... and it was a very Merry Christmas!

We had a truly wonderful Christmas break in Taos. The Brandenburgs are fabulous hosts and spoiled us for four days straight with lots of great food (tamales and posole for Christmas Eve is Howard's favourite meal of the year), lots of fun and lots of play. 

Here are a few highlights...

Waiting for Christmas...

Exploring Great-Grandmommy Frances' beads with Grandaddy. 

O! Christmas Tree!

Playing games with Cathy. 

I suspect that Paloma is going to be a video game player too...
[She really enjoyed swinging the controls around and 'walking' off cliffs.]

Tuckered out...
[And sleeping in a big girl bed!]

 A hike near John's Bridge...

Arroyo Hondo, just upstream from John Dunn Bridge - brrrrrrr....

Howard bouldering on John's Wall. 

A quick walk down to the bridge.
[It was 20F and we didn't last long.]

 Christmas Day...

Checking out everyone's stockings
[that magically appeared during the night - thanks Santa!]. 

Hmmm... I wonder which present to open next?

A new beanie for Paloma!

Fascinated by technology...
[Both of them, methinks!]

A new beanie for Howard!

Paloma, hard at work, cleaning up after the morning of gift-giving. 

 After Christmas...

Reading some new books on Christmas night.

Drawing and working through puzzles with Grandmommy.
[A great gift from Bill McHargue - thanks!]

And now...


Howard just left for a few days to go deer-hunting in the Capitan Mountains. Paloma, BITO, Semilla and I plan on celebrating the new year by going to bed early and waking up to a brand new year!

Happy 2012, everybody!

Merry Christmas!

We are currently packing to head up to Taos for a very white Christmas!

Paloma has been getting into the spirit of the season.

PS Thanks to Leslie and Karen and Karin for a beautiful solstice dinner last night.

See you again after the Christmas break!

Happy Christmas 2011

From our family to yours, we wish you a very merry Christmas and a joyous new year!

Excuse me Sir, how old are you?

Happy Happy Birthday Dad!

You are a spectacular dad, a cool dude, and a really sweet Granddaddy...(are there that many "d"s in Granddaddy?!?! Crikey! (That's what Ayesha would say). 

We are all wishing you a Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

Paloma practiced this song several times and wanted 

to sing you the alphabet song too (we were rather 

impressed because we have not heard her sing the 

alphabet song yet either). However, she must have been 

a little camera shy because this is all you get.

Love WHB, ASB, PLB, BITO, and Semilla.

snow day

Yesterday was a snow day, which meant that daycare was closed and UNM was closed. It's funny, though, because there was really no snow. Apparently, there was snow all around Albuquerque, but just not IN Albuquerque. 

Oh, well. 

Howard was more than happy to spend a day at home with Paloma while I went into the lab and worked through some more invertebrate samples (making the most of the quietness!). 

We did, however, have real snow last Saturday. Not a lot, but enough to justify getting Paloma all dressed up in her cold-weather gear to go out to play in the yard. 

"Come on! Let's go!"

 Enough to make a happy little snowman.

"Hello! I'm a happy little snowman!"

 Enough to make a happy little girl.

Busy cleaning the picnic table. 

 

The next day was bitterly cold too, so we spent most of it inside.

Papa draws good giraffes. 

 Everyone could hang out together in the warm living room.

Semilla thinks life is pretty good. 

By the way, it's still freezing cold (Weather Underground says it currently "feels like" 29F [=-1.7C]). I'm staying inside with a cup of cocoa!

BITO bump

21 weeks: Paloma and I visited the midwife yesterday. Everything is measuring well and BITO is coming along swimmingly. 

Semilla makes me laugh.

the windy day

It was crazy-windy yesterday in Albuquerque.

Metro takes a beating from wind: krqe.com

Paloma has a cold and refused to take a nap. It was a long afternoon.

And then the power went out. I lit the fire, found all the candles, and crossed my fingers.

As the light faded, it became increasingly difficult to read books. So, in the twilight, we decorated the Christmas tree.

And then Paloma had to find a good place to put it.

And then the lights came back on.

catching up #4

Did we tell you about BITO? I think we may have forgotten to make a big announcement. 

BITO is our nickname for the new bun-in-the-oven. S/he is slowly cooking away in the crockpot that is my belly. 

Here are a couple of snapshots of the little creature: 

At about 12 weeks. 

At about 20 weeks (halfway there!). 

That last one looks like a creepy little alien to us... Hopefully s/he will be better-looking when s/he emerges. We're hoping to see him/her on the outside about 8April 2012 - Easter Sunday next year. (Mark your calendars!)

As you may have guessed, we have again chosen to not find out the sex until s/he is on the outside. It just seemed like more fun to us. (Although we are yet to agree on a girl name.)

And, before you ask, I will try and get Howard to take a photo of my HHHHHHHUUUUUGGGGEEEEEE belly. As you may remember from last time, there wasn't much to show for a long time.

Finally, Paloma is a little bit excited about BITO but doesn't really grasp the whole idea. We talk about it a lot and read books about big sisters, but I don't think she will really understand what is going on until next April.