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!

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.

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.