Halloween!

This was the first reaction to the monkey costume! Excited eh?

















Okay-I'm honestly not all that into this holiday...but somehow when you have a child it becomes really exciting to dress them up! I would have probably sworn I'd never do this before I had a baby, but here I am with my son in a monkey costume. So anyway- these were taken before today but I plan to dress up and head down to Time Square to get something so I'm sure I'll have more pictures for you later. We are also having a dorm wide trick or treat Saturday. I'll keep you posted with adorable
children's photos!

Crazy Bullock Weekend!

**Long Post-Please Be Prepared for lots of info and pictures!


This weekend we had some friends from Asheville come visit. We were able to do so many fun things with them and really did enjoy ourselves. It was a good mixture of going and doing-and sitting and relaxing. Some friends here (the Dubes) were out of town and were kind enough to let CJ and Brad sleep in their place. It was a dreary weekend-but CJ said she already thought of NYC as a character...and that was one of it's characteristics. So we spent lots of the weekend walking around in the rain allowing her husband Brad to stop and eat a slice of pizza at every pizza shop we passed. It was overall a good time-and as usual our little son was a trooper as we dragged him about the city!

We started our time by going to the Met Friday night. We were able to look at the European painting during the time of Rembrandt which were definitely my favorites of the museum so far!


Here we are walking to the museum. We passed another cupcake shop...I'm such a sucker! What is this? I never ate cupcakes before I moved here. This one was opened by the owner of Magnolia but is in midtown. When we passed it I couldn't resist!


This is an interesting piece from the Greek and Roman exhibit.


And here we are in the European art. An El Greco and a pregnant husband (doesn't he look like he has a pregnant belly!)

Saturday-The Village and The Rangers!

So Saturday we set out and walked around Greenwich Village-hitting the NHL store on the way home. Brad is a big hockey fan and we were able to make it not only to the store, but a game in Madison Square Gardens as well! I avoided my typical response to stock up on paraphernalia and just wore my Yankees hat (But we did come home with 3 "GO RANGERS" plastic cups-I suppose that fills my quota).



We had great seats and not only was the view great....we sat right in front of your typical screaming New Yorkers to round out the experience.

It was our first time getting a baby sitter and I managed not to call home (figuring if I did I'd come right back if I heard crying in the background!). Our friend the Ropers took care of Steven and he did beautifully. If we have another child I'm going to have to really adjust because this little guy is amazing!


A Visit To The Empire
Since it rained all Saturday we were unable to do any "typical" NY sightseeing (Statue, Empire, etc.). So when Sunday morning turned out to be an incredible day we decided to skip church and head to the Empire State Building. I was thinking, "Sunday morning...not a holiday weekend...it should be fine." Somehow everyone else who had been cramped inside all weekend thought the same thing and we were faced with an hour wait. It actually went faster than I thought it would. We paid the extra to go to the 102 floor observation deck-so we were at the very tip of that crazy lookin spike! There was a 25 mile visibility.


This is a shot of the North end of the island. The green rectangle is central park! Crazy eh? The park is 2.5 miles long!

The bridge in the distance is the George Washington Bridge which comes in way north of our house! If you know what you're looking for you can see Riverside Church on this picture-which is on the same block as our apartment.


This is a shot of the Chrysler building.

This is looking down on Rockefeller Center. You can see the white of the ice skating rink in the midst of the green.

Above and Below are shots of the south side of the building. You can see the Statue of Liberty if you know where to look!



As you can see-posing for our family Christmas card was a no-go because of the wind, sun, and thousands of other people! Here is about as good as it gets.








And then as we were leaving-we saw some crazy awesome hydrolics! Don't you want this puppy!

....or would you rather have this one? They were a pair.


Steven Edward:
Little Steven is doing really well. He is such a trooper as you can see in one of these pictures as he sleeps on his daddy.


He is starting to crawl-okay....he is inching. He can lift his bottom half and push himself forward a couple inches to get a toy. He doesn't do it every time-but we sure cheer when he does it! He currently has a bump under his front gum where a tooth is trying to come in and so he chews on everything! And he loves to grab, he grabs at any and everything. So needless to say whatever his grabbing obtains goes straight into his mouth. It is a cute, messy, and not so sanitary habit. I suppose that explains his chronic runny nose.


And here in NY it is finally getting cold. This morning I smelled the all too familiar smell of the radiator turning on. Kind of like the burning you smell when you leave a curling iron in too long? Yep-anyone over the age of 50 or who has ever lived on old south campus at UNC knows that smell quite well. So I'm buckling in and preparing to fall in love with our indoor playroom!

Care Packages!

So far one of the best things about living in a married student dorm is the care packages! It feels just like college again! You get a package you aren't expecting and you open it like it's Christmas....never knowing what you'll find inside. Especially when you're related to my family. You find the sweetest, most thoughtful, and possibly the most random items. But somehow it makes me proud to be related to them. It is like a whole 'nother love language that Gary Chapman left off....care packages. Mary Lou and Bonnie are experts in this 6th love language. Above is a picture taken of my Nanny's most recent package (Mary Lou)-and to avoid any missing items I have also included an itemized list. This arrived after a 30 minute conversation with her about our attempt at budgeting and how the grocery budget is where we're trying to save. Then less than a week later I'm opening a 24.4 pound package with.........

