Today in New York

Yesterday Luke was still pretty sick and if he was still sick this morning I was going to take him to the doctor, but his fever broke last night and he was feeling much better today. Here are some pictures of me and the kids on a walk today, there is an awesome trail across the street from our building that goes right along the river and up the entire west side of Manhattan and we went and walked a little bit of it today. Luke loved looking at the boats up close and seeing the dogs being walked and the "birdies" running around...he loves how close he can get to them without them flying away!

We went on a ride on the Staten Island ferry. Luke of course liked the ride and looking out the window at the boats. Then tonight when Cory got off work he wanted to walk me past his office building and we ended up taking a walk around Wall Street. We walked past the famous gold bull and into Wall Street. The pictures of the building are of Goldman's office building that Cory goes to work at. He's on the 36th floor...he says his ears pop when he goes up the elevator! The construction in the pic is where the World Trade Center towers were and where they are now building the Freedom Tower so you can see that his building is just right across the street from that. Our apartment is on the same street as Goldman's building a few blocks south.

We made it to New York

We made it to New York...barely! We woke up Sunday morning to get ready for our 8:30am flight, were scrambling to get ready, and Luke woke up with a horrible FEVER! Ahhh...sick kids + traveling = no fun. He was very emotional and poor guy didn't feel good at all, but we loaded him up with baby Tylenol (lifesaver) and by the time we got to the airport he felt much better. We were running late and got past security when we realized we had left one a small carry on suitcase at the drop off area...so Cory booked it back to find it and it had been confiscated by the FBI! That's a whole other story for a different time...but he got it back and made it back to the terminal in time for us to board as the last ones on the plane!

The flight went okay, we didn't have any meltdowns and both kids fell asleep for about an hour so that was good. It wasn't until after we landed that things started getting bad. Luke was feeling sick again (another dose of Tylenol helped that) but we waited on the runway for about 45 minutes before we could get off...that is the most frustrating thing when you are at the airport but just can't get off the plane! Esp with two restless kids! Then, there was the longest line in the history of lines to wait for a taxi. Probably because it was raining. So we waited in that line forfooorreverr, the kids were hysterical about halfway through the line crying, but we finally got a crazy cab driver who was nice but I was a little nervous and the kids didn't have car seats so I found myself holding onto Halle and Cory onto Luke for dear life!

A 45 minute taxi ride later we finally made it to our apartment which was a pleasant surprise...I didn't know what to expect..but it has two bedrooms, two baths, quite a bit of space for the kids to play, a full kitchen (small but full), and a closet in our room that is big enough for Halle to sleep in! We are on the 17th floor. The apartment has a view of the Hudson and we are at the very tip of the Island so you can see the Statue of Liberty from our window/balcony. It is a beautiful view. Luke loves looking out the windows at all the boats going up and down the river.

Wiggle Worm / Busy Girl

Halle is such a wiggler. She is seriously hard to hold because she wiggles so much! My arms get tired! She will be wiggling and I'll think she must want to get down but then I try to put her down and she gets mad and wants me to pick her back up...but she keeps wiggling! My arms are getting strong with all this wiggling.

She is a very busy girl. She is so interested and curious about the world and always wants to be playing with, examining, or sucking on something. She loves things that make noise or that she can shake and also loves to hit things together.

So between always having to have her hands on something and the contant wiggling, this girl is starting to become quite an active one! Changing her diaper is suddenly a big struggle! She twists and turns and does not want to hold still!

It's fun to see this side of her personality come out more and more. She is such a good natured baby and was always so laid back, and she still is a lot of the time and is a very happy baby, but now she has to be moving or have her hands on something and if she doesn't have something to entertain her she gets upset! I'm starting to wonder if she is more active and busy personality than I once thought. When she was littler she seemed very mellow and I pictured her as this mellow and shy little girl when she got older, but I don't see that so much anymore! I think she still has that easy going personality in her...she doesn't get upset too easy and isn't too demanding... BUT she is a goer and wants to be busy! I'm afraid that once she becomes mobile between her and Luke (because Luke is a very busy tike too) I am going to have my hands full big time!

Walk & Daddy Time

Today I tried to get some packing done and went on a walk about halfway through the day to take a break from the packing. Here are the kids before going on the walk and Halle and daddy later after he gave the kids a bath.

