Tuesday, November 27, 2007

New York, New York

New York! What a fun week we had together celebrating Mom's birthday!! It was rainy the first 2 days of our trip - so we had to be a little flexible with our plans, but we still had a great time.

We went to the American Museum of Natural History - a great museum with TONS to see. I really think you could spend 2 whole days there (or maybe more)! We visited some of the animal, Native American, and dinosaur exhibits - all of which were fantastic! We rode the double decker tour buses all around the city. Andrew and I stayed below where it was warm and dry, but everyone else braved the cold, wet, rainy weather and sat up top to take in the good views of New York. The bus was a great way to get an overall view of the city and learn some neat facts (like where some "stars" live) that we wouldn't normally have heard. We walked thru Little Italy, Chinatown, and Soho. We walked thru Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty. We saw the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular - it was wonderful! We went to the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) then came down to the bottom and ate lunch while we watched ice skaters on the rink right outside. We also saw a Cirque du Soleil show, Wintuk, which is at Madison Square Gardens right now. If you have ever seen one of these shows, you know how fun they are to see - talented, talented people!! And we ate at some amazing restaurants - needless to say, I still feel full from all I ate!

Whew! We did alot!!! And Andrew did it all with us. I'll take a minute to brag on him. He was the sweetest baby the whole trip. He acted wonderfully on the plane, adjusted great to a new schedule (or lack of one), sat in his stroller as we trekked the city without ever crying or wanting to get out, napped in the stroller, ate with us in the restaurants, sat quietly thru the shows (he actually loved the Rockettes and clapped and waved thru the first few songs!)... I mean for a toddler boy who loves to walk and is so curious about life around him we couldn't have asked for more!! We were so proud! And he made lots of friends for us along the way! So to all of you who may be nervous about traveling with a babe, here's to say that it is not bad at all! In fact, I can't imagine the trip without him!!

Between me, Liz, and Mom, we took lots of pictures, and some of theirs are better than the ones posted below. I just picked out a few to show some of what we did. Maybe I'll borrow some of theirs to post later!


Taking a break from the rainy weather in a cute little cafe in Little Italy. I wish I could remember the name of it... In the background of the picture, you can see framed photos on the wall. They are of famous people with the owner of the restaurant. We had found a popular spot obviously!! It was a cute little cafe and we enjoyed their coffee and canolis. Andrew made friends with the owner who showed us a couple of movie posters that he was in....none that we recognized! It was a fun little find.


Eating in Carmines! Yum, yum - our lunch was amazing and we followed it with this fabulous ice cream dessert. Can we go back, please??

In Times Square!!


Andrew and Wilson riding on the ferris wheel inside the Toys-R-Us in Times Square. Andrew loved it (even though we had ride in a Barbie car!)! All of the seats were cars from cartoons or toys, I was hoping we'd get to ride in the Little People Fire Truck, but when it was our turn to get on, the Barbie Car was open. Oh well, at least Andrew didn't realize it! It was such a fun thing to do and the store itself is really neat.


We were riding the subway and Andrew made friends (of course) with some ladies sitting beside us. They let Andrew wear their Statue of Liberty "crown". He was not to thrilled, but I had to take a picture anyway. Can you see how bundled up he is underneath the crown? And the clear thing on top of the stroller was the rain guard that came with the stroller. It has sat in the basket below the stroller seat for almost a year, without a thought being put into how handy it could be. Boy, were we glad to have it! It was a life-saver!! With the rain guard over the stroller, we were able to just keep right on going regardless of the cold, rainy weather!

A memorable trip indeed!!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom! Today was Mom's birthday; however, we've been celebrating her birthday for about a week now - and have had lots of fun doing it!! Last week the whole family went to New York - that was Mom's request for her birthday - and it was so much fun. I'll post about it later and share some pictures. But for now, here are pictures from Mom's birthday dinner on Saturday night. We love you, Mom!


Andrew seems to be getting the hang of birthdays (this is the 4th one our family has celebrated since his) and he loves the excitement of turning off the lights, singing, and watching someone blow out the candles. He was very curious about the candles this time. As we were trying to take this picture he kept leaning over to the cake and pulling out candles. Then, he started licking the icing off! It was so funny to watch him figure this out all by himself!


The girls plus Andrew. Andrew is enjoying a lick of strawberry icing off a candle in this picture!


What a great picture of the boys!! All smiles!!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

The Shirley Boys have an announcement...


We are so excited to say that we will be expecting another boy in April! I'm still surprised that we actually found out what the baby is. We loved our surprise with Andrew, but for some reason I just had an "itch" to find out this time. I couldn't seem to get it out of my system even though Wilson really wanted to hold out for another surprise. In the end, we made a last minute decision in the sonogram room! I was afraid I'd regret not letting it be a surprise, but I'm excited to know what to expect come April and I think knowing it's a boy will make preparations easier (especially with having a 1 1/2 year old!). Won't Andrew and his little brother have fun? :)

(We didn't really get this sign... we were in Party City getting birthday balloons for my mom and just used it for a picture. )

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

a fun treat!

Wilson and I had a little one-night getaway to New Orleans last weekend. Even though it was a quick trip we had lots of fun. We had a great dinner Saturday night, ate beignets & strolled thru the French Quarter on Sunday morning, and then went to the Saints game (thanks to our sweet friends, the Hogans, for the tickets!)! That was my first time to an NFL game - very fun and exciting - especially since the Saints won! We hated to leave Andrew behind with a bad cold, but May-May and Buddy were so very sweet to watch him. It was so nice to have a night away!


Sunday, November 04, 2007

Medders' Babies

The Medders, the family I have posted about recently, had their babies today. Kelli began experiencing contractions last night, and after attempting to slow/stop them, the doctors decided it was best to proceed with a C-section. Three little girls were born - 2 babies were born stable, but Baby D, who they knew had been struggling, was born at less than a pound and only lived a few minutes after birth. Babies B & C are in the NICU. Please pray for this sweet family.

If you'd like to read from their blog, there is a link to the side.