Albuquerque, New Mexico

So at the beginning of October, I took a road trip with my sister's down to new mexico (it's like mexico...only cleaner!) to visit katy and micah and their new baby, emmett. We left early, but ended up getting stuck in traffic in this stupid little town that happened to be having a very big celebration. Anyway...we got down to katy's around 5:30 on saturday. These pictures came from two different cameras...neither one was mine :) so they are in order by each camera.

monday night, micah took us all to el Pinto, a southwestern restaurant. The food wasn't too good, but the ambiance was awesome :) and we all got to try some chili...not a sauce, mind you but not the soup either.

Tuesday we went to tinkertown. there is no way to describe tinkertown...you just have to experience it.

Tuesday was also betsy's birthday, so renee made a cake and we floated it down the river...at tradition that katy and micah have.
thursday morning we went to the balloon fiesta ...it was cold and we are laPierres


but alas, micah had his own personal heater, so he was fine!
Now these are all from betsy's camera...this was on the garage door when we arrived
the excuse for our visit, thank you emmett.

So we were a little exhausted for conference that sunday, so I think we each took a turn and slept for a few minutes

this would be my turn




Sunday night we skped basically the entire laPierre family...but this guy was just so stinkin' cute!



So betsy and laree did this big photo shoot of emmett...seriously, like 1,ooo pictures. Above are just a sample.

Emmett hadn't been liking his baths...he'd been screaming through them. So we did a little countertop sponge bath...and he barely cried.
Donuts for betsy's birthday...a LaPierre tradition
Emmett and his favorite aunt


dawn patrol...these balloons go up first to make sure the weather is ok.

this couple got married in one of the balloons
the balloon of the day




the balloons would just come down anywhere...the middle of a parking lot or field...or the middle of the road...they just come down
emmett and renee
leaving the fiesta
micah and emmett...notice his little feet sticking out of the bottom
renee at the fiesta

anyway...other than pictures of the baby, we didn't take very many pictures. We had such a great time. It was awesome to hang out with my sisters and enjoy a baby...we were all sad to leave saturday morning...but 12 hours later, there were some very excited people to see me!

The King

So I have a few pics from this summer left to post....So this is the bike trailer. The kids pulled Payton around the block in it. Two in front, one in back...the fore guard and the rear guard, no seriously. They hauled him around the block saying, "All hail King Payton. All hail King Payton" They were so loud I could here them when they were a street up from us...the neighbors got a kick out of it.

Payton got out quickly and wouldn't get back in for pictures, so here is Jayden demonstrating how it looked.

the guards

them making the final corner

Halloween 2010

I have this thing about Halloween. It should be a no-big-deal holiday. Ya know, a little bigger than Presidents' day, but less than Thanksgiving...maybe similar to the 4th of July. It should take a little thought and even less money. (I'm cheap like that). So I DREAD Halloween every year. I don't want to spend $20/kid for costumes and I'm just NOT a sewer. But I have this AWESOME husband who has this creative gene...and can do amazing things with wood and other household "leftovers". So he made the kids some things for Halloween and then they searched their dress ups to find costumes to match (and their friends boxes and our own halloween box) and here is what they came up with:

Snake Eyes. (from GI Joe). Borrowed it from a friend. He couldn't stand to wear the mask. So he didn't.

a skeleton warrior (he was gonna wear a skeleton mask, but changed his mind at the last minute and went with the stitches and fake blood instead). Chris made him this sword, he actually made two of them, but luckily Jax only decided to carry one...he was struggling with one by the end of the night.

The Sorceress. Chris made this staff out of old vacuum cleaner parts (LONG LIVE THE SHOPVAC!). He spray painted it and then let kenzie decorate it. The coolest part is that he rigged it so that the ball lit up. It was pretty ingenious, but then again what else would we expect from chris?

The Spider. We bought it for Jax when he was 2..everyone except Jayden has worn it. It was warm and oh so cute.

the whole group ready to go out.

A close up of those cute little kids...ready to go trick or treating on saturday...yep, we went on saturday!

Hi, I'm the grinch of Halloween. Nice to meet you.

Pumpkins 2010

'Tis the season again for pumpkin carving and halloween costumes...I SO don't like halloween costumes! But pumpkin carving I love. This year we grew our own pumpkins, that was fun! Even though the overtook the whole garden and looked like a big mess, I will totally do it again! Our massive crop yielded 8 pumpkins...one we donated to our favorite neighbor ;). So here are our "blank canvases"...

So let the carving begin:

Payton's Pirate

Jayden's Snake Eyes (from GI Joe...it's his costume this year)

Mykenzie's Three Eyed Monster

Jaxon's Dracula

Now these pictures are so classic...they are totally the Anderson family...how many pictures do we have of Jayden like this??? He was upset about something so....

everyone copying jayden

all lit up! So I guess we're ready for the big day!