October, amazingly crazy!!

I can't believe how quickly the summer past by, that we are already in our 3rd month of school, and that the holidays are right around the corner!!

This month in particular has been so busy, I don't think I've been home one weekend!! 😆 

First, we took a weekend and spent it with some great friends who me made since we moved. They have a cabin in Chama, NM and it's such a beautiful place.

 This is the view from their deck

 

 Looking over the gorge 

 

 On a hike. Landen noticed in the bottom picture that the rock had a "face" in it. Can you see it??

 

 After getting back Landen helped make rolls from scratch for dinner that night 😊

We had an awesome weekend!!

The next weekend the kids had fall break, we decided we had to take advantage of that, so we headed to Silver City, NM to explore the Gila Cliff Dwellings, the area around there, and to fish Roberts Lake.  Again an amazing time!!

 One of many amazing views of the Gila Wilderness

 These are the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Ancient ancestors of the area built their community inside this mountain cave. 

 

 It was amazing!! We talked about what it might have been like to live like that. We all agreed pretty wild!!

Here we are the day before fishing Roberts Lake.

We didn't catch anything but we had a nice relaxing time.

This past weekend we ended up in Arizona to see my sis and we caught a Seattle Arizona football game. Viv is s big cardinals fan and my mother in law is a Seattle fan, so we had a fun rivalry going!!! 

 She can't believe it!!! Taking it in 😊

 Let the game begin!!

 Even though me and Landen are Bears fans, we just had to cheer for the cardinals!! However after this game he says he's a cardinals fan now 😉

 What an amazing month we've had traveling!!! I really am grateful we are able to do these things. I have to say though, I'm ready for a nice quiet weekend at home 😊

 

I know a girl...

She puts the color inside my world...I call her Vivian.

As a 36 year old woman, mother to 2 children, wife of 14 years,  I thought I had my roll all figured out.  My job is to guide my children, teach and show them how to be grow to be confident, positive, strong, smart human beings.  To lead by example...well today my 9 year old daughter became a roll model for me...

We have been having issues with a rooster, he's become aggressive with the other chickens.  So we decided to move him away from them.  Viv didn't know this, and this morning when she was helping water and feed them, she saw the rooster separated from the others and let him go with them, not knowing to keep him by himself.  When I came out to see how things were going, I saw the rooster with the other chickens and got irritated.  "HOW AM I GOING TO CATCH HIM NOW??!!  we had to GO!!"  I tried and tried and Viv tried to help me, but we couldn't do it.  She saw my frustration and apologized many many times.  I told her it was Ok, but truthfully inside I was bugged.  Finally I threw up my hands and just told her "just let him be, we will just have to see what happens later..." and went inside to get the rest of our things.  When I came back out to load the kids up for summer school Viv yelled out to me "MOM!!!  I GOT HIM IN!!!  THE DUCKS ARE IN THERE TOO THOUGH!!"  I was so surprised, I told her "JUST LEAVE THE DUCKS, THEY WON'T LET THE CHICKEN BOTHER THEM!!"  but again she would not give up, and ended up getting the ducks out and was able to keep the rooster in.

Bless her heart, her perseverience and determination to not give up got her the results we wanted.  I just love that about her, she made me feel motivated to be that way.  I've always been one to say "Oh well, it's too hard"  and I don't want to be that way anymore.  I want to be like Viv.

I love her so much.

Twists and turns...

last night I opened up my blog for the first time in over a year! I can't believe it's been that long!! I realized also how meaningful blogging can be. Reading my blogs was such a treat, some moments I haven't thought about in a looooong time.  And what's happened in that time seems like it's been longer then a year...

I decided to send the kids back to school instead of homeschooling. It was a great year though!! The freedom of it was the best. But Vivian needed more structure, more socialization. And landen too. So here we are...in Bosque Farms!!! Oh yeah...I forgot to mention we moved out of albuquerque!!! It's been about 6 months now, and it's absolutely beautiful, we love it. The kids are doing great in school, we are happy and love the space.  We plan on gardening and getting some chickens next spring!

My sister lorie found love, got married in Vegas, and has the most amazing, sweet, beautiful little baby girl...I'm just over the moon happy for her!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

On a more somber note my sweet granny was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She fought her ass off for the whole year, enduring invasive chemo treatments, a surgery to try to remove as much cancer as possible, and just the mental notion that at some point it's all not going to work anymore. That moment came this past August.  No more treatments...she was put on hospice at that point. She lasted 2 months, and on November 7, 2015, she finished her fight. It's been 2 weeks, and I just miss her so much!!! I had a dream about her last night though, she was happy, looked healthy beautiful and young. For the first time since her passing I feel at total peace with her being gone. I know it won't ever be easy but I feel I can learn to move forward now.

Now on to the holidays!!! It's going to be different, in a good and bad way. It will be the first year in our new beautiful home, but also without granny. It's hard to know how to feel. All I know is I want to be sure to love and cherish each day, live it as best as I possibly can. I want to love myself, and be as healthy as possible especially for granny. She's become my motivation to stay healthy and strong, along with my kids and husband of course!!!

No matter what...life goes on. How you live each day is totally up to you.

Springing into Spring!!

