November

November began with a cousin's wedding in Savannah, GA with Phil's family sans kids.  We all stayed in a historic bed and breakfast and enjoyed exploring the city.

Enjoying complementary happy hour in the B&B

A whole platter of raw oysters.  It doesn't get any better than that!

Sister-in-law Teresa and I in the candy store

The trolley ride from the wedding to the reception.  The reception was so fun with delicious southern fare at the Olde Pink House.  Phil even got to step in with the hired jazz band to play sax for a few numbers.

One of the 20 some squares that Savannah is organized around.  Phil and I stayed by ourselves one night after the wedding and enjoyed reading novels in the parks, sitting leisurely in coffee shops, and eating in restaurants we would never take the kids to.

We were standing in line here for 45 minutes to get into Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House restaurant.  Family style community tables with down home southern food--the best we've had.  I have dreams about those collard greens and fried chicken!

But we missed these two munchkins so much!  They had a great time with Grandma June and Grandpa Fred though.

Jack spends literally hours each week maneuvering his matchbox cars along the back of our couch.  He parks them carefully in a row and then moves them one by one to the other end of the couch.  Other things he is into right now are pirates, superman, batman, and football.

Sasha got her tenth size violin this month and the sound is 10 times bigger from her smaller one.  We think she's doing a great job and she is excited when she gets to tackle a new song.

Sasha has started to disappear into her room to read books on her own now.  It all began when we rearranged her room and got her a nifty reading light by her bed.  The rule in our house is that you don't come out of your bedroom until 6:30.  Sasha is an early-to-bed girl and early riser so she now reads her current book for awhile when she wakes up until her clock says it's time to get up. 

Playing in our first significant snow.  Sasha and Jack had a blast sledding down the driveway and going down the snowy slides in the yard.

We went down to my parents house for Thanksgiving.  This time we spent the night which made it seem more like a holiday weekend.  It has become tradition to have Anne Liechty at our Thanksgiving dinner.  Our families were good friends in Goshen growing up and she lives in Albuquerque now.  This year her brother, Jeff, was visiting as well.  It was great to catch up with them. 

The kids always love playing the piano and grandma and grandpa's house. 

The day after Thanksgiving we all went out for donuts and then to see the Sand hill cranes where they stop on their migration every year.

October

October was marked by many of our annual fall traditions.  I feel like we have similar pictures from last October but Sasha and Jack have changed so much in just one year. 

We woke up early one Saturday morning and drove up to Aspen Vista hike.  The kids each took a bag and collected beautiful leaves for our fall centerpiece.  Sasha also enjoyed making a leaf collage between two ironed pieces of wax paper. 

We didn't get any great pictures of our visitors, but we enjoyed 5 days with Phil's parents at our house.  Phil took some time off and we acted like tourists in our own town for a change.

Jack enjoys a good French pastry now and again. 

While Jan and Jon were here we visited some home decor shops that we've always wanted to go into, but haven't taken the time to do yet.  Sasha and Jack were very patient in the Indian textile shop......

At the rug shop.....

We woke up at 4:30 on Saturday morning and all drove down to Albuquerque to watch the ascension at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. 

Another weekend we went to McCall's pumpkin patch.  It's always a great day there in the corn kernel sand box...

in the corn maze...

on the giant bouncy pillow (everyone's favorite)

and lastly the hayride out to pick out pumpkins to take home.

My birthday (the day before Halloween) fell on a particularly busy weekday.  Sasha's violin lesson was that afternoon, then Phil met us straight from work at Five Star Burger for dinner, after which we headed to Sasha's violin recital (Song of the Wind), and then back to our house for Black Forest Cake (baked by Phil the night before) with my parents and Megan. 

Halloween was all it was cracked up to be.  After several parties and parades in the days leading up to the big day, Sasha and Jack were still psyched to hit the streets for some good old-fashioned trick or treating.  Jack was Superman and Sasha was a China doll. 

Jack literally tore down the sidewalks in our adopted neighborhood looking for porch lights that were turned on and hollered at the top of his lungs if he saw one. 

September

Sasha graduated to a bigger bike this month.  She especially loves the white tires which she believes make the bike look much fancier.  The little white pack on the handlebars has proven handy for fetching the mail from down at the bottom of our street.

Phil met his brothers and his parents for a long weekend in Michigan as part of a x-mas gift to his dad last year.  It sounds like they had a great time boating and exploring deserted Manitou Island.  The kids and I had a surprisingly fun, easy weekend without him.  On Saturday we went to see Despicable Me 2 which is the funniest kids movie I've ever seen.  On Sunday my dad and I played music for the wedding of the guy who built our house.

Jack helped me make chocolate cupcakes to take to his school on his birthday. 

He was very proud to be turning 3 and learned how to hold up 3 fingers to go with it. 

One of Jack's gifts from us was a big Lego set.  Both kids are really into building Lego things right now.  Sasha loves to follow the step-by-step instructions in the booklets that come with them and Jack just wants us to create various vehicles which he then modifies in one way or another.

Sasha learned how to pump!  It has opened up a whole new world for her on the playground.  The next week she reported that she used the swings the entire recess for all 3 recesses at school every day.

Jack still loves his glide bike.  I take him to a skate park occasionally during the day when the big kids are in school and he enjoys doing "tricks" on the hills and bumps.  He especially loves to get going fast enough to put his feet up on the pegs and ride like a "motercycler".

We had a little party for Jack at our house with a few of his little buddies, Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Megan. 

Jack requested a rocket ship cake with fire coming out. 

Sasha and Jack love to pretend they are eagles sitting on this big rock in our yard that has 2 holes in it which they pretend are nests.  They have "eggs" in them that they protect and then I am the fox who tries to sneak in and steal their eggs while they are off gathering food in the yard.  Never gets old (for them anyway!)

Already the Halloween excitement is palpable in our house.  Here they are painting trick-or-treak maps on cardboard (Sasha's idea).

Fall photo shoot.