Because I Have the Coolest Kid

Jack is at the wonderful "If I can't see you, you can't see me" stage and we love it! This is how he likes to hide from us. 

And he has always loved skateboards. I just cleaned out our outside closet and pulled this into the house. Jack was having a ball scooting around on his tummy like a surfer dude. 

Surfer dude! Look at that long blonde hair. 

And this video is a must see. I started trying to record Jack playing on the skateboard, but he got distracted. Click below for the video link. 

http://youtu.be/qcvkuJMwt6A

Christmas Time is Here!

Here is our Christmas set up. Most of those presents are Jack's. Family and friends spoiled him :)

We got this amazing huge panda bear from costco. Tony was surprised too. He was especially surprised that I was able to hide it from him for over a month. 

And here are our Christmas pajamas.

Jack loved Christmas morning. He picked up quickly on unwrapping gifts. 

And he absolutely loved the teddy bear. 

And got mad when he couldn't move the bear on his own.

I got Tony some soccer trading cards, and he got Kyle Beckerman in the first pack he opened. We were so excited!

Here is an adorable video of Jack opening presents:

http://youtu.be/C50Fsq20g2I

And Tony got an Avengers shirt, a Ninja Turtle shirt, and a Captain America shirt.

And John Lee got him the new Assassins Creed game. 

And this picture just says it all. He was so excited to get so many moving vehicles. 

And Dad got Tony a drill.

And we had vanishing rolls for breakfast. (We didn't have enough eggs for Ebliskevers). 

Merry Christmas to All! This is the silhouette of our nativity that is in our sunroom window.

                                                           

One Year Older and Wiser Too!

We got to celebrate Tony's New birthday today. He is already one year old!

It has been one year since Tony's bone marrow transplant (he had it on 12/12/12). We finally got together with some friends to celebrate. We decided to be ironic and eat funeral potatoes and angel food cake :) 

We are so happy that Tony was able to beat Cancer and we are especially grateful to the man from Germany who so selflessly donated the bone marrow to Tony. It has been a heck of a year of recovery for Tony, but he has gained a bit of his strength back and we are beginning to feel normal again. We are so grateful to all of the friends and family that have helped us through. We are definitely a blessed bunch.

Too Cool For Santa

We have had a super good luck streak. It was our final day at the crepe stand today until May, and the weather was beautiful. It was in the 60s. So we also decided to go into DC and see Santa. 

Jack was so excited to see Santa. The line was huge and when we finally got to the windows where you could see santa he started saying "santa, santa" over and over.

As we got into Santa's workshop, he kept pointing down the hallway and saying "santa." I had hope that it would go well.

But in his defense, Santa can look a little scary, so Jack opted for the high five...

and fist bump option instead of the sitting in santa's lap option. A little too cool for santa this year. 

We did get to see the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House, but it was so crazy crowded. We took a picture farther away because if you got up close, you couldn't move, let alone take a picture. They had everyone herding in and out of the area through one small opening near the tree and it was absolutely crazy. Whoever designed the setup should get fired. But the tree was cool and Jack thought it was amazing, and that is what matters, right?

My Cute Little Guy

Jack is growing up so fast, it is so crazy. One of his new favorite things is to wear my oven mitts. They are so big on him it is absolutely adorable.

He also likes playing peek-a-boo with the fuzzy blanket and this is what happens to his hair. 

Also, Tony taught him how to frown. Isn't it the cutest face. (We will have to teach him the extreme lip frown, Ali style soon) :)

Jack also found a very old bag of cheeto puff things that I didn't remember having. They tasted like styrofoam, but he loved every minute of licking his cheese fingers clean. 

Philly!

After leaving way later than planned from Jersey, we decided to make a stop in Philadelphia (we had heard good things about their Cheese Steaks). 

None of us had seen the Liberty Bell before so we went in Jack and I had brief perfect timing. For some reason, no one was standing by the bell for a split second. Isn't he so cute?

And here is Independence Hall! So much happened here. 

