Halloween Night

Dusk finally came. We all got dressed up and headed out. Ok, just Lil and the little ones. Harley and her friend stayed home with Derek to handout candy. Once the candy was gone the older girls joined us for the last few minutes of our Trick or Treating. Koda and Tripp were so cute and polite. I am very proud of my little Trick or Treaters. We had so many scary houses in our neighborhood and Tripp did great, not to mention the neighbors were very calm and nice with the little ones. Their costumes were a hit. Harley was a old western Salloon Maiden, Tripp was GI Joe (GI Joke, as he kept saying), Koda was a little kitty. I threw on some ears and painted my face as a cat too. Rave, Harley's friend was a scary Devil. They all hit the jackpot with their candy load and had a great time.

Gettin Ready for Halloween Night

After a long day of soccer for the kids and Lil, and a long day of work for Derek, it was finally time to get ready for Halloween night. We carved the pumpkins a few days before, as we usually do. We hung a few last minute decorations, and drank "Netty's" hot apple cider while we got our costumes ready. The hardest part of the whole day was waiting for dusk.

Halloween in SLC / Party Time

We flew to SLC to spend the weekend with family and friends for the Annual Bray Halloween Bash. It was so much fun. I am really glad we decided to make the quick trip. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family. We love you all, thanks for the awesome time. It was worth the plane ride.

IT'S A GIRL!

Adelaide "Addy" (middle name still undecided) Bray

Blackjack at such a young age?

Tripp decided he's gonna count cards like a student at MIT.

Our Little Peanut

Derek and I decided to call the newest member of our family Peanut, until we find out the gender. I am starting to think the baby likes that name, because it sure didn't want to show us any goods today. We went in for our ultrasound and saw so many things. We got to see little wiggling hands and feet. Peanut was even busy swallowing while we watched. I little uncooperative when it came to getting a face pic and head measurements. We had to move and shake the little bugger to get the measurements we needed. I think all that moving and shaking made it even more difficult to get the fun pictures. Our little peanut was curled in a ball with it's hands and feet in its face. Needless to say we left the ultrasound a little discouraged, not knowing the sex. We had a regular check up right after and asked the Dr. if we could have another ultrasound to find out. We would also like some pictures. We saw all the cute little parts, hands, feet, face and all that, but weren't given any pics. What a great sport our Dr. is. He scheduled us for 2 weeks to come in and have an ultrasound at his office.

Stay posted and we will let you know as soon as we do. I guess I can wait another 2 weeks.

Tripp is home !

It seemed to be the longest four weeks of my life. Tripp had a great time in Wyoming, but man oh man were we glad to have him home. I was sure after four weeks it would be very noticeable that he grew. The thing that stood out for me was his vocabulary. That little man of ours has always been a talker, but now its like an older child.

He stole my heart away when he was running to my arms at the airport. I couldn't hold back the tears. He adjusted to being back home with no kinks at all. He got right back into the swing of things. Which includes waking mom and dad up in the middle of the night. He makes me giggle everyday. Oh, and he has a grasp on all of the colors now. We were working with him before he left and he had a few. Now he seems to know almost all, except when you ask him. If you ask him he will act silly and say the wrong color. When he is just sitting there coloring and crabbing crayons he names every color correctly. WELCOME HOME BUBBY !!

Beautiful Storm

As the weather starts to change and things cool down we are getting a lot of storms here in Albuquerque. Once again I am amazed by the weather. I was sitting in our living room and I looked outside, the entire back yard was bright orange. I grabbed the camera and went to take a picture of what I was seeing. When I went outside I found an even more amazing sight. This beautiful double rainbow, with a huge sand like cloud behind it. The cloud was lit up bright orange as the setting sun reflected off of it. I have seen many beautiful sunsets, amazing storms and wondrous weather overall. However, the weather here in Albuquerque leaves the most beautiful and amazing scenery behind. A sky full of rainbow colors for sunrises, glowing sunsets, clouds like I have never seen, and absolutely beautiful rainbows. This place is beautiful to say the least.

They are coming home !

