Iowa here we went.

I want to thank all of you for your suggestions as for what to do in the car ride there. When the kids were babies we used to travel at night because they would sleep the entire time and we would arrive without cranky kids. Then what would happen is we were super sleepy and we had kids in a strange place bouncing off the walls while we were sleeping. We decided that the kids would have to ride during the day and we would have to provide activities for them to do. we brought cards and coloring books and our van has a DVD player so the kids did extremely well on the car ride there and here are our pictures of the car ride there. It was a 2 day drive and the second day it rained for 8 of the 10 hour drive.


After the rain stopped the skies were so beautiful I had to take a picture.

Here is Aurora in the back seat. Yes she is wearing a seat belt I know it looks like she isn't but she is. She is holding her nose because she doesn't like the smell of the cows.

Leif driving through Iowa

Leif's picture that he colored of Dora and boots. He was so proud of it!

Leif coloring more pictures. The coloring books were a great idea!

Iowa here we come!

There are only 9 more days till we leave and head off to Iowa. Leif and I have been together for what feels like forever! Ok but really it has been more than 10 years and well I have never met his extended family. This is just sad in my opinion. In 9 days I am about to meet my inlaws and well I am not even close to being ready.

We will be driving there and the kids have the DVD player but I need more ideas other than just DVD's to keep the kids occupied for the drive. Something small that is not going to take up too much room in my car. Got any ideas I could use all the help I can get.

Slip and Slide!

One of my favorite memories as a child was using the slip and slide on hot summer days. Leif and I found a slip and slide with three slides in one. Of course only the middle really fills up with water so that you can slide all the way down.

As we all know my husband is one giant kid and so he joined in on the fun and this is the only picture that I could find. I swear I had more pictures of the kids on the slide and sadly I cannot find them on my computer so I will post the only one I can find and just say that it was a fun day.

I Scream!

I don't know how many of you know how the Sign Language Interpreting world in New Mexico works but I am going to tell you. Here in New Mexico we all pursue our own contracts and own our own business. Many of us contract with some of the same agencies. Some of the agencies send out an email and say who is available to work so many of us have PDA's so that we can get our email quickly and respond back.

I have a very sick phone that has literally made me scream on a daily basis because it doesn't want to work correctly. Many times it will disconnect from my email server and I wont receive my email. Just recently it has started turning off all together.

I received an notice from alltel telling me that I eligible for an early upgrade!!! We called and wanted to make sure it was legitimate. The 1-800 number said if you have a paper go into the store and show it to them and they can help. So that is just what we did. We arrived at the store and they told us we had to call the 1-800 number!!!!! Can I start screaming now?

Through it all Leif was such a champ he didn't SCREAM which is very big for my son. He listened and was a very good boy. Right next door to alltel was a baskin robin after the waste of time at the store I decided we should take Leif for Ice Cream. Aurora was at school so this is why she was not with us. He was so cute!!!

This was his first time at baskin robin, I picked him up to show him all the cases. He looked down at the first case and said, "CHOCOLATE!!!" I told him wait till you see them all and he said OK we got to the second case and he said "CHOCOLATE!!!" I said wait we have one more case and he said OK and we got to the third case and he said,"CHOCOLATE!!!" The clerk got the idea real quick and got him a taster spoon of chocolate and he loved it here are some pictures to show you!

yummy! Ice Cream

he did not want to wipe his face

perfectly happy

Easter

Easter

Aurora and Leif sat and ate some Easter cake after mass. We changed Leif out of his suit because the mess could have been out of control.

This was our Easter bunny cake, Oh and by the way I baked and decorated this cake all by myself! We did color eggs but I forgot to take pictures of them coloring eggs.

Aurora and Leif after mass searching for Easter eggs in the front yard. It was so windy outside that we couldn't stay outside very long. But they still had fun

Aurora and Leif in their Easter clothes! They are so cute! Or I am just bias because they are mine.

New School

Sunset View Elementary

Aurora started her first year at kindergarten this year and it has been an interesting one. We live in an area that in previous years has been nothing but dirt but in more recent years has grown immensely. As a result the schools have been over crowded. A.PS. (Albuquerque Public Schools) decided to add portables to Ventana Ranch Elementary and made two more schools. One is Sunset View Elementary and one is Tierra Antigua. Aurora has always gone to Sunset View Elementary but it was always with the understanding that eventually they would move to a new campus. We thought it would have been better to move at the end year A.P.S. however thought it would be better to cancel school for two days 1 month before the end of school so that the fifth grade students could move into building before they graduated to middle school.

