July Happenings

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted, but I think that's what comes with four kids. My camera is usually left at home or stays in the diaper bag because a baby occupies my hands most of the time. But here are a few events that I have been able to capture.

The river behind our house was flooded for most of the summer, which means that our pond was extra high out back. The kids and Papi decided to take full advantage of it and took the "boat" out there. The kids loved it. But Papi quickly turned the joy ride into work when they started cleaning out all the branches that were in there.

 To summerize our summer, it would be two words:    Swimming Lessons

We've done two rounds of swimming lessons and the kids love it.

It was my way of making sure they got to swim this summmer without me having to get in the water (and in swimming suit) with the baby. Worked like a charm.

 Notice those cards in their hands. Our family has started focusing our family home evening lessons on service. We talked about being thankful and saying thanks to those who help us. We wrote a ton of thank you notes and the girls all wanted to write one to their swimming instructors. I wrote one to the mail lady and a couple of days later I saw her and she thanked us for the nice note. I bet it will be the only one she'll ever get in her career and that makes us feel great.

Here is Gabriela giving hers to her swim teacher.

 Sophia is a true fish in the water. It was hilarious to watch her. She spent probably 25 of the 30 minute lesson with her head in the water. She would belly flop or throw herself in the water and then pop up and then go right back under. She was not timid at all. This kid is full throttle all the time.  I love that about her.

 Julianne is kid of a swimming snob. She will figure out how to do everything the teacher asks her to do without getting her face wet. It's like she's done her makeup and can't stand the thought of washing it away. She kind of just pranced around the whole time. She's a prissy little thing.

 The teacher's review at the end of lessons summs up Gabriela pretty well.

Great swimming skills.

Needs to pay better attention.

This kid can make a friend in no time flat. It's one of my favorite things about her. She is a talker too.

 Max turned two months old.

 And this is another one of our family home evenings. Miguel was out of town for a week. Yes, I survived it with four kids, but anyways, I had to do FHE by myself. So we decided to do service for and learn about missionaries. I've got a cousin out on a mission here in Utah, so we colored pictures for him and wrote a letter. We then had a misssionary relay in the house to learn how missionaries lived.

They had to pretend to be sleeping, wake up and do 5 push ups, go iron their white shirt, put on a tie, pack a backpack with their scriptures and Preach My Gospel, go get on their bike and ride it around the kitchen table (that was their favorite part), and go knock on all the doors upstairs until they found the one the other girls were hiding behind and then say hello in 4 languages.

They loved this and it was pretty fun to watch.

Other mishaps:

My neighbor came over one evening and told me that my kids were playing in his daughters bedroom with the door shut and noone was home.

I wanted to die of embarassment!

And Julianne came and told me that Max was crying and wanted me, and that she had moved him to the baby swing. When I went to get him, he was screaming as if he was scared and I mentioned it to her and she said it was because there was a monster that came through my bedroom sliding door and scared him. Max was scared of monsters. I think it is more like a long haired, blue eyed, little monster.

Life is crazy and great and hectic.