little family in the big city

this week on abbietastic...

2012-01-13T12:06:00.004-05:00

pity party plans ruined by frogs, butterflies and a space show at the amnh.

pretending to be a cowgirl with professional bull riders + a video about riding stick ponies because the horses got herpes.

and how i stuffed my feelings with the most amazingly deliciously creamy cream puffs in the whole world.

so...

go over and hang out with me on abbieastic, friends!

thanks.

new new news!

2012-01-06T12:46:00.003-05:00

Firstly, THANK YOU you for all the love. The love factory you've built for me with your kind words has been a perfect place to sit while I go from being OK to being sad to knowing exactly why I miscarried to weeping because I won't get snuggle a new babe this summer. Thank you! I love you!

Now for the New New News!

It's a new year (praise the heavens that 2011 is over!) and I want to do something new. I want a new project that's pretty much the same project just a bit newer.

You see, Mr. FDubs and I have been talking for a long time about what to do with this blog. And we've talked and talked and decided it's time to change things a bit, but only a bit. That brings us to the news...

I have a new blog! YAYAY!!

I give you abbietastic.blogspot.com.

I'm so excited!

What is Abbietastic going to be? Well, it's going to be the exact same thing as Little Family in the Big City...except newer. Think of it as Book Two of our life on the internet. LFBC, originally forrestandabbie, has been around for almost 6 whole years! Can you believe we've been blogging that long? So Abbietastic is the next phase, Book Two. Same family, same city, same Abbie.

What will happen to Little Family in the Big City? It's gonna hang around for a good long time until ALL OF YOU, MY FUNTASTIC FRIENDS, come over to Abbietastic and subscribe and follow and add to your blog rolls and what have you. Then, in about 6ish months, Little Family in the Big City will go private. (I've basically had to get therapy for this. What about all those posts? And the archives? And all my hard work? It will all just sit in a private blog?!?! So dramatic!) So that's what will happen. You have six whole months to hop on over to Abbietastic and find out what the Book Two has in store! Yay!

So GO GO GO and subscribe and follow and tell me you like me with your internet high fives! I'm begging you! :)

are you laughing at how many times I linked to abbietastic? i am. but, you guys!, i'll cry if you don't come over and hang out with me! (what were we saying about being dramatic?)

k. see you over there.

feeling peace

2012-01-02T16:00:00.004-05:00

i wrote this up a couple of days ago. i wasn't sure if i was going to post it, but i feel like i need to. maybe for my own therapeutic benefit or maybe because someone else will read it and it will help them. i've certainly found comfort when other women have shared their miscarriage stories.

since writing it, i've felt really happy. happier than i've felt in months. it's been kind of amazing.

thanks for all the love. your prayers, emails, calls, texts have meant a lot. and thanks to a husband and two kids who make my world the greatest world ever!

here's the post...

Hi. So...let's talk.

I was pregnant. I was nauseated, tired, hormonal, and all things that would indicate a healthy pregnancy. But I had a feeling that something was off. There was a dark cloud chasing me, the same dark cloud I felt with my first pregnancy. This time around the symptoms confused me. I wouldn't be sick if I were going to miscarry, right? But then bad signs appeared showing me my off feeling was right.

I had a miscarriage over a few days before and during Christmas. Physical and emotion pain during a time when I should be feeling joy. Not my best Christmas.

I keep comparing this miscarriage to my first miscarriage. The first time I was devastated and had so many impatient questions. Would I ever be able to have kids? What was wrong with me? How long would it be until I could have a baby? The sadness consumed me...until I got pregnant with Eli and knew I'd have a baby in my arms soon.

This time I have perspective. I have two beautiful children that I can hold and kiss and snuggle. I'm sad, but the sadness is being lifted while they comfort me with their sweet silliness.

Last night I was congratulating myself on how well I'm recovering, how wise I am that I've given myself time to grieve and feel depressed and heal. Then I realized that, although I do feel stronger this time around, the peace I'm feeling is from all the prayers that have gone up for me. Thanks to my amazing family and friends.

This experience is going to strengthen me, I am confident of that. I can already see how it's shaping me into a more grateful mother.

Earlier this week I read this quote from No Doubt About It:

"It is in moments of disappointment, heartache, and loneliness that we often make the decisions that forge our faith, mold our character, fortify our convictions about the only source of strength and solace that satisfies. And that is Jesus Christ.... How do we know if we can bear up under challenge and trial, unless we have challenge and trial? And how can we expect to feel and taste the pure sweetness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, specifically the power and peace of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, unless there are times in our lives when we desperately need and seek that peace and power?"

This year, as I've said at least a million times (!), has been challenging. When I first found out I was pregnant, I thought this was going to be my sweet gift for enduring a hard year. When I miscarried, I felt anger with my sadness. How could this year get any worse? Why did this have to happen now? All those weeks of being sick and tired and I don't even get a baby for it!?! But, after lots of praying and crying, pure sweetness and peace came over me and helped me know that this was one of those times when I get to prove to myself where I will turn for peace.

That doesn't mean I won't be sad anymore. It will pinch when I think about this loss or see someone with a new baby. And I know my due date will hurt.

But that God given peace is powerful and will heal the pain.

remembering christmas 2011

2011-12-28T07:33:00.007-05:00

When I look back on Christmas 2011 I'll remember it as a really sad Christmas (more on why later...), but I hope E&A will remember it as happy and magical. Santa and our families were so generous this year and we did a lot of fun things. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular was oh so spectacular, A.Soleil and I could have stared at the "spawkly" Bergdorf Goodman windows all night, and our Santaland Santa was very sweet and patient. Our fondue feast and nativity on Christmas Eve with our friendily (<--friends that are really family), plus the crepes on Christmas morning made us feel all warm and homey inside. That's what tradition does, it grounds you and makes you feel love. Having an hour of church on Christmas day was a blessing. My sadness was lifted for a moment when my friend spoke about memories. It made me realize the memories and traditions I'm creating for my children are incredibly important.
I hope E&A remember all that we did to make their Christmas good. The joy still bursting from their little faces makes me think we succeeded. This Christmas would have been the worst without those little faces. I love them a lot.

I hope you'll have good memories from Christmas 2011.

8 years!

2011-12-20T22:46:00.002-05:00

At the end of our most intense year of marriage, we've never been closer. We know and love each other more than ever. It's an amazing feeling to know that we can lean on each other when things are hard.
That is true love.

Forrest, I true love you and know you true love me back!

train show at the new york botanical garden

2011-12-12T19:58:00.010-05:00

(such charming children)

we went to the train show on friday. it was magical. the kids loved the trains and i was dying over the plant buildings - they are masterpieces. lindsay joined us for the adventure, and it was an excellent adventure indeed. oh, the bronx, we heart you.

in other holiday news, our christmastime is going on quite nicely.
e&a just finished watching how the grinch stole christmas and now they're watching charlie brown. earlier we wrote letters to santa and fixed all the decorations a.soleil has been playing with while listening to a very she and him christmas. our christmas music collection is bulking up to something well rounded. i need to figure out what i'm baking for friends & doormen/women (what should i make?). other than that, the gifts are in the works or they're complete. i'm hoping to get to the post office on friday to ship things to family. we saw santa at our church christmas party. macy's santaland + 5th ave windows + the rockefeller tree is happening next wednesday. and, with the help of library books, we're going to do a little hanukkah celebration with our miniature menorah + candles and dreidels. plus, we also have tickets to the radio city christmas spectacular. i'm soooo excited! so!

we're feeling it! i hope you are too, friends. i hope december is bringing to you all sorts of magical things just the way you like them.

haphaphappy holidaaaaysss!!

nudge

2011-12-06T07:52:00.002-05:00

December, y'all, December. It. Is. Nuts.
And, holy wow, you should see the holiday productivity that I've been cooking up around these parts. Your jaw would be on the floor because I am a Christmas machine on top of my game from the 1st until the 24th. I'm taking any Christmas that has ever been seen by anyone and making it 6 thousand times better.
Booooooyah!!!

False. None of that is true.

But I tell you what is true.

No matter how many times I set fire to the curtains, I can not ruin Christmas.

And that's a good feeling.

Oh, I like those nudges that remind me what Christmas is all about.

(pssst. hey. so. i just wanted to tell you that blogging isn't really a priority right now with all the funtastic christmastime excitement. so it's gonna be quiet-ish around here this holiday season. but hey! you don't care because who has time to blog or even read blogs in december?!?
thanks. love you. merry christmastime. see you soon. k. bye.)

how we christmas

2011-11-29T14:43:00.009-05:00

I'm trying to get excited about decorating for Christmas, but I'm just not. Normally I'm hopping up and down on Thanksgiving night ready to get started. Not really feeling it though. Weird, huh? So I thought it'd be fun to do a little reminiscing of favorite past Christmas post to get more excited about decking our small halls. And I'll even add it to the sidebar to replace the how we fall just for funsies.

My Three Favorite Christmas Trees

Putting up the Tree (on the table)

Our Advent Calendar

Yarning for the Holidays

Snow Angel

Tradition: 34th St. Macy's + 5th Ave + Rock Tree

Scary Christmas

!Feliz Navidad!

Christmas at the Met

Deck the Small Halls '09

Ooo. That kind of worked. (really, i'm not even faking.) Time to get our holiday mess on!

the best thanksgiving staycation that ever happened

2011-11-28T08:54:00.003-05:00

This is how it went down...

On Tuesday I prepped, planned, and shopped for the Simple Thanksgiving Feast.

On Wednesday we squealed with gleeeeeee that Mr. FDubs was going to be able to spend most of the weekend with us starting at 5:00pm! We met the handsome husband/father at 79th to experience the madness that is The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Balloon Inflation Celebration. All of the balloons seen in the parade are trapped under nets while being inflated and we got to see them up close, so close we could almost touch them. It was so fun! When Eli saw Spiderman...pure little boy happiness.

On Thursday we thought about going to the parade in our sleep, but we were still snuggled in our warm beds. The best part of holiday weekends = sleeping in. So we woke up late and watch the parade in our jams. This was so the right choice. E&A were more than thrilled with their big snuggles piled high on the couch while watching their friends on TV.
I "slaved" in the kitchen from 1-3 making the greatest French chocolate silk pie, roasted sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and Stove Top stuffing (Forrest's request. heh. i'm cool with easy). We re-heated the rotisserie chicken that was delivered the night before from Malecon (chicken is so much better than turkey...our opinion, especially Malecon rotisserie chicken). The simplicity of the meal was genius. One day I will make a crazy fancy Thanksgiving meal, but that day is not yet. We completed the meal with a cranberry drink that will be a tradition forever - cranberry juice, ginger ale, sparkling water, topped with cranberries. Best.
The table was set up in E&A's room so we could have good lighting and room for everyone at the table.
Pure happiness.
I have a feeling when we have a real dining room we're going to look back at eating in the their room with sweet fondness. Oh, our life was treasured on Thursday. As we expressed gratitude for our blessings, I was weepy with super gratitude for my little family and our adventurous life together. This time is sacred. It is crazy. It is hard. It is soo soo good. I also had a flash-forward to the days when we will have more people around our Thanksgiving table and the joy in our posterity that will make my heart explode. I am blessed to have these three people and the people that will join this table in the next...100 years.

