Our first visitors!

Yes, we've only been here about a month and we already had our first visitors....Grandma Dottie and Uncle Luke! They just left yesterday:( They got here last wednesday and we had 4 VERY full days of lots of FUN! I was totally on cloud 9 that people actually came already and were visiting us and experiencing our new life here in New York.

Uncle Luke really wanted to tour Juilliard School in the city so thursday we headed to the city after Crew's first nap. It was my first time driving into the city! AAhhhh no wonder the smart people in New York take every other mode of transportation EXCEPT automobile;) the traffic here is just crazy, and drivers are rude! We literally live about 20 minutes from Manhattan but I'm sure we will never get there in that short amount of time, ever. It took us over an hour to get there and I felt so bad because I had set up the tour for Luke about 2 months ago and we ended up being too late for him to take the tour:( total bummer. We should have taken the train! We're still learning.....haven't been here that long! Anyways.....it also happened to be about 95 degrees that day with about 95% humidity! Disgusting! I dropped mom and Luke off at Juilliard and headed to park the car....I walked about 2 blocks and was thinking to myself ..."this is dangerous...we should not be out walking around in the city with this heat...what are we going to do now?" Everybody was hungry so we found a nice COLD restaurant and had lunch. Mom and I cheered to some tasty white wine! We're in New York! So fun! After lunch we jumped in a cab and asked him to take us to the best bakery in the city...Magnolia! Thank God there was no line! Somebody had recommended it to me and said that typically there is a line that wraps around the building, but not to worry it moves fast.....I knew there was NO way we could stand to be outside in this heat and wait in a long line. We lucked out with no line at all:) And they were simply amazing....I could have eaten 2 or 3 they were that good! We were right next to Rockefeller center so we headed inside to stay cool. Luke was really interested in "Top of the Rock".....it looked awesome. So up we went....80 floors or something crazy like that. What a VIEW! Everybody must do this at some point in their lives. It was crazy to be up that high and see those buildings...especially to see this huge green park right smack in the middle of the city....Central Park!


I just can't believe that big green area is Central Park! So amazing!
Luke at the Lego store right next to Rockefeller Center

We decided to call Erik and have him hop on the train and come meet us for dinner in the city rather than start our way back home and sit in traffic for God knows how long, in rush hour.

We ended up eating in Rockefeller Center at the Sea Grill, right next to where the ice rink usually is in the winter time. So pretty. Costa tried oysters! And LIKED them;) Silly kid....likes everything. After dinner we walked across the street to the American Girl Store.....Halle's been asking to go there since we got to New York. Right before we moved I found my American Girl, Kirsten. I gave her to Halle and told her about the store they have in New York. She's been pretty excited. And, pretty cool....Kirsten was one of the original dolls and has been archived now. So, Halle's already decided for her birthday this year we'll be hanging out at the American Girl Store getting Kirsten all dolled up. Ha! We'll look forward to it!


Friday night mom spoiled Luke, Erik and I with tickets to the Broadway Show, Wicked. I was so excited for this! This was the one thing my mom really stressed she wanted to do while she was here so I was so happy I was able to find tickets that weren't TOO outrageous! We had a great time and the show was awesome. Afterwards, we walked a few blocks to Times Square. My mom and Luke were in awe, it is quite a site with all the lights and SO many people! Luke really wanted to see the Empire State Builiding, so we hopped in a cab and headed that direction. My mom had already spent so much money on us I told her that her and Luke just needed to go. Erik and I headed across the street to have a drink...and have a little alone time! We haven't had a date night in SO long:( Before we knew it.....it was 1:30 in the morning! Time to head home....and what do you know? TRAFFIC! Yep, at 2 AM! Crazy place.

Erik teaching Luke how to "hail" a cab in the BIG city

The next day was moms birthday! SO special to have her in New York with us for her special day! We spent the day relaxing......and keeping cool inside. I had made reservations for us and a few of our friends for that night for dinner, adults only. How nice that we know people that can babysit for us in this big city? Thanks Melinda and Sandy! Dinner was at a small italian place called Piccolo Angolo. It was ok....mine wasn't that great but everybody else seemed to really like theirs! After dinner they started playing the Happy Birthday song, dimmed the lights and everybody in the restaurant chimed in to sing Happy Birthday! That was a surprise! What a memorable birthday:) Happy Birthday Mom and Grandma! We love you!

Making Grandma's birthday cake
Since he's usually asleep in his carseat for all the pictures!

The last day, Sunday we were all exhausted. We contemplated just staying close to home, but there was one place Mom and Luke just had to see...Central Park. It was nice because Erik was too tired to come so he ended up staying home with Crew so he could nap. So off we went, another adventure to the big city. We lucked out and found a parking spot a block away from the park! Parking is free on weekends if you find a spot. Yeah! It was meant to be:) On our way in to the park we saw the bicycle tour guys.....my mom and I were thinking on the same page.....yep, we need that! We were tired, the kids were tired and the park is HUGE! There was just one more thing we needed to make this day complete and perfect...a bottle of wine;) It was so cool to have the tour and be able to see The John Lennon memorial, the apartment he lived in, where he was shot, the Friends fountain and where various shots from different movies were filmed. After the tour, we let the kids play in the water park area and we also rode the carousel. What a fun day!
The finish line in Central Park for the New York Marathon
Costa was being a stinker and didn't want any more photos:(

We had so much fun Mom and Luke! Thank you so much for coming to visit us! Lots of laughs and memories;) We will miss you until the next time we see you! We love you!

