hit...we had such a blast with them! Love you guys! 

Strong Island

We survived our first hurricane. It was a very intense and humbling experience to say the least. God was watching over us and we were so blessed! We had been following the storm on the news several days before it hit and we were starting to get nervous for it. For our area the main concern was losing power for several days so Saturday night we went to the store and stocked up on non perishable food items as well as water, batteries and candles. We are located in Bay Shore on Long Island which is about 45 miles from Manhattan. Manhattan was evacuated Sunday and other areas were evacuated that were located close to water. We are about 3 miles from the bay. We had an emergency place to go if we needed to evacuate at any point. My sister and her husband, Cass and Chris, came to visit on Oct 22 and Chris was scheduled to leave Monday, Oct 29th and Cass on Nov 2nd. Well luckily they were able to get done most of the things they wanted to see and do because the airlines told Chris he had to leave Sat morning or else he wouldn't be able to catch a flight until Nov 2 and he couldn't miss that much work. So, poor Cass was stuck in NY for a hurricane. I was so glad she was here with me but I'm not so sure she felt the same way...haha. Sunday night the wind started to get really strong but there was no rain yet. Monday morning the rain came and the winds were getting stronger and stronger and stronger as the day went on. Monday night was the worst part of the hurricane...the winds were 82 miles per hour! I literally thought our windows were going to shatter!! The power flickered in and out a few times but it was never more than 2 minutes.....we never fully lost power! Through the entire storm we NEVER LOST POWER! I am still amazed by it. By Tuesday morning the worst was over, it was still really windy but the sun was trying to shine through. We were basically in shock that we still had power because 90% of Long Island was without power and we were part of the 10% with power. All the traffic lights were out around our home and the stores and several of our neighbors and friends had no power. On the news they kept saying if you were without power it could be up to 10 days before it gets turned back on because of how huge the outage was. Slowly our area is getting power back but there are still so many people that are without power and the damage is awful. Gas stations are running out of gas and the lines of cars at the gas stations are literally miles long. People are trying to fill up small gas cans for their generators. We drove around a little on Tuesday afternoon and so many trees and power lines are down and all over the place. A lot of homes, especially on or near the water are either totally GONE or severely damaged. The flooding was about 1 1/2 miles south of our home so again, we were so fortunate to have no damage done to our home. A family we know lost their home and are just so positive throughout this whole situation...they are really amazing. So many people called/emailed/text to check up on us and let us know they were thinking about us and praying for us and we are so grateful for all of your thoughts and prayers! Seeing the pictures in New Jersey and seeing first hand here in NY all the damage that was done and hearing about the lives that were lost we just feel so incredibly blessed.

These were just a few pictures of the water and damage we saw:

We kept staring out the windows watching the storm so Taisley wanted to look out the windows too. (this was before I thought the windows were going to shatter)

We were not sure how many people were going to be out trick or treating for Halloween after the storm but there was a few out and about. Taisley was not feeling very good, she had a little fever, but was still so excited to put on her cow costume. We took her to a few houses in our neighborhood. She waived at everyone that opened their door and just wanted to carry the candy around in her hands. It was so cute to see her cruisin down the street as a little cow. It was really fun having Cass here with us during Halloween too! Luckily she was able to catch her flight home this morning. They barely opened the airport back up on Nov 1st. I will post more pics from their trip later. 

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers!!