enchanting

In an attempt to find out just exactly what makes New Mexico the "land of enchantment," we headed down yonder south after Thanksgiving to see if we could find anything more enchanting than Albuquerque.

 

Hello, they have a giant pistachio! I made a goal to see it after I read about a bunch of giantized sculptures around Australia. Awesome and enchanting.

 Then onto the best sledding of our lives... in sand. I may never sled in snow again. It was so fast and we didn't start to freeze after ten minutes! Good thing because there was a little bit of this:

 

Roman dramatically plopped down and then raised his head to say, "cheeeeeeeese." hahaha

 It was such a fun trip. Sometimes just getting out of town and staying at a hotel over night is just what is needed to cheer everyone up after all our family leaves after Thanksgiving. And I daresay it was a bit enchanting down there in Alamagordo.

leaves are falling

Our neighbor's tree sheds all its leaves in one go. It's amazing. Yesterday the branches were completely full and this morning it is raining leaves and filling the lawn. I love how there is no warning, as the leaves don't even bother to change colors before their mass descent . So there's really no other choice but to head out on Leaf Shedding Day and have an early morning leaf fight. And the cute thing is that this house is in the middle of us and a family with a four year old and they were already out in their jammies with the same idea.

Ps. My favorite part of this picture is Banks over on the side.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love,
The Black Swan, a Newsie, Harry Potter, Fire Ninja, and Little Monkey

critical update

Good news! My nails have already dressed for the occasion so I might just throw on a costume to match them on Monday.

boo october

 These little guys have been sick this week. It's been kind of a crappy week, honestly. Between the sickies, and trying to adjust to newly cold and murky weather, and waiting for Halloween to get over with already has put us all (ok well mostly me) into poor spirits. I got all the costumes done early this year (!) leaving time for me to create a costume for myself even, but now that I feel so bah-humbug about Halloween I've lost all desire to dress up in it. Bah. Humbug.

 But I'm excited for Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!! Ma famille is coming to celebrate and I'm so excited!!!!!!

Whoa. I just looked at that picture and had a moment where I totally spazzed out because I have three boys. Sometimes I seriously wonder how I got here. Crrraaaaaazy.

thoughts mostly for me

Benson is mad in this picture and no one remembers why. It's probably better that way.

I've been wanting to write a little ditty about Benson for a while now, you know the kind of thing you store away and stroke on your cheek when they are big and scary teenagers and have too many other things to do than frown in pictures in front of balloons. He is truly the sweetest boy, and I keep waiting for him to change into a regular 6 year old that is totally obnoxious but he's still the sweetest thing you ever did see. For example:

This morning when Roman was screaming his head off because he (and consequently all of us) woke up too early, and I was feeling tired and was short with the children, Benson came and found me in the bathroom and sweetly asked, "mom, what can i do to help you?" Even though I was short with him too! He learned this exact phrase from his father, by the way.

Banks was crying on the trampoline a couple of days ago, so I peeked my head out to see if there was any blood spilled and what do I behold but Benson holding and rocking Banks, stroking his hair and giving him kisses. And when Roman started to get a little jealous, he reached for the little one, pulled him into the hug, and rocked him too.

I could literally go on and on, but I'll stop with these two little occasions. Sometimes Ben and I talk about what we are going to do when our kids face problems as they get older, but in the end we often joke that everyone else will probably be okay because they have Benson going first to show them how it's done. And I don't think it will even be from the typical oldest child pressure to be perfect, he's just one of those kids who wants to do the right thing.

I feel lucky to have him around. We all learn a lot from our little Benson.

missing my sunshine.

come back soon.