Christmas Vacation

So, for the first time in almost 9 years we went home to Albuquerque for Christmas. It is weird to call ABQ home, by now Phoenix feels more like home to us. We were joined in ABQ by Chad's sister, her husband, and our niece and nephew.

The best part about the trip was that Chad's parents got a hotel room for the week (with 3 beds and 2 baths) and they stayed there with all 4 of the grandkids at night. Thats right....Chad, Michelle, Clint, and I had their house all to ourselves after about 8pm every night! We took advantage of it by having fires everynight and either visiting with Mic and Clint, or by watching movies. It was very relaxing.
I had also forgotten how much the cold weather puts me into the Christmas mood. It some how just feels more like Christmas when it is snowing. Unfortunately none of the snow that came down stuck, but it was still beautiful to see. I think I got a picture of some of it on the mountains.

We spent the rest of our time making cookies, decorating the Christmas tree, eating mexican food and Dions (our favorite pizza place), and going to the light show at the Botanical Gardens. This is me, Mic, and Maia!

One of the funnest things we did was meet up with a group of friends that we have known since high school and go bowling. Everyone brought their kids and we had a blast! The next morning we got up and met Matt and Shannon for breakfast at a place down by the University. We really managed to fit alot in. I only got a picture of the guys, but here they are: Mike, Scott, Matt, Mitch, and Chad :)
In the picutre below it is Matt, Shannon, me, and Chad. It was taken by one of the kids at the house Matt and Shannon were staying in.

When we get together with Chad's family, we tend to get a little out of control. One of the funniest things we did this year was to play a joke on Chads mom by messing with her lighted reindeer in the front yard.

WARNING...the picture below may not be suitable for young children

Family Pictures

Finally, the daunting task of getting some family pictures taken is DONE! I decided with the overcast weather, a new hairdo, and a night off of work that today was the day. The boys were good for the most part. Now all that is left to do is print them out and send off the Christmas letter. Here are a few of the pictures we took this afternoon.

Not too bad for the 5 minutes it took for me to get them done. I just set up a tripod in the street and begged my kids for some smiles.

A New Meaning to A Midnight Snack!

I finally went to see Twilight for the second time! I decided that it had been far too long since I have done anything fun with my boys, so after I found out that I was not at all likely to be called into work, I suprised them by taking them to see a movie. They have been asking to see Twilight for a while now. Then we came home and it was straight to bed for them since it was a school night.

So, after dozing off on the couch for a while, Chad and I went to bed to watch TV. This sums up a typical 1st night off for me. Too tired to do anything productive, but afraid to go to sleep at 10pm for fear that I will be wide awake in the middle of the night. Anyway, at about 11:30p Chad realized that he had never eaten dinner, and being on the crazy night schedule that I am on, I decided to eat with him. He called a bar/grill by the house and before you know it we were eating hot wings and fried jalepenos with ranch in bed! It made for a late night and some bad heartburn, but I think we will always remember those types of moments together.

Christmas Baking

While I have not yet made the effort to decorate the house yet, I did finally start my Christmas baking. Tonight was the first night of 3 and so far we have over 100 buckeyes, over 50 snowballs, and a HUGE bowl of munchie mix.

Several more cookies, and brownies are yet to come as well as homemade posole and red chile enchiladas, YUM!

Nothing says Christmas like red chile for those of us that are from New Mexico.

Blog Slacker

Wow, what a slacker I have been. Today is my day to catch up on everything! From grocery shopping, to cleaning, to ironing, to blogging, it will be a busy day.

I have been working like crazy and work has been so good. I am constantly reminded why I decided to do this for a living.

Chad and the kids got back in town on Sunday. They had a great time in ABQ. It has been a hectic week, but my kids are growing up and have been understanding.

I better get started on my hectic day. I will post new pictures soon.

Thanksgiving Week

Things I am Thankful For....

1. My wonderful husband of almost 12 years!

2. My two very handsome young boys who are turning into men before my eyes.

3. My job! I love every minute of it.

4. Our beautiful house/pool.

5. My friends

6. Music

I am sure there are many more, but that is probably good for now. As we approach Thanksgiving this week I have been thinking a lot about all that our family has been blessed with. We are so lucky. I will be alone again this week as Chad will be taking the kids and visiting his parents in ABQ for Thanksgiving, but one thing I will be thankful for is not having to cook a big Thanksgiving dinner and not having to clean it up! As for me I will be working and sleeping and I didn't feel like Chad and the kids should have to suffer too.

Facebook and old friends

Well, thanks to my husband, I now have a facebook account. I don't understand it completely yet, but I do love that it has put me in contact with some old friends. In high school and my first year of college I had a really great friend named Tomi Morris. She is someone I have always been sad that I lost contact with. Every year on her birthday in January I think about her and have wondered for years what she has been up to. Well, thanks to facebook we are now in contact again. Here is a picture of her and her beautiful family.

