A new post!

I've started a new blog, mostly to share my love for the treats of New York City, but my latest post mainly describes our experiences with Hurricane Sandy. If you're interested, here's the site: www.nycsweetlife.blogspot.com We love you all!

So Long, 2011

Our holidays were wonderful! It all started out on the right foot since James didn't have to work on Christmas Eve (we were afraid he might have to - oh, the joys of investment banking!), and then he actually had all the following week off! Of course with a licensing exam scheduled for New Year's Eve, he had a lot of studying to do (and little projects for work here and there), but it was SO nice just to have him around!

Thanks to the Hadleys for a great Christmas Eve party! We combined lots of family traditions and had so much fun with good friends. The kids all found presents outside that Santa had dropped from his sleigh (they all got jammies) and watched Rudolph while the parents ate delicious food and played games.

Our tree was packed with gifts, mostly thanks to Grandmas and Grandpas!
Santa found our apartment and left toys for two very good girls, earmuffs for Daddy, and a toilet bowl cleaner for Mommy (does that equate to a gift or coal? Not sure yet!).
Possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen was Hannah finding her stroller for her baby that Santa left. It was 6:30 in the morning, and she was heading to the couch like normal. But as soon as she saw the stroller, she stopped, gasped, and said, "Santa brought me a stroller for my baby!!" Then she hardly let it out of her hands for hours!
Abbie was just happy to be part of all the fun
Hannah found a pair of kid scissors in her stocking. She then decided that she needed to cut open every present, which significantly slowed down our gift-opening process. What made it even more awesome was that she is left-handed and these weren't left-handed scissors (good move on my part). Then there is James who likes to fully explore every present he gets before moving on! Overall, gift-opening took almost 4 hours (and we didn't have THAT many presents!).
I scored big with my gift to James - it's a compilation of some of the hilarious emails he's written over the years, including my favorite Cheeseletters from the BYU Cheese Club days. He sat there and read the whole book!
Abbie was the hard one to shop for this year (luckily everything we used with Hannah is still in good shape and her old clothes are the right seasons for Abbie). So we decided to give her a children's classic book on New York. She loved it (probably).
Christmas brunch was Winder-style with Christmas eggs, ham, and grapefruit. James was in heaven. He ate 12 Christmas eggs (6 whole eggs)!
Hannah also loved her Rapunzel dress. She put it on as soon as she opened it and still LOVES to wear around the house!
Happy New Year! We went to see the crystal Times Square ball the week before New Year's Eve when they had it on display at the Times Square Visitor's Center. Our NYE was a real celebration because James had just passed his licensing exam! We started with yummy food from The Meatball Shop, then got the best doughnuts ever at The Doughnut Plant, watched The Little Princess with Hannah, joined some friends in our building for a little party, put the girls to bed at 10, and brought in the New Year watching the ball drop on the Internet!
Hannah drew a smiley face on a piece of confetti that was dropped over Times Square at midnight on New Year's Eve (it's the red one right in the middle of the picture).
Then our little girl went to Sunbeams! She LOVES being in Primary, and I want to cry every time I think that she is old enough to be out of nursery!
Thanks for a great 2011! Here's to a happy new year!

It's (or was) Christmastime in the City

The holiday season is definitely magical in New York City. We have had such a blast exploring the Christmas activities around the city. Hannah is the perfect age to really get into the anticipation of Christmas, and she loves everything about it, whether it's talking to Santa (she's not afraid at all this year!) or learning more about "Baby Jesus, Mary, and Joviss."

Here are some of our favorite things (some things we enjoyed so much that they were repeated several times!):

1. We are believers in the Winder house! Hannah wrote Santa a letter detailing her wish for a stroller for her baby. Also for playgroup, we watched the "Miracle on 34th Street" puppet show at Macy's to get the kids excited about Santa. All the effort paid off - Hannah can't get enough of Santa this year!

So we went to Santaland at Macy's to see him...

...and see him again...
...and see him again!
And we can't forget the Turkish Santa we met at St. Paul's. I think this guy was literally 100 years old. He was from Turkey, liked carrots instead of cookies, and somehow got Hannah to talk to him despite freaking all the kids out at first! The next day, Hannah told me, "Mommy, Santa doesn't like cookies. He likes carrots and turkey!"

2. Christmas Trees. We've seen so many amazing Christmas trees around the city. Some of our favorites were (top left) the tree lighting at Lincoln Center, (bottom left) the amazing origami tree at the Museum of Natural History, (middle) the mixed breed tree at South Street Seaport, (top right) the tree in Washington Square, (bottom right) and of course the huge twinkling tree at Rockefeller! We also loved the Baroque tree and Creche at the Met, but we saw that one after my camera was stolen!
Hannah somehow decided that such beautiful trees deserved some beautiful posing!
And of course we love our own tree! Hannah decorated the whole thing (and told Daddy where to put the ornaments that went up high).

