We woke this morning to a dusting of snowfall of about 1". From leaves falling to snow in 10 days. Well, we'll have fun nonetheless.
Elsa enjoying the snow. She loved running back and forth and was very excited about Jones playing in the snow.
Jones getting in on the action. He was very confused after he "caught" the snowball, since it disappeared on the catch. Titus followed suit and was throwing snowball more or less at Jones who didn't seem to mind much.
Momma and Elsa smiling. Titus asks to build a snowman after being unsatisfied with the result of his snow angel.
Ask and ye shall receive. It wasn't a very big one, but it was as big as Elsa. After decorating it, Titus asked if he could "go kick it". We convinced him to make another snowball to kick, rather than blasting our poor little snowman to smithereens.
A quick family pose before we went back inside. After one of Elsa's hands got cold and wet, she was d-o-n-e and not feeling shy about letting us know. I asked Titus if he was cold and he said, "No Daddy! I have gloves on and a hat on and-a and-a a big-ole-coat on." (When I first opened the door to go outside, Titus said "Oh Daddy! It's too cold outside." I then told him he had a big coat and a hat and gloves on, so he should stay warm. Seems like he remembered what I told him.)
And what better to warm back up with? Hot chocolate of course. Titus is happy he's getting "hot chocolate milk" and Elsa is just thinking, "Brother, don't be silly. You are wasting time. You need to be drinking it faster, like me!"
Well we've been enjoy the seasonal change and having fun in the leaves this fall. Here a couple of short videos showing the fun we've been having.
The kids had so much fun, after their naps they both wanted to go outside and play in the leaves again. Titus is particularly fun to talk to. It's fun to ask him to describe why he likes doing certain things. The leaves discussion when something like this:
Titus: (immediately after waking up from his nap) Daddy! We need to go play in the leaves again!
Daddy: (smiling, but still parenting) You mean would like to play in the leaves again. Mommy and Daddy take care of your needs. Ok?
Titus: (realizing this mistake, it's a frequent one) Right! Can we go outside and play in the leaves?
Titus: (realized he left a word off, makes eye contact with Daddy) Please?
Daddy: (redirecting, because we are leaving for dinner) Did you have fun playing in the leaves?
Titus: Yeah!
Elsa: (interjecting from the change table, slightly delayed) Yeah!
Titus: I love playing in the leaves.
Daddy: You do? What do you love about playing in the leaves?
Titus: (quick and disorganized, but honest) I love to play the leaves because Daddy counts and then Elsa runs then it's Titus' turn and then I go really really fast, too fast and jump over the leaves! And then I throw them and leaf rain!
Daddy: (amused) You make it rain leaves?
Titus: (bright) Yeah! (short pause) Daddy I hungry!
Daddy: Okay. We are going to get some pizza!
Titus: Oh! I love pizza!
Daddy: You do? What do you love about pizza?
Titus: I love pizza...umm...because it's food!
Yeah, so not all conversations are not all as deep and revealing as the rest.
We enjoyed a bounce house festival on Sunday. Our duck and train driver were accompanied by a octopus and a fish. They had a great time jumping through the obstacle course! We got to see many other little ones in their costume attire too! Some were a bit too scary for mama, Yikes!
So then on Monday night we donned our costumes one last time, and took our pumpkins out to find some candy. Titus wanted to fill his all the way to the top. Unfortunately, he was ready to go home after the first house. silly kid. We visited about 6 houses on our block. All the neighbors loved seeing the kids all dressed up. At one house their cat sneaked outside and Elsa ran after it. We laughed so hard, her little duck waddle was fantastic!
Its nearing that time of the year again. Halloween costume time!!! Well, I didn't think we needed to get the costumes out just yet, but apparently... well just check it out.
Well, it's finally finished. Ok, so it's actually not finished, but it's close enough; so we are going to post the pictures. We've still got to repaint the block wall we had to tear down to get all the equipment in the backyard (the stucco is almost set for painting) and we have a few more minor items to address, but the yard is certainly pretty enough to post some photos.
I'll start straight with the good stuff. In the backyard, we filled in our pool, tore down an old pergola, removed two 50' pine trees that were causing trouble and moved our gazebo to a better location. We put down sod over the area the pool and deck used to occupy, build a large stone paver patio with a fire pit, put down artificial turf in the sideyard and put down gravel and plants all around. The front yard also got a clean-up. We trimmed up our pine tree, added gravel, a pair of new pots and colorful plants and a new (although very wimpy looking right now) dwarf cherry tree. Cherry trees do quite well here in Albuquerque and we hope to have fun picking cherries in a few years. Not to mention that we installed an irrigation system to sprinkle and drip on all the grass and plants. The irrigation system has a very fancy controller that has moisture sensors attached so it only waters each area of our yard if it's needed. We also bought five large pots to place plants in and ran drip hose through the bottom of all of those.
This project took over 5 weeks. I can't tell you how proud I am of Tiffany for dutifully overseeing this project during the day and putting up with the inconvenience of it all (and the dog...oh how Jones hated the people in his yard for so long).
