Super Bowl XLVIII boulevard... NYC

There are definitely perks about living in a VERY popular city.  We lucked out that the super bowl was played right here in NJ this year.  The Superbowl Boulevard was in the city though, so we made a Friday afternoon of it.  The weather was GREAT! funny how 40 degrees feels warm after these last few weeks.

 A picture of the boys above in Times Square.

 I'm always a sucker for the the great street vendors.  This was a statue of liberty live manikin and the kids thought I should take a picture.

 Above is a picture of some famous football player giving autographs. (too bad the boys are in school, because I can't remember his name).

 My favorite Bronco Players.....

 I even got in on the action.

 It only took 3 weeks but we finally took Sam to EMPIRE STATE BUILDING!!!  He has been asking every day if he can go.  When the weather gets nicer we'll actually go to the top, but all he wanted was to see it.  Look how happy he is... That is so sincere.  He was thrilled!

 Another VERY CROWED subway ride.  Luke squoze (amber) right inbetween these people and smiled for the picture!  Love it.

 

This was an amazing subway performer.  He was just 10 years old.

Love to stop to watch all the talent in the streets and subways.  It's awesome!

Happy Chinese New Year!

So, a friend (Heather) in the ward here is very adventurous.  I am SOO GLAD to have met her.  She has a boy Sam's age, and one just younger than Nate.  I get to go and do fun things all week because she plans them. :)

We decided to take the little boys down to China Town for the new years celebration.  Great Idea right?

Uhhh... it was FREEZING cold and after about an hour of waiting around to see the show (it was delayed of course), my boys lost it and both started crying and wanting to go home.  This is supposed to be fun, dang it!  Enjoy it! haha

Anyway -- ya win some, and you loose some.  We lost, but a couple fun pictures anyway.

You can see the start of the melt down in this picture.  First Nate, but Sam soon followed!

 

We went to Roosevelt park, but there were so many people and not a good stage, so we couldn't see a thing.  My new friend (also served a mission in Taiwan) wanted to get some Chinese groceries to make pot stickers.  I thought, if she can do it, I can... so I followed her around the town to find a few things.  Which made the kids even MORE UPSET.

 While we were just getting ready to leave, the show ended and we saw all the dragon dancers leaving.  It was the best view we got of the whole show. :)

 

Then we actually heard and saw the firecrackers which was the best part for the little boys. :)  Maybe this video will work???

 And Voila!  This is the first time since my mission I've attempted dumplings.  They were SUPER yummy.  I don't know if they are more yummy than just buying a bag at costco, but I definitely have a sense of accomplishment now! :)  The kids loved them and Taylor was a very artistic cook's helper, if you can imagine.

Cute class pictures of the boys...

So all my boys's teachers wanted them to send some pictures and some experiences to their classes back in Utah.  Here is what Luke's class sent back.  Cute huh?  I love Sage Creek and his teachers there.  Such a great school. :)

This is what Luke sent (looking out our window).

 The class wrote this letter back....

 Cute huh?  He was so happy.  He hasn't made quite as many friends as Jake and it was so good for him to get this. 

Sam was jealous, so we sent a letter to his preschool class too. Miss Ettie's class reply is below:

Dear Sam. 
We miss you really bad.
You have an awesome bed and an awesome bathroom.
You have a cool view. 
We wish you were just here.
What do you do in New York?
You have cool hair.
We like your hair. 
We love you!! We can't wait to see you again. 
Love, 
Jane, Wesley, Livya, Naynay, Carson, Garrett, North, Beckam, Macy, Sammy, Allie, Keegan, and Ettie

A look at our apartment.

Our Apartment is quite huge for NYC.  Not huge, but really good size.  And the best part is that it has tons of windows and views and high ceiling.  This is the master bedroom

 This is Sam and Nates room.

 It has big french doors that enter from the hall.  The bathroom is jack and jill with the master.

 Jack and Luke's room is not so big....

 And their bathroom is even smaller.  But it's great. I love the half sink. :)

 

this is my kitchen.  It really is a lot more functional than it looks.  It has lots of cabinets and as long as I'm the only one in there.  We are good. :)

 My favorite part of teh kitchen is the view!  Isn't that amazing!  I love looking out while I'm cooking.

 And the living room... the double doors go into the master bedroom.  Our friends just moved and they left us the awesome floor matts.  We covered our landlord's nice rug and moved out the coffee table, and now the kids jump and play and wrestle on soft matts.

 You can see down the hall to the kitchen and the other boys rooms.

 I wish my camera would show you the cool view at night.  The little point on the left top of the picture is the empire state building.  It looks cool at night, and not really that small as this picture makes it look!

So, there you have it.  1200 square feet of glory! Come visit. 105w 72nd street.  The heart of the upper west side!

SAM IS OFFICIALLY 5

So, if you look back a few posts, you'll see our cool Birthday party for Sam.  But, we still did breakfast in bed for our newest 5 year old.  The bed, was a fort Jake and Luke built for Sam.  About 30 seconds after we gave him breakfast, he had spilled the apple juice all over the floor.  OF COURSE!

 Happy birthday little man.  We love you!

Some fun things

During the days, me and the little boys usually make a trip to the grocery store, since our fridge is mini and our freezer is mini and we have to carry our groceries, it's easier to make often little trips. 

But we also try to do some fun things.  We loved story time and got a couple pictures of the cool straw buildings we made.

