New York City!

My dad had a hotel room in New York City available so we went to my parent's house last weekend. We had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa and then they watched the kids for us Saturday night so we could go to a Yankees game and spend the night in the City. It was wonderful! (I know it seems like we keep getting lots of overnights away from our kids lately... we normally don't do it that often... although we do love it and think it's important for everyone to do as often as possible. It's so good for your marriage! :) Checking out the new toys and books.

Dinner time

Cheesecake!

Grandpa reading books... don't you love Natalie's pose?

Grandma frequents yard sales to collect toys for her grandkids. She found a puzzle that makes the sound of the instrument when you put the piece in... I think Grandpa was doing the drum here.

And we're off to the city! Thanks so much Mom and Dad!

Lunch at a little deli.

On the way to our hotel we passed the Chrysler Bldg.

Rockefeller Center

Radio City Music Hall

We walked around Central Park a little before the game.

It was neat to see the new stadium, it was very nice. The Yankees were playing the Red Sox... that's quite the rivalry and the fans were definitely excited! (As in, yelling and booing anyone and everything to do with the Red Sox!) Derek Jeter

A-Rod

It was fun to still be at the stadium when the lights came on... although it was really windy and chilly!

7th Inning Stretch- we all sang God Bless America and Take me out the Ball Game.

Love you hubs! :)

After the game, we went to ESPN Zone for dinner... because we wanted to check it out AND we wanted to watch the Penn State game! :) It's a neat place-- more flat screens than I've ever seen in one restaurant... you could literally watch anything you wanted. We had a great time, even then they lost the game.

Walking around Times Square

Our nice hotel room-thanks again Dad!

Back home the next day... watching some football.

And then back to PA... all three kids had colds this week so we laid pretty low... and watched quite a few TV shows!

Picnic lunch outside under a table.

Finger paintingEvan playing puzzles... look at those arms!

Happy Fall everyone!

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Hi friends,
I won't pretend I'm good with computers because I'm certainly not but I just figured out how to add a feature to my blog that I think you might appreciate. Instead of having to constantly check back to see whether I've posted anything or not, you can subscribe to my blog and it will get delivered to your inbox (with the text and pictures exactly as you would see it here-although you'll have to come to the actual site to leave a comment) It's on the right hand side--just enter your email address. You'll have to confirm your subscription and then you'll be all set. And don't worry-you won't be getting a ton of emails... I post no more than once a week--and usually it's every two weeks!
Hopefully this will make me do a better job of posting regularly now that I know people are actually subscribed and waiting! :) 
Let me know if you have any problems.
Thanks, Jen :)

Grandma, Potluck and Evan

Grandma came down to see us for a couple days. We always love it when she visits! :) She helped me get things ready for MOPS (I had to make centerpieces for each table-thank you!) and we just had a great time together as always. Love you Mom!Out to McDonalds for lunch while we were running errands. Evan is eating more and more table food... I gave him some bun and he devoured it!
Of course we watched the Penn State game. They kept talking about the Rotel Velveeta cheese dip during the game and my mom got really hungry for it and luckily I had the stuff to make it!

Grandma taught Evan to sit up while she was here.

We have gotten so many new neighbors lately so we organized a potluck last weekend. We had a great turnout and it was fun to get to know everybody better.

It was really simple, everyone brought a dish to share.

The kids had a great time playing.

And everyone loved Evan!

Evan's photo shoot. What a cute chub! :)

Please pray for the little guy. This week, I had to take him the doctor for his second set of double ear infections... and he's ruptured his right eardrum both times. We have an appointment already to see the Pediatric ENT. I had the same problems as a baby because of a too short eustachian tube and we think he might have the same thing. Fortunately, he's such a good baby that he's dealing with it all really well but he's not eating and sleeping as well and had a high fever this week. He fell asleep playing one day which he hasn't done in months. Poor guy.

Natalie drew our family, from left to right: Natalie holding Evan, Blake, Daddy and Mommy

Labor Day Weekend

We went to Altoona for Brian's cousin's wedding. It was fun to see lots of relatives we hadn't seen in awhile. They actually had a nursery so the boys were in there but we'd been talking so much about weddings that Natalie said, "I want to see the girl in the white dress walk down the aisle with her daddy!" so she stayed with us during the ceremony.

Reception

Allie and Natalie

Bethany ready to catch the bouquet. :)Brian's cousins and the groom's brothers, Marcus and Matt (who we hadn't seen since he was in our wedding!)Blake definitely loved the ice cream!

We took a bunch of family pictures: Brian, Bethany and Chris

All of us

Chris and Michelle

Blake and Adam

The grandparents with their grandkids

We had recorded the Penn State game and invited everyone over to watch it with us. It was fun to catch up with some of Brian's relatives that we hadn't seen in awhile.

Sunday afternoon, we dropped the kids off at Ryan and Melinda's. They watched our kids for us this time so we could have an overnight away. We went out to dinner and a movie, slept in, went shopping and just enjoyed each other's company without the kiddos. Thanks guys. We appreciated it! On Monday, when we came back over, we had a Labor Day cookout with them and Mike and Courtney. Mike and Kierstyn--yep, that's the stadium right there.

Fun in the bouncy ball pit.

Some of the kids ready to eat at their table.

It was Courtney's birthday.

Fun hanging out with you guys! :)

It was a busy but great long weekend... one more post coming and I'll be caught up. :)