Happy New Year (almost)!

We have been having so much fun, and eating such yummy food out here in New England. That is for sure one thing I miss about being out here, the delicious Chinese food ( you cannot find it anywhere else, or I have yet to find it this good), the great pastries and Italian food. I gain weight just thinking of the food out here.
We had a couple days of a snow storm and I ended up cooking these , I just love Ree's http://thepioneerwoman.com/, and her recipes are scrumptious!

Thanks to all the snow we definitely had a super white Christmas. The kids had so much fun playing in the snow with Steve!! I took pictures but those ones will have to wait till we get back to New Mexico next year (really in 2 weeks).

Wow, can you believe that 2008 is almost over? I can't, although I am looking forward to a new year, with a lot of new beginnings for our family. This year we will start our adventure in Kansas, Ava will start kindergarten (trying to decide on homeschooling still), and Steve and I have a couple other challenges we are going to try out this year. It's going to be exciting and hard, and I llok forward to discovering more of God's plan for us.
Here are a couple pictures from my sisters camera. I hope everyone has a happy new year, the kids and I will be counting down and drinking sparkling cider, since Steve is in Kansas again. We miss him so much. Love to you all, may this year be one you truly live the life you dream!

before being put in the oven


After, and not lasting more than 5 minutes in the pan.

Walking In A Winter Wonderland.

The kids and I came out to New Hampshire to surprise my parents for Christmas. The plane flight really wasn't too bad. The kids did good for the most part and Gianna didn't scream or cry like she did on the way back from Florida. It was getting on and off the plane that is always more difficult. Luckily on my last leg there were the nicest people around me in line that helped me both getting on the plane and off. It's so refreshing to come across nice people when you are flying with kids. We got off the flight got a sky cap to help us to the rental car and we were off to surprise.
Everyone was very surprised, in fact they left us caroling on the front door step in the freezing cold for about 5 minutes, thinking we were neighborhood kids and hoping we would just go away ( my dad was already in bed, and my mom was falling asleep). It was great to see their faces.
Steve is joining us out here on Friday, and I'm so excited. It's going to be fun to have a big Christmas with my cousins and all the kids playing together like we used to do when I was little. I can't wait. Right now the kids are strapping on their snow pants, boot, jackets, and mittens and heading outside to play in the snow.
I am trying to figure out if I can post pictures out here if not I will post when lots when I get back. I hope everyone is having a week, only 8 days left until Christmas!

Ava is 5!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!
Today was Ava's 5th birthday party and I just can't believe she is 5. She is truly amazing, in so many ways. Her fashion sense these days is unforgettable. She will not wear jeans, no matter what. She prefers 2 piece jogging sets, or dresses with leggings. She cracks me up with the big vocabulary she uses.
She is very assertive (or would you say bossy?). She is truly her mother's daughter. Her artistic side continues to grow, she still constantly makes up songs and has a passion for drawing and painting. I love her more than words can say. I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us.

My Three Silly Animals!

The kids put on their costumes this morning, and so I managed to get a couple good ones of them together, I don't know the last time I got them all looking at me and smiling, so you may just see this again on our Christmas cards this year!!

Missing Our Superman!

About four hours ago our favorite man in the whole world headed out for Kansas. He is stopping in Edmond tonight to stay with family and then heading on tomorrow to Lawrence.
It's amazing how much we miss him, even though it has only been a couple of hours. Bedtime will be especially rough because that's "daddy time". Unlike Steve I have yet to earn my official "Monster Checker" badge, Gianna always seems to go down so much easier for him than she does with me, and of course there will be that empty spot in the bed next to me at night(although a 4 year old blonde will try and fill it for now). In fact right now Gia is going around the house calling for "Dada". Heros and Prison Break won't be as fun to watch without someone else to yell at the TV with, and this will be the first Halloween without daddy. We miss you Steve!

I think this time apart will be hard, but thankfully we have such wonderful friends and family to help out. We also know that God is watching over us while we are apart from one another. The house will be officially on the market, Monday. Right now houses are averaging between six and nine months to sell, but I pray we are a rare case and it doesn't take that long. We are excited to start our adventure in Kansas, and are so thankful we found such a great place and position, until then we will soak up the moments we have with friends and family here. God has truly blessed us, even when the one we love is miles apart we still feel so blessed!

Back From Disney World.

We are back, and boy do I understand why some people say they need a vacation after their vacation. We had lots of fun at Disney but boy do I feel like I could sleep for a week!

The kids were the perfect age, the magic was so real and I will never forget Ava's face the first time she saw Princess Aurora when we had lunch at the castle, and Mateo's excitement when he was chosen to become a Jedi and fight Darth Vader! It was so worth it if only for those moments. Gianna was amazed and in awe of everything, she was constantly dancing with all the music. She loved the rides and was convinced that she was a big girl and required her own seat at all times.

Ava braved anything she was tall enough to go on, including the Tower of Terror. In her words, the drops were fun, but the "thunder people" in it were scary. Her favorite rides were Soarin', Big Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. Mateo loved the two toy story rides best (of course). The new toy story ride at Hollywood Studios is awesome! We had a blast dressing up in costumes and trick or treating at the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and looking at all the cool special effects around the park and the characters in their own costumes!

I did learn a couple things on this trip.

1) I will not fly anywhere with Gia for at least a year (she was atrocious on the plane with her incessant screaming. Not crying, mind you, but screaming like a little banshee).

2) Bringing glow sticks with you from the dollar store is genius and saves you sooo much money when they bring out the light up stuff at night.

3) If you are planning a trip soon look into pin trading, my kids had a ton of fun doing this!!

4) When going to Hollywood Studios make sure the first thing you grab is a Fastpass for the toy story ride, they run out of them fast!!

5) I'm pretty sure that after this trip I will be having no more children, I really thought I wanted four but this trip has taught me otherwise, three really is more than enough for us :)

I promise pictures soon, Steve is leaving us for Kansas Saturday and we have soooo much to do but once things are more settled I will update with pictures.

There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Kansas?

We are moving to Kansas!! We are very excited, it will be sad to leave our family and friends here in Albuquerque, and our amazing church, but it's time to start a new adventure.

We absolutely fell in love with Lawrence and Kansas City while we were there. People are so friendly, it was green, and it felt like a great place to be. We are hoping to have our house on the market by the end of the week. We leave for Disney World in ten days and when we get back Steve will head out, and the kids and I will stay here until the house sells. I just know the end of the year is going to fly by!

Last week I was up in Dallas for a girls weekend, it was lots of fun! I did a couple photo sessions, hung out with a mama friend of mine on her birthday and had a great time, and then on the weekend some of my best girl friends and I had a blast. We went to Fort Worth and saw this great 80's cover band "The Spazmatics", they were hilarious. We all decided to dress 80's style, we laughed a lot and had a great time.

I have lots of pictures to post and will try and get those uploaded today, but I better get back to packing for now.

okay here are some pictures of Lawrence.












one from our night with the spazmatics!