Christmas (a little early)

We are going to be in Utah for Christmas, so we decided to have our own Christmas morning a little early. Saturday morning we woke up to find all sorts of presents under the tree. Nicole had so much fun opening her presents and playing with them. I'm so glad we did this, because for me, Christmas is all about waking up early, going down in your pjs, opening presents, and then having a big breakfast. We made Mickey Mouse waffles and sausage, and then spent the rest of the day playing with our new things.



After Nicole's nap, we went into Center City and saw the Wanamaker lights at Macy's, and headed over to the Comcast Center for their Christmas Spectacular 3D light show. We had dinner in the city, and then headed home. It was about the most perfect Christmas day you could ever have.

Photo Shoot

I took Alex and Nicole out this morning to get a picture for our Christmas card. The rain held for us and we were able to get a few shots.



If anyone wants me to take some pictures for them, I'm more than happy to. I'm still learning, and having subjects to shoot helps!

18 Months!

27 lbs 13.9 oz

32.75"

Favorite things:

Baby Doll

Balloons

Trains

Balls

Handy Manny

Martha, again!

A couple of weeks ago, I went with a big group of friends to New York, and we saw Martha, again! They invited us to come back out, and it was a blast. We got tons of giveaways, and all of us were on camera multiple times. The episode aired on Black Friday, which is why we got so many awesome giveaways. We got a J.Crew gift card, a Greek cookbook (it is the biggest cookbook I have ever seen), a Demy digital recipe reader, an eye-fi card (for wireless transfer of photo from camera to computer), and a wire-free charging station for electronic devices. We also went up to Times Square, the Rockefeller Center, and Chinatown.

The ferry ride

This is the waiting room before you go out on the set

We got front row seats, which is why we were on camera so much. They chose our group specifically for these seats. It was awesome!

Times Square

The past month

I am absolutely loving this stage of Nicole. She has grown up so much and amazes me every day. I don't think I could have asked for a happier, more fun-loving little girl. Here are some random photos from the past month or so of Nicole enjoying life.

Nicole supporting her Phillies during the World Series!

OK, she may not look like she's having fun right here (she started crying when I told her that drawing on the wall is a bad thing), but I know she had fun while she was doing it!

Running around in the backyard.

Who knows?

Dancing with her daddy. Look at that belly!

Playing the guitar with daddy.

Captain Vegetable and Strawberry Shortcake

Do you know who Captain Vegetable is? If not, here's a video.

Alex's lifelong dream was to dress up as Captain Vegetable on Halloween. And I helped him fulfill that dream. I feel pretty special.


We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat (this was my first one ever - how have I never been to one of these before?) and Nicole loved it. She went bobbing for apples and ate a donut off a string. OK, she really just reached into the bucket of water with her hand and she pulled the donut off the string and then wanted to put it back on. But she practically did the games right.



She just plopped down in the middle of the floor after it was over so she could enjoy her dum dum. Smart girl.


And here she is her first time trick-or-treating. She caught on really well and didn't want to let that bucket of candy out of her sight.

Trip to Maryland

Alex had a conference in DC last week, so Nicole and I joined him on his last day and then we stayed a couple of extra days in Maryland. It was the first time we stayed in a hotel with Nicole, and she actually did really well. Most of our trip was spent doing things that she would enjoy, but when you have kids, isn't that just the way it is?

Our big outing was to the National Zoo. It's part of the Smithsonian Institute, and so it's well taken care of, and free (and who can pass up free?!). Nicole loved running around and looking at the animals. In fact, Alex and I loved it, too. Neither of us have been to a zoo since we were kids.



We got to enjoy a couple of different parks, one in Alexandria, VA and one in Rockville, MD. Nicole had fun picking up acorns and leaves and handing them to her dad. And she LOVED this swing. She didn't want to leave it. She would just slump down into it and get comfy.



