There's No Place Like Home

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Fall Happenings

This is how she protects her goods, she carries them around and when she gets tired she sits down on the stairs.

Again, her favorite spot playing with some stacking/nesting boxes

I'm going to miss these stairs. A little quiet reading time.

She's a fire-baby

In the zone, engineering yet another train track.

The little man

Showing off his wheels

Loading up the trunk of his tricycle

Feeling frisky in the cooler weather. That ball got thrown at me by Sadie to inform me of her need for a game of fetch.

A Saturday at the zoo. Stopped to feed the ducks.

Clare in her happy place...shoulder ride from Daddy

The zoo train

Having a snack during the ride with our friend, Isaac, who happened to be at the zoo too.

Monday, December 5, 2011

We got an early snow for the city this year. Usually we don't see much until January and sometimes February. But we had a cold front come through and so we made the most of it. It was perfect packing snow and since we've seen Frosty the Snowman a couple times this holiday season, our little guy wanted so badly to make his own. He finally got to see the carrot nose in action and was quite pleased with his blueberry eyes. Derrick is proud of his work but was a little sore from bending over rolling the giant snowballs for an hour.

The munchkin enjoying the fresh, crisp air

Daddy working hard with Hayden studying his approach

Lazy helper....her version of sun bathing...snow bathing

The grass was green after Daddy rolled almost all of it up in the snowman

My contribution, the produce for the face

My little cream puff was getting a little chilly so we were snuggling

The proud boy

Daddy with his helpers and Hayden's very first snowman

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Trimming the Tree

Our littlest elves were at work with us the day after Thanksgiving trimming our 9 1/2 foot Christmas tree. Hayden loves Christmas trees and was convinced Santa was coming that night. He was a little disappointed the next morning when it didn't have any presents under it. However, he takes great joy in turning on the lights at night. We had a fun time decorating it, and for Clare, taking the decorations down occasionally. We all participated this year and I hope that it becomes a tradition to do this as a family for many years!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

We Give Thanks

We have so much to be thankful for this year. I could begin to list everything, but this could get to be a long post. We are thankful to have such good friends here in New Mexico and having gotten to share Thanksgiving with them at their home. We have missed a few Thanksgivings in Kansas but that is about to change. We are so thankful for the life and experiences God has given us and all that he has taught us in this past year. It was an abundant feast in His lessons. Here are pictures of our Thanksgiving and our literal, feast at Thanksgiving 2011.

During the day, relaxing with a little play

My little helper under foot in the kitchen

Enjoying the turkey

Enjoying the turkey, Part II

The family complete with Sadie

Home Sweet Home... for Sale...Sold!

Well here we are almost a year and a half after having bought our first home and putting a lot of literal blood, sweat, and tears (yes, let's not forget we bought and started gutting this when I was 6 months pregnant and moved in a couple days past my due date, I was crying). Our house is as complete as we are going to be able to make it in our updates and we completed almost everything we had in mind when we started, with exception of a few things that will be passed on to those after us. We have been wanting to move closer to family for a while now and the opportunity finally presented itself, just at an awkward time. So, in faith, we stepped out and put our newly remodeled house on the market in the fall (worst time of year) and in an awful real estate market. God is good! It sold in just short of 6 weeks on the market without us losing our shirts on it. After so much work on the house, we're very emotionally attached that it feels like its being adopted. It makes me happy to know that another young family will be moving in it and hopefully making many wonderful memories in it as we have done. However, since not everyone will have the opportunity to see it before we move, I wanted to share some of the photos of it that were taken for the marketing of it. Enjoy the tour!