The Noehren's

Those of you that know Grant know that he loves trucks and our visit last year to the Connecticut "Trash Museum" was such a success we decided to go back again this year!  It is actually a recycling plant with windows where you can watch the trucks dump and the machines sort all of the stuff with a small museum attached.  It is honestly so cool!  I'm not sure who liked it more - the kids or the grown ups! Here are two synchronized trucks dumping the paper... And another dumping the non-paper items.  Meet Trash-o-saurus.  If you look in the background of the above picture you can catch a glimpse of Mimi.  I got home and to my horror realized that we don't have a single picture of the kids with Mimi and Papa!  We had a great few days with them and the rest of the family and then had to leave a day early to beat the blizzard that they are still digging out of.  Thanks for a great Christmas!

Most years we've been married we've headed up to Connecticut for Christmas and this year was no different.  I'm blessed with a MIL from Brooklyn and a FIL from Queens so we've headed into New York City for a day of fun many times.  This year though, instead of taking the train from CT, we decided to literally drive straight into downtown Manhattan on our way from WV to CT.  It was AWESOME!!  I feel like I should have a badge saying I drove through times square in my own car!!  What a thrill!! We saw the Rockefeller Tree  We went to the American Girl store.  Haley saved her allowance and bought her Chrissa doll a pair of cute shoes with her own money.  Nevermind the fact they cost as much as shoes for Haley might cost :)  They're a souvenier, right?   We watched the ice skaters below the tree.  And went to the Lego store...which wasn't as cool as we were hoping, and where Grant has a nice big meltdown.  We saw...

Let me just start out by saying that Brian has a deep love for Pizza.  No big surprise, right?  All guys love pizza, don't they?  So, when I first moved to Connecticut before we were married one of the first places Brian wanted to take me to Pepe's Pizzeria in New Haven, CT.  He spoke of the legendary Pepe's with great enthusiasm and fondness the whole drive there.  Little did I know many other people love Pepe's too and there is routinely a hour or two wait on any given night year round.  Lucky for me, it was winter and FREEZING!  About an hour and a half later we finally took our seats, thawed out and got our pizza.  I was not a fan of New York style pizza and couldn't believe people actually wait so long in the cold for pizza of all things.  It was then that I realized that Brian (and the rest of the people in line) must love pizza more than most.  Not long after this trip Brian took me into New York City (stil...

The week before Christmas break was full of ice storms and tons of snow here in Kentucky.  They only ended up having hardly 2 days of school the whole week.  The kids loved it!! Brian wins the award for funnest guy to play in the snow with.  He took them sledding many times, built stuff, and made our sidewalk into a luge.  I ventured out some, but not nearly as much as him!  Snow angels :) 

This black friday I had my hopes set on this: But what I got instead was this: Cool, right?  Well - yes, and no.  I do really, really love our new Toyota Rav4, but was geared up to spend around $800 this week, not so much the more than $800 a new car costs.  I should also mention that I have been saving for the past 3 months for my big tv purchase and had finally saved $750 this week when our money pit Buick Rendezvous finally decided enough was enough and decided it only wanted to drive to Clarksburg West Virginia, not Morgantown...another hour down the road.  So needless to say there will be no big fancy tv in my house this Christmas season, (boo hoo hoo) but hey - I can live without a tv, but I can't live without a car. As sad as I am at the loss of my near tv purchase (and all of my financial savings!) I am grateful this Thanksgiving week for many things.  Here are just a few things I've learned this week: 1.  Never buy a Buick....NEVER!...

This time of year flies by sooooo fast.  Before Christmas hits I wanted to post a few things I haven't gotten to yet this fall such as... Haley's soccer season has come to an end.  She really learned a lot this year.  Here she is in action during her last game: The team celebrated the end of the season at Gattitown. Haley recieved the 'most coachable' award from her two coaches.  They were very patient and great coaches.  We'll stick with them for as long as we can!  Go Panthers! We also celebrated Halloween with my two little bugs.  I have to admit our neighborhood does Halloween right!  There are droves of people, lots of decorations and fun times!!  Mimi and Papa drove all the way from Connecticut for their fall visit.  It was great to have them!  The kids love all the attention and my kitchen loves being sparkling clean by the Mimi fairy.  My kitchen just told me it misses Mimi :) We went on a fun hike to ...

Today, my sweet boy turned 4 years old!  I can hardly believe it.  He has truly been a joy.  He's full of crazy, loving energy and brings a smile to my face.  To help celebrate the occasion we had a construction themed party for the boy who loves just about anything with wheels...diggers especially.  Here is most of the party crew.  We played pin the plow on the dump truck.   And discovered the trap door in my homemade safety cone pinata that rained down candy once the right caution tape was pulled.  We had a wrecking ball that knocked down a wall of boxes. And musical chairs. We ate cake - one of my favorites I've made.  Who knew twinkies and pound cake could look so cute! And we made a truck craft. We also opened presents and went for a birthday dinner at Chick-fil-A - a family favorite!  This year Grant has been really, really into bicycles and loves to watch Danny Macaskill on YouTube (if you haven't seen his vide...