Snow in ABQ?

I thought ABQ didn't get a lot snow in the winter. We had a few storms before Thanksgiving, that resulted in a skiff of snow, delaying the whole city 2 hours, each time, but that was it, so I was very surprised when I woke up one morning to snow, and then it continued to snow all day and into the night. The snow here is very powdery. We tried on several occasions to build a "big" snowman, but were never successful. But we had fun, oh boy did we have fun.
In the past when it snowed, I was always up in the middle of the night plowing parking lots for work. So when I came home after working all night, I slept. I never really had the chance to play in the snow with Little Man...until now. We spent a lot of time outside playing in the snow. It was FUN! It was also really nice because the cold didn't stick around for long. The snow melted in like 2 days, but we got our play on while it was here!

 To give you and idea of how much snow we got.

 Seriously, he wanted to go out like this.

 Snow Angels!

 Yes, he threw this at me...

 He slipped and fell head first into the juniper behind him.

 My foot print, I think we ended up with about 8" of snow.

 He fell again, the snow was deep.

 He ran and ran and ran in the snow.

 He crawled in the snow.

 He ate the snow.

 He ate more snow.

 He is ready to come inside.

He took a picture of his bike because it was "full of snow."

The Seven Days of Thanksgiving

A lot can happen in 7 days. Here's our last 7 days in a nutshell.
My parents set out to our house for Thanksgiving. Despite all the weather reports and huge nasty storms that are coming through Utah and New Mexico. They arrive a little before midnight, With stories of blizzards, black ice, and hitch hikers. While waiting for my parents, my baby who HAD been sleeping through the night was waking up every 20 minutes or so screaming her head off. I feel inside her mouth and sure enough her gums are swollen with not one, but two bumps. That explains the pain and the sleeplessness.
 Grandpa and Little Man built a snowman.

Said snowman melted a few hours later. Mom and I went grocery shopping for the big Thanksgiving dinner.  Grandpa stayed home with the kids. Grandpa found a cool car building t.v. show on Netflix. He will watch the entire season before he leaves. Little Man got mad at grandpa because he said he couldn't have an orange soda.
All the snow from our storm melts away and after 3 days of Idaho-like winds, they finally cease. Grandpa's allergies finally turn into a cold and he is up a lot at night coughing. Almost as much as I am with my poor teething baby. I am fighting off a cold with breathe, on-guard and anti-plague. I win the fight but spend one night with extreme chills that turn into extreme sweats, followed by a day of body aches. Then, I'm good. Little Lou refuses to take her afternoon nap unless she is being held in a certain position by grandpa. No one else will do. If he tries to lay her down she will wake up in a matter of minutes.
Little Man decides to get sick and throws up his breakfast. Grandma almost follows suit, but makes grandpa clean up the mess. (Yes, I was sleeping while this happened)
Little Man gets a much needed haircut. Little Lou gets her mullet trimmed. I get my hair trimmed, just a little. Okay 12 inches, isn't a little. I donated it to locks of love. I forgot to take a picture of my pony, sorry. This is the 3rd time I have donated to Locks of Love, that makes 3' of my hair that has gone to help those adorable little kids.
Two bumps turn into one and a tooth emerges. We go to the park in one car. We see two cops on the way there and surprisingly don't get pulled over. We play at the park until dark. (grandma has all these pictures)
We cook our Thanksgiving dinner (ok grandma did most of the work but I did help) We eat said dinner and as always it is delicious! We watch some more t.v. (a lot of t.v. is watched when the household doesn't feel extremely well.)
Mike and I travel to Walmart to indulge in some Black Friday shopping. He gets his movies, I get some things for my mom that are on her list.  About 20 movies later we head home. We eat dessert and watch more t.v.
 My mom helps me make some crafts she brought up for me.

