This week

 I started the week by getting horribly sick. Ruth managed to make cookies all by herself that day, make everyone lunch and wrote me this cute note as I stayed in bed all day long. Once I'd recovered we went to a really cool workshop at our library. They taught the kids about circuits and let them build their own light-up book mark with special thread to complete the circuit from the light bulb to the battery pack.

Friday we went to see Star Wars 7. We loved it

Claire got some work done

And here are our Christmas Sunday pics

Ruth has loved cooking and baking and she really wanted to make mashed potatoes, so she made a fabulous chicken and potato dinner for us Sunday night. And after stuffing ourselves, everyone went to play with Lego's while Claire and I napped on the couch.

Baking and other activities

 Recently we went to the Children's Museum in Santa Fe. The kids had a blast.

We've also spent a decent amount of time at the library. Our library is very small but also really cool.  If you look closely you can see some dinosaurs Will drew in the kid's corner.

And Ruth found a baking book at the library, so she's been doing a lot of baking. Nothing has turned out very well, but I'm sure the end product will get better with time. She's definitely light years ahead of me in the baking department. I didn't know how to roll anything out until I was in my 20's!

And of course we have built some adobe gingerbread houses. The kids had so much fun and were thrilled to be able to eat the houses when they were done building.

And it snowed on us again! Merry Christmas

Getting Ready for Christmas and School Stuff

The kids wearing their elf hats we made a few days ago and me wrangling them for another nice photo by the tree on Sunday. And one day out shopping Claire found a HUGE Snoopy!

Ruthie went off to work with Brad and that left Will and Claire at home with me. We decided to get our sweat on! It was fun to jam out and exercise together.

This week

 This week Ruth and Will both got turns going into town with Brad. He took them to meetings and then to do something fun. While Ruth was in town with doing some Christmas shopping, Will and I made a gingerbread house!

 While Will was in town with Brad at a museum Ruth practised piano and played with her Roominate toy from her birthday.

And today we went to playgroup, wrapped presents and made elf hats

 

Claire also spent some time fasting. She absolutely refused to eat lunch one day. So I told her she would be eating leftovers for dinner. She threw a huge fit at dinner, drank some water and was done. I told her she'd be eating left overs for breakfast. All morning Brad tried to get her to eat her food but she continued to refuse. We went to a playgroup that lasted until noon. By 11:40 she was asking me when we could go home so she could eat her leftovers. However, when she sat down to her food she threw another fit and decided to give herself a nap instead of eating the dreaded tater-tot casserole. She woke up after 45 minutes moaning...and FINALLY ready to eat. She only had about 4 required bites on her plate which scarfed up and then enjoyed pizza with the rest of us. Stubborn child!

Claire's self-imposed nap instead of eating lunch...she moaned in her sleep because she was so hungry

Thanksgiving

We spent the week of Thanksgiving at Brian and Tia's house. Claire got to sleep with the cat and Will lost a tooth

Here is Hillbilly Willy or Buck-tooth Buddy, whichever you prefer. And my obligatory holiday purchase of nutcrackers

On Thanksgiving morning Asa and Ashley helped me finish my project. They're Christmas tree napkins!

 Here we are at Paula's house right after the turkey came out of the oven

We saw several movies at the theater, which was a special treat for us

And we even got to play at the park few times!

Brad is pulling cactus flower needles out of Ruth's hand after she decided to go flower picking, poor girl. The joys of moving to a new climate with totally unfamiliar flora!

And the inaugural eggnog shot of the season in their new shot glasses!