Have you noticed

That I haven't been posting at all lately? This summer seems to have made me busier than ever in the everyday life. Just taking care of kids and cleaning keeps me busy all day. Anyway here is a little update. Umm I can't remember.

However I do have some photos I took today and yesterday. Here are Jamison and Eva in their church clothes:

Jamison is wearing his new tie

Then Eva got a new dress. It has three layers of organza and a little petty coat underneath

I just loved it. New yesterday. Then when she got home from church it had this huge rip in the organza which can't be fixed. This is why I generally don't get nice things for little people. Oh well though she has plenty other dresses (the luck of being an only girl)

On to brighter funnier things. Jamison is 10 Months old. He is cute. I like him a lot. Today after church I put him in the high chair and threw him a nectarin. Now I used to do this with Alexander and Eva when they were little and they would put bite marks in it and thats it. I was wandering around the kitchen doing things and just glancing over. It looked to me like he was just putting bit marks in.
Then it was gone so I figured he dropped it on the ground. I looked around the floor and found this:
He at the WHOLE thing, then I gave him another and he ate it all too! At least its fruit and not fruit loops. Then he needed a new shirt and I grabbed one of Eva's shirts that she wears to bed to put on him IT FITS!:
I couldn't believe it! Then I took the shirt off and put it on Eva (same day same 10 minutes) And here it is:

He is a big growing boy who eats two nectarins in one sitting and now he fits his sisters shirts!! I was laughing a lot when I saw that. It made my day. Oh and these made my day too:

I got them yesterday and I love them. Blue velvet with ruffles! I just measured and they are 5 inch heels!! However the front are tall too so they were ok to walk in.

Thats all for now, I have to get back to the kids and husband and all that.

Miriam

Our mini vacay

We met up with Kristen and Geoff in Cortez Colorado for the weekend and it was pretty fantastic. We got to see Mesa Verde! I would not recommend the tours for kids under 5. This is not because of all the ladders and steep stairs and such, its because they are constantly stopping and talking and the kids don't want to sit there and wait for them to start walking again. Here is the view from across the canyon of the place we toured (cliff palace)


Then we waited for the tour guide to tell us all the reasons we shouldn't do the strenuous hike. Here are the ONLY pictures I took of people the whole trip!

Here are Alexander and Ethan checking out the far view. It was great that we could see Cliff Palace from the trail head. So if you don't want to hike all the way down you can just walk to this point to see it all.
More waiting
An interesting point about the hike is that the stone stairs you walk down are all pre osha so you get a good idea of why stairs have to be a uniform height. They were very steep and you got a surprise everytime you stepped down. Here was the first ladder to climb. The kids all did really well.

As soon as we got up the ladder we were to stop and listen to the ranger talk about the history of the Aztecs that the anthropologists have assumed from their remains. I felt like I was standing on a cliff ledge and Eva wanted to walk back and forth luckily we made it through without her falling off.The kids were all listening and being good tourists. Notice Eva all the way up the top looking for the next place to go.

The view from the tour stop


Then we stopped right in front of the ruins for a while while the tour guide informed us. Then we walked a little higher and stopped again. Eva kept throwing sand and all kinds of things. Then it was time to go and we ran for the exit. Here was the way out

Here is the view of the way out from across the canyon. Pretty steep. I didn't realize how steep it was because I wanted to get the kids out of their as soon as possible.


The view down to the Palace from the exit

We were going to do the Balcony tour but there was no way the kids could do it after the previous tour. It was actually my sanity I was worried about so Geoff and Kristen and Jerry and George went on while we did the scenic drive. We stopped and looked at the balcony from the side of the road:


Then we saw the fire temple:And many other things. It was pretty amazing to see all these houses all over the cliffs. There were so many stops and you could see their windows and doors carved out. Its amazing to think how much energy would need to be used just getting from place to place. It was such a fun mini vacation. It was great to see Geoff and Kristen and we were even lucky to see Kristen's sister's family and Her parents!

Here are some elk we saw on the way home:

I took hardly any photos which was disappointing but I would love to do another trip like this! You just can't beat a 3 and a half hour drive to visit family and see a national treasure!

Miriam

The little monkey

It has started

Post # 400

We have been very busy with everyday life around here! I haven't posted in a long time because I rarely get on the computer these days. Only a month and a half left of summer! Well it was fathers day a long time ago and Daniel got his favorite gift to date

Here he is enjoying it




We haven't been doing many projects, just regular home maintenance things like adding fans and doing an overhaul on the evaporative coolers. Its gotten pretty warm here so going outside for projects is not that fantastic! Daniel put more seed on the grass out back so the patches will go away and the flowers he planted are getting big. Jamison is getting more adventurous by the minute. He crawls and now likes to stand up on furniture. He is officially 10 months old! Before we know it he will be a year. The last year has flown by quickly. Eva is doing very well with potty training, now I just have to get her to go on the big one. Being in New Mexico is great although being surrounded by 8 wild fires (I think that is the accurate count right now) makes the air kind of gross. I must admit we are in need of a small vacation. Luckily we are getting a 2 day one coming up. Anyway that's all for now I must go get cereal ready.

Miriam

Eva is 3

Eva turned 3 yesterday! It was a Sunday so we celebrated on Saturday. We went to the zoo and decorated the house and Eva LOVED it all. Then we had our friends over for cupcakes and bling rings and they had a blast. Eva got her 2nd baby doll (the first got its hand ripped off by Alexander a while back) and they really both love to play with it. Anyway I have a 3 year old who loves being a girl. Here are some photos from the day. Oh and I realized that I don't take many photos of Eva anymore. I specifically tried to take photos of her this weekend and I realized why I don't get many photos. Because she is ALWAYS moving around quickly so they tend to be blury. I need to put it on the sports action setting I guess.

The birthday girl before we left

I don't know what brought on the grouchy face

Flamingos when you walk in

Alexander loves the reptiles.
I would rather just pass by this section of the zoo

Jamison waiting on the grass while we switched out cars

Their favorite part about the zoo what just one of the large walls with lots of grass.
We played here for a long time.

Eva was hiding behind a rock and Alexander was supposed to find her, but he had to use the restroom so she was wondering why it was taking so long

Jamison was a good sport in his stroller

He was finally let out to play.

She looks so little in this picture

They all had their hats on

hide and seek with dad

They LOVED playing catch.
I caught some of the moments.

This one got him in the face as you can see will happen as soon as the ball hits him

Sunday morning pictures (her actual birthday)

Oh and here was her cake. Just enough for everyone.
I don't want to buy the giants cakes anymore because there is so much left over to SNACK on.

The cupcake tower. I had some with bling rings in them too. Alexander insists on rings in the cupcakes because thats what the kids did at school. We got away with not having party hats this year. I couldn't find any girly ones oh well. Oh and Alexander wanted to give her a pinata for her birthday but I didn't bring that up because who wants that much candy around? Maybe if we have a large crowd to take the candy home with them. Or maybe next time I will buy many many bouncy balls to put in one. That would be an activity in itself trying to find them all. FUN!
Happy Birthday Eva. She will be in PRIMARY next year!! The years fly by very quickly so I have to make them count.

Miriam

Fires

There are uncontrolled fires in Arizona right now and it feels like they are in our backyard. We wake up every morning and it smells like a campfire. It only seems to come at night when the winds pick all the smoke up and bring it here. I hope they get the fires contained soon. I keep a little temperature thing on my computer screen and look what it said a little while ago!

How funny is that?

Miriam

I was referring to the word under the 91, it usually says sunny or rain or something like that.

The Patio

For some foggy details on how we did the patio go here :)