Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Santa Fe National Forest

So there are extraverts (recharge around people) and introverts (recharge quietly/alone). I'm adding another "vert"…a "naturevert". Michael & I both recharge being in the raw natural beauty of God's creation. Let me tell you, we came away tremendously refreshed after a day spent in the Sango De Christo Mountains among the aspen groves. 
 The aspens were in their full glory. When in person, the trees actually look neon, iridescent yellow. The color cannot be captured by film, just like a picture of a Queen Angelfish can't do it justice. You just have to be there to see the shimmering leaves and azure sky to experience the total beauty of it.

 Wyatt fell asleep on the drive up which was gift for all of us ;). He let Mommy (Me) just sit and relax rather than force-feed him a tube of baby food . Or goldfish.
 I was afraid us wimpy Texans would be cold, but we ended shedding layers it was so pleasant outside.

 Family photo of all 5! With Wyatt's face! #winning

 These pictures make my need to move back to mountains almost palpable!
 I took this exact picture of Gabe back when he was 18mths old…at this exact spot. And the aspens were this glorious that time too!
 Gabe decided to examine an Aspen leaf during this family pic
 Evie taking care of Wyatt. Spotted: her new turquoise barrettes I scored at Balloon Fiesta and her new boots from Nana. Thanks Nana!!
 Why so serious WyWy?? Cuz it's NAPTIME MOM! I BE HANGRY!!


 In other news, Nulkie & I both purchased new hats.





 This return trip home was sponsored by Apple Products. #angrybirds


Wyatt fell asleep the LAST 10 mins of the flight. As soon as we landed in Texas we all started sweating. The kids did great, really. We went from traveling to a walk-through of our house and they were troopers. Moving day is really really soon! So I really have to go pack while baby is napping. NO MORE PROCRASTINATING!!!

Hope you all had enjoyable Columbus (I will always call it this) Day weekends as well. #ColumbusDay4Ever

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Balloon Fiesta 2015


I literally had just started downloading pics for this post with a nice microwaved hot cup of coffee when our realtor texts that someone wants to come see the house in 1 hour. Me: !@$%&*()_&^%$. After my internal meltdown, I proceeded to close the ole' Macbook and frantically start cleaning like the Pope was visiting. LIES. I actually gave the house a nice vacuum job (a VJ) and wiped counters down/crammed stuff in cabinets. Then I woke the sleeping baby (UGHHH) and dragged him plus the dogs out into the bat mobile to aimlessly drive around Rockwall while waiting for the showing to be over. After waiting an hour I came home assuming the people came and went. WRONG. They were 2  hrs late and I was just getting lunch out for Wyatt when they showed up. Awkward alert. However, had they been 10 minutes earlier they might've caught me in my birthday suit (I was showering) which may or may not have helped our chances of getting this place rented lickety-split. I'll let you decide.  Any-who, that's the excitement for today. 

Back to Balloon Fiesta. And when I say back, I mean TAKE ME BACK to the land of Mountains and NO HUMIDITY. It was like my skin sighed with relief and retracted all the excess oils/sweat it produces in Texas. It was a fantastic trip. Mike's parents' are gracious hosts and they have a gorgeous place. They cooked us delicious meals, played/watched the kids, and loaned their car among many wonderful things they did for us! Went too fast! THANK YOU Nana & Gramps!! 
 We flew in Friday morning with time for a nice relaxing soak in the hot tub with that glorious view of the Sandia Mountains. And by relaxing soak I mean Gabe & Evie thought it was their own Olympic diving center and the special event was Parent Jumping.  Evie gets the gold for that one. Gabe earned a solid silver in the secondary event: Parent Squirting/Splashing. Mike got the gold for that.
No fun being had at all by any of us. None. ;)  I think Gramps had to refill the hot tub after each usage on account of the two feet of water that were splashed out!
Meanwhile inside,  Wyatt was fascinated with the two different texture floors. But what he was REALLY excited about was Nana & Gramps new cat Maggie. She is not declawed so we had to keep a close eye on baby-feline interactions. Only one of our children was scratched by her; I'll let you guess which child. If you guessed Evie you would be right. To say she was obsessed is putting it mildly. "Where's Maggie?" "Can I play with Maggie?" "Can I give Maggie a hug?" "Aww Maggie""she's sooo cute" "Where's Maggie?".. .Guess what she's asking for Santa to bring her for Christmas? Her Daddy may or may not be encouraging this.
 Gramp-snuggles
 Wyatt at 530 AM. The MVP for Balloon fiesta goes to the Ergo. A close runner up is the light sabers Nana was cajoled into buying for her sweet grandchildren ;). Nothing says Balloon fiesta like an epic light saber battle!
 Evie is just happiness personified right here. This is before the light saber purchase. But in all seriousness, there's a lot of standing at Balloon Fiesta and sometimes kids get a little whiny and want to sit down. Not mine of course.  So I highly recommend bringing a chair or blanket. Or an awesomesauce Uncle with a portable chair who lets them sit with him! Thanks Uncle Tuggy!