 We always love riding the SUBWAY.. it never gets old.

 They had a winter festival in the park right by our house.  They had free skiing and snowboarding. It was about a 10 foot little area to ski down, and rather than wait in the line, I told my kids to just remember that we live in Utah and we'll go skiing all next year! :)  But it was fun to see all the people.

 Sledding down the ice hill, was a hit for everyone!

 

There was a bunch of cool ice sculptures and we bought the best apple cider and donuts I've ever tasted!  We brought the juice home and finished the night off watching Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Such a fun new york city movie.

 

NY transit museum

First of all.. I have to gloat about my sweet Craiglist purchase... A NEW STROLLER.  These BOB strollers are like $400 bucks and I got my second hand one for just $30.  I bought a cup holder, grocery hooks and a rain cover for another 30 bucks and I'm city ready!  It has been so nice to have this stroller.  It's like the minivans of Utah.  How can you live without a nice one!!  The joovey sit and stand was KILLING me.  Now I can load the kids, groceries and talk on the phone while I push this beast with one hand.  LOVE IT.. Ahh, the simple pleasures of life. :)

 Our subway ride to Brooklyn was great.  The boys had friends and window seats.  It kept them entertained and sitting the whole ride.

 The museum was really fun and we lasted about 5 hours.  It is a little boy's heaven.  Trains and electric exhibits galore.

 They got to run in and out of old subway cars and try driving a few.  It was a great day in Brooklyn.

Unfortunately, the whole museum is underground and I didn't have cell service for hours.  Apparently, Luke got a head ache at school and since the school couldn't get a hold of me, Taylor had to leave work and come and get him.  BAD DAY TO BE OUT OF SERVICE.  So, I hope this is just a one time thing for Luke.  I'm a little nervous about him and school now!!!

Natural History Museum

Well hello Mr. President.  I never realized what a big man Abe Lincoln was.  It's cool to see life size anything, I think. :)

 I think we will be spending a lot of time here at this cool place.  We only saw the dinosaur exhibit last time and it took us over an hour to walk through.  So fun.

 

I need to work on my picture taking.  Why is it ALWAYS blurry.  Ugh.

 I don't know why my kids can sleep ANYWHERE, but I sure think it's cute.

 We are in love this this cute little guy.  We have some friends that live here and they have THE CUTEST LITTLE BOY.  Taylor couldn't get enough of him.  He was picking him up every time we turned around.  Cute little James.

We made it!!! NYC

Okay, so 1 week down.  We didn't do much but we are still alive... that is a feat in and of itself if you ask me!

 The plan ride was a piece of cake.  Just a 1/2 hour longer than riding to SG and they can get up and use the bathroom and get drinks and treats.  They were in heaven.

 You will notice that Sam really loves to make this face in his pictures... it's been that way for about a week now and every picture is the exact same... Funny kid.

 So, we loaded all our stuff into one taxi minivan.  That means 4 of us were double buckled, Nate was squooshed in the back and Taylor was quite comfortable in the front seat. :)  I would have bet 100 bucks we wouldn't have all fit... but we did! and we made it to the apartment in one piece.  Sam isn't really sad, he just was almost asleep.  The picture below shows what he looked liked about 10 seconds later.

Actually, the kids were all pretty pooped and slept most the ride into the city.

 So, this is it.  12 bags and 2 carry on's and we are here in NYC for 6 months.

 Jake and Luke LOVE looking down the banister to the 1st floor.  We are on the top floor (12A).

 This is the bottom looking up.... artistic photography from Jake. :)

 So, the first day it rained all day.  I thought we were all going to die in our 1200 square foot apartment.  I wanted the boys to be quiet, so they watched so much TV and IPOD games they about killed over.  It's hard not to bother neighbors next door and underneath when you are raising boys like mine!

 But, Wednesday, it was a balmy 50 degrees and we were in heaven.  We went to the park and explored about 1/50th of it and spent 2 hours.  They love it and I know it will entertain us for hours in the future.  We are so lucky to live across the street.

 Notice Sam's face .... again!  :)

 The day couldn't come fast enough that we enrolled the big boys in SCHOOL!  PS 87.    They were nervous and excited to start.   The classroom demographics are not much different from Utah, living on the UWS is kind of like living in Springville in the sense that there is not much diversity among families here.  My boys were both shocked that the kids used the Lord's name in vain so much, but besides that, they felt pretty comfortable.

 Here is the street shot of the school. It's the red building.  Crazy huh?  Just right there on 78th street in between houses. 

 So, to break up the weekend cold, we took the boys to the jewish community center to swim.  It was really nice and fun.

 They could have played there for hours...

 I just think Taylor looks awesome in his swim cap (it's a rule there that you have to have a swim cap to enter).

 All tuckered out!  It's a common theme around here.  We are getting plenty of exercise by walking everywhere.  People here put their kids to bed around 7 or 7:30.  NOW I KNOW WHY.  They can not function on the normal 8 or 9 hours of sleep they are used to at home!

Taylor took the big kids down to time square on Saturday night.  He didn't get any pictures, but the boys LOVED it.  They took the subway for the first time! Went to the M&M factory for a treat and walked over to the rock a feller center and took a cab home.  I'll get more pictures of our apartment and the city as the weeks go by.

This has probably been the longest week of my life..... but we did it.  I think it will be much easier from here on out!