Let The Count Down Begin...

It is 25 "wake-ups" as our children describe it until Christmas morning. That means 24 days to purchase all those gifts we haven't already purchased (which is almost all); and with a small budget this year to do it with.

Tonight we headed out purchase our tree. As we were walking out the door, Christian asked if we are going to the PX (Post Exchange) to get our tree (he is only accustom to the fake ones). I said, "No son we are going to have a real tree this year; one that smells like Christmas and fills the house with the smell of the outdoors." With that, Christian said, "Don't we need a saw or something to cut the tree down with?" Logical question. He was so excited at the thought of going to the woods to search for "our" tree, cutting it down, and loading it into the truck to bring back to decorate as we listened to Christmas songs and drank hot chocolate. Ahhhh.....it does sound so good. After listening and seeing the excitement in his little face it was sad to tell him we are just going down the street to one of the vendors selling trees. Next year little man....we will go to the mountains so you can have the full experience.

Instead, we all piled into the truck and headed down Dyer Street to find one of the many "Christmas Trees Sold Here" lots for our perfect tree; and believe it or not it was at the first place we stopped! We debated for about 20 minutes between 2 trees and then decided the smaller of the two would be best....plus Ella Grace had to potty and she was at the point when "in a moment baby" was no longer working. We loaded the tree into the truck and headed back home....only Ella Grace HAD to potty REALLY BAD now and we diverted for a burger and a potty.

We finally made it home and placed our perfect NOBLE tree in the living room; no ornaments tonight... we are waiting a day or two for the limbs to relax and an earlier start with all the trimmings for a memorable decorating night!

Adapting to the Changes....

We are still here...

The postings have been less frequently lately but we hope that now we have adjusted to the changes in our family and our travels are over for now we will be able to begin posting to our blog on a regular basis.

This is what has been happening....

We (Christian, Carson, Ella and me) left for Tennessee on November 7th; we returned to El Paso with Grandpa and Flat Stanley on November 16th. Then on November 19th we took a trip to Albuquerque, NM to visit my Dad's sister Marcia we hadn't seen in over 8 years! We had a lovely couple of days visiting, catching up, and seeing snow flurries, before we headed back to El Paso on November 21st. That afternoon, Ben and Daniel came to spend the weekend while their parents headed up to Ruidoso - we officially have a house full!

We enjoyed a wonderful full weekend with 2 more boys and Grandpa. We just hung out and enjoyed our company; roasted marshmellows on the outdoor fire; the boys' played in the tree house, and my dad, Jim and I sat by the fire....it was nice. Then Sunday came and it was full of "see ya laters" sprinkled with a few tears. Dad headed back to Tennessee and Ben and Daniel walked back across the street to their home....it was quiet again. Maybe we need to add a couple more children to our family? I love the chaos!

In the midst of all the happenings, Jim celebrated his birthday, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with our family here in El Paso and today is Patrick's 17th birthday....where does the time go?

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed the company of good food and sweet treats with family and friends!

Believe It or Not...

We headed out to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Aquarium today to see all kinds of life living in the the water that covers 70% of our earth! We saw poison dart frogs, four-eyed fish, fresh water stingrays, armored catfish, fish from the coral reef like the parrots, damsels, angels and butterflies, fish whose very names are almost as exotic and colorful as they are. We visited the shark lagoon where we leisurely traveled on a moving 340-foot long glidepath, as we made our way through the acrylic tunnel and came face to face with snappers, tarpons, grunts, squirrelfish, a green sea turtle, giant stingrays, sawfish and...very large SHARKS! Then me moved on to one of our favorites, stingray bay! Here, we saw so many different rays and sharks - atlantic stingrays, southern stingrays, cownose rays, spotted eagle rays, bonnethead sharks, leopard sharks, epaulette sharks, arabian sharks, brownbanded sharks and white-spotted sharks. They looked hungry so we stayed away!

We had so much fun!

Fall Foliage

OMGoodness!

Flying in over east Tennessee was so beautiful! Fall has arrived here and the sight of all the colors below was just breathtaking! Oranges, yellows, reds, greens, and golds all across the landscape; when you have sand and desert landscape you forget the beauty of fall.

What a perfect time to fly!

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Okay, back to the purpose....we arrived here in Tennessee with my family. It's nice to come back (especially in fall) to see everyone! I am not so sure Ella Grace knew what was going on but when I told her she was going to see her Grandpa and Grandma she squealed with delight!

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We have been here almost 5 days and she is finding her "way in" with Grandpa and Grandma - FOOD! She will resource one of them waiting until a drawer or cabinet is opened to see what is hiding behind it. When Grandma or Grandpa opens it, Ella Grace can hardly contain herself! Of course the find is more than anything she hoped for and her squeal is a true reflection of her desire to consume it! I have given up on telling them she shouldn't have this or that....hey, they are Grandparents ~ their job is to spoil her and send her packin'!

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Yesterday we went to the park with some of her cousins ~ the pictures from our outing are below.

Sliding and climbing

Big brother Carson

Big brother Christian

Waiting to zip line Carson, Ella Grace, Carly, Caden and Christian

Time to go home.....I'm cold.

Дедушка и Бабушка

That's Russian for Grandpa and Grandma.

We (Ella Grace, the little men and I) are leaving to visit with my family in Tennessee. We can't wait for everyone to meet our daughter/sister!

Gross (ology)

Homeschooling began with a trip to the Grossology Exhibit. It is truly an impolite experience of the grossness of the human body. We explored sticky, goopy gross things like blood, pus, sneezing, and athlete's feet; bumpy lumpy gross bodily issues of goose bumps, hiccups, moles, rashes, tongues and warts; and then on to squishy, mucky gross things of the brain, bruises, eyeballs, guts and poop!

Christian said, "The museum was cool and so was the operation game. I liked pumping the juices to make the man exhibit burp."

Carson said, "It's really not that awesome and I really didn't like it. I didn't like smelling all those stinky smells: armpits, anus, feet, and bad breath."

Our neighbor went with us: J, S, and B - thanks guys we had a great day with you!

Also little man from across the way went - thanks D we loved having you with us!

Halloween Fun...

I thought I would add some post Halloween pictures.....