It is a count down of the hours. My sweet (well, you could imagine) little girls are coming home. They have been gone for 6weeks. This is the longest I have ever been without them. Last night they traveled from Salt Lake City with my mom and sister to Grand Junction Co. to see my brother. I called them to see if they made it and to tell them how excited I was. All the excitement and count down almost made me cry. I have only had one melt down of tears since they left, that was on my birthday. I think I can let it all go when they get home. I miss them so much, and to hear their sweet little voices, knowing they are just a little closer to me is a great feeling.

One down fall of this time coming, when the girls get home Tripp leaves for his vacation. If all goes as planned, Tripp will be going back to Salt Lake City with my mom and sister. He will be spending 4weeks in Rock Springs with his dad. I get to go through this all over again. Good thing I will be busy getting the girls ready for school, that should keep my mind occupied...until bedtime each night.

Believe me, pregnancy does not make these emotional times any better.

Koda and Harley's Summer (by:Harley)

Koda and I are having a blast. We went bowling with our Dad. We went to Lagoon with our Aunt Tracie, Uncle Verne, my Grandma, cousins Jessie, Amanda, Jerry, Kayley, and Jessie's two kids. Omg, it was so cool. I rode the Wicked, Colosal, Tilt a world, the Rocket (its so scary) and many others. Koda rode the Lady Bug Drop, Bumper Cars, and many others I cant remember. We went to Lagoona Beach FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. I love that place. After Lagoon we went up to Hudson Wyoming to spend time with my Dads family. 4 days after we got there we went camping for the 4th OF JULY. We didnt see any fire works but we did swim in the lake. The lake was very high up on the shore this year. Our Grandma came to see us again today and wants to take us shopping tomorrow. Bye, love you all bunches.

Camping in Wild Rivers NRA

Feel free to click on pics to make them bigger. We had a blast camping on the rim of the Rio Grande Gorge. The first pic is me playing with fire. I've come to the conclusion that you can never rid yourself of Boy Scout pyro training. A couple shots of the scenery. Night silhouette with the moon. Pregnant hottie and Tripp eating marshmallows. Tripp being a little fisherman. Tripp torturing bugs. The thunderstorm that nearly destroyed camp and resulting hail collection we had around our soaked tent. Tripp with his caterpillar buddy. Tripp...well he's way too grown up now. Just running wherever he feels like and taking care of business. We were cooking dinner, turn around and there he is. Man I love the way boys think. Tripp washing dishes. LOL. Tripp napping. Mom's best friend the bat. Finally me not wanting to leave the tent.

What a blast.

What Were We Thinking?

We have had two ultrasounds so far. Here is a look at the second. The black dot top left is Lily's little bladder and the gray area with the dashed line through it is our little spawn. We thought it would be funny to play out that there were two heartbeats in there but we thought better of it. Only one strong heartbeat. So amazing to see. Well it looks like a little strobe light which isn't all that amazing but the whole miracle of birth is where I was going with that. The length of the baby averages HIM/her at 8 weeks and 3 days old. Our due date is January 30th, 2010.

Zoo

We took the kids to the zoo a few weeks ago and we all had a blast. We rode a train from the Aquarium to the zoo. The train ride was so much fun. We went through tunnels and past the fishing ponds. It was a little hot but not too bad. A lot of the animals thought it was real hot. You can see the lion and the kangaroo were really exhausted. I was very shocked how nice the zoo here is. It is large too. We didn't get to see all of it by the time we left. Tripp got so close to the peacock a few times. Harley and Tripp kept asking all the animals if they wanted to eat Koda, poor Koda. They even have camel rides at the zoo. We didn't have time or the cash for the kids to do that but next time for sure. The kids area was huge, with spraying water fountains. It was perfect because it is at the back of the zoo by the train station. The kids were exhausted and hot, they had a blast getting all wet.

Waiting on Summer

I have been counting down the days to summer vacation. Only this year I am counting down the days for the kids. It will not be likely that D and I get a summer vacation this year. However the girls get to go to Salt Lake City for 6 weeks. I can honestly say that I am not counting down eagerly. This year seems different, maybe because I will be so far away. I am excited for them though. They always have fun on their summer vacations. I guess D, Tripp and I will stay home and watch the tomato plants, Mr. Bean and the weeds grow. All seem to be doing very well actually. I am amazed everyday how beautiful it is here in Albuquerque. I hope that D and I do get time to get away to the lake or something. A little vacation is better than none.

