Our first museum in the city

We've been to the city several times since we moved here 2 months ago, but we hadn't made our way to any of the museums yet. We kind of made a little promise to ourselves to try and do and see as much as we can since we will only be living her for a year. It's such a great experience for us all, and especially cool for the kids to live so close to so many cool things! We are so lucky. Erik had a few days off work, so we took the kids and their friend Breton to their first museum, The American Museum of Natural History.

Halle and Co with their buddy Breton







This is for the guy right below
This guy! I thought this was crazy...the biggest deer that ever lived!
He was gigantic!









It was pretty cool, Lots AND lots of dinosaur and animal bones! So fun to be in a place that has so many fun, historic things to do!

Halle's 3rd tooth

I had to remember her last picture with her baby teeth!

Well, finally a year and a half later ...she lost another tooth! That makes lucky #3! The top right one;) She's been working on it for awhile now and held onto it until Costa accidentally knocked it out during one of their wrestling matches...it was SO ready, barely hanging on. She popped up and said "My tooth...thank God I didn't swallow it!"


Of course, she had to leave a letter for our dear Tooth Fairy....

She asked her to give her tooth to her baby brother Crew! Tooth fairy said Crew's teeth should be coming very soon!

The next morning Erik and I were eager to see how much the Fairy had left her for that tooth......she wasn't too impressed with the 2 dollars that were under her pillow.....her response was..."Jeez, the mexican Tooth Fairy left me 50 bucks....this one only left 2 bucks!" I quickly reminded her......"Halle, it was 50 pesos, not 50 bucks, silly!" "And, I think you better get used to the American Tooth Fairy, we're not in Mexico anymore sweetheart!"

Time is flying.....7 months!

Time is going WAY too fast! I am really loving having this baby around,....he's at a good age and he's such a happy guy and I can't get enough! I just wanna squeeeeezzze him all the time! For some reason, it seems so much easier having a baby around this time....even with all the craziness we've had in our lives! God truly blessed us with a good one;) I can't believe he's 7 months already.....about 2 weeks ago he started getting up on all fours....rocking, trying to crawl! It's so funny to see him get up on all four, rock a couple times, then fall flat;) He's still army crawling and can roll to wherever he wants to go, but I'm sure in the next few weeks he'll be full on crawling. The other 2 didn't crawl until about 9 months....this guy is on the move;)

*He's over his baby toys, he wants anything that's NOT a toy....we have to watch him or he's trying to chew on wires or pull books off the shelf .....Mr. Curious! Time to baby proof our tiny apartment!!!!
*Mr. Rolly Polly Olly.....such a chunker! I LOVE it! He doesn't go back to the doctor until 9 months, but I think he's at least 20 lbs for sure. Big boy!
*Such a great baby....naps on the go(and he's been on the go ALOT this last month with all our tourist adventures!), never cries...unless he's hungry, this guy doesn't miss meals;)
***Oh, besides one little tiny SUPER annoying thing....he's still a stinker in the night time...ugh. I'm not a happy camper when I have to get up several times in the night! So this has been hard. We actually let him cry last night.....we've been taking turns going into the room everytime he cries or starts to talk giving him the binki because Halle and Costa are in the room with him. My BIG stress of the three of them sharing a room! Nobody getting any sleep. Halle and Costa sucked their thumbs, so we never had to to do this.....Crew LOVES his binki! But we decided it's getting kinda ridiculous. He's 7 months, we shouldn't have to go in there several times in the night. It's exhausting! So, hopefully it will only take a few nights! Sorry Halle and Co!
*He's eating pretty much all the fruits and veggies now. He doesn't like the cereal by itself, so I add fruit to it. The only thing I don't think he likes too much is pears. He definitley LOVES his food and recently started moving his mouth and tongue to show me he's hungry or if somebody is eating something in front of him! It's hilarious...I can't wait until we can give him everything...he doesn't waste a bite and eats everything each time! He eats cereal for breakfast with 1/2 jar fruit added. Then for dinner he has the same thing plus 1/2 jar veggies.
*He has 4 bottles a day.....about 7-8 oz each time!
*He's been waking about 5 AM everyday for his first bottle, thank God he holds it himself, because I give it to him in his bed and he goes back to sleep until at least 7!
*Still takes 3 naps a day and is only up for about an hour and a half each time.
*LOVES to hear his voice.....constantly babbling and screams to get our attention! Says "Ba Ba" and "Da Da" perfectly...no mama yet:(
*Started to notice when I'm not in the room, or if I walk by and don't acknowledge him! A little separation anxiety already...yikes! Wants me to pick him up...super spoiled by his big sis and bro, they won't let him fuss...the second he starts to they're rushing to his side to try and make him laugh or give him a toy;)
*Still no teeth
*He truly looks the most like Erik! It's funny because I thought the other 2, especially Co looked just like daddy, but now I'm thinking they're more me! Crew is Erik's "mini-me" Baby pictures are identical!
*Little snuggler! Started giving open mouth kisses about a week ago! I love holding him close and snuggling with him with his last bottle right before bed....so sweet.
*Giggles at Halle and Costa all the time and has the BIGGEST smile whenever he sees his daddy:)
*Oh, and last but not least...our little "pukey-pukster" is getting much better! He still has days where he pukes all over us, but it is getting better(Thank God)

