NYC with the whole fam!

My family and I took a fun trip to NYC this past weekend to visit my cousin Christie and her family. Christie is 2 days younger than me and we have always been very close. Our grandmother used to call us Snow White and Rose Red. I love love love her. She is my long lost sister. It doesn't matter how much time elapses between our visits....we pick right back up where we left off and fill in the blanks as we go. Since our grandmother has died and we now have families of our own we decided last year to make a pact that we have to get our kiddos together at least twice a year so that they can have the wonderful experience of having cousins as best buddies as we did.

We flew out early early early Saturday morning. My little travelers were ready to roll!


Walker is totally obsessed with Toy Story and Calliou (side note, why is Calliou bald?). He just recently started sitting still to watch movies (praise Jesus!) so this flight was a breeze! It was not a full flight and since this is Walker's last flight as a "lap child" (he turns 2 in one month!) we were very thankful to have a seat for Walker! Oh and this sucker took him an hour to eat. Another score!


Our hotel was in Battery Park and our window looked out upon the Freedom Tower. Very cool to see the progress since we last saw it when we were in New York in May.



Christie's oldest kiddo is Julian. He is almost 6 and is a LOT taller than Jackson! Christie is 5'11 and her husband Yomi is 6'4.

Julian had a basketball game on Sunday afternoon so we were so pumped to get to watch him play. They even asked Jackson to play on the team as well! Jackson scored 14 points for the Ninja Fireballs that day. So fun to see Julian and Jackson playing basketball together since Christie and I used to do the same thing!



Walker and I sat with Naomi, Christie's middle kiddo. Naomi just turned three and is this gorgeous, spunky, hilarious, smart, amazing little girl. I just adore her.


Best buds during the game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Julian plays at the 14th street Y and after the games they have all of the kids huddle up in the middle of the court to talk about the games and talk about good sportsmanship, teamwork, etc. Walker just HAD to be in huddle with his big brother!


After the game we grabbed some amazing pizza and then hit up some of Christie's favorite boutiques. We did some serious damage and I am so in love with everything I bought! This guy was wiped out. Oh and yes, that's a girls coat....It's Naomi's! It was absolutely freezing in NYC with snow everywhere so Christie said not to bring anything...that they had everything we would need to brave the cold. And she was right! The kiddos were outfitted in winter coats, gloves, hats, pants, boots and we even had a stroller with a screen on it that kept the cold out. Amazeballs. It's crazy to think that it gets just as cold here but we have our cars to get in and out of....In NYC you have to walk everywhere so you better be prepared!


And....Jackson fell asleep at the restaurant as well.....Tired babies!


Monday morning Christie took me to Soul Cycle. OMG. Best work out ever. I'm hooked and can't wait to go back!

Renzi's birthday was yesterday and Monday night we had a birthday dinner for him at Christie and Yomi's house. Here are all of the kiddos and R, Y and C! Nylah is 7 weeks old and is just beautiful. Maybe one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. I'm obsessed with her.



Walker LOVED Yomi. He couldn't get enough of him!

Monday afternoon I was putting Walker down for a nap at our hotel and Jackson said he was going to wait in the bathroom and watch a movie till I got Walker down. I walked in to find him passed out in the bathtub.



And Walker bear woke up from his nap and wanted to snuggle more. I loved it. I felt like we had major success on this trip because we all shared a hotel room with Walker in a crib and a rollaway bed for Jackson and everyone slept great! Makes me happy to know that these kiddos are continuing to be adjustable to travel!


Beautiful baby Nylah.


Happy Birthday Renzi!




The boys got to go to the Natural History Museum. Lots of "Roars." That is what Walker calls Dinosaurs.











Jackson has been able to hail a taxi from most cities for a while now. Loved watching Walker try to do it too! In fact, he actually hailed this taxi!


Times Square!


Walker and all of his buddies at the Disney Store in Times Square.


Yomi, Renzi, Julian and Jackson got to go to the Knicks vs. Lakers game.



They all had the BEST time.

Jackson had never been to Madison Square Garden so this was a huge treat for him!











After the game we all met up at Fatty Que. Some of the best Asian/BBQ ever. Here are the BFF's.



We traveled home yesterday evening. Renzi had to head on to Montreal for meetings so I flew home with the boys by myself. We scheduled our flight for 8:30 p.m. because I figured the boys would sleep the whole way home. (and for the most part they did!). On our way to our gate we ran into a live band (yes, at the airport!) so the boys had a dance party to get some wiggles out before we got on the plane home.