Mother's Day

I can't even begin to express how much I love my children, and how my life is complete because of them. I have those days, as we all do, that I get so frustrated with them, but my love never fades. I could not imagine my life without them. Harley has become a wonderful little lady. She makes me worry every day about showing her the right way. Kodalee is the sweetest most emotional child I have ever seen, but only mommy can see that. She makes everyone else think that she really doesn't care. Tripp amazes me every day with all that he is learning. He talks like a 5 year old and makes me giggle like nothing else. I wouldn't trade a single moment with my kids for anything.
I woke up Mother's day morning with a sweet kiss from my husband. He was on his way to work. I got up and had a cup of coffee with him before he left. He had a gorgeous orchid and a sweet card on the counter waiting for me. The kids made me breakfast, cleaned house and had gifts put out for me...all while I was in the shower. They did a wonderful job picking the gifts for me. I also cashed in a few Mother's day coupons from last year. The girls gave me a manicure and pedicure. I loved my lazy pampered day with my children. When D got home from work we had a very very yummy barbeque.
Thanks for a great day !!!

Earning a living

The kids are getting summer vacation fever. They have been begging for money for this and that and everything else. When they came to me asking for new school cloths money my wheels started turning. I know next school year is still a full summer away. I told the kids they needed to help earn money. Kodalee and Tripp sold lemonade and Harley had a full yard sale. They made the signs and put them out. They set it all up, and manned the sale all day long. I am so proud of them. They earned over 65$.

Springing into Summer

There hasn't been much of a spring season in Albuquerque. That's ok with some of us. It just means that Lil will be walking around with a sweater on, because D keeps the house so cold. The weather went straight from snow to 90 degrees.

We decided to do a little planting. Tripp planted a green bean sprout. He named it Mr. Bean. He gives Mr. Bean a drink of water every day. Tripp even informed us that Mr. Bean does not like beer but he does like milk. Mr. Bean has taken his sweet time in deciding to sprout from the soil. But I am proud to say he has finally showed us what he is made of. Tripp says, "Mr. Bean is my friend."

We also planted tomatoes. We got caught up in the hype of the upside-down tomato planters. Only, we had a little more fun with it...not to mention our version was much cheaper. All of this gardening got me in the mood to weed the yard. I found the cutest, most beautiful weed I have ever seen. I let him live.

You can tell Tripp is a total male! Coloring lasted for five minutes or so then he moved on to building things. That's our boy.

Tripp's First Airplane Ride

I was more nervous about Tripp's first plane ride than he was. For a few weeks before our departure date, we talked about the plane ride a lot. We didn't want Tripp to be afraid. We even made sure he had a little toy airplane in case he was scared of how big the real plane was. Our flight to Salt Lake was very fast. Tripp was awesome, especially for a two year old. He picked his seat, he did not want the window. Our only mishap on that flight was mommy's fault. I dumped my entire fresh hot cup of coffee all over Tripp's lap. Lucky for us the flight attendant was able to get a change of cloths from Tripp's bag. I on the other hand had to walk around with coffee stained pants. I let him out of his seat to sit on my lap and look out the window, that was a mistake. As the plane was landing and he had to stay buckled he started to scream. He wanted out of his seat to keep looking out the window.
A week later I flew back to Salt Lake to pick Tripp up and bring him home to Albuquerque. This time he picked a window seat, and seemed to be a lot more excited. He was so awesome. He looked out the window and pointed out the clouds and the moon to me. He ate his snacks and even ordered his own apple juice. No fuss at all and I even kept my coffee in my cup this time. As we were landing he put his head in my lap and said, "Mommy, my tummy is full." I stood up and got his bag from the overhead compartment, he climbed from his seat and stood next to me in the aisle as we waited to get off the plane. I turned my head for a half a second, when I looked back my little man was emptying his tummy all over the aisle. Yes, Tripp puked all over. I couldn't grab a barf bag because we were between seats in the aisle. I felt bad for holding up the line. Tripp looked at me and said, "Mommy, I wasn't bad. It was the apple juice."

Proud of D.

