We just got back from a lovely Thanksgiving (week-long) trip, from Houston, TX. We were lucky enough to spend time with both my parents, Garrick's parents, and Garrick's brother at Natalie & Eric's house.

Anyway, I'm going through my 1,500+ pictures now, so it'll take awhile, but here's a miracle shot of all three of my kids, with their only first cousin Marian.

I've been a bit behind on my "state count" - but this year with our trips to Virgina, Delaware, NC & TX - Our new state count for Baylee is: 9 - NINE! Way to go Baylee! :)
(New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virgina, North Carolina & Texas) - she'll be all caught up with the rest of us soon enough! :)

... Winter Storm Athena

...and, all back to normal.

Our Governor, Chris Christie cancelled Halloween & rescheduled it for, Monday November 5th. Then our city Mayor cancelled Halloween all together, I was hoping our town/neighborhood would come to their senses & get out there to restore "normal", as they say... But nope! People played by the rules.... So Halloween was cancelled, but we did carve pumpkins, dress up & eat candy!

I only got pictures of the pumpkin part though...

 Pumpkins (left to right): Preston, Baylee & Aubree

 Then, on Wednesday, November 7th (2 days after we got power)...

Winter Storm Athena hit us! :)

 Actually, as I write this... The ground is blanketed in our SECOND snow fall of the season....

 The kids ate too much snow...

 Goofy kids!

 And, our pumpkins got some snow too!

 Then, by the next week... All was dry & all was clear and we played outside... even though it was cold!



... And in her Sunday best! ;)

I love this little girl... She has been so awesome lately, so fun & independent - I'm so thankful for our little Baylee!





This was a couple weeks(?) before the Hurricane.

Fall was in full bloom & just gorgeous!

Garrick's Dad came up to visit the kids for the weekend & Garrick's brother was in NYC for some business, so he also came over. We all went to Aubree's soccer game & then up to Warwick, NY for some Apple Picking & hanging out....

I loved waking up & looking out the front window, the leaves/trees were just so beautiful & colorful...

Isn't this a cute little street? :)

 Saturday morning & another gorgeous day for a soccer game!

 Papa Said & Uncle Eric giving Aubree a few pointers....

 Trying to keep Baylee preoccupied (never an easy task these days...)

 Our drive up to Warwick...

 Pennings Farm:

(It was a nice, warm October day)

 Baylee's first time Apple picking, although not the first time here. I think the first time she ever visited here, was when she was 1.5 weeks old...

 "Don't take my apple away!!!"

(so possessive!)

 Someone gets in a VERY bad mood when they think someone was about to rob them...

 Happy with her apple! :)

 Tractor Ride down the hill....

 And, afterwards the kids got spoiled with candy (not from Garrick & me... obviously! :))

While, we sipped on some yummy apple beer/cider, I don't really know what it was - but it was good! :)

It was a nice little day we had! :)

So... Hurricane Sandy has come and gone now, and we came out ok, although not completely unaffected. We didn't have to deal with any fallen trees on our property - which, I seriously feel blessed about, as we have SIX rather large trees on our property alone, not counting all of our neighbors yards. We didn't deal with any flooding, and I feel blessed that we didn't lose any loved ones or sustain any real damage... All we endured was 7 nights & 6 days without power, hot water & warmth!!

It was a little rough, because we had some low's in the 30's - but thank God, we finally got power early Monday morning (12:41am). I was so excited, I couldn't even fall back to sleep. Then, we had a 2.0 earthquake 8 miles from here, that I felt at 1:19am - I swear, I thought I was crazy to feel that - the whole wall just jolted! We were all upstairs because we had been lighting fires & since heat rises we were all a lot more comfortable upstairs. We have a fire alarm system that is set up through the house, so when we got power, it went off, and we heard "Fire! Fire! Get out! Fire! Fire! Get out!" over this loud speaker throughout the house & of course, we freaked out because we had immediately assumed that the fireplace had malfunctioned & we had a full-blown fire! Anyway, it was crazy... But after 20 seconds we realized we were not in danger & that we had just gotten our power back on.... I could have cried, I was so happy! :)

We survived the power being out, by burning a lot of candles, using flashlights & lighting a fire every night. As far as cooking & bathing - we used our propane-fueling BBQ to heat up food & boiled pots of water for baths - it was tough & my hands are proof that it wasn't easy (so many burns!!). Garrick said he could get used to that life-style & considered us to being similar to the Amish people, minus a farm to do work on! I don't know about that, it was harder than I thought it'd be.

Things got a bit panicky here in NJ, I always look at any type of person who lives in harsh climates, like the North Easterners, North Europeans, Canadians, Russians, etc. They endure a lot of rough weather so they are strong & resilient... But I could see their despair, it was rough on everyone. Gas was scarce, people were getting upset - fighting over supplies, they were cold & trapped - it's crazy how just a bit of stress can cause so much chaos. People waiting in gas lines, that were close to a mile long. Some people told me they waited 4 to 6 hours to fill up their tank, or a canister for the generators at home.

Unfortunately, when you lose power, you also lose all your perishable goods. It was a bit depressing to throw away so much perfectly good food. Cheeses, yogurt, dairy, meat, condiments, ice cream, my pumped breast milk & also... I pre-make a lot of meals, to freeze for nights we need a quick dinner & those all had to go to. Four huge trash bags of food - gone! :(

I think I came up with a great idea, I'm going to buy Garrick an oil-fueled generator for Christmas, pretty genius... huh? Guys like that kind of stuff + it'll benefit all of us! :) We use an oil tank to heat our house & our water, but.... this seems crazy, you need electricity to use it!! So, that's why we were out of everything. If we had had a generator, then it could have supplied just enough energy to keep the refrigerator going, plus use our electric stove here and there + supply enough electricity to power our oil tank. We could get by with using less lights & supplementing with candles & flashlights, I've totally thought this one out! :)

Here's what a typical night & dinner looked like for us....

So romantic... I know! Hahaha! Just kidding....

Here are just a few pictures we took the day after Hurricane Sandy - I know the damage was far worse on the coast, this is just our town/immediate area. The fallen trees were so numerous, it seemed as though every 6 or 7 houses had at least one fallen tree. Good thing the houses up here have brick, stone & concrete foundations... because a lot of houses had trees laying right on top of them.

...Plus, another soccer game!

Well, we are still waiting for Hurricane Sandy to hit the New Jersey shore sometime tonight. So far there is just a lot of rain & strong wind. I see some big branches outside, that have cracked & are now hanging by threads. I think, so far the worst thing about this storm, is it just cut our GORGEOUS fall very short! Since last night, almost all the trees have gone bare! :( I'm sure, after tonight most of the colorful leaves will be gone. I guess this will make for a LONG (looking) winter!

Here are some pics of the kids going from office to office, collecting candy...

Baylee always drops whatever candy she is currently holding, to get a new piece

(ie the Reese Cup on the ground)

The kids, just chillin' in their Dad's office

(I love how the offices all have a ridiculous amount of kids toys/furniture)

Another soccer game... Aubree, my timid goalie.

I think Garrick & I have determined that soccer... Just might not be Aubree's sport.

But, we'll give it another year!

I don't think she came into contact with the ball, the whole game!

But at least she ran with the pack! :)