Loudmouth Mommy

This morning we went to the Guggenheim, which was awesome–what an amazing space. I would like to think that Ruby enjoyed the art, but I really think she just enjoyed the space, as we all did.

After the museum we stopped by the Ancient Playground, which was so neat. Ruby especially loved being chased by Uncle Matt, and Joe enjoyed swinging.

It was a beautiful day and such fun to enjoy the weather at a park right on Museum Mile.

We walked through Central Park to get to a Christmas Market on Columbus Circle, where we all grabbed lunch.

Tonight we made a valiant attempt to witness the lighting of the Christmas (holiday?) tree at Rockefeller Center, but ran into HUGE crowds, so we came back to the apartment to watch it on TV and drink cider instead.

Noah was here today too but barely made it into any pictures, so here is a special one. Isn’t he adorable?

Rachel, Matt, Noah, Ruby, Joe, and I took the train into New York yesterday for three days of sightseeing. Here is Ruby ready for the ride:

The kids on the train:

Noah enjoying the sights from Daddy’s shoulders:

Ruby got to meet TWO Mickeys in Times Square:

She also got to ride the Ferris wheel inside the amazing Toys R’ Us:

We finally got to meet sweet Baby Noah on Monday!

Joey is fascinated by his (barely) younger cousins.

Ruby missed her Auntie Rachel.

These were my children on Tuesday afternoon, shortly before we left DC to head north for the long weekend:

I probably should not have let them sleep then but I had stuff to do. In any case, the trip ended up being extremely long (we went 16 miles in the first two hours ) and Ruby and Joe didn’t sleep much, even though we got in close to midnight. Thank God we have the new van–at least we were comfortable.

On Wednesday Joe ate food for the first time–homemade applesauce. He LOVED it, so much so that he cried when I took away the spoon.

Ruby and her (second?) cousin Abby played the organ together at Gigi and Great’s on Thanksgiving:

Auntie Natalie brought Ruby a cookie decorating kit and Ruby had so much fun with it!

To use up the leftover icing Natalie used Ruby for her canvass, which the dogs enjoyed:

It is Matty’s 35th birthday. I haven’t been doing the November daily thanks like all of my Facebook friends but oh my goodness am I thankful for this man. I could not ask for a better husband for me and father for my children. He is kind and thoughtful and works hard to provide for us. We really are so very blessed.

Last Friday the kids and I drove down to Richmond to meet up with my mom, my sister Rebecca, and Rebecca’s kids. Our first stop was Richmond Granite to pick out granite for my parents’ house. The children were very helpful.

Later we had lunch and then went to the mall, where a little carousel provided much amusement.

So Halloween was almost a week ago and I am just now getting around to posting pictures. That’s just how I roll these days I guess.

Halloween was actually super fun. We had a really classy party in our driveway and garage with new and old friends. Matty dressed up as Walter White from “Breaking Bad” and even handed out fake Blue Sky to anyone in the know. Ruby was an owl again, Joe was a monster, and I was a pirate. These are the best pictures we got (really):

On Friday morning we recovered from the party and then drove down to Norfolk for the weekend. On Saturday we got to watch Megan and Ricky play their last soccer games of the season. They both played really well and even scored goals. Ruby and Joe played with Jenna and Ben during the games.

Today the kids and I walked down to vote and then went to the park and out for lunch. Ruby behaved beautifully. Joe slept the whole time.

We are back in New Jersey for the weekend and visited a corn maze today. For a minute I thought that we would be wandering around in there forever but we eventually found our way out.

Here is Ruby swinging with Tio and Popsie before we went in:

Ruby in the maze:

Joe in the maze:

The four of us :

I deleted most of the pictures from my phone today to make room for the newest iPhone software upgrade (and more pictures !) and stumbled across a few pictures I neglected to post when I did my big catch-up day in August. We were super excited to hang out with my best friend since childhood, Elizabeth, and her wonderful husband Danny a few months ago. Of course both kids loved them.

Sometimes it is so very hard for me to choose between two pictures that are almost identical, like these:

or these:

And then every once in a while I get it right the first time: