This year we almost had a white Christmas, but the first snow of the season came just a day late, & am I glad it did. The first snow storm turned out to be one of the worst in recent years, especially in term of cleanup effort by the city of New York.

Snow started falling & accumulating on Sunday at around 11 a.m., and the wind was gusting up to ~50 mph by nightfall. The wind was blowing snow everywhere, so there was no point for shoveling. By dinner time, our cable TV & Internet connection was out. Good thing we still had power & gas, so all was well.

Next morning we ended up with two feet of snow at our front door (a spot where usually don’t get much accumulation), with the wind still blowing pretty hard. Snow was blocking the screen/storm door, so I had to take off the glass on the door to climb out & dig us out. It wasn’t bad. However, since we live on a service road, I was pretty surprised (and so was the landlord) to see that, 24 hours after the storm started, our block didn’t seem to have been plowed at all!

Melanie & Kaitlyn were out there playing in the snow for a little while. After shoveling for an hour or so, I then went back into the house. That evening I walked to the bank on 86th Street to deposit a check, as well as to[butts]. the situation. The streets were unusually quiet. Many sidewalks are impassable but there were still more shoveled sidewalks than plowed streets. There were abandoned cars & trucks in the middle of the roads just a movie scene. There was even an empty bus blocking the whole road!

Tuesday, we decided to all go out & walk to 86th Street for lunch. Many people were out, shoveling sidewalks & digging their cars out. It was still a mess with all the slush, accidents & cars getting stuck at many intersections. It took us a while to walk out there but we made it. We went to McDonald’s and bought a few things from the stores before heading home again.

We finally got our Internet connection back Tuesday afternoon, and many trains & buses are finally back in service today. That means I can start working from home & Mel can go back to work again!

On our little outing 86th Street we took some photos & here they are. Enjoy!

It’s been a month since we took Kaitlyn to the park—the weather has since turned cold & rainy. But that mid-November day was unusually warm, so we decided to do laundry & grocery shopping early that day so that we could take Kaitlyn to the playground by our house in the afternoon. Instead of taking the afternoon nap, we let her play there for almost 2 hours.

Every time we take her to the park, we could definitely see that she has been growing, not only physically but socially as well. This time at the playground we saw her climbed on & played with pretty much anything she wanted. She is also never really a shy kid, at least when it comes to food & fun, so it was nice to finally see her approaching & playing with other children at the park without hesitation.

Without further ado, here are some photos from that nice weekend. Enjoy!

These photos were taken about a month ago. Enjoy!

Last Saturday we went to see the Ringling Brothers’ Coney Island Illuscination show with the Yau’s. Originally we were supposed to go last Wednesday, but the show was canceled due to power outage, so we went on Saturday instead. That turned out to be a good thing, since it’s on the weekend, Mel was able to join us. Also, thanks to the storm (Huricane Earl) that never came, by Saturday the heat wave was over & we ended up spending some time on the boardwalk after the show.
I thought the show was good, much better than the one Mel & I watched a few years ago at Madison Square Garden. For almost the same amount of money, we got to sit much closer to the action this time because of the small tent. Last time at MSG, I had a hard time keeping up with the show because there was stuff going on in 3 rings, whereas this time there was only 1.
Anyway, here are some photos we took. Enjoy!

Two Saturdays ago, Kaitlyn was invited to her classmate Emma’s birthday party at the Build-A-Bear Workshop on 5th Avenue. Here are some photos taken on that day. Enjoy!

FINALLY… after 2 months, the conclusion to the Ling Family Visit in May.

Our trip to the city (Top of the Rock @ Rockefeller Center, NBA Store, & Central Park)

Taking turns to take pictures with the princess (we charge $100 per picture. haha):

Their final day in NY:

We miss you guys! Can’t wait to see you next month!

Okay so we’re REALLY behind when it comes to posts and pictures.. (our bad!).. so Ether’s family came for a visit last month and Kaitlyn had a blast. She really enjoyed the attention and good company. Unfortunately she caught a fever the day that they arrived and it lasted for 4 whole days. So we really didn’t get to go anywhere until after her fever passed. We were able to go to Downtown Philly and the Amish country for a day. Here are some photos from our trip. Just click on the thumbnail photos to see the bigger versions; click on the right-half of the large photos to see the next one.

Which photo do you like the most?

– while in the car:

– Downtown Philly:

– Messing around in the gift shop:

– Amish Country (Pennsylvania):

Last Wednesday, since the weather was super nice, we decided to take a walk to Carvel for their Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sundae Day. On the way there, we saw that the playground on 66th St was open again. (It was closed due to the devastation of the small tornado that hit last August.) So we decided to let Kaitlyn try going on a playground swing for the first time. She seemed to enjoy it a bit, but not sure if she was feeling dizzy or not.

Happy 1st Birthday Kaitlyn!!!!!

My how fast 1 year has gone by already.. My baby is now a big girl… well sorta..

On Saturday, we had a mini birthday party with family and her 2 playgroup friends. Our apartment is WAY too small to accommodate everyone that we wanted to invite. So we apologize to those of you who weren’t invited, but we still love you!

Kaitlyn’s Mini Birthday Party on Saturday, Feb 2nd:

So Jen & co came to NY to visit us last week on New Years and stayed for a few days at mom & dad’s. They stayed with us for one night and La was addicted to our Wii. Talon had a blast running around, playing with Kaitlyn’s toys, and pushing Kaitlyn down. Nevertheless Kaitlyn was very amused by him and always wanted to give him kisses. Here are some pictures we took of the cousins in their Santa outfits: