When all is right in the world.

I know I've been lamenting the fact that I've been so busy lately. But this Christmas Break stuff, with no schedule is pure bliss right now. I'm sleeping in a little, getting my house cleaned at my leasure, my kids are playing and taking hour long baths. It's amazing! And the one thing I miss most is not having time for art projects anymore, so we decided to bust out the paints again yesterday. We made snowmen after the book Snowmen at Night. I was actually enjoying the moment and was present with the girls, which is hard to come by these days. Miguel said he's glad I do that and I enjoy it so much, because it's not his thing. One day I'll get him to join us, but for now, I'm glad he entertained Max for us.

 And here is the final product!

Don't they look amazing?! I'm so happy with how they turned out.

My kids really are great artists!

It goes:

Julianne, Sophia

Mommy, Gabriela

 Onto other randomness, here's Sophia baking a bazillion cupcakes for the neighbors. I'm a little remorseful that they didn't go as far as I would have hoped, so if you are a neighbor,  and you're reading this, and you didn't get any....we are so sorry! I'll come up with a better plan next year so that I can get something to everyone I know. But we still love you! and they weren't anything special.

 Here is Julianne after her preschool Christmas party. She's just the cutest little elf and she adores that elf hat.  That's also the nice little gift she gave her Mommy and Papi! Have I said how much I love Patchwork Preschool. I've got a link on the side if you're interested.

 And lastely, Max has mastered the art of hand balancing. He's gearing up for the big talent show. (Wishing that picture wasn't so dark)

Early Morning Reading

Since we've been struggling getting all of our homework done in the afternoon and since a particular someone doesn't like to be rushed when woken up in the morning, we've decided she should wake up at 6:30 am to do her reading and it seems like she attracted a following. This is what I found yesterday morning.

Thoughts as of late.

Right now in my life, I am finding that I am very limited in what I can do and fit into my life. I have such high hopes and dreams and I like to set crazy, just out of my reach, dreams or goals and go after them. But right now, I am so swamped in just the survival things of life, like cooking, laundry, homework, piano practice, diapers, baths, dishes, that I find there is little time for anything anymore. I feel like I'm dropping balls all over the place. I just can't seem to fit in Gabriela's piano practice, because I need to sit with her to keep her on task, but finding that time amidst all of the other craziness around here is hard to find. I get so embarassed when I take her to her lessons and I have to tell the teacher we only practiced three times that week or she doesn't know the pieces very well. I would love to give Gabriela more ownership of it, but she is 6 years old. When I ask her if she wants to quit, she says no, but she whines about practicing. I don't know what to do.

My health has been a major struggle these last couple of months, where I dive into colds, which develop into bouts of asthma and I'm on an inhaler every couple of hours and am exhausted. I can't muster the energy to get all the housework done and all of the other responsibilities I have. I have to accept that it's ok if the dishes sit in the sink for the day, or that I don't have anything prepared for dinner. I'm just wearing down and at times feel like the real me has been shelved for a time. In the shower I dream about doing art again, or doing art projects with my kids, or sitting down and playing games with my kids, but I feel like I'm caught up in the tornado of life and I'm just blown from one moment to the next. I'm more like a fire fighter putting out fires or I'm playing defense on the football field. But I would much rather be on the offense. I want to feel like I'm in control and I determine the outcome, but when you experience health issues, that's always not the case. I want my A game back. I want to see progress each day. And I feel guilty that my husband  and kids see me struggle.

I know this too shall pass. It's only a season. And I'll endure it, and hopefully endure it well.

I guess I'll go finish those dishes, and get those 5 loads of laundry going, and go get my kids out of the tub, dressed, fed, and off to preschool. And I guess I'd better hurry up.

Fun Photos of Max after bath

It's that time of year!

(Sorry for being M.I.A. here on the blog. Just can't find the time to do it anymore. My life is crazy, busy and some things have to go. But that being said, I do still like to do it. )

This year I was in charge of the ward Christmas party and I went with the theme of Christmas Around the World. I worked with some amazing women who helped me pull all of it together. It turned out to be a great night and I was happy with it.

Santa came to visit and I think these pics turned out so darn cute. My mother shipped us these adorable dresses just in time for them to wear. They could be my favorites so far. And that baby boy...I just want to eat him up!

 Doesn't he look dapper?

 (o.k. so maybe dad rolled his pants up too much and his shoes don't match, but blame that on Miguel)

Our party was complete with a hayride, writing Christmas cards to missionaries, and making gingerbread houses. I think all the kids had a good time.

 I had my niece and nephews last night and they were a big help with the girls while I was running around and serving the food.

Random Happenings

We have had to get extra creative with Max. He doesn't like to just sit for very long, so during dinner one night, Miguel got creative and came up with this. It's crazy, but it worked.

 Max really likes his baths and I realized that I don't have any cute bath pics, so here you go.

 Love this expression!

 We took Gabriela to her first BYU football game, and she was so excited about it. She felt really special and we told her it was a reward for her hard work at school and for doing her homework every night. With a score of 56 -3, she had plenty of opportunities to sing the fight song she has memorized. Papi even spoiled us with frozen lemonades and ice cream.

 Yesterday, Julianne's preschool went to good ole' pumpkin patch. The kids had fun running all over the place and it was good for us to get out. Sophia was lucky enough to tag along. We love this preschool and their teachers.

