Thankful for family, friends, fun times, and much more! =) 10:23 PM

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!!! =)

We had such an AWESOME Thanksgiving weekend! We of course missed our families in Ohio and Chicago though! Miss you all!
We did A LOT this weekend...So I'll try to keep it short, sweet, and to the point!

Wednesday - Matt and I met after work/school on the Upper West Side for the "Inflation Celebration." We walked in the masses and the misty rain to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons get blown up. It was quite the experience! Pretty cool...but crowded with tourists who don't know how it's done! ;-)



Thursday/Thanksgiving - 5 AM came fast, when we woke up, got ready, grabbed our goodies and headed to Harlem. We hung out for a bit, set up the turkey, and Matt, Mike, Zoe, and I headed to the parade while Lauren, Maya, and Rocket stayed behind. We got our holiday Starbucks, and made our way to close to the beginning of the parade route. We actually got a decent spot, and didn't get there at the crack of dawn. It was nice! Zoe had the best view of all...on Mike's shoulders! The parade was fun, full of celebrities we couldn't identify, great floats and the balloons we saw the night before! We headed back and the turkey cooked pretty fast! Lauren and Zoe set up the table beautifully, with place cards Zoe personally made for us! The meal was DELICIOUS and we talked about what we were thankful for. We fought through the 5AM wake up and food coma tiredness and built a gingerbread house from a kit we bought. It was fun! We enjoyed each other's company all day and had an overall great Thanksgiving! =)




Friday - We avoided black Friday crowds and I studied all morning... Then we decided to head out and we went to Costco-surprisingly NOT crowded! Then we went to Park Slope and walked around and checked out some places we've been eyeing for a while. It was nice, even though it was kind of cold! That night, Sarah made us delicious dinner, we brought cookies for dessert, and we caught up and played an Office trivia game she got Matt for his birthday. It was a lot of fun. This picture is from a "physical challenge" that said not to spill your cup of water as you ran it to the door, but Sarah ironically did before we even got up! haha. It was a lot of fun hanging out with her! It's been too long!

Saturday - Ryan from Matt's old work and his wife Christy came for the day! We had a blast hanging out with them and showing them around the city! It was great to catch up with them and have some fun experiences in NYC. We did a TON in a short amount of time! We were exhausted! In 7 hours or so, we walked 5th ave, went to Rockefeller Plaza and some shops and saw the new HUGE tree, ate lunch, walked to Bryant Park, ate a Crumbs cupcake, walked to Grand Central Station, took the subway to Times Square, went through stores there, had a Jamba Juice, went to China Town and Little Italy, and the Seaport! It was crazy! But a blast! We were so glad to see them! =)



Sunday - A low key day! Went to church, did some Christmas shopping at Target, went to the dog run, and just hung out enjoying the last day of our 4-day weekend. It went by so fast! Back to work and school tomorrow...but we have a fun evening planned at the Winters Eve Festival on the Upper West Side. =)

Sorry, I said I'd keep it short and I just kept on going! Whoops! I hope you and yours had an amazing Thanksgiving and Holiday weekend! =)

<3 comments!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! (Before Thanksgiving!) 10:42 PM

This weekend was a lot of fun! We decided that we should get some Christmas celebrating in because it'll be here before we know it...along with finals, and other busy things...so why not now?!

We headed up to Harlem on Saturday to watch Christmas movies (Elf, and White Christmas) while making and decorating lots of Christmas cookies! We dyed the frosting to have different colors. We were trying to be crafty with some frosting bags, but, well, let's just say it took a couple heads and a couple tries to get it right. HAHA!

It was such a fun day! We even had some delicious eggnog, and a yummy chocolate gingerbread cake thing that Mike made. PLUS a pizza night! It sure was a day full of tasty things! Along with watching the movies, we hung out, Zoe read to me and Maya, and everyone seemed to just have a fun and relaxing day. It was a great time! =)



Today was a pretty nice day...so we took Rocket to the dog park, did some errands, and some cleaning around the apartment...Then, we PUT UP CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS! How exciting! You know me, I've been listening to Christmas music since the first week of November. I've been READY, but patient!!!! Rocket was very interested in what was going on...wanting to chew on everything. I told him Christmas decorations are friends, not food! =) He soon lost interest and was tired, so he burrowed himself in a blanket to watch what else was going on.

