December wrap up!

Here are the festivities that rounded out our Christmas season.

The botanic gardens here in Abq have what they call The River of Lights during the holidays. We went and had a great time. We were glad it wasn't too cold!

Jesse got to sing with his school music group The Mustang Chorale at a senior center. They did a great job.

Our only snow day so far. They ended up canceling the last day of school which made for 2 very unhappy kids...they were sad because they were supposed to have their class parties that day. Grace even got mad at me as if I had done it on purpose! They were somewhat appeased when we ended up spending the day playing with friends.
We actually got a fair amount of snow and it stuck around through the next day so the kids and Danny were able to have a snow war.
James preferred the safety of the playground...and Dylan wouldn't even get out of the car!

Danny, Jess and Grace stayed out for quite a while and had a great time. Eventually James and I retreated to the car, but we all had a good time playing in the snow.

Finally, Christmas day was here.
The kids were very happy with their haul. It was nice to have such a relaxing, fun day. Although it was a little lonely without family. We missed you all!

The aftermath!!
Hope everyone else had a great Christmas as well.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

ChRIsTmaS

It's our family tradition to set up the Christmas tree and decorations the day after Thanksgiving. So in keeping with tradition...
And just look at this happy camper...he loved setting up the tree!
And the fruits of our labors...

I also got the opportunity to set a table for our Relief Society Christmas dinner. It turned out so pretty, I had to take some pictures. I am a terrible photographer...it was a lot prettier in person!
Bring on Santa! We're ready!

Halloween

Better late than never!

I know...terrible pictures and none of Jesse. Jess took off the moment we got to the ward party and I never saw him again until we left. But he was a Jungle native and he made his own mask for it. It was really creative and I wish I had gotten a picture of it before it was destroyed!

It was a fun, low-key Halloween. We went to the ward party on Friday night and then the kids passed out candy on Sunday while we watched Amazing Race. I think the kids had just as much fun as they would have had we gone trick or treating.

Now...bring on the rest of the holiday madness...ready or not!

IT'S A...

GIRL!!!

Finally!

Whew...I am all updated. It wasn't as painful as I was fearing it would be.

I am feeling much better and, to tell you the truth, this has been my easiest pregnancy. But I do not like to even be a little bit sick, so I have been putting off most things except the essentials. Then when I started feeling better, I dreaded the thought of all that I needed to update, but I finally took the plunge today and here it is.

I updated by month, so scroll down so you don't miss all the riveting details!

Tomorrow I have another ultrasound and am hoping that they will be able to tell us what we are having.

I will not wait so long to update next time...stay tuned!

PS I added a poll to the sidebar...just for fun!

A family outing

This past weekend we took a trip to the Botanic gardens. It was a beautiful day and we had a fun time all together.

The Childrens GardenThe Harvest Festival at the farmThe Bug Boy
And the Japanese Garden (my favorite...it is so beautiful)
It was the end of the afternoon as is evidenced in that last picture of all the kids! Someone was in desperate need of a nap!

Despite the mini fallout at the end a great time was had by all.

September

September brought with it...

**"School" for DylanIt's actually just a program through the parks and rec here in town. They have a free pre-k program through the school district, but we didn't have the lucky lottery number!! We are still on the waiting list and hope to make it into the school before too much longer. In the meantime he is having a good time at Kidzone.

**A trip to Dixon apple farms with the Hatches for some delicious Champagne apples. The best in NM (or so we are told.) It was a beautiful drive up to the orchards and we had fun getting the apples from the source. We drove away with over 150 lbs of apples...40 of which were for us, the rest were delivered to friends.
**And lucky number 7 for GraceThe highlight of the day being a trip to the mall with Mom to get her ears pierced (she's been waiting for over a year) and to buy some new school clothes.

We also had a flower cake (per request) and her daddy "turned" her 7.
We love Grace...the princess of the family. So glad that you are ours!