Snack Time

Today Jase and Ally were so sweet together.  It was snack time so I gave both of them some juice and Jase the container of goldfish.  I showed him how to bite off half of the goldfish and give half of it to Sister.  Jase got his Mickey Mouse tray for her and it was so cute to watch him take care of her.  What a great big brother.  I had to grab my camera!

Jase is giving Ally half of a goldfish

Jase is finishing off his half!!

Sister is still going to town on her juice...she is finally getting the hang of the sippy!

GGOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLL!!

Wednesday evening Shawn and Jase went to the Manchester United and MLS All-Stars soccer game at Reliant Stadium.  Shawn's friend, Nate, from work invited them and it was a huge treat.  Jase has turned into a huge sports fan or rather we have turned Jase into a huge sports fan!  I mean he likes it all from soccer to football to baseball to volleyball to NASCAR (thanks PawPaw...Kyle Busch, Number 18 Baby! lol).  He will sit there and watch it all.  Last year he could tell you who was coming up next in the Astros line-up!  Too funny.

The game was a blow out: 5-2, which is a lot of scoring for soccer.  Even though Man U won, Shawn said it was great because Jase did not really care who scored, but would go nuts every time there was a goal!  Houston Dynamo's Brian Ching scored a goal so that was neat for Jase.  (He was wearing his Dynamo uniform we got him for this bday!)

Today I put his shin guards on him and he and Mickey (new build-a-bear from NYC) played soccer in the living room.  Jase told me that Mickey cannot kick it though, he needs to get bigger like him.  I love it!

USA - USA - USA - USA!

GGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!

Shawn and Jase...great memories for them!

Jase and Ally's Bears: Mickey and Minnie!! Classic!

Jessica turns 30!!

Well...I am officially 30...lol!  Shawn is a year older than me, so I kind of gave him a hard time about it last year "man, you're 30"...all fun and games.  So, this year was my year.  Not that I was completely against being 30 or thought it was old, I've just been in my 20's for 10 years now and wanted to stay!  I kept telling him "I don't want anything big, just dinner with our family, no surprises."  And I really meant it.  It wasn't one of those no, but I really mean yes.  I guess I just did not want all the attention when you get right down to it.

Anyways, after Church on Sunday morning we went over to my parents house for lunch and hung out there most of the afternoon.  After lunch we sang happy birthday and had cake and ice cream (yellow butter cake with chocolate icing...yum, yum...Thanks Shawn!!).  My mom and I ran an errand and figured Shawn and the kids would have went home and my mom could just drop me off at my house.  When we got back he was asleep on the couch.  My mom had an interview on Monday so she was trying on clothes and getting ready for that.  I lost track of time and before I knew it it was 5:35 and Church starts at 6:00.  No one was dressed for Church, except Ally so we had a problem.  Long story short, Ally stayed at my mom's and we drove home to get ready.  Shawn was supposed to work in the booth and Jase was throwing a fit because he did not want to leave Nanny and PawPaw's house...not ideal at all!

No 0 candle, so Shawn made a 0 out of other candles! I love it!!

Mom and Me cutting the cake!

We end up showing up to Church like 15-20 minutes late (good thing we are not in Baytown anymore!).  After Church we were going over to Jay and Michelle's for dinner.  I needed to go by HEB to pick up some baggies for Jay's trip to Haiti and I wanted to swing by the house and pick up the leftover cake and ice cream to bring to their house.  Jay ended up calling when we were leaving HEB and asked where we were because he was getting hungry.  LOL!  We show up at Jay and Michelle's and I see the girls peeking out of the front window.  I did not think anything of it and they are probably just waiting on us because their dad is hungry.  Well, I walk in and lo and behold everybody is there!!  My mom and dad, Shawn's parents, Shawn's sister and her family, Jeanie, Marquez Family, Warrick Family, Johnson Family, and Pope's.  It was great!!  I was so surprised about it all...not a clue one.