I don't seem to be able to blog much, because I'm so stinkin' busy these days. Life just seems to have gone into overdrive. It's good, but I don't seem to have a spare moment to do any of the "I want to do's" because there are so many "I have to do's. " But I'm sure it's the same for all of us. 

School Carnival

Gabriela's school had their annual carnival last Friday and the kids were really exctied about it. We bought some tickets and I had the kids earn their tickets by doing chores before leaving the house. Gabriela worked really hard to earn hers. I also made them down a green smoothie before going, because I knew they would be filling up on sugar once they got their.

Once we arrived, Gabriela found her friend and begged, or quietly pleaded,  us to let her go off on her own with her friend. We gave her her independance and a few tickets and told her she had to come back to us for her other tickets so that we were sure she would check in with us. I spied on her and took a few pictures of her. It is bittersweet when your kids no longer want to hang with you.

 Max was along for the ride and was in good spirits most of the time. You gotta love that smile!

 And one more for fun. Oh and he turned 5 months on that day! It's flying by. (sniff, sniff)

 The little ones wanted to hit the bounce houses first thing.

 You don't think she's into it, do you?

 Julianne is just a bit more cautious.

 After that, the kids wanted to try the rock climbing wall. While we were waiting in the long line, I thought it would be a good time to go look for Gabriela, and no sooner had I told Miguel that, I hear over the loud intercom from the school, "Lindsay Ruiz, your daughter Gabriela is at the front office." Yep, I guess going off on your own has it's downfall when you can't find us anymore. But she was more than happy to do the climbing wall with us.

And everything started out just peachy.

 Look Mom, look how awesome I am and how high I'm climbing!

 And up Sophia went as well.

 Can you see those faces starting to change?

 Where did the awesomness go?

 Sophia got very serious once she got up pretty high and with a straight face let go and floated down to the bottom like a rag doll.

 But not Gabriela. She had a meltdown, bless her heart. She froze and refused to listen to anyone. We told her to let go, but she just wouldn't trust us.

 And she hung there for dear life.

 And it took the guy in charge to go up and get her down. Whew, was she glad that was over.

 So we moved on to less eventful things like face painting.

 I think the face paint goes well with the remains of green smoothie and a runny nose. Why don't I ever seem to catch those things in time? But oh how we love those chubby cheeks this girl sports around.

 And before we left, we had to go get some hair color.

 When asked if she wanted princess hair or rock star hair, Sophia totally went for the rock star look.

 She may be under the spell of the toxic fumes, or she was just plum tuckered out by this time.

 and a, not so very clear, side view.

 And checking herself out at the end.

As a side note: we have since cut her hair into an A line bob. At least she had one last good run with her long hair.

Really Funny (and sort of really embarassing!) Enjoy!

So on Saturday, my dear SIL, took my two older girls for the day and I had Max and Julianne with me. Earlier that morning, Sophia, Max, Julianne and I were laying in my bed, before I got up and at em', and Julianne kept rubbing my legs. It was making me crazy, and I asked her why she kept doing that. She said she was feeling my "pokies," by which she meant my unshaven legs. Don't gasp, I know you've all had your days! So, I told  her to quit. Later that day, like around 3:00, I asked her what she wanted to do since she had Mommy all to herself and she told me she wanted to color together. I happily obliged and we were enjoying ourselves. I like to pick her brain and talk to her when we are alone and we were having a great little conversation, when she announces, "Mommy, I'm coloring her skin like yours." I happened to look over and saw this:

I said, "What? I don't have polka dot skin!"

She said, "NO, it's her pokies!!! Likes yours."

AWESOME!!!

Sorry Abby Cadabby, you're a preschool fairy with hairy legs!

Needless to say, I shaved my legs the next time I hopped in the shower. And I made sure she saw them!

The Circus

While the cousins were in town, Grandpa decided to treat us all to a trip to the circus in Salt Lake. Before the show, you could go see all of the animals outside. Kind of smelly, but kind of cool.

 Max is obviously more fascinated by his hand than the elephants.

 That little zebra is a star in the circus and once his trainer spotted Sophia's zebra pants, she tried to make the zebra smile for the camera. Can't really tell can you?

 Among her own!

 Here are the majority of cousins from Miguel's side of the family. There is one more girl, that's not pictured, in that mix. Max is thankful that he'll have a boy cousin coming in Nov. Otherwise, this is what he has to look forward too. Oh and doesn't Julieta (far right) have style! She picked that out all by herself.

Elena, Max, Gabriela, Julianne, Sophia, Raquel, Daniela, Gracie, & Julieta

 My girls were just so exctied to see their cousins. It was so cute, because they would hold hands and stick so close together. So, so fun to have them here.

 During the circus, we had our own circus going on where we sat. Julianne had a huge meltdown with my sister in law in the bathroom, because she put toilet paper on the seat for Julianne to sit on. Max was having a fit because he was starving and sent Miguel on two trips to the bathroom to get more hot water. We were all starving, but Grandma pulled one for the team when she sweet talked the door worker at the arena to let her in with all sorts of sandwiches and sodas she made and brought from home. Miguel also had to cave and buy this whopping box of popcorn. They finished every last piece too. The circus was great. I think my kids had a good time, but boy oh boy, it was long.