New baby....

K well Cole and I aren't having a baby, but there is a new one here, right now!!! I am babysitting a 2 month old for a few weeks and Finn does not like it one bit.  He is so jealous! When I am feeding Ryder he pulls at me and cries until I put him down.  Lets just say that this "job" has cured me of my baby hungriness! I am not ready to not have Finn as the baby.   Ryder is 10weeks and Finn will be 8 mos on the 7th! My little guy is tiny, or this baby is massive! ha

Sp3eD RacEr

Finn is crawling all over the place.  He is starting to pull himself up on things.  Cole and I are really enjoying this new phase.  Finn is starting to be a little more independent.  I can put a few toys down and watch him play while I clean or do my own thing.  It is so fun to see Finn flow me around.  When I do the dishes he sits right by my feet and pulls on my pants.  I let him help me make dinner too, he is great with a wooden spoon.

November...a lot is going on this month!

Finn turned 7 months this month and along with that day he got his first tooth and now his 2nd bottom tooth is popping up right beside it and he is CRAWILING!!! Our little boy is becoming not so little. I forget how quick he is and I don't pick things up fast enough.  He is loving having all this space to explore.  We are all still adjusting to our own rooms.  Most nights Finn ends up in our bed.  He is so sweet at night.  When Cole or I finally bring him in our bed he either has to have his nose touching mine or Cole's or my hand has to be patting his chest.  I think he needs to know we are right there.  He loves his mama and dada, and we love him so so much.  In other news my twin sister, Danielle, is getting married! I never thought it would happen.  It has taken her awhile to consider the wonderful blessings of having a husband and family of her own.  Her fiance, Brandon, and her left California on Wed, Nov. 9 headed to Maui! How lucky are they??  They are having their ceremony there and then staying for a week to honeymoon.  I am so terribly sad that I couldn't be there.  My sister is being very understanding and kind about us not being able to be there for her special day.  We are trying to see if we can make it to Cali for the reception in Dec.  Cole and I want to go for a few reasons.  No one except my mom and brother has met Finn! It's that crazy? It seems crazy to me, but I guess that is what happens when you live far away from family.  I really want my dad and grandparents to meet my son.  Also I want to support my sister in her choice to make Brandon her husband.  None on my family was able to come to Cole's and my wedding and I don't want my sister to not have me there.  Our house renovations are coming along.  It is hard to get very far when your little one can get into the stuff you don't want him to.  A friend from the ward came over to help paint and that was a blessing.  She was so fast and we got the walls covered in no time.  We picked up some new light mounts for the kitchen, dinning and hall.  Once we paint the ceilings we can put those up! It is wonderful to have Lows in town now.  The hardware store we had to go to before Lows was open was slim pickins compared to what Lows has to offer.  When that place finally opened Cole was ecstatic!  It is truly a boy's wonderland. Friday we are having our good friends over for dinner and a movie.  Cole had lots of friends to hang out with in Utah and I had my friend in Houston, but this is the first time that WE have friends that we both like and enjoy their company.  Cole is always shocked on how quickly I make friends when we move and now he has his group of guy friends as well.  I am so happy to announce that Cole and I get to go to the Lubbock Temple this sat.  The Elders are taking a member through and they needed a ride.  Gratefully we can take them down there.  Another couple is going to go with us, so we are going to make it a fun little trip.  It takes 3 hours and Lubbock is a bigger city.  Cole and I plan to make use of our gas money and see what the town has to offer.  :)   Thanksgiving is going to be at our house this year.  We are hoping Cole's sister and her family are going to be able to come down.  Last year we used our roaster and used a can of mountain dew and some other spices to cook our turkey.  Cole loved it and can't wait to improve on our recipe.  The holidays are coming up so fast.  This will be Finn's first Christmas.  I am so excited to hang our stockings up by the fireplace and have Finn tear open his gifts.  It will be very different for Cole this year.  It is his first ever Christmas without snow!  I will have to keep his attention off what he is used to and make some new traditions.

This picture I LOVE.  We had just gotten back from church and Finn looked so cute in his tie.  Our little family is such a blessing to me and I love Cole so much.  He works so hard to keep us happy and with the things we need and want.  Finn is constantly changing and keeping our love strong and true.

OUR HOUSE and Halloween

                                          Living Room; not painted

                                            Dining Room; not painted

Kitchen; almost done

                                             Backyard

Front of the house; getting started on the roof

                                         Bathroom; getting a new vanity, mirror tile and paint!

                                           Hooking up the washing machine!

Cole parent's were a great help. THANK YOU!

Cole and I finally have a house.  We are out of our one bedroom apartment and into a 2bed, 1bath HOUSE! We are so happy to have this blessing.  This house of our's is owned by a family in our ward.  We had asked if they wouldn't mind renting to us and then it turned out that we wanted to buy it.  They agreed and now we are fixing it up so we can close on the loan.  It should be ready by the end of the year, we hope.  Mr. Hagler and Cole are putting a new roof on and then we are remodeling the bathroom.  There are a few minor things that need to be done and then we are good to go.  We have painted the kitchen and we are working on the rest.  I will post the pictures when we finish.  This house may be tiny and it may not be as nice as some, but it  will be ours and we can't wait to watch Finn grow up in our first home.  Oh and I forgot the best part! We are  within walking distance of the RIVER!!

