Family Update

It's true. We've been busy. It appears we actually have real lives here in Albuquerque.

We visited Ohio.

We went to the Balloon Fiesta.

Carly turned 2!

Darbie made dresses.

Chad started coaching soccer.

Jay started playing soccer

We've played.

And played.

We've had hot dates.

Jay started Preschool.

Hopefully we'll fill you in on more details later. Life is good.

Swim Lessons

Jay and Carly took swim lessons for the first time this summer and overall is was a success. Jay LOVED them but Carly was not a huge fan. Jay has always been terrified of water, so it was great to see him warm up to it and start the process of learning to swim. He is no longer afraid to go underwater or be by himself in the water (previously, he would only go in the water while an adult was hold him and gripping his arms around the adult's neck). Carly (who last summer had started going underwater and swimming by herself) was terrified of the water. She didn't perform all the skills to "pass" the swim class, but by the last day (bottom picture) she would at least sit in the shallow water with me and play.

Jay and his teacher (Funny story: His teacher has braces, so when we show up to lessons, I pointed to his teacher and said "Jay, go over there by your teacher" and he said "How do I know its my teacher if I can't see his teeth?"

Wow. I just allowed a picture with a portion of me in a bathing suit onto the blog.

Galloping Grace

Some people in our ward invited us to go to a great kids ranch in Rio Rancho called Galloping Grace Youth Ranch. The kids get to ride the horses for free, but they are required to do chores around the ranch before they get to ride. I don't know that the kids really understood that they were doing work though, because they thought scooping horse poop was a blast!

Jay rode the horse for a long time and even got to ride for awhile without the trainer guiding the horse. I was shocked that Jay wasn't scared one bit and didn't even flinch when the trainer said he was going to let go of the reins. I guess this boy is growing up!

They offered to let Carly ride (even though they prefer that the kids are 3), and she was so excited...until we tried to put her on and she freaked out. Maybe next year!

4th of July

We enjoyed our 1st 4th of July here in Albuquerque with just the 4 of us. We had a fabulous time celebrating with a 4th of July package from Grandma Melinda and the kids' first fireworks show. We went to see fireworks in Rio Rancho and sat in the football stadium to watch. The kids LOVED the fireworks and Carly was even caught saying "Oooo, that's awesome!". The show and the music were incredible. We will definitely be heading back to Rio Rancho for next years fireworks!

Chad bought fireworks and set them off in the driveway for Jay and I. Carly went to bed early and missed the show. This was my first time ever doing fireworks at home. Chad thinks it is crazy that I never did fireworks as a kid. We always had sparklers, but I never remember fireworks. Chad thought I was unnecessarily nervous.

Random Summer-ness

Summer is here and busier than ever.

Enjoying our new yard and kiddie pool.

Went to an Albuquerque Isotopes game.

Kids started swimming lessons at a city pool and they love it.

Loving picnics on our "patio". (I promise, they don't just eat chips)

Attempting to grow things in our garden and failing miserably.

Trying to keep grass green in Albuquerque is a struggle.

Eating otter-pops daily.

Determined to try our ice cream maker we got for our wedding (we've moved it 4 times and never used it).

Trying to convince Jay it is alright to play with kids who don't like Star Wars.

Planning tons of vacations, who knows if we'll actually take any.

Update

Maybe someday we’ll blog often enough that we won’t have to do these random catchup updates, but for now, we’ll update you in the usual list form.

-Chad passed the New Mexico bar exam!

-Chad got called as the Elder’s Quorum President in our ward. We tried to lay low, but apparently that didn’t work out. We know he’ll be awesome, but will miss him while he goes to a million meetings on Sundays.

-We’ve hired someone to clear the rocks out of our backyard and put in sprinklers, sod, and concrete. (thank you tax refund) We’re excited to have a safe place for the kids to play all summer. (The yard was overgrown with goat head plant when we moved in and there are “stickers” everywhere and the kids (and adults) get them stuck everywhere and they hurt pretty bad.) Hopefully the yard will be done in the next couple weeks!

-I ran a half marathon last Saturday. I trained really hard for 3 months hoping to beat the time of the half marathon I ran 2 1/2 years ago. I hurt my ankle during the race and ended up finishing way worse than my goal time. I'm still pretty upset about it, but now I just have to run another one and try again.

-I've been on a domestic kick and have experimented with some sewing and cooking. I am quite proud of the homemade yogurt I made and Carly loved it. I've also made a dress and a couple shirts for Carly to wear. I'm still working on decorating the house, and I promise I’ll put pictures up when I'm done.

