ABQ and Taos Getaway

Two Friday's ago we traveled to Albuquerque for Bennett's MRI that was on Tuesday.  We attempted the Balloon Glow Friday evening, and unfortunately it was a big bust.  It was too windy.  Just as a balloon got up it would go back down.  We saw a handful go up, but that was it.  Helena got a fun light wand, we danced to some live music, and saw the laser and fireworks show.

 Saturday morning Chris and I left for Taos.  I had never been to Taos before, and it was a great little getaway for Chris and I.  We had breakfast at The Pantry (so delicious!) in Santa Fe, and then checked out the Georgia O'Keefe Museum.  The museum was much smaller than I remember (last I was there was in elementary school).  And there weren't any of her really popular pieces.

 We checked out the plaza in Taos got checked into our room and just relaxed.  We had an amazing dinner at El Meze, with the most amazing tomatoes ever!

On Sunday we did a little shopping and checked out the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  So amazing!  We had a coffee shake (it was ok, but different)!  We tried to check out the Taos Pueblo but it was closed for a funeral.  We sat and drank at a local winery in the afternoon, the wine wasn't that great, but the company was amazing, everyone that was there also trying wine was from the Denver area, so it was just great chatting with "friends".  After tasting some wine we walked to dinner and had a good dinner.  We then went to the casino and played Blackjack we played for a good hour and walked away with what we started with, so we had free entertainment.  Then Chris wanted to play some slots so I picked a $1 slot machine and after a few turns I walked away with $260 in winnings!

 Monday we had breakfast delivered to our room and drove back to my parents house.  The kids did great!
Monday for dinner we met my Aunt Deanna and cousin Cheryl.  It was great to see them.

Tuesday morning we had an early start as we had to get Bennett checked in for his MRI at 6am.  Not too sure how I got so fortunate, but like Helena Bennett wakes up so calm and happy.  Waking him up at 5:30am didn't phase him at all.  We got checked in and I was able to go back with him for his MRI.  He thankfully didn't need to be put down because the MRI was super short.  He wasn't a fan of being swaddled up, but he eventually calmed down.  They put something over his head with a mirror so when he looked up he would see me, and he was such a rock star.  I've never had an MRI but it is so LOUD!  Who knows what the purpose of the loud banging noises are, but it is just so so incredibly loud.  The noise didn't even phase Bennett, he was just focused on me and smiling at me, which helped keep me calm.  At the end he lifted his head a handful of times, so the MRI lasted a little bit longer.  But from start to end I would say it lasted about 5 minutes!  After the MRI we walked over to the UNM campus to give Chris a little tour.  I showed him the dorms I stayed in and the duck pond.  We then made our way to The Frontier for breakfast.  Then back to the doctor's office to actually meet with the pediatric neurosurgeon.  She pulled up his MRI and advised us Bennett is 100% ok and 100% healthy!  Chris had her repeat herself numerous times.  I asked why even the referral, and she said because he does have a big head, and if anything his pediatrician was just being overly cautious.  There will be no follow-up!  We just have a baby boy with a big head!

Overall the trip was good, and now we know Bennett is fine.  I've always taken the phrase "hug your healthy kids to heart" but now it just means so much more.  The trip to Taos was amazing, and two nights of uninterrupted sleep was much deserved!  I truly appreciate my parents who watched the kiddos and have been there!  It was great to reconnect with Chris and have so much continuous one on one time.

