Numbers!

We've had some milestone numbers these last couple of weeks. It was our 10th anniversary on December 11th. Cheyenne had her 6th birthday on the 15th. Evan and I took a trip to NYC and were without kids for 4 nights, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa White's babysitting!

Married 10 years! Unfortunately, there's still a 14-inch height difference...

The 1 picture we took in NYC. It was bitterly cold that weekend. We had borrowed Lindsey's little digital camera, which was much easier to cart around than our big DSLR, but between the cold and the length of time it took to work the camera, we didn't do a lot of photography. It was a great trip, though. I had never really visited NYC, and Evan hadn't been there since he was a teenager. We stayed in NJ for the cheaper hotels, and took the train or bus into the city during the day. This very much stay-at-home mom was pretty exhausted at the end of the weekend, between walking everywhere, running up and down subway stairs, and never being able to sit down! The lunch of a hot dog pictured above was one of the few places there were benches, and since the temperature was in the single digits, we didn't linger overlong on the marble seat! We toured some museums, saw "South Pacific" on Broadway, and enjoyed meeting with some friends Sunday morning in Newark. Now we have lots of ideas about when we visit there again-- which probably won't be for years!


The kids had lots of fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa, especially once some snow fell!

Making snow angels on the deck.

Sliding down the slide.

Big smiles at the bottom.

Poor Cheyenne, with her ridiculously small snow pants, must have got some snow up her pant leg-- she doesn't look as happy. I tried to buy her a snow suit for her birthday, but I didn't read the tags closely enough at T. J. Maxx. Funnily enough, the 2T suit I bought her doesn't fit that well. I need to find a pair for the poor girl soon!

One of their favorite things to do when Grandma is there-- play Play-Doh. Since I don't have the patience to do this very often, Grandma spoils them and plays with them. Note the cute little pigtails Marilyn got in Rilla's hair!

This little girl has been without a pacifier for 2.5 weeks now! Now we're working on restricting the special blanket to the crib. Sure makes her happy to go down for her nap, since she gets her blankie and a warm corn bag!

All wasn't sunshine with Grandma, though... Sounds like she did awesome, overall, though!

Rilla is obsessed with this book, among others. "Top, Tain, Top!" she says. When Rilla approaches me with a stack of books, she insists that I read every one of them. I know about 20 board books by heart. I would be fun to have at a party!

Grandma with her lap full. Marilla has two of her favorite foods here-- flaxseed rolls, and crackers with peanut butter. I hear Grandpa made her about 93 peanut butter crackers over the course of their time here!

Building a blanket fort.

This is my extremely freaky looking son. Also, that's my new computer desk in the background! Thanks to Evan doing all sorts of wireless networking and fiddling with cords, I now have my computer in the living room! It's wonderful to be able to work on my computer while being in the same part of the house as the rest of the family.

Rilla with her milk.

Adding her blankie to the fort.

Miss Demure, all dressed for school the day we came back!

Then, her birthday! A word game from Smiths we still haven't had time to play...

And Rufus, her new piggybank! He's about the cutest little piggybank I've ever seen. Except, of course, he's a doggy, not a piggy.

Waiting oh-so-properly for the cake to be brought in.

6!! Wow! I find it hard to believe.

Eating her birthday cake.

Elliott, transported by chocolate cake bliss.

Elliott had a first last week-- Auntie Lisa took him ice-skating for the first time.

He enjoyed it, and did better than I expected him to.

Here he is, with a little three-year old boy who was also skating there. Yeah, as in a kid that's a year younger than Elliott, yet is still a lot taller. Oh, well, he's dashingly handsome and wicked smart, I guess height was too much to ask for.

Elliott has an appointment next month for his four-year follow-up with the neonatologists that cared for him when he was so tiny. The doctors there are doing a study on micro-preemies like Elliott, so they've been following him every year or so since he was a baby. I'm thinking they will be impressed with his brains, if not his pounds!

Speaking of numbers, only 2 more days of school until Cheyenne has vacation! Since Evan hasn't had work this month (depressing numbers in the bank account, but happiness at having him home!) we'll be heading up to Vaughans for Christmas and a little beyond. Looking forward to seeing Lindsey some more, and watching the cousins play. I'm sure lots of pictures will be taken!