Aunt Rach Comes to Visit

Eric's sister, Rachel, came to visit in October and joined our annual caramel apple making extravaganza. As you can see, the girls get PLENTY of decorations in their tummies, especially Cali!

This is she and her husband, Darren and up on the Sandia Mtn at sunset

The girls LOVED Rachel being here because she baked cupcakes with them, played house, made sand pizzas...you know, all that fun stuff

Here is their fish faces

Oh Yea, the real reason for their visit was to get Darren's wisdom teeth out, so here he is, chipmunk cheeks but doing OK !!

New Pics

Nadia's first day of school

Cali and Gig in the bath

Our family at a old fashioned soda fountain dive

I took this pic from a hot air balloon...that is a cow bein blown up and THOUSANDS of people

There were 200+ balloons in the air at the same time.

It was beautiful and amazing and peaceful! I won this trip on a balloon! IT was really special and amazing

I'm Back...For now :)

Okay...I am TERRIBLE! Where did my evening free time go? Well, since moving here I basically picked up a 20-30 hour a week job I do for free for my husband :0 That is where my time has gone, hence my absense on the blog scene.

So, I will write a few random thoughts, and if I have time post some pics. Then the real fun will be catching up w/ others' blogs.

A MOPS childcare volunteer confirmed my suspicions today that Gigi is a sanguine! This makes me VERY happy. She has developed this sparkly, smiley personality. The way she responds to her name is she shoots you these major beaming eyes and will flash a huge smile. When I picked her up the other day at the gym childcare with her other two big sisters, she had made the most friends; she was in the big middle of everyone with all the action. She is verbal and vocal. Poor daddy...another one.

Calista is steadily growing even girlier each day. Common phrases are "I like your earrings." I like your shoes." "I like your necklace". She gets her daily getup on which includes TWO princess dresses layered right on top of eachother, plus a pink underskirt, a crown, furry slippers, necklaces, rings, bags etc. Her "C's are "T", so its precious when she says "I want a Tookie" We call her Tookie. Still sucking her thumb; still pooping in her diaper.

Nadia has some drama in friendships going on. I am shamed to admit I am already jockying for positioning in making friends with moms whose daughters I percieve will make nice playmates with her. Has this already started for real? I mean, agh!!! I can't believe she will be GONE next year. Her school will be from 8:45 till 4 or something like that. The riot of yesterday was we actually made Carebear a costume. Carebear IS A PERSON, no questions asked. So, of course she will be a ghost and she will have her own treat bucket. Nadia reserves her a space in bed. She is considered in almost every decision.

OK, enough. Here are some pics. Never mind. I haven't downloaded any new ones to this computer since last post!!! Terrible

Life in ABQ...Still feels like we are on Vaca!

Eric's parents came to town so we took them on a mini hike with the girls on a mtn behind our house

Once up on the hill we took this sunset pic

There we all are...it was about a 10 minute hike up

We love the skies...this view shows our house...it is one of those below...

This Saturday Eric took a balloon ride with the exiting Dr. we bought the practice from! There they are!

OK, this is INCREDIBLE! My first FULL Rainbow to see...it was the full bow and we could see both places where it began and ended and it is right outside our back yard. It was beautiful. One of the most beautiful creations of God I have ever seen. It lasted about 10 minutes before it was gone. This pic of course does not do it justice.

Somethings Never Change...Cali's PERMANENT outfit is a princess...as always!

Eric put the fam to work for our marketing effort. Cookie boxes to all dentists in ABQ!

Cali is potty training...sort of...like when its convenient for me (ok we tried one day and she did good, but the next day we were out and about, so I didn't even try).

It is Monsoon season here, so that means 1 or 2 hours of POURING rain once a month

Nadia crawling w/ Gianna

Another princess outfit

Gianna is SUCH a happy, easy baby!

Cali's first year of swim lessons. She got in about half the time!

Comic Strip Nailed It!

NOTICE THE FAUCETS ON HER CHEST....

Umm WOW!

Ok, so Nadia found her little Mermaid book of stickers she got for her birthday that I had hid in her closet. Unfortunately she did this during "nap time" which has turned into her "play alone" time. I guess its totally worth it to have an hour and a half of silence in the middle of the day, so really I don't care WHAT she does in her room as long as she plays quietly. I will say this did hurt her taking 100+ stickers off, so I doubt we will have this fiasco again.