Baby Shower in Connecticut

I had to share pictures of the Baby Shower the YW threw for Patty Sue.  She was the first counselor in the YW presidency, and she just bought a house in Connecticut.  The girls were so excited to drive to Connecticut and see her house-- so was I.  Lenzci called it "the city goes to the country."

We could tell we were getting close when we saw big parking lots

It was exciting to see a Walmart-- who would've thought :)

Decorating the living room

The girls went outside to decorate.  

This is what we later found them doing...

They were loving TPing-- definitely a new experience for these two.  They wanted videos taken of them running around the yard and throwing the streamers into the tree.  And apparently the neighbors waved to them because they ran inside to tell us about it.  Doesn't happen too often in the city :)

Mother Goose Themed Food

The Baby Shower

Patty Sue with Jesse and Lenzci

Patty's house

This picture is from the corner of their yard

As we were leaving, Angela yelled bye to everyone.  The girls were shocked that you could actually hear her voice.  They're such city girls :)

Definitely a fun day.

Then I got to come home to this little stinker.

He's cute.

 And funny.

Shoving himself under the bean bag since he can only crawl backwards and in circles

Shopping at Costco

Angela's daughter, Harper, and "her baby" at the food court

Sitting in the shopping cart like a big boy

Stake YW Trek

On Saturday, I went with our YW on a stake trek activity.  We walked from our church building (the stake center) to the Manhattan Temple to do baptisms and confirmations-- probably 5 miles.  Two of our four girls were able to go, and we had a really fun time.  It was a long day, but the weather was perfect!  The trek took us from Queens, across the Queensboro Bridge, over Roosevelt Island, to Manhattan, along Central Park and up to the temple.  Definitely different than the Phoenix North Stake trek we did in high school. :)  We had stops along the way with water and snacks.  Plus they had a scripture representing each value.  They stake did a great job planning the activity.  I had a great time!    

Getting ready to go -- the girls insisted we wear our hats backwards because we're gangster.  Especially me :)

Jesse and Lenzci in our matching hats

They were usually up at the front leading the way

Snack Station 

Walking along the Bridge

Half way there 

The tram that goes to Roosevelt Island

The river separating Roosevelt Island and Manhattan (from the Bridge)

In Manhattan 

Jesse, Lenzci, and Tina

Walking along Central Park

Getting tired :) 

The girls at the temple

They were given necklaces with key charms -- the key to the temple

It obviously wasn't a very authentic pioneer trek, but we had a great time.  It was a beautiful walk.  I love how the temple is right smack in the middle of New York City.  It gives a whole new meaning to how the temple is a refuge from the busy world.

He just keeps growing

Chase just keeps growing!

He takes over the bed.

He watches movies.

He has opinions about eating his food.

He loves to sing, especially with his dad.

AND he's trying to CRAWL.

But then, he's so peaceful when he sleeps.

I could stare at him forever.

Finally, a Bookcase!

**Feel free to skip the part about the bookcase and scroll down to the four videos of Chase**

We had been talking about getting a real bookcase for the living room basically since we moved in.  The wire cubes worked great, but they did look a little... college dorm life.  :)  Finally, after being able to throw a few things in storage and start the big de-cluttering process., we (or more like I) decided it was time to upgrade.  

So we ordered a bookcase this week.  I knew it would be a big project, so I started by moving the wire cubes into the bedroom to hold clothes that were stacked around the room.  I knew it would be a couple of days before it came, so there was just a pile of stuff that used to be on the shelves.  (Older pictures show the corner of the room stuffed with books and other random things.)  It wasn't quite a black hole, but it was definitely a pile of doom...

The bookcase arrived earlier than expected.  Thank goodness.  And I put it together all by myself.  (I'm just going to need Marcus' help to secure it to the wall.)  Chase watched most of the building.  

I still need to go through the books and decide which ones to leave on the shelves and which are going in a box, but I wanted Marcus' input before carting his stuff to storage :)  Even with the pile in the corner, I feel like the room grew.  The wire cubes took up so much space, and this just looks a million times better.  My plan is to get rid of the stuff in the corner so the diaper bag and stroller can be there with nothing else.  Then when Chase isn't in his jumperoo (which rarely happens because he loves it so much), we can push it back toward the wall and still have room to walk!  I feel so grown up.  Haha.

It is really full right now, but I remembered some tricks from Nate Berkus' show that will help maximize the space and minimize the look of clutter.  (He's a genius-- Whoever decided to cancel his show was obviously not from a small, city apartment!  Punk.)  We'll see if I can really internalize what I learned from him.  At least for now there's more room to walk, and it looks so much cleaner, at least to me. :)

I'm trying to learn how to "decorate" a New York apartment, and slowly, very slowly, it's getting cleaner as I learn to maximize vertical space and clear as much horizontal space as I can. :)  I'd like to blame the baby for taking up space, but let's be honest, even before Chase, it still was a mess.  Maybe I should just get Nate Berkus to clean and re-decorate my entire apartment...

And of course, a video of Chase, and the bookcase :)

Here's Chase singing and jumping some more

Trying for the cat.  He loves to watch and pet (more like grab) her now.

And finally, a new favorite food.  

He actually kept opening his mouth for more for so long that I had to put a little more in the bowl.

The end.