New Mexico

It is amazing how the hum of an airplane at 10,000 feet can be so soothing. We are traveling back from a quick family visit in New Mexico. One kid is watching Scooby Do, the other is sleeping, the adults should really be sleeping, but one is to0 busy reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the other is too busy blogging.

We had a great time!! It was bit chaotic at times with four people under the age of five all wanting attention, but it was still very rewarding visiting Papa and Coco and watching the cousins interact.   And now for some pictures......

Portable DVD players make traveling so much easier.  Put in a movie and let the kids zone out for a couple of hours....We know, we know...this is not the best parenting because TV will rot their brain, but you know what......

Drinking beer at the airport bar during a layover with your kids is not the best parenting either....but it does keep us all a bit sane

Below is the crew at La Posta enjoying some good Mexican food and drink.  We ate & drank fast at the restaurant.  One could make an argument it was the adults not wanting the margaritas to go warm…..or the craziness of 4 kids.  You decide

Tommy, Ben and Kate all made a wish at a fountain in the restaurant. 

Kate and Andy hanging out will we waited for a table

Here are all the kids.  Kate, Tommy, Ben and Andy.

 We made a trip to White Sands.  It is a really cool place.  275 square miles of a white sand desert.  We hiked around, sledded on the dunes, ate a picnic lunch and relaxed in the sun. 

  

Joe at the top off the dunes, trying to display his authority. 

Kate sliding down the dunes.

Coco getting ready to launch Tommy down the dunes

We went to the Flea Market one morning.  The kids had a blast listening to the music and eating kettle corn. 

Easter

First there was the dying of the eggs....

 Then there was the excitement over the bunny.  Now....you must prepare yourself for the ultimate bedhead that will appear in this video.  It may be too much for younger viewers...

We think the kids were pleased with the bunny this year.

Time for church.  Kate is our resident fashionista.  Sunglasses are her current accessory fav....

There was an egghunt at church.  Joe thought it was creepy to hunt for eggs in the cemetery, but Tommy seemed cool with it.  That is him taking off in the black jacket...

 Kate quickly realized that there were tons of eggs on the playground that were being ignored and took advantage of that situation.

She let Tommy in on the secret.

Here are a couple of pictures from today.  Kate finally let Mom take her to gymnastics, so I got a few cute shots.  She looks so big in these pictures.

Tommy is working on his swing and we fully expect him to be ready for the major leagues by age 8.  See for yourself.  Sorry for the sideways vides.  We still can't figure out why my phone does this while taking pictures!

Cleaning out the phone photos

So we have these fancy photos and videos from our smart phones, but we have not shared them with our people.  So here we go....

A couple of week's ago, on the way home from work Joe got into a fight with a gaggle of Turkeys. 

Papa Dubow visted last week and she had a little helper in the kitchen.  The two cooks made tasty cookies. 

After about 5 weeks of saying the horse outside the grocery store was broken, Joe finally caved in and let Kate ride the horse.  Mechanical horses are like crack for kids.  Kate was more than disapointed when the 30 second ride was over. 

Riding stationary elephants can be as fun as quarter driven horses

We had a cornbeef and cabbage feast on St. Patrick's Day.  The feast included homemade green beer....yup that's Miller Genuine Draft 64....gotta watch the waist line

Here is out little Kerri Strug

Typical Saturday at the Dubows

5:45 am - Wake up to Kate and/or Tommy saying "can we go down stairs now"
5:50 am - Wake up again to "DADDY CAN WE GO DOWN STAIRS NOWWWW!!!"
6:30 am - Walk in to living room, step on Lego with bare foot, scream "CHEESE & RICE!!!", throw out Lego piece
8:00 am - Take a LONG walk with the dog
8:45 am - Take Kate to gymnastics
10:30 am - Return from gymnastics and take Tommy to karate
12:00 pm - Attempt to feed the kids something with nutrition (just hope they take a bite of the fruit or vegetables)
12:15  pm - Calm the kids down after the dog eats their lunch that they were not eating
12:20 pm - Re-make lunch due to the dog eating the previously made lunch
12:40 pm - Allow the kids to feed 2nd non-eaten lunch to dog
1:30 pm - Go to birthday party of some kid with a name that ends in yden (Cayden, Ayden, Jayden, etc)
3:30 pm - Curse 'yden's parents for giving a gift bag full of candy
3:42 pm - Watch kids melt down from having too much candy
3:50 pm - Convince kids to take a rest on the couch while watching a Pixar/DreamWorks/Disney movie
4:23 pm - Clean human pee off of floor
4:50 pm - Pour 1st glass of wine
5:30 pm - Pour 2nd glass of wine, tell kids to stop fighting, start making nice dinner
6:00 pm - Pour 3rd glass of wine, tune out fighting kids, continue making nice dinner
6:15 pm - Serve nice dinner
6:20 pm - Listen to kids say "This is disgusting"
6:25 pm -  Pour 4th glass of wine. Make kids peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chicken nuggets, Ramen noodles, mac n cheese or Eggo waffles
6:45 pm - Pour 5th glass of wine, enjoy conversation with spouse, while kids destroy living room
7:02 pm - Wine bottle is empty! What the eff? Why did we only get one bottle of Wine?
7:30 pm - Walk in to living room, See mess, Think "How did my living room turn into a 3rd world county in the matter of 10 minutes"
7:32 pm - Ignore mess, turn on music, wash dishes
8:00 pm - Give kids a bath
8:20 pm - Read books to kids
8:30 pm - Discuss with spouse watching an adult movie once the kids fall asleep.
8:30 pm - Turn off lights, lay in bed with kid,wait for kid to fall asleep
8:45 pm -  Keep waiting
10:20 pm - Wake up, get out of kids bed, stumble to big bed, hope kids stay in their own bed all night
1:34 am - Wake up to little person snuggling next to me.....when the heck did he and/or she come into the big bed.  Determine it is easier to fall asleep with a foot in the rib cage then put the child back into their bed.

Lather, Rinse and Repeat 6 days later

And now for some pictures....

Brent stopped by the other day.  We told Tommy, Brent was stopping by later.....Every five minutes it was where is Uncle Brent, when is Uncle Brent coming over, how much time until Uncle Brent arrivea.....he finally arrived.  Brent is like crack to Tommy.  He really enjoys when he stops by. 

Check out our little karate kid.....I bet he could kick Ralph Macchio's butt

We also have a little gymnast. The next Nadia Comăneci or this

A week in review

• Real men don't eat quiche....but Joe was up until 1:00 am making quiche to feed 100 people last Thursday.   Why you ask....at Joe's work every Friday three employees make breakfast for everyone at the site.  He made quiche, fruit salad, granola to go with bagels, muffins and doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts.
• A lot of Whitney Houston has been playing in our house.  Check out the T-Man gettin' down to "I'm Every Woman".

• Our little Kate has some style.  Check out the before and after.  Amy wants everybody to know Kate dressed herself in each of these pictures. OK ;).   I love the belly shirt, side pony, lepord print pants and male shoes on the wrong feet. 

• We love the matching Packers PJs.

• ..and even more when they go to sleep

Valentines Day

Tommy refused to be photographed for his party, but Kate was all smiles!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Phone

The Fam

A self portrait by the Dubow clan.