Alone Again...

So, here I am alone again for the weekend. Chad left Thursday for his annual Mens' Mexico Trip. They are in Rocky Point building houses and having a major testosterone fest:) Chad looks forward to this trip every year.
Today, for Dylan's birthday, I let him skip school and have a day with Mom. The original plan was that I would pick him up at 11am and we would go to Amazing Jakes for lunch, mini golf, and ski ball. However, I was persuaded to let him take off the entire day if he helped me do chores first. It was great. I had free labor all morning without any attitude and then a great afternoon. I love to see the more relaxed side of Dylan.

For those of you who are wondering, where is Collin? Well, he got into a little trouble at school and instead of telling Chad and I what happened, he lied about it. We talked and HE decided that his punishment should be not getting to miss school to have a "fun day" with Mom. (He is really much harder on himself than I would be). It was extremely difficult for me to not let him stay home with us and I was tempted to pick him up on our way to Amazing Jakes, but Chad reminded me that lying is the one thing we cannot tolerate, so I stuck to my guns.

Monday Night Football

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAD!

Well, I don't want to forget my wonderful husband who shares a birthday with Collin. For Chads birthday I contacted several of the couples we are friends with and arranged for everyone to meet a BeniHana's for dinner. Tepanyaki and Sushi are Chads favorite foods!


My mom and I got Chad a new grill to use for hunting, camping, and most importantly TAIL GATING! (more pictures to come on that topic)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAD... WE LOVE YOU!

Happy Birthday Dylan and Collin!!!!

I am truly amazed at how fast the years pass by. When I first had my precious little baby boys all I wanted to do was sit and hold them ALL day long. It used to drive Chad crazy:) Then they started to grow up and everyday since then they grow more independent. They are super smart and they impress me everyday.

This year is the first year that we did NOT have an official birthday party. Instead we gave the boys the money it would have cost us to throw the party (or close to it). We decided they would get $10 for each year of their life, so Collin got $80 and Dylan got $100. Needless to say, they were thrilled with this idea. As their birthdays approached I couldn't help but to feel a little guitly about not celebrating their birthdays, so Chad and I each went out and shopped for a kid. I went shopping for Collin and got him a Beta fish that he has been wanting and the tank, food, etc... Chad went shopping for Dylan and got him a new football, kickball, and a bag full of tennis balls (afterall, he is our sports fanatic). Then, on Saturday the 8th which was Collin and Chad's real birthdays, we let each of the boys invite one friend to take bowling. We had a blast!

Here are a few photos from that day. Unfortunately, Dylan was in a mood and would not let me take any pictures of him. But Collin, Keegan, and Diego were more than happy to pose for the camera:)

Growing up too soon...

So, yesterday morning I was sitting in my recliner reading while waiting for the boys to get ready for school. All of the sudden I realize that I am watching my baby boys, who will be 8 and 10 this month, put on deodorant! For some reason, it made them seem so grown up. They have even started brushing their teeth without me having to ask them repeatedly. It is so fun to watch them grow up, but a little bittersweet. Here is a recent picture I took of them hanging out on the couch (actually getting along).

Halloween

Well, my boys really didn't get into Halloween this year, but my neighbors sure did. Here are a few pictures of their crazy house. It was really pretty cool. The best was the talking gargoyle statue. I don't think you can hear what he is saying on this video because their other sound effects were soooo loud.

Is Anybody Out There??

I am beginning to wonder why I am continuing to update my blog as it would appear that no one is reading it. I haven't received any comments on my blogs in a long time. If anyone out there cares, let me know.

Dizzy Dog

Every now and then mydog gets a little "wound up", and this time I caught it on tape. He is so much fun and I thought he would provide a laugh for everyone. Just in case anyone is wondering...he did keep spinning after the video stopped.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

This is too cute! My sister-in-law, Michelle, sent me a picture of my nephew (Jaden) because he was student of the week at his school. Along with it, they included a little bio that Jaden "wrote" about himself. Okay, so he didn't write it, but they seemed to have typed it out verbatim. It is so cute. If only we could all be 4 again...Mrs. Hendley’s Featured Student
4 Year Old Class MWF
My name is Jaden and I am four years old. I live in Texas
with my sister, my mom and my dad, by the guy. I play with
Reagan, he’s three. I’d have to look on my dinosaur bookmark
to tell you how to spell his mane, but it starts with an
“R”. My mommy works a lot, but my dad works even more.
Every family day he works on the computer. He’s not coming
back until night because he has a big dead line-big, big,
big, huge! Soon, until March 1st, I’ll be five. I have a lot of
favorite food, pizza, macaroni, and pizza rolls-that’s really
good. The pizza sauce is squishy in the middle and I can
handle the spicy. You mom has GOT to learn how to do
them for you! When I grow up I want to be a fireman because
I want to help people from the fire. You already
know what I’ll be for Halloween-Batman! Unless the costumes
are too small then I’ll be Spiderman.