Originally we were going to be getting home from NY Sunday evening, on my birthday, but ended up getting home on Friday night.  So apparently the plans kept changing.  Haha!  Shawn said that he was a nervous wreck because he was emailing on my phone in NY, trying to keep them updated and figure out what was going on.  I had no idea.!!  Now I did see a text from Jeanie come through on his phone about a week before and wondered what that was about, but did not really think much about it after that day.  It was awesome!!  A special thanks to Shawn, Michelle and my mom for the food, cake, and decor...it was all great!

Isn't this cake awesome?! Tastes as good as it looks too!  Fantastic job Michelle!  Look at the brand name inside the shoe...JESSICA!!

Tasty as well!  Btw...chocolate icing was fabulous...I could eat it out of the bowl!  Don't need to, but I could!

Happy Birthday...Round 2!!  Yes, same shirt!  LOL!

A funny or two...while at my mom's for lunch I noticed that she had about 5-7 avocados and I asked her if I could cut one up for Ally for lunch.  She said yes and to use as many as I wanted.  I ended up cutting up two and making a little guacamole.  Well, she had bought them for the surprise party!!  So when we were at the party she told everyone that there would have had more guacamole if I wouldn't have used two of the avocados!  Haha!!  And my dad ended up bringing Ally to Church and I didn't see my mom there at all.  I even wondered...why didn't she come??  When we arrived at Michelle's, she said "I had to make the chicken salad! Y'all wouldn't leave my house!"  And when Jay called Shawn while we were at HEB he was just calling to see where we were.  And originally Shawn was only in the booth so it would stall us and give others time to get to the Pope's.  Looking back I am piecing it all together.  Good stuff.  What a great day!

Carlo's Bakery

Forgot to mention that when leaving the city I had one more place on my check list to visit (I'm not kidding either)!  None other than Carlo's Bakery...aka Cake Boss on TLC!  Hoboken, NJ was less than 20 minutes from NYC so I had to check it out.  When we drove by I nearly died...a couple of hundred of people were standing outside in a line with metal barricades. 

This is a CVS, half a block from Carlo's!  The line stopped and continued across the street.

I thought, that is at least an hour wait and with two kids...no way, I cannot do this to them!!  I was kind of bummed, thinking that we are right here and do not get to go in.  Jase overheard Shawn and I talking about it and he said "it's ok, we can go stand in line, it's not long."  It was really sweet.  Plan B...Shawn dropped me off and he took the kids to a local park to play.  By the time I got in line there were 20-30 more people than the above picture.  While walking up, I asked one the bakery's bouncers (haha) how long they thought it would take and he said probably close to 2 hours!  Well...he was right!  It took 2 hours from the time I got in line to the time I walked out of the door with my goodies.

I ended up ordering some canollis, cream puffs, chocolate eclairs, lobster tail, crumb cake, red velvet cupcake, and a carrot cake cupcake.  And let me say all were delish!!  I follow the show so it was pretty cool to be able to go in the store and see the real deal.  I got to talk to Mary for a second and Frankie (sp?) came down stairs for a phone call.  It was crazy in there, but I'd do it all again!!  Btw, Buddy and his family were in Italy on vacation.

I realize I look corny, but look I'm under the Carlo's Bakery sign!  LOL!

Frankie on the phone (Buddy's cousin)

Mary...her personality on TV is real!

About to unwrap the goodness!

Heaven, I'm in Heaven!!

NYC...continued!

New York City is very diverse, culturally speaking.  Not only were the residents diverse, but so were the tourists.  I would have never imagined that so many people across the world would have vacationed there...pretty neat to think that we were able to go.  When I worked downtown we would usually walk for lunch, so the atmosphere in NYC was very reminiscent of Houston, minus all of the shops and only a small percentage of the people.  Shawn said that it reminded him of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates as well.  Speaking of diverse, I think we probably stood out because there were not very many strollers there, and a sit and stand one at that!  LOL!  You did not see very many children there at all.  And Times Square...I thought it was one square of blocks...no it went on for several blocks with huge screens everywhere.  Here are some shots!