My mom and dad get things packed and ready to go. They are leaving the next day.  Parents wake up early to leave for Idaho. I am already up, having had to feed the baby. We say goodbye. They leave. I go back to bed. Kids wake up. Little Man is sad that Grandma and Grandpa with the horses have left. He gets over it.
 I start cleaning up and wish they were still here. (I don't know how I could have survived the week without them) Mike goes to the ammo store to buy a box of .22 shells. Then he sends me because you can only buy one box per customer. I return,
Little Lou still only has one tooth, but you can see the second one right there at the surface just dying to break through. She takes her afternoon nap! I am in shock. Little Man still complains that his tummy hurts. We watch more T.V.  And to finish up the week the second tooth has emerged! Little Lou is doing much better, still not back to sleeping through the night, but I am hopeful. There you have it Quite and eventful week for the Smith's in ABQ!
Our seven days in a nutshell. I wish I could say I took my parents out and showed them all the cool things of ABQ. But I guess that will have to wait for another visit, when we are all feeling a little bit better.  Mike had school through Wednesday, so we never really saw him. He did take all of Thursday off from studying, which really surprised me, but I don't blame him. He got back to the books on Friday and we haven't seen much of him since. We are looking forward to the Christmas break which will be longer, and although he will have to do some studying, not nearly as much as he is right now. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
I am so grateful for my family and friends. As I said before my parents couldn't have come at a better time and I really don't know how I could have survived the week without them. My mom came down for a little vacation, but yet spent her days cooking and cleaning up after us. I am so grateful for all her help!
I have had a great time here in ABQ meeting new people and learning new things every day. It's been challenging being away from all our family and friends, but I am grateful for these new experiences. Mostly being able to stay home with the kids. They are truly a blessing in my life and teach me everyday. I hope everyone was able to spend time with their loved ones this holiday season!

Happy Halloween!

Our first Halloween in New Mexico was a success! Little Man was the "Hulk Smash" as he likes to call him. It was a very tough decision. He could decide between the Hulk or a Ninja Turtle. So I decided for him. I went with the costume that cost half as much as the other. (Ya, I'm cheap like that.) He was okay with The Hulk. I didn't really look at the mask too much before I bought the costume, it was just one of those cheap ones he would break in less than 5 minutes. But I think maybe I should have. The first time he put it on he ran around the house yelling HULK SMASH, and pounding his fists together. We went up to Little Lou and she burst out in tears! I thought maybe Little Man had just startled her, but every time he would go up to her in the mask he got the same reaction. So I took a look at the face and it is pretty scary, especially for a 4 month old! So we had to put the mask up until the big day and then I let him wear it as long as he didn't let Little Lou see him in it.

I got Little Lou a watermelon costume. I really wanted the elephant costume they had at Costco, but they never had any in her size. She was just as cute though. She would make any costume look good!  Everyone thought she was a strawberry though. It was a little annoying correcting everyone, so finally I just went with it.

We went to our Library reading time which they turned into scary time, and Little Man had a fun time showing off his Hulk like moves. My Strawberry- uh I mean Watermelon slept most of the time, but woke up toward the end. Only the little kids knew she was a Watermelon. I heard several kids correct their parents and tell them no mom she's a watermelon! See her seeds! It was pretty funny.

We found out the mall here does trick or treating. So we decided to give it a shot. We've been here 3 months now, and I had never been to the mall. (Big shock I know) It was huge! Every time I thought we were getting done with the top floor there would be another corner to round! It was exhausting! Once Little Man saw the escalators, that is all he wanted to do. So we went down the escalator and went a to a few stores downstairs and all he wanted to do was go back up. He already had a ton of candy so we called it a night and went home. Little Lou slept in her stroller the entire time.  We did however see a baby about the same age as her in the same costume, and they looked so much alike Mike and I both lifted up our carseat cover just to make sure she was still in there! :) It was crazy!

Here are a few pictures of the kids!

 "The Hulk" was hungry and taking a bite out of the watermelon.

 I don't know how she slept through all the noise

 

My scary hulk and equally adorable watermelon!

Blessing Day

Little Lou was blessed on July 7, 2013. It was a beautiful summer day and we were blessed to have lots of family and friends to enjoy the day with. My wonderful sister-in-law and equally amazing niece took pictures for me. I haven't edited any of them, simply because I haven't learned how to use my photoshop program, but I wanted to share pictures of my beautiful baby girl with those of you who weren't able to make it to the blessing. One day when I'm not out chasing a little boy around, or snuggling with my beautiful baby, I will get around to learning to edit photos.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! It's hard to believe my baby girl is 4 1/2 months old!