Cute sister and brother

Halle was in a silly mood the other day so I took a bunch of pics of her in her highchair laughing and being a funny girl. Look what pretty eyes she has. I love her eyes, they are this dark blueish-gray color, but in the sunlight they almost look like a light paleish-blue.

I also got a cute picture of Halle and Luke sitting together on the couch. These two are little buddies. Luke has started wanting to involve Halle in things a lot more. Every morning when he wakes up if Halle isn't awake yet he has to go in her room and wake her up and says "baby, up! up!" and says it until I get her out of her crib.

The other day Halle was sitting on the ground playing with some toys and Luke was in the same room playing with some of his toy cars from the movie "Cars". He went up to her and started telling her the story about "Cars". The story went something like this..."Baby, Boom Boom (Lightning McQueen), Chick, King, Da-Boom (crash)...." and so on and so on. It was so cute and I thought it was very sweet that Luke wanted to let little sister know about the story that he loves so much.

Halle's first Easter

We had a fun time visiting Grandma and Grandpa Ferguson in St. George this Easter. We were able to spend 5 1/2 days down there. The weather was nice and Halle had a good time spending time outside. Grandma, Grandpa, and everyone else loved having Halle around. She is going through a shy stage so she would get shy around some of Cory's extended family that were down there, but as long as she was in her favorite place to be - sitting on my hip - she was happy. She also got a lot of shopping time in with mom and grandma Dixie while Luke and daddy would stay home swimming.

She is obviously too little to understand any of the Easter festivities but the Easter bunny brought our sweet girl her first Easter basket. She liked playing with the celaphane around her basket that made fun krinkly sounds and likes the fun little toys that were in her basket.

Bouncing in the crib

Luke and Halle have a fun game they like to do. Luke likes me to put him in the crib (usually after Halle wakes up from a nap and she is in there already) and he will jump and bounce Halle. This has been going on for months now. When she was littler and couldn't sit up yet and would just be laying there being bounced she wasn't quite sure what to think about it...she wouldn't cry but would more just be surprised. I would have to coax Luke into doing "little" bounces...or as little as I could get him to do. But when she started sitting up I think it is funner for her and now she loves it! This particular day she was laughing and laughing as Luke jumped up and down and bounced her. So cute. I'm so glad these two little munchkins get along so well. What cute kids. I really do think my kids are the cutest. In the second picture if you look through the crib slats you can see how excited little Halle girl is!

We heart sunny days

And playing on the grass while mom snaps off a million pictures.

We had a really sunny, nice spring day and enjoyed playing outside. Halle is such a busy girl and has to be playing with something constantly. So I brought out a bunch of her little toys and she had a good time playing on the blanket inspecting her toys. She likes it outside a lot, we are all excited for warmer weather to be here.

Pigtail!

Halle's hair is getting longer on top and was starting to look straggly when it was down on her forehead, so the other day she had a big milestone in the life of a girl...her first pigtail! Doesn't she look cute? I love it and I can see her pretty eyes better now. I sent a picture text of it to my parent's and my mom responded back saying she looks like Bam Bam! Or is it Pebbles? Whichever one has the stick up hair in Flintstones! She is growing up too fast- pigtail today, she'll be driving tomorrow. It's so fun having a girl. I am loving the pink, the bows (when she keeps them in!), the cute clothes...all things frilly and fun. I can't wait till we can watch movies like "Annie" and "Sound of Music" together.

Our house is almost done!

Headed to New York for a month

Well, in two weeks we are off to New York City and we'll be staying for a month! Cory has to go back there to work at Goldman's main office in Manhattan for four weeks and I wasn't about to let him have the chance to "live" in New York for a month without me. They wanted him to go a couple months ago but he told them he had to hold off since we were in the middle of building a house, but now that everything with the house is pretty much lined up my parents SO KINDLY offered to take over overseeing the rest of the house building so we can get to New York and back in time to close and move into the house, plus the bonus of getting home for Jake's farewell before he leaves on his mission. We will be staying at a corporate apartment in lower Manhattan close to the financial district.

I must admit I am a little nervous at the prospect of me with two kids in New York City. Our apartment is right next to Battery Park so it will be nice to have some green area close that Luke can run in. I'm planning on taking my double stroller and going on walks, hopefully getting to the Central Park Zoo a couple times, some kid-friendly museums, but what else am I going to do with a baby and a toddler in New York City for a month? Am I crazy? I guess I will find out!