Valentine's surprises: Cookies & Snow.....wait....those two don't go together....or do they?

We awoke on valentine's day to 4 more inches in our backyard. I think this is the 26th snowstorm of the year. (it's getting old...I'm ready for shorts and flip-flops). I asked Michelle for some help with the snowman you see in the background and after helping she decided to take it upon herself to attack me with a wet, slushy snowball. In this picture, Michelle is running for her life. She attacked first and knew that revenge was coming. (spencer is a great camera-man).

I am proud to say that I won the battle, although it depends on who you talk to. This was an intense battle. Good thing the neighbors weren't watching over the fence, it probably looked a lot worse than it really was.
Eventhough we plastered each other with snowballs and I white-washed her pretty good, we still enjoyed the Valentine's day together on good terms.
Spencer loved the Valentine's cookies that Mom made. I wonder how many he really ate. All throughout the day he would ask to have more and when we weren't looking he would grab another and polish it off before we could stop him.
Wife and Mother x 2.....Our mighty cookie chef.
I really liked this picture because I imagine I will be getting this look quite a bit in about 15 years. She is almost saying: "Dad, you are such a dork." (notice the 2 new teeth.)
This picture is near the beginning of the 'Holy War'. Spencer got a great mid-flight snowball photo. Good job spencer.
Michelle on the attack again. She is relentless in her pursuit of smothering snow in my face. She never gives up eventhough she knows that I'm going to get her back. If you couldn't tell, I kinda like the girl. I guess I'll keep her around for future snowball fighting. If anybody want to start a snowball war, she is on my team......

Finally another posting...

So, obviously nothing too exciting has been happening here in New Mexico, thus the no postings for quite a while. Well, we finally have some pictures to blog...

Grandpa gave Spencer these binoculars when they came to visit, and Spencer hasn't parted with them. This is Spencer looking at some monkeys at the zoo.

So, we finally did something to our new house... Kyle installed a new kitchen faucet. He's quite the handy-man. (That is the old faucet in the picture)

Just another pic of Carly. She finally has two teeth on the bottom. Sorry you can't see them in this pic. Maybe she'll cooperate sometime and let me snap a photo of them.

Spencer after a hard day at church.

(Any ideas on how to help him like Primary would be greatly appreciated!)

The parents came down this week and we had a lot of fun being together. Carly loved the extra attention.

Us at the zoo

So I didn't believe in evolution until I snapped this picture...

Spencer just loves the grandparents! So, THAT'S where he got those crazy genes...

Happy New Year!

This is our New Years Celebration. We had yummy barbecue chicken kabobs and had a picnic on our living room floor. Spencer thought that that was pretty cool and asked to do it again every time we had dinner for about a week.

The New Years Picnic again. Carly had cheerios instead.

This is Spencers old blankie (on right) and it was falling apart, so we took him to the store to pick out fabric for his new blankie. (We thought this would help with the transition) He picked Lightning McQueen fabric (from the movie Cars). And the transition was better than we expected! He said goodbye to his old blankie and hasn't looked back!

Spencer on another dress-up day

Scouting is a totally new thing to me since I don't have brothers, and it all seemed pretty silly to me. I just like to laugh at Kyle and his cool uniform that he gets to wear every week. But then I went to the Scouting store with Kyle yesterday and saw everything that is involved and all of the fun things that they get to do. I saw a glimpse of the purpose behind it and think that it's a pretty cool thing now. But I still laugh at him and his uniform... I am begging him to get the shorts and socks, oh yeah and that awesome ranger hat!

Rockin around the Christmas Tree

So, here are some of our Christmas pictures. Also, just so you know, in the post just below this, are pictures of our latest snow storm... it has been crazy enough that our church got canceled for tomorrow... WEIRD! I didn't think anything canceled OUR church! 12-14 inches of snow will do that in Albuquerque, I guess.

And Now........

Spencer got Cars the movie, and then some cars toys... here he is playing and watching at the

same time.

