Spring is here

Sunday the weather was beautiful (but windy) so we decided to go enjoy the spring weather and look at some of the static display planes on base.  Jake is always up for looking at airplanes. 

Imagination

Before we moved, Jake enjoyed using chopsticks to eat his food.  I forgot to pack some with us, so he decided to improvise.  One day he found one of my bobbypins (he calls them tweezers) and started eating his goldfish with them.  Today he asked me for some tweezers so he could eat his crackers...so here he is enjoying a little snack.

Grace stood by and watched and waited for him to share...which he did.

Then today while we were eating lunch, Jake grabbed his trumpet and played a little song for us.  He is always entertaining us!

update

Things have been going good for us the past few weeks. We have been busy looking for a house and we finally decided on one. After some negotiations, a price was settled on and now we are waiting for the financing. That is going to take as long as it did to find the house. Sheesh, why can't we promise the lender we will pay our mortgage and call it good?!?

The kids have been doing great. Jake has become our personal trainer. The gym on base has a family exercise room which has a designated play area for the kids and some equipment for the parents. EVERY day he asks when we are going to the gym. He is persistent, so we usually go to the gym 4-5 times a week. I guess that is for the best with all the fried snickers and stuff that I've been eating! Grace is quite the crawler and doesn't give up easily. She goes straight for the electrical outlets and is often shutting herself in rooms while playing with the door. Jake loves to tease her and get her to crawl after him around the room. They have fun and are good kids. 

After doing the laundry a few days ago, Jake asked if he could play with the turtle shell. Don't you love the imagination of kids?

He also loves to play outside on the playground.  He has a new fascination with sticks and will always grab one to hold while we are outside...even if its just on the way to the car.

Grace has fun on the playground too.  

She tried to eat the rocks, but as soon as I took it away from her...

....this is what she did.

  

This morning Gracie woke up with this wonderful do.  She is giving Donald Trump some serious competition!  Plus, she is much cuter, and nicer than him.

I've also got to share with you the delicious treat we found here the other day.  We went to a local eatery called Taco Box.  They had  a few specials, one of which was a fried Snickers.  yum.  since it was only .99, i decided to try it.  I don't think i will be getting it on a regular basis, but it was pretty good.  Then again, most everything tastes good fried.

we made it!

Last night we arrived safe and sound to our new home...Clovis, NM.  We don't actually have a house yet, but a decent room on base until we can get situated.  We were supposed to go look at a few houses this afternoon, but Brooke had a tooth that bothered him last night, so he went into the dentist and it ends up he had to have a root canal...yikes!  poor guy.

On a happy note, we do have an internet connection...we were super excited about that one.  I'm sure there will be much to write about in the next few days and weeks.

Here are a couple shots of us mid-move...

An evening picnic in our empty family room

The kids playing...well, Grace was playing, Jake had taken over Brooke's Ipod touch and was watching a movie on it.

On our way out of Albuquerque

And here is Grace at lunch, enjoying her cheese sandwich

way behind

It has been so long since I have posted, and there is so much to post about! This is just a quick update with a warning that it will probably be a while more before I post again. Tomorrow is our last day here...we are moving. It is sad because we have met some really neat people here and have enjoyed our time in albuquerque. I'm sure we will be back to visit. So we have been busy preparing for the move, watching all our stuff get packed up, finding renters for our house, and cleaning our house. We have been in a Hotel for the past week and the kids have been great thru all of the craziness and change. Jake loves going down to the lobby in the moring to get breakfast. Grace decided that this past week would be the perfect time to master crawling. So inbetween cleaning and packing, we have to keep a close eye on her because she is EVERYWHERE. It is fun though and I think she is enjoying her new found mobility.

In a nut shell, that is what we have been up to. I don't think we will have access to internet for a while, so pardon the lapse.

she's trying

Grace has yet to master crawling.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  It is kindof nice to know that when i set her down, she will be in the same spot when i go to pick her up.  But, now i think she is getting a little frustrated with staying in the same spot.  There is way too much for her to explore, right?!?  Well, she is getting better at getting in the crawl pose, and she will even start to move a little...except she goes backwards.  That frustrates her too.  I'm sure she will catch on soon, so i guess i better watch out!  There are other tricks she is getting good at, waving, clapping, snapping and feeding herself.  She is just growing up so fast!  

The other day I went in to check on her while she was napping and this is what i found.  She usually props a leg up on the bumper pad while she sleeps, so this was new....and cute.

The weather was beautiful outside today so Jake spent some time out back.  It can be deceiving here because it is usually sunny, but it isn't always as warm as it looks.