Our Christmas Tree

So everyone always debates the real tree vs. fake tree issue. But I have to say that there is nothing like a fresh tree. See real trees usually come from the Christmas tree lot or from Home Depot. Once in a while you get a chance to cut your own from the tree farm but there is nothing like having a tree cut straight from the forest, especially when a tree cutting permit costs $8.00.



Rod and our friend, Nate, went on Sunday outside of Durango and cut down our tree. It smells so fresh and there aren't needles falling off of it when we brought it in the house like last year's tree (from Home Depot). We put it up on Monday night and even with no lights or decorations on it yet Amelia still wanted to read her stories on the couch by the tree.

Cowgirl Up!

I know I have been really behind in posting pictures so I wanted to at least let you see Amelia's Halloween pictures. As of a week before Halloween, I still didn't have a costume for her and by that time it was too late to find something on eBay. I was stumped as to what I was going to do so I asked her what she wanted to be. Her answer? "A cowboy". OK, I though. I can manage that. So after borrowing a few items from a friend, we had our cowgirl. I think she came up with this because we have a Curious George book where he goes to a costume party and dresses up like a cowboy.

The weekend before Halloween we went out to Sutherland Farms in Aztec which has a great pumpkin patch as well a a few animals and a corn pit play area. Amelia loved the hay ride and would have been content to stay in the corn pit all day if we'd let her.

Need a recipe?

Most of you probably already know this but I've started a recipe website for fun and maybe to earn a little extra money. I'm still working on my Juice Plus business but eBay was just getting to be too much work so I thought I would try something new. In case you haven't checked it out yet, you can find it at www.recipesformoms.com. Most of the recipes I post are easy and use the ingredients you probably already have in your pantry. As an added bonus, I also have a post of relevant printable coupons that you can find on the Internet and use at your local grocery store. Just click on the word "Coupons" in the list of labels on the right hand side.

Here's how you can help: 1) Check out the site and bookmark it so you can look for new recipes as you have the need. 2) Pass the info along to your friends and encourage them to pass it along if they like what they see. At the end of each recipe is an icon of an envelope with an arrow on it. If you like a recipe, you can click on that icon to e-mail it to a friend and write them a little note telling them to check out the site.

Thanks for all your help and I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Everybody Sing!

Last weekend, Rod's parents were here for a visit. On Friday evening we went up to Durango for a little outing. We let Amelia play at our favorite park and took a nice walk along the riverwalk. During dinner at our favorite restaurant, Serious Texas BBQ, Amelia had probably more than she should have of my sweet tea and Rod's Diet Coke, so she was quite awake for the drive home. For most of the way home, we had a family sing-along with Amelia as the choir director. She told us what songs to sing including the ABC's; Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; Itsy, Bitsy Spider and a few other. She wanted everyone to be singing and even scolded Rod once when she thought that Daddy was not singing. It was cute to see her mind working to remember all the different songs.

Summer Wrap-up

Can you believe that it is already September and the summer is over?! We, obviously, had a very busy but also a very fun summer. Throughout this post, I've shared some of the best pictures from the summer with you and I'll give you some background to go with them.

We started the summer with Amelia's first official haircut. She has sometimes freaked out just when we've tried to cut her bangs at home so I wasn't sure how she would take to a stranger coming at her with scissors. Luckily, she came through like a champ and sat super still while her hair was trimmed. Summer thunderstorms are common around here. They usually come in the afternoon but one day it started raining in the morning. I let Amelia come out in her pajamas with me to take trash to the trash can. She decided she would like to stay on the front walk and enjoy the rain as it dripped off the front of the house.

We love to spend time outdoors so before Caleb arrived we made it a point to get out to our favorite places. At Navajo Lake, Rod showed Amelia how to skip rocks. Of course, she basically just threw them into the water but it was fun to watch her want to do what Daddy was doing. Then, a week and a half before Caleb was born we decided to do our first family camping trip. We had a huge 8-man tent for the three of us and Sadie. We joined some friends at Haviland Lake above Durango and had a great weekend. Amelia loved sleeping in the tent and learning to fish with Daddy.

Then came Caleb (see the previous post if you missed these details). Amelia is a great bath helper although I've learned that it is best to position her at Caleb's feet instead of his head.

At the fair, Amelia enjoyed bouncing in the bounce house and checking out the specs on the Bobcat tractors. Although she did find the sheep a bit noisy. We also watched a small portion of the 4-H rodeo and she was fascinated by the barrel racing.