1 jar of honey
1 pack of bazooka bubble gum
1 bottle of olive oil
1 bottle of caramel coffee flavoring (man she's good!)
2 fudge brownie mix packets
apple pie filling
2 cans of tomato soup
1 can of green chili peppers
1 jar of jalapeños
1 jar of capers
1 jar of mushrooms
1 jar of roasted peppers
4 packets of chai mix
1 box of fig bars
1 box of key lime pie mix
3 cans of chicken (white meat only)
3 cans of salmon
4 cans of tuna (albacore even!)
1 can of collards
1 pack of pumpkin peeps (which were consumed before the picture was taken)
1 corn cob "ripper" (if you don't know what a ripper is...like me before reading the back of this gadget-[which my Nanny is the queen of kitchen gadgets...she even owns the Richard Simmons Steamer...and you thought he peaked at sweating to the 60s] it takes the kernels off the cob in a quick and easy manner)

This package arrived 4 days after my mother sent a package including 2 candy necklaces, (love the middle school memories!) 2 packs of onesies, (especially for the coming cold weather) 6 ranch packets, 2 boxes of oregon chai, baby emery boards, and various muffin tins...which was what I asked her to send so I could make my own version of Magnolia Cupcakes!

I LOVE MY FAMILY!

Do not read this as a manipulative attempt to get others to send groceries as well-this is simply a celebration of the way the women in my mother's family love!

Visit de Nicole Delancre

One of my college roommates who is a resident med student in Atlanta had vacation time from her crazy, busy life and was able to come visit in the city. She stayed with a friend in the village for a night and crashed with us for a night. We played in the city and shopped for groceries together in the rain. She is one of those people who you can sit down with for an hour and feel like you've never missed any time-you pick right up where you left off. It was a nice easy time together. We were even able to go to the gym-which gave us about an hour of feeling like we were back in college-running side by side like we did on the club soccer team at UNC. It was such a nice break for both of us! This picture was taken in Central Park where little Steven had his first grass experience! We were also able to ride his first carousel! Both in Central Park!!!


Here we are about to take our first carousel ride!

And here we are just after. I'm going to be honest; I think they turned on the turbo boosters while we were riding. There we were listening to the Carpenters "On Top of The World" and whizzing on a pony that goes up and down-it was a little scary.






This is actually the skating rink in central park....covered with water seeing as it is an unusually warm October. They usually open it on Columbus Weekend-but this year it is a little warm for skating!





And here we are after eating a slice of pizza right beside the Empire State building. Oh the things you can do in this city!







Relaxing on a Saturday morning-something a resident doesn't get to do very often!

Sally's Visit!

We had the fun experience of Sally (Steven's Mom) coming to visit. She only had a couple days but we had such a great time. She was able to spend one entire day just being a part of our life-and then another day shopping with me in the city! She walked our streets, saw the parks where we walk and swing, went to our grocery store, met my friends, and was even able to lead our girls' dorm Bible study. It was such a blessing (so much so that as I write this my heart is sad to be alone while she is on a plane and my husband is in class, but God is faithful and I know that will pass). She arrived Sunday morning and the first thing we did was eat sweet potato pancakes and head to church. Then there was a kids' reading after church that was sponsored by the NY Times where lots of activities took place on the quad of our campus. We got to see Julie Andrews! I mean...she was totally putting a plug in for her kids' line of books-but it sure was cool to hear her voice booming through our school! I even thought about singing "You are 16 going on 17..." but I figured; a. not the first person to think of that and b. what a dumb idea.

As you can see little Steven is enthralled by this experience.

Then Sally and I spent the rest of Sunday walking through our neighborhood and doing "the things I always do." We visited the parks, walked to the store, went to the 20th floor of Riverside church, and had good conversations. Very relaxing. Monday, on the other hand, was full of activity. I needed some clothes that made me feel more adult (seeing as my husband put in a very polite plug after I had the baby that I may need to buy "more adult" everyday clothes now that I wasn't working) and some things suitable for events and plays that we attend here-so we did the typical NY thing....SHOP! Well, kind of....no Neimann Marcus or Prada...just Ann Taylor Loft (but boy is that upscale from Old Navy, which is where I usually buy my clothes!). We had lots of fun. I got lots of things that I can switch in and out to make several different outfits, all which are suitable for lots of NYC occasions. After we shopped we stopped at a world (or at least nation) renowned bakery-Magnolia Bakery. You can check it out for yourself by clicking here.They are most famous for their cupcakes. And since my husband could care less about sweets I was happy to go with Sally.

As you can see there is always a line around the corner just to get in. Here I am picking out which ones we will eat! And here we are.............

EATING!!!! Doesn't that look yummy! I found a website that you can find the recipe on if you're interested click here. Totally delicious. I think I'll make them for birthdays here! Do it NYC style!


After that we just walked around to enjoy the city. Here we are (as well as the top picture) stopped inside the original Nabisco Factory-which they have turned into the Chelsea Market. Lots of different, really cute shops and places to enjoy.

So-overall it was so much fun to have someone we love here to show around. It was nice to know what I was doing and show someone else around the places that we are beginning to call home.

Night at the Museum

So-Steven took a long break from his work today and we were able to go on a fun family outing to the Museum of Natural History. It was lots of fun. We ended up walking home and getting pizza along the way. Then we watched A Night At The Museum the movie in order to top it all off. It was one of the most fun evenings I've had since we've been here. It was such a nice time with my husband and I cherished the time he was able to pull away from preparing for class.

Here are some North American Mammals-well...us too.


And some Dinosaurs!



Once we hit the dinosaur exhibit our friends the Alexanders joined us for awhile.



And then here are just some fun pictures of little Steven Edward from this past week. His smile melts my heart.



And then I had my first experience cooking artichokes. The actual cooking was great-I even enjoyed the experience...UNTIL I was eating and saw a green specimen on my plate! And I looked down on my chicken (which by the way I was just about to put in my mouth) and saw another example of such a creature-below is the scene of the crime.

My first, and potentially last artichoke experience, because of my horrible emotional trauma. I mean...I would expect it from corn. But artichoke?!