After our meal; I took a nap while Forrest and Eli watched football, we watched a movie and Forrest did all the dishes and cleaned up the table (I love him!).

We were going to make the best of our rare time with Forrest and, friends, I was on my game. A few weeks earlier I got tickets to visit the 9/11 Memorial. So on Friday we went downtown to see the memorial. It was incredible. Reverent and hallowed ground where tragedy was made into a place of reflection and beauty.

When all the WTC buildings are finishing, this place is going to be quite amazing.
After reflecting at the pools, E&A had some fun on the grounds.

And we got the worst family picture of all time. But who cares! Because all FOUR of us are in the picture!! YAY!

We left the memorial and walked passed Zuccotti park to see what was left of Occupy Wall Street. Christmas lights and happy hippie music. I think we missed all the good stuff...

We ate at Financier Patisserie, said "I really love the financial district. Me too." about 500 times, and then headed home so Forrest could go to work (booooo!!!). He had an ER shift from 5pm-midnight. Luckily he got off early and we had a midnight movie night.
(Oh, btw side note, Forrest is done with Neurology and is now on Psychiatry. He liked Neuro - a lot of wicked smart doctors, and he's enjoying Psych. He's starting to feel like a real life doctor. Weird. And guess what's after Psych? NOTHING!!! He's done with the worst year of med school on Dec. 16th!!! Mark your calendars! Then it's time to study for the boards. Whoot whoot!! (a bit of sarcasm) K, side note over. I have a giant crush on my husband.)

While I was on my planning-fun-things-for-my-family game, I got tickets to go see Knuffle Bunny: a Cautionary Musical. It was so fun! It was at the Skirball Theater at NYU. We liked it a whole lot, especially Eli (Forrest would tell you that I was just as delightedly goofy as Eli. Hey, I like to see my kids enjoy stuff). After the musical we went over to Washington Square Park (2nd favorite park in the city) and played for an hour.

haha. i like him.

and her.

THEN!

I called Metta who was visiting the city from NC and we met up for lunch at ...guess...guess...guess... Shake Shack! And then headed to Central Park for some playground fun.
You guys! Metta! Metta! Metta! And Marcos! And Gigi! I love this family so much! Metta and I met while we were in college. She was a bright shiny ball of sunshine then and nothing has changed. She is one of those people who makes you feel so good about yourself when you're with her. She talks and listens and the conversation is just fantastic. Her confidence rubs off on you and you leave feeling enthusiastic about life. And her husband Marcos...let's just say my kids are in love with him. E&A make you work for their affection (sometimes really annoying, actually), but Marcos won them over in an afternoon. And Gigi! Adorable. Want to see pictures of these people? OK!

Bah! I don't have one of Marcos, but this is A.Soleil's face when she saw Marcos's monkey face.
It was so good to see the Prietro family. Come back soon!!!

I have to mention that hanging out with Forrest was the very greatest thing ever! (maybe you got that idea already?) Oh man, I love that man. He should win a medal for serving his little family and having fun with us. I did dishes once.

Happiest reflective sigh ever.

Man, going back to real life is gonna be suckville after all this funtastic-ness.

Oh wait! It's Christmastime!!

Wow. I told you everything. I've been craving an extensive writing/photo session. And I actually had time to edit(ish), upload, and write. High-five, self.

How was your Thanksgiving, my super plus fantastic friends?

now for a serious, personal, gushy bunch of gratitude.

2011-11-24T08:30:00.004-05:00

I'm grateful for my handsome Forrest and that the only thing he has to do today is hang out with me, play with E&A, and do the dishes. I'm grateful for the love he has for me. I'm grateful for the way he loves his children and how he fathers them. I'm grateful that he takes time for us even when he's super busy making his brain heavy. I'm grateful for our marital strength that gets us through hard times. I'm grateful that we can laugh and talk for hours and not get sick of each other. I'm so so so freaking grateful I found the person that is so perfect for me and that I get to be with him forever. Jackpot!

I'm grateful for my Eli and Audrie and all adventures we've had this year, adventures that have made a tricky year happy. I'm grateful that Eli is such a good student and he loves to learn. I'm grateful that Audrie throws me a surprise birthday party almost every day and is constantly dancing in the her own magical world. My kids are the best.

I'm grateful for my Big Family. The older I get, the more I understand that they are in my blood. They are my people. I'm grateful for the strength, creativity, and humor I've inherited and learned from them. I'm grateful that I belong to them and that they are really cool people to belong to.

I'm grateful for Friends. Oh Friends! I'm grateful that we've laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. I'm grateful for our many adventures. Oh the adventures we've had this year! I'm grateful that you've picked me up when I've been stuck in a puddle of stupid sadness. I'm grateful that I can be myself around you and you love me for it. I'm grateful for the family you've become. You are the best in this entire world!

I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's been a currant bush kind of year and my testimony has been tested. I've felt doubtful and didn't understand why things had to be so tricky, but faith is winning. I know that God is real and He loves me a lot. I know He has a specific plan for me. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior and that the Atonement cures all. I'm grateful for the Holy Ghost and the clear promptings that I've gotten all year that have carried me. It's true! It's happiness.

I'm grateful!
Big, fat, huge, gushing love factory from my heart to yours!
Happy Thanksgiving!

i'm grateful...

2011-11-21T08:05:00.004-05:00

for teen witch and all of the lessons it taught, like using boxy clothes to cover party clothes.

for our new cactus pinky pokey and that a.soleil is so good at naming things.

that homeschool is only really hard instead of really, really, really, stupid, the worst hard.

that cat in the hat and wild kratts probably teach eli more than i teach him.

for picnik. guys, if you're not picnik-ing for easy photo editing, then...well...start.

that pretty fabric exists, even if that fabric is made into a terribly unflattering shirt.

for the kids should see this and not feeling guilty if e&a spend a good chunk of time watching.

that a.soleil dresses herself, especially when she layers. (maybe she's seen teen witch!)

for blue elevator doors.

for chocolate almond milk, pomegranates and homemade egg noodles in chicken noodle soup.

that we can still go outside and not freeze our b's off.

that parks and rec is there for me when forrest is working til the wee hours.

for eli's sound effects.

that instagram makes my crappy phone pictures look not crappy.

i'm grateful that you read this blog. triple smiley faces.

it is very lucky to have kids.

2011-11-20T17:29:00.003-05:00

Diana asked me to write a little somethin-somethin about motherhood for her blog. I whipped this up and I wanted to post it here too because, ya know, this stuff needs to be documented.

"Is it lucky to have kids?"
This is what Eli asks when he can tell I'm frustrated/angry about something naughty he or Audrie did.
These kids drive me bonkers sometimes. But, holy wow, they are so funny and cool, and help me be a better person. They are the two little people my husband and I created. People I carried for 9 months and gave birth to. I've kept them alive for 5.5 & 3.5 years. They've seen me at my very best and learned wonderful things from me. They've seen me at my worst and learned naughty words from me. We've laughed and cried together. We've slept cuddling in the same bed together. We've been on memorable family vacations together, and yelled at each other. I've had moments when I know exactly what I'm doing and exactly how to mother them, and I've had moments when I've sobbed so hard because I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get through another day as a mother (we've been seeing the latter a lot around here lately). They are my very favorite people in the whole world and I feel incredibly blessed that God gave them to me.

I am Eli and Audrie's Momma and that's what I want to be forever and ever and ever.

Yes, Eli, it is very lucky to have kids.
I love you to the moon and back!

friday favorite: falling in our hood

2011-11-18T08:29:00.000-05:00

the hood has never looked better.
i want fall and november to last forever. FOREVER!

we ate soup together in nyc

2011-11-17T15:24:00.009-05:00

It was so fun to have Auntie Marcie, Sydnie, and Nate here. They were fantastic guests and made me miss my family so much! I love them so! My family is the coolest. As soon as Auntie Marcie walked in the door, my kids were in love with her. And it was so fun to giggle with Sydnie about the goofy things we did as kids at my grandma's house. Man, we had fun!
It was such a great visit and I demand that more of my family come to visit! Now!
Some insties:

This is gonna count at my 3 bests on Tuesday too, k?
Soup Man - yum
Columbus Circle - we find ourselves there all the time and I love it!
Bethesda fountain in Central Park

And, as you can see, we took them to one of our very favorite places in NYC - the AMoNH.

Good times!

gratitudinal tree

2011-11-15T08:54:00.002-05:00

This is the second year of the Gratitudinal Tree. I think this is my favorite tradition of all our traditions. Probably because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and this is the only tradition we have for November/Thanksgiving. Oh, and it's fun to hear what my kids are grateful for.

A.Soleil:
hard blankie (hard because it's not soft anymore due lots of washing)
toilet paper
Disney songs

Eli:
big snuggles (comforters)
iPhone games
math

i'll take your picture

2011-11-14T12:52:00.001-05:00

taking these photos made me really for reeeeeeal want to be a real life photographer. there is loads of learning, upgrading of equipment, and i want to take some more classes.
but it's so fun and i think it could be really great!
and just look at these beautiful people i get to take photos of.

(kaci + tom, can i please take your family photos for the rest of eternity?)

what?
you need another does of merri as a lobster?
done!

kills me dead!
i love that little lobster!

the north end, boston
10/31/11

so.
friends,
if you want me to take your photos,
let's talk!

it's looking up

2011-11-10T14:53:00.005-05:00

how can you stay grumpy when your favorite 5 year old makes you flowers?

plus!

auntie marcie, cousin sydnie & nate are in nyc! they are very cheerful people and you'd be a fool to frown when they're around.

up. look up!

let's ignore the head under water and talk about unrelated things, shall we?

2011-11-08T17:27:00.006-05:00

You know when people say my head's barely above water?
Well, I think mine is going under.
Blah.
This last week hasn't been the best. But I don't want to talk about it. Maybe when my head comes up I'll be able to talk about things seriously and actually want to write about the challenges we're drudging through (nothing serious. just the same old, same old... i hate 2011), but right now I just want to turn off my stressing-about-hard-things brain and think of happier times.

