Still Here

Hello Everyone!

We are still here and kicking. There have been a million things that have happened over the last few months and I have not had time to update the blog. I will create a new post with pictures as soon as I can.

We love you all!!!!

Merry Christmas

Wow I can't believe that it has been so long since I have posted anything. We finally enjoyed some snow and I wanted to share some pictures with all of you. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Yeah Sister!!!!

My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on Halloween. They named my new Nephew Collin Riley Smith. He is so cute and I can not wait to go see him. You go sister!!!!!!


Here is a piture of their first Halloween as a family. On of Tara's friends said that the baby went as an ice cream cone

Things will turn around.....

Hello again,

These last 5 weeks have been emotionally and physicaly hard on all of us. It seems like anything that could have gone wrong went all wrong. It all started with my mother-in-law having complications with her surgurey. We decided to go down to AZ so that we could be with her and we hit a heard of elk in Heber, AZ. It couldn't be just one elk that we hit it was 3 total. It was a nightmare. There were atleast 12 elk that were running in front of our Suburban. I still can not get the images out of my head. We are very fortunate that we were able to drive away from it. So we finally made it into town to see our Mom and it was worth it.

When we returned to NM the next thing that I had to face was my father moving back to AZ. We rushed back home so that we could help him load everything into his moving truck. Of course we didn't want him to go so I think that we all were taking our time. That Thursday I had to say goodbye to my father and it was just my family and I here in NM. I really miss seeing my father.

So to top everything off Phillip had to leave for WA and here I was all alone with the kids. I was emotioally done for. It wound up being a very good thing for the kids and I. We were able to work on things between us and have some fun.

With everything that has been going on and me working 60 hours a week I have deciided to turn things around. I am going to stop working as much, lose weight, and I am going to have Phillip and the kids hlp with things around the house. I am no longer going to do everything myself. I am going to make more effort to make more time for the kids and for myself.

Halloween

Well we all made it to another Halloween. I think that it was the hardest day that I have had since we moved here. Phillip is in Washington training the new Director of Finance and the children and I were here alone. It was a very intereting night. Below are pictures of the kids.

Trcker treating here on our street was really lame. There were only a few people who answered their door for tricker treaters and we only saw 3 other children out dressed up for halloween. So the children and I decided to go to the arena for the Suite a Treat and the hockey game. We ended up getting spoiled and getting to sit in one of the suites so I am abe to enjoy more of the game. Below is picture of the kids with Matt the GM of the arena.

Here is a piture of the children and I withe Staley the scorpian who is dressed like Elvis.

The children were asked to be in the costume contest that they had in the middle of the 2nd period. They were able to go out onto the ice. Shawn kept almost falling.

Jessica's 1st Costume Party

My baby girl is growing up. Jessica got to go to her 1st constume / birthday party last Friday night. It just so happens that the party was for twin boys that are in her class. She got to go with her best friend and had a blast. Of course Phillip wasn't happy when he found out it was for twin boys much less just a boy. :-)

Balloon Festival

Man oh man I thought that everyone here was crazy to say that the balloon festival was something that was that great. It is one of the most spectacular things that we have ever seen. There are hundreds of balloons that are in the sky at the same time and they all landed in our neighborhood.

Of course it wouldn't be complete without Vader.


Below is a picture of the balloon that tragically hit power lines and caught on fire right next to the Walmart. Not sure if anyone survived.

Here are some pictures of all of the ballons that had landed behind our home.

Here is a balloon that landed on our street.