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.

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.

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.

Date Night

 Friday night we went out with all the adults to Los Amigos. Oh my. Steak and enchiladas is SOOOO good, made all the better with great company (Asa, Paula, Ashley, Julian, Brian, Tia and Brad) and for not having eaten lunch.

 After dinner we made a pit stop at Target for medicine...husband's weren't too excited about the selfie opportunity

But we got distracted and ended up getting a perfect picture of them! What would Tia and I do without our amazing husbands!

And after dropping babysitters off and eating chocolate cake we laughed our guts out at I.T. Crowd. It was a fabulous second to last day in Santa Fe. 

 

 When we finally went to bed we found Buddy snuggling with Ms. Belle. And as I type this Brad, Brian, Asa and Julian are moving all our stuff from storage to our new house. Huzzah for family and having a great place to live!

Halloween Party!

 Ben the T-Rex skeleton, Declan the strong man and both views of Will as Robin

 Ruth the Jedi and Claire as R2-D2

Lydia as a Macaw...I did her make-up!

All three of my kiddos

Me as a day of the dead...or as Claire likes to say a "Pretty Skeleton."

Longest Date Ever!

 The house we were going to rent was a mess...the copper wiring had been stolen out of it. So we got out of our contract with that property management company and started our internet search for a new home. Brad started looking out in Edgewood, which is 30 minutes from downtown ABQ. Once we found several houses to go look at I made appointments and we asked Tia and Ashley if they would watch our kids for 2 days while we were house hunting. This is the first time we'd been away from the kids for more than 4 hours since Ruth was born...7 years ago. So we had a BLAST! We stayed at a swanky hotel downtown, ate out, ran to meetings and looked at several houses. We also had time to just be goofy together and really enjoy each other; it was so refreshing and exactly what the two of us needed during this stressful time.

This is the backyard of our house!

 It's out in the country so it was bustling with wildlife. While we were there, less than 30 minutes, we saw 2 rabbits, a lizard, several grasshoppers and a stick bug! The best part of our house is that we have an AMAZING property manager. She is the owner of Mazzola Inc. and is so helpful and full of information on this area. She is world's apart from the big property management companies that treat you like a number.

Thank you Ashley and Tia for keeping our kids safe and happy while we were away!

Moving and the Baptism

 These are the nice gifts Brad received from his employees

 The kids were still sick during our great trek, so this is what they did for most of the 22 hour drive!

I'm so excited to live close to these awesome ladies! Saturday was Ben's baptism, so we made it just in time!

Sunday evening we spent all together at Asa and Paula's house. It was so fun to see all the kids playing together. And to see how grown up all of Ashley's kids have gotten! Oh, and Grandma's awesome garage rennovation, Claire could have spent all day out there!