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!

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

That's a Wrap!

This past weekend Gabe was playing quietly in his room..so we thought. He comes out into the family room with a proud grin on his face and says "Hey guess what, I made something. A story. All about Yoda!". You can read his masterpiece below. I especially love his observation that Yoda has "hand lightening". Team Star Wars Episode VII around here folks.

His handwriting is actually improving quite a bit. (no sarcasm). Gabe doesn't like to slow down to write legibly, but his teacher this year is a big stickler on handwriting (amen) so his chicken scratch is becoming  readable! Sorry buddy, my handwriting is nothing to write home about either. Punny.

In other Nulk news,  we are wrapping up September in fine form. I actually have some boxes packed for our big move 5 miles West into OUR NEW HOUSE!!! Every morning I wake up hoping the packing fairies came and packed my house up, but alas they just don't come! What's up with that? So I've had to start packing with my big helper Evie ;).  Because we have the pending move and Wyatt was Mr. Chill Pill, we've done extremely minimal (read: None) baby proofing. Now that were amidst another move (with junk everywhere), he's decided to transform overnight into Mobile Man with Power Crawling capabilities.

  WyWy's favorite things to do of late: play in dog water and spill entire contents of bowl. Slam all doors shut. Open all cabinets. Remove all magnets from fridge. Chase all balls around the house. Slam dryer door shut while I'm removing/folding clothes. Play with (pull out) all night lights. Get into Gabe's room. Pull Winston's ears/tail/face/eyes/jowls with total ecstasy. Crawl under things (the train table) and get stuck. Crawl towards kids swinging at the park. Crawl in the soccer field during practice and or games. Commandeer all electronic devices- iPhones are his Holy Grail.  Wave night night with both hands in the most adorable way. Try to rip off all glasses. Play "ball" with you. Grab floor lamps and attempt to crush himself with them. Giggle at animal noises- especially gorilla.

 This explains my recent lack of blogging. Pretty much the only safe place with him is the play room with the stairs barricaded. Or in his crib. Thankfully he's still a sweet lil napper- 2 solids a day. Soccer is a bit more challenging- he  only wants to sit in his stroller for so long and then starts fussing to crawl around. Lets just say, baby proofing will be a big priority when we move in the new place. We've already picked out hardware for the kitchen cabinets and built the baby gate.

I'll take my baby size Extra Large please. 

What Mom? I'm just petting him.

Hittin' the bottle early

This is while waiting in the car pick up line at Gabe's school. Mom can I have some of your lip gloss? 

 Team Diamonds. So far she's stopped chewing on her jersey during games, now she pulls it up over her head so the ball goes by her and she doesn't even see it. Little stinker. She's pretty good at dribbling the ball- when there's no one against her. She does not like the mob of girls out there.

 Swing time at Yellowjacket park.

 Daddy snuggles while eating a pizza crust.

 Evie LightYear. She's deciding between being Buzz or Cinderella for Halloween. It's a tough choice: Cinderella has light up shoes but Buzz has gloves and wings. Gabe wants to be a Knight with a light saber. Wyatt will wear something of Gabe's that's probably too big for him. #thridchild.

 We had a lovely lice scare at Evie's school. She didn't get it (so far) but I did a Nix treatment as a precaution. Made us feel itchy all day!

 When Daddy hold's Wyatt he gets doused with water and then a baby mohawk.

 Beautiful evening walk sunday night.

 Picnic at the park with Wyatt & Evie and some new friends yesterday!

Evie this morning at school drop off. She just looked ridiculously cute. I know I have a much higher volume of pics of Evie & Wyatt than Gabe. I'm just with the other two a lot more! Gabe's the big, busy first grader. He's doing great! Made the move to his new school seamlessly and already has new friends.

Alright Wyatt is napping so off to chores I must go. Hippety hop. Hopefully a closing date is lurking around the corner….;)

Soccer Saturdays

 Cuteness alert: Evie & her soccer team at their first game.  This Saturday marked the beginning of soccer games. Every saturday. For 10 weeks straight. I think at the end of the season i'll want a t-shirt that says: I Survived Soccer Season. But so far so good. In fact, after being at soccer games/fields (on opposite ends of the YMCA property) for 3 hrs straight Mike & I hopped (dragged all the children) into the van and just said to each other, "that was so much fun"! And it really was! Especially followed by a nice cold pumpkin beer and a nap. It might still be in the 90s here, but I will have fall!!

 Here's how pictures can be deceiving- Evie looks like she's nailing soccer right here. In reality, I think this is the one time she actually kicked the ball during the game. Mike: Evie what was your favorite part of your soccer game? Evie: The snacks.

Haha we're just happy she went out on the field without crying. Little girl emotions are a thing. She doesn't quite understand the concept of the game and kept exclaiming "I can't get the ball with all these girls around me!" So her strategy was to stand back and chew on her jersey while watching all the other girls do the work. But she was FIRST in line for the post-game snacks. oh well, YOLO.

This guy. Proud member of the Blue Sharks. He did great! I think he was smiling the whole game and he loved it. It helps that two of his best buds are on the team with him. He did a good job hustling and even got in the fight for the ball a few times. He's also great at encouraging his teammates. Mike was hoarse after the game from all his yelling (self-appointed assistant coaching) and cheering.

Bless him. Halfway through Evie's game when Mike had already left with Gabe for his game, Wyatt starting crying (nap time) and Evie simultaneously realized Daddy and Gabe had left and started whining. So I had to walk Wyatt around while trying to calm Evie down (I sweat a lot). Finally after 15 mins of "strollering", Wyatt succumbed to exhaustion and took a solid 45 min nap amidst all the chaos. It pretty much rocked my world. Such a good baby.

Evie needs to learn how to relax.

Post soccer game swim. Mom, put me in the pool. And I hate these girly ladybugs

Ah, there we go.  We were the only brave souls at the pool- it's actually cooling down a bit. Or we're becoming total weenies. Probably the latter.

Wyatt in the camping (birthing) chair.  Sunday evening was delightful so we picked up a pizza and headed to the park to play soccer and picnic.

Wyatt really likes picking up balls and holding them near his forehead. Maybe he's practicing for future free-throws.

Evie's outfit choice for school  yesterday. Ballerina Cowgirl

Since being a sibling is a competitive sport, Gabe immediately wanted his picture taken too. He tied those shoes himself. Boo-frigging-yah. He also picks up all the dog poop in the backyard, so he's pretty much my favorite kid ever.

My passé.

That's all. This weekend Evie & Gabe have games at the exact same time so Mike & I have to split up and flip a coin for who gets Wyatt. We also should probably start packing up for our pending move. House has electricity now and should be getting flatwork done!