Easter weekend 2011

We had a beautiful Easter weekend, of course spent with our wonderful families. It was so nice to be home in arizona this year! Halle got sick on friday, my poor baby...but thankfully she recovered in time on saturday to dye some Easter eggs and was well enough to enjoy Easter on sunday. Costa was SO excited to dye eggs and had been anticipating this for weeks now since Auntie Nisa bought us this awesome dye kit. So, of course him and I started friday night. Crew buddy had fun watching us in his bumbo seat!

Look at these cute guys Costa came up with on his own! I thought they were so cute! Little dinosaurs!

My poor baby she wasn't feeling good
The egg daddy made...pretty cute!

It was an extra SPECIAL Easter this year, because Uncle Alex was Confirmed and also received his First Holy Communion as well on Easter Vigil, Saturday. I was honored he asked me to be his sponsor! How special! I truly felt so honored that he wanted me of all people he could have asked! We are so proud of Alex for taking this step with his faith and are so excited for all the graces he will receive because he did! Congratulations Alex...we love you and will always be here for you! After the ceremony, we went to dinner at Oregano's to celebrate! It was a late night...Hallers was a trooper! Especially, since she'd been sick the day before. We decided to leave Costa and Crew at home with Grandma and Papa, too late for the little buddies.




Easter morning was so fun! The kids were SO excited for the Easter bunny to come to our house! They had fun finding their baskets and then they were super cute to find out the bunny had left something for our little Crew. They thought that was pretty cool! Of course, the bunny wouldn't forget our little Crew buddy! It's so much fun to see the excitement in their little eyes and voices! I just love it, it's the best. Costa is really cute these days and always says to me when he's excited for something..."Aren't you so excited mom?" So adorable.



After the excitement of the baskets, it was nice to relax for a little bit since we had gone to church the night before. Although Church was 3 hours long the night before, I must say I did enjoy sipping coffee with my husband Easter morning watching the kids excitement, not rushing to get everybody ready for church! After a little bit we did get ready and headed over to Papa and Grandma Contreras' house for brunch and an Easter egg hunt. This year we put money in the eggs, like we do at my families hunt. The kids are older now, so that's super fun for them to see who gets the eggs with the most money! We had a great morning but we were really missing the Mersiowsky cousins!


Grandma helped Hallers find some eggs!



Our baby's first Easter! Four months old


Cousin Niko


Cousin Gabey



Look who found a five dollar bill! Go Cost!

Last stop that afternoon was Poppie and Gg's house for dinner, swimming and another egg hunt! So much fun! I LOVE being home for holidays!

The kids put on a concert for the adults at the end of the night...Costa put off some pretty awesome dance moves! They were great!

Celebrating 8 years

Today, Erik and I celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary! God has blessed us big time so far! Crazy it's been a year ago exactly today we found out we were going to have another baby! Time flies. We have an amazing life together and are loving every minute of it. I thank God for making him mine everyday. Unfortunately, he had to leave for Guadalajara yesterday so we didn't actually get to be together today....but we did go out for a little bit last saturday to celebrate. We don't get the opportunity to go out very often these days, but Papa and Grandma Contreras were nice enough to watch the kids for us so we could get out for a little bit. We decided to invite a few people to join us since we'll be heading to New York soon and ended up going to Fieldhouse with Artie, Kristi and Anthony. We had fun catching up and even did a little dancing. It was fun! Cheers babe! I love you more than you will ever know and here's to many more beautiful years together! Hopefully, not spent apart!
Oh, and I wanted to remember Erik's post to me on facebook...It was kinda cute:
"Happy Anniversary babe! 8 years, 3 kids, couple houses and one awesome adventure;)"

My mom, Luke, Les and Brooks joined Halle, Costa, Crew and I for dinner at Kona Grill to celebrate with me since I was missing my hubby on our anniversary. Thanks girls! It kinda works out that Les is husbandless too these days...haha...sorry Alex but it's kinda worked out in my favor! It was a fun night and so thankful I have you here to hang out when Erik's gone.....you are amazing and I'm so lucky to have such a great family! I love you guys so much!

Saying goodbye...again

Erik left today back to Guadalajara for his last month before graduation. Of course, I cried 2 times this morning before we even go to the airport to drop him off. It just bums me out big time when he leaves....just not the same around here when daddy's gone. I feel bad because as much as I try to hide it when we say good-bye I just can't stop the tears from flowing and today Halle started crying too. Poor baby. As soon as I looked back and saw her sad face I quickly dried up my tears and tried to reassure that it would go by quickly and daddy would be back soon. I asked them what would be a fun thing for us to do today? The mall, of course....always takes our mind off daddy being gone, for a little bit.

While we were at the mall Erik called and said that he could get bumped and might not be leaving until 6PM. Yeah! We could spend the day with him! As much as I hated the thought of saying good-bye again, I know us and anymore time we could have together we would take advantage of. He called back just as we were leaving and said "come get me.".....off we went back to the airport.

We picked him up and headed over to Mill Ave. to grab some lunch. It was such a beautiful day today, so somewhere with a patio was a must. Erik suggested Big Fat Greek, sounded delicious to me! We enjoyed an awesome lunch and even better we were together on this gorgeous sunday afternoon. After lunch we had some time so we decided to walk around. We ended up at the beach park where they were having a Greek Festival. So fun! Why don't we do this stuff more often? Costa and I went on the ferris wheel and Halle and Costa went on the "Gogogator" roller coaster. We had to talk Halle into going on the ride, telling her over and over that she would have fun. Little stinker! She finally agreed and of course wanted to go again! The kids enjoyed a "baklava" sundae while Erik and I enjoyed a nice cold brewski. SO thankful for USAIRWAYS giving us a $350 voucher, but even better a little more time together before he leaves for a month! I'm so sad I didn't have my camera to take some pictures...bummer. I wasn't expecting such a sad day to turn into a super fun day! We love you babe....see you in a month!