Fall Break

So, this year, I was all geared up for Fall Break with the kids. Chad was going to be gone Elk hunting, so it was to be all me. I made sure that I wasn't scheduled to work, and I bought some fun activities for the boys and I to do together at home. About 1 week before Fall Break was to begin, my mother-in-law (Cheryl) called and asked me if she could come take the boys to Ohio with her for the week.

I don't have any pictures of their fun trip to Ohio, but I do know that a great time was had by all. Cheryl took the boys to stay with her sister on a farm where the boys had tons of room to run and play. Chad's cousin Doug made a trip out to see them as well and took the boys to see his old tree house and then wrestled with them for hours. He is a big guy who can handle my boys and is tall enough to be able to pick them upside down by their feet. On Friday of Fall break, Cheryl took the boys on a 3 hour car ride to the FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME! Any of you who know my Dylan know that this is a trip of a lifetime for him. I am convinced that he will become a sports broadcaster someday:)

While the boys were gone and I was home alone, Chad was Elk hunting with another buddy of his, Chris. Chad did not get the opportunity to kill an Elk this year (thank goodness for me), but Chris did. Chad got to help skin it and says that he had a great time. Here are a couple of picutres from his trip....

You probably can't see it, but in the picture on the right there is a squirrel on the branch in the center of the picture. Good thing that squirrel hunting season is over.

Annual Squirrel Hunt

Every year, Chad and his buddy Matt, go squirrel hunting up on the Mogion Rim. They stay at a camp that they fondly call "CAMP SNOW" because they have been caught in snow storms more than once while camping here (even in October). This year they were not very good about taking pictures for me but they had a great time. The pictures included are not for you animal lovers out there. (Sorry) It seems as though the guys filled the time they were not killing squirrells by building as big of fires as they possibly could. I miss him when he is gone, but I love that he has the time to go out and have some fun.

Thank You!

OK, so a thank you that is long overdue goes to my good friend Brittney. One day when I was performing the daunting task of curling my hair, she showed up for a surprise visit! Not only did she surprise my by stopping by, but she brought me a wonderful gift as well. She got me a basket of bath stuff that is lavender and chamomile scented and a sleep mask that is SUPER soft. It was such an unexpected surprise. I honestly can't remember the last time I got a present from someone for no reason at all. Thanks Britt...YOU'RE THE BEST!

Where are the pictures??

Well, I have tons of things to blog about, but unfortunately Chad and I have been fighting for the camera. He just got back from his annual squirrel hunt Sunday (he goes every year with his best friend Matt), and when he arrived his mom was here. We had a crazy 3 days with his mom that were busy but good, then, on Wednesday morning I dropped her and the boys off at the airport for a trip to Ohio for the kids Fall break. Chad left today to go on his first Elk hunt with another of his buddies, Chris, and I am sure I will have stories and pictures from that trip as well. So, don't give up on me...tons of updates and pictures to come at the end of next week.

In the meantime, when I am not working or sleeping, I plan to have lots of girl time. I am going to watch girly movies with Jami and Brit, Brit and I are going to make dinner together one night, and then we are all going to have afternoon tea on Monday. I will have to coax one of the girls to bring a camera on monday since Chad has ours in the mountains.

Sleep Deprivation

Narcolepsy: a condition characterized by frequent and

and uncontrollable periods of deep sleep

No matter how hard I try, or how long I sleep on my first day off of work, I can't help but to fall asleep even if I don't want to. It is only almost 11:00pm (I'm usually up until 8:00am) and I have already fallen asleep 3 times! It doesn't matter how bad I want to stay awake, if I sit or lay down, I instantly fall asleep. This night shift stuff really messes with a person. This is how I feel...

Tagged Again...

So, I have been tagged again. This time I have been asked to list 3 of each:my joys, my fears, my goals, current obsessions, facts about me. Here goes...

3 Joys

my boys - Chad, Dylan, and Collin

Being a nurse - Ilove taking care of people

my new friendships - you know who you are

3 Fears

Spiders

Public bathrooms - they are soooo gross!

Spiders

3 Goals

Getting out of debt

Travel with my husband

Lose more weight

Current Obsessions

Iced tea - I can't get enough of it

Taking pictures - to fill all of my scrapbooks

Blogging - my husband made me put this

Facts About Me

I went to 3 different schools, in 3 different states, and was in 3 different nursing programs prior to becoming a nurse (I was moving a lot to be with Chad).

I had a hysterectomy when I was only 27.

As much as I love cooking, I HATE to make sugar cookies because I am too much of a perfectionist to frost them.

I tag Tarah, Tiffany, and Nancy W.