This was a little disturbing...National Debt Clicker that went up $10k every second!!

One of the many buildings with huge electronic billboards

Same thing at the other end!

3 Story M&M Store...they had everything inside!

The kids were wore out...especially Ally Kate!

Late Show was at the end of Times Square

Right next door to the Late Show...Dave will have the deli on the show periodically

And this is the owner of Hello Deli...Rupert Jee! I had to go in, of course!

This Church was right in the middle of Times Square...it was awesome to see this sign right in the midst of it all!

Central Park - I was very surprised how hilly (is that a word?) it was.  Crazy to think that is what you would see if the business world had not have taken over.

Waterfall in Central Park

One of the many trails throughout Central Park

While in New York we visited Ground Zero, which was a huge construction site.  Hard to make out what used to be where.  All of the lives that were lost, all of the destruction...awful.  Nearly 9 years later and they are still picking up the pieces.  We also rode the Staten Island Ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty.  We rode it at around 5:30-6:30 pm, so we saw hoards of people running to catch the ferry home for the day.  It was hard to fathom that they either walked, rode the subway or the ferry, or took a taxi and most do not own vehicles.

Construction at Ground Zero

Members of FDNY who made the ultimate sacrifice

On the Staten Island Ferry

Statue of Liberty

While we were walking on Times Square I told Shawn that we really hadn't take a lot of pics of the family, jsut mainly the scenery.  Shawn, say cheese!!

This was Ally's usual position with one leg up!! She might as well be comfortable!

And Jase...ridin' in style, sporting Longhorns, and eating a granola!

We covered a lot of miles on foot while we were there.  Take it from me...do not, and I repeat do not wear a sundress and try to look cute if you're going to walk several miles.  After about 3 miles I bought some $20 spandex and was a new woman!!  What was I thinking?!?!

We had a great time in New York, but we were ready to slow things down a bit and head back home.  On our last days of traveling, the kids were riding so well and we were almost home, so we pushed forward and made it home at 10:30 pm...18 1/2 hours of driving that day!  Nuts yes, but we got to sleep in our own bed!

Up and Running

Well, I have set up a very basic blog to get it up and running here at blogger.  Our last three years can be found at http://frenchfamily.xanga.com/ if you're bored and want to read up!  LOL!

We just returned from a 2+ week New York trip and had a great time.  Although, I do not recommend driving 30 hours with a 3 year old and a 10 month old...yikes!  All and all they did a great job, but we definitely had our moments. We spent one week at Shawn's great Aunt's home on Keuka Lake.  Aunt Ann will be 97 in August and gets around great if you ask me.  Shawn's parents and sister's family were there at the lake with us, so it was nice to visit with them.  Plus, Jase loves his cousin Coby!

Ally and Aunt Ann...96 years apart!

Jase and Coby swimming in Keuka Lake on the first day!

While at Keuka we picked blueberries, which was pretty easy and Jase loved picking them and Ally loved eating them!  Shawn and I both agreed that we need to start picking blueberries and strawberries back home.

This is my third time to travel up to New York with Shawn and I've always wanted to go over to New York City, but we never have.  While planning this trip we worked in a few days at NYC and I was pumped!  After a week at the lake, we drove 4 hours east and stored our kayaks (see pic below) at a storage in New Jersey and stayed the night.  We woke up Sunday morning, put on our Yankees gear and headed to Yankee Stadium.  We are big baseball fans, so it was awesome to have the opportunity to go.  And on top of it, Andy was pitching!  (Thank you Andy & Laura for the tickets!!)  Only thing is that I was not prepared for the open stadium and 95 degree weather...wow it was hot!  It was a great time and I'm so glad that Jase got to go as well...he loves it too!

Yak Attack!

Andy walking onto the field

Huge Ball Wall of signatures at the Yankee Museum

Allyson, Jessica, Jase and Shawn at the Yankees Game!

Jase was ready to go in the game at a moments notice!

Jase and his hero...Mickey Mouse

Guess I'll close out this first post and start another one to continue the NYC trip!