::out my kitchen window::

I was feeding the boys breakfast a few mornings ago, and when I looked out the little window over my sink, the sun was shining into my little tree there. I realized it had finally changed color, and it was just as orange as could be. Gorgeous. And with the angle of the sun, the leaves were glowing like fire.
So of course I grabbed my camera and tried to capture it. I mean, 1. it was so gorgeous I couldn't help it and 2. I wanted to prove to all you skeptics out there that not only do we have leaves and trees and stuff out here in the desert, but we have fall and pretty changing colors!

But the window screen kept getting in my way when I was shooting from the window.

Argh.
And it didn't look quite right when I stepped outside to try to shoot it--besides my feet got freezing cold on the bricks.

So if these photos look pretty to you, imagine them glowing with a lovely morning light, and then know what I was trying to show you.
Happy end of fall!

::max is a yellow belt::

Max has been going to his karate school since the summer we moved to Santa Fe. At first when he started he was just silly and crazy. He was enjoying himself and was excited to be doing karate, but really not that serious. He even got into trouble a few times for giggling too much.
But after he took a test and passed up into the next belt he suddenly became serious.
He was so excited and serious about karate that he could've gone every day.
Over the summer the sensai offered week long "summer camps" where groups of the kids would practice karate, play games and hang out. Max did a couple of these and loved them.

He was karate man all summer, and would try to wear his belts out of the house over his normal clothes.


But, the frustrating thing was that when it came time to take the next test--in October, finally! He didn't remember the stuff he needed for the test. So we had to do a private lesson or two and go to every class offered (which is like four per week) for a couple of weeks.
It was a huge pain.
But it paid off. He passed his test and is SO SO proud of himself.

It's exciting to see him so excited and involved in something.

Luckily (for him) he's proved to us that he's serious about it. Because the dojo just barely moved from right by our house to twenty minutes across town. If he wasn't so excited about it we'd be OUT. But as it is I can't take this away from him, so he gets to keep ninjafying himself.
We'll keep you posted on his progress. For now he's a big yellow belt and he couldn't be prouder.

::skills::

Some people have math skills, some people have nun-chucks skills, some people have dentistry skills. Some people have eating and forking skills. The latter would be our Sandy.
And you want proof?
Here's a video. He actually gets a banana on his fork completely on his own, and eats it! Am I just a biased mom thinking he's brilliant, or is it impressive for a barely one year old to use a fork functionally (albeit one time out of 100)?
Enjoy:

::and even more::

We were at the park the other day with some friends, and we were chatting and sitting in the "grass" (meaning dirt, wood chips and sharp splinters and cactus spikes).
Here's how the little man was sitting.


Hah!!
Cute little crossed ankles.

::more on sand::

Just a little more evidence of how tidy my little Sand is. I really hadn't noticed it until after the birthday cake.

Any moms out there ever given their kids these gross things?

(Can you see his worried look? He's afraid that I'm not going to actually give him the food, but just take pictures all night.)

These things are gross. I usually don't buy these types of things because they are expensive and he eats them so darn fast. But I was at Target today and feeling generous--or just overwhelmed by all the merchandise--and I got this tub. I was actually thinking it was the cheetos type things. Anyway, I got home and got them out and realized they were the gross huge wagon wheels.
Sandy didn't care though, he was ready for them.

"Give me the DARN FOOD!!"

I got these things for Max one time and that was the last. He made such a soggy slobbery slimy mess out of them. So I was rather dreading it tonight.

Here's Sandy post first wagon wheel.

Looks perfectly clean to me really. A little on the bib, but nothing else.

And 2nd wheel:




And there he is with the leftovers--at some point he decided the wheel was kind of gross on his own. He thought real dinner sounded better.

Anyway, such a funny boy. And the differences and similarities between the two brothers is hilarious to me.

::sandy's birthday part 2::

A little more Sandy for you.

At the end of the day we got to have cake and a few more presents.

Sandy loved his little space shuttle--way more than I thought he would really.


I like to see him concentrating so hard. Max of course wanted to play with it too. He did a pretty good job controlling himself--Max did. He tried to let Sand get all the attention. It didn't always work but he tried.


The crazy candle on the cake came from a lady at work. When you light the candle in the middle, it opens and lights up like a sparkler and plays the happy birthday song. Plays the song forever and ever and ever until someone (Max) reads the instructions and cuts one of the cords.

To end this post about such a lovely and joyous day, we have a cake devouring series.
Sandy was very careful and neat with his cake. He tried to eat most of it with his fork.
It was adorable and took about 40 minutes. It may have been one of the best moments of his little life, considering how much he loves to eat.







Cute, right? Have you ever seen a cleaner baby after eating his first birthday cake?
(You can see that he's in his new high chair with a five point harness. The restaurant high chair just wasn't cutting it anymore and I didn't want to end up with him on his head on the bricks.)
Happy birthday to our sweet Sandy! We're so glad to have him!!

::sandy's birthday part 1::

Oh, wait, that's the wrong birthday!
A year ago today our sweet little guy was born. We feel so lucky to have him here in our family.
Today was a great day for him. He started out by eating pancakes made by dad--one of his favorite things in the world.

Max helped him open a present or two and then we got ready for church.
After church and a nice long nap, Max brought Sandy his best and biggest gift--a walking toy that's also a little cart for blocks. He was very very excited about it--almost as much as Max! Max was a model brother today--helpful, enthusiastic and excited about the birthday, but never jealous pushy or unpleasant. (Though incredibly obnoxious, as per the usual.)





More of the day later.
Mostly it was just a good happy day and such a lucky one for us. We're so grateful to the Lord for sending us our sweet boys.

::::

This this sweet little guy has any idea that his birthday is tomorrow?

::::

This is my run from last saturday--9.5 miles and on the treadmill no less! (Weather was really bad that morning, so I was glad to have a treadmill to use.)
I'm pretty proud of myself and my running training. Though like I said before I use the word running loosely. I'm definitely running, though not all the time during my runs. Plenty of walking happens.
Though today I ran a whole mile on the treadmill without stopping at a relatively fast pace for me. I was very proud. I'm making a lot of progress.

Can't wait for the half marathon in January! And I'm really excited to be actually seeing some improvement in fitness after my weeks and weeks of hard work.
So I'm bragging on myself a bit I guess. Yay me.