Like that one time when...
(get ready for a bunch of things that i want to remember and tell you about and could be their own post, but don't have time for that so just gonna go for it)

Merrimack dressed up in Eli's lobster costume:

(oh, i know that's not enough. don't worry, there's more where that came from)

I hung out with Rachel & her little family:

We played in Boston:

Kaci dressed up like Ocean and my kids were happy about Halloween:

I had an upstate sleep-over at the Rowe's:

I color-organized E&A books:

(they have stayed like this for 3 weeks. i think this could work.)

We made cars out of bookcase boxes:

Central Park got its autumn on:

I did a kitchen wall redo:

I numbered them b/c I had a post planned, so yeah... if you want to know: 1. print the words, painted the hand. 2. a vintage poster minis. 3. knocked off a valentine card. 4. eat on chevron. 5. already-there notes board. 6. b-day flowers from my hot husband.

I watched Colbert's I'm a Catholic. Yaweh!

So there ya go. Things are hard right now, but it will get better, I know. I guess that's one of the benefits of being a real grown-up...you know things will get better. And learning and growing are good things.

Yay for learning and growing. (SARCASM) Period. No exclamation point. Growing is hard and hurts.

archive: a quick duo smack talk

2011-11-08T17:18:00.002-05:00

new york vs. boston.
a: (about cambridge common) central park is bigger than this park.
e: are there any really tall buildings in boston?
e: is boston even a real city?

heehee.

because i need to document them happy in their halloween costumes

2011-11-08T15:53:00.005-05:00

she even said, trick or cheese. cute!

massachusetts, we love thee.

2011-11-03T23:59:00.004-04:00

oh man, i really love boston. it's such a great city. and i love cambridge. i think it would be a fantastic place to set up camp for life (smile face sent to forrest).
do you know what else i love?
seeing rachel.
rachel is my longtime bff. seeing her in real life was a great birthday present. i love her guts!
and you know i love getting time with kaci + tom + baby merrimack. three cheers for family 3 1/2 hours away!
but it wasn't all orange peel in dark chocolate bars <---yum.
forrest couldn't come with us, the weather was awful, and it wasn't our best halloween performance.
but i'm so happy we went. so happy!

start the recap in instie form. when we get over some technical difficulties (both of our laptops are vacationing in suckville), i'll post some real life pictures.

i took two pictures in salem. TWO. this is what happens to abbie when she's talking to rachel in the snow. distracted & cold.
thursday.
we drove to salem to check out how they do halloween. salem is beautiful. i want to go back soon because we didn't get enough. i need photos of essex st.! the snow, frozen kids, and arriving an hour before everything closed was pretty much tricky. we need more! next october? maybe. BUT i got to hang out with rachel, so who cares? did i mention i love rachel? good. instead of going on the witch trial trail and visiting the peabody essex museum, we went to the new england pirate museum! kid friendly? umm... a little scary, but fun...i guess... eating dinner at salem beer works was a good idea - the food was pretty good and there was enough room and noise for our kids to go nuts without death glares!

friday.
found us in cambridge sleeping in at the kaci+tom b&b. we ate vegan brunch at veggie galaxy. it was awesome. my french toast was so delicious. after stuffing ourselves, we went to cambridge common where students (from harvard? i think...) asked eli and audrie to help them with a little study. so fun to watch your kids participate in a study. next we went shopping then ate dinner at clover. very good, very cheap, very kid friendly. love. and then we went into boston to visit our favorite children's museum, bcm, on $1 friday nights.

saturday.
the weather was bad and we were feeling lazy. we finally got out of the house to eat more hippie food at life alive. i want another loco coco alive, please? also, a very kid friendly place to eat.

then kaci made an amazing spread. and it was delicious. and we really like merrimack.

sunday.
the freedom trail and beacon hill with rachel & her flynnflamm. oh, beacon hill, i heart you.

monday.
we went to the uss constitution, ferried our way to the north end, and i played photographer. we experienced the amazing beacon hill trick or treating. then headed back to cambridge where eli lost his beloved baby eagle and broke down. i was heartbroken seeing him so sad. he tried so hard to be a big boy about it, but he lost it. after that, we were all in a bad mood. i was tired and missing forrest. eli decided that trick or treating was the worst idea ever. i had to shelf all my cambridge trick or treating expectations. blarg. but! tio tom walked in the door with a giant bag of eli friendly candy, made the kids do silly dances, and all was happy. they even put on their costumes so i could take pictures.
then they crashed on the air mattress.

and at 1am i blew out candles and began a new year of life.

to be continued...

archive: a quick giggle

2011-11-03T22:33:00.004-04:00

with a teddy bear stuffed under her shirt,
"i have a baby in my tummy. when i get married it will hatch out!"

it's her new favorite game.
it's the beginning of many big girl conversations.

she's 3. oy.

marriage before that baby gets in there, miss soleil. and babies don't hatch, they birth.

btw, don't read into this.
there is nothing in my tummy besides a whole lotta halloween candy.

¡feliz cumpleanos!

2011-11-01T20:02:00.004-04:00

Happy birthday! You're the best! We love you!

Smooches,

Forrest
Eli
Audrie

h - a - double l - o - double u - double e - n !

2011-10-31T10:20:00.001-04:00

happy halloween!!!

Sent from Massachusetts

pretty funny vintage

2011-10-25T16:12:00.001-04:00

dear mr. fdubs,
you asked me what i want for my birthday.
here's a little photo wish list:

what? is that too much to ask?
oh, i want the house too.
thanks! love you!

love,
your wife

***

when you go to tarrytown, you have to visit pretty funny vintage. as you can see, it's the prettiest place that has ever existed. (thanks for the tip, stacey!)

archive: a quick giggle

2011-10-25T16:05:00.002-04:00

when eli can sense that i'm frustrated, he'll ask,
"is it lucky to have kids?"

yes, it is very lucky to have kids!
(even when they drive me bonkers!)

the 3 very very very best of nyc on tuesday

2011-10-25T15:34:00.005-04:00

halloween '10

today's best of nyc:
forrest
eli
a.soleil

i'm feeling super lucky/blessed to have these 3 people as my little family in this big city.

home is wherever i'm with you, little family.
(awwwww)

sleepy hollow

2011-10-24T15:10:00.003-04:00

I will admit, I'm kind of proud of our funtastic day trip. My trip planning skills + E&A's endurance and ability to have fun anywhere = a day that was so much fun I wish we could recreate it every weekend. The only sad part was that Mr. FDubs couldn't come and Audrie's mini-meltdown at the Blaze. Other than that, it was a magical October day.

On the agenda:
Drive from NYC to Sleepy Hollow (I heart road trips!)
"Respectfully" tour Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Visit Old Dutch Church
Picnic in Patriots Park
Drive down to Sunnyside
Tour Washington Irving's riverside home
Read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on Washington's giant lawn
Drive to Tarrytown and
fall in love with Pretty Funny Vintage
and eat ice cream dinner on Main Street
Drive to Van Cortlandt Manor
Blaze it up with all the Jack O'Lanterns!
(are you amazed that my children were happy the whole day with that agenda? me too!)

On to the ridiculous amount of photos!

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery:

Old Dutch Church:

Patriots Park:

Sunnyside (Washington Irving's home)

isn't it beautiful? no photos allowed inside

the highlight of the day for them was finding a woolly bear caterpillar. they watched it for 20 minutes. haha! of course, the one thing that was easy and unplanned was their favorite part.

Reading:

umm... appropriate for a 3 & 5 year old? sure... eli asked at least one million questions and most of my answers ended with "it's not real, it's just a story."

(Pretty Funny Vintage is getting its own post tomorrow)

Van Cortlandt Manor's Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze:

again, a totally appropriate activity for kids...hmm...
actually, it wasn't that scary. the kids really liked it. especially the dinosaurs and posing with the jacks

he's trying to copy the faces:)

And that's when Audrie lost her marbles and I fed them lots and lots of candy.
Eli asked, "are you giving us lots of candy because you love us?"
Yes. Exactly.

As soon as we left the Blaze, I started praying for a good parking spot. A 50 minute drive later, at 9:00pm, we scored a spot right in front of our building! Booyah!

A magical day!

See, look how happy we are:

we were also very tired.

The end of one of my favorite days I've ever had with my E&A.

P.S. Local Friends, if you're want to go to the Blaze next year, get tickets early. They go super fast.

friday favorite

2011-10-21T20:17:00.003-04:00

a.soleil knocking on tomb doors in the sleepy hollow cemetery.

don't worry, in classic abbietastic fashion, there will be looooads more photos from our day trip to sleepy hollow, tarrytown, & the great jack o'lantern blaze. it was so much fun!
"but abbie, you say that about everything."
i know, i know, but this really was. celebrating halloween along the hudson is funtastic x at least a million.

right now i'm getting ready for my first real life photography job. i'll be the 2nd photographer at an upstate wedding. wish me luck!

oh yeah, 3 nyc bests on tuesday

2011-10-18T20:08:00.003-04:00

3 favorite things.
in nyc.
best city.
after grocery shopping.
on tuesday.
worst day.

malecon - best rotisserie chicken you'll ever put in your mouth
our farmers' market
the george washington bridge - it will always be our bridge

archive: a quick giggle

2011-10-18T10:02:00.000-04:00

where is corner? where is corner!?! corner!?! cooooornnnnnneeeerrrr!!!

we "lost" corner. i hid it my closet so we could ween her off, but she found it! nothing will separate a.soleil and her corner. she's so weird and silly and cool. i love her guts!

and how cute is she when she plays clair de lune on the piano (heh)? i won with this little girl and her goofball personality!
(even if she drives me bonkers sometimes!)

statue of liberty green chevron mirror

2011-10-17T08:53:00.007-04:00

Our bathroom got a little makeover back in June thanks to Reagan and Homegoods. New rug, new shower curtain, new towels for free! Yay! All in white and light blue. The red mirrors, that looked hideous with the yellow tile anyway, had to go. But I wasn't sure what to do with the wall they covered since our decorating budget is tight.
So it was up to my brain to find a cheap solution for the little wall.

Enter a chevron pattern and cool blue colors.

1st, I painted one of those Malma mirrors white.

2nd, using a ruler and a pencil, I marked one inch squares all over the mirror:

3rd, I drew diagonal lines to make a chevron pattern:

4th, the funnest part, I mixed lots of paint. See, I wanted Statue of Liberty green really bad. But Michael's doesn't sell Statue of Liberty green. So I opened my box of acrylic paints and started mixing. 5 parts Fresh Foliage, 2.5 parts white, 2 parts Laguna Blue, and .5 parts Baby Blue... I think. Result: a loooot of Statue of Liberty in a mason jar:

5th, I painted in the chevron pattern. (it looks a lot darker than it is in real life.) I thought about painting over the lines on the white, but ended up liking how they looked, so I left them:

Oh, I love this mirror! Wouldn't it look great on a red orange wall?

