Help??

Some of you have on your blogs those things where under your links you have how long ago the person updated. It will have so and so's name and then underneath it the title of their new post and how many days ago they posted it. Do you know what I'm talking about? Is there anyone who can tell me how to get that feature on my blog? I think it will help me to blog more effectively, that way I know when my friends have posted something new. If the directions are too long to leave in the comments box you can email me at hollydolly413@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Some Randoms

Ok, so there are a hundred NEW posts below! I finally got all of my pictures downloaded from the past couple of months since we have been here. It's nice to get them all off my camera! We finally got all unpacked and all the decorations hung so we are feeling settled. Yay! It was not easy to get to this point. When we first got here the last half of September we stayed in an extended stay hotel. We shipped our stuff and stayed in the hotel until it arrived. We were only supposed to be in the hotel for 2 weeks. Craig's dad flew out here from Phoenix to help us unload everything. The next day we found out that our stuff wasn't going to be here for a whole nother week! Craig was checking his email at the hotel and there was an email from the moving company saying that our stuff was going to be late! A week late! We were very upset wondering why the company didn't try to contact us by phone to discuss this issue with us. We weren't checking our email every day at the hotel. The internet wasn't that great there and it didn't work all the time. So we didn't get the message in time! We were scheduled to check out of the hotel the next day and really we need to stay another week and Craig's dad has just flown out here for no reason now because there is no stuff to unpack!! Uggg! It was very frustrating! And I thought I was going to die if I had to stay in a hotel room with three cooped up children for one more day! You know how children can be in confined areas! Needless to say we were all going nuts! We just wanted our stuff! It finally came a week later. Our townhouse is small, but it felt like a dream after being in that hotel for 3 weeks! The kids were so excited to see their beds. It had been 4 1/2 months since they had slept in them! They were SOOOO excited to play with their toys. We went and bought a few toys for them to play with in the hotel, but the same 5 toys get boring after 3 weeks. Ya know?! It took us a whole month to unpack everything. Unpacking is hard to do with 3 little ones running around! They would run off with stuff that I was trying to put away or put it in a different box. It was crazy! But it's finally done and we have breathed out a big sigh of relief! A few people have asked for pictures of the townhouse. I will get those to you soon. :) I think I have done enough posting for one day! There were a few random pictures that I came across while I was unloading the pics off my camera. I wanted to share a few. They were too cute not to pass on!

First, a funny story:
Chase lost his second tooth while we were staying in the hotel. Exciting! Chase and Mallory were sharing a bedroom. The hotel had two bedrooms and a family room area and a tiny kitchen. One of the bedrooms had two beds in it. So we put Chase and Mallory in that bedroom with their own bed each. This made going to sleep difficult because they loved to talk and play with each other. Plus we were getting used to a 3 hour time difference. Going to bed at 8 felt like 5 o'clock dinner time to them! It took some adjusting! Anyway, Craig and I were watching TV in the family room area the night that Chase's tooth had fallen out and we can here Mallory just talking away. When all of a sudden we hear Chase scream at the top of his lungs, "Shutup Mallory, I want the tooth fairy to come to me!" We looked at each other and just busted up laughing! We should have gone in there and chastised him for saying the "shutup" word, but we were laughing too hard! And the funny thing is . . . . Mallory did shutup!

I have been finding Clark in the weirdest places. He loves to get into everything! He can already climb. He is tall enough to reach door handles and he has figured out how to pull them open. Great! Nothing can keep him out of a room now! I was cleaning out the fridge the other day and wiping the shelves down and I turned around and found this:
And everytime he hears us LOADING the dishwasher he is right there helping to UNLOAD as quickly as he can!

It is so cold here! I came out of the pediatrician's office with the kids yesterday and it was 33 degrees! The high for the day yesterday was only 37. Yikes! We have to plan an extra 10 minutes of bundling time before we go anywhere. We've had to adjust the carseat straps on Clark's booster to make room for his coat. He looks like a little sausage! He can't even sit all the way back in his seat bacause his coat is so big!
He falls asleep almost everytime we ride in the car and he's in all his winter gear. He can't really move! So he just falls asleep!


We got a chuckle out of this! Good advertising!


