Mommy, Baby Peter sick. I wan go see him.

Macy, want nukie?
Shhh, it’s all right Macy.
Macy sad!
Macy happy!
I need a nack (snack).
I want go Mom group. See baby Owen, baby Anna, Katie.
I big!
Daddy go work. See Webwa (Deborah), Nalee, (Natalie) Jackie, G?

These are all popular phrases of Aylah lately. She has been talking our ear off and sometimes I try to bribe her to be quiet for 5 minutes. :)

Since I last wrote we have been to the apple orchard, the Pocono Mountains, been visited by my parents and Josh’s parents, celebrated my 28th birthday on 2 nights; once at Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and Josh and I went to dinner at a yummy fondue restaurant. Also, Macy learned to army crawl and had her first cheerio, Josh went to Michigan for cousin Jordan’s wedding, our car was rejected at it’s 2 year inspection for the state of New Jersey, did the whole Halloween scene, bought a condo, and we combined the girls so they now sleep in one bedroom! So we have been a little busy lately.

The apple orchard was a big hit. Aylah wanted to ride the ponies but the loooong line prompted us to make the excuse that she wasn’t quite big enough yet, maybe next year. (In our defense, she probably was too little). We let her pick out any pumpkin she could carry out of the pumpkin patch. This year was quite cold compared to last year. Aylah wasn’t too impressed with the corn maze, and neither was I. But we had fun and Macy fell asleep in the stroller.


We went to the Pocono Mountains and met some friends of ours, Matt Hodgson and his wife Elizabeth and daughter Lydia. It was in celebration of Matt’s birthday that we were invited to come. It was fun and great to be in nature and see some beautiful fall colors and deer.

My parents drove out and came for 3 days. It was lots of fun to have them here again, even though it rained most days. Aylah counted down the days for them to come and when they got here she went crazy jumping up and down and running around showing them her new big bed and house.

Josh’s parents came this weekend and we will go to Atlantic City to see them again tomorrow. They are there for a conference this week. Aylah was just as excited to see her Nana and Papa and was wound up doing her jumping and talking a mile a minute when they arrived.

Like I said, Macy astonishes us with her physical abilities. She is doing some army crawling and trying to pull up on things with not much success yet, but she gets an A for effort. She also had her first Cheerio and loves to eat those little Gerber puffs. The girls are also doing pretty well being in the same room. A few nights have been touch and go so we keep the pack and play out for use should we need it in the middle of the night.

Josh and I went to The Melting Pot for my birthday. It was a really fun night! We did fondue dipping for all our courses, with chocolate of course for dessert. Then we wandered along the shore of the Hudson River and looked at the Manhattan skyline all lit up. My birthday present was to see Phantom of the Opera this past weekend with Josh, Doug and Dawn. It was so fun! Nothing beats Broadway and I had never seen Phantom before so it was even more fun to see it for the first time. I have such a nice husband!

Aylah's birthday gift for me was a chocolate cake! She sure does know her Mommy!Josh and I at The Melting Pot on my birthday.

As far as our rejected car… and the big red sticker they slapped on our windshield…the only thing needed fixing was our horn, which has been broken for a while. But still, a bummer that we are required to get it fixed and take it back for another inspection.

For Halloween this year Aylah was a bumblebee and Macy was a flower. They were both very cute, Aylah in her costume bought by her Grandma (Thanks Mom!) and Macy in a funny flower petal thing that I created and had to change at the last minute because Deborah told me it looked too much like a turkey. (it did) Aylah kept on talking about Toweleen the few weeks before the actual date so if you listen carefully, you'll hear her in the video.

If you caught my little line in there about a condo, it's true. But I can devot another blog about that later.... we aren't moving into it for another year, which will obviously take some explaining, so stay tuned.

In a total change of gears we have some close friends of ours, Kevin and Rachel McAlvey who had their 3rd son a week ago. Peter was born 3 or so weeks early. They were aware of some concerns with his development before he was born and knew that he would have to have brain surgery soon after his birth. Doctors put a shunt in his head and he is in the NICU in Chicago right now. They are getting various diagnoses and are not too sure what sort of long term issues they will have to deal with. The last news we received was that Peter was missing parts of his brain. Needless to say we have been very concerned, worried, and prayerful for our friends. When we heard about his birth both Josh and I broke down in tears. It is so easy to take for granted our little girls that God blessed us with. We were concerned for our friends... and then Aylah became concerned that both her parents were crying. We explained to her that baby Peter was very sick and now she frequently talks about him and asks how he is doing. Would you keep their family in your prayers? As you can probably imagine their life is full of ups and downs right now. Pray for their other 2 boys, James 3 and Isaac 1, too.

In the next month we have 4 friends due to have babies. Two are my 2 Allison friends, each with their first kids. We are excited to welcome so many new babies with our friends. It makes me realize just how blessed we are and pray even more for Kevin and Rachel.

As a last note, we have entered the world of “fake owies”. Aylah will make up owies on her wrist so she can put on a Dora band-aid like a watch. She likes to roll up her sleeve and look at it throughout the day. Crazy little girl.

Macy's 2nd Cheerio... it was so funny the first time I needed a video of the 2nd one. (Notice all the drool)


Well, this is long enough. Hope you enjoyed the videos and pictures.