Again, the plane was not full so Walker had two seats to himself.......

And so did Jackson!


We landed at 12:45 a.m. and got home about 1:30 a.m. Both boys woke up when we landed and actually helped with bags and stayed awake until we got home and took showers and got into bed and fell asleep with no issues. I let everyone sleep in today and then took them both to school so I could head to work.....early bedtimes tonight for sure!!!

It was a wonderful trip filled with great memories. Love!

We've been struck!

The flu has officially struck my house.

Poor Jackson. Walker is fine. He just wants to do what Jackson does all of the time. We even had the flu shot in October. Apparently this is Flu Strain A which is a new strain and different from the vaccine we got.



Praying for quick healing for my Jackson!

Surprise Party!

My sweet Grandma turned 80 on January 13th. I threw a surprise party for her the weekend before at a little cafe in Clinton. She was soooo surprised!





So many of her sweet friends and our family all rolled out for the surprise lunch.


I loved getting to celebrate her!!! She is my protector, my friend and the best grandma in the world.


And she does NOT look like she is 80! What a hottie!

Intentional

Every New Year instead of setting goals, I, like a lot of people I know and read, like to choose a word for the year and set some life goals around that word.

This year, the word INTENTIONAL kept playing over and over again in my head. So...that's my word for 2014. I want to be more intentional in all aspects of my life.




For example, here are some goals and areas I would like to work on being more intentional in:

-Be interruptible: Putting down whatever it is that I am doing and saying, "yes" to the little things. I don't want to let too many moments go by in my home life or my work life or my friend life where I just say, "Ugh...I am so busy and on a time crunch and have to get XYZ done." I want to stop what I am doing and pay attention.

-Listen more: This kind of goes with the first one, but I need to talk less and listen more. To everyone! I want to be able to dive deeper in all of my relationships like I used to be able to do. I understand that with small kids and babies sometimes it's hard to be able to do this, but I feel like I am at a point in my life and my kids lives where I can stop and listen to others. I love talking to people and hearing their stories, it's one of the things that makes me tick and makes me happy. I want to get back to doing that more.

-WRITE! I love to write but never seem to have the time. This blog has been so good to be able to document our lives and I love it, but I want to get more into deeper writings. I want to use my prayer journal more to document what I am feeling, what is happening and who and why I am praying for a certain something.

-Let the people I love know I love them: I want to do this with calls, cards, small gifts, phone calls, texts out of the blue, etc. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful circle of family and friends. I need to let them all know how much I love and adore them!

-Be more organized so everyone (including me!) runs smoother: I have to admit I am SOOOO much better in this area than I used to be, but I still have a long way to go. I want to be more prepared for each week with my kids schools and their after school activities, our weekly meals, my work and office schedule and keeping up with my husband's crazy schedule. I want to try not to feel overwhelmed by it all and be intentional about being more organized!

-Host more dinner parties with new friends: We have a lovely home and we love to cook and entertain. Why not take some time out and invite new friends and old friends over more and have a great meal, great conversation and great wine? One of my favorite authors is Shauna Niequist and her book, "Bread and Wine," has me totally motivated and excited to step out on a limb and try new recipes with fun friends around our table!

-Be intentional in my walk with God: I don't want to just go to church on Sundays, say prayers with the kids every night and at meals and be done. I want to dive deeper into my walk with God and see where that leads me. I don't know yet what that means....maybe join a bible study, attend Wednesday Night Alive at our church (St. Luke's United Methodist Church in OKC), or something else? I am going to be on the lookout for this "thing" I am looking for here.

-And then...there is this guy....


Who I love and adore and admire and just want to kiss on all of the time. I want to continue to make our marriage grow. There is no one else I would rather be around at all times. I seriously can't get enough of him. Until he starts to bug me. Ha! But really, I want to be intentional in my marriage and always be looking for ways to help us grow. Love him.

-And then...my little munchkins. Sigh. They are so cute.


I want to be intentional in the lessons I teach them, be it school lessons they have learned at school or life lessons. THIS is the time where I can teach them all of the goodness and how to handle the bad in life. I want to be focused in on making them the best young men they can be!

Thanks for reading and hope to update as the year goes on, on how all of this is going with certain examples. I feel if I put this out there for others to read it holds me more accountable!

Happy New Year!