I'm so glad winter is almost behind us...but in true NM form, im sure we will have a few more cold snaps before the heat starts to set in.  We have had a pretty busy couple of months!!  Vivian started a new school, Landen had his birthday, we've been out and about exploring as much as we could on the not so cold days, and have been taking many trips to our home away from home in TorC.  Here's some pictures to document the last few months.  :

This is on one of our rides, we stopped at this area where rock climbing is pretty popular.  There was no one there this day, so Viv and Chris decided to take a rest. :-)

Then it was Landen's turn ;-)

Me and Viv making faces trying to get a friend of ours little girl to smile.  She has been in the hospital for almost 30 days because of severe asthma.  Poor thing, we are still wishing her well!!

A picture I took while out on our ride.  I gotta say instagram sure makes pictures look amazing!!  I look like a professional eh??

Another amazing trip to TorC, this time with Auntie Neen and Auntie Ems in town!!  Lorie's boyfriend JP also came, and they are all sitting around drawing the landscape around them. It was a gorgeous day!!

From sun to snow!!  This is our annual trip to salmon snag in Navajo Lake, NM.  The kids found icicles and were eating them :-)

another instagram picture of the San Jan River, right by our camp for Navajo salmon snagging.

This picture melts my heart...We took a roadtrip to Santa Fe one day and stopped at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery where Chris's grandparents are buried.  This is the kids giving their love to them...

This is Landen's 3rd birthday party pictures!!  He is showing me here how old he is ;-)  He couldn't decide what his favorite thing was this year, so we incorporated Thomas, Cars, and Planes together. :-)

His birthday cake and all of us singing to him

Daddy taking the wrapping off ALL the birthday presents

Another 4wheeling trip.  We went up to a mine that you could walk into.  Pretty spooky, but really neat!

My loves having a snack and exploring by the mine

The view...awesome!!  also my lil man is pretty cute :-)

And my birthday just past...34 years old on March 4th!  My mommy makes us whatever meal we want for our birthday every year, and this is my home cooked meal.  Broccoli casserol (the best EVER!!) green chili stew, and quesadillas.  It was awesome!!  Great food, friends, and time with family...what more could you want??

 

 

November...where did this year go??

I can't believe 2013 is coming to a close already!!!  And i'm a little embarrassed that my last blog was in JUNE!!  gosh time flies!!  I'm torn between posting possibly the longest blog EVER to include all my updates, or if I should break them into 5-6 mini blogs and type for a good hour ;-)  hmmmm.....think i'll take the latter of the two.  So if your reading this, grab yourself some coffee/tea/snack/Whatever and hope you enjoy...it's gonna be a LOOOOONG READ!! ;-)

Where to begin??  I suppose soon after Vivian started school this year.  And let me say she is doing SO AMAZING!!!  She loves going each day, she has made new friends, she loves everything about it!!!  And I can't believe how much she has blossomed.  Sometimes I have to ask myself...where did that painfully shy, intraverted child go that I knew a year ago??  I am over the moon excited and happy about her progress.  I have been trying to help out as much as I can in her class, but public school is so different from her sweet little preschool last year.  I do what I can, i've had lunch with her a few times, and helped with a halloween party, and this week I will be helping the student teacher with the kids.  Also at the beginning of the year, she decided she wanted to try dance class.  Her school sent out a flier about dance classes being offered at the schools around our area, so I signed her up...and guess what??? she LOVES that too!!  Granted she is not quite ready for the end of the year performance in front of lots of people, (she will not be participating), but she still enjoys the classes.

Since She was doing dance, Landen needed something to do! ;-)  Plus I feel he likes to be around kids his age, and with Viv in school, he needed an activity.  So I signed him up for a program called "Lil Kickers"  it's an indoor soccer arena, and they start from kids at 18 months and it continues from there.  He loves it!!

Most of the activities at this age teach them teamwork, eye/hand cordination, and sharing.  They do practice kicking the ball, which is probably his favorite thing.  He does this slide and kick...which is pretty darn impressive ;-)  OH...actually his favorite thing is the parachute.  We have the kids sit on it and we sing songs.  Then they get to go under and then ride on it before it's put away.  wish I had a pic of that!!  I'll have to get one and include it in my next blog ;-)

During the dog days of summer, we took a few trips down to T or C and Elephant butte lake.  Went on 4 wheeling rides, and a boat ride with our family on Chris' side.  They're like brothers and sisters to us, even though Aaron is Chris' cousin.  but the kids know them as auntie and uncle :-)  This was their first time on a boat, and let me tell ya, you would never guess!!  We all had a ball!!

Cousins Addison and Max

Cousin Mason

Lorie and her boyfriend, JP :-D

our boat!!

soakin up the sun and cooling down

It was a great time!  And here's some pictures from our 4 wheeling ride

our lil Motley dog exploring with us :-)

lil rock hounder

In between our trips to T or C, soccer class, and dance classes, we've spent time out and about and at home just having fun with eachother.  Around halloween time, we grabbed a quick bite at Wendy's and in the kids meals they had Shrek items.  This is what we got...

LOL!!  too funny!!

Not too long ago Chris had his deer hunt, and as we were going through his gear we found his camo face paint.  We couldn't resist!!

Hahahaha!!!

We have so much fun, and even though things get hectic, it's so important to remember to always have fun!!

and it truly is.  I love this image that I found online quite awhile ago, I go back to it often.  Never forget it!!

Can't wait to post our thanksgiving!!  Hope you all have a good one too :-)