Review Extravaganza - Fourth Quarter 2010

Can you believe it's the last day of 2010?!  The last day of the first decade of the new millennium.  Where has the time gone?!  It's been a super busy year, as always, and thanks to Emmy Mom, these reviews make it just a little easier to remember.  I have so enjoyed putting these collages together.  I think I might just do these as the months go on so I don't forget a thing.  It feels like I did this last review a month ago - that's what happens when you get so busy with the holidays.  So, here we are...the final review of the year.  Remember that all pics are clickable to make biggable.

In October, the bestie and her hubs and my hubs and I went on a little getaway to Ruidoso, NM.  We spent a couple nights in a great cabin in the woods.  Good food, great friends and good times.  The boys and I went to the Albuquerque Aquarium and then to a park for lunch.  We also took many trips to the neighborhood park and even spent a couple hours at the play place in the mall!  Oh, and don't forget Halloween!  Nate was Darth Vader and Mason was a cute little lion (though he wasn't very happy about it). 

Going through my pics, I realized that I didn't take many in November.  The hubs went hunting and ended up with a good-sized deer.  We now have venison for days!  It *was* a big month, of sorts, for Mason.  He had his first hair cut!  He was so handsome, but again, he wasn't very happy about it.  Sometimes, my boys make me want to pull my hair out.  It seems that Nate does everything possible to make Mason scream.  And then, there's times when I just want to grab them and hug on them, like the picture on the bottom left.  I love when they play together like that.  And then Nate gets tired of playing with Mason and sits quietly and plays by himself.  That doesn't happen very often.

How can December be almost over?  Seriously.  Too much stuff to do and I'm not ready for the new year.  This collage is a collection of some of my favorite pics from December.  Starting at the top left corner and coming down.  Nate on a big twisty slide in Bakersfield.  I love it when I can get a good pic of Nate!  Nate with Santa - it was an impromptu pic, so that's why Nate has big holes in the knees of his pants.  Mason didn't like Santa.  Big surprise, right?  That poor boy has a great case of "stranger danger".  The first snow in Rio Rancho was a good one (6-8").  A couple days before Christmas, we had a gorgeous sunrise.  Views like this make me love NM.  The Christmas chaos before everything was opened.  You should've seen how much of a mess there was after everything was open!!  My parents were much too generous (and the boys - and us - love them for it)!  After Christmas Eve at my grandma's house, Beba read The Night Before Christmas to Nate.  It was supposed to include Mason, but he wasn't having it.  I love quiet times with the boys!

Not only am I linking up with Emmy Mom's Review Extravaganza, I'm also hooking up with Christopher & Tia's Flashback Friday.  I love the blogging community.  A special thanks to my bestie for introducing me to blogging.  Putting this blog together has been a great source of happiness.

Whatever you do tonight, please be safe!  See you next year!!  And remember...a new giveaway will pop up soon.

Review Extravaganza - Third Quarter 2010

I'm about to go spend the day getting ready for our epic road trip and I won't be around all my stuffs to post this on Friday, so I'm going to just go ahead and post this now.  I'll try to link this up to Emmy Mom's linky party on Friday.

 It's that time of week again!  Time for another Review Extravaganza!!  Though it's time consuming, I've really enjoyed putting together these little review collages.  I love scrapbooking, but I rarely have enough time to sit down and actually get all the stuff together.  This review has kinda forced me to sit down, wade through photos and make something to remember the days that have flown by.  If only I had a week off with nothing to do!  LOL  Let's get started, shall we?  And remember that all the pictures are clickable to make bigger.

This week's review includes July, August and September.  Right off the top of my head, I remember that it was HOT!  It seems that this summer was hotter and more humid than usual.  That's never good.  But, the pictures show that we did manage to have a good time, despite the heat.

It was Nate's 4th birthday on July 16th.  We usually have a party for him, but he was being especially turd-a-riffic, so instead of a party, we had his cousins over for a sleepover.  I learned (through Housewife Eclectic's tutorial on focal black and white) how to make cool color splash photos.  The boys spent a lot of time in the little kiddie pool in the backyard and we enjoyed some yummy grilled corn on the cob.  I also enlisted Nate to help me out in the kitchen to make an ugly (but good tasting) strawberry cake.  And last, but not least, my favorite picture of the month: Nate surprised by a big bang (firework) that happened at the same time I snapped the picture.