We are loving watching this little guy's personality evolve and blend with our family! He's such a cutie pie! We love you Crusoe (Ca-RU-so),SO-SO....his new nickname from his daddy;) Other nicknames he has so far.....Crewy, Crewy-Pie,Crew-BOO, boo boo's, booz(probably not the best nickname for your baby....but he's just my little booz booz;)....lol (daddy's not a fan so I'm sure it won't stick but I like it for now!)

More visitors!

How lucky are we? We had more visitors last weekend! I have a feeling it's going to be like that here in New York and I LOVE it;) Nise drove over with the kiddos! Jeff was going to arizona for his 20 year reunion so they came to check out our new place;) We said bye to Grandma and Uncle Luke and before we knew it, more visitors! The kids were so excited to see their cousins....

It's nice because Erik's old babysitter, Sharon from arizona lives in Manhatten.....she's so awesome and helpful for us in this big place! I had been in touch with her and told her Nise was heading over for the weekend, so she had some good ideas of what we should do in the city with ALL these kids;) Her and her son, James whose 4 joined us for the day. Nise and the kids got here right at lunch time so we went to eat at a place called Patsy's....yummy pizza and salad, perfect! We surprised the kids after lunch and headed across the street to the famous "Dylans Candy Bar"...I think I was just as excited as they were to go to the candy store;) I'm such a sweet tooth!
It was pretty crazy, lots of kids everywhere! We gave each of the kids a bag and let them get a few things and then got out of there quickly, it was madness!.....needless to say we walked out spending $29 bucks on candy!!! It's just one of those...."You gotta do while you're in New York"....kinda thing;)

Afterwards we headed to Central Park, Nise brought the kids scooters (lifesavers in the city!)....So much fun! This was our 3rd weekend in a row hanging out in Central Park...I love it! We let them scoot for awhile and then Halle and Costa were dying to show Reece and KK the splash pad....it's pretty cool. Just happy we found it.....the park is seriously GIGANTIC!

After a couple hours, we were exhausted......the humidity and all the walking just takes it out of you. Sharon had offered for us to come back to her apartment and have dinner and let the kids play. We decided this was our best bet with a bunch of tired kiddos and parents. Going out to dinner probably would have been a nightmare at this point;)


The next day we relaxed.....we got out of the house and took our first trip to the mall to have lunch with the possibility of maybe taking the kids to see the new Smurf Movie. It was just too hot to be outside again. The mall was nice! I was SUPER excited because Steve Madden was having a sale and I got 2 pairs of shoes for $20 bucks!!!! YES, 20 bucks! Even my husband was excited for me;) He was so cute.....he was like "Babe, I'm so excited for you....you really needed shoes".... Successful trip to the mall...lol. Afterwards, Nise and I decided we should do something fun for the kids since the mall isn't really fun for them and we passed up the movie idea. So, next best thing...frozen yogurt and the park.


Erik and I even got a date night while they were here! Thanks Nise for watching the kiddos so we could go to the movies! Stupid Crazy Love.....it was so good.

Nise said her kids really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and had asked her if we were going to do it. I thought it would be fun and said Let's go! We looked online and saw a water taxi we could do that wasn't too expensive. So we packed a lunch and headed back to the city;) We got there just in time for the 1PM departure. SO excited to see the Statue up close! We didn't get off the water taxi and go inside, it was just an hour tour and you stayed on the taxi. It was so cool, I'm so glad we did it! We didn't even have very much traffic there or the way home. Thank God! What a FUN summer we're having being New York tourists;) Better yet, with visitors!

Pier 17 where we got on the water taxi
This is Ellis Island the place where immigrants were processed when they first entered America
It's a museum now

She's SO beautiful!

Honestly, I was a little worried about how it would be with that many kids in our small 2 bedroom apartment......but it worked out! I'm so happy they came to visit us and can't wait for them to come back again!

Making ice cream sundaes:)