This Halloween was spent unpacking and getting the house in order.  I am kind of sad that Finn didn't get to dress up for his first Halloween, but I am more excited that the reason we didn't have time was because we are in a house.  It was fun having the trick or treaters knock on our door and seeing their costumes.

fallapalooza

Every year the baptist church puts on this free carnival right before Halloween.  It was awesome.  Finn was to young to really reap the benefits.  I was old enough and i certainly did! They had the trampoline harness activity and I have always wanted to try it.  We had to wait in line for a while, but it was well worth it.  It was surprisingly tough.  My arms and legs are still sore! haha I got so high it was incredible.

  They had tons of bouncy houses and games.  I am looking forward to next year when Finn can do some of the activities.  We met the Lingren's there and Their little girl rode the ponies and Devon and their son climbed the rock mountain! After we were done we went to lunch and confirmed our plans for dinner that night.  Cole and I got a babysitter for the night and the 4 of us went out to dinner.  We ate at the Stock Exchange.  It is one of Rachel and Devon's favorite places.  Their food was breath taking! You can see the chef's create your meal while you sit and wait.  It was a great first date after Finn.  The restaurant offers cooking lesson's every Wednesday and Rachel and I are signing up!  It was hard leaving Finn for an hour, but we really enjoyed our selves.

Crafting while the hubby builds a fence!

We have these great friends; The Lingren's.  They are awesome.  They are the same age as us and they have two adorable kidos.  One weekend they needed help building a fence around their property and Cole loves to do that sort of thing.  Rachel found this really cute crafting idea.  We paper mached plastic pumpkins! It was so much fun.  I made homemade pizza for lunch and we all hung out.  The fence took them two days to finish.  Devon was so thankful for the help and Cole enjoyed the chore.  Their kids were a great help with Finn and they even helped me with my pumpkin.

Devon and Cole....You should have seen these two!  They were amazing,  once they got into a rhythm they were so fast.  They wouldn't even brake for lunch or to even take a drink.  Such good men.

 These 3 are going to be great friends.  They are so gentle and sweet to our little boy.

                                          Standing up by himself! He is growing up so fast!

Our pumpkins! It was so much fun.  Rachel was so speedy, she made 3 in the time that I had finished one and was half way finished with my second.  They turned out super cute.

6 mos and CAmPing!!

Finn turned six months on Friday.  We drove up into the mountains ( yes! New Mexico has MOUNTAINS!) to camp this weekend.  We stayed at Camp Tall Pines.  It was so relaxed.  As we drove into camp there were dogs and horses running around.  There was no one staying in the same area as us so we kinda got the place to our selves.  It was a very nice area.  They had toilets and hot showers so we didn't need to rough it.

Cole made us Hobo dinners for the first night.  They turned out pretty great.  Hamburger, peppers, carrots and potatoes rolled in foil and set in the fire.  Of course we had s'mores...Finn even enjoyed a marshmallow.  Finn fell asleep in my lap while we were enjoying the fire and then all of a sudden WHAP!!  I heard this loud smack noise and then a huge scream from Finn.  Cole was trying to nail me with a mallow and got Finn right in the head. Cole felt so bad! :( To calm Finny down we let him suck on the thing that woke him up.  He loved it.  Why wouldn't he?!?  I am pretty sure he was on a sugar high the rest of the trip. haha

That night after we were full from good food and a delicious dessert we went into the Allen's tent for a game.  We played Carcassone.  It is way fun! You build this city and pray that the dragon doesn't eat the citizens.  About halfway through the game the wind picked up and we were glad we were warm in the tent.  Cole and I both swore we heard a little growl!  And the next morning our Cheetos were gone! There was a trail leading off into the woods.  The wind blew so hard their tent blew over and they ended up sleeping in the car.  That was a bummer, but they handled it with a great attitude.  I was impressed with our truck tent. You couldn't even tell that the wind was gusting outside.  Finn and Cole had the best 4 hr sleep.  When you are camping and go to bed really late you get woken up early weather you are ready to be up or not.  Cole got the fire going again and we ate bagels, grapes and apple juice for breakfast.  I was craving a big cup of hot cocoa.  We made a few s'mores too.   Then once we were warm again we finished our game and had lunch.  Cole grilled his sandwich by the fire. Our lunch was interrupted by a Frisbee Golf tournament.  They have a course throughout the campsite.  That was fun to watch for a bit.  We went on a little hike after lunch.  There weren't any trails so we just made one up.

We got our camp cleaned up and drove into Cloudcroft.  It is a cute little town.  Their shops closed about the time we got there so we didn't get to see much, but we ate at this pizza place and it was pretty good.  Derek turned us on to Pepperoni and Jalapenos.  Delicious.  Then we drove home.  Finn slept for the drive and then didn't sleep at all when we got home.  We finally got a few hours in at around 4am! Unfortunately we slept through most of church.  Our first family camping trip was a success and we are already talking about going back in a few weeks.  

My SKIRT IS FINISHED!

A year ago I got this idea that I would make myself a skirt...I got really cute fabric and told myself that I didn't need a pattern.  How hard can it be??  Well apparently it is hard! Very hard.  I know where my "skirt" as a shirt.  So this time I used a pattern and it was still challenging, but fun.  I enjoyed making it and can't wait for my next project.