McDonald's Play Area

What to do on a cold morning with severe cabin fever and no money to spend? Answer, McDonald's Play Area. I used to be a complete germaphobe and didn't want my kids anywhere near these kind of places, but with lots of hand sanitizer I can overcome my phobia and let my kids have a little fun. Owen has a blast, burns off tons of energy and Autumn loves the change of scenery. Can you guess how we spent our morning?

Autumn had so much fun watching her big bro run around and play with this sweet little girl he met there that he was playing with. They were playing tag and would stop by to talk to Autumn every once in awhile and she was eating up all the attention. I finally got Owen to stop running around so I could snap a quick picture of him. I love this boy even though he has an endless amount of energy!

Babysitting My Niece

Yesterday I got the wonderful privilege of watching my niece Abigail for an hour or so. My sister came over for lunch to spend sometime with me and the kiddos and to let me have some much needed time with my little niece. Since my kids were napping I talked her into taking sometime to shower and get ready for the day since she had my two extra hands to help her out. Once she was done getting ready Abbi was fast asleep in my arms and I knew she needed to run a few errands so I told her to go and I would look after Abbi for her. Im so glad she listened cause I really loved having some time with my adorable Abbi Girl! She was a little angel and both my kids loved having their cousin over.

The three amigos. Owen seriously loves being the big boy around. If one of them cries he comes running over to give them a paci and make sure they are okay. So sweet!

The Girls. Autumn is finally starting to look like the older one now!

I love this cute little face. She is such a sweetie!

My New Hobby!

So as I was standing in Wal-Mart looking at the adorable hair bows debating weather or not my husband would kill me if I bought another $4 hair bow for my daughter; so I thought maybe I could start making them instead of buying them. So I ventured out to Hobby Lobby & Michael's to see if it would be worth it to make bows vs. buy bows. Much to my surprise it is much cheaper to make them yourself. I really had no clue what I was doing, but I figured how hard could it really be with some ribbon, a hair clip and a hot glue gun. Much to my surprise it was pretty easy and really fun. Now I am addicted and loving it! I have made Autumn tons of adorable bows and some for my neighbors new baby girl and of course some for my niece. I have also been wanting to take some 6 month pictures of Autumn and had a great idea to put her in a cute little tutu for her pics. Well, again they are so expensive so I also looked into what it would take to make one myself. I found you can spend anywhere from $20-40 on a tutu and you can make one for under $10. Again totally addicted! Here is some of my work...

This is a bow I made for my little Niece Abigail.

and here is a mini bow I made for Autumn.

Abbi's Pink and Brown Tutu.and Autumn's Turquoise Tutu.

Heart Shaped Cookies & The Superbowl

Okay, I know this may be getting old but Owen LOVES to cook. He is kind of over his play kitchen at the moment and has moved on to the real deal. His new favorite question is, "Mommy do we need to cook dinner now?" Cracks me up. Anyway, we have an amazing kids program at our church every week and this week was definitely right up his alley. Every month they chose a new simple topic for the kids to learn and tell Bible stories each week that go along with the underlying message. This month they are learning God Loves You Unconditionally. This week they learned the story about Paul and Silas from Acts 16:16-34 and were sent home with these adorable Heart Shaped Cookie cutters with a recipe card for Homemade Sugar Cookies. Owen was so excited about this and talked about how him and mommy were gonna bake cookies all the way home from church. I was super busy that day trying to get ready for the company we were having over for the Superbowl, but seriously how could I tell him no? We got home and Owen and I sat down and read the story of Paul and Silas and proceeded to make some sugar cookies in the shape of a heart to remind us that God Loves Us. Here are some pics.

Owen with his Cookie Cutter and Recipe Card
Our Church is so awesome, they sent every single kid home with these cards and cutters. They really try and focus on sending home aids for parents to retell the Bible story throughout the week. I really try and do them with Owen each week. Mission accomplished this week, every time he sees a heart he says, "Mommy God loves me!" Melts my heart. Baking away!
He is always so serious when he cooks. He kept telling me, "Mommy, I think we need 1 more teaspoon please." Lol.Patting out the cookie dough.Cutting out the hearts.
Freshly baked.
Final Masterpiece.

For the Superbowl we invited over a couple Brandon just sold a house to. They just moved here from Southern California and have an adorable little boy named Aiden who is a day older than Autumn. I took pictures before they got to our house but then forgot to pull out the camera all night. O well. Here are some pics of us all dressed in our Broncos gear. I know they were no where close to making it to the Superbowl this year but we still had to represent the Orange and Blue!

Autumn and Mommy!Owen and Daddy!
Autumn and Daddy!
Kisses from Mommy!Yummy snacks to accompany our delicious Costco Pizza!

Go Packers!

Caleb's 1st Birthday Party!

Saturday was Caleb's 1st Birthday Party. Caleb is the son of our good friends Mark and Lindsey. They are in our church Small Group and we have had the privilege of watching Caleb grow over the last year week by week. He is such a sweet adorable little boy and its hard to believe he is already one! They had his party at this place called Bounce 'N' Boogie and that is exactly what you do there. It is defiantly a hands on kinda place and they really get the parents interacting with their kiddos. So since Brandon works weekends, I decided to make the afternoon a special Owen and Mommy day out. We had a blast together and I think we both needed some one on one quality time together. My Mom and Aunt stayed at home and watched Autumn and they equally had a great time. Of course, I forgot my camera so all the pics are from my phone which obviously aren't the best quality so bare with me...

Here is the star of the day, Caleb!