We bought new stockings which I was very eager to put up! We managed to find the space in our NYC apartment to decorate for our first official Christmas together! =)

We are excited for our 3-day week! We are planning on going to the Macy's parade on Thanksgiving, and having Thanksgiving dinner with the Harts! We are so excited. =) We're still trying to figure out what to do with our 4-day weekend! =)

Hope all is well! We <3 comments!!!!!!! =)

Also, Jill's birthday is on Tuesday! Happy birthday, Jill!!!!

Kim and Courtney Come to "Two York!" 8:27 PM

We have been anxiously awaiting Kim and Courtney's trip to visit all of us out here. Courtney has the best expressions...including saying "we're going to go see everyone in two york soon!" since they booked the tickets! It was so fun having them here, hanging out, and watching the girls play!

We fit a lot of fun things in to their trip here! They came in on Thursday evening, but I didn't catch up with them until Friday afternoon after class. Courtney apparently told everyone Friday that "Matt, Karen, and Rocket puppy were not in two york lasternight!" HAHAHA!

When I met up with them, we ate at Whole Foods, grabbed some warm delicious drinks at Starbucks, walked along Central Park and saw the horses, walked to FAO Swartz and had a blast playing, walked up 5th Avenue, then to Radio City, then to Times Square. Let's just say we were all pooped after that afternoon! (pic is me, Kim, and the girls in front of Radio City)

Saturday Matt, Rocket, and I headed up to Harlem. We were all pretty tired from the day before, but we had a nice walk to a fun park (by way of Starbucks, of course), and watched the kiddos play. That night we had a birthday celebration for Matt. The girls definitely were excited to make a cake for him! Especially because they got to lick the bowl!

Sunday we went to the park again, and played until they sadly had to leave. What a fun and exhausting weekend! Thanks for coming Kim and Courtney! We miss you! =)

Here's a "Rockets" picture. Maya is wearing a UT shirt that's been passed down through all the kiddos. Bummer that I wasn't wearing a Rockets shirt!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MATTHEW!!!!! =) 7:47 PM

Matt's birthday was November 3rd! He said it was a great one! =) We celebrated over a few days because of study and work schedules...it was low key, and a lot of fun!

We went for a Saturday morning stroll in Prospect park with the pup and enjoyed the AMAZING colors of the fall leaves! It was really nice...We don't go there often enough!

Then we headed to Union Square to check out the market, eat delicious Chipotle (where I got a burrito for free because it was Halloween and I put tin foil around me), and get birthday Crumbs cupcakes! =)

The next day, we went to Red Lobster for dinner...and it was amazing. We of course don't have one too nearby, but it was worth the drive. mmm...endless shrimp! We had kind of an annoying experience with the waitress, but got a free meal out of it! I'll take it! =)



On the day of Matt's birthday, we ate our FAVORITE neighborhood pizza. Awesome as usual. =)

Happy birthday to my amazing husband!!! =)

Happy Halloween!!! 7:30 PM

Well, the next few posts will be clumped together, because they're late! Sorry about that! School has been so crazy busy, as well as just life in general! We've had a few weeks full of celebrations and fun and visitors! I want to share these fun things with you!

Halloween was fun. I found a $2.00 elf costume at target that I couldn't help but buy for Rocket. HILARIOUS. For some odd reason, he actually LIKES having clothes on...



About a week before Halloween, we headed up to Harlem to carve pumpkins and have a pizza night with the Harts! We all had a great time, even Rocket did...because he ate the pumpkin goo, which Zoe didn't want much to do with. haha.

We had a blast, and Zoe did a great job with drawing the design on the pumpkins! We brought Maya a pumpkin shirt so she could participate too!

Matt and I celebrated his birthday (see next post) mostly on Halloween as well. We went to Chipotle (and I dressed up in tin foil to get my free burrito) and hung out in Union Square! We got Halloween Crumbs cupcakes, too! They unfortunately weren't that good this time...

Then we went to our friend Laura's apartment for some Halloween fun! We brought a delicious surprise...dirt and worms! It was enjoyed by all!!! =)

It was crazy how many trick-or-treaters lined the streets...it took us forever to drive through our neighboorhood! It was fun to see everyone out! All in all it was a fun Halloween! Next year we definitely want to go to the parade...