So here is the first day of school at the new school. The kids played with the parachute in the new gym.

Aurora is behind the girl in green. The girl in green is our next door neighbor Vanessa and aurora's best friend.

Here are Aurora's two teachers and aurora is in the pink. I know its kinda of hard to see.

That is Aurora across the way squatting down.

Aurora again in the pink across the way.

And here is the new library and aurora is right in front with the wiggles.

Here in the library again. Daddy is across the way in the picture in a green shirt.

Aurora and Vanessa at the police helicopter.

Aurora again not paying attention...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree I guess.

17 inches

Beautiful Lengths

I have not cut my hair in any major way since I got married in 2005. I had a trim here and a small cut there but nothing major. After about a year of thinking about cutting it and then 6 months of procrastination I finally cut my hair.

I decided that if I was going to cut my hair I would donate it. I however have always like to be the person that doesn't go with the crowd and so I DID NOT donate my hair to locks for love. I should go on to say that I think lock for love is a wonderful organization that does wonderful things for children. I believe that although there are many children who need wigs there are also many many adults who have cancer and cannot afford wigs. This is were beautiful lengths comes in. They are an organization similar to Locks of love they take donated hair and make wigs for adults who cannot afford it.

Above is a picture of the two pony tails they totalled 17 inches long. So really 17 inches is the part I donated. I would say I probably cut off about 20 inches all together.

I also decided to highlight my hair as well but I think that the highlights are hard to see.

The stylist took the picture above and so we also get to see a part of her thumb. Oh well!

Here I am at the salon as you can see from the smock I went to J.C. Penny. I can say that I will never go there again for a hair cut. The woman was clearly not interested in what I wanted I asked her to cut my hair so that it sat at my armpits and she just kept cutting and cutting, and of course I had my head down or to the side or was turned away from the mirror so I could not see what she was doing the whole time and did not know how much she had cut until it was done. But it looks OK I think.

St Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day

As many of you know St Patrick's Day is huge for our family, this year we decided to go out.



We hired a babysitter for the evening and we all went downtown to go bar hopping. From left to right: Marti, Leif, Holly (Erica's girlfriend), Erica, Elida (Erica's Mom)

Yes this is one of the first pictures after I cut my hair but it is not a great picture. Hopefully I can post another blog about my haircut.

When we got downtown the lines were outrageous and we could only get into Ned's bar. I have to say that was one of the worst bars I have ever gone to. There were two bartenders for about 150 people.

Erica and Leif spray painted their hair green and of course added the "Famous F" Many people really liked the green "hair" because several people asked if they could take a picture of Leif's head.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Not because of the presents I normally dont get very many but I love to shop for people and find the perfect gifts. I love giving them to people and watching their faces light up with excitement. This year sadly I did not take any pictures of Christmas day because we got the whole thing on video. I did take pictures of the kids decorating. Aurora was so excited because this year she was able to go on the roof with daddy to put up the Christmas lights.


So here is a picture of my unafriad 5 year old on the roof!


Baby Leif loved the Garland and trying to get him to keep it on the tree was a task! He kept wanting to decorate himself instead.


Here is a picture of me trying to decorate the tree and the kids were helping too.

Leif with the Garland again! ext year I will buy himhis own garland so he can decorate himself if he really wants to.

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was different this year. Normally most of my family goes out of town and I cook here at home. This year my Uncle Tommy's Family stayed here and we went over to his house and had dinner there. It was a lot of fun. After dinner we attempted to play Pictionary and cranium but it was too hard to get everyone organized we still had fun.



Sadly my husband was not feeling well and spent most of the time on the couch with a stomach ache or in the bathroom. Poor guy!

My handsome son Leif
My uncle Tommy and Aunt Lisa. I am on the end and Erica has her back to us
My cousin Kyle and his friend. I cannot remember his friends name I think its Joel :(
Here are Jaycelyn and her friend Tessa. They are so much fun they remind me of what it was like when I was in High School.

Aurora and Baby Leif sitting and eating at the "kids table"
Here is a picture of my aunt Lisa and I setting the table and my friend Erica is sitting down. I loved Erica's shirt it was pink and brown stripes.

Here is the "kids table" my cousin Jayce and her friend Tessa and Aurora and baby Leif all sat at this table. Really Leif kept wandering over to see what mommy was eating tough.