6th, came the big decision. Do I painted them all Statue of Liberty green or do I painted them other cool blue colors? I started to look around at the different paint in my box and photos I've taken, and decided to make it more colorful. So happy with that decision.

The color board inspiration:

all are photos i've taken (minus the avocado). that's the statue of liberty (duh), clovers are from switzerland, and doors from an old subway train.

I used Avocado Dip on the 2nd mirror, Fresh Foliage on the 3rd mirror, and mixed some more paint for the 4th mirror: base the Statue of Liberty green I made with a dose of Baby Blue.

The result!

!!!
I love!
Easy, fast, cheap, and I love them! And they make me actually kind of not hate the tile as much.

Success!

Yay for grown-up art project time!
And yay for making our student apartment a little bit happier!

What do you think?

oh the funtasticness that was last week.

2011-10-16T14:02:00.004-04:00

this is where i slap a million insties up in here and tell you about how much fun we had last week. buckle up!

the martha stewart show - fun to see how her show works and to see THE martha in real life, but our specific show was sooo boring. how to get your dog ready for halloween. ....what...the...what...??? and the door prize... it wasn't a kitchenaid or cuisineart (A FREAKING DOGGY TOY!!) but the cooking segment was good. dog stew. just kidding, it was these amazing pot pies and i really want to make them. and we got to go to the martha stewart show for free. i'll stop whining about the door prize (but a doggy toy?!?!?! WHAT!?!).

we wore sweaters. it's finally cooling down enough for sweaters!

we popped a cob. big hit. i recommend it.

we did some science experiments with vinegar and baking soda and balloons.

we made snuggly spiders.

i made a real dinner once (the dinner ball has dropped since starting homeschool. workin on it...)

i did two grown-up art projects ("tutorial" coming tomorrow!)

friend jamie and her family came up from virginia for a quick trip! so exciting! and she's coming back again next week. lucky. note to self: get picture with jamie.

on friday i felt like i was suffocating in our apartment. it was so humid and sticky and i was going nuts, so we headed to the AMoNH. eli learned what a supernova is and aurdie ran around the hall of gems yelling "dis is gowgeous!!" we super plus double love that museum.

and then we went to shake shack to try the pumpkin custard. ooohhhh mmmmyyyy. yum!

then we had a mommy-daughter girls' night that a.soleil was sooo excited about (sarcasm) "i don wan to do my hai-ya, i wan to pway wif eli." (eli is the only word with l in her vocabulary.) but once the brownies came out, she was all in.

and eli knows how to read for really real now and it's really exciting!!

and audrie is still having a million accidents a day which is driving me nuts, but i'm trying to be a nice mommy about it (working 80% of the time). she just wants to play, not be bothered by actually going to the bathroom! (or maybe it's all my fault...whatever...i HATE POTTY TRAINING!!! and she's THREE AND A HALF. we should be done! BLARRRGH! ... cue judgment from other parents.)

oh, and there was the supertastic spontaneous walk around central park with leslie. plus maybe some hummus place and levain. that basically made my week the happiest ever.

now i'm off to make chocolate chip pancakes and vegan waffles for my most handsomest of handsome eli and cutest of cute a.soleil and hottest of hot husband.

yeah, i think we nailed this week.

upstate apple picking

2011-10-11T13:37:00.002-04:00

we went to lawrence farms again for some apple picking family fun. it wasn't quite as dreamy as last year (too crowded, too warm, the leaves are still green, and some of us were feeling a little under the weather. wahwahwah), but we still enjoyed our day trip upstate. it was a great way to celebrate that forrest gets to sleep more than 4 hours every night because his surgery rotation is over. (yayayay!)

apple picking when your 3 is hard. actually, doing anything when you're 3 is hard. (bah! my one goal for this day trip was don't get in a fight with a.soleil. accomplished...barely. ilovehavinga3yearoldilovehavinga3yearoldilovehavinga3yearold)

october, you're my favorite.

3 nyc bests on tuesday

2011-10-11T13:15:00.008-04:00

Because living in NYC and urban grocery shopping can be hard, every Tuesday I want to remember 3 of my best things in NYC.
Coming at ya from the car, here is the 2nd installment of my 3 NYC bests:

American Museum of Natural History

Hampton Chutney + walking around SoHo
Fashion Education (i've learned so much about fashion in the last 2 years. i've also learned the fun of taking a self portrait with my iphone(ha!))

Here's to being happy where you are right now!
(even when it's tricky)

can i get some credit?

2011-10-06T23:36:00.005-04:00

Can I tell you (again) a reason I like blogging?
Because I can get credit for doing something that is going to be destroyed in the matter of seconds.

Like these owls, for example. One is lost and the other three have been "taken care of" by Mermaid Mother Ariel so hard that they're almost flat.

(don't look at me, a.soleil is responsible for the smooching photo op. "now we should make them smooch when you take a picture!")

And this colorful ice.
Sucked/melted and gone.

But we had fun and I took pictures, so I get credit.
And with credit comes validation.

And validation, I like it.

Speaking of validation...
Thanks for reading my little bloggie, Friends. I didn't intend for this to become anything more than a little family blog, but as it grows up...I'm liking it. So thanks for reading and for giving me Blog High Fives (that's when you comment or subscribe or follow or whatever... ya know, like, "hey, I like your blog, so yeah...High Five!" But since we can't give real life high fives, we give each other Blog High Fives. It's a real thing.)
So thanks!
Blog High Five comin' back at ya,
Abbie

p.s. credit for owls goes HERE, and credit for colorful ice goes to friend Amber for putting together the off the hook-est playschool lesson that my kids are still talking about.

another once upon a last week...

2011-10-04T16:51:00.003-04:00

we played a lot. we had loads of fun doing homeschool. a wicked rainstorm brought a leak to our ceiling. on wednesday we left at 9:30am and got home at 9pm: playschool, library, playing with friends, bday party, dinner with friends. love those days. we went to central park and hung out with (saw) MEG RYAN (!!!). true. she's so tiny. i love love double super plus love columbus circle and heckscher playground. audrie got sick. every time i see lauren graham on tv i want her to be lorelai. i laughed so hard when i saw this. i made waffles and vegan waffles for my vegan. we watched general conference. it was good, soooo good. i needed it. we went on a lot of nature walks - we're trying to get outside as much as possible before we're trapped in for months.

so that was last week.
this week has had a shaky start. both kids are sick now. boo. and not the fun halloween kind of boo.

3 posts in one day. not bad. not bad at all.

archive: a quick giggle x 6 + elevator convesations

2011-10-04T16:41:00.001-04:00

eli is constantly asking what something means: what does nailed it mean? what does understand mean? what does idiot mean? (oops)

on the subway. very loudly. eli asked. "are we going to have a new baby soon or what?"

eli was disappointed when karate was canceled because of rosh hashanah. "aw man, rosh hashanah again?"

3 of the most commons phrases that come out of a.soleil's mouth lately:

"it will take too long."
(her response to everything i ask her to do. it drives me crazy!)

"i'm making a dress."
(out of toilet paper)

"it's you're birthday today!!!"
(everyday is some one's birthday. e.ver.y.day.)

elevators are 2nd to the subway when it comes to awkward conversations

we were getting on a way-too-crowded subway elevator (most of the people being able-bodied...ARGH...a soapbox for another day). i jokingly said, "maybe i'll just send the stroller up and walk up the stairs." one of the able-bodied women dove into me, "you would do that to your child!?! just leave your poor baby girl on a elevator with strangers?!?"
"well! i would fit just freaking fine if you would take the stairs, lady!!!!!!!"
but really i said, "i was just kidding." smiley face. and straddled my stroller to fit.

in our building elevator and a guy looked at us and said, "wow. you have your hands full."
moms, what do you say? i mean, you hear this, right? i still can't figure out what to say.
so i said, "they could be fuller."
bah. i'm at a loss. let's collaborate, yes?

tuesdays: not my favorite

2011-10-04T13:43:00.004-04:00

I've never liked Tuesdays. Never. I've never liked grocery shopping. Never. Urban grocery shopping is never my happiest moment (read: poke out my eyes a little). Never ever never ever.

So, I'm gonna try something to make me a bit happier on Tuesdays. A "count your blessings" kind of thing, but with NYC flavor. Ever Tuesday I'm going to count 3 of my best NYC things. I'm going to do it from my car after I grocery shop. It's gonna be simple. Oh, and the formatting might be weird since I'm using the blogger app.

Today's NYC bests:

Rowing in Central Park
The autumn view from our window
CeciCela Patisserie

Hey! I feel better already.

friday favorite: october!

2011-09-30T13:07:00.003-04:00

images from our funtastic octobers past.

It's Rocktober Eve! (to the person who invented the mash of rock and october, let's be bffs. please?) Bah! I love October. Are you excited? I'm excited. Are you? Are you? Me? Yes. You? Yes? Yes! This is probably my favorite month. Probably.

And I need a favorite month right now with lots of fun things packed in to it because I've been in a pickle of a mood the last two days. Yeesh. (i'm missing my husband (wahwahwah), and i'm soooo over sharing a washer and dryer with strangers, and can someone give me a dishwasher and a parking spot? thanks. k. done whining. let's get to the exciting things.)

On the agenda for this favorite month: apple picking, spooky tree making, Martha Show attending, chili eating, Sleepy Hollow day tripping, vacationing in the great state of Massachusetts, Berry Maybe Mack snuggling, playing with Rachel (!!), Chelsea Market-ing, historic cemeteries field tripping, and Halloween! So excited! Times a million. It's gonna be a great month. Plus, General Conference is this weekend and that always slaps a smile on my face.

Three of the loudest cheers ever for the greatest month of October!

once upon a last week...