We are so excited to get to play and use our yard as a functional part of our home. Our two favorite parts right now are the seating area that wraps around the wall of the stone paver patio and the artificial turf. The wall seating is actually pretty comfortable, is the perfect distance away from the firepit to get some warmth and is large enough that we'll be able to entertain quite a few people.
The turf was a big surprise. We wanted to put something in the sideyard that didn't need to be watered (saving us money in the long run) but we wanted a surface that the kids could play on too. We had heard quite a few negative reviews from people about artificial turf. It's ugly. It looks too fake. It feels fake. It burnt my wimpy kid's feet at so-and-so's house. Well, those people either didn't buy the good stuff or were just wrong. We love our turf! We did shell out for the highest end product available, but it was affordable (considering the scope of our project) and we couldn't be happier. The turf does not get hot. It feels the same temperature as the sod in the back, perhaps even cooler after a short rain. The turf feels so soft, we can't get the kids and Jones to stop rolling in it. Titus has asked to go play with his T-ball set on it more times than I can count in the past few days (even once when it was POURING the rain). Yes, you can tell it's fake by looking at it (see the close up photo with my hand in the slideshow), but I personally think it looks great.
We have been in the midst of waiting and praying for a few months now. We are waiting to hear about a job opportunity, waiting for God to bring us another child, waiting for answers about many other little things. I know that many of you reading this have been praying for us as well, and we truly appreciate it. We feel like we are in holding pattern. But God's grace is sufficient! We have been able to just be a family. Enjoying the everyday events.
We had friends visit this past weekend. We had so much fun. Stu had some work in town, and Sara got to tag along for fun! We enjoyed a double date with some great food, and a local brewery and skeeball. Serious fun.
We also went to an Isotopes game. We got buy one get one free with a receipt for honey. (seriously? honey? we always need more honey, so easy) Then we actually got front row seats! And no I don't have a picture of that because I forgot the camera. Bummer. But what I do have a picture of is the baseball that Titus got! The batter hit a pop-up to left field and the out fielder caught it, it was the third out. So as this outfielder was running back to the dug out he tossed the ball straight to Titus!! We were all so stinkin excited. This was not our first baseball game, but it was the first time in the front row and to get a ball! When we were leaving we saw the mascot Orbit, and we got a photo op. Titus was petrified of this thing. You can see a photo of it at Stu & Sara's blog.
All in all we had a great time with our friends in town. Spoiled children, lots of green chilies and New Mexican food, and great conversations with old friends. Good times.
So maybe Harold Camping was just off a few weeks...because things around here in Albuquerque are certainly looking more apocalyptic by the day. Well not really, Camping is still a loony; but the weather around here has been pretty unique over the past few days.
The Wallow fire in Arizona has already burnt more than 60,000 acres and this, coupled with La Nina winds have brought that giant wildfire's smoke to Albuquerque. So despite the fact that we haven't had any real rain since early May, we've had "ash rain" over the past few days. The smoke is visible and it really does smell like a campfire outside. In fact, Tuesday Albuquerque's 911 system was being clogged up because so many people assumed that something was on fire in their neighborhood because of all the smoke.
We aren't in any danger of the fire. It's over 200 miles away and there isn't much forest left for it to consume, to be honest. The biggest "danger" is the air quality from the smoke. We are being advised to stay indoors (not too difficult since it's in the mid-90's here right now) and folks with existing respiratory problems are having additional woes, so pray for all the Albuquerqueans with asthma and other lung conditions.
One of the most eerie phenomenon's of the smoke and ash has been the coloration of our sun. It's bright red! The skies are also a pale yellow and just before sunset, the whole town has an almost heavenly golden glow. Take a look and let us know what you think.
P.S. We are aware that we haven't put up pictures of the kids in a while and we will correct that soon. Just wanted to share this!
Yup, you read that correctly, Christmas in May. We received a "late" Christmas gift. The arrival of this gift was perfect timing, and was our doing that took us so long.
ta da! A new Grill
Fancy huh? The very first thing we cooked were hot dogs... yummmy.
Don't these kids just look terrible and starving??? ha ha... they love the hot dogs, and so does Jones!
We are all dressed in our Sunday best for Easter this year. Its so much fun to dress up for the day. Elsa's dress is a handmade special from Momma and she loves it. Today was a very special day as we were able to celebrate Jesus' resurrection and our freedom from sin as a family.
This year for the kids "Easter Basket" they didn't get the traditional basket of candy and eggs. But since Earth Day coincided with Good Friday this year, Momma took advantage of the opportunity. They each received a gardening tools set, including a watering can and we picked out some flowers. They love digging, planting and watering (maybe watering a little too much!). If only they liked getting baths as much as getting dirty. Oh well, we can't have everything.
I can't say it enough, they just love playing in the dirt, and I love that they can learn from growing and caring for some flowers. Easter is celebrating life and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. What better tangible object to portray that Life than a beautiful flower garden.
This is gonna be their little garden to grow things. We are still working on the finishing touches and clean up. We are glad that we have found a way for the whole family to participate. Hopefully it will continue to develop and be finished soon!