And we actually stopped and bought a couple Philly Cheese Steaks. Dallin and Autumn suggested this place to us, so we met them there and all ate together. They are delicious, but Tony decided he still likes mine better (smart man). 

We had a great trip. And Jack was a trooper on the ride home as well. He deserves a party day with plenty of running around and no being cooped up in a carseat/stroller all day. 

Big Apple Day 2

Dallin and Autumn were able to join us for our second day in New York City.

We finally got to stand on the plaza during the today show. And even better, we made it on TV! You can see Jack a bunch, and me and Tony occasionally, and mom almost half a second. I posted the link so you can watch us. We are at the left side of the screen. More specifically we are best seen at seconds: 0:10 -0:25, 0:54 - 1:00, and mom is at 1:14, and then 1:25 - end. It's a commercial for a coffee maker, so I know most of you will want it :) You're welcome. So click below. 

Today Show!

Here is Al Roker! He is our favorite on the Today Show. 

And here is where we were on the plaza. 

And in front of the banner. 

Ok, now this is extra special for the few that will appreciate it. This, my friends, is June's house from White Collar. It is where Neil Caffrey rents his apartment. It is the last free standing mansion in Manhattan. 

Here is a view of the stairs.

And the back porch....lies. The porch does not oversee a beautiful view. It oversees the back of a building. But it is indeed on a corner, and it does indeed exist. So we were pretty excited to see it. 

THE BIG PIANO (both because it is big and because it was on the movie Big)

And all the wonderful Lego creations inside the store. They also had a lot of toy demos, and Jack was rolling around with a remote control tumbler car. All spectators loved it.

In the middle of our walk back downtown, we stopped at the Trump building. It was super beautiful and super gold inside. Behind the tree, the wall is just a huge waterfall. The best part of the building though was the endless escalators. Jack was in toddler heaven. We would go up a few levels, and then come down a few levels. He loved the break from the stroller. 

And this was a gorgeous church castle. 

And mom and Dallin in front of the Rockefeller tree. 

The thing I don't have pictured is the fact that we ate at a delicious pizza restaurant. We had New York style pizza in actual New York!

The Big Apple (The 1st Day)

We wanted to celebrate Tony being cancer free for 1 whole year! His new first birthday is on December 12th. So we planned a two day trip to New York City. We drove up and stayed at a hotel in Jersey. The bus trip from there was only 20 minutes and $3.20. Jack was a trooper on the 4 hour drive up. And this was his very first time on a bus. 

In this picture he is saying the word bus. Buses are his favorite thing right now. He was excited to get his own seat. 

Once into the city, we headed straight down to the metro to ride down to the World Trade Center. This is it! Isn't it beautiful. The fog covered the top of the spire.

This is part of the memorial. Once they finish the building, you will be able to ride down like seven floors underground and see the bottom of the fountain. I am sure it will cost a pretty penny, but I thought it was really cool. 

This is the tree that survived the falling of the Twin Towers. It has a huge back story that was really cool. Look it up :) It's a survivor for sure, which made our "survival trip" even cooler.  

Then we headed down toward the harbor. 

We debated which Ferry to take to the Statue of Liberty, and then we decided that it was enough just to see it. My mom and I have been on the island, and Tony was happy just to see it from a distance. 

And then my mom was very nice and very brave, and she took one exhausted Jack back to the hotel by herself so that Tony and I could go to a show. She had to ride a packed bus back to the hotel. It was quite the adventure and she actually got off a stop too early for a minute, but figured it out before the bus drove away. Thank you so much mom for taking Jack for us. We had an incredible date night.

Tony and I got to see the many lights of Time Square at night. 

Some awesome ornaments, and the famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller. 

And the highlight of the trip! Seeing Wicked on Broadway!

This was the stage setup while we waited for the show to start. 

I saw Wicked in California my Senior year of High School and this was way way way better. Glinda, Elphaba and Fiyero were all fantastic. Everyone was fantastic. This was Tony's first time to New York and I think he enjoyed it.