Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. We pray the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, would be remembered and celebrated today and in days to come!

Roooaaarrrrr!!!

Some friends gave Joshua their son's old dinosaur costume. We put it on him, and he walked around the house going, "Rooooaaarrr!!!" I love that when I take pictures of him now, he actually smiles, and says, "Cheese!"

Nooo

This is how Makayla reacts every time we say, "No."

More Cookie Fun

We invited the Weir clan over today for some sugar cookie decorating madness. I wasn't quite sure how it would go with two toddlers and two babies, but Amy and I were both up for the challenge at hand. The mamas had high hopes of seeing our kiddos carefully decorate the snowmen with eyes and buttons, and dash an occasional sprinkle here and there. Who were we kidding?! A more accurate description of the decorating goes a little something like this... Mommy would put an M&M on Joshua's snowman, and he would quickly pick it off and gobble it up. Soon, thereafter, the entire cookie was in his mouth. Meanwhile, Audrey had fun licking all of the frosting off of the snowman, until you could only see the white cookie. So much for decorating. Seriously, though, it was a great time with friends, and hopefully the kiddos had a wonderful time too. I'm thinking they did in fact have a great time as both (mostly Joshua) were on a serious sugar-high soon after. What a great morning! Now, if you will excuse me, my kids need a bath : )

Me Want Cookie

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Joshua and Makayla want to wish their daddy a happy birthday before they head to bed...

Thank you for playing with us, for reading to us, for giving us raspberries on our stomachs, for singing to us, and making us laugh. We love you, Daddy!

This morning we celebrated with some maple-bacon donut yumminess. Love you, Babe!

Thanksgiving

I'm a little late, but I wanted to get a post up about our Thanksgiving in Hobbs. This was Makayla's first trip to Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Rahe's house, and the first time my mom's side of the family got to meet our little girl.

Great-Grandpa loves trucks just as much as Joshua, and has built up quite the collection over the years. Every morning, he had a new truck or tractor for Joshua. It got to the point where every time Great-Grandpa went back to his bedroom, Joshua was following close behind expecting a new toy to play with. Great-Grandpa also set up his train, and both Joshua and Makayla couldn't get enough of it. Since they loved it so much, Great-Grandpa sent it home with us.

One of our favorite parts of the trip was going to Uncle Mike's house. Uncle Mike has a bunch of big boy toys that we got to ride around in. He has a fire truck that he inherited from his old job. Yes, you read that right....he has a fire truck just sitting on his property. Great-Grandpa took Joshua and Andrew for a ride in the fire truck, and they thought that was pretty cool. Uncle Mike and Great-Grandpa also have a couple of off-road vehicles that we drove around his property.

Joshua had so much fun that he fell asleep on the final ride.

This is the Razor. The Razor goes very, very fast. After we dropped off Joshua, Mike took us for a ride in the very, very fast Razor. If you are wondering just how fast this thing goes, these were the words my dad uttered before Mike took me out: "Mike, be careful; those kids need a mom." Needless to say, we had a lot of fun in the Razor!

My mom, her brother, Mike, and the J man.

Andrew and my dad took the Razor out for some off-roading fun.

As if all of the trucks weren't enough, Joshua made a new friend...

Before we headed home, we celebrated my sister's birthday. Happy birthday, Sis! You're the best sissy and aunt we could ever ask for! We love you.

What a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for the family God has blessed me with. I wake up every morning beside my best friend, and down the hall are two little blessings that provide so much love. I'm a blessed woman indeed!  

10 Months

Thanks to a phone call from my parents, I was reminded that Makayla turned 10 months old today (I forgot...again)! It's hard to believe that we're nearing the end of her first year. If I could sum her up, it would be that she has endless smiles, a laid-back personality, a love for her brother, and a tough-girl spirit. Andrew is already dreading the day she woos a boy over with those perfect baby blues.

Dizziness

I was in the kitchen cleaning up, when I heard a loud thud in the living room. I watched Joshua get up and proceed to make himself dizzy by twirling around. I couldn't help but grab the camera...

New Photo Albums

Trying to catch up on all the photos we've been meaning to post.  We've made it through September.  Take a look at the links to the lower right for new pictures.  Enjoy!

My Girl

Tell me there's a cuter girl out there...I dare you...

Halloween

Introducing Truck Man and Little Zebra. Flying through the city fighting crime, and doing whatever zebras do. We had a great day and night of collecting candy and hanging with friends. Joshua did a great job trick-or-treating for about five houses, and then was over it. Maybe next year we will make it at least around the block. We had some friends over and handed out candy to the kids and hot chocolate to the adults. It was a great way to interact with the neighborhood, and we had a great time with each other as well. All in all, it was a great night! 

Joshua liked the idea of hot chocolate and candy. The evidence is all over his face...

Truck Man and his loot. We've already told Joshua about the Candy Tax, and how Mommy and Daddy get 25% of the goods. We're teaching him business principles early on ; )

Pumpkins

In preparation for Halloween, we carved some pumpkins. Joshua wasn't quite sure about the guts at first, but warmed up to the idea after Daddy tried it first.

Our trusty sidekick Makayla provided enough smiley encouragement to go around...

The finished products (Andrew's is on the left, and Amanda's is on the right):

Fall Projects

Yesterday, we tackled a fall project that I had been wanting to do with Joshua. I told Joshua to collect some leaves on our morning walk. After his nap, we got the Crayons and did some leaf coloring. Mommy had to help a little bit, but he thought it was pretty cool that you could see the leaves through the paper. Makayla served as our encouraging "Peanut" gallery (har, har).

Pumpkin Patch Part II

Since Andrew didn't get to join us at the Pumpkin Patch the first time, we took a short trip over there again. This time, we actually picked out some pumpkins. Two minis for the kids, and some bigger ones that we are going to carve tonight. Joshua is already attached to the mini pumpkins ("pickies"), and wants to take them everywhere instead of his trucks. 

Pagosa

We got away last weekend, and spent a few days in Pagosa Springs, CO. The weather was beautiful, and it was nice to slow down for a weekend in the midst of a busy month.

Joshua took time out of his busy schedule to play a little Chess.

We visited the Hot Springs - smelly, warm, and beautiful!

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for taking us on vacation with you!

I love watching them play together.