Well Worth the Wait

The much anticipated moment has arrived. Isaac is officially 18 months old now which means that he is officially Nursery age! These last few months at Church are always the hardest with a toddler, but I swear that he has been our hardest yet. He hit his separation anxiety pretty hard and it's been tears and screaming anytime I leave the room. We've been adjusting him to the idea of "dropping off" with play group and with Nursery the last few Sunday's at church. He still gets nervous when you walk him close to the door, but after a few minutes of playing with mom or dad close by, he soon forgets that we even exist and is happy for the next couple of hours. Church is going to be so much more enjoyable now!

He sure is cute though! He's at a really fun stage and is starting to talk more (we're hoping he starts to scream less) and really has fun with us at home. He has recently started to play football with Brandon in the family room, loves to play Legos with Caleb, and is often seen running to Kelsie for comfort or just a hug. He yells "bye!" and "love ya!" to everyone that leaves in the morning for work and school, and will start cheering "go, go, go!" if we walk past the electronics department at Target and a football game is on the tv's.

We're also wondering if he's going to be the engineer of the family as he likes to figure out how things work and will stack and restack Legos for longer than 10 minutes at a time. He loves stickers and his new favorite things are coloring (with markers) and play dough. He gives us hugs and kisses all the time and will even tickle an exposed belly if he sees one.

18 months is a milestone around here in many ways. As excited as we are about his new career in Nursery, we're also a little sad that our little boy is that much older.

Date Night

A few weeks ago, Wally and I had the opportunity to go on a sunset tour ride in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Santa Fe. We hadn't made it out to Santa Fe before this and were excited to drive in an old 1970's Swiss Army Truck through downtown and up into the mountains. We learned a lot about the history behind this old city and the views were amazing. We made it up to the top of the mountain just before the sunset that day and it was just beautiful. Our French tour guide knew so much about New Mexican history and was so interesting to talk to. It was so nice to get away and have a night out together and to learn so much about this new place we call home. We're excited to explore Santa Fe some more in the future now that we've had a little taste of what it has to offer!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Happenings

This is such a fun time of year. I've always liked Halloween and the feeling of the holidays just around the corner. I've enjoyed pulling out the decorations and getting the house ready. Some people can go crazy this time of year and I laugh when I see people out decorating their yards all day long on a Saturday to make them all spooky and scary for the big night. Maybe it is because we have young(er) kids, but I'm not really into the whole scare your pants off thing. I don't feel like I go overboard though. I have some decorations up and we put up the white fake spider web stuff out on the bushes. Wally and I were thinking how next year we need to turn our front porch into a dance party, complete with disco ball, and have music playing during trick-or-treating. Speaking of music, we even put together a Halloween playlist to play from our car during the ward trunk-or-treat. It was awesome.

If there is anything that we do go overboard on, it would be the costumes. I know that I could take the easy route and buy the costumes from the store, but my brain doesn't work that way. I don't know what it is about this time of year, but it makes me want to pull out my sewing machine and piece together costumes that are always harder than I think and I end up emergency calling my mom for advice. This year was no exception.

After thinking about what to make for Isaac this year, I came across a great idea on Pinterest: Rainbow Brite and her sidekick, Twink. I just had to convince see if Kelsie would be up for the idea. I didn't think it would be too hard, especially since she would love the idea of having her little brother as part of her costume. She was very excited about the idea and it was soon put into motion. Armed with a couple patterns I already had and with my 50% off coupon for Joann's, I found the fabric I needed. It didn't take too long and I had a couple of costumes mostly put together and it started to become more real. I realize that putting Isaac in a white furry costume with rainbows may have been a little crazy, but in the end, it turned out so cute. Kelsie loved having him as her sidekick and besides the fact that he looked like a marshmallow with antennae, we pulled it off.

Brandon decided early on that he wanted to be Jango Fett from Star Wars this year. I spent sometime online looking up costume ideas and what we could do to make it easier. We figured that we could put together the basic costume pretty easily, but it was going to be his helmet and armor, Jango Fett's most defining characteristics, to be the challenge. My solution? Wally. He spent a lot more time than he thought and went through more cardboard and spray paint than anticipated, but in the end, we had a Jango Fett clone in the house. We knew that it was worth all the effort when Brandon said, "This is the best costume ever!". That means a lot, especially coming from him.

