Accomplishment

We've been doing a lot of big and little things lately, making accomplishments in our home. I would like to share them!

First, we bought some outdoor furniture on sale and have been LOVING our outdoor dining pretty much every meal. (There are 2 other chairs hiding.)

Today, I finally got some piles raked up in the back yard that have been siting there for forever. Do you love our little jungle of something that is growing back there?? (At least there's green, right?)

Last night, Brian and Orlando went to Santa Fe to pick up some nice leather couches I had scoped out earlier from craigslist. Now we have furniture for downstairs -- and leather at that (for durability and clean-up)! The big one is even a sleeper sofa (hint hint for anyone who wants to come visit!! I hear they're very comfortable... haha). I am one happy woman!

Consequently, we got to bring our other sofas back upstairs and re-set-up our living room after the floor and trim have been finished!

I've been spending time organizing our finally-decided-upon room under the stairs which is now a food & supply storage room (complete with a deep freezer to the right). Built-in shelving and tile flooring will come later.

And moving to the guest bedroom across the hall downstairs, We pulled up the nasty carpet and cleaned up and organized and set up the trundle bed we received from a friend-- now this one should be more comfy for the guests... did I also mention we have a double stacked queen air mattress? Please come visit us! In a year or two we should have the downstairs completed with new flooring and updated bathroom, but until then- why not have company?

Brian fixed our garage door, so the button works now!! He also did some major cleaning in there since we had a bunch of painting projects going on in there recently. Now it's so refreshing to go in a clean and organized garage! (Not to mention, we can fit the car in again.)

Eat and Swim

Just some fun summer pics!

Avery absolutely loves playing in the water! She even goes to the big pool of 3 ft. with her float suit and treads through water and jumps in.

Brian's Birthday

On August 16, Brian turned 28. I asked him if I could do a healthier dessert since I'm on a "sweets fast" and surprisingly, he said yes. We ended up making a banana pie using vanilla pudding. I thought that sounded pretty healthy, but after discovering how delicious it was, it must have been too good to be true... oh well! We shared it with friends at the park.

That's Orlando holding Aspen. He's a great co-worker and friend of ours. We like having him chill at our house.

I bought him a powdered sugar shaker and a paper shredder. Two odd things, which made for a good surprise, but he was very glad for these things he's been wanting for a while.

Playing Nerf gun wars. I guess it's the new paintball!

my town

(courtesy of google pics)

We have been in Los Alamos for a year now and I love our town. I'm happy this is where we get to put our roots down; I'm glad to have our very own town. I feel ownership and loyalty in this our town. Have I told you I love this town? :) Let me tell you...

• Living in these here mountains makes me feel so alive! and special. It's just something about living atop of the world.
• Near perfect 4 seasons
• The Monsoon season in the hottest part of summer to keep it cool, thus no houses here are built with AC (and that's in NM!)
• Have I told you I love a good thunder storm?
• Decent snow in winter but not too much (we even have our own ski lift)
• Mountain biking and hiking trails in every direction
• Bear, Elk, Cotton-tails
• Birds singing in my backyard, squirrels scampering around
• Small town feel, but not too small
• Friendly people & educated people
• Old people riding road bikes decked out in gear, staying in incredible shape
• Everyone rides bikes, walks dogs, and runs, all the time
• Smiths (it may be our only grocery, but I happen to love it)
• Plenty of community events and ways to get involved
• Great area for families and good schools!

THIS TOWN IS THE BOMB!!! (haha, the bomb... ;)

Majorly cute

It was a nice day to take pictures. Here's my little ones!

I don't know if this is a choke hold or a hug, but Avery seems to believe it's a hug. She really loves her baby sister.

A dandelion :)

Super Awesome Mom

Oh yes, I am so awesome and I'm going to brag just because it feels so good. :) I've been trying new things in the kitchen and am pretty excited about them!

First of all, I want you to know I am KING of the Chicken-Cordon-Bleu. It's not something new I've done, but we had it recently and it's so so so so amazing. wow.

My most coolest newest thing I've tried is... drum roll please... homemade yogurt! Pretty awesome, right? Brian has been on a yogurt kick and I thought I'd try my hand at it. It's really very easy. I went through a few recipes online and combined them in my head to make a vanilla yogurt in the crock pot. I was so impressed with how it turned out on my first go. We mixed that with some homemade granola that I made a while ago and BAM-SHA-WHAM... who is super awesome?!?

Oh yeah, I also tried some old fashioned molasses bread. Take a look below. Looks amazing, I know... except for the fact there is a huge air bubble inside (because I forgot to kneed it again when I shaped it) and the bottom was under-done. haha. It still looked so perfect that I at least give myself points for that. :)
This is me at the grocery store being super awesome mom (thank you Avery for the picture). I spend much of my time at Smiths with the kiddos and I give myself a pat on the back after each run (or more like "slow-meandering-walk-with-two-patient-children"... you gotta give the kids credit for that... so here's to 2 super awesome children!).

Let the good times roll

We went with the youth on a day trip to Abiquiu Lake (1.5 hrs away) to canoe and swim. The water sure felt cold at first, but you quickly got used to it (and that's ME saying that). Avery was sure happy and could have stayed forever. She voluntarily sat off the edge of the canoe to stick her feet in the water... that kid! She's not afraid of the water. We had a great time together. later that night, Brian and I went country dancing about 2 minutes from our house at the Sheriff's Posse Lodge. Yay for going on dates and DANCING! Did I tell you I really love Los Alamos?

scrunchy faces :)

A darling girl

She wanted me to give her space to do it by herself. What a kid!

Aspen 7 months

Growing and growing. Mostly we see it in her maturity, not as much in size and hair quantity, but those do grow too and she's not a runt by any means. We love this baby! Aspen is sitting up with occasional tipping, and sleeping for most of the night (except last night... teething...). She is so so dear and too much fun to get giggling (usually it's when she's supposed to be going to bed)! I love, love, love, absolutely LOVE her!

Funny how all they want to do is eat it.

Love those eyes. People love them 'cause they're pretty blue (and yes I'm partial to that) but I just love how curious, sweet, and invested those eyes are.

Avery and I having fun with the camera... (her daddy did her bangs this time. It's a good thing kids are just cute no matter what, right?)

Dating & miss mommy

I'm happy to tell you Brian and I are dating again. haha, yes, yes, it's easy to forgot how that's done... or rather, make it a priority in the budget when factoring a babysitter these days. However, we finally made it happen- and thank goodness! It was a blast!

We went swing dancing in town (actually at a house) hosted by the swing club here and they taught a lesson for free and everything. Some of our friends came too. We helped do some teaching while rotating partners. It was small, but fun to be a part of. It's fun to dance with Brian and I was impressed how well he did even though we're both quite rusty. Thanks for the good time, babe! ;-)

The following day we went to the temple where volunteers from church did babysitting. Another sweet date. It really meant a lot to me for them to make the trip down and volunteer to watch our kids. It's hard to get to the temple as often as we'd like and actually attend simultaneously. Huge blessing.

Oh yeah- and here's cute Avery for you coming home from the temple:

A: "Fun at da temple." [I had fun at the temple]

"Great!"

A: "Sad too."

"Why is that, Avery?" [expecting to hear how we had to pry her away from Aladdin.]

A: "miss mommy."

Have I told you how much I love my kids?

$20 Tomato

I'm proud to say it was delicious! This is the first tomato picked from our very own garden. I took very great care not to pick it too early; it's a pricey one. Considering the amount of money we've invested in our garden, and the only thing that grew were the tomatoes, they are very precious. Someday I/we hope to get better at this stuff! I'm proud of our very first garden nonetheless.