I'm a SOCCER MOM!

So we started soccer this year. For a long time now, I've had my hunch that Sophia could be great at soccer. She's just built for it and she's not afraid to get physical. Well it looks like my hunch was right, because she is great and I love watching her play and going to her games. She is quick and likes to play goalie. I've seen her dive for the ball once and made a great save. The kids are getting better and better each week and it's fun to watch. Did I mention Miguel got roped into being the coach! I can finally cross off that last item on my "qualities I want my husband to have" list I made when I was a teen. He had now coached little league! He's my dream come true, and he is actually enjoying it as well. 

 Miguel taught Sophia to defend and it looks like she's a basketball player when she does it. She has her arms stretched out and will not let the girls around her. She might have even pulled a few jerseys in the meantime. Whoops!

 This is coach Steve, who was kind enough to step in a help Miguel out. He know what he's doing and has a lot of soccer playing kids in his family.

 Oh yeah, did I mention that Julianne plays too!

It is halarious to watch her play. To her it is a stage performance. She gets all hyped up and celebrates when her team scores a goal and pouts really well when she gets scored on. She'll run over to the sidelines and dump water on herself, because "she is so hot." To get her in there and actually touch the ball I had to make a game up to see how many times she could touch the ball. Last game, she touched it 14 times in the second half. It seemed to work pretty good. 

 She definitely knows when the camera is on.

 Max gets in on the action too, while on the sideline!

 Nice kick Julianne!

 and again another one!

 I've finally become a soccer mom and I like it!

So here's the start of many more soccer seasons in the future! I think I've got some athletic kids.

First Day of School 2013!

Well, we are back at it again!!!

Now we've got three little girls in school and they all couldn't be more excited!

 And maybe one little boy who is going to miss them. Every time we drop them off and leave he asks "Sophia?" But he does still have Julianne in the mornings and then is spoiled plenty when Grandma and Grandpa arrive. They are amazing and we couldn't do any of this without them.

Sophia with Ms. Buchanan

 Gabriela with Ms. Rasmussen

 And Julianne with Mrs. Wolf (who Sophia had last year!) We love her.

Here's to making many new memories this year.  And away we go....

Angels, both in heaven and on earth.

Wow, well it's been way too long! I'm kind of sad it's been almost a whole year and I haven't documented it. And what a big year in our lives it has been.

I mainly want to write about my struggle with little Maximo right now. This child has a host of angels that surround him on a daily basis. If he were a cat, I think he would be out of lives by now. He is a master ESCAPE ARTIST!
Once Spring had sprung, we started letting him go outside in the backyard. We thought we had it pretty well fenced off so that he couldn't get near the pond and the river. That was until the day we lost him twice!!! We started to search and couldn't find him anywhere. After panicking and searching the front yard, down the street, and all over the back, Miguel found him crouched down by the water's edge behind some brush behind Troy's house. It was impossible to see him unless you were right on him. The river happened to be really high from spring runoff and it scared the life out of us. Once we brought him back we discovered he was stepping and smashing the chicken fence down to get over it. Grandpa initiated his obsession with the river when he would take him back to throw rocks in it.

This happened all over again earlier that morning and there were people on the other side of the river on the trail yelling at us and telling us that our child was by himself and didn't know that a baby drowned in the river last year. Do you know what feels like as a parent. We try to be so careful and cautious. We love our children more than life itself and yes, we are highly aware of the dangers of the river!

My inlaws, I'm sure think I'm negligent, but their expectations are to follow my  year old around 24/7. As a mother of 4, that is impossible, and I have other responsibilities like cleaning and caring for my home. I can not be his personal bodyguard all day long. I do everything in my power to keep him safe. I check gates, I watch him out the back windows while I'm washing my dishes. My biggest safety issues come from his older sisters, who are oblivious to the consequences that come from opening the garage doors or side gate to our yard.

So we reinforced our back fence and have no problems from our son and the river, but now he has a new fasination. It's the front yard and ROAD!!! I try to be so dilligent and check the doors and gates before I let him out to play. One day I started looking for him and as I was headed to the front yard, I heard a knock at my door and there was a lady holding his hand and telling me that she stopped her car because he was standing in the bicycle lane in the street! I had that sinking feeling again. While I was at Girls Camp, Miguel had two other experiences like this where he was escaping from the side gate. But yesterday was the worst!