As always, we were all about eating well. We hit Penang, a Malaysian Restaurant. La Madeleine, a French Bakery. Urban BBQ, well, a BBQ place. And on the way home, we stopped in Baltimore and went to Lexington Market. This market has been operating since 1782, and has world-famous crab cakes at Faidley's. They were yummy!

Iron Chef II: Halloween

We had another Iron Chef night with our friends. This time the secret ingredient was Halloween. Everything was delicious, as always! I think MaryAnn wrote up a nice description so I won't go into details, but here are some pictures!

Leah made bean salad.

Jon and Anna made appetizers - witch's fingers and cats.

MaryAnn and Trisha made a tamale pie.

Alex and I made a Haunted devil's food cake.

Marc and Natalie provided drinks - homemade root beer (from a real root!), ginger beer (using real ginger!), and some apple cider.

Here are the Iron Chefs!

Pumpkin pickin'

I had been hoping to go to a pumpkin patch with Nicole so she could pick her very own pumpkin. But, we got a Nor'easter and it rained on the day we planned to go. So, we went to a local market instead, and she still got to pick her very own pumpkin. She loved it.


She still carries this pumpkin around with her. It now has a few dings and no longer has a stem, but I feel like we got our money's worth.


And they had yummy cider donuts and apple cider!

Our little mini

Mini Alex

Mini Kristin

Please Touch Museum

My sister and brother-in-law, Megan and Andrew, gave us an awesome gift this summer - a membership to the Please Touch Museum. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's an interactive museum just for kids. How cool is that? We were there for about an hour, and only saw a little bit of the museum. We all had a ton of fun and are excited we get to go back as often as we want.

Nicole's favorite part was the grocery store - she would have spent all day in there if we had let her

We stopped in at McDonald's for some burgers - Nicole kept trying to eat the plastic bun and seemed a bit confused.

Our future doctor

And here is Nicole riding the carousel. Despite how she looks, she loved it. And Alex and Nicole both got to sit on horses that went up and down. :)

Nicole-isms

I realized yesterday that I didn't even notice that we had passed Nicole's 16 month mark. Must be a sign that she's getting old (well, at least one of us is). So now that she's a big girl, here are some of the fun things she does.

Anytime Nicole sees a dog, she says, "arf!" Most of the time I haven't noticed the dog until I hear her say "arf!"

Nicole loves to dance. She was even dancing to the Mo-Tab during Conference.

When Nicole hasn't seen me in awhile, she'll start walking around the house yelling, "Mama!" Sometimes she yells the same thing when she hasn't seen Alex, but it's still "Mama!"

Nicole likes to come up behind people and tickle them while saying "tickle, tickle, tickle."

If it's getting near lunch or dinner time, I'll ask Nicole if she wants to go eat, and she walks straight to the kitchen.

Nicole loves her bathtime. Last night we were doing family home evening and she started to take off her shirt and pants, and was getting pretty close to getting that diaper off. Alex finally told her she could go and take a bath and she nearly jumped into his arms.

When we ask her where her belly is, she pulls up her shirt and touches her belly.

Every time Nicole sees a train, hears a train, or even sees train tracks, she says "choo!"

Martha Stewart

I went to Martha Stewart in New York last week and had so much fun! Alex had to fly to Utah for work, so I ended up leaving Nicole with a babysitter all day - her first time getting babysat by someone outside of the family. I appreciate Carrie and MaryAnn so much for babysitting for Nicole!

We drove up to Staten Island and jumped on the ferry. This is Jen, me, Beth, Mindy, and Jenessa.


Here we are posing with Martha. The show was all about finance, and Michael Moore was the big guest. Mindy got to ask him a question on camera - pretty awesome! And we all got on camera, if even for a split second.


This is Martha's amazing set. Beth and I got to sit on the 2nd row on the floor.


This is Joey. He was the warm up guy and was really funny.


After the show we hit Magnolia Bakery and Ferrara. And then made a stop at Rice to Riches on our way out. There are tons of flavors of rice puddings in this shop, and it's all modern and funky and awesome.



Thanks girls, I had a blast!