To say Owen liked this monkey bar would be a complete understatement. He had a blast swinging from this thing!

He also loved climbing this.

Here he is about to slide through a hoop.

And the big hit of the party, Bubble time! He was so entertained walking around trying to pop all the bubbles.

You can't really tell, but here he is with a bubble on his finger tip.

Caleb and his cake. I think he was more into the candle than the cake. Happy Bday Caleb!

Here is my pretty lil' girl when I got home. Chewing on her teething ring, her specialty!

Freezing Temps!

As you all probably already know, this past week a massive storm hit the majority of the US. It left almost everyone with freezing temperatures and lots of snow. Us New Mexicans didn't see much snow just a couple inches at our house, but o' man it was freezing cold outside. Tuesday and Wednesday were the absolute worst. Monday night it snowed about 2 inches which left the roads super icy on Tuesday morning, and since the high was about 15 degrees that day, they stayed icy all day long. Yes, that means me and the kiddos were trapped inside for the day. I tried leaving the house at one point because we desperately needed milk, but I ended up getting stuck briefly on the icy roads not even a mile from our house so we ended up turning around and going home. Poor Brandon got stranded at work since they had to close down a few roads in Rio Rancho. Luckily our bff's live right across the street from Brandon's work so he was able to go hang out there until the roads reopened a couple hours later.

Owen was really bummed when I told him Daddy wasn't going to come home for awhile. Poor guy sat starring out the window sulking!

Here are me and the kiddos trying to stay entertained being stuck inside all day and then finding out Daddy was stranded. Can you tell Owen had just finished crying. He had a serious melt down cause he wanted his Daddy to come home.

Wednesday was no better, the high for the day was 5 degrees with a low of -15 degrees. Yeah, freezing! New Mexico hasn't seen weather like this since the 70's, so defiantly not in my lifetime. Unfortunately the gas company couldn't keep up with the demand for everyone to keep their houses warm so parts of the state started experiencing rolling blackouts which left many New Mexicans without gas and electricity. The Governor declared a State of emergency and set up shelters in many High Schools around the state for families left without heat to go and stay to keep warm. They also asked everyone to conserve energy by unplugging electronics and turning their thermostats down 10 degrees. So Sad. Luckily we were fortunate enough to keep our house warm. We did however try and do our part and ended up turning down our thermostat about 8 degrees. Needless to say, Wednesday was a PJ day in our household. Poor Brandon had to go to work and ended up with a flat when he got there and had to change his tire in 0 degree weather.

Both my kids LOVE bath time so that is one way we entertained ourselves indoors. Autumn chews on EVERYTHING! Here she is eating her washcloth in the bath. and here she is chewing on my Valentines Day table runner.

By Thursday things were starting to get a little better temp wise so we were able to enjoy Brandon's days off as a family. By getting better I mean the high was 24 degrees instead of 5. Never thought I would say 24 was a good thing! Anyway we had a fun weekend together as a family. Friday night we had our good friend Gavin and his Girlfriend Stephanie over for dinner. Of course Owen had to help me prepare dinner. I tell you, the kid LOVES to cook! Pretty soon he is going to be the one cooking dinner for Brandon and I! The menu for the night was Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches, Baked Potato Fries and Baked Beans. Here he is helping me make some baked potato fries.
Stirring the seasonings for the Fries.
Putting EVOO on the Fries.
Assisting me in opening a can of baked beans.

Dinner was great and it was so nice to spend a evening with some great friends. Hope you all are staying warm in this crazy weather.

Owen & Autumn's Play Day

Owen and Autumn both got to have a friend come over for a play day yesterday morning. Well, Owen got two friends and Autumn got one, but they both had a great time. Owen spent the morning playing with Olivia and Abby and Autumn got to play with Abby's baby brother Issac. Us Mommies were in shock because the older kids didn't have a single sharing issue and zero melt downs the entire morning. The kids played for 2 strait hours and were actually playing together the entire time without fighting, besides Olivia and Owen's wrestling matches. Those are completely normal though, that's their favorite thing to play together.. We were so very proud of them and it sure made an enjoyable morning for us mommies. Autumn got to play with her friend Issac. Issac is 7 weeks younger than Autumn but much bigger, which is not hard to do since Autumn is itty bitty. They are similar in length, but Issac has about 5 pounds on her. They were so adorable together and spent the majority of the time smiling at one another and Autumn enjoyed chewing on the corner of his sweater. Here are some pictures from our their time together.

Seriously A-Dorable!
Autumn was fascinated with Issac and could not stop looking at him with a huge smile on her face. Who knows, may be her first crush.
If you look closely they were holding hands. See what I mean. So cute. I love those chubby little hands.

They were so happy together. They have similar chubby cheeks too!
And here is what the older kids were up to. Yes, running around burning off their endless supply on energy! They are exhausting to watch. I guess I am just envious of the energy and motivation of two year old.
Being silly and making messes. Since they were playing so well, play day went longer than normal so I decided to make the kids some lunch. Here they are eating their White Cheddar Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with a side of Clementines while watching a new cartoon on nickelodeon called Bubble Guppies. Its Owen's new favorite show by far!

Best of Friends. These three had a blast together and are so adorable! Its hard to believe the very first play day I ever had at my house Owen and Abby were 9 months old and Olivia was 3 months old. We started out calling Play Days "Mommy group" because it was more to get the mommies together to have some adult conversations, but now it is just "Play Day" because it is all about the kids and we are lucky if we get in a few sentences to one another. Lol. They have grown up so much and have turned into 3 little individual people with their very own personalities. I can't wait to see what this picture looks like in 2 more years.