Fiancee-in-law

After Jason and I got engaged, Jason started calling my roommates the fiancees-in-law. I know it doesn't make much sense but I guess it is one of those inside jokes that still makes us laugh! And guess who came to visit last week?! The fiancees-in-law... and family!

Candice and Ryan have two ADORABLE kids now. Kathryn, well you know her kids will be gorgeous too... someday... after May 7th and some certain wedding bells ring (yep, same day as Peggy's wedding).
We tried to give them a taste of Albuquerque (enough to hopefully make them want to move here). We went to Explora, the children's hands-on science museum. We love that place.
It was St. Patrick's Day and we were all wearing green. Which was great in theory but turned out every other kid wore green too so a couple of times we chased the wrong child.

Playing at the bubble table: I kept hoping Wesley would get just a little closer to the sudsy water. Can you see his dirty face?
Making Samantha laugh- sooo easy to do!
The Kaleidoscope
Sporting my shamrock earrings
Baby Doll
The perfect 4 leafed clover

Playing with the dinosaurs before we went home

Friday the 18th was Ryan's birthday.
We made Jen Jackson's chocolate cake (oh my Y-U-M with emphasis on the "yuh"). A last minute dare and some creative thinking on Candice and my part- and he got a Special Shape Cake.
Ryan's nickname is Bear because of a funny story about construction and dirt and facial hair. It makes it all the cuter that they call their son Jacob "Cub".

Light the torch!
We needed everyone's help on this one. :)
Kathryn arrived Friday night (which translates to the 3rd night in a row of staying up past midnight. Whew- I am not in college anymore but it was so fun talking and laughing). We went to the Aquarium and Botanical Gardens the next day.

Spring is arriving!
A moments rest
Cheep, cheep, cheep
Mother Hen
What a day!

Our last night all together we headed to the Frontier for some New Mexican/Albuquerque food. Albuquerque is "The Duke City" so we just had to stop and visit The Duke. I am pretty sure Kathryn was whispering to him about how much she wanted to move here! :)

Science Fair

Allie participated in her first science fair recently. Unfortunately her dad, aunts and uncles were science fair people. (And you thought band camp jokes were bad...).

She wanted to do a project on caves but there is a bat fungus that prevented her and her dad from crawling around in caves.

A few weeks ago it was miserably cold in NM, gas was failing all over the state, schools and businesses flooded and there was no classes for days on end. We were bored, had cabin fever and decided to go visit Uncle Carter and Aunt Jen and do some science fair along the way. We arrived in Los Alamos and had a great time with Cater and Jen. Joy had never been to L.A. or seen Jen's home.

Joy gave Allie some type of graduated milk containers for nursing. Her project was different densities in snow. She collected snow at various spots along the way to Los Alamos including... Camel Rock...
...Tesuque Sculpture Garden (we had a great time here and played on the frozen water where we saw animals who made dense snow tracks):


...of course the Santa Fe airport so dad could look at airplanes:

Enough photos dad!

During cleanup:

She did everything herself, we taught her about density and how to make a table along with a few other ideas but the board content, the title, the stories, the spelling errors, the drawings are all hers:
Living in an otherwise sterile digital world, I love to see her very analog drawings. Not a single computer involved. Whew. All the kids were given a red ribbon- Allie was super excited and kept telling us about the ribbon she won.

This is what showed up in the John Baker Broadcast (the monthly newsletter):

Happy Anniversary

Do you recognize these two? This picture was taken exactly 9 years and two and half months ago (more or less). They were engaged and so excited to get married to each other. And today, exactly 9 years later, I still say it is the best and most wonderful decision of my life!

And every sappy love song I've heard today makes me think of you Jason!

I love you!

Sisters, sisters...

...there were never such devoted sisters. When a certain little sister got engaged, we hopped a plane and the surprise was made! (And hopefully you can hear the music that went along with that just now. What? You've never seen White Christmas?!)

The "Hey, let's go surprise Peggy" came first (Jenny's idea) and then of course the "let's have a bridal shower too!"

But first a little play time.

Hanging out in Peggy's apartment.

Pedicures

Time to shower the bride with gifts.
Hooray for cousins (both old and young)!


Peggy got some really great things, kitchen gadgets and what not. But you would not believe what Wendy gave Peggy. I did NOT take a picture of it, but Rachel saw it!

Ha ha!!!

Not pictured: staying up late and watching chick flicks, putting together puzzles, dinner at the Blue Lemon, the three older sisters jumping up and down and squealing from the parking lot below Peggy's office window after we sent her the text "Look out your window", and our other sisters Kristyn (in CA) and Molly (see the family blog for that ;0).

The Boys

These two are inseparable. They are always hugging, fighting, kicking, snuggling, sleeping in the same bed, competing for the same toy, snickering at something, speaking "potty words," loving on Rachel, crying, wrestling for fun, laughing.

They were running around a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning and I thought I would take some photos of them.



I love my boys. I smile every time I see them playing and think of my brothers who I have so many great memories of and love to see as an adult.