Welcome Henry

Addison and I were lucky enough to make a quick pre-Thanksgiving trip to Michigan last week to love on the newest member of the family.  Henry Kane Gorman was born on Tuesday, November 12th.

Woo Pig Sooie

We took Addison to her first Razorback basketball game of the season.  She had so much fun cheering on the Hogs.

I ♥ NYC

 We had a wonderful trip to the Big Apple last week.  I wasn't too sure about taking a 2 year old to the big city but Addison exceeded our expectations and was wonderful.  We packed as much as we could into a few short days.

THURSDAY, NOV 7
First up the American Girl Store!  Addison has had Bitty Baby since her first birthday and poor Bitty has been wearing the same outfit so it was about time to get her some new clothes.  Addison was in heaven...I was a little overwhelmed by the whole store, but Addison was in her element.  They had a nice little section devoted to Bitty Baby so we were able to look and touch and test-drive all the different things Bitty could have before making our final selection of a book, an outfit w/ blanket and striped pajamas.

 

 

 

 

John and I managed to squeeze in an evening by ourselves and went to a nice dinner at Otto and then walked around Soho. 

FRIDAY, NOV 8
It was a brisk fall day but we bundled up and headed towards Lady Liberty. 

 

After a quick lunch in the Financial District, Chris and John split from the group and toured the 911 Memorial.

 

Addison had too much fun at the Statue of Liberty and didn't make it back to the hotel to start her nap.

New York style pizza was on the menu for dinner and the evening wouldn't be complete without a walk-thru Time Square and the M&M store.  There were TONS of characters walking around Time Square...both literally and figuratively.  Addison liked the ones dressed up as Elmo and Angelina Ballerina the most.  Lucky for us Addison likes them a whole lot more from a far and we didn't have to pay any of them for their picture, in fact she got scared if they came too close but waved and smiled if they were 10 yards away.

 

 



SATURDAY, NOV 9
A trip to NYC (with kids) wouldn't be complete without a stop at the Toys R Us in Time Square.  We had been talking about this since we decided to all go to NYC.  We decided to hit-up the ferris wheel first thing as the line was not too long.  The stroller became a vehicle for holding coats and hats and Addison ran wild-thru the store touching everything.

After lunch as a family, we all split up...I went shopping by myself, John took Addison to the hotel for her nap and the others went and saw a Broadway show - Spiderman.

We all met back up for a wonderful dinner at Dos Caminos...a restaurant my sister Abbey recommended.  After dinner we decided we hadn't done enough toy shopping so we headed to FAO Schwarz!  A little shopping, a little piano playing...

 

 

 

John, Addison and I ended our night with a carriage ride.  Lucky was the name of our horse and we had a nice 20 minute ride around Central Park.

Once we tucked the kids in bed, John, Chris and I made our way to the top of Rockefeller Center to catch a glimpse of the city at night.  It was a windy night but it was really neat to see all the building lit up.  We were really just buying some time as we wanted to be in Time Square at midnight.  We had heard there was a "choreographed light show" on all the electronic billboards.  Turns out it wasn't quite the show we thought it was going to be but oh well at least there was some interesting people watching as we sipped our hot chocolate.

SUNDAY, NOV 10
We were able to squeeze one more NYC classic in before we had to pack-up and head home.  We saw the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Sunday morning.  Addison really enjoyed seeing all the signing and dancing and Santa.

 

 

 

In Other News...

John took the "front door" (aka baby gate) off the staircase this week and Addison has spent hours and hours playing on the bottom 6 steps.  John and I for sure thought she was going to have a terrible fall within the first 24 hours sans gate, but so far so good.

 

 

 

{{Sneak Peak}} Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken earlier this week and I'm so happy Kim from KD Photography was able to squeeze us in again this year.  She is one busy lady...I scheduled this session in July!  But our pictures with her last year were AWESOME so I knew I wanted her to do them again this year.  She posted these 2 pictures on her Facebook page and I can't wait to see how the rest of them turned out.

Go Take A Hike!

That's exactly what we did this past weekend...

We took a little roadtrip and had a wonderful weekend down at the Buffalo National River.  The weather was great and the leaves were turning and beautiful.  

Addison was a good sport and probably would have 'hiked' more but her little legs are so short we would still be waiting for her so she got lots of rides on our sholders.

We even got to see some elk...which Addison insisted were "big deer" --- ha!  I guess she was pretty close?!

Toyland

Sure yesterday was Halloween but today we got in the Christmas spirit.  We went to the annual Toyland event sponsored by Walmart and Downtown Bentonville.  Addison got a sneak peak at all the hottest toys for the holidays thanks to the Walmart toy suppliers.  Her favorite toy (for the second year in a row) was the big ride-on power wheels.