Week in ABQ

my mom taking care of Bennett while I pump

hanging out

at the aquarium

The kiddos and I traveled to ABQ last week.  My good friend Tina and her family traveled to ABQ from Florida to meet her sister-in-laws baby...Bennett and Olivia are a little more than a month apart!  So I took the opportunity to go up and see her and her family.  I was so super anxious about this trip.  Little people need so much stuff!  Overall the kids did great, and thankfully Bennett does wonderfully in the car!  I wish I had taken more pictures.  As I didn't really take any until the last day.
Here's a run down of our week.
Once we arrived on Monday we went to dinner with parents to Padilla's.
Tuesday morning we met my friend Sarah and her daughter Clover at the park for a super short play date!  We then met my friend Emily at Chick-fil-A!  It was "dress like a cow day" and Helena was super entertained.  When the cow came out she wanted to say hi, as it got closer she wanted nothing to do with it.  As it got away again she wanted to give it kisses!  I was super thankful as my mom took over caring for Bennett Monday night, but Tuesday I was still exhausted.  So I took a nap Tuesday afternoon and slept until dinner time!
Wednesday morning we met the Witty family for a good breakfast and Cinnamon Sugar and Spice Cafe, we then all hung out and there vacation rental house.  Max was so good playing with Helena it was precious.  Then Cammie came over with her little one month old Olivia.  The babies slept opposite times!  Wednesday evening all of my aunts came over for a pizza dinner and to meet Bennett.  He slept the whole time, it was his only real nap during this trip.  After about 2 hours I finally woke him up.
Thursday I met my cousin Kari for breakfast at Jimmy's Cafe, we then hung out at her place.  Thursday evening I drove to my family friend Chris' cigar shop for a gathering after his father's funeral.  Chris is my age and he lost his mom, Mary about 5 years ago.  Mary was a good family friend, and she grew up with my mom and all of her sisters in Santa Fe. His dad, David suddenly passed away the week before and it was important to me to pay my respects since I was in town.  I obviously didn't want to take the kids to the funeral, but I was happy to go see Chris afterwards give him a hug and tell him how sorry I am.
Friday morning my parents joined us for a fun adventure to the Albuquerque Aquarium.  Helena loved saying over and over "go see more fishies".  She loved that fishies were everywhere, and now askes daily to go see the fishies!
After the aquarium we headed back home.
Overall the trip was great.  By the end both kids were pretty cranky, I think from just being on the go non-stop and constantly leaving the house.

4th of July weekend

how cute is this onsie?  courtesy of Grandma Sweat, of course!

hanging out outside

super cute 4th of July dress!

sparklers!

she loves her grandma

My in-laws were in town for the 4th of July, and I'm just so appreciative that they have made the drive to come see us.  It truly means so much.
We had a great time.  On the 4th of July we drove up to Cloudcroft a small mountain town about 30 minutes away and at least 10 degrees cooler!  We checked out the Apple Barn Store, had lunch, and walked around the town.  It was a lot of fun.
I love seeing how my in-laws interact with Helena and Bennett.  They both love the attention!  Helena had a lot of naked time playing outside with the little pool and water toys!  We tried to watch the big fireworks show from our house on the 4th, but we couldn't see it.  I was sad Helena didn't get the experience, so we did fireworks in the driveway the next day.  She loved the sparklers.
Right now on repeat is Helena asking "what's that?" "what's that?" and "what's that noise?" "what's that noise?"  over and over and over again.  And it was nice to have other people respond!

Helena turns 2!

tricycle from Grandpa and Grandma Sweat

dancing with Grandma Sweat at Caliches

enjoying ice cream on her birthday!

Grandma Sweat made the dress!!!

Great Grandma Sweat, Grandma Sweat holding Bennett, Chris holding Helena, Grandpa Sweat holding Hope.

she loved opening all of the presents!

Almost two weeks ago Helena turned two!  It was a great day.  My in-laws were in town the week of her birthday and having them here was wonderful.  My mother-in-law is great with both kids and she did all the cooking!!!  ...I am so spoiled!!!!
The day itself was pretty low key.  I actually left Helena at home with her grandparents while Bennett and I went to a MOPS meeting.  Chris got home early and we had an early dinner so we could leave for a special ice cream treat at Caliches.  ...Caliches is an amazing custard place, and probably the one place I'll miss when we leave Alamogordo!
That Saturday was her birthday party.  Who knows why I thought it would be a good idea to throw a birthday party with a newborn in the house, but I'm crazy like that, and there were hardly any details.  I wasted $20 on an etsy printable of invitations, a happy birthday sign, and cupcake toppers.  The theme was Curious George.  I knew I wanted the party to be outside, so we set up a little pool, a water table (her birthday gift from us), and we got lots of bubbles.  Overall we had a great turnout!!!  I just ordered a cake and pizza from the local grocery store, and that's it.  Oh and a fruit platter.  We had about 18 kids and Helena was thrilled to have all of her friends over.  My parents came down for the party and I was thrilled that Helena got all of her grandparents together!
It was a great day!

Christmas 2015

I got this little jumper for my God-daughter Katherine when she was almost 2, now Helena gets to wear it!

Christmas morning

hanging with Grandpa

Smiles with Grandma

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Christmas as come and done, and I feel like our celebration this year was sorta a waste.  I did a lot of work, and I find myself questioning what it was all for.  Last year after the holidays Chris and I decided we would be staying home (Denver) for the holidays.  I had really looked forward to that.  Once we moved and I knew it would be different, I just felt different.  About a week and a half before Christmas Chris and I laid in bed and discussed what to do for dinner.  I knew I didn't want to spend Christmas in Alamogordo.  What I really wanted was to erase time and spend our holiday in Denver.  The next best thing (I guess) was to drive the 3 hours to Albuquerque and spend it with my family.  

