Do you love Mommy?

It's Macy's favorite game.

As I'm tucking the blankets all around her at night I ask for a kiss. She smiles and turns her head to the side. So I say "hey, do you love Mommy?" Then she really smirks as she thinks about it for a second and replies "Mo." I shriek "what? Yes you do!" This of course is followed by tickles and fits of laughter.

Then she prompts me for more by saying "Daddy." So I ask "do you love Daddy?" More tickles and more laughing ensues as we make our way down the list of everyone in our family, including the cat. Depending on how tired I am we sometimes even go as far as Dora and Boots.

It's one of the games I never get tired of playing with her, because we always end with "I love yous."

This morning I sat at the computer reading blogs and eating grapefruit. The first half was delicious and easy to scoop out, but the second half was like a defiant two year old. No matter what I did, those little sections just did not want to come out. I've never been so annoyed at a piece of fruit.

Half way through the second half I put my spoon down and thought "It's not worth it." I wanted to get up and throw it away, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It just seemed so wasteful. So there it sat.

Moments later Macy came walking over and without any warning, picked up that half of my grapefruit and headed off into the kitchen. When I questioned her about what she was doing, she mumbled out something that I thought sounded like "throw it away." When I asked if that was in fact her intention she just nodded her little head yes and kept on her course.

I made some small attempt to protest, but didn't bother to get up out of my chair. Then, she dropped that grapefruit right in the trash and turned around with a huge smile of satisfaction.

That is LOVE!

32 is the new 22

And we have been celebrating all weekend. Saturday night we went out to dinner and a movie, Sunday we had steak and cheesecake at Betty and Linne's and tonight we celebrated with fruit pizza.

We even included toothpicks as pretend candles, per Samm's request.

It might not look as pretty once it hits the plate, but IT IS GOOD!

Happy birthday my love!

Have you seen these yet?

This ADORABLE Lego pacifier clip is the newest addition to my sister's Etsy shop. So much cuter than those ribbon ones don't you think? It almost makes me wish I had a little baby boy right now. Almost!

What can I say

My Samm is the sweetest kid that has ever lived.

Will I still get cards like this when she's 16?

Our trip part 2: New York

I have enough pictures from NY to drag this out more than one day, but in the interest of moving on, I'm just going to give the highlights.

Day one for us was the David Letterman show. This was definitely one of my favorite things that we did. 1) Because it was inside and WARM! and 2) It was very entertaining!

My absolute favorite part of the trip was going to Mamma Mia. The music was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.! Those women can really sing.

Can I pause for just a second to tell you that one of my kids is snoring so loud right now that I can hear it out in the living room!

OK, back to our trip. We walked around time square a couple of times. The most impressive store was Toys R' Us. It had a full size Ferris wheel inside.

We went to see the 9-11 memorial only to be incredibly disappointed. So far, this wall is all they have. It is a name of all the firefighters who died. How is it that 10 years later there is still just a pile of rubble to remember all the people who lost their lives?

Our final big excursion was to the statue of liberty and Ellis island. This is a view of the city from the ferry.

Us on the ferry.

Yes, it was really that cold!

Lady liberty herselfEllis island was pretty cool for me because my Grandma came through there on her way here from Sweden. They had a bunch of displays in the rooms showing all the different inspections the immigrants had to go through. It seems like it would have been incredibly intimidating, especially for those who didn't speak English.

So, that was our trip. Well, we also wandered around China town and stuff like that.

I had a great time, but I missed the kids a ton and couldn't wait to get back home. Now were trying to get our house ready to sell though and I'm wishing we were on vacation again.

Our trip part 1: Philadelphia

So here is the ridiculous thing about medical school. Not only do they require your firstborn child as tuition, they also require you to take several tests outside of school that cost an arm and a leg. So far Josh has taken two tests that cost $500 a piece, and now his most recent one cost an airline ticket to Philadelphia plus $1,000 just to take the test.


It's crazy!

But, Josh decided that I should go with him and make a vacation out of it. I thought it was an excellent idea! We also hooked up with another couple from school who were going at the same time so we could share the cost of hotel rooms and so I could have a shopping buddy.

And, my cousin Amy happens to live in Philadelphia so we got to stay with her a couple of nights. I haven't seen her for several years so it was great to catch up. I just wish I would have remembered to take out my camera and get a picture of her adorable little boy.

Josh was pretty excited about spending a day in Philadelphia visiting historical sites. (snore) I know, I'm so un patriotic. I did actually ended up enjoying myself more than I expected, although not because of the history. The architecture of the buildings is what captured me. Although I have to admit that my favorite part about Philadelphia was going to Ikea. It was my first time.

OK, so here are our touristy pictures.

The Liberty bell was cool, but not quite as big as I imagined.

I don't remember the name of this building, but the roof is pretty cool.

A creepy face on the wall

I loved these windows

The room where the Declaration of Independence was signed

It was really cold!

I was NOT happy by the time we walked what seemed like 10 miles just to see this statue, but Josh had his heart set on it so I'm glad now that we went. It really looks nothing like Sylvester Stallone though.

A great view from the Philadelphia museum of art

Then, we braved a bus in China town to take us to New York because it was so much cheaper than the train. And turned out to be very clean and un scary.

New York pictures coming soon