December and Christmas

Isn't December the BEST?! Especially with kids. Andy is at the prime age to enjoy every second of it all. It was the funnest month!

Our FHE gingerbread house masterpiece. Even Max got into it!

I know, I know. It's the most pathetic tree you've ever seen. I think Cam and I got it for $20 on black friday our first Christmas. This year was its last; it started out with half the lights out, and by the time Christmas came around it didn't even have any working lights! :) Andy loved it all the same and took this picture because he was so proud of our tree.

A fun pajama party for our ward Christmas Party. I'm loving the hat/scarf combo on Cameron.

I got to help with Andy's preschool Christmas Party. I brought "Roll a Reindeer" and Andy loved it so much, we got to play it lots and lots more times at home before Christmas.

This is a little out of order, but we went bowling the day after Christmas with Cam's family. It was SO fun. Andy loved it. And it was Max's first time, and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. Love these boys of ours!

I'm afraid I was a horrible picture taker on Christmas Day, and this is the only one I got of Andy. This is Andy playing with Max's new blue track. Some of Andy's presents were a scooter (from Santa), a globe, a "How To Train Your Dragon" blanket and coloring book and figurines (Toothless and Hiccup are his latest obsession), and lots of books.

My one picture of Max on Christmas Day! Typical of him, he skipped the toys and went straight for his stocking candy. :) Some of his presents: his blue track, another car race track, books, and lots more I'm forgetting.

We had the funnest Christmas Eve party at my Aunt Anne's house! Here we are doing the traditional Christmas chimes. Andy was a fine. And check out Max snuggling Grandpa Mark, whom he adores.

Cute Andy decided to wrap up some of our current toys and put them under the tree.

Christmas Cookies with Grandma and Rachel! We delivered them to some of his friends, which he was very excited about. I hope his friends enjoyed the mounds of red sprinkles on top of each cookie. :) We took Andy to the dollar store again this year to pick out presents for everyone. Hilarious as always. Some highlights: He got Ben a plunger. He got Christine a mop. He got Cameron pop rocks. He gave my dad some finger paints, since he likes to paint. (so sweet!) He gave Abby a hula hoop. He gave my mom a dish scrubber. He gave Max a harmonica. As always, super cute. I love seeing how his sweet brain works.

Andy's preschool sang at the Heritage Place and put on the cutest program for the residents there. Andy even got a little solo part! He's totally a perform and loved being up there at the front and totally got into it. I got to accompany them on a few songs.

It was really neat that his preschool program happened to be at the Heritage Place, because that's where my grandparents had just moved to a couple weeks before! 

We celebrated Andy's half-birthday at school. We brought chocolate chip-m&m cookies at Andy's request.

We had such a fun time seeing the lights downtown!

We held the annual gingerbread man decorating contest again! Andy's gingerbread man. I guess it was too tempting to not eat it. 

Some of the entries.

And the rest of the entires. Fun star wars theme this year!

Everyone hard at work

We had a fun morning eating breakfast with Santa at Station Park.

Santa even arrived for the breakfast on a helicopter! Which practically blew us all over when it landed. But the boys loved it!

We had a great visit at the Festival of Trees. Cameron's first time!

Andy asked us to take his picture with lots and lots of trees.

Cute Andy visiting with Santa at my parents' ward party, telling him he wanted a scooter. Max was there but wouldn't get within a few feet of Santa.

November

Some November highlights! 

The first snowfall of the year! I think Andy stared out his window for twenty minutes. :)

Thanksgiving with the Lees! For some reason we never grabbed a shot with my family, but we ate there too.

My Messick grandparents moved out of the home my Grandpa built 50 years ago. We had a good farewell visit to the house. I'll miss seeing them there!

Max loves Grandpa Greg.

Another shot with the beautiful home my Grandpa built. I'm going to miss this place! 

Thanksgiving Day! This was before dinner at my parents' house.

Love this beautiful painting my dad did of Andy!

Handsome guys ready for church.

That smile! Cam and Greg took Andy golfing, and apparently he's a total natural and LOVED it.

New York City

Cameron had to take a last minute work trip to NYC, so I decided to tag along! We both absolutely fell in LOVE with the city. Cam had never been, and I hadn't been since I was 10 and all I cared about then were getting lots of sundaes at McDonald's. :) So it basically a whole new experience for us! And we love big cities, so we were in our element! We were only there 4 days, and we're dying to go back.  We even got to travel with our good friends the Craguns which made it all the more fun. Even though we never got a photo with them for some reason.

Our last day was probably our favorite! Lots of wandering and walking in some beautiful parts of the city.

I'm ready to move to the Upper West Side. I want to live by Levain Bakery and eat two cookies a day.

We took a fun boat ride the last day and got some great views of the city!

Our time in central park was way too short! I want to go back and wander for an entire day. I love big parks!

Walking on the Brooklyn Bridge!

We went to the 9/11 Memorial Museum and saw the Memorial too. It was such a moving experience that we'd highly recommend. It was heavy, but so well done and worth while.

We went to the free night at the MoMA. Fun, interesting, and packed!

We walked across part of the Skyline. 

Pictures from Cam's work event! Such an amazing experience for him.

Our first night in the city! A shot of us Times Square. We stayed up late walking around and taking it all in.

A few things not pictured:

• Lots and lots of great food! We made reservations at good restaurants every night. We grabbed snacks from Magnolia Bakery and Levain. Plus two amazing donuts places: Dough and another place I can't remember. :) Lindsey and I ate breakfast at Essa Bagels and I still think about how amazing it was about once a week. We attempted pizza in Brooklyn, but it wasn't meant to be. But we ended up getting great pizza later in the trip. 
• We had SUCH a hard time figuring out the subway and getting around. And we're not newbies to subway systems! I don't know what our problem was. We were always getting lost, taking the wrong trains, etc. It took us forever to get anywhere!
• We stayed in a hotel the first night but then spent our last two nights in a cool Air BNB with Blakely and Lindsey. Always fun to stay with the locals! 
• Cam and I had a fun night at the Empire State Building. It really is such an incredible view. 
• We saw two shows. Well technically I saw two shows.  Lindsey and I saw "Finding Neverland" the first night while the guys had a work dinner.  Then the next night we all saw "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" which we absolutely loved. So well done, so much talent, and super funny and witty. 

SUCH a fun trip. I spent about a week after the trip completely depressed that the trip was over. I can't wait to go back sometime! 

Pictures of Andy at 4 and Max at 2

We got the cutest photos taken of the boys back in October. My heart is so full when I look at these. My babies!