Derek has made it past the first year with the FAA. We spent several nights awake studying his jet routes and call signs over the last year. For a moment there I was so confused who was studying him or I. I have to say I would stay awake studying with him anytime. D would get frustrated and I would be so tired all I could do was giggle uncontrollably. The kids and I are so proud of him. All the stressful tests and training he had to go through really made me realize why I love him so much. He is the most amazing man I know, even when he makes me stay up late to help him study. It is all worth it when I get those text messages in the middle of the day saying, "This job is so amazing!".

The kids and I wanted to do something special to commemorate his first year. I grabbed the camera and snapped shots of the kids playing "airplanes". Two things that I know really make Derek happy, airplanes and our children. I took the pictures of our little airplanes and made a collage of the kids as airplanes all mixed in with pictures of several types of aircraft. D really loved it. I'm glad he did, it was our way of telling him how very very proud we are.

Spring Soccer

At times the weather in New Mexico is too good to be true. But, it seems when soccer on early Saturday mornings comes around the wind rears it's ugly head. I'm thinking that the constant sore throat I have is due to cold weekend mornings in the bone chilling wind. However, yesterday we got a case of slight sunburn. You could say soccer in the spring fills our lives with variety. Good thing our little Koda is so tiny, her shorts cover all of her legs and the shirts short sleeves cover her arms in full as well.

Tripp needed a four sandwich today. Took me a while to figure cut it into four pieces!

Easter pics coming soon. Even better...pics of tripp's first plane ride!

Koda's Art Project

We made it to the fairgrounds to see our little girl's art on display. We had nothing to worry about it was very cute. Kodalee was so happy with her project. Look how sweet she is. It was a very colorful picture, with a lot of detail. Good Job Koda we are so proud of you !!

Our Growing Children

It seems to never fail, one day they are sweet and innocent and the next they are "Tweens". Our children are growing right before our eyes...without us seeing it. Harley is at the dreaded emotional rollercoaster, more like emotional Hurinado (that's a hurricane and tornado mixed). I'm sure that Kodalee is at the stage of aw and wonder. I would be too, watching Harley and Tripp. And Tripp...sweet, young, little Tripp-a-doo. He amazes us daily. He has a since of humor that could match an adult.

The other day we were trying to get him ready for bed. The only thing he wanted to do was avoid mom. I said, "Bubby, come here. I wanna give you lovins."
He just ignored me. I then said "Bubby, mommy wants to show you something."
He peeked his little nose around the corner and said, "You do?"
I replied with an excited "YA." He came running toward me with a smile saying, "What you got mommy?"
I swooped him up in my arms and said, "This..." and started to give him great big hugs.
He turned to me, the smile gone, and said with a very serious and somber look, "Mommy, that's not funny."

Update

I have no new pictures to post. That's partly because Harley has not had any recent injuries like we thought she would. Soccer is going great, for Hars. Kodalee will most likely have her first game before her first practice. They do not seem to be very organized with getting coaches and schedules. That's ok with Kodalee, so far. She seems to be preoccupied with school stuff. A few weeks ago she had a sleepover at the museum, this week she has an art project on display at the fair grounds. It is these little things in life that make it so much fun. I can't wait to see her art on display. She doesn't even remember which one the teacher picked, so it is a surprise for all. We will post pictures when we find out. I don't know if we should be scared. Kodalee seems to have an inner demon at times, this might be scary. Regardless, we are very proud of her.

February in Albuquerque

We finally did it. We signed the girls up for a season of ER visits. Actually we signed them up for soccer. With our sweet little girls there is bound to be some injuries. We had the first practice, in February, outside and with no coats.

I have been found in the front yard doing yard work, barefoot and no coat! In February! This is awesome. We even have our first blooms of the season. For our family back home in the 40 degree weather, we love you. Oh by the way it was 75 Degrees today in lovely Albuquerque...In February!

Family Valentines Evening

We were very happy that Valentines Day was on a Saturday this year, that makes it relaxing. Because it was a weekend holiday the entire family got involved. The kids woke us up with the gifts they had for us. The girls and Lil organized a special dinner for the family. We had it all, a full menu, Champagne, desert, and even candles. Oh, can't forget our waiting staff. It was a great special night for all of us.