McCall's Pumpkin Patch

Friday we went to McCall's Pumpkin Patch in Moriarty, NM with some people from our ward. The weather was great and we had a good time. I had the two girls by myself so it was a handful trying to carry pumpkins, but it was worth it.


We took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where we each got to pick a pumpkin. I made the girls pick small ones because there was no way I'd be able to carry 3 big pumpkins, Aly, and keep Kayla from running off!




They had lots of animals that you could get close to. Kayla loved them, but Aly was too afraid to go close.

This is called the Goat bridge. The goats climb it and you can use a little conveyor belt to take them some food.

Painting Pumpkins

A couple days later we painted the pumpkins that we picked.

"Do I have something on my face?"

The finished product.

Decorating for Halloween. This is all we did since we are going to be in Farmington for Halloween.

Rainy Day

Last Tuesday it was very gloomy and rained all day so we had a lazy pj day. I built the girls a fort to play in. They had a blast for about 5 minutes and then they decided to tear it down because it was too scary. So much for that idea!

They look like scary little monsters with their red eyes.

Just Me and My Mom

Kayla's Pre-K class went on a field trip to the zoo last Monday. Joe had the day off so he kept Aly at home so me and Kayla could spend some time together. The animals at the zoo were pretty boring. Most of them were sleeping. But we had fun anyway.

The only animal to give us a show was this baby monkey. He was doing somersaults all over the place.

Kayla playing with some of her friends at lunch time. As you can tell, she's pretty easy to spot in her class!

After we got home from the zoo, Joe and I took the girls to see Wall E at the $1.00 Theater. It was family day and so we each got in for 50 cents. The movie was really good. I think Joe laughed more than the girls. Aly actually sat and watched the entire thing, which is saying a lot!

The End of Summer

Kayla and Aly enjoying the final days of summer. This was just 3 weeks ago and it was almost 90 degrees. Yesterday we woke up and it was only 40 degrees. Winter came over night.

I gave Aly her very first hair cut. Her hair hasn't grown hardly at all in the last year so I trimmed it in hopes that it will start growing again. This is the before pictures.

The after picture. I didn't get a good picture from the front, but it's tapered around her face so it doesn't hang in her eyes as much.
Kayla all ready for bed with curlers in her hair for church. She took them out during the night so it didn't work very well.

Nothing New

I don't really have anything new to post this week. Next week is going to be pretty busy though so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Katie tagged me earlier this week though so I'll answer those questions so there is something new to read.


8 TV Shows I love to watch.
1. The Office
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Privileged
4. Biggest Loser (it inspires me to be healthier)
5. Jon and Kate Plus Eight (Kayla loves to watch it with me)
6. Property Ladder
7. I can't think of anymore that I love to watch. I spend most of my free time reading.
8.

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. I volunteered in Kayla's class
2. Went shoe shopping for Kayla
3. Read an entire stack of library books to the girls (They'd have me read to them all day if I let them!)
4. Played the piano
5. Made pancakes for dinner (Joe had to work late and the girls love 'em)
6. Watched the new Twilight trailer
7. Watched The Office
8. I went to bed early

Favorite Places to Eat
1. Los Cuates (GOOD Mexican food)
2. Amadeo's Pizza
3. Olive Garden
4. Texas Roadhouse
5. Some Cafe we ate at in Colorado Springs (I can't remember the name of it for the life of me, but I had the best sandwich ever!)
6. Blue Moon Diner
7. Spare Rib
8. My in-laws. Sally's a GREAT cook. She needs to teach me.

8 things I look forward to...
1. Finally settling down. Albuquerque's just temporary.
2. Owning a house so I can do what I want with it.
3. Going on vacation again. (I started looking forward to it the minute we started to drive home from our last one.)
4. Going back to work once the kids are all in school. I love my kids, but staying home is not for me.
5. I'm REALLY looking forward to not having to hear anymore lame political advertisements.
6. The Twilight movie. I know, I'm such a girl!
7. Going to Germany with Joe... someday.
8. Aly being potty trained. I'm tired of stinky diapers.

8 Things on my Wish List...
1. a house of our own
2. I want my girls to have and do everything I didn't get a chance to when I was young.
3. for my girls to be successful
4. to travel all over the World
5. for Joe to be successful
6. a kitten. :-)
7. a new bed. I hate our water bed.
8. I don't know what else....ummm... World peace?

Tagged... again.

Okay, Amy tagged me so here goes.

My 5 joys:
1) Of course my family.
2) Sleeping. Even though I don't get nearly as much as I would like, I savor every minute I get.
3) Getting to go on dates (without the kids)! Does not happen very much so I look forward to it.
4) Curling up with a good book.
5) Loud (good) music. Sometimes I just love to put my headphones on and tune out the world.
(I know I'll probably go deaf someday, but I don't care cause it's worth it to me!)