Grandpa Marc and Grandma Treesa brought the kids some baseball gear. We went to the park to go play catch one day.



We went to Wendy's in Phoenix the day we dropped off our second car to be shipped across the country.
Eating my veggies Mom!


Enough of the randoms. There are more specific posts of the last couple of months below! It's mostly pictures. Not too much reading. Enjoy!

Central Park Zoo

We took a trip into Manhattan to check out Central Park Zoo. We took a train. I would never drive in New York City! Way too crazy! And you can't bring your car seats on the train. So we didn't have car seats once we got to Manhattan. Car seats aren't required in the city either. So we all piled into a taxi cab to get from the train station to Central Park. The kids just jumped in the back seat and we held the babies on our laps. (Craig's sister and her baby came with us too.) I can see why car seats aren't required though. There is so much traffic you don't hardly go 20 mph. If you were to get in a wreck it wouldn't do anything but bend up the fender. Not that you would want your child to go flying off the seat or anything, but they would probably just get a little bump on the noggin. It rained all day the day we went :( And it was nasty humid! But the zoo was fun. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Central Park itself is pretty big. We want to go back and see the rest of it, but the zoo was little. There aren't very many exhibits. But the kids enjoyed it! Chase loved the polar bears. He actually got his first chance to take a picture. We have never let him use the camera before. He really wanted to take a picture of the polar bears so we gave him the camera. He was aiming for the polar bears and he came out with this: Not a bad picture of our Mally girl! So he tried to figure out how to aim the camera again and he came out with these:
Pretty good, huh?
Up by the Polar Bear exhibit there was a great view of the city. There are skyscrapers everywhere! The buildings go forever up into the sky! It was a very foggy day and it was neat to see the fog descend down over the buildings.
We were there when they fed the seals. They did tricks for us and then got their food. Clark was a very happy baby that day and just went with the flow. He didn't mind the stroller and loved looking around at all the animals. The flowers were very vibrant!
These eagle statues were everywhere in the middle of the zoo. The kids loved to play in the wings!
We all had a great time and were exhausted by the time we sat down on the train to head back to NJ. I think Chase displayed best how we all felt at the end of the day:
Mouth hanging open and everything!

Independence Hall

We got the chance to go to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. I went about 8 years ago and it was just as neat to see the second time around. I love this area of Philadelphia. It's dripping with history! We saw the Liberty Bell first. And then moved on to Independence Hall. I love historical places. I would have loved to have lived back then when all of the architecture was so beautiful. You don't see many buildings built like that anymore. Everything looks so old, but it looks so nice at the same time.

Inside Independence Hall:

The Courtroom:

Room where the Declaration of Independence was signed:

I didn't really get to hear all of the historical facts the tour guides were telling us about Independence Hall because Clark had decided he had had enough of the stroller! He started screaming and I ended up out in the foyer with him. Sorry I don't have any cool facts to share with you! It really is a beautiful building though if you haven't been there yet!
After touring Independence Hall we went on a horse drawn carriage ride around the city. The tour guide showed us all the old buildings where famous historical people lived and did business or went to church.
Don't you love the architecture?



I wish they still built everything this way! We love the movie National Treasure. It was fun to be right there where all of the scenes in the movie took place! Cool vacation spot if you haven't been here!

Point Pleasant Beach

We went "down to the coast" about a month or so ago. You don't call it "going to the beach" here. People look at you weird. You call it going "down to the coast". Point Pleasant Beach is about an hour from where we live. It is such a fun place! They have a boardwalk with carnival rides and games and fun houses and restaurants and shopping! I have only seen boardwalks in movies. So I guess it didn't click that they existed in real life too.
We took the kids to play on the beach. The beaches are so beautiful here! Never in a million years would I have ever pictured myself living somewhere coastal. It's great that this is so close! During the summer they show movies on the beach. They string a screen up between these two poles and everyone sits on the beach and watches movies. We'll definitely have to come back for this! The carnival rides were fun. They didn't have a ferris wheel so Craig and the kids were a little bit disappointed. (I hate ferris wheels). I guess they used to have one, but they took it down for whatever reason. The rides were mostly for little kids. And they cost a fortune! The prices were ridiculous on some of them! Lucky for us Craig's company was treating our day at the boardwalk. :)

There was also an indoor aquarium that we went to too. They had a big pirate ship that had been "shipwrecked" and there were all these sea animals swimming around it. They fed the sea lions or otters (I forget what they were). We only got to watch that, but the kids were just a fascinated!
Beaches are relaxing and the boardwalk was really a neat experience. IF you're ever out this way we would love to take you!