3. Holiday Markets. We love the little shops set up all over the city. Our favorite market was in Union Square, but we also enjoyed the markets at Bryant Park, Columbus Circle, Grand Central Station, and the South Street Seaport. There are awesome independent vendors and yummy treats.

4. Trains. Despite our girl-dominated home, we love trains! Our first Holiday Train adventure was at the NY Transit Museum at Grand Central. It was awesome! The model trains traveled through NYC to the countryside to the North Pole. Hannah and Lucy were totally enthralled!
My friend Jenna and I took Hannah and Davis (and Abbie slept through it all!) to the Holiday Train Show at the NY Botanical Gardens. Our trek to the Bronx was totally worth it! The trains went through famous NY landmarks, all of which were made out of leaves, branches, and flowers. The details were perfect! My favorite display was Midtown with the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Radio City Music Hall, and so on...

As part of the holiday exhibit, we also got to learn about gingerbread spices and decorate cookies!
Then on the way home, the girls and I were waiting to transfer to the F train when the Holiday Special Train (circa 1930) arrived on the track! Of course we jumped on and rode it as long as possible! Even the people on the train were dressed in period clothes!

5. Holiday Shows. Even with a 3-year-old, there are great options for holiday shows. We loved the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular (thanks to Kristi for the free tickets!). Hannah was on the edge of her seat the whole time. She really enjoyed watching the dancers and especially loved the live nativity (with camels!) at the end of the show.

The Nutcracker Ballet performed at the World Financial Center was perfect for a group of preschoolers. It was an hour-long performance with great costumes and entertaining dances.The window displays along 5th Avenue are amazing! Our favorites are the color-coordinated animal displays at Bergdorf Goodman.
6. Treats. It wouldn't be Christmas without treats (actually, it wouldn't be any day of the year for me without a treat!). We've had some great ones this year!

Hannah decorated this whole gingerbread house all by herself while her friends ate their candy! Cupcakes seem to be the treat of the month. We couldn't resist a shop named Baked by Melissa. The cupcakes were small enough that they weren't dry at all (my biggest complaint with cupcakes).
My friend Erin knew how I feel about cupcakes and knew that cupcakes from Mollie's on Bleecker Street would change my mind. She was SO right! The peach cobbler and creme brulee cupcakes were amazing!
Playgroup at Ellen's Stardust Diner in Times Square was so fun (Hannah sure looks like she was enjoying it!). The wait staff are Broadway-quality singers that perform between taking orders.

7. Watching Abbie get big. Our little girl is growing up so fast! So is a smiley baby and loves to see what's going on. She's such a great sport and is willing to be packed around anywhere!
Our sweet girls!

Our Christmas day pictures will come later. My camera was stolen in Rockefeller Center on the 23rd, so I'm using my friend's camera but don't have the software to load them on my computer yet!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Our sweet Hannah turned 3 on December 8th. She has brought so much joy to our lives over the past 3 years. We are SO grateful for our little girl! She is such a happy, hilarious, and stubborn girl who is quite certain she is about 13 years old instead of 3!

We celebrated her birthday as a family early on the 8th so that Daddy could join in on the fun. She opened lots of great gifts from Abbie, Mommy & Daddy and grandmas & grandpas. For the past few weeks, Hannah has been asking for Rapunzel dolls, and she was SO excited when she opened up the Tangled figurine set. Our morning celebration even included a cupcake for breakfast! Hannah loved her red velvet cupcake (I cheated and just bought a Sprinkles cupcake from Dylan's Candy Bar!).
Hannah's good friend Kenna turned 3 the day after Hannah, so we had a combined birthday party for the two girls. We celebrated at the church by watching Beauty and the Beast and munching on popcorn and sugar cookies. Lots of their cute little friends came, and the birthday girls had a blast!
Hannah was so lucky to receive fun presents from her friends. She LOVES to hold on to things and insisted on holding ALL of her gifts during the remainder of the party. I finally convinced just to hold three bags for the rest of the day, but she still refused to let the other gifts out of her sight!
Love you, little one!

11 Highlights of 2011

Happy Holidays to all our family and friends! 2011 has been a very eventful year for the Winder Family. Here are some of the highlights (in chronological order):

1) Melissa passed her boards in February, becoming a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in Acute Care! After graduating in December 2010 from Duke's Nurse Practitioner program, she had a wonderful time just hanging out with Hannah, her friends, and occasionally James (in the rare moments that school wasn't consuming his time!).

2) James graduated from Duke's MBA program in May. It was a VERY busy program, but I was so proud of all his hard work and accomplishments in school and as the co-president of the Private Equity Club and the LDS Student Association.

3) We spent a wonderful week at a beach house in the Outer Banks with our great LDS Duke MBA friends. It was the perfect way to end our time together before we all spread out all over the country for new jobs and internships.

4) We moved away from Durham, NC :( to a temporary home (at our parents' houses) in Utah before James started work. We loved our two years in North Carolina and are so grateful for the wonderful friends we made there.

5) James took a job as an Associate at Oppenheimer & Co., an investment bank in New York City.