What summer would be complete without regular runs in the sprinklers and frequent afternoons in the kiddie pool? Rod's parents brought Amelia a pool/sandbox and she is still asking to go in the pool even though the weather has started to cool down a bit.

In August we were able to go up to Pagosa Springs to a huge cabin for the weekend with my MOPS Steering Team. It is a beautiful setting and was a very fun (not relaxing exactly) for the adults and the kids. Amelia loves being with her friend Kaytriel and on Saturday everyone drove up to a high mountain lake and the kids loved playing in the water.

One benefit of Caleb being due in the middle of the summer was that I had time to get my garden going at the end of May. This was about two months earlier than I was able to start it last year and I have been very excited with the results. I convinced Rod that it needed to be a little bigger this year. You might think that since my garden was so packed last year that I would expand so I would have more room for the plants to grow. Of course not! I took that extra room and planted everything that I had last year plus some. So we have watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, cucumbers, brussel sprouts, tomatoes (2 kinds), crookneck squash, zucchini, butternut squash, acorn squash and strawberries. Amelia loves to see what is growing and asks each time we have vegetables at dinner if they came from Mommy's "gardy". It has been a great way to introduce her to new vegetables.

It has taken Amelia a bit of time to get used to Caleb and the change in routine that has brought. It has been very sweet to watch her as she tries to help with him or comfort him. She is reading him a story here as he swings.
We hope that you has an enjoyable and full summer as we did. We are excited to see what next summer brings as Caleb will be active and Amelia will be everywhere!

Welcome Caleb!

The baby is finally here! Well actually he came early and I am just now getting a chance to write and post pictures about it, but I'm getting ahead of myself.



We welcomed Caleb Joseph Beck into the world on July 1st (2 weeks early!) at 9:11pm, weighing in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. and 20 3/4 inches long. My labor was fast and we were glad to make it up to Durango before I was ready to push. The doctor was afraid he might have an infection so they kept him in the NICU for 4 days while they gave him antibiotics and waited for his blood work to come back. Praise the Lord that everything came back okay and there was no infection. It was a trying week however as Rod was dealing with Amelia (who had a difficult first two weeks) and our Sadie had to be put to sleep after being hit by a car. But God has it all in his bigger plan even if we don't understand it.



Now, back to Caleb! He is a wonderful baby. He eats well, only wakes up once a night to eat and puts up very well with an energetic big sister. Amelia loves to hold him (for about 30 seconds) and is constantly trying to pick him up, so she keeps me on my toes. I have slowly been going more places with both of them although the timing has to be just right.

They say that the biggest adjustment is from one child to two because your first has to learn how to deal with someone else taking Mommy and Daddy's time. For any kids after that, both know how share that time.

I will try to be better in the weeks and months to come to post pictures and updates more often. Our summer has been a busy and exciting one and I will try to recap it (we have some great pictures) in the next few weeks.

Trip to San Diego

Two weeks ago, we spent a long weekend in San Diego for some time to get away and see the family. It was an action-packed three days with basically no naps. On Friday we headed to Oceanside to introduce Amelia to the beach. The last time she was there was when she was 6-months old so I don't think she remembers that. Rod's parents were able to join us since they were camping in San Diego with our nephew. Amelia loved playing in the sand with Matt although she didn't really take to his love of the water. The day was a bit overcast, so just having temperatures that allowed us to play in the sand and not sweat to death was nice.


On Saturday, we spent the day at the Wild Animal Park with Grandma & Mitch. It was a beautiful day and Amelia loved seeing the animals. She had her longest nap of the weekend for about 45 minutes while we all ate lunch. She was a little disappointed that the ducks weren't hungry enough to want to eat out of her hand but loved petting the deer. We also got to see the lions up very close at the Lion Camp exhibit.

Sunday found us at the Padres game. A must for me when visiting San Diego, especially since it was Mother's Day. Amelia showed her team spirit in a new outfit from Grandpa. This is her "smiling" to show how excited she was to be at the game. Miraculously, she stayed with us in our seats for the whole game and even more miraculously, we got to see the Pads win! I was thinking about staying another few days with Amelia but decided that three days without naps and a flight alone with a two-year old while 7-months pregnant was not something I wanted to contend with so we came home with Rod on Monday. All in all, we had a great weekend with the family and a good last trip before the baby comes.