Christmas Eve eve Chris and I opened presents and put out the rest of the presents for Helena under the tree.  I made biscuits and gravy in the morning and Helena opened her gifts while we FaceTimed with Grandma and Grandpa Sweat.  We left around noon.  That afternoon/evening drove to my Aunt Patti and Uncle Jeff's house.  They have a beautiful new house in Corrales that has an amazing view, it's breathtaking.  It was a fun to see a lot of family and just hang out.  Helena looked super cute in her Christmas dress.  I made a gender reveal cake for my family to tell them the news that baby is boy, and it turned out ok.  The family got the idea and are thrilled the family is getting another boy! Our family seems to have a pretty solid pattern of alternating boy girl boy girl.  

Christmas Day was sorta boring especially since my family doesn't socialize.  My dad watched basketball all day long, Chris watched work videos, I'm not too sure what my mom did.  That morning Helena and I went to my friend Michelle's parents house to hangout for a little bit.  During Helena's nap time I cooked a pizza appetizer thing and some guacamole.  For dinner we had tamales.  This is something I want to drastically change for my family, especially now that we are a family of four.  I want to actually create memories and traditions for Christmas Day.  Growing up in my family Christmas Day has never really been that exciting.  The big day as always been Christmas Eve.  So any fun traditions you have for Christmas Day please share!

By that evening the big news was the massive snow storm coming into southeastern NM.  My big fear was the state highways, specifically highway 380 which takes us east before heading south to Alamogordo.  In my ideal world we would have just stayed in Albuquerque until Monday, but the bigger problem was Chris didn't pack his correct amount of pills.  So we had to be back in Alamogordo on Sunday, at the latest.  So we decided to leave on Saturday.  On Saturday there was another family get together, which we missed.  And that just sucked.  So the one full day we were in Albuquerque (Christmas Day) we didn't even really do anything.  

Who knows when we'll live in a place that feels like home again for me to really feel like I want to create traditions and memories but I honestly want to get there already.

Labor Day Weekend

Riding a pony that used to be Auntie Alice's

 Considering I'm unemployed I really have no excuse except for laziness in regards to my lack of blogging.  So let's hope I can step it up. 
Here's a recap of our trip to Kearney, NE over Labor Day.
Prior to finding out I would be unemployed at the beginning of the month we had discussed a Labor Day trip to Nebraska to visit Chris' parents and sister.  We didn't really make any plans and then once we found out I was getting laid off we completely dismissed the idea altogether.  Then the night before deciding to go I mentioned it.  And well we decided last minute that a change of scenery would do us some good.  So we called his parents at around 8 at night (9 there time) to let them know we would be showing up the next day. 
We packed up and hit the road around Helena's nap time.  She instantly fell asleep and stayed that way for about 3 hours!  We stopped with just 2 hours left and had some lunch, she really didn't want to get back in the car seat, and the last two hours were a little rough, but over all she did an awesome job!
I love the simplicity of going to visit my in-laws.  I know I've stated it before, but no TV, just hanging out and visiting, playing games etc...  They have a big beautiful backyard that the living room looks out onto, and it's just so peaceful.  Helena LOVED being outside and the friendliness of the pets.
Helena did really well with the new atmosphere!  She even slept in Alice's old crib.  She enjoyed going up and down (and up and down and up and down) the stairs in Grandma and Grandpa's house! 
She even had her very own ice cream cone (the end of one that Grandma had eaten) and she loved it!
I loved it because Helena was well taken care of and I was able to lay back and relax!  It truly was a vacation.

Helping Grandma water the plants

She's a good helper!

The highlight of the trip: Giving kisses!!!!

Mom got to relax!

She loves her Auntie Alice!

And of course ice cream!

Picking tomatos with Grandma.  (notice she has one in each hand, and one in her mouth!)

Grandpa got in on the kisses too!!!

Three beautiful ladies!: Great-Grandma, Grandma, and Helena

On our way back Chris gave me a tour of this childhood.  The first stop was in Lexington which was were Chris graduated High School.  Then to Gothenburg which was where Chris was born.  Lastly was Brady where Chris went to elementary school and lived on a ranch.  It was a fun little tour!