The girls were begging to go to their friends house and I said yes, but please be sure to close the gate when they left. Well of course they were more worried about darting to their friends house then the gate and left it open. The girls had come home later and Max wanted to go out so I let him out into the backyard, and well you guessed it, the gate had been left open. I was talking to the girls and mentioned the gate and for them to go check. The next thing I know they come bolting in the house and I immediately knew. My heart sank and when I bolted around the house there was Max in the driveway and a UTA bus woman was stopped in front of my driveway yelling at me. "DO YOU REALIZE YOUR BABY WAS IN THE ROAD!!!!" I picked up my baby, waved, and headed inside. That's when I lost it.

How? I was grateful to heaven for watching over my son. And whoever the angels are that watch over him. I don't know how one child can cheat death so much. I should be grateful to all of the earthly angels that save him each time. I feel like an awful parent. I started to break down and let my mind go down that scary road. I unleashed on the girls and then began to imagine my life without my baby boy. It was awful. I questioned whether or not I could look at my girls again if they were the ones to led to his death. (in hindsight, I know I take just as much of the blame, but there have been many times where I lock the gate and they go out to the front without letting my know. So I think it's safe when in reality it's not.) I bawled. I felt helpless and not in control. How could this keep happening to us?!

So this morning, I double checked the side gate and garage door before letting him play outside. You have to realize that that is where my child wants to be. He wants to play outside all day. I let him out for a few minutes while I made him second helpings of breakfast. I was at the kitchen table with Gabriela while she ate breakfast and I knew Sophia and Julianne were downstairs watching a video. I hadn't heard from him in a while and I knew his food was ready to be eaten, so I looked in the yard and he wasn't there. I figured he must have come in without me seeing him and was downstairs with the girls. Then comes that familiar knock on my front door. I went to see and when I rounded the corner, my heart sank, because the front door was open. Some saintly woman was  holding Max and said she saw him next door at Troy's amid the construction mess that is going on over there. I sort of mentally shut down at that point to numb my disbelief. I thanked her so much and shut and locked the front door. Again the question of how? I knew what had happened but amid all of the prayers that I have been sending up to my Heavenly Father, I wondered how this could happen again.

Miguel likes to leave the windows and doors open in the morning to air out the house and because I 'm not the one who does it, I don't think to go back and check that. The front door must have been cracked, otherwise I would have noticed it hanging wide open. Apparently Max discovered it and walked out the front door, while I was making his oatmeal.

It's time I changed my prayers. I keep praying for the Lord to watch over him and bless him with angels to watch over him, because he is outsmarting, and outwitting me on a daily basis. The Lord has blessed him, and I have been fed a big dose of humble pie. Thanks to any and all who help save my little boy. I am on high alert, but if you live in my neighborhood and happen to spot my son in my front yard, just know that you are an angel sent to spare his life. Don't judge me! I'm doing the best I can and apparently I need a village to raise my son. I just feel like my luck is going to run out soon. I can't even described the feelings that my heart holds. I really hope and pray this phase goes away quickly.

First Day of School!!!

 How cute is that little Kindergartner?! She is just thrilled with the whole thing and was chomping at the bit all day to go. She is love with her horse backpack and whole school experience.

 And speaking of first, it was my first day of school too! Everything went better than I had expected, but I did have a few glitches in my day. I had to improve my last two 9th grade classes after I ran out of my 8th grade class and left my activity hanging on the whiteboard. I have to travel to the high school for my last two classes and I knew I wouldn't make it there in time if I went back for it. Good thing I studied hard over the summer and had some things in my bag of tricks. Whew!

 Sophia's sweet teacher Mrs. Wolf

Did I mention that I love being able to work and get to know my children's teachers.

 Sophia lucked up and one of her close friends is in her same class. And they both have the same last name.

 I don't cry when my babies go off to school. I think it's wonderful and I'm just so excited for them to open up this new chapter of their lives. I love watching them learn and to see the excitement on their faces. 

 And here is my big second grader.

 I'm glad they will have each other this year. They really are good buddies.

 Gabriela's teacher is such a sweet heart. She came home home and told me how much she likes her.

And it's always fun to see your old friends on the first day. 

So here's to a wonderful school year!!!

Our 1st Art Competition

We entered our very first art competition this year. It was part of the Freedom Festival Festivities and the girls were excited about it. We ended up doing these pieces the day before they had to be submitted, but I think they turned out great! Sophia's was done out of collage and Gabriela's piece was mixed media where she used newspaper, watercolor, pen and ink, oil pastels, and acrylic paint. It was a little involved. 

 So how did they do?

 They both received Honorable Mentions in their age categories!