My 5 fears:
1) My #1 fear is a tie between 2 things. First, loosing Joe. I couldn't do the single mom thing. I'd loose my sanity. Plus, he's my best friend and always makes me laugh so I'd miss him a lot. (I know, sappy, huh?) Second, loosing my kids. No explanation needed.
2)Snakes. No, seriously. I can't even watch them on TV or see a picture of them without starting to get a panic attack. I have to skip that exhibit at the zoo or the pet store. Boots, purses, whatever. Even fake ones freak me out. When we lived in Socorro there was a dead rattle snake by the dumpster so I never took the trash out there again. Joe always had to do it.
3)Getting into a car accident. I know this sounds weird, but I've always had a feeling that's how I'm gonna go. Creepy, huh?
4)Clowns. They're creepy. That's all there is to it.
5)Small, confined spaces. I'm a little (okay, a lot) claustrophobic. I think it has to do with the time we were playing hide and seek when I was little, I hid in a box and everyone forgot about me so ended up staying there for a really long time. Thanks Kari Ann and Katie! :-)

My 5 obsessions/collections: (This ones easy!)
1) I'm ocd with a lot of things, but there are a few things worse than others. Our DVD's have to be in a certain order. I can leave the room and Joe will move one and I will know which one the second I come back it. The dishwasher has to be loaded a certain way. I have to clean the house in a certain order. Should I keep going?
2) Books. I read A LOT! And fast too. It's very unusual for me to take more than a week to read a book, no matter the size. I'd like to thank my speed reading abilities to all of the hours that I spent reading textbooks. I also keep a journal of all of the books I've read and what I like and don't like so if you need any suggestions, I've got a few.
3) Lists. I have lists for everything. But not just any lists. Color coded lists.
4) A collection I have is sentimental junk. I have kept a lot of things (mostly dumb) from events in my life. For example...I have a tooth that was pulled after I broke it on pizza. I have all of my wisdom teeth that were removed too.
5) I love to look at the Sunday ads. Even though I hate shopping, it's still fun to see what's on sale.


5 Surprising facts about me:
--This one was kind of hard since I'm a pretty open book. I had to ask Joe for help.
1) This one's kind of embarrassing, but hey, I don't care. I am an awesome burper. And I've got the proof on a video of a family burping contest. I have been known to rattle windows with my burps. I control myself now that I am married, but that's only because I don't want to show up Joe. :-)
2) I hate shopping and I hate spending money. I'm a cheap skate and I'd much rather put money towards something important like my girl's college funds, a down payment on a house or use it towards paying my car off. The only thing I like to buy is books because I know I'll read them over and over again or sell them when I'm done with them.
3)I remember a lot of things. Like my sisters forgetting about me while I'm hiding in a box. :-) I remember birthdays and anniversaries, old phone numbers, etc. I even remember conversations I had when I was in kindergarten. I was never good at remembering dates and names for history though. I guess I just blocked those out.
4) Here's one no one knows. I've always wished I had dark brown eyes. Maybe I should just get colored contacts.
5) Here's another one Joe told me that's not surprising for some of my family... I slept with my baby blanket, that I called my bunny blanket (It had pink bunnies all over it), until I was 19 years old. Joe told me if I wanted to marry him I had to give it up. It was him or the blanket. Obviously I chose him, but I still pull it out of my Hope Chest every now and then.


So now I'm supposed to tag 5 people but almost everyone I know has done this, so if you haven't done it yet, I tag you.

Frhlicher Geburtstag!

Happy Birthday Grandma!
We Love You!

Lots to catch up on! Part III

Kayla had her first soccer game on September 6th. Her team is the Tigerettes. She doesn't really know what she's doing yet, but it sure is cute to watch!

She's not too hard to pick out since she's the only blonde!

Listening hard to her coach, James.

Joe in action. He's the referee for Kayla's team.

Stretching with her assistant coach, Celina, before the game.

Kayla had school pictures this morning. I curled her hair but by the time I picked her up it was straight again, so we'll have to see how the pictures turned out.

She's really enjoying school and making a lot of friends. One of the boys she plays with a lot is Lexus. He can't speak English and she can't speak Spanish, so I wonder how they communicate, but they seem to have fun.

Lots to catch up on! Part II

Colorado Springs

After we camped we headed up to Colorado Springs. Sunday night we were supposed to go to a balloon glow, but the weather was bad, so on Monday morning we went out on our balcony of our room and watched them in the morning.

Monday we went to Cave of the Winds. I was a little worried that the girls would be scared being down in the cave, but they had no problems at all.

Me and my girls in the cave.

The hike through the cave was about 1/2 mile and had about 200 stairs. Aly insisted on walking the whole thing by herself!

No, the picture's not messed up. At one point in the tour they turned off all of the lights. Kayla and Aly didn't get scared at all, but my claustrophobia started to set in at that point.

The view from the entrance to the cave.

I took these pictures for my dad. This furniture was so cool!

On to Denver.....

We went and hung out with Naomi,

Erin, Sam,

and of course, Uncle Bo. (Thanks again for dinner and the soccer stuff!)

Back in Colorado Springs.... Tuesday we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was so much better than the zoo here in Albuquerque. The picture above is of Kayla about to pet a baby wallaby.

My new friend. The girls kind of freaked out when they saw me go up to it. They thought it was real.

Me and my girls in My Big Backyard. (Everything was giant size.)

Kayla's new friend.

This zoo has the largest herd of giraffes in the world (in captivity). You can only see a few of them in this picture.

A baby giraffe. There were 3 or 4 babies.

Joe petting the giraffe.

Kayla feeding the giraffe a cracker. (Don't worry... it was allowed and we paid $1.00 to do it.)
Below is a video of Joe feeding his new friend. He wanted to come home with us, but there wasn't room in the van.

We also went to Old Colorado City, swimming, and we drove around a lot to see what Colorado Springs was like. All in all. the trip was really fun! The only downside was having to come home. (I had a migraine on the way home so it really wasn't fun for me!) I'm already looking around for ideas for our vacation next year. Any suggestions?