Halloween

Halloween was quick this year. So we have definitely learned that trick-or-treating is much different in the cold. We did not plan warm costumes or even think about putting a coat on them when we went out. I guess you have to buy their costume bigger so you can put coats under their costumes or something? The kids only lasted about 30 minutes and then they were complaining that they were cold and wanted to go back home. They kept saying "No more candy!" Never thought I would hear my kids say that!

So this year we had a princess and two pirates. Their costumes were great! They all looked so cute!

Chase

Mallory

Clark

Chase and Mallory loved dressing up! Chase thought having a beard was the coolest and Mallory loved the fact that she got to wear make-up! Mallory won't need mascara when she grows up. She's got the longest darkest lashes!
Mallory had on these high heels - the play kind - and after a while she insisted on being carried, especially up every flight of stairs.
Her feet were hurting and she said it was hard to walk. Women's footwear doesn't get any better the older you get Mally!! If people weren't coming to the door fast enough Chase and Mallory would look in the window next to their front door to see if they were coming. No one was home at this door!
While we went trick-or-treating we just left our bowl of candy by the front door because we weren't going to be home to pass it out. We actually thought some punk kid would dump the whole bowl in his or her trick-or-treat bag. Actually we were hoping that's what would happen. We didn't want the candy sitting around the house! I guess the kids are pretty honest here and just took a piece or two while we were gone. Our bowl looked like this when we came home:
When the kids got home they dumped out their buckets on the floor to check out their goods! They were great and shared with Clark too. In fact they shared a little too much with Clark. He threw up all over Craig. That's when we cut the candy off and headed for the bathtub!

!
It was an enjoyable - and cold - Halloween!!

Chase's 5th Birthday

Chase turned 5 on October 30th. I can't believe my oldest is 5! He's really grown up a lot this past year. He's such a good helper, especially with Clark. They have a special bond! We started Chase's birthday off by having donuts. Chase's favorite is chocolate with sprinkles! After breakfast we went to feed the geese. We have 3 ponds in our townhouse development. Canadian geese come play in our ponds throughout the day. This is often the highlight of our kids's day!
I love this picture! It looks like my baby "geese" are following their Daddy "goose"!

Craig ended up being sick on Chase's birthday so he spent the afternoon in the doctor's office while Clark and Mallory napped and I wrapped presents. I was wrapping the presents up in my bedroom and I see this little bit of brown hair peeking up over the top stair in the stairwell. (It's Chase - I had told him to stay downstairs while I wrapped his presents). I asked him what he was doing upstairs and he said, "Mom, I was just checking on you." Of course he was trying to catch a peek at his presents! Do you remember those days? To be so full of excitement!! Wondering what's behind the wrapping paper all day long!
We went to Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner and tokens! Grandpa Marc and Grandma Treesa came into town for Chase's birthday. We also had two families from the ward come. It was nice to have every one's company and it meant a lot to Chase to have a party! He had a blast riding rides and playing games! Chuck E. Cheese even had a dance floor where you would dance in front of this blue screen and your picture would show up on these TV monitors with different backgrounds. It was pretty cool! The kids loved the dancing part and watching the disco ball!

He opened his presents last. He was so excited! He just kept going from present to present to present!



He had such a great time at his party! We were so glad that some family and friends got to come and celebrate with us!

I took Chase to get his 5 year pictures done and we're getting dressed and ready to go and he turns and says to me, "Mom. I'm growin' up." I almost started crying! Yes, my boy is growing up! He is turning into such a sweet little boy. He has a thirst for life. He lives every moment to it's fullest and he always finds a way to make me smile. That's one thing I love about Chase - if Chase is smiling you can't help but smile back. He has the best smile! His picture turned out great. He looks more like 15 instead of 5. He looks like a male model! He's got his thumbs in his pockets his top button unbuttoned and of course. . . . the perfect smile :)