August is my birthday!  We took a trip up to Sandia Crest to escape the heat and do some hiking.  The picture in the top right corner was taken *just* before the camera fell. *shakes head*  The hubs made me an awesome cake inspired by a sugar skull and he had Nate help.  I love the picture in the top right corner.  The hubs said Nate kept saying the batter looked like blood.  Nice.  The bottom left corner is one of my favorite pictures of Mason.  I caught him playing in the dirt and the dog water bowl.  It's just one of those classic kid pictures.

We went out early one weekend morning and took a short drive to some unactive volcanoes.  Nate always likes climbing up on the rocks and acting like he's king of the world.  Mason insisted on walking by himself rather than being carried, so he and I lagged back for a while.  The middle (biggest) picture is one of my favorites of the boys.  It's funny how different they look right now, but when you compare pictures at the same ages, they're pretty similar.  Oh!  And we had a barn owl living in the cottonwood tree in our front yard.  While it was *super* cool that he was there, he definitely made a mess!  Between the pellets and the poop, I had to move my car to avoid the fallout.

Thanks again for walking down memory lane with me!  I probably won't be around much over the next week because I'm going home to visit my family.  WOOT!!  I haven't been home for Christmas since I was pregnant with Mason.  It's going to be a tight fit in my parent's house (6 adults and 2 kids in a 1 bathroom house!), but we'll get by and I'll enjoy every minute of it!  So, since I won't be around, I wish you ALL a Merry Christmas.  I hope Santa is good to you and you get to enjoy the company of family and friends.  And if you're traveling, be safe!  See you soon.

Review Extravaganza - Second Quarter 2010

  

Today is my second link up with Emmy Mom's Review Extravaganza.  To make it easier on everyone, she divided the year in to three-month chunks.  You can find my First Quarter review HERE.  Once again, each image is make big-able.  I'm not a pro at my digital scrapbooking program, so the pics aren't the best, but I like how all three of these turned out!

Here's what's going on in the pics, starting at the top left corner and going down.  Easter - the family.  Me and Mason (also Easter).  Me and Nate at the opening of a lava tube.  Now top right corner and going down.  The hubs and the boys at the opening of a lava tube.  Mason at 10 months (Easter).  Nate at 3 years, 9 months (Easter).

April was a big month!!  There was Easter that we celebrated at my MIL's house.  My addiction to nail polish started with a measly three polishes and I started blogging. I also started exercising, but that didn't last very long.  LOL

Starting at the top left corner and going clockwise.  My bestie's son, her daughter and Nate at Soda Dam in Jemez Springs (Mother's Day).  Mason and Nate's first time in the pool in the backyard (Mason looks COLD!).  Me and the boys on Mother's Day.  The hubs and I in the Jemez at a little waterfall.  Mr Mason at 11 months (not quite walking yet).  Mr Nate and his girlfriend (my bestie's daughter).

We spent Mother's Day with my bestie and her family in the Jemez on a picnic.  The weather was perfect and we had a great time hiking around the area.  My parents and sister came to visit for Mason's first birthday (in the next collage).

Starting at top left corner and going clockwise.  My mom and the boys at Mason's first birthday party.  The birthday party gang.  Mason, the birthday boy!  Carlsbad Caverns.  A barn owl that took up residence in a tree in our front yard (Nate named it Sugar).  Beba (my dad) and Nate.  Mason enjoying his first cake.  Mason's 1st birthday (actual day) cupcake.

My little boy Mason turned 1!  We had a party with all the cousins (and my mom, dad and sister joined in the fun, too) and Mason dug in to his cake!  It was a big month for Mason.  He also started walking around Father's Day.  June is also my wedding anniversary (it was celebration #6 this year).  The hubs surprised me with a trip to Carlsbad, NM for a few nights without the boys where we went to the Carlsbad Caverns.  I've lived in New Mexico for 10 years and I'd never been there!  I continued my addiction to nail polish with my introduction to the Zoya polish exchange program.  I also started participating in Polish Hoarder Disorder's weekly challenges (oh, how I miss them!).

