Splash Pad

We've been trying to find lots of ways to keep cooled off during the hot summer days here. The kids' personal favorite is the neighborhood pool, which is great and all, but it gets a little tricky with 3 kids there! So MYpersonal favorite is the splash pad, where I can just sit and visit with friends and not worry about a drowning child:)

Maia and her new friend Mariah...They play so well together! I was so happy to have Maia find a good little friend. The only problem is...Mariah starts kindergarten in a couple weeks so I guess we will be on the search once again for the perfect friend!

Elsie

Does something look wrong with this picture? Elsie surely doesn't seem to think so as this is how she puts her shoes on 9 times out of 10. I think it is so cute, but don't know how she stands to have them on the wrong feet for so long...especially with these flip-flops where her foot is hanging off the edge. She is such a silly girl.Some funny things she has said lately:
Elsie: "Mom guess what?"
Me: "What?"
Elsie: "No nap mom. No nap."

She loves to ask WHY. Everything is "Why huh?"
She also always says NEED. She has told me, "I need to eat!", "I need to go running!"
I listened in on her one day talking to her dolls and here's how the conversation went:
Elsie (in a stern voice) "Look at me! Look at me!"
(now in a sweeter voice) "You make her sad. She's crying. We don't hit."
(back to stern voice) "You go to time-out!"
Can you tell we've had that conversation a few times??
Anyway, she is such a funny little thing and we love her so much! She keeps us laughing that's for sure.

July 4th Weekend

We had a fun 4th of July weekend...on Saturday, we decided that we needed to get out of town and head up to the mountains. So we went to Taos, a little tourist-y town about 2.5 hours away from here. It is a quaint little town and we had a really good time. We drove up to Eagle Nest (right near a ski resort) so we could take a little hike around the lake there. But when we got there, this is what we saw:
Yes, SNOW on July 2nd in New Mexico. Maia keeps saying, "remember how it was snowing on the first of July" and laughing about it. So the hike didn't happen, seeing how we were all in t-shirts and shorts, but it was a pretty drive nonetheless!
We came back into Taos and went to this little shopping/play area. They had little shops and restaurants and then an area for kids to play in. The girls loved it. There were this cheesy little 25 cent rides there that Elsie kept begging to go on. I finally paid the quarter so she could have her excitement for the day. It turned out to be the LAMEST ride ever and barely even moved back and forth. She thought it was the greatest thing on earth:
Maia thought so too:
Then we went to the Rio Grande Gorge. I'm getting wimpy in my older years and I was actually kind of scared walking on the bridge and looking over the edge! It is sooo high! And I was even more paranoid watching the girls walk out there! This was the only picture that (kind of) turned out:Then on July 4th, we had intentions of running in our ward's Annual 5k Family Fun run, but didn't quite make the 7am start time:) So we just headed to Rio Rancho for the parade instead.
Here they are waiting for the show to begin:
The girls were soooo excited about getting candyDo they look like sisters here??
This was the most interesting float. It was a place called Enchanted Music. I told David I was signing the girls up:)
And pictures like this (below) just make me smile:)
After the parade, we set out for a whole day of shopping for living room furniture. It was exhausting but we finally found one we liked (back at the first place we had looked, go figure). It is being delivered on Wednesday and I am soooo excited to finally have it!
Then we went over to some friends house for a yummy BBQ and ended the night back at our place with fireworks with the Cardon's. It was a busy but fun, fun day! P.S. Do you love Elsie's outfit in the last picture? She loves putting socks on and loves those Crocs too (and always puts them on the wrong feet!). Makes for a serious fashion statement.

Smiles

Mason is getting so cute and chubby and is full of smiles lately. He seriously is the sweetest baby. I always say that he loves his Momma because he is so good to me. So good in fact, that the past three nights in a row he has slept 8-10 hours straight. Heaven! Here are some cute pictures of our little man...

Crash

So my computer bit the dust last week. I should have seen it coming because it had been acting kind of funny for quite a while now. I thought it had a virus, but when I took it in to the computer store and described its behavior, they said it was most likely a hard drive problem. I was so sick about losing everything. I kept asking the guy if there was any way to rescue all of my stuff. He said it really just depended on what the problem, etc. and he wouldn't be able to tell until he looked at it. I asked another question about it and he again repeated what he had just said. I'm sure I was totally annoying him. Well after worrying all night, he called me the next day with good news!! It was the hard drive but they were able rescue it in time to recover my things. I was so relieved. It is still in the shop, but hopefully this next week I will be able to post some pictures.

ANYWAY, as for our life here in Albuquerque, we are starting to get more settled in and our house is starting to feel more like home. That first week here was really tough though, I'm not going to lie. I was depressed, emotional and on edge and the kids weren't much better. The girls were constantly fighting with each other and being sassy and back-talking, etc. and Maia cried often because she wanted a friend to play with. I think I forget too easily that they have been through a lot of life changing events as well and it really does affect them, they just exhibit it in different ways. But by the end of the week I had had it. I called my mom Friday morning in tears telling her I just couldn't do it anymore (as if I really had another choice right?) And then, like He always does, Heavenly Father came to my rescue and answered my prayers...a sweet girl in our ward called and said she was taking her kids to the zoo that day and had the thought that morning she should call me and see if I wanted to come along. After I got off the phone with her I started crying all over again, this time because I was so thankful Heavenly Father had heard our prayer and had answered it through this girl. I'm so thankful that she listened to the spirit that day! It was so nice to get out and actually talk to another adult while my kids had a ball playing with other kids. From then on, things have really started to look up. This past week just flew by because we were doing something every day. I had a little tea party here on Thursday for Maia and invited girls from her primary class as well as girls who are going to be in her preschool class this next year. She had so much fun and made some little friends so she is sooo excited about that and so am I!! Kids just need to have that creative play time that they can only get by playing with other kids.

So yes, things are getting better and we are starting to get into a routine and forge some friendships which is good. David is feeling more comfortable at his job and we are enjoying actually making money instead of going into debt more!! But with that said, I still find myself missing Buffalo. I love how green it is there. And how there is so much water all around. I feel like I'm craving water here in the desert!! Summers are seriously the best in Buffalo. I miss our friends, our ward and our life there, although I know it wouldn't be the same if we were to go back... I know it will just take some adjusting here, but there are so many things I miss about Buffalo. I'm sure come January or February I will absolutely LOVE it here though!!

So that's the brief update right now I guess...not too exciting without pictures...but later this week I promise some cute ones of the kids. Little Mason is getting so big and chubby and smiling a ton so I have to show those pictures off for sure!