A Whole Hand!

  So I'm not saying I still think of him as a BABY. Even though he was the cutest, cuddliest, most smiley baby.

 Awwwww, so sweet. 

I actually think of him more like this.

 Still snuggling in our laps or wanting to be carried around. It's not that I'm not ready for him to grow up. I love that he is past so many of the things that aren't necessarily lovely about toddler/preschoolers. But I can't help but think of him as being just a little bit younger than he is.

 No WAY he is letting us forget it though!!! He is FIVE now. A whole hand. And he is SUPER PROUD of that. Because he is five now, he can do a whole host of things he couldn't do just the week before, you know, when he was still four. He can now help me in so many ways. "Mom, I can help you turn all the lights out now, because I am five." Or "Mom, I can help carry groceries in now because I am five." And my favorite, "Mom, I can count all the way up now, because I'm five. And did you know that 10 + 10 = 20?"

He is an expert at UNO and can beat me easily. Even though he doesn't like to lose at games, he will keep playing. At the beginning of the summer he officially became a swimmer (and would proudly tell people, "Do you know what I am now? I'm a swimmer.") 

Some of his favorites include:

Food: PB&J's, Roast Beef, Broccoli, Blackberries

Games: Soccer, Aggie football, any video game

Movies: Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 and Dinosaur

TV Shows: Phineas & Ferb, Power Rangers

Another fav? His big brother. We are still counting our blessings at how well these two get along, and how much they love each other. Sometimes it takes my breath away at how much God has blessed us with when I look at these two.

My favorite is that our littlest man still wakes up with a smile, runs to find me, and gives me hugs and kisses first thing in the morning. So he is still my Lovebug, and he still loves it. Oh, and anything DINOSAUR :)

Our home away from home

 I blame my parents. They are totally and completely to blame. I am pretty sure without their influence, we would have never fallen in love with Ruidoso like we have. Although I made a trip to the Inn with my own grandparents when I was around eight years old, and have good memories, the first time we brought JW here in 2006 made us truly love being here. And we have found the home - "our home" - that we will stay in every time we come back.

The view from the front porch facing Sierra Blanca. The kids call the house "the New Mexico house." Simple, but said with lots of love.

 One of the boys favorite things to do at our house is look for deer from the back deck. There is one right below them...

 ...that Papa was feeding! He discovered they liked apples a whole lot, and one in particular, came back a couple of times. It is funny to hear the locals talk about the deer - some love them, some hate them. Very much like Texas. The town even recently fought over whether or not people can feed deer from their yards. Luckily, you still can, or Papa might have broken the law!

 The second thing the boys love about this house - the hot tub! We turn the temp down a little and they have their own private, heated pool. 

 Silly boys.

 Another view of Sierra Blanca. Sigh.

 We never really did spend much time at Funtrackers, until the last two years. When our boys discovered the wonderland that is go-carts, miniature golf and bumper boats. You can't beat the scenery and weather.

 We always take a day trip to Capitan to visit Smokey.

And then we drive down the road to Lincoln. This is the Dolan House, which is a lovely, quaint restaurant now. A couple from Washington State moved down to restore and open it. Read about the history here - and yes, Dolan, as in Murphy-Dolan, Lincoln County wars, Billy the Kid, and for those my age, Young Guns :)

 And we can't go to Ruidoso without a visit to the Flying J Ranch. If you haven't ever been, it's a treat. 

 The fairly new Cowboy Church at Flying J. They hold services here once a week for locals.

 In the past couple of years, they have added a lot out at Flying J, including shooting and gem mining. My boys were all about the shooting. This was LJ's first time. He didn't want help, but he gun was too heavy for him to hold alone.

 My two talented shooters.

Uh-oh. It's a gun fight in the streets of Bonita City (aka Flying J).

 We had a treat when our McFriends from Sterling came to stay with us for a couple of nights. We went horseback riding....

That is my big boy in the blue hat. It was bit dry but once we got up into the Lincoln National Forest it cooled down and was beautiful. We started at around 7,000 feet elevation and rode up to a little over 8,000 feet. 

We also found aliens. And the green guy is cool, too! Seriously, there are wood carvings of everything up here, especially bears. Which we didn't see, but we had one or two manage to open our dumpster for midnight snacks. Eek!

 Last day picture. All smiles here, but sad when the car pulls away.

Thanks Ghee & Papa! We loved every minute!