April 2011

In April, some of our friends from our days in Provo came to visit & we got to spend the afternoon eating pizza and playing in Central Park. Our kids got along well, which was wonderful (a friend Lexi's age!) and it was so great to hang out with them again!

April also brought a wonderfully fantastic trip for me, all by myself! I went down to Florida to visit my sister. A friend graciously gave me some buddy passes to fly down there (which was a little stressful since I had to fly standby, but it all worked out pretty well, thank goodness!). I went during spring break, so Matt was able to stay home with the girls. And I had an amazing time in the sun & with my sister!

Day 1: Laura picked me up at the airport (I made the first flight I tried for) and we headed straight for the nail salon to get pedicures. Then we stopped at her cute home (which sits right on a beautiful canal) and rested for a little while before going out to dinner at a restaurant right on the water of the Intercoastal Waterway.

(the restaurant)

Day 2: Laura had to work, so I rode with her to several appointments. It was actually really fun and I enjoyed watching her in her element. It also provided lots of good conversation time!  We ate at her friend's cafe for lunch and then went shopping for a big barbecue at her home that evening where I was able to meet most of her close friends (and lick the brownie batter off the spoon).

Day 3: We started off with a cruise down the Intercoastal waterway- HUGE houses. Beautiful weather. Relaxing cruise complete with margaritas.  Then lunch at one of her favorite places followed by a little souvenir shopping for my kids & then a few hours at the beach. Delicious dinner cooked by Joe and we just relaxed at home.

There are many bridges along the waterway and they open on a timed schedule.  Our cruise was timed so that we never had to wait more than a few minutes for a bridge to open to allow our boat to pass under.

Day 4: Breakfast out with Laura & Joe and then off to the airport to head back to my little family. The kids did great with Matt, and hardly seemed to miss me at all (is that good or bad?!) This was the first trip I've taken by myself in ages, maybe even since before we got married 10.5 years ago. I have Matt, our friend Jeff, & my sister Laura to thank for making it all possible!!
(And sorry I don't have photos of Joe, or their dog Odin! I was too busy having a good time to stop to take photos).

March 2011

Things that happened in March?  I don't really remember very much.  Except that our friend Sheridan was in town on her way to England, so Ella & I spent St. Patrick's Day eating at the Shake Shack with her (yum! St. Paddy's Shakes!!) and watching some of the parade on 5th Avenue, playing at a playground, meeting the police & horses, exploring the Belvedere Castle & just enjoying the amazingly gorgeous day it was.

Also, here's a photo of me at that point in time.  I guess that was about 25 or 26 weeks along.  We already knew it was a boy at this point and I realized I had virtually no photos of this pregnancy. 

February 2011

In February we celebrated the Chinese New Year by attending a party hosted by the Chinese Branch of our LDS Stake.  They had delicious food (our girls are BIG fans of pork fried dumplings), some entertainment & the highlight of the night was the lion dance, not to be confused with the dragon dance.  There is a tradition at Chinese New Year to feed the lion money in a red envelope, & although the girls were a little nervous to do it, they mustered all their bravery and fed the lion!











February also brings a week off of school in the NY Tri-State area, which means both Alexis and Matt were home with Ella & I for the week.  We did lots of fun things.

The Museum of Natural History with Ella's friend, Julia




A Pinkalicious Celebration at Borders Books: crafts, parade & story reading






The Museum of Modern Art (there are some great packets for the kids to fill out & a wonderful resource room where they can do some hands on things)










Reading & Playtime at home (when mom&dad were too tired to go anywhere)




Alexis got to write & publish her own book at Scribble Press


We definitely wore everyone out!

Updates Coming

Well, I see I haven't blogged for a long, long time.  I have had a lot going on and blogging was not a priority for me.  I've been taking some classes towards a master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology.  I've been growing a new human. I've been trying to keep house & take care of the other 3 humans that live with me.  I've been spending lots of time with the young women of our church.  And I'm tired.  And that new little human?  He's due to make an appearance in less than 2 weeks, and school has ended for the semester (I got As!) and so I'll try and do some brief recaps of the past few months.... Stay tuned!

Publishing Party

Every so often, the kids in Lexi's class invite their parents/family/friends to come to the classroom for a "publishing party".  The kids each get a turn to read aloud one of their writing works.   Here's Lexi reading her piece!