 Ah, here we go. Gabe of course chose green. Evie picked pinkish-orange. But her's died so she was able to exchange it for blue (ELSA'S DRESS) which turned out to be cooler than Gabe's so he wanted it the rest of the weekend. #thesibilingstruggleisreal
 Looks! Gabe's twin! Kind of creepy!
 'Murica
 The sun is coming up in this picture.  For those of you who have never experienced Balloon Fiesta (you're probably from the Northeast and didn't know Green chile belonged on pizza either) it should be on your bucket list. You wake up super early (4 am) and get all bundled up and head to balloon fiesta park. First you buy a coffee and breakfast burrito (hold the green chile & double the bacon please) and head to the field. It's still dark so the balloons "glow" as they're getting ready to ascend into the sky. After Dawn Patrol (the initial ballon) checks conditions hundreds of balloons start inflating and go up into the sky. Approximately 500-700 balloons! All different colors and shapes and you can walk right up to them.  Or try to lick the udder the the Creamland cow. Us Nulks ALWAYS be classy. #udderlydelightful

 Jedi Gabe with My Feet Hurt Evie. She scored a few free rides. Plus she rocked those pigtails.
 Family pic with Wyatt in it! Maybe sometime we'll actually get Wyatt's face in it!
 If you can't tell, we had gorgeous Weather. Fifties and sunny. Of course us weeny Texans were bundled up for the arctic tundra but NO ONE WAS COLD. Ain't gonna be no cold kids on my watch.
 Arabelle the Creamland Cow arises! Thus cometh the blinding sun!

 "Have fun at balloon fiesta you will. Take lots of pictures you will"- Yoda Balloon

 No selfie sticks used in the taking of this selfie. Just Nulk arms the size of an orangoutang. This is also a real good look at the beardliness progress.

 Our besties came up from Colorado Springs! I love that even though we haven't seen them for 6 mths we can hang with them like we just saw them yesterday. Friends who Ergo together, stay together.
Our friends may have made fun of us for dressing in flannel and beanies and puffy vests. They were in shorts and chacos. We clearly have gone soft.
We even got to do a double date with these Sutds! Thanks Various Family for babysitting! We had so much fun catching up that we literally stood in the parking lot for a ½ hr after we both said we needed to get home and were tired. Next time, we play Settlers!

Alright that's all I have time for today. More to come! Aspens! More pics of our kids!

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Pack a lack


 What's the haps with the Nulks you ask? Pack pack pack pack PACK. Clean/stage rental. Pack again. Move all packed boxes to stage/clean rental. Repeat x a million. And now guess what I'm doing? Packing for a trip! Us Nulks be crazy.
 Meanwhile, the Tiger cubs got themselves a studly den leader. Check out that beard!
Why so serious Gabe? Because he didn't want to raise his middle finger because that's bad. #parentingwin
He earned his Bobcat badge last night. He came home all proud and sweaty and goes, "Mom I got a surprise for you. My bobcat badge! Can you sew it on? Can you sew it on? It's needs to be sewn on, can you sew it on?" Me: Gabe I'll sew it on later. Go shower! 
 Evie had Wear Texas Flag Colors/ Dress Like A Cowgirl Day at Preschool. No i'm not joking. This is the best we could do. What you can't see well are the braids. You know you're a mom of a girl when you YouTUBE how to dutch-girl brands. THANKS FROZEN.
Evie at breakfast: Mom these braids are like Annas! But Elsa has one braid. Not two.
 Me: #&%^&^#!! Elsa (in my head). What I really said was: Your hair isn't long enough.

Actually Elsa has helped us accept certain things, like not everything in life must be pink. Case in point, at her preschool orientation Evie was assigned a blue pencil box. Insert her need for an epic whine session. I quickly went for the Frozen interception and said it was the color of Elsa's dress. Evie's response: Elsa's dress is turquoise Mom, not blue. Welcome to my life. So sassy, those Nulk children. I don't where they get it!
You can see WyWy back there making a beeline for the dog bowl.

In other news, we've going on a mini-trip to New Mexico for Balloon Fiesta 2015! I'm currently avoiding packing myself right now while blogging! I hate packing for myself. I can handle the kiddos/carry-ons like a boss. But me? I'm an emotional dresser (my mother in-law taught me that) and I can't decide what I'll be feeling like wearing. Ridiculous? Probably. On our one direct flight to ABQ we have a row of 3 seats and then a single seat across the aisle. My suggestion? Nulkie gets the 3-seater row with Gabe, Evie & Wyatt on his lap and I'll take one for the team and sit by myself across the way. Then I can pretend they're not my kids and make annoyed, irritated, condescending faces. Oh heavens, who has three kids these days? Are they Amish? Why are they so large? I wish those parents would make them behave. Then i'll sip my drink and read my book and catch up on my correspondence. L-to the O to the L !!! Actually we voted Gabe gets the loner seat with Wyatt on his lap. It's gonna be JUST fine.

Okay I must actually go pack/clean for the next showing of our rental that is apparently happening in a few hours. Just got the call.  Pray these people want to rent because then we don't have to double pay. And can have more money for important things like SHIPLAP and Pendant lights! #fixerupperforlife