Our Crazy Boys

 Our life with these boys are never dull. Here are some random pictures just to update on their shenanigans.

Eli's obsessed with cars. He has them parked along this container lid.

We watch our friends' baby while they are in school. 

I don't know what was happening, but I thought it was ridiculous enough to snap a picture.

We got to visit a fire station. Joey LOVED it.
Eli wanted to wonder around and that was hard.

This is my circus and these are my monkeys!

Joey started getting into photography. Not bad, eh?

Selfie!

This picture melts my heart!

Eli is soo clumsy. He slips and trips and falls regularly.
His head met this cement park bench
 and the result was a good goose egg.

Doesn't stop him from getting back up and causing mischief wherever he goes. 

Joey at our St. Patrick's Dessert Auction

These brothers. I think they like each other. They follow each other around at least. But Joey is pretty mean to his brother and still pinches, scratches, grabs, pushes, pokes, kicks, and even bites him. Any suggestions on preventing this behavior?

Family Photos 2017

For my birthday I wanted family photos done, specifically by a professional. However after some emergency expenditures, our camera would have to do (that and Sam thought it was stupid to pay someone when we could do it ourselves). My sister was so nice in being behind the camera and I thought they turned out nice. It was a relief since there were problems from bad lighting (it was supposed to be a cloudy day), not doing enough research on the location I originally chose, and a major blowout on the only outfit we brought for Joey. Thanks Kristy!

Quarter of a Century

Short post, but I wanted to thank Sam and my family for making my 25th a special one. We had some car problems that led us to having a tight budget, so my birthday trip to Las Vegas had to be cancelled. But Sam made me this awesome White Chocolate Lasagna. I approved. Then he took me to go see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (we are a little late but it was still good) and we had a yummy dinner at Red Robin. Instead of Las Vegas, we are going to drive up to Santa Fe to see Meow Wolf. I'm sure that will be a post in it of itself! Here's to 25!

Valentines WEEK

If no one knows by now, I'm a sucker for themes. This year I thought of a "music" theme for Valentine's day and surprisingly a lot of ideas came to mind. First, I saw these beautiful piano chocolate molds and I decided to try out a fancy dessert: Chocolate mousse with raspberries in a dark chocolate piano. I was surprised that it worked since I never put these molds together. (Not perfect, but I'm still impressed with myself).

I haven't visited Robertson and Sons' Violin shop in a while and I noticed the bridge of my cello was starting to bend. Then I thought, "Hey, Sam should try out new violas while that gets fixed" so we asked our amazing neighbor to watch our kids while we spent an afternoon at that wondrous place. And we both knew that if Sam tried out violas, there was no going back to his old one. Meet Natalia, Sam's new viola (we were able to trade his old one and pay some for this beauty).

The last thing we did for Valentine's Day was see the NM Phil (again). But guys, this program was too good to pass up! Mahler's 6th Symphony and Schubert's Unfinished. The Mahler required a huge orchestra, so a lot of musicians had to fit on that stage. Funny moment was with the cellists. One messed up big time and it was pretty noticeable. You could see the principal cellist shoot a nasty look. But it's nice to know that even professionals mess up, but it still turns out beautiful.

For the boys I held a Valentine's lunch party with their little lunch buddies. I had everyone bring finger foods and Sam baked me a ton of sugar cookies for decorating. Our place wasn't that big, but it turned out really fun! These are some people I'm really going to miss when we move from Albuquerque.

Hope your Valentine's Day was magical.

NM Phil with U2 Music

Sam is good about planning date nights. He discovered our beloved NM Philharmonic was playing music of U2 and thought it would be fun. I was just past the U2 era, so Sam wanted to immerse me. Turns out Sam was young too when they were big because he didn't recognize all of it either.  Still, the guy who performed was amazing (and hilarious) and it was really cool. Even though we were at a UM Phil concert, we waved our phones around like a real rock concert (ha) and enjoyed a light show to boot.

 Thanks for the fun times, Sammy!

Cabin Time

We have some catching up to do! Expect like a hundred blog posts soon.

Our family had the opportunity to head off last minute to my parents' time share near Pagosa Springs, CO beginning of February. The weather was nice and there was still snow on the ground, so we got to do some sledding. I had to take the chance to go because (if I didn't mention it on the blog yet) we are MOVING TO SAN ANTONIO! I probably won't see this childhood place for a long long time. And the boys loved it.

Watching movies.

Eli probably had a blowout.

Eli just laying there being dragged.

Joey loves the idea of outside and snow, but he wanted to be inside after a little bit every time.

Mush.

Sun in the eyes, but oh, the cabin!

Sam found us a hill to go down with all the kids, but Sam headed towards a metal pole his last round and smacked right into it, ringing around it once or twice and getting huge bruises on his thighs. Too bad I didn't see that!

It was a good last stay at the cabin. Until next time!

From Babe to Toddler

Eli has been one for a month and a half now, so I should probably post about his birthday.

Poor thing having a birthday in the midst of all the Christmas celebration will always be gypped. I tried not to make it so, but man is it so so hard! Luckily he turned one this year so he won't feel that way and it will give me time to figure out how to balance his birthday right before Christmas. I was going to throw him a birthday party in January, complete with a "Where the Wild Things Are" theme, but now it's February and it doesn't look like it's going to happen. At least I got this cute photoshoot in!

This is what we actually did for his birthday: Explora was still open on the Eve of Christmas Eve, so we headed there for a non-Christmas activity for his birthday.

Loving the golf ball contraption.

Loving the actual golf balls even more!

Look who found the trains!

Tucking the train under his chin so he can carry more.

Then we headed to Sam's parents house for dinner, Christmas gift opening, and singing happy birthday to our little one-year old.

Eli sporting the Wild Thing wolf hat my mom made for him.

In heaven with all these goodies to pig out on.

So is Joey.

This was earlier in the month, but my family celebrated December birthdays, which included Eli's.

Yum.

It's amazing what hitting that one year milestone did for Eli. He really did become a toddler and now solely walks. No more crawling for this kid! He is also gaining such a little personality. He hates tortillas, which is a surprise. Who hates tortillas?! Eli also started to refuse his binky for a few weeks. It was rough, but he started to take him again and falls asleep a lot faster now. (Still wakes up one to two times a night the stinker).

Eli wasn't feeling well for a couple weeks, including his birthday, but he is such a trooper. Joey loves him too. He refers to Eli as his puppy, his favorite cousin (other than himself, haha), and likes to feed him. I hope he will start to use words or at least sign some soon. The closest we got was his signing "more" when I egged him to do so. I'm sure when it clicks he will learn fast.

Love you sweet stuff!