Big Bad Winter

This has been quite a winter.  I actually don't mind it much at all.  I don't mind the snow (although it does get dirty and gross really quickly on the sidewalks and roads), and the cold isn't too bad either.  We were out of town for Christmas and so we missed the first huge storm (of over 2 feet of snow).  But we were here for all the other storms.  Here are a few photos from a storm in January:

That's Lexi standing next to a fire hydrant.

And here are some park benches.  I think we got almost 16 inches during this particular storm. 

Max Brenner's Genius

After Lexi's performance we headed downtown to spend some Christmas gift money.  Matt's oldest brother had sent us some money with specific instructions to use it on some ice cream or family treat, so we opted to try out Max Brenner's restaurant.  If you don't know, Max Brenner has made a name for himself as a talented chocolatier.  His restaurant near Union Square also has nourishing food, so we got a couple of dishes to share also.  The whole place is amazing with huge pipes of chocolate running through the dining room.








The girls got chicken fingers to share and then Alexis chose a cookies-n-cream milkshake while Ella opted for just a scoop of vanilla ice cream.




Matt and I shared a Spanish-inspired pasta dish and then I chose a vanilla ice cream bar that came with pure melted chocolate, crunchy wafer balls and candied hazelnut crunchy bits for dipping.  Matt went with a churros dish that came with muddled raspberries and 2 different chocolate dips. 



Very very very delicious, and typically out of our budget, so this was an extra special treat!  Thank you to big brother & sister-in-law Lewis & Kathy!  Only wish you could have been with us to have the decadent experience yourselves.  (We were happy to have Aunt Allie with us!)

The Mitten

Alexis was able to participate in a drama class with her church friends.  One of the women at church volunteered to teach it and did a remarkable job.  The kids loved going to class every week and at the end of it all they performed a play based on the Russian Folktale known to many as "The Mitten".  Alexis was cast as a chatty rabbit.  She did a great job memorizing her lines and performing.  It was quite the show!



The Full Cast (this was their second performance and she decided not to wear the rabbit ears for some reason- she's 4th in from the right)

Reading Together

Recently the girls asked to be excused from dinner before Matt and I had finished, so we stayed at the table while they ran off.  A few minutes later I looked over at the couch and this is what I saw:

It completely warmed my heart!

Neon Trees on Jimmy Fallon

If you frequent our blog, you may already know that we are avid fans of a fairly new-to-the-national-music-scene band called Neon Trees.  We have been friends with the bass player, Branden, and his wife for 10 years or so.  They were some of our first friends when we were newlyweds.  Emilie even co-hosted a baby shower for me when I was expecting Alexis.  Anyway, they come to NYC frequently to perform, and Matt was able to hang out with the band backstage at the Jimmy Fallon Show recently and the next night we enjoyed their show at Webster Hall.  He had a lot of fun that afternoon.  I'll defer to Matt for more details....

This weekend Branden again allowed the Cope's to enter the realm of the super-cool.  It was a lot of fun to step behind the Wizard's curtain for a couple of hours and see the back stage goings on at the Fallon show.  It was fun seeing Donald Trump from down the hall, seeing people in costume, going to hair and makeup, etc.  More than anything it was just interesting how much the backstage just looked like any other office building (just more celebrities and clothes on racks).  As can be seen the pictures aren't great.  I didn't even use the flash because I just wanted to stay off the radar (this is their job after all and I know I hate being bothered at work).  Branden as always was very gracious and hung out as much as he could.  It was interesting to meet the management and financial team and get a chance talk to the other band members (apologies again for all my questions about your guitar gear and thank you all for being so gracious as always).  We were all backstage until NT played, when we got to go stand behind he audience and hear the performance.  They sounded great.  After the show we were able to run into Jimmy Fallon.  He was super nice and gracious.  At the time Fallon was on the cover of Rolling Stone with the subtitle: "Can anyone really be this nice?"  Yes, apparently they can.  Despite this I was too chicken to get a picture.  Sorry blog readers

Branden also invited us to see their show at Webster Hall.  The first time we saw them play was in the basement of Webster Hall (better known as The Studio).  This time they were playing for a sold out crowd of 1,400+ record execs, press, management, friends, etc).  B-dog hooked us up and we were able to go into the VIP section.  The show was great.  They sounded better then I had ever heard them.  Even the VIP's were standing during the show.  I personally stood on a chair and hung onto a pole for an hour just to get a good view from the balcony section.  I loved it. 