2011-09-28T08:08:00.000-04:00

my kids were cute, really cute. and i fell in love with abc city. and i finished the book room and i liked it even though it's really intense. and the first day of fall happened. and we were really excited because we love fall. and i went to the temple and it was perfect. and i loved the general rs meeting. and i got my very first parking ticket and that wasn't fun at all, but it was a good week so i wasn't that mad.

the end.

box city on a rainy day

2011-09-26T12:04:00.010-04:00

raise your hand if you have this rug from ikea! do your kids play with it? mine rarely do and i really want to get new rug, but um...can't right now. so! the 2nd choice was to do something that would make it fun for them again because, you know, that's the frugal, responsible, hip thing to do.

enter a bunch of boxes from our recycling, construction paper, masking tape, markers, and toilet paper rolls.

this was the perfect indoor activity on rainy friday (it was pouring! i stepped in a i-thought-not-so-deep-puddle-but-was-really-deep-puddle and filled my rain boot with water. sog socks. nuts.)

a. soleil decided the trees were in the wrong place and the houses needed to be "party houses" with rooftop gardens.

make these with your kids if you want them to have fun/leave you alone for a couple of hours. they'll love it! and you'll feel great because you were a good mom, and didn't buy a new rug when you really wanted to.

archive: a quick giggle

2011-09-26T11:59:00.004-04:00

we can't go peeps in our panties.
we can't go poops in our panties.
but we can go toots in our panties.
right?

friday favorite

2011-09-23T17:27:00.001-04:00

merchant house museum

2011-09-23T09:21:00.002-04:00

(i couldn't get a good shot of the outside so i stole this one)

I've been wanting to go to the Merchant House Museum for a long time because, you guys, I am a nerd for old house. They're my favorite kind of museum. We liked it. The decor didn't touch the beauty of the Morris Jumel (<---those are some of my favorite photos I've ever taken), but it was still really cool to see this 1830s house and how this rich family lived in the East Village. When we walked in and saw the photos of the family, Eli said, "oooh, this house is in the olden days like your shows." Yep, he's referring to my BBC addiction. K. I really need to do a post about how cool I am, obviously. Because things are getting really nerdy around here.

I made and extra effort to make it good for the kids so they would have fun and learn something.

How to make an old boring house fun for kids:

Tell them it was built before the Empire State Building. Eli asked if it was built before the dinosaurs. He was disappointed when I said no.
Ask them questions like: How is our house different from this house? How is this house the same as our house?
Pretend that it's ours and play house. But don't touch anything or the people in charge will get mad.
Play all sorts of games in the garden. The walkway makes a great race track.
Have thorough discussion about the chamber pots and commode chair. They'll giggle and giggle about people going potty in a pot. And it will increase gratitude for modern plumbing.
Take them to Tompkins Square Park after touring the house and enjoy it a lot. The park and ABC City kind of won us over - we loved it. And the stop at Caracas made life really happy. I actually came home and looked up apartment prices in the East Village/ABC City and then laughed and laughed and laughed because yeah right! Maybe in my dreams...

Here are a few (a lot of) shots. I'm sad they didn't turn out better. Will someone teach me how to gracefully handle my camera while mothering my kids?

The garden was definitely their favorite part:

making a game plan

race track

homeschool: logistics and such

2011-09-21T23:28:00.005-04:00

Hi! Thanks for all the love! You guys are the best. Really, you made my day with all your nice notes.

So, this post is basically answering a lot of questions I've gotten on how we're going to make it all work. These are the answers I've got so far. Obviously I have experience the size of a grain of salt. Maybe a grain of rice since I've been his mom for awhile. Anyway...

The S word: Socializing. I guess this is kind of a big deal. At least when I did research it was a buzz word. How can you prevent your child from becoming an anti-social robot when you homeschool? This is how we do it/plan to keep doing it: he has a little sister (who has a personality big enough to be at least 5 friends), multiple hours at the park each week with a slew of children ripe for the friending, homeschool posse, and playdates galore. Point: I don't see Eli becoming an anti-social robot, at least not this year:).

Curriculum: The best gem I came across was THIS. It, obviously, guided my choices as far as what books to use.
For Math: we're using MCP Math Level A book. We like it and Eli is blowing through it. One morning he asked if he could do math while I was in the shower. Ha!
For Reading: it's all about Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lesson. He loves the book and is picking it up fast. I think watching it all click for him is my favorite. We'll follow up with a phonics book (to be decided - any recommendations? i'm still searching). And, of course, a boatload of easy readers from our library and other books.
For Writing: we have those books for him to practice writing his letters. This is what he like to do for "homework". He also loves taking over the dry erase board.

For Art: my brain, books and blogs. We've made THESE owls, THIS milk art, painted pictures, sculpted with playdough, and had thorough discussion about the color wheel. We love art time! Especially me, oh and him, oh and Audrie. Yeah, it's the best.
Story Time: daily. Right now we're reading a chapter of Stuart Little and then a book Audrie wants to read (possibly one with an interactive poop wheel or a princess book). Plus, we read a lot through out the day and at bedtime.
PE: park, yoga, urban living, karate, etc.
Science and History: before he goes to bed he reads a chapter in The Short History of Nearly Everything and John Adams. What can I say? He has a really great teacher. (sarcasm) But really, we're using the library for science and history books. And we plan to spend loads of time at museums and at the AMoNH. I love that I can say, "Eli, what do you want to learn about?" and we go from that.
Etc: I just ordered a BrainQuest Wookbook on a recommendation (thanks Liz!). Grami Tami sent him a gift of Teach Me app, which is basically Eli's crack - loves it! Of course we use our long time BFF Starfall. And we will definitely be going on lots and lots of field trips, at least 2x a month. (can i be honest in parenthesis for a minute? field trips actually helped me get really comfortable with this schooling at home decision. we live in such an exciting place and i want my kids to have as many cool experience as possible. if we're not locked into 7:30-3 schedule, then we get to play/see more as a family! aaahhh!! it makes me really excited!)

The (ideal) Schedule:
I think the thing I was most worried/stressed about is how homeschool would fit in our day when we already had so much going on. This is a schedule that I came up with that made me feel like it would all be doable. It's the ideal, we definitely don't have it down yet, but it's helped to have everything written out to keep us on task. I've also learned to say no to things that we didn't need in our life, which was really good for me and all of us. So, here is what our ideal week would look like. When people ask, "but when do you do laundry/grocery shop/have Me Time?" I can look and say, "well, I'm supposed to do it on Thursday/go on Tuesday/every night while Forrest is studying." :)

Monday
up, ready, yoga
school time
lunch
free play while mommy takes care o’ bidness
park
dinner
bedtime routine
me time & clean 20/20 style
bedtime for me

Tuesday
up, ready, yoga
grocery shopping
lunch
school time
meet with homeschool friend group
dinner
bedtime routine
me time & clean 20/20 style
bedtime for me

Wednesday
up, ready, yoga
playschool for Audrie / Eli plays with homeschool friends
lunch
school time
free play while mommy takes care o' bidness
karate for Eli
dinner
bedtime routine
me time & clean 20/20 style
bedtime for me

Thursday
up, ready, yoga
school time
laundry
lunch
farmer’s market
park
dinner
bedtime routine
me time & clean 20/20 style
bedtime for me

Friday
up, ready, yoga
errands/move the car
lunch
school time + park or field trip!
dinner
date night!
bedtime

Saturday
clean: bathroom & floors
play! play! play!
calling stuff

Sunday
church
calling stuff
family time!
plan

The Long Term Plan: Like I said in the last post, we're taking it a year at a time.

What do you do with Audrie:

If you've held on this long, you deserve to know what Audrie does during school time.

winking

She joins us, plays with her toys, reads book, makes dresses out of toilet paper (her #1 super plus favorite thing to do in the entire world!), or occasional takes a nap. Mostly she just joins in.

Whoa! That was A LOT! Anymore questions about homeschool or fantastic ideas you want to tell me about?

Also, if you want to give advice, I would love to hear. Love. As long as it's nice and not "you're screwing up your child for keeping him at home!" That's not nice advice. And it isn't even advice. But, Friends, I don't think you'd even say that because you're so great!

K. The end.

P.S. as fake promised, we're taking a little break from school talk and focusing only on important things like Modern Family is back! Yay! And Parenthood? You guys, I can't like it. I've tried 3 times, but it's so boring and it feels like some actors are going for the "we're gonna pretend this is reality tv conversation style" and others have no clue what's going on and give dramatic monologues. I don't get it. And New Girl. Blah. Didn't impress me, but do any pilots? I might check in later. But nothing matters because Modern Family is back! K. The end for real.

G'night!

homeschool: why?

2011-09-20T15:59:00.009-04:00

I'm feeling kinda shy about sharing this. I started writing it up on Saturday and for some reason...I don't know...it feels like it's TMI to just throw on the internet. But I remember reading other homeschoolin' mommas' posts and feeling so grateful that they shared, especially during those times when I wasn't sure I could do what I had been prompted to do.
So, if you don't care why we're homeschooling, skip this.
If you're one of the many good friends who is interested in knowing why I would choose to homeschool Eli, read this little slice of the beginning of our journey. It was very therapeutic to write.
K. Thanks. I love you.

I would love to blame the fact the our 'hood school is kinda sorta really bad. Not exactly right for us (inner ciiitaaay in all its gloooraaay!).
I would love to blame how ridiculously tricky & stressful it is to get your child into a good school you're not zoned to. I think any NYC parent would lament about the stress of what school to send their kid to. Unless they're in the right neighborhood, but I don't know if those parents would talk to me when they see I'm wearing clothes from Target (i kid i kid...kinda).
I would also love to claim that I'm a homeschool extremist who is trying to change education & push an agenda.

But none of these are completely true, only parts of the puzzle.

It stinks that our neighborhood school is pretty bad.
It was really tricky and stressful to research and research and research what schools would be best for Eli and how to get him in.
And unfortunately, I'm no extremist. (oh, the fun we'd have if i were! haha!)

The story is...

When I was doing all of that research, I felt a bit sick. I know some of the schools I looked at are GREAT. Seriously, I could have fallen in love with a lot of them (wouldn't have loved the commute, though), but I knew deep down they weren't right for Eli.

We also chatted about moving, but we love our apartment and we're so close to the hospital. And the thought of moving makes me want to pluck my eyeballs out.

I was chatting with a friend at church one day and homeschooling came up. My first reaction was, I could neeeever do that. (haha! i have to giggle every time i hear that from people when i tell them i'm homeschooling eli.) I had absolutely no intentions of homeschooling my kids, but the more we talked about homeschool the more I was intrigued. I did some homeschool research while I was researching NYC schools, and the feeling was complete contrast. The idea of homeschooling was starting to sound so peaceful and perfect for Eli and right for our family. But as soon as I felt the peace, I would quickly remind myself, I could neeeever do that!

As we got closer to application deadlines and testing dates and school tours, I started to realize that it was stressing me out so much. I was knee-deep in a stupor when I thought about what school would be right for Eli.

So, I tested the homeschool seed again and it was exciting. I tried to turn off the I Could Never Do That voice, and just pretend that I could. And things started falling into place: I started talking to people who got me excited about it, reading good books & blogs, and it all felt so right! For Eli. For our family. For kindergarten.

We prayed and fasted and prayed and fasted some more. And made the hardest decision we've ever made as parents: we are going to homeschool for kindergarten.

