Easter

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These photos are not all from Easter day but more like photos around that time. Sasha very carefully dyed the hard boiled eggs and LOVED hiding the eggs inside and outside in the yard. I would send one in her lunchbox to eat at school most days leading up to Easter until she was too concerned that we would run out of eggs to hide at home if she kept eating them at that rate.
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Jack loved the Easter eggs too, but preferred to launch them rather than collect them in his basket.
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Easter weekend was beautiful and we got out for hike on Saturday afternoon to Diablo Canyon. Sasha conceded the hike back pack to Jack for the first time and did a pretty good job keeping up on her own although she got very distracted by many things along the way--flowers, unusual rocks, boulders to scamper up. I think we will invest in a second backpack before our Utah trip in June. Sasha still only weighs 31 lbs. so it will not be too painful to carry her.
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Lollipops continue to be our snack of choice to keep all parties happy on our hikes.
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We went down to Albuquerque to my parents house for Easter dinner and the second egg hunt of the day (first was at church). Mom made a delicious meal as usual.
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Then we hustled back to Santa Fe for an egg hunt/party at Phil's partner's house that afternoon. They live in a rural wooded area that was perfect for running around.
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Jack is still very into cars, trucks, and trains. I sound like a broken record and it wouldn't surprise me if this continues on indefinitely considering his father's obsession with cars. Jack could not be happier these days than when I let him play in our car. Sometimes I just open all the doors with the car in the driveway, pull up a lawn chair, get a magazine and a drink for myself, and let him mess around in there for half an hour or so.
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Mexico!

In January Phil's good friend from college, Zach, called and asked if we had any interest in joining them and another family in March in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Why, yes, we would love to, of course! Although not our first trip to Mexico, Phil and I had never been to the Baja Peninsula and it's been on our list of places we'd like to visit for awhile. We had never vacationed with another family before, let alone a family we didn't know prior to the trip, but it all turned out to be really fun. All 6 kids got along remarkably well and were easily entertained by the pool, beach, and each other.

We ate 2 meals, probably some of the best food in my life at Flora's Farm Restaurant. The grounds were huge and the kids loved running around there, looking in the pond with turtles, and petting the resident dogs while we waited for our food.

We went into town several nights for dinner. The evenings actually got a little chilly because the air was so dry. She was thrilled when the waiter offered her a warm blanket at the pizza restaurant.

Jack loved splashing in the shallow part of the beach-entry pool at the house we rented.

The nice thing about having a house was that we could eat a couple casual meals a day at the house, take naps as we pleased, and the adults could stay up playing games, watching T.V, etc in the evenings after the kids were in bed. Each family took one evening to shop and cook a nice meal for everyone and the other nights we went out to San Jose del Cabo, the mellow historic town 5 minutes away.

The hot tub and pool were in use almost non-stop from sunup to sundown. Here I was reading a Magic Treehouse book (some of Sasha's favorites right now) to Sasha, Tessa, and Big Jack (the 5-year-old twins) from the third family we were with.

Sasha discovered water wings on this trip which opened up a new world for her in terms of swimming.

The ocean was a 5 minute walk away. There were so many little beautiful shells to collect even if the water was too rough to get in.

February 2012

Bear with me while I try to get caught up on this blog! This one is a lot of pictures mostly that somewhat document what we were up to in February. It was a pretty low-key month with no travels. Anymore Phil and I remark though how our favorite thing to do is just hang out together as a family at home. I feel like we're getting close to the sweet spot with kids where they basically are a lot of fun and not so much work. Sasha is there, and Jack is getting closer all the time.

Sasha doing one of her many art/craft projects--probably her favorite pastime right now. She loves cutting, gluing, painting, making mosaics, doing color by number, writing letters and words, and taping the finished product on our walls.

We had a family birthday party for Phil's 37th complete with some of his favorite foods: grilled steaks, wedge salad, cheesy potatoes, and dark chocolate cake.

Good old birthday hats still make it a real party.

Phil and Sasha tubing. I can hardly believe that snow/ski season is over already. We feel bad that we only got Sasha up there once this year and Phil only went once himself, but it's just hard with call schedules, Jack's nap schedule and like I said before--we really just want to hang out together as a family on the weekends. In a couple of years we'll all be up on the mountain every Saturday hopefully.

This was after Jack's first real haircut. He sat perfectly still on my lap at Super Cuts while Sasha talked a mile a minute and entertained everyone. I think he looks so much older.

Jack definitely inherited the daredevil gene from Phil just like Sasha. He jumps off anything he can climb up to: the coffeetable, fireplace, couch. Last week he insisted on doing the zip line in our back yard. I of course had my hands there just in case he fell, but he held on by himself the whole way.

Sasha loves to dawdle in the mornings and act silly while she gets her clothes on.

This is what Sasha loves to do in the basement. It's pretty incredible and fun to watch really.

Sasha with her color by number that Dad created for her. We still call her "BEAN" hence the design. Lest I forget (this is my diary as much as it is a blog for others to read) Sasha is really into the Little House on the Prairie books right now. We are almost done with "Little House on the Prairie" and are looking forward to the next one. Just as much as she likes the books she relishes Phil's nightly bedtime stories which recently have been spoofs on the series. One night it was "Little House on the Volcano" where Pa didn't realize that he had built the house on a volcano that was soon to erupt. Little House on Shark Island, Little House on the T. Rex were other favorites.

Sasha is 4 (and other January happenings)

Phil with the kids before gymnastics one Saturday morning. It seems strange to me now to see Jack with a pacifier. It "broke" about 2 weeks ago (as in I cut the tip off) and there has been far less crying since we got rid of it actually.

Phil putting the finishing touches on Sasha's penguin birthday cake. She spent much time deliberating which animal cake she wanted from the falling apart 1950s Betty Crocker birthday cake book (seen above) that has been passed down through the generations in my mom's family.

Sasha had a birthday party at the children's museum with friends from school and other friends too.

She loved sitting in the birthday throne and having everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to her.

The whole family at home after the party. Unfortunately we all came down with a stomach bug that night :(

Beautiful sunset glow over the mountains looking out from our front porch. Hence the name of the mountain range "Sangre de Christo".

Jack and Sasha are really starting to hit it off.

Phil and I dressed up for an 80s party. Good old hot rollers still worked!

I took Sasha to a jumpy house place in Albuquerque with inflatable jump houses and slides. She loved it!