On a more personal note, I was asked by one of the finance team what I thought of all of this since I knew Branden before he hit MTV.  I basically said that I was happy for them and proud of them (I say them because Emilie and the family are equally as important) but it doesn't change how I feel about them.  If B-Dog and the family had a couple hours at the airport to hang out I would be there.  All access passes are awesome but having ten minutes just to talk with Branden is way better.  They were awesome before, they are just publicly awesome now.  Thanks again Branden.  Here's to your continued success.  We love you.

Here they are performing their latest release: 1983 (Branden's the one on the right with the sunglasses)

Snow in the Park

It seems this year we've had more snow that has stayed around and allowed us a chance to play in the park than recent years.  I don't really know, since I don't keep records, but we have had many days out at the playground, sometimes being the only (crazy?) ones there.  Here is a snowman Ella and I made one day not too long ago.  She could stay out in the snow for hours if I let her.  But this mommy doesn't have all the snow gear to stay out that long.  Next year I'm getting some ski/snow pants for myself!

Along that line, I'm also waiting for my winter boots to arrive.  I ordered them from JC Penney and they were sent UPS, which is my preferred shipping method as they will deliver right to my door and I'm friendly with our UPS guy.  However, apparently JC Penney instructed UPS to hand off the package to the Post Office for final delivery.  Can you explain that one to me?  So of course I missed the delivery, and they only attempt one time, so now I have to schlep out in the 6-degree weather to the post office where I will then wait another 30 minutes (at least) to have someone take my package slip and take another 7 minutes locating it on their overstuffed shelves.  I'm so annoyed.  Since when do 2 delivery carriers take charge of the same package?  So weird.  But I'll do it since I need those boots!

Another Birthday

Our first little one is no longer so little.  We celebrated her 7th birthday at the beginning January.  We don't have friend parties every year, but this year was a year to have one, so she chose to have a "pajama party" with several friends from school and church.  That's basically a sleep-over party without the sleep-over part.  We invited 10 girls, and all but one actually came.  It was a bit chaotic in our small space, but the girls seemed to have lots of fun, which is what's important!  Everyone wore their pajamas (including me).  The girls made their own little pizzas, then decorated pillow cases and watched a movie (Thumbelina, Lexi's current favorite in our home movie library).  After that we had the cake and ice cream and presents.  We were planning to paint fingernails, but I was feeling a little overwhelmed after the pillow decorating (which turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated), so we skipped that.  Most of the girls were quite reluctant to leave, to I count that as a success.

The following day we had the family over to celebrate both Lexi & Uncle Chris' birthday- they are just 2 days apart.  Lexi chose to have spaghetti, garlic bread and salad for dinner.  And then we had another cake, lighting the candles twice (7 for Lexi and 26 for Chris) and sang twice.

Lexi's 7 year old birthday interview:

Favorites:

color: white
food: pizza
vegetable: zucchini 

drink: milk
school subject:  science 
thing to do: color
movie: Pocahontas
game: duck, duck, goose
book: Holly, the Christmas Fairy
restaurant: Five Guys
holiday:Christmas
animal: lioness

Tell me about your friends:
Um, Jeanelle's my favorite.  She loves penguins.  We don't really have that much time to play.  We always sit together.

What do you like to do when you’re not in school?
Watch TV, color, play with my zhu zhu pet.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A paleontologist

If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go?
Florida- because I really want to see Laura and we never get to see her in Florida.  And I want to go there.

What do you love about each person in our family?
Dad…he's friendly
Mom…she loves me
Ella.... that she lets me play with her

She is doing well in school and is one of the top readers in her first grade class.  She loves to go to school and is very proud of her 100% attendance achievements.  In fact, when I give her the option to stay home (for example, on a snowy day when school is still in session) she'd rather go to school so she can keep up her perfect attendance.  She is a wonderful helper in so many ways- preparing dinner, setting the table, taking down garbage/recycling, taking care of Ella, cleaning the bathroom (yes! she does that!).  She is obedient and follows rules.  She is a good little teacher, as well- teaching our family during Family Home Evening and teaching Ella all sorts of things and setting a good example.  She has boundless energy and loves to laugh and of course has the most amazing blue eyes.  She wants to be baptized next year when she turns eight, but is a little nervous about it.  Her fears have progressed from the fear of having to go under water to the fear of being watched by lots of people.  We love our sweet Alexis!