I would love to say that since deciding I've been completely confident in my ability to homeschool and do everything else I need to do, but I wasn't. And I doubted, a lot. A lot a lot. And I got sick of people looking at me like I was locking my child in his room to make friends with his furniture when I told them our plan.

Then we had our first day of school. It was magical. It was peaceful. Complete validation washed over me, I know that this is right. Right for Eli. Right for our family. Right for kindergarten.

We're only two weeks in and so far we love it. Eli is soaking it all up and I love seeing him learn. Audrie is enjoying it too. The ultimate happiness is when Eli teaches Audrie something new. I love it! And having a huge part of my day where I'm completely focused on educating my children without any distraction kinda makes me feel like a great mom.

There are also moments when I catch a glimpse of the full view and see the deeper meaning of why I'm supposed to be homeschooling Eli this year. The bigger picture is clear to me and it makes me so grateful that when making this decision I could turn to my Heavenly Father and ask Him what is best for Eli and me and our family.

This is right for Eli. This is right for our family. This is right for kindergarten*.
Hooooray!

Tomorrow I'm going to talk more about the logistics of our schooling. It's gonna be a blast, I tell ya. A funtastic blast. And then after tomorrow I promise to only talk about TV for a month. Oh wait, I don't make promises on this blog anymore, but are you crossing your fingers that New Girl is going to be good? Me too! But it's on Fox... I'm managing my expectations.

*We'll decide what we're doing for 1st grade next year.

mmw weekend

2011-09-19T08:51:00.001-04:00

We had the honor of snuggle-sitting Miss Merrimack Maple (yes, the very same Merrimack Maple whose birth i witnessed! we're tight, real right) while her parents went to a wedding in PA. We had a great time! Baby Merrimack, or "Berry Maybe Mack" -Eli, is the happiest little baby there ever was. I couldn't get over how good she was for the 30 hours we claimed her as our third child. E&A had so much fun entertaining her. They loved her and protested strongly when she was ready for a nap, "nooo! we want to play with her!" Her happy noises in the morning made me want to hide her and not answer the door when K+T came to pick her up. Oh my snuggle, we like her a lot. She was well loved while she was here, very well loved. I hope she'll come again! Soon soon soon.

You want to snuggle-sit her too, don't you?

See you in October, Berry Maybe Mack!

saturday night summary

2011-09-17T21:44:00.014-04:00

While Forrest reads Surgical Recall, I'm going to quickly recap what happened this week. Because WOW! It was incredibly busy. I can't believe everything we did. Here it is. Well, the parts I remember...

Monday - Friday: Forrest played surgeon and studied from the wee hours til dark.

Abbie, Eli, and A.Soleil did:

Monday
Homeschool in the morning. Library and errands in the afternoon. There were 9/11 tributes around our hood. It was really cool to see them. The library was successful. I'm a lot more focused now that we're homeschooling - we got books about fall and starting school, and Audrie picked one about a baby chick...that has an interactive poop wheel... I'm not uploading that picture. And then we hit our park, which we do almost everyday because that E&A need to run and play with their friends!

Tuesday
Epic shopping trip with Diana and Oliver. Haha! We should have taken pictures of the 5 of us bringing our groceries home. Oh man, shopping in this city is completely nuts! School time with lots of art time, laundry (8 loads! ah!), girls' night at Ashley's, and one last major planning session for the Ward Chili Cook-Off.

Wednesday
Audrie's first day of Playschool! It was so much fun! We have such a great group this year. (except...where is OLIVE!?!? double frowny face.) And Eli did an excellent job doing "homework" while Audrie was in "school". We're super lucky because there are a few other homeschooling families that are apart of the playschool group, so Eli has a little HS Posse. (side note: homeschooling in nyc is super cool).
And another first: Eli started Karate! He loooved it! LOVED. And I loved watching his little karate moves. (you know photos of him in his uniform are coming)

Thursday
School Time in the morning. Major cleaning and Pumpkin Blondie making for hosting of Book Club. We read My Life in France. I'm not quite finished, but I'm loving it 3/4 of the way done.

Friday
Errand running, school time, fall candle lighting (it's cool enough!), last minute Chili Cook-Off prep, and a romantical date with the husband I have been missing so much! We went to Taqueria Y La Fonda yummy and cheap. Forrest was sooo tired (poor man!), so we came home and I watched Project Runway while he snoozed on my shoulder.

SATURDAY! The day I'd been eustressing about all week!
We had a relaxing morning. (let's be honest, we needed it.) and then I went to the church to set up for the Annual Chili Cook-Off. Why was I in charge of the Chili Cook-Off this year? I'll tell you.
(Friends who aren't Mormon, ask questions if any of this sounds like jibba-jabba. You're about to get an excellent window into how we socialize as a church congregation.)
So why? Well, since all activities committees church wide where dissolved, our Bishop asks each auxiliary to put on one of the big yearly activities. The Relief Society was asked to put on the Chili Cook-Off, and since I'm the RS Meetings (activities) counselor, I got the lucky job of heading it up with my AMAZING leader(s) and committee. Seriously, I love those ladies for all the work they put into tonight. And I have a new appreciation for what it takes to pull off a huge event like this. We've done a lot for just the RS, but an event for 100 people! Yeah...it took a lot of work.
Anyway, the night was a giant success! The food was good and Stacey won Best Chili - yay!

So, that was our week. I think I'm going to go crash into bed completely satisfied that this week was successful and it's over.

G'night!

friday favorite: 4 (+ a personal note)

2011-09-16T09:51:00.002-04:00

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. This book was really good. You should read it.
2. Sweet Potato Chili from Whitney. Soooo yummy. Get the recipe HERE.
3. Matt and Kim, y'all, Matt and Kim. The last two weeks have been some of my most intense weeks of motherhood (homeschool + pretend-single-mommying) ever. Ever. Good good good good, but intense. When I'm feeling like there is no possible way I can clean the apartment and do the dishes after putting the kids to bed, I slap on a little Matt and Kim, specifically Block After Block or Daylight, and I'm ready to finish my day's work with the occasional back flip (and then fall dead into bed).
4. Instagram. Ok, everyone loves Instagram, but I LOOOOVE it. It's scratched my blogging itch when I haven't had time to pull together a whole post. It's my micro blog.

+++

I'm still trying to figure out how my whole life is going to work. Deciding to homeschool was deciding to majorly reorganize my Me Time. There is so much I want to do with that shrunken time and for .5 seconds yesterday I thought to myself, maybe it's time to stop blogging and focus on other things. And then I shook my head really hard and thought, are you kidding, self?!? You love blogging! I do. I really do. It's cathartic for me. A place to record my adorable kids' photos and quotes, a place to share thoughts and get great ideas, a place to keep up with family & friends and make new friends. Blogging has been so good for me and I've come up with some ideas to make blogging fit into my newly reorganized Me Time. I think it's gonna be funtastic. So stick with me, Friends, I think you'll enjoy.

Love,
Abbie

P.S. a wise woman once said about blogging, "go easy on the promises." And I'm listening. But I reeeeeally do want to write more about the temple and my beliefs, essay about homeschool, and answer FAQs. It just might take me awhile, so yeah... more exciting things to come! (wait...is that a promise? hmm...)

archive: a quick giggle

2011-09-16T08:54:00.002-04:00

"mommy, can you tell audrie to stop bothering me? i'm doing real imagination and she is doing pretend imagination, so we can't play together."

- figure out where the internet fits

2011-09-10T00:15:00.010-04:00

hi. i'm trying to figure out where blogging, facebook, pinterest, basically-anything-to-do-with-the-internet fit into our new structure of daily life. whoa, this week has been intense. great, fantastic, pure motherhood goodness, but intense. i'm happy and tired.

also, true to our prediction, forrest is rarely home. he leaves at 4:30/5:00am, acts like a surgeon (he's cut & stitched! wow, right?), gets home at 10pm, eats, studies until he falls asleep, and the cycle starts over. he's happy and tired.

so, until i figure out how to squeeze loads of blogging back into my life (and i will!), please enjoy this:

the most adorable goofball you've ever beheld, right?

p.s. God bless our city & country! hoping we will be safe this weekend as we remember the 10th anniversary of 9/11. the city is prepared for anything - thick security all over the place. prayers are going up!

first day of kindergarten!

2011-09-06T23:00:00.004-04:00

Today was his first day of Kindergarten! Eli is a Kindergartener! (How?!? HOW!?!)
The school part of the day was magical. I can't believe how well it went. He was so good and so excited to learn. When we finished up with the math part of our day, he asked for more. "MORE MATH PLEASE!" My son is basically a genius. I'm so proud of my little man! And I'm so happy I enjoyed it as much as I did. I know I'll have days when I want to ship him off to boarding school, but today, today was great and confirmed that we made the right decision to homeschool for K.

filling out his info sheet - ha! / more math!!!

Audrie did really well too. She would join in half the time and would take off her skirt and ride her bike the other half. Oh, that A.Soleil, hope she's soaking up something.

P.S. I really want to explain more about our decision to homeschool for K because lots of people have asked and it has been helpful for me to read other people's essays on WHY. So yeah...stay tuned for that...

Bah! I'm about to use a new tag: homeschool - yay!

ditching responsibility in the west village

2011-09-06T22:37:00.001-04:00

i had big plans for monday. big. i was going to do everything that i'd been neglecting all summer. you know, cleaning, weekly kindergarten lesson prep, organize every single inch of my entire life.
buuuut...
it was the last day of summer! we had to do something fun and ignore all responsibility, so we:
hit snice for some vegan yupster* goodness.
then walked over to bleeker playground to soak up every ounce of the sunny 80 degrees.
theeen, because the bathroom reeeally needed cleaning, we went up to javits playground until the sun was setting.
it was glorious.

dear summer,
thank you for being so good to us this year. we love your guts!
love,
little family

p.s. as soon as the kids were in bed, i cleaned and prepped my b's off. yep, i was up until 3am cleaning planning cleaning planning cleaning planning! and it payed off. we had the best first day of school of all time. i'll tell you all about it in a minute.

*you guys! i thought i invented the word yupster! i was so proud of my cleverity. but no, i did not come up with the title for yuppies who want to be hipsters.

archive: a quick giggle starring grandma

2011-09-06T22:36:00.001-04:00

when i told grandma white (forrest's g-ma) that my brother (spencer, father of milo & issy) and my sister (melissa, mother of lyla & olivia) both have twins, she said,

"well...what's wrong with you?"

hahaha! i love g-ma white!
she has twins (uncle ken & aunt carol) and is hoping that one of her grandchildren will follow in her footsteps.
ummm...not sure if i want it to be me...

how we fall

2011-09-03T08:20:00.005-04:00

last year i was kind of a jerk to the beginning of fall. i wouldn't let it in too early because my worst enemy, the-season-not-to-be-named, follows fall. but this year i am living up every fall moment! beginning with some flashbacks to some of my favorite fall fun times. i even added it to the sidebar --->
happy fall!

bring on the pumpkin desserts!

butternut squash at its best

halloween-ing in boston (if all goes as planned, we'll be in boston for halloween this year!)

nyc trick-or-treating

orange

sleepy hollow

spooky turned gratitudinal

turn that apple crisp inside out

upstate apple picking

we heart h-a-double l-o-double u-double e-n!

wow. i am reeeeally excited now.

random rollin round

2011-09-02T22:19:00.003-04:00

Let's start with the negative, shall we?