Carly's first Christmas was a success. She loved the paper!

Spencer loves popcorn, and Santa gave him some in his stocking.

This is a play mat that I made for Spencer. If you look closely, you can see

our house and both of the Grandma and Grandpa's houses.

Super Spencer! When he took this off, he said, "I'm not Super Spencer anymore, I'm just Spencer".

Who would have thought that MY husband was a dancing fool! Well, he sure can beat his wife in Dance Dance Revolution.

And yes, I know, it's a lovely picture, but trust me, the other ones were way worse. I told Kyle I would put a picture of me on this thing, if I could put one of him... so this is what you get. Sorry.

We just like to throw in cute pictures of our kids.

Our dead Christmas tree with all of the presents. The tree came out the next morning... it was a fire hazard for sure, and we are so glad that we made it through Christmas without any flames.

Christmas morning fun.

Spencer got this train set from Santa, and he loves it. He's already went through two sets of batteries!

Albuquerque? Snow? What?

We have had a dump of new snow in the past 24 hours. It sure makes it seem like we are back in Utah again. Spencer loves to play in it and it makes getting around a little difficult. We wanted to buy a sled to play with but we aren't sure that we can make it to the store. We have had about 8-10 inches so far and more is expected.

Kyle and Spencer shoveling the front sidewalk. (notice that the garbage was supposed to be emptied but I don't think they can get down our street.)
Carly is just chillin' inside the warm house, while the boys play in the white stuff.
Spencer is thigh deep in a snow drift.
Albuquerque has reported the snowiest December on record this year.
Spencer making Carly laugh by throwing snowballs at the window.

When comparing to Michelle's snowman last week, I think that we blew that snowman out of the water. This snowman was much bigger and definitely better looking. It did fall over last night but this picture will forever be proof that our snowman was better.

Rollin' rollin' rollin.

Santa Claus is coming to town!!!

We had the opportunity of having one of Santa's helpers come to the house and visit with the kids. It was their first time talking with Santa. When Spencer opened the door he was shocked. He didn't know how to respond to a big, fat, jolly fellow presenting himself on our doorstep.

Spencer and Carly admiring Santa

Spencer kept saying how beautiful Santa's belt was. It was a black belt with a very shiny gold buckle. Spencer also said that he had been a good boy and that he wanted a train for christmas.

He was sure excited. The same night after we put him down to bed, he pulled his blinds up and was looking out his bedroom window. When a neighbor came over to deliver treats, she told us that she could see him through the window lying in his bed looking outside. We later went into his room and asked why he had pulled the blinds up. He said that he was watching for Santa's sleigh and was listening for the sounds of reindeer on the roof. Michelle and I tried to explain that he only comes on Christmas Eve, and we tried very hard to keep from laughing because he was so serious. It was a funny night to remember.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

So, it's snowing in Albuquerque!! Of course it has shut down the whole city, but I just say LET IT SNOW! This is our backyard yesterday during the storm. We got about 4 inches total, but it's snowing again today, so maybe more...

Self portrait of me and Spencer outside...burrr!

So, there is no way to get into or out of the city- all freeways are shut down and the airport is closed, but we don't care... we just played in the snow and built a snowman! Let the rest of the city worry about the snow and we'll just enjoy it!

Spencer LOVED the snow! He hasn't ever really played in snow before.

Just a cute picture of my little snow man!

A snow angel...

Spencer's Pre-school Christmas program

Spencer's preschool Christmas program

Lights, Camera, Action!

Carly and Spencer hanging out on our bed one EARLY morning...

Spencer and Carly in front of our Christmas tree. Spencer had just opened

an early Christmas present... he's getting anxious, so we have a few presents that he can open every few days. It helps keep the anxious bugs away... most of the time.

Just cute Carly

Carly in the bathtub ready to get that caked-on food off of her face.

We went to the "River of Lights" last night. (Yes, this is what we attempted to

do at Thanksgiving.) It was fun, sorry you missed out!

It was a cold night, so we all bundled up.