-Jay has made great strides in the eating department. I'll save the long background story and progress for another post (I'm even drafting it now), but let's just say this kid is eating fruits daily and vegetables on occasion, which is a HUGE improvement.

-Jay is addicted to Star Wars. It’s hard to make this a firm diagnosis, but here are some of his symptoms:

Sleeps with a light saber

Every toy he owns can be turned into a light saber

He’s convinced Star Wars goes on forever “Well mom, in Star Wars 52, Anakin decides to make good choices and not join the dark side, so then Anakin and Darth Vader are 2 different people."

Throws a small fit every time all his Star Wars shirts and underwear are dirty

Drools over and memorizes every toy in the Star Wars aisle at every store “Mom, I don’t want to go to Target, let’s go to Walgreens because they have a green Yoda light saber and Target doesn’t”

Willing to lightsaber fight with everyone, everywhere, all the time!

The Easter Bunny brought him a clone trooper costume for Easter and he eagerly ran into our room to wake us up and tell us that the Easter Bunny brought him “exactly what he wanted”.

-Fun Jay quote:

Jay: “Mom, I hate strawberry jelly” (note, he has never tried strawberry jelly)

Mom: “Well, strawberry jelly hates you” (yes, I understand I shouldn’t be encouraging him to use the word “hate”)

Jay: “Strawberry jelly doesn’t hate anyone. Strawberry jelly doesn’t have feelings!”

-We’re currently going through an extreme pessimistic phase with this kid (please tell me it’s a phase) and we can’t get him to be happy about anything. He whines about EVERYTHING and gets off on the wrong side of the bed every morning. (Ironically, he actually pointed out to me that he actually does get off of the wrong side of the bed because he gets off on the right side just like the boy in the “What are you so grumpy about!” book. Perhaps we should switch the room around) We’ve tried playing Polyanna games where we talk about happy things, but it just isn’t working on this kid. Perhaps his parents’ pessimism is rubbing off on him and we need to start at the source.

-Jay is still a smarty pants and loves doing his "homework". He'll sit at the kitchen table for over an hour working on his workbooks and practicing his letters. We're working on spelling out words and the beginning reading. We've got him signed up for preschool in the fall and he is really excited.

-Carly is seriously adorable. Even “I’m so cute I could get away with murder” adorable. She’s got a contagious smile and she’s happy 95% of the time.

-She’s gotten to be a little bit picky with food than she used to be, but her top 5 favorite food list includes broccoli, mac and cheese, oatmeal, yogurt, and bananas. Yep, the girl LOVES broccoli. One night she would only eat broccoli for dinner, but how can you be upset with that?

-She’s learned how to open the fridge, which has resulted in tomatoes (which she proudly called apples) being strewn all over the house, and most recently a Tupperware container of homemade syrup dumped on the couch. Thank goodness for the Bissell Little Green (and no, they didn’t pay me to say that, I just love it so much) we had to purchase when she vomited all over the couch a few months ago. See, I told you this girl can get away with murder. She’s also discovered how to open the oven, which means she is never unattended when the oven is on, and we check the oven for my little ponies before we cook anything. We’ve got to get a lock for the oven for sure.

-Her vocabulary is growing quite a bit and she will at least attempt to say everything you ask her to say. She’s discovered the word “please” and the power of her cuteness. She will look you in the eye and say “PEEEEEEZ” and it is difficult to say no. Recently, she was sick with a bad sinus infection and not sleeping. I was awake with her and we went downstairs to watch TV. Even in her lethargic state, she looked me in the eyes on the couch and said “Door, Boos, PEEEEEZ!”, which is roughly translated as “Dora, Boots, Please” was a plea for me to turn on Dora. (I never imagined I would have a kid obsessed with Dora, but here we are) Her favorite thing to ask for lately is “Wash, please” which means she wants to play in the water in the sink.

-This girl is going to be a bossy one for sure. Jay and Carly were outside playing the other day, and we told them it was time to come inside. Carly came in right away, but when she noticed we were still having to call for Jay, she march right back outside and right up to Jay and we heard a bunch of sing songy gibberish and made out the words “Jay” and “Dada”. Then she marched back inside and stood at the door as if to say “I’m waiting! I told you it was time to come inside!”

-She is a really good sleeper and even requests naptime during the day. She currently has a favorite blanket (“bay-pet”) and a couple favorite bears that she must be holding when getting into or out of her crib. She loves picking out books to read before bed and has an obsession with teeny tiny board books.

