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!

Christmas 2016: Part 2

Here is part 2 of our Christmas festivities! After some sickness and burnout, we ended up not doing everything I originally planned. Not that we tried!

Joey got the idea of Santa this year! He asked for marbles
(much to my dismay having a baby who puts everything in his mouth).
For fun, here are his previous Santa pictures.

Eli didn't scream like Joey did his age, but he wasn't into sitting
when there is mayhem to cause.

Christmas eve we debated whether we alls should go to Jessica's house
since Eli has been throwing up every day for a week,
but none of us wanted to miss the festivities.
 Here is Joey having the time of his life with his cousins.

Yummy cinnamon rolls ;)

Enjoying our brunch before Celestine's present rings the doorbell!

Jared and Jenny drove all the way from Palo Alto for Christmas! 

Their little puppy Chloe!

Joey was obsessed with her.

Reunited never felt so good!

Christmas to remember.

All the grandkids. Can you tell Sam photoshopped this picture?

Favorite thing gift exchange. Sam got Jacob a brain mold since
Sam is into medicine and Jacob is into AI. Also, Jello is delicious.

No caption needed.

Christmas jammies. A tradition I loved as a kid.

Christmas this year was...Oi. We had church at 9,
plus we were singing in the choir, plus two crazy kiddos,
so we did Christmas morning after church.

Eli's coupe.

Joey's tricycle.

Music instruments. "Joey, what's your favorite instrument?" "CYMBALS!"

Santa delivered.

We went to my parents house later in the day.
I got my mom a canvas print of my grandparents sledding.

Next day Sam and Joey went sledding themselves while Jared and Jenny were still in town. Sam only got stuck in the snow a few times with our little Honda Accord. Good thing Jared had a winch to save him. Joey liked sledding for a little bit, then watched TV in Jessica's car with some of her kids after a little bit.

Other activities that had no pictures: 

-White Elephant exchange at the Prestwich home

-Temple date on the Hobbs side of the family

-Game night, where we hired our first paid babysitter 

-Our attempt to go to River of Lights (we left too late and there was no parking!)

-Another Christmas concert we played for the Albuquerque East Stake

-Last but not least, our friends had their baby! Baby D is adorable and we had the pleasure to take care of their daughter for a few hours the day of while they were in the hospital. We do have a picture of him:

Whew! We are simplifying next year, I'm making that promise to myself! 

Christmas 2016: Part One

Happy Post Holidays! Taking advantage of my boys napping at the same time, I'm going to blog about our Christmas plans. I thought, Sam has the entire month of December off, we should try to do everything! Turns out there's too much of a good thing, and next year I'm going to simplify it as much as possible. But, I'm going to blog what we did end up doing!

11/28/16: The Nutcracker! We thought Joey might enjoy it, and he did very well for the first half.
Then we realized he is a three year old. At a ballet.

12/1-12/2/16: A Child is Born concert. We do this every year, but this was our last year.
It was better than I expected: I thought it was going to be a pretty long program but it hit about an hour. 

Jacob and Shauna were super kind to drop off a cookie making kit!
We decided to make the cookies for our neighbors and go caroling with the Boyacks. 

Festival of Trees: this was our first year going and it was really cute: live bands, free hot cocoa, a chance to see Santa, and lots of trees up for auction. There were a lot of cool looking trees, but these are the ones that made it onto our phones.
Note: Joey's first year of liking Santa!

Our bigger tree arrived and we immediately replaced our previous 4 footer.

Maybe not Christmas related, but Sam decided to take the kids to McDonald's for ice cream while I was off somewhere.

As offhandedly as I could manage I told Sam he should build me a farm house table during his long break. He broke out the laptop, found plans, tweaked them to create extension leaves, and whipped it out in what I thought was record time. Thanks to our parents in letting us borrow space and tools!

Complete with ghost chairs and a planter centerpiece.

Christmas card and letter!I wanted to go with a New Mexican theme since this is
our last year as New Mexicans (for a while at least). 

Hopefully I can whip out the rest of our holiday soon!