As big as...

Elijah: "Mommy, I love you as big as a monster truck!" I'm all teary-eyed over that one!

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First Table Game

Elijah played his first table game with us tonight. Dominoes! He was great at matching the colors and counting dots. He even beat us the second game we played. His favorite part though,  by far,  was putting the little trains on the tiles. We're getting hom ready to play with Oma and Poppi and Nana this summer!

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A Very Merry Christmas 2012

We had a very nice quiet Christmas (at least as much as you can with two little ones) here in ABQ. We spent the morning at the house and then headed over to our good friends Tom and Deanna's house for hanging out and Christmas dinner. They treated us royally with a standing ribs dinner with all sorts of sides. I haven't that good of meat in a long time! 

Eli and Eva both had on their Christmas outfits that they wore for the Christmas Eve service at church as well as when we went over to Tom and Deanna's house. 

One of the highlights this Christmas season was the celebration of Advent each night. Jamie made little numbered advent bags with a homemade ornament representing different symbols of the Christmas story (star, sheep, frankincense, etc.) in the bag and a little peace of paper with a passage to read in the children's Bible or a Christmas story book. It was great to do this with Eli and Eva every night before bed, as well as a reminder for Jamie and me to remember the reason for the season. 

We loved our unique Christmas tree that we cut down in the Jemez Mountains. It looked beautiful at night all lit up by the Christmas lights. We weren't planning on getting many gifts, but at the end of day there was a mountain (or at least a few really big boxes). 

The first present that Eli opened was a battery operated train that he knew what it was (having fallen in love with it at Target... thanks YiaYia!) He was so looking forward to opening it and we immediately took a break and headed upstairs to try it out on the train table. 

Eva opened a little doll and stroller that she loved playing with. She knew immediately what to do with it, though I think she might have had more fun just opening the paper, and climbing in the boxes!

Elijah's big gift this year though was a bicycle with training wheels. He had no idea that he was getting it and the surprise of opening it is worth watching in the clip below. The best part is at the 2:47 mark when he throws up arms in the air and shouts "BICYCLE!"

We had a blast putting it together. 

One only needs to look at his face to know how much he loves it. 

We took it for a spin around the neighborhood, with Elijah telling everyone he passed all about it. It was so endearing, one man smiled and watched us go all the way down the hill.

Elijah loved his helmet so much that he insisted wearing it everywhere we went, including Cracker Barrel for dinner the next night. He even wanted to wear it so badly that he insisted on wearing it to bed. I couldn't say no as he loved it so much (I took if off once he fell asleep). Later when Jamie asked him why he wore it all the time he responded that if he's wearing his helmet, he can just hop on his bike at any time. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

We also were able to Skype with all of the Voss family who were together back in Upland, as well as Dad and Mom Otten who were in Marco Island Florida, and Jeremy and Christy who were with her family in Chicago. Although we missed them a ton, it was great to see and talk with them. 

Overall it was a great Christmas! 

A winter wonder land

We decided to get out of ABQ and go for a hike on the back side of the Sandias. It turns out there was still a bit of snow on ground providing for a beautiful drive and hike up to the Sandia Cave.

Eli did a great job hiking all the way up to the cave and back seeing as Eva was on my back in the child carrier. The view from the trail was beautiful especially looking down the valley toward the Jemez mountains. 

Down in the valley you can see the snow packed road we drove up. It was a beautiful drive and a nice change from the ABQ landscape. 

Eli and Eva loved the hike and especially climbing the spiral staircase. 

We had brought a lunch to eat in the cave while Eli explored with his little flashlight he had carried up in his pocket. Eva just chilled on my back the whole time. 

Merry Christmas

We would like to wish all of you a merry Christmas! 

River of Lights

One of our favorite things to do in ABQ during the Christmas Season is to go to the BioPark's Walkway of Lights located at the Botanical Gardens. This is the primary fundraiser for this excellent facility and a great way to experience some Christmas cheer as well as be among the throngs of fellow ABQ'ers. This year we went with out good friends Tom and Deanna and their little one Averlee. Normally the parking is insane for the event, but this year we heard that you could park at Tingley Beach and ride the train to the gardens. 

This was definitely the way to do it as we drove into a practically empty parking lot, climbed on the train, and road it the five minutes to the gardens (roughly the time it would have taken us to walk from the parking at the gardens). This was much to the excitement of Elijah, who couldn't imagine a better way to travel!

The gardens were all lit up with beautiful light displays. Everywhere you looked there was a unique display or a creative decoration. One example of this was the "yarn bomb" in the Fairy Tale castle gardens. A knitting club had "yarn bombed" the area and put leggings and sweaters on the enormous ants, coverings for the trees, wraps for the rocks, and patterns on the lights. It was very creative and very original as you can tell by looking at the ant below. 