-A girl in the ward was taking pictures for a hairbow company and I volunteered Carly to model some bows for her. Carly had woken up at 4 am that day and was pretty grumpy during the shoot, and I'm not sure if she really got any good ones she could use for the company, but she did get some cute serious face pictures.

Blogger is not letting me upload pictures currently, so you'll have to wait until later for some cute pictures.

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentines Day!

Love, Jay and Carly

Yes, Jay has had a haircut since these pictures.

Sneak Peek

We found the camera cord. While I'm sifting through pictures of cute kids, here is a sneak peek of what we've done so far in the family room. It's not much, but we've committed to the curtains (lovingly made by my mom) and everything else is in the works.

And I know you're thinking, "how in the world did that Southwestern kiva fireplace sneak its way into the house without Darbie noticing and vetoing said house?" The world may never know. We're experimenting with ways to downplay the "southwestern-ness", any suggestions?

Still Alive

Yes, we're still alive. Yes, we're still in New Mexico. Yes the kids are still adorable.


You'll have to take our word for it on that last one as we seem to have lost the camera cord in the move (which I would use as an excuse for not keeping you up to date, but I only discovered it was missing today when I tried to post pictures on the blog). You can view some never before seen pictures of Carly's 1st birthday (circa August 2009) on Mahina's photography blog here. Remember how misplacing my camera for a few days around Carly's party was the best mistake I ever made? Mahina had to bring her camera and capture some shots, and then the photographer in her couldn't just give them to me raw, she edited them all pretty and stuff and gave them to me on a cd. We'll show you more of those pictures later, for now just enjoy the sneak peak on Mahina's blog. She's just awesome.

As for my quest to have 100 reasons to love New Mexico by the end of 2009? Well, I'm struggling a bit with that one, so my quest for 2010 is to complete that list. I am slowly adding to the list and hopefully will have another edition of "Loving New Mexico" soon.

We're still loving the new house and still figuring out how to decorate. My parents were here over Christmas and my mom made us awesome curtains I will show you once we can transfer some pictures. We have a lack of furniture and decorations to fill the house, but we are gradually working on the finished product. I'm pretty slow and indecisive, so decorating becomes a long process.

We had a great time with my parents and brother here for Christmas and then we all piled in our van and headed to Arizona for a week. It was great to see family and hang out with awesome cousins. We squeezed loads of lemons and now our freezer is filled with lemon cubes ready to be made into lemonade on the spot. We visited with Baby Bunny and the fam and remembered why we love her so much. We went to IKEA which was fabulous now that we can check Jay into the babysitting place (he thought it was the coolest place ever). We hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Baker, which is just awesome. We even got out without Grandma convincing us to make another quilt this time (she has lots of fabric to use up, and every time Chad and I go visit, she helps us make a quilt). We caught up on our westerns and game shows with Grandpa, and dreamed about having a grocery store in our basement like Grandma. Hopefully we'll be able to visit Arizona more often, and maybe even convince some of them to visit us :)

We have pretty simple goals for 2010. Stay in one place and adjust to our lives in New Mexico. Since we've been married, we have not remained living in one place for an entire calendar year. We've left for summer internships, and moved for jobs. This year is the year of stability (cross your fingers). We should even be staying in the same house the entire year (hopefully, after all, we own it...alright, I know, the bank owns most of it). In 2009, we lived in 4 different homes.

Chad is still studying for the New Mexico bar exam he will take in February. He plays on a basketball team and loves getting a workout doing what he loves once a week. He stills enjoys his job and loves his fabulous family.

I've been spending a lot of time with my new Albuquerque BFF, my new treadmill. It couldn't be more fabulous. I can run during Carly's nap time (while Jay is close at hand playing PBS kids games online), or in the morning, or at night. I'm finally able to get the amount of running I like to do squeezed into my life. I also have some crazy knee issues (read knee caps scraping against bone) that are much less painful when I run on a treadmill. I'm running my 2nd half marathon in April, and hopefully my knees survive. I'm using Hal Higdon's half marathon training guide found here as my guide. Chad and I used the Novice level for our last half marathon, so I'm moving up to the Intermediate level for this race. Even though I'm probably still a Novice (I ran that half marathon 2 1/2 years ago and have only run 1 race since), the intermediate level has more structure and speed training that I'm a fan of. My only goal is to beat my time on my last half marathon, which shouldn't be too hard. I'm super slow, but I'm hoping to be less slow this time around. I'll be doing most runs during the week on the treadmill, but long runs on the weekends will definitely be outside (have you ever tried running more than 5 miles on a treadmill? Quite boring.)

The kids get cuter and crazier everyday, but I'll save exciting kid stories for when we have cute pictures to go along with them.