 And we were pretty excited about that, since the competition was tough and a lot of other kids went home disappointed. Not bad for our first time....not bad at all.

Yellowstone

Our family decided to go camping for our family vacation this year, so we headed to one of our favorite places, Yellowstone National Park. We stopped and stayed the night in Idaho Falls on our way up and we enjoyed a walk around the falls and a nice view of the temple in the morning before heading on to Rexburg. The first part of our trip felt like a temple touring trip because of how many new temples we saw.

 This has to be some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. Look at that background. That field is directly across the street from the Rexburg Temple. It was so picture perfect, so my kids humored their mother for a few photos.

 These next pictures are out of order, but they still cover our trip. We stayed at the Canyon Village campground and I thought it was the perfect location. It is central to the entire park, so everything is a reasonable drive away. Max ate a lot of dirt, and wore a lot of it too as he learned to walk on uneven ground and how not to fall off the picnic bench. The girls had fun exploring and Miguel was our hero. He took good care of us and always made us good meals by flashlight at night. Oh, but the mosquitoes were horrendous!!!

 On our last day we stopped at the Lower Falls trailhead to take a final hike with the kids. It was a long steep hike but the reward was amazing. I never knew you could go stand at the edge of the falls. One of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. I had to give a lot of pep talks to Sophia and Gabriela as we tried to hike back up the mountain, but Julianne was a champ. She headed straight up with her Papi without any hesitation.

 We also saw a herd of bison in Hayden Valley and it must of been naptime, because they were laying down all over the place. Had to snap a picture of one of the cute calves.

 Sophia and Gabriela are, once again, certified Junior Rangers!!!

 Ok. so on our way up to Yellowstone, we stopped at a place called Yellowstone Bear World. I don't usually go for this kind of thing, but it was well worth it. We all loved it. And you would not see a bear that close in any zoo I know of, so if you are going by, you might ought to stop.

 It's a drive through park and the bears are just meandering around and will walk right beside your car. Kind of crazy and exciting.

 Everybody wanted a front row seat.

 They have a little petting zoo and Max turns out to be an animal fanatic. He gets really really excited when he sees animals.

 It's true, never try to escape a bear by going up a tree.

 They have some kiddy rides too.

 This is what the bears do when the guided tour bus stops and they through food out to them. Kind of looks like a circus.

 Max was into it.

 So on our way into Yellowstone we hit a point where it took us about 3-4 HOURS to go about 6 miles. Apparently there was a herd of buffalo in the road and they chose to navigate a narrow canyon to get to a clearing. It was so frustrating because they move at the pace of a turtle and will stand in the road and sleep. We ended up arriving at our tent at night and cooking dinner in the dark. Lovely!

 The kids enjoyed the hammock Miguel brought with us.

 We hiked along the Upper Rim of the Canyon .

 And spotted some enormous nests that the Osprey (large birds like eagles) had built with chicks in them.

 Miguel had to get a better look, so he busted out the telescope. The wildflowers were amazingly beautiful everywhere we went.

 Yep, that's the real thing. We spotted a mother blackbear with cubs and the ranger was nice enough to let us pull our car off to take these pictures from our car. She was pretty hidden and kind of hard to see from where we were, but it is always to exciting to find one. Thank goodness for zoom lenses.

 At Tower Falls, Julianne serenaded me all the way down the mountain with her harmonica. It made all the other hikers smile too.

 We got all the way down to the shore of the river and the girls could not resist getting in. Sophia made it out to the rock, and her sisters were soon to follow.

 On our way back to our campsite we saw this coyote that Miguel almost ran over. He crossed the road right in front of us and we also saw a fox too.

 This was on our hike to Artist's Paint Pots. The ground was spitting up this white mud and it sounded really neat.

There's my little animal spotter. And what did she find...this huge bull elk. That's a 10 pointer!

 We went to Old Faithful and while we waited the girls made some new friends with some kids that were from Herriman, UT, we ate Huckleberry Ice Cream, had a picnic where Miguel whipped up some black beans, cheese, and tortillas (that's being lucky enough to be married to a Mexican), and all the while the wind was picking up immensely.  Right before Old Faithful spewed, the wind was blowing really hard and we, along with everyone else, never put two and two together, because when it went off, everyone got hosed. I can now say that I've been showered by Old Faithful. It was hilarious!!! And I now have a new apreciation for how much water comes out of that thing.

This was our favorite view of the Tetons. We usually try to spot moose in these willow flats, but they had all the trails blocked because of recent bear activity. We love this country and all the beauty of the earth.