Caleb was the only easy one this year. He's all about Star Wars and wanted to be Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi. We already had everything we needed for that one so it didn't take much to put together. He was especially excited to get his black gloves from the dollar store to complete the ensemble. He perfected his skills with the lightsaber and use of the force and he was ready to go.

These costumes were so much fun to make. What makes it even better is that we finished them a whole week before Halloween. Wally and I have both decided that we both really love a good challenge and project to do. We're already starting to think about next year.

ABQ Balloon Fiesta

My first thought was, "this better be worth it" when I woke up the kids at 5:30 a.m. 

It was totally worth it!

Domestic Engineering at its Finest

recipe below

I don't claim to be a baker. In fact, I'm terrible at it, but this time of year does something to me. Suddenly I want to start baking cookies, cinnamon rolls, and anything else I can think of. Pumpkin brownies initiate fall for me. I had some chocolate chips and a can of pumpkin left over from last year and decided that this was the week to make them. I love the aroma of  pumpkin and cinnamon as they cook. The timer went off and when I pulled them out of the oven, they looked a little funny.



The color was off. These brownies aren't supposed to be yellow. I mean, they're supposed to be more orange, but definitely not yellow. We cut into them after they had cooled and from the first bite, I knew what was wrong. I forgot one important ingredient. Brownies don't taste very good if they don't have any sugar in them! The funny thing about this is that right before Brandon ate one has asked, "You didn't forget the sugar, did you?" "No!" I replied without even giving it a thought. Then I remembered. I did the same thing last year. You'd think I would have remembered something like that! Our much anticipated treat ended up going bad. Real bad. So much for our fall initiation. At least we had a nice smell throughout the house.

Speaking of smells, Caleb has started to read simple words and this week we were working on "ar" words. It was so fun writing words on the magna doodle and having him read them out loud. So fun, in fact, that his brother and sister got in on the action as well.  Brandon was excited to point out another "ar" word that Caleb could spell, and looking back on it, I should have seen it coming. At least he stuck with the "ar" root. Needless to say, Caleb has a new favorite word. I can't describe the pride I'm feeling right now.


The kids have also been saying some pretty funny things lately:

We overheard Kelsie saying to Brandon in the car, "You have a really high voice for a boy." It reminded us of something a friend pointed out previously: "It's not so much the decibel as the pitch."

Caleb, pouring a package of oatmeal into his bowl for breakfast said, "Now that's what I call a bowls-eye!" when it all landed in the bowl.

Caleb also has been saying things like, "Well looky here!" and "Well, what do you know?" a lot lately.

Brandon, before his first soccer practice: "I can't wait to show everyone my skills!" (Maybe he needs a slice of humble pie?! On the other hand, he did score 3 goals in his first game!)

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Here's the pumpkin brownie recipe if you want to try it. It's really good and a huge family favorite (as long as you don't forget the sugar!):

Pumpkin Brownies

1 1/2 C sifted flour
1 1/2 C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 C melted butter
3/4 C cooked pumpkin
1/2 C chocolate chips
1/2 C nuts (optional)

Sift together dry ingredients. Stir eggs, butter, and pumpkin together. Add dry ingredients. Add nuts and chocolate chips. Pour into 9X9 greased pan. Bake at 350* for 40 minutes.

Fall

It's official. Summer is over. As the weather turns cooler and thoughts turn to pumpkins and apple cider, it reminds me how much I love this time of year. This is our first fall in New Mexico and lucky for us the weather has been great and we're still in shorts and flip flops. We're having cool, crisp mornings waiting for the bus and it cools off again as it turns to night with perfect weather during the day. I'm excited to see what this season has to offer for us, but have to admit that I'm missing all the farms and leaves turning bright colors around the country right about now. There's something magical about fall and the transformation the earth makes.


Along with the season, it brings the return of sports. We're in full swing now with volleyball and soccer. Halloween costumes have been decided on and the sewing machine seems to have found a more permanent place on the kitchen table. We're enjoying days at the park with friends and warm afternoons riding bikes and playing outside. The days are getting shorter and our mornings are starting earlier. Saturdays are full of college football and spending as much time outside as possible. I don't think I've realize how much I love this season until it comes around again. Here's to the beginning of a great season!