I've been thisclose to writing a super whiny post about how tricky (when I say tricky I mean hard, stupid, crabby) things has been the last couple of days. I miss my husband! I just wish we had more time together. And motherhood! MOTHERHOOD IS SO HARD. And this city... Oh, New York, I wish our relationship were more stable. It seems when I'm having a hard time I want to throw my shoe at NYC's stupid head.

{super long ultra sigh of the century}

The reason I didn't write that post (haha), because I feel totally ridiculous complaining about those things because they're blessings, ya know. It's hard having Mr. Fdubs in med school, and having kids is the most intense experience of my life, and NYC is completely nuts, but it could be so much harder. Like my power could still be out from hurricane Irene or our apartment could be under 3 feet of water. Or I could be hungry or worried about my safety. ETC. So yeah...I'm blessed.

I'm happy my hot husband is living his dream, I super plus LOVE my E&A, and we all know I love my city. But HOLY WOW I just want to cry my eyeballs out sometimes. (just typing that out made me feel better. thanks for letting me cry on your virtual shoulders, friends.)

Anyway...let's move on to the positive.

this summer was good to us

We ROCKED our Summer Bucketlist. This summer was AMAZING! We had so much fun going on our field trips with our friends! I thought the list was ambitious when I wrote it, but we did really well. And the things we didn't do - Homeschool Field Trips! Booyah!

loads of delicious apples at the farmer's market

I heart September so much. I mean, who doesn't love this month? When we were playing in the garden today, I almost needed a cardigan. A cardigan! Oh, Cardigan Weather, I love your guts.

Forrest finished his pediatric rotation. He really liked working with those tiny babies. Now he's starting his surgery rotation. It's gonna be brutal. We're basically never going to see him for the next 5 weeks. (medschoolisablessingicandohardthingsmedschoolisablessingicandohardthingsmedschoolisablessingicandohardthings)

I made a deep cleaning calendar. I'm really proud of myself. A deep cleaning chore for everyday of the month. Maybe I should share this. If I were a real mommy blogger trying to improve the world with my blog, I would share it, but I'm just here to brag and whine apparently (that was me doing sarcasm).

the paper chain on sunday. it's getting so short!

We start homeschool next Tuesday. My baby is in kindergarten! I have a whole essay planned on the How Why Where about our homeschool plan, but I just need to find time to write that essay. I've been kinda busy being grumpy and planning our curriculum.

I'm so excited for fall. So excited! Yay!

I did NINE LOADS OF LAUNDRY YESTERDAY!

We went on a little field trip to Chelsea. I tell ya, we really like Chelsea Waterside Park. We also really like Doughnut Plant. Overpriced? Yes. Delicious? Double yes. And seeing Chelsea Hotel? Pretty cool.

The End.

archive: a quick giggle

2011-09-02T22:17:00.001-04:00

we were heading out the door to go to the pool and i asked her to take off her "clacky" sunday shoes and put on her flip-flops. she started bawling, fell on the floor and cried, "but my fwip-fwops don't make the right sound!"

chapter 1: the wedding day

2011-08-31T08:19:00.004-04:00

I don't use the word lovely very often. Actually, I never use it. But that was the perfect word to describe Mel & Danny's wedding. Lovely. Everything was lovely. She looked beautiful. He was handsome. Her dress! Lovely! The colors, the details, the flower girls' dresses, the luncheon, the reception. Lovely lovely lovely. And fun!
So...basically, I want a do over (or a vow renewal) and I want Mel to plan it all for me. I'm sure that's exactly what you want to do right now, huh, Mel?

At the temple:

can you get over these kids? i can't! they were so cute!

i love my burp'ems boy!

silly, silly girls.

but i think this one takes the cake for silliest.

At the luncheon:

The luncheon was a picnic under Danny's tree house. I KNOW! Get out! So fun and sweet and...lovely:)

winning their hearts as a new uncle.

awww! (why did i not take more pictures of eloise?!?! blah!)

The reception:

Get ready to have your mind explode. Everything at the reception was perfect! Oh my, the detail! I tell ya, those ladies did some incredible DIY projects for this reception. I'm sure their photographer captured it beautifully, but here are a few shots I got.

the night before the wedding, all the girls got together and dipped these cake pops and frosted cupcakes. they turned out pretty well, if i do say so myself.

and then there was the cotton candy! ahh! so fun! i NEED a do-over! with forrest, of course.

these three girls were glued together the entire night. so cute! audrie loves her twinnie girl cousins.

milo is pretty much eli's idol until the end of time. if milo wasn't in his view, he would ask constantly where he was / and get out!! with the cuteness of these twins!

she was pretty grumpy until she got her cotton candy.

and then there was the backdrop. prepared to be the most impressed you've ever been with a DIY project. this thing is amazing! AMAZING! i want it for my house. i want to design an entire room around. one day i will make a replica.

are you dying?!?! amazing, right?

made by:

tami

and this picture of my daddio...i love it!

That was the wedding day. It was so much fun! I love weddings, especially when it's someone I love so much.

Three cheers for Mel and Danny!!!

you need a higher dose of this lovely wedding? go HERE and check out more photos on my flickaflickaflickr.

chapter 2: mel & danny sittin in a tree...swing.

2011-08-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

chapter 3: up dream home

2011-08-30T11:40:00.000-04:00

i found my dream home. now i need to figure out how to ship it to new york...

are you in love?!?
i am. i so am. it was so adorable. and, honestly, i really loved the floor plan because it was interesting and the detail was perfect. so full of character.

thanks for giving us a tour, mom!

go HERE for more info. i'm not sure if you can get tours anymore because the parade of homes is over. but if you can, you should go see it. adorable!

chapter 4: hiking with city kids

2011-08-30T11:32:00.000-04:00

My Mom is an outdoorsy kind of woman. I have a lot of memories of our family doing all sorts of outdoorsy things. Utah is the perfect place to be to enjoy nature, and enjoy we did when we took E&A on their first nature hike (they've done plenty of urban hiking). There was a bit of complaining about the bugs and dirt getting in shoes (bah! city kids!), but they had fun and memories were made.

why are sticks so fun? eli left his beloved stick behind and we had to turn around for it.

makeshift bridges, also a lot of fun. peeing on trees, best part of his little boy life.

running around like a goofball discovering things, that's what she lives for.

After our kid friendly hike, we drove up to the top of Kennecott Copper mine. The kids thought it was kind of amazing. They kept asking how the "workers" cut off the top of the mountain.

Those Utah mountains...they're pretty much the most beautiful.

chapter 5: bachelorette bowling

2011-08-30T11:24:00.000-04:00

there is nothing wicked about these step ladies.
Tami, Mel Rae (the bride), Erika and ...

Baby Eloise (Erika's sweet tiny babe)!

oh, and the crazy ones.

Oh my fun night!
Someone else will have to tell you about a certain recipe book Mel got. I just can't. Hahaha!!

We are a happy family!

chapter 6: big sister

2011-08-29T23:31:00.001-04:00

this is melissa and i love her guts to the moon and back! and then back to the moon and then around the sun a couple of times. yeah, i love her. a lot a lot. i'm way too lucky to have her as my big sister.

chapter 7: the food

2011-08-29T23:20:00.000-04:00

My Top 5:

Red Iguana - Oh, I heart this place so much. The mole! The Lomo de Puerco en Mole de Almendras!
Kneaders - I've never met a sandwich I didn't like walking out of that place. Plus their desserts! Yes, I'll have two or three, thank you.
Blue Lemon - Best salad and sweet potato fries that have ever been in my mouth. I need. More. Now. Please.
Paradise Bakery cookies - There is a reason they're famous. Who can send me a box?
Of course, the Rio. Of course.

Now you know where to go when you visit Utah.

chapter 8: cousins @ temple square

2011-08-29T23:15:00.001-04:00

Our day at Temple Square was highlighted by my bff cousins Bekah and Sydnie. It was so much fun! Lots of memories with these girls, including an epic trip to Nauvoo. Haha! Oh gosh, we've had a lot of fun together. Cousins really do make the best playmates when you're little and big.

who does that crazy little girl belong to?

This is my Grandma Seeley, the great woman responsible for given me all my funtastic cousins and super plus aunties and uncles. Thanks, Granny!

chapter 9: sal & liberty park

2011-08-29T23:13:00.000-04:00

Hanging out with Foreign Exchange Momma* Sallie & Fam is a giant highlight of my life. We always have fun. Always! We can be laughing our faces off one second and the next we're diving deep into the meaning of life. I love this lady!

rowing canoes in the duck pond.

Liberty Park is the greatest park in SLC, hands down. It's like the mini Central Park. We lalaloved it there.

* she isn't really my foreign exchange momma, i just like to call her that because i spent A LOT of time at her house my junior and senior year of high school. she also inspires me a whole lot!

chapter 10: lagoon

2011-08-29T09:04:00.001-04:00

I remember being at Lagoon when I was young and thinking there was no way my parents were having any fun. I mean, hello! they weren't going on any of the big rides. They were just watching me spin around in circles.
Well, I stand corrected. It's SO MUCH FUN watching your kids spin on those funny little rides. And thanks to my super plus rockin' Momma, we got to do it for free (thanks, Momma and Momma's work!). We went with my sister and her twinnies and it was a blast! We were there 8 hours and E&A enjoyed every single tiny second. At the end of our trip, it was definitely one of their biggest roses of Utah.

chapter 11: ya gotta have friends

2011-08-29T09:00:00.001-04:00

Shaylynn, Christie, Danielle, Angie, Kalli, Heather, Jean, Heather, Nicole, Bridget, Cris, Laurisa, Danielle, Laurisa with all of our kids minus Carter, Heather, Jean, Nicole, Heather, Mitch, and Sal. (so sad I didn't get pictures with Natalie, Julie, and Doris).
(Do you see that linkage? Man, I love blogging!)

Playing with friends was a high priority for me while in Utah. Every get together, including the Funtastic Picnic Party!!!, was so much fun! Bah! I loved seeing these ladies (+ Mitch:))! We spent our time talking, catching up and having our minds exploded at where we all are now. Some Friends I hadn't seen since junior high / high school, and one I'd never seen in real life (yay for blog friends! hi kalli).

