Family Park Time

 Quincey and I go to the park almost every day.  It's always a treat to have papa not working and able to join us!!!

Naughty Quinney!

 I feel like it may just be a right of passage for parents to have their kids color on things they are not supposed to.  Luckily, she hasn't done it again, but we definitely had our run-in with the sharpie PERMANENT marker.  

I was upstairs organizing the sock drawer and I could hear Quincey playing.  She was doing the usual.  Nothing new but then, I started to hear her talking about "goldbug" and I could also hear something on the wall.  I left my bedroom and there she was.... Standing there, with a black permanent marker making gold bugs on the wall!

She got in trouble and luckily we haven't had to deal with it again.  But, truth be told, it was hard to be mad at her.  She was pretty cute and looked oh so innocent when I found her.  She said, "Mama, goldbug!"

Out and About

 We don't get to go anywhere lately because of the Omicron strain of Covid but we sure do still like to get into the outdoors together, as a family, whenever we can.  One of our favorites is a quick trip to the Sandia foothills.  Quincey is now big enough to walk herself and loves to explore.  So, she thinks it's great although mama and papa don't get much exercise because she wants to stop and look at every rock, twig, and leaf.  It's so fun to watch her explore her world, though.

Christmas!!!

 This years Christmas was so wonderful.  I'm not sure I"ll ever get used to having no snow for Christmas but, besides that, it went off without a hitch!

It was such a good day.  Quincey understood the idea behind opening up presents and really enjoyed that.  She loved all of her presents.  This year, her favorite goes to a big jug of beads she got from Auntie Dessa.  And what a mess they are!  She takes the whole jug and dumps out hundreds of beads that mama has to clean up from all over the house later.  There are these certain little ones she loves the most that she calls her raspberry beads.  

We had such a nice day.  

All in all, this holiday season has been so fun, relaxing, and full of love and laughter!

The Beans

 Since Quincey was big enough to walk, she has loved to find what we call beans.  There is one certain area at the park we go to daily that has a bunch of them.  She will squat there finding all the beans she can.  They are actually seeds.  She also knows what the seed pods look like and when she spots them, (they are all over,) she rounds them up and has mama or papa get all the beans out.

For over a year now, my house constantly has a bean in the corner, stuck in the carpet, in the bath tub, etc.

I'll miss it when she no longer cares about her precious beans.

Christmas Tree Hunting

 What an absolutely amazing time we had Christmas tree hunting this year.  Joe researched a good spot in our favorite mountains, Jemez Mountains, and we took off the day after Thanksgiving to go find our perfect tree.  

Last year, we didn't really like the location or the trees available but this year, both were perfect.

We couldn't have asked for a better day for it.  There was some snow on the ground but it was still nice outside and there was plenty of areas baby safe for Quincey to explore.  And, to top it all off, right around the bend, was the perfect tree!  I mean, definitely our best tree yet.  

Quincey still talks about the pond we found that was covered in ice and how we threw rocks through the ice and it made "a big splash!"

Such a great family tradition.