6) At the end of June, James' parents took the whole family to Palmyra, NY and Kirtland, OH for a church history tour. We loved the opportunity to be in the places where so many events in the early days of the church took place. Hannah really enjoyed spending time with her cousins, and she still talks about them almost every day! Thanks for a great trip, Mom & Dad Winder!

7) In July, we moved to New York City! We camped out in Jordan (James' brother) and Kristi's apartment for almost two weeks while we found a place to live. Roosevelt Island became our new home. We have LOVED living in the city and have made some really great friends. There is an endless number of activities to do, and we are trying to take advantage of as many as possible (James works crazy hours, but joins us on as many adventures as possible, especially if it involves trying a new pizza restaurant!).

8) Hannah is growing up too fast! She quickly caught on to using the potty and was fully trained by August. She also started eating vegetables (FINALLY!!) and learned to say her L's (kind of - I still have her say Cinderella when I need a good laugh!). She loves dancing and singing and anything to do with princesses. Hannah says the funniest prayers ever, and she can't wait to become a Sunbeam in January!

9) Abigail Anne Winder very rapidly joined our family on September 22, 2011. She weighed 7 lb 3 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She has been such a blessing in our lives, and she is so adorable! We love Baby Sister!

10) Melissa accepted a job as a Nurse Practitioner in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at New York University Medical Center. She is set to start at the beginning of January and is looking forward to getting back into the hospital (though she'll miss hanging out with the girls every minute of the day!).

11) Now we are looking forward to spending Christmas as a family in New York! The city is magical this time of year, and we have had so much fun exploring all the holiday events and sights. Hannah and Abbie have already been to see Santa (and there were no tears this year!). Hannah walked right up to him and asked for a stroller for her baby!

Merry Christmas! We love you all! Thanks for all the support during our many changes and adventures this year!

November in New York

It never ceases to amaze me how much there is to do in New York City! November has been no exception. Here's an overview of our month:

First off, a kind of crazy day. The girls and I headed to the NY Historical Society's grand opening of their children's museum. We met up with some friends who luckily had been there long enough to know that it was too crowded and geared towards older kids, so we didn't go in. We decided to head to Central Park to enjoy the beautiful fall leaves. Just after crossing the street, Hannah got BIT BY A DOG!! I was terrified when she jerked back as I was holding her hand, and I looked back to see her hand in a Golden Retriever's mouth! She had been carrying a bagel, and the dog had jumped out from behind a garbage can to grab her food. I knew everything was probably OK when Hannah just kept yelling, "He ate my bagel!" There was a little scratch on her thumb and a bruise on the back of her hand, but everything turned out OK. Then the Park was so freezing that we walked around just long enough to get frozen hands and pink noses. To improve the day, we stopped by Levain for some cookies, and then I took Hannah to the Hayden Planetarium so she wouldn't remember just bad things about the day!
Hannah loves to make Abbie smile. Here was a very successful attempt!I hosted playgroup just before Thanksgiving, so luckily the holiday events were starting up. We went to storytime at the Schwarzman (Ghostbuster) Library and then walked around Bryant Park. The kids loved watching the skaters, then we walked around the shops for free samples, and snacked on amazing waffles with speculoos at Wafles and Dinges. Yum!!
My sister-in-law Kristi works for Madison Square Garden and was able to get a bunch of free tickets to the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall!! We invited our friends the Farnsworths and the Arnetts to join us. We just wished that James' seat didn't remain empty next to me the whole time as he was stuck at work :( The kids LOVED the show! The live nativity (with real camels and sheep) was amazing, and the toy soldier routine was our favorite Rockettes performance (especially when they slowly fell down like dominoes!).
Beaver and Brittany came into town the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was SO fun to see them! We met them at the 9/11 Memorial (our first time out there); the waterfalls were beautiful! What a great tribute to those that lost their lives.
The Monday before Thanksgiving, I met up with my friends Erin and Courtney and their kids so we could visit the Disney Store and Toys R Us before the crazy after-Thanksgiving crowds. The girls loved the princess area in the Disney Store, especially the magic mirror.
At Toys R Us, the kids rode on the giant ferris wheel with Erin. Hannah talked all day about "riding so high in Tato Head!"
Since I was cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, and I knew we wouldn't make it to the Macy's Day Parade, I took the girls to the balloon inflation event around the Natural History Museum. Hannah and the Barrand boys loved seeing the balloon character, especially when they were in the act of being blown up. It made it all worth the cold temps when we were watching the parade on the computer the next day, and Hannah kept talking about how she had seen the balloons!


Our Thanksgiving decorations were lots of fun to make. We did a felt leaf garland with embroidery stitching and a Thankful Tree. Hannah decorated leaves to illustrate what she was thankful for. This is what she told me they meant: my family, my cousins, my friends, Daddy giving me blessings on my head, a cow, and two cows!Thanksgiving dinner was at our place, and we were so fortunate to have Jordan & Kristi and Grant, Catherine, Belle, & Gabe Smith join us! The food was excellent and the company was even better! So thankful for wonderful family and friends!