Now I need to figure out how to get us all in the same neighborhood...

Utah Friends, I love you! Thanks for playing!

p.s. danielle...yeah, she's one of those cool moms.

chapter 12: richfield

2011-08-29T08:57:00.004-04:00

The tiny house I live in until I was 7.

I grew up in the teeny tiny town of Richfield. One day my Mom said, "we should go to Richfield on Saturday." So we packed up and headed south to see that quaint little town where I spent the first 7 years of my life. It was so fun! It's amazing how small it is compared to how big it felt when I was little.

this teeny library smells exactly the same. aw, i loved this little place as a little girl.

G-ma Neen's house.

G-ma Seeley's old house.

The Ideal Dairy was the place to hang out when we were kids. We went there all the time. They built a new location, which is kinda sad, but the ice cream is still AMAZING.

cream slush. best idea ever. delicious slushie with delicious ice cream. mmmmm!!

audrie learning how to put on lipstick properly.

After finishing our ice cream, we went further south to the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

On our way home we found Little Jerusalem, but we didn't get that close, so yeah...no picture.

When we got home we drank up some punch bags from the Ideal. Yes, that is a bag full of punch. You've gotta love the genius in rural Utah.

chapter 13: temples

2011-08-28T18:17:00.000-04:00

"Audrie, don't talk to me right now. I'm counting temples."
-Eli

It still amazes me that there are so many temples in Utah. I mean, I shouldn't be that amazed because I grew up there, but it does amaze me. Maybe it's because I took them for granted (hello! Forrest and I could walk to the Provo temple when we lived there) or maybe it's because I wasn't Mormon part of the time I lived in Utah and they didn't hold the significance they hold now. Or maybe it's because there are two new temple so close to my Mom's house. Whatever it is, I loved seeing them and teaching E&A about them and why they are special to me.
I love the temple and seeing a bunch in such a small space inspired me to go more often (that's my spiritual mini goal this fall).

Yay for temples! I love them!

Hey Friends! If you're not Mormon and want to know more about Mormon temples, please ask. I promise to answer. Or you can go HERE to learn more. K, thanks!

chapter 14: lyla & olivia's b-day!

2011-08-28T18:14:00.001-04:00

we got to celebrate lyla and olivia's 4th birthday before we went to the airport. like everything else we did, it was loads of fun. the night included games, throwing up leaves for a "surprise!", delicious fajitas (my mom wins when it comes to food, fo real), cake, and another performance. every night these three girls hung out ended in a performance. oh man! they are cute together! eli was their director and made sure they were on cue. cousins are the best!

i can't believe these girls are four. remember when they weighed 5 pounds? i could hold them at the same time in one arm! now they're cute big girls with silly personalities.

Happy Birthday Lyla and Olivia!

chapter 15: texting

2011-08-28T16:43:00.002-04:00

two madly in love people reveal the behind the scenes in their many text conversations.

A: audrie is asleep in the taxi and eli is dozing. we miss you too much already!

(an hour later i sent him this - a picture of audrie's paper towel covered barf, which was followed by a call explaining that audrie had just puked at jfk while waiting for our flight. fun times!)

F: at least it's not our carpet and at least she's really cute.

A: true. (and at least i'm a bit seasoned and don't get frazzled when my kid pukes all over the airport.)

A: love you! turning off.

F: love you. have a good flight.

A: we just landed. audrie barfed twice on the plane and has a fever. what could it be!?! maybe i should take her to the ER:) (forrest sees a lot of viral infections in the ER while on his pediatric rotation). smoo. i miss you.

F: thanks for taking care of her. give her and eli big hugs from their daddy.

A: how many times would you have asked me to prom?

(my senior picture)

A: we're going to the store. eli asked in a super whiny voice how many blocks away the car was parked. i told him it was in the driveway. he said "yay!' city kid.

F: i'm in the ER for 1 more hour, then overnight tonight. thanks for the updates.

A: your baby is very sick! she has a giant fever and was up all night. :( how was your shift? how many viral infections? i love you! smoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F: poor baby! thanks for taking care of her. the shift last night was ok. i wasn't too tired, but there was a lot of waiting around. i'm moving the car, then it's sleep time.

A: street cleaning canceled on mon aug 15th.

A: i found our future home!

A: i'm obsessed. obsessed! i can't stop thinking about it. and the inside was soooooo cute!

A: my mom loves audrie's scowl.

A: awwwww! i heart my school!

A: awwwwwwww!

A: GUESS WHO JUST MET ELDER NELSON AT THE CREAMERY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

A: i shook his hand and told him my husband was in medical school. he asked where and i told him columbia and he said, "wow" very softly. and then said, "good luck to you" and i said "i think of your wife often because she was so great" (that dantzel was an amazing woman!) and he said, "she was a great lady." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was amazing! and this ice cream is so good!

A: ahhhhhhh!!!!

A: i think i'm just going to text you until you call me back. i shook hands with an apostle! i love utah! and not just any apostle, the dr. apostle!

F: eating pizza and root beer for dinner.

A: lucky. but i'm holding this. jealous?

A: i got up at 5am for the wedding. are you proud of me?

A: our baby is nuts! my dad said she is full of opinions and not shy to share them. i think she's enjoying herself. and eli has a fever:( poor kid. oh, and i met elder nelson yesterday.

F: poor burp'ems!

A: they're really cute with their cousins.

A: we're having fun at the wedding. what are you up to?

F: taking my new haircut to dinner with dan t, jonathan, robert, scott and co.

A: fun!

F: what are they (kids) up to now?

A: at the reception. audrie is super grumpy, but once she gets some cotton candy she'll be happy. we're having fun! this reception is amazing!

A: good night smoocher. have a super plus great day tomorrow. love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F: ohh! snuggle them!

A: he's not feeling good:(

F: poor burp'ems. i miss you so much. just made some tacos for dinner.

A: i'm so proud of you for making yourself dinner. giving sallie myers briggs. she's enfj for sure.

A: smooches! i love love love you and miss you like crazy!!!!!

A: come hang out with us. or just call me if you can.

A: she miss her daddy.

A: we're at lagoon!!

F: oh biff that's cute.

F: luckies. they have a pretty great mom!

A: well... you know... yes... they do.

A: come take care of your daughter!

A: no swinging seats:(

A: i love lagoon!

A: i just got bit by a yellow jacket!!!!

A: guess who came to the picnic!?!?!?!?!?!? dan and heather are in provo!!!!!! ahhhhhhh!!!!!

F: what!?!?!?!?! lucky!!!!!! tell them i say hi!

A: what happened here over 8 years ago? (the place where i said, "i love you too")

F: roman'ic

A: remember that one time when we got married? yeah, that was fun!

F: oh, and soooooo roman'ic.

(material edited to maintain g rating)

A: i have to admit, audrie has been reeeeeally cute on this trip. she's liking all the attention from everyone. eli is pretty grumpy right now. he misses you a lot.

A: audrie is barftastic! (turns out audrie is really good at getting car sick when we drive a lot)

A: you're son is mathematical genius!

A: just saw The Help. sooooo good. and our favorite actress Jessica Chastain is in it. talk in the morning. I FREAKING MISS YOUR GUTS! i love you so much! big smoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

A: ava asked audrie if she was excited to see her gma (gma white) and she said, "no, she's excited to see me." ha!

A: your kids! forrest! they were clowns with gma white! errrrrr. at least they're cute!

A: i love slc airport. so easy.

A: i just asked audrie to stand by me and she said, "why, because i'm adorable?"

A: who would you trust in an emergency? i'm going with the one on my right.

F: oh you guys are really cute!!!!!!!!!

A: turning off. see you soon! loooooooooove you!!!!!!!

F: have a good flight! smoo.

A: we're in new york! come to the airport and smooch me!

the end

2011-08-28T16:20:00.000-04:00

audrie running wild at the gateway

I hope you enjoyed this groundbreaking novel
A Funtastic Two Weeks in Utah by Abbie.
We had a blast! A super plus BLAST! It really was the best Utah trip to date.

The End.

we're safe.

2011-08-28T15:49:00.007-04:00

it's been kind of crazy around here with hurricane irene blowing herself up the coast. the city was super crazy chaotic getting prepared: mandatory evacuations, huge lines at the store, strollers full of bottled water, fighting over the last box of lucky charms (that last one's a joke...although i did get stink-eye from someone when i picked up the last carton of soy milk). luckily we had enough food storage to feel safe. i had to pick up some batteries and water, but we were pretty prepared. all thanks to belonging to a church that stresses preparedness! the hurricane came and went and i'm happy to report that we're safe. our power didn't even go out. the subway did shut down (crazy!), so we couldn't get anywhere that wasn't within walking distance (our car is locked up at the church for scout usage). there is serious flooding is some parts of the city, but it wasn't nearly as bad as they thought it was going to be, much to forrest's dismay...he was excited for a show. i was more than relieved.

so, since all of our church meetings were canceled and the wind is blowing too hard for us to go outside. i guess the only thing to do is start blogging about our trip! i had this genius idea of breaking the trip up into smaller "chapters" to make it easier (ya know, so i could work a little at a time without getting bloggerwhelmed with a giant vacation recap post), but it turned out to be more work. why oh why do i feel i have to remember it all?!? oh, because when my kids whine about never doing anything fun i can show them all these blog posts and say, "see? you do a lot of fun things! now go clean your room!" that's why i blog, friends, so i have proof that sometimes i'm a really great mom (mwhahaha).

please enjoy the utah vacation novel that i'm about throw down over the next few days. i'm starting from end to beginning to make it more fun because we all know fun is my drug.

hi!

2011-08-26T00:36:00.002-04:00

lady is audrie's middle name. by far my favorite fake polaroid of all time.

we're home. it's so good to be back with my hot husband in our little home.

our trip was ridiculously funtastic! it was probably the best utah trip ever. ever.

i can't wait to tell you all about it.

but first...

we need to prep for hurricane irene.

coming home to my favorite city and a hurricane!

we live an exciting life, that's for sure.

talk soon!

see you in september

2011-08-07T11:54:00.003-04:00

i'm taking the rest of august off.
so much to do before our trip.
so much fun to have in utah.
a wedding!
so many great people to see!
so much to do when we get home.
(eli is starting kindergarten! i am going to be a homeschooling momma!
what the what? where is my long denim skirt?)
i might pop in with a random fake polaroid here and there,
but nothing substantial...

until september.

enjoy the rest of your summer!
i know i'm gonna!

love,
abbie

p.s. utah friends, please join us for our picnic party. it's going to be a off the hook, i can feel it!