As you're leaving the giant pumpkin you enter the illuminated bamboo forest. "Mr. Tom" had brought a glow stick for Eli to play with and we may have appropriated a bit of yarn from an ant to tie it to Eli's coat at this point as his hands were getting a bit cold. It also worked out well for us to spot Eli from the millions of other bundled up little ones. 

Elijah posing with the dinosaur eggs

Big surprise here, but the windup excavator was his favorite light display. 

It's hard to tell from the below picture but there was a live band singing Christmas carols to the crowds coming through. 

Another part that Eli loves at the gardens is the large scale train track. This time though they had removed the loads from a lot of the cars and lined up candles on the flatbeds trailers. At the end was a Santa being pulled by the train. 

The below shot is Eli staring up at the lit T-Rex with its arms moving up and down. When he spotted it across the park he shrieked "T-REX!!" and growled as he raced to see it up close.

(Note the T-Rex across the pond)

Although it was pretty cold, it was a wonderful time with friends and seeing a beautiful holiday display (all while supporting a great place). 

An Old Town Christmas

Every Christmas, ABQ's Old Town has a lighting of the Christmas Tree event where they turn on the lights for a 50 foot "tree" made from 135 small trees. It's a fun time with little bands or groups caroling in the streets or on porches. You really get a variety of groups as we heard a children's choir, an instrumental quartet, two cowboys, a mariachi band, and some dude jamming in a corner. 

The church in the square was beautifully lit with it's exterior illumination and the luminarias on its walls. 

After the lighting of the tree there are traditional dances in the square's gazebo and ample opportunities to buy hot chocolate and go into the many shops. 

Eli and Eva did great in the stroller checking out the lights and watching all the people. 

The fun part of the event was when we all counted down for the tree to light and when we hit zero the tree lights didn't come on. True to National Lampoons Christmas vacation (for those who have seen it), it appears the reason it didn't work was they had plugged into a circuit that was shut off for the ceremony in order to dim the store lights to make the tree shine brighter. Once they turned on the porch lights in front of the stores the tree came on. It was a good laugh by all. 

The Quest for the Perfect Christmas Tree 2012

This year we're really trying to be good about getting out of debt, so dropping $50+ bucks on a Christmas tree seemed like an obvious place to start looking for a bargain.

We found out you can drive up to the Jemez Mountains north of ABQ and cut down a tree for $10. Not only that, but all the profits go to helping the Park Service. We packed up our Saturn and made the 50 minute trek up to the Jemez enjoying a beautiful drive and a chance to get out of the "city" for a bit. Little did we know what a wonderful surprise the trip would be.

The recommended cutting place was on a small road into a different part of the mountains. As we left the houses and barns behind and entered the park, we came across this amazing view. You can see the road we drove up in front of the cliff.

Continuing on we drove into a beautiful narrow canyon. The road passed through tunnels cut straight from the rock with a large stream at the base of the canyon. Once passing through the tunnels there was a multi-step waterfall that ended in a pool at the bottom of the canyon. 

Our narrow paved road ended up turning into a dirt road as we pressed further up and further in, but we continued on looking for the perfect tree (or at least a place to park safely). Once we found a good place to pull off, we unloaded the saws and set off into the mountains to find our Christmas tree. Jamie and I kept laughing about the similarity to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, driving into the middle of nowhere in search of the perfect tree (minus the driving obsession by the father of course). 

After hiking a bit into the mountains we found our tree attached to some growing brush and just asking us to come rescue it (it's the pine tree in the front of the picture below). 

It's not a perfectly uniform tree by any means, but is beautiful, full of character, just the right size and fits perfectly in our house. 

Recreating a tunnel picture David remembers of his family

Capping our wonderful trip to get the tree we decided to hit up good old Cracker Barrel for some good old comfort food on our way home. Nothing like a sweet tea and chicken dumplins to make it feel like Christmas. 

Happy Halloween2

Guess who is catching up on the blog?
Happy Halloween!
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Happy Halloween!

Yup, we went to Target on Halloween. In costume. I'd forgotten to get "give away" candy.

We had people coming up to us left and right saying how cute the kids were. One guy even chased us down to say he loved their costumes!

And, yes, this is the 3rd Halloween in a row Elijah has worn his size 18mo giraffe costume. He just loves it and doesn't want any other. I had to pick up some giraffe print leg warmers to hide the 4 inches of bare leg!

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My boys!

Matching sweaters and everything... love my boys!

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Shopping Cart

Thanks, Nana! Eva loves her shopping cart!

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Elijah wrote his name!

On a card to Uncle Jeremy, Elijah signed his name for the first time. "ELI."
Pretty proud!

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Eva's 1st ponytail!

Ah, the cuteness!

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