April Catch-up.

April was a busy month, with all of my house hunting.  30+ houses in 3 or so weeks, all in the East Mountains (about an average 20 minute drive from Albuquerque).  I went and scouted out the houses that I thought might meet our criteria (which was very detailed--we came up with a ranking system and ranked each house that we were seriously considering on each of 40 or so different things.  Everything from square footage to ability to have solar energy to whether the stove was gas or electric.), and got it down to the final 5.  Then Russ went out with us and saw those 5 to give his opinion and we went from there...more on this later.

One way you know you're in Albuquerque?  You wake up to this out your front window (in town, this would happen at least once a month or so):

More Noah!  These two crack me up.  Oh the stories I have from their antics...I won't lie, I'm a bit nervous as to what stories I'll have in the future...

What does one do when it's 8pm and the sun is setting? 
"Let's wash Dad's truck!"
Um, okay.
Not only did they wash the truck, but the van too!  Love these guys.

Oh, and this occurred after they were scootering on the sidewalk (although ABQ sidewalks are HORRIBLE for scootering--lots of huge dips where the driveways are) and I saw Sam stop at that car that's behind him in the photo.  I asked him what he was doing.  "I'm looking in their windows" he said with his nose pressed on the glass.  "Uh, Sam, most people don't really like that."  So we talked about it and finally he said, "Well, I really like to see what's in their cars, is it okay if I look out my eyes sideways like this when I go by??"  Haha, sure buddy.

My big, sweet 5 year old!

This boy is a Mario fanatic.  He had been saving up to buy this collection of plush Mario characters, but instead bought his Wii and Mario game.  So Bubs got him most of the characters and Grammie and Grampa Scott got him a Mario blanket.  Can you guess what game he's playing on the phone??
It all goes well with all of his Mario t-shirts, which is all he will wear (unless it's Minecraft-themed).
Hehe, love him so much!
Oh, and it was icing on the top when we were at Goodwill and found a Yoshi backpack!!  For $4!  So little Yoshi gets to ride around in big Yoshi.  Oh, and the backpack straps aren't ever used for actual backpacking...they are reigns.  So Mario, erm, I mean Sam...can ride him.

Sigh, this swing has got more use and abuse than any other swing I know.  We were all SO ready to have our own place so we could get these guys a real play structure...and I could have my swing back.

Brooklyn was into her Experiment Mode again in April.  Here, she is making a cake.  I mentioned that usually people follow a recipe so they KNOW it will come out right, but she just shrugged her shoulders and got 6 more eggs out.  The consistency actually turned out really well!  The taste...notsomuch.

What I was really impressed with though, was the eggs!  I sat watching her and she cracked it, then shuffled the yoke back and forth between the cracked halves, getting all of the white out like a pro!  I said, "Where did you learn to do that?!" 
"A game on the computer."
Crazy.  So this launched into a discussion on meringue and an experiment on whether beaten yolks would fluff like beaten egg whites.  

...and another dozen cracked eggs.  :)