Easter Fun

This Easter was a lot of fun for Amelia, as well as us, because it was the first year we dyed eggs and had a real egg hunt for her. To prepare ourselves for egg dying, we set up our black card table on the grass in the backyard. Then we all changed into either old clothes or black clothes, got the dyes ready and grabbed a bunch of rags, which came in very handy when Amelia knocked over the blue dye cup. She did however have a lot of fun putting the eggs in the dye cups and seeing the results. Of course, we can't get her to come within a mile of actually eating an egg regardless of the way it is cooked.

For Easter Sunday, she was so excited with how pretty she looked in her new Easter dress and new shoes. She dove into her Easter baskets and we are still dealing with the candy issue. After the baskets, I "hid" over 50 plastic eggs in the backyard. Last year we had nothing but dirt back there so at least this year there were a few place to put eggs next to and behind. Amelia got a kick out of looking for the eggs but did not get the idea that her one basket would not hold all the eggs she was finding. We kept having to go behind her and discreetly pick up the eggs that had fallen out and hold on to them to take inside while at the same time trying to keep Sadie from biting the eggs and eating the gummy bears inside. All in all, we missed being with our families but we had a fun Easter together.

We're having a boy!!

We actually decided to find out what we were having this time... and it's a baby!! Ha ha!! It is most assuredly a boy (the little white dot in the middle of the right picture is an arrow pointing at the boy parts). I made sure to ask the ultrasound technician several times that she was sure it was a boy and that she could see both the umbilical cord and the boy parts separately. So now we just have to agree on a boy name which has not been an easy task. And just to keep some surprise in the whole thing we decided not to let anyone know the name we choose until he's born. You have to have something to call about besides just weight and length, right?

The picture on the left is a 3-D ultrasound picture of his face. We didn't have an 3-D pictures with Amelia and this was just part of their standard ultrasound so it was really exciting. I tried to show these pictures to Amelia but I think she thought I was showing her pictures of an alien so we stopped. She does know that there is a baby in Mommy's tummy but I don't know if she fully understands that it also means that a new baby will come and live with us. How do you explain these things to a 2-year old?

Green Beans = Tic-Tacs

Amelia has been very into Tic-Tacs lately. We had tried to introduce her to gum but besides swallowing it most of the time (which was to be expected), she would hold on to it forever after you gave it to her and then keep taking it out of her mouth once she started chewing it. Thus the switch to the Tic-Tacs.

Well, a few nights ago we had green beans with dinner. Amelia realized that if you break the green bean open there are "Tic-Tacs" inside. (You know the little seed pods inside.) She just kept wanting more and more green bean so she could get out and eat the Tic-Tacs. It was a very entertaining meal.

Cold & Snow

So this year we had a very hot summer according to Farmington standards (coming from the High Desert it really wasn't so bad). Now we are having a cold & snowy winter. What opposites! I actually am not complaining about the weather because one thing about living in the Southwest is that a storm rolls through, dumps rain or snow for two or three days and then leaves sunshine in between storms. So the sunshine gets me through even though it has hardly reached the mid-40s for the last 6 weeks and there are still places in our backyard (in the shade) where there is 4 inches of snow. Back on January 17th was the coldest temperature I have personally ever seen, -2 degrees when we got up that morning.

We have taken this opportunity to bundle Amelia up a few times and tromp around in the snow. She doesn't seem to be as excited about it as the rest of us. Probably because she has trouble getting her thumbs in the mittens and then they keep falling off, so she can't do a whole lot except walk around the yard like the Pillsbury doughboy. So because of that we try to keep busy inside the house. We do "dance" at least twice a day which consists of putting on a CD and walk-running in circles around our living room (which is not very big). Half the time she is asking to "dince"(as it comes out) before we've even eaten breakfast. I quickly change the subject when that happens but it is a great way to get out energy later in the day.

Christmas!

Merry (late) Christmas to everyone! We were able to go to California for Christmas and it was great to get to see so many of our family and friends. Amelia thoroughly enjoyed Christmas and getting to see her cousins: Elizabeth, 20 months (on the left) and Matthew, 4 1/2 (in the middle). It was neat to see Amelia experience this Christmas since last year didn't mean a lot to her. As always, she was showered with toys and clothes by all the grandparents and extended family. She is working hard now on expanding her vocabulary and any day now she'll break out in sentences we actually understand.

Well, even though we didn't get a white Christmas (when was the last time that happened in So. Cal.) at least we have 3-4 inches of snow on the ground right now with more expected.