November 30, 2015

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!

November 23, 2015

Family Party

 The Night before family arrived we took some silly pictures

Everyone came out on Saturday for a birthday bash for Ruthie. Brad planned an awesome meal with 4 different kinds of sliders, wings, hot dogs, chips and dip and strawberry lemonade. And we lucked out by getting sunny warmish weather so the kids could play in the yard.




 Ruth saved all her presents for today so she could open them all at once...and she was spoiled!

Sunday, when it was just us again we played Don't Eat Pete! with all the leftover candy.

November 19, 2015

Ruthy's Birthday Day


We started the day slowly, but eventually headed into Albuquerque and to the Natural History Museum. Will especially loved the dinosaurs, but everyone was blown away by the room with the Seismosaurus.



 After the Natural History Museum we went to sushi. We ordered a ridiculous amount of food and everyone sat and ate happily...even Claire!


After running a few errands we went to Cool Springz and bounced for an hour.


We wrapped the day up with Sonic treats and a Spiderman movie.

I am so proud of our Ruthie Bear. Physically she is very strong. She has worked really hard to learn to do head and hand stands. Her physical strength was clear yesterday when she climbed up the twisty rope ladder. 6 months ago she couldn't climb one of those! Mentally she is a rock star: her favorite book is Phantom Tollbooth, she loves playing math games and I often hear her quizzing herself and others on multiplication facts. She is, and always has been, a kind girl. She makes friends easily and she LOVES living so close to her two older female cousins, Lydia and Morgan. She is mature beyond her years socially and academically and we have a hard time reminding her to enjoy these years of being a child. I've noticed recently that she is, unfortunately a lot like me concerning her mindfulness. Even though she's been given information she doesn't utilize it when it comes time to do things...I think it has to do with being present in the moment. Oh, I forgot to mention spirituality: Ruth, for several years, has been very spiritual. She loves reading scriptures and often asks to teach family home evening. She also takes every opportunity to share her testimony in primary. This child definitely feels very deeply, we just have to focus on getting some of the facts straight.

November 17, 2015

November 16, 2015

Weekend


Friday night we had a backyard cookout. Brad made us a big cozy fire and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Once the sun went down it got really cold and we all ate as fast as we could to get back inside where hot pie was waiting for us!



 Saturday morning Claire found another snake in our house. She wandered around with it for a bit before running into my room to tell me what she'd found. After poking and prodding it for a few minutes the snake got riled up and started moving really quickly, so Brad scooped it up and put it far away from the house.


Then we went out to the free day at the Wildlife Park/zoo where they have rescued wild animals. It's a great little zoo and we had a bunch of fun hiking around out there.

 This mule deer was very friendly and kept poking its snout out at Claire.


 That night we made ourselves Brad's creation, "Das Quesedilla." It's German food inside a quesedilla with pico and green chile, oh yum.

 Sunday we finally went to our new ward where everyone was really happy to see us. We met all sorts of new friends and we were invited to exercise groups, play groups and over to Sunday dinner.

November 9, 2015

Little Buddy


We all love Will so much. He's a sweet guy but he certainly knows how to push his sisters' buttons! But luckily he's been pretty great recently. Today I found him playing with Claire in the laundry room. I heard their little voices and thought they were in their rooms...closets?...bathroom?...nope it was the laundry room. I peeked in at them and they were just playing house.


Brad and Will both working on Lego projects

And this is another picture of the kids with the snake we found...just 'cause.

November 6, 2015

End of October

 We were still at Brian and Tia's house. The kids all made designs for pumpkins and I helped them do the carving. We had beautiful weather to go to the park and had fun decorating their house for a mini-Lydia party.