I'm also linking up with Christopher and Tia: Flashback Friday.

Second quarter of 2010 is finished.  It seems like these reviews are going by just as fast as the year itself did!!  I hope everybody enjoys their weekend and gets a chance to relax a bit before Christmas gets here (it's just around the corner!).

Review Extravaganza - First Quarter 2010

If you read my post last Friday, you know I'm linking up with Emmy's 2010 Review Extravaganza.  It's being broken down in to 3 months at a time (which makes it quite a bit easier for me - thank you), the first being January, February and March.  Since I wasn't blogging yet, I decided to share pics of the family and what we were doing at the time. All collages are click-able to view full size.

1. Mason - 7 months old.  Chubby little baby legs and squishy cheeks.  Sitting up, but not crawling yet.
2. We transformed our living room in to Thomas the Train Central.  Mason watched from his Exersaucer.
3. Handsome boy Nate - 3 1/2 years old.
4. Once we let Mason out of his Exersaucer, he liked "helping" his big brother play with the trains.

1. Grandma and Beba (my parents) came to visit.  Nate entertained them by playing Candy Land.
2. Mason's first bath in the big tub (he's a fish!).
3. Celebrating a cousin's birthday complete with Spongebob hat and cap gun.  Oh, and cake.
4. Grandma and Beba spoils their grandkids.  They bought the walker for Mason while they were here.  He loved it even though he wasn't *quite* big enough to really use it.

1. Nate helped make a card for his Aunt for her birthday (colored, cut and glued by the big boy).
2. SNOW!  We didn't get much last winter - I think this was the most we got.
3. Nate's first buzz cut.
4. Mason can crawl and he gets in to everything!

I hope I haven't bored you too much with pictures of my boys.  I love them so much - they teach me something new every day.  And when they laugh, it melts my heart!  Thank you to Emmy for hosting this review.  I have loved going back through the pictures to see what I want to share.  Please click on the Review Extravaganza button at top to be transported to the wonderful world of reviews!

2010 Review Extravaganza

Yep.  I said extravaganza.

It's already December.  How did *that* happen?  Seriously.  If you're like me, 2010 was a busy year.  Every year is a busy year.  And no matter what we do, the years just fly by.  Sure, a day here and there may seem like they take forever to get through, but all in all, they just go.  So, to make sure we don't forget *everything* that happened this year, I am linking up with some wonderful bloggers for 2010 Review Extravaganza.

For the rest of the explanation, I'm going to borrow the bulk of Short Mama's post on the review.

What is the 2010 Review Extravaganza? It is your chance to write up some posts and recap what happened during the year. You can put your favorite pictures, tell your favorite stories, link back to your favorite posts, however you want to do it. Just in case you had some slow months, we will be reviewing three months at a time.

Then starting next Friday- you can come here or to any of the other bloggers hosting this extravaganza (who I will list here soon) and link up with your post. You only need to link up at one location as it will show up on each of the lists.

So-next Friday the 10th, you will link up with your recap about January, February and March.
Friday the 17th-link up with recap of April, May and June.
Friday the 24th-link up with recap of July, August and September.
Friday the 31st-link up with recap of October, November and December.

See how nicely that works out-by the time it is December's recap, December will be over practically. You DO NOT have to write your post on Friday, you can write it any day that week, that is just the day to link up. So when you link up, make sure you put a link to your post and not just your blog in general. ((To do this, just click on the title of your post and then you can copy all that www gibberish that is in your browser bar))

And well this is called an Extravaganza so there is more! Every time you link up with a recap and include the cute little button Emmy spent hours on, you will get entered into the drawing. Link up on the 10th and get an entry, the 17th and get another entry, etc., with a total of 4 possible entries. When all is said and done, Emmy will let random.org do the dirty work and pick a winner who will then receive a little something from the six ladies who are hosting this Extravaganza.

The six ladies' tags are below.

There are some great women/blogs in the six of those (two of which I already follow).  Check 'em out - you won't be sorry!

I can't wait!  It may take a bit of time to put everything together, but I think once I get everything in place, it'll be fun to share.  I can't wait to see everybody's reviews!