It's that time of the year again

Well, it's that time of the year again. The girls and I spend lots of hours trying to entertain ourselves while Alex trains with his soccer team.

We like to play around with the camera and take lots of pictures

The girls get really silly,

Bizzy practices her cartwheels (she is actually doing round-offs now!)By the end of his 2 hour practice, we are ready to head home.

Then all the hardwork pays off! It is so fun to watch him play.(I don't have any great action shots because my camera sucks)He is a good little athlete and LOVES to play soccer!

Time to catch-up

We have been busy doing lots of fun things that I haven't had time to post about. I just finished up my first year of grad school so I have a little extra time to catch-up the blog. The girls are taking hip-hop again this year. Here they are performing at the Novemberfest.

They have made some great friends with the girls in their class.

They have a fabulous teacher that we absolutely love!

Halloween

I know Halloween was A LONG time ago but I have not blogged for awhile. Things are finally starting to slow down for us so I thought I would take a moment to catch-up on what we have been doing. Here are pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes
Andrea is a "friendly ghost"

Bizzy is a witch

Alex is a "manly" soccer player

California

Alex, my Aunt Deb and I made a flying trip to California this weekend to see Alex's dad. He was diagnosed with what they thought was a brain tumor a little over a month ago and recently got really ill. They are not sure what is going on but he called Tuesday and asked if we could make it out there by the weekend to see him. This was a hard trip but I knew it was an important one to make. As a parent, you want to shield your children from any unnecessary pain so I prayed that this visit would be what it needed to be for my son. The day we left to go down there, he had been put in the cardiac intensive care unit. By the time we got there Friday morning, Cesar was awake and alert. It really was a miracle! He was really weak but so happy to see his son. We just wanted to share some of our favorite pictures from the visit:)

The next day he was sitting up and we even got to have lunch with him. Alex and Cesar were able to spend a couple of really good days together.

He even felt good enough to take a walk around the wing with us. It was really fun to watch Cesar introduce Alex with such pride to the nurses and doctors. Many times they would reply, "This is your son you have been talking about so much? It is nice to meet you. Your dad is very proud of you!" That meant so much to Alex. His dad had lived in California for five years and hasn't been very close to him so to hear that he is proud and talks about him made Alex so happy! As a matter of fact, after the first day, I asked Alex ,"So....how are you doing?" He replied with a big smile, "I'm good mom. Did you hear the nurses? My dad talks about me!"

just a picture of Alex, his dad and I.

Alex got a chance to meet 2 (there are 11!) of his aunts and uncles while we were there. The rest of them are still in Guatemala. Alex loved seeing the other part of his family though.

By the time we made it home, his dad had gotten really sick again and wasn't allowed to have visitors. It truly was a blessing that we were able to spend the time we did with him and that Alex was able to have some very tender moments with his dad. I am thankful to all the wonderful people in our lives who have prayed on our behalf. The prayers were felt. I have an amazing group of friends who have provided unconditional support to me and my kids! THANK YOU EVERYONE

REAL Salt Lake

About a month ago Alex and I got to go watch REAL play a game. The club he plays soccer with gets deals on the tickets so several of the boys he plays soccer with were there. It was a good game and the boys had a lot of fun.

Here is Alex with his friends that came to the game with us.

This was my favorite part of the game.....the elderly dancing ladies. My friend and I have decided that we want to try-out when we get a little older:)

UGH!

I got on my blog today and noticed that it has almost been a month since I have posted ANYTHING! Well, it's not that we haven't been doing things, it's because either (A) I have forgotten to take my camera or (B) I have been so overwhelmed with school work, I have forgotten to post. I started a masters program about a month ago and I feel like this is ALL I have time to do anymore......

so I can do this........

and then work looks like this for me!

I am thankful for this amazing experience but MAN ALIVE......I HOPE I SURVIVE!

Spider monkey!

Our little kitty Sasha has been a mostly indoor kitty but last night the kids took her outside to play. I was inside working on a paper when the kids came in yelling, "Sasha is a spider monkey! She climbed to the very top of the tree!" I wasn't concerned because one, there are not that many tall trees around our house and 2, the kids are sometimes a little over-dramatic.An hour later, they were still worried about her getting down so I went outside to help her and this is what I found!

It took us about an hour and a half to get her down. I don't think that she will be going outside to play again anytime soon.

And they're off!

The soccer season officially kicked off this weekend. Alex had his first game on Friday night. This is the first year that Alex has played for a state-level club and I am still learning the parent etiquette. Saturday morning at 7, we loaded up the van with some boys from the team and headed to the next game.

It was a good game that ended 1-1. Alex is having a lot of fun and learning a ton!

While we were away, the girls stayed with Aunt Debbie and did some shopping. I am not sure how to feel about these hot little boots they got while I was gone but the LOVE them!

They also made sure that Sasha got something new too....the found this little red dress at the dollar store:)

We will spend the next couple months watching Alex play soccer and are sooooo excited about it!

Demolition Derby

Well, I finally did it. I broke down and went to my first demolition derby. The thought of paying to watch people crash cars didn't sound like a real great idea but my kids convinced me to go. I LOVED IT! We had so much fun picking what cars we thought were going to win and watching all the interesting people that showed-up to the derby. They had people walking around throwing prizes and I even caught one! I wouldn't say it was the best night of my life but it was fun! I didn't get to many pictures to share but here are a few.

Back to school

Ready or not, the kids went back to school last Wednesday. We have been getting ready for the last 2 weeks with 8:30 bedtimes and 6:30 wake-ups so on Wednesday morning, it still didn't seem real.

Bizzy and Sasha-Lou

The whole crew ready to go!

Andrea-my beautiful 3rd grader

Bizzy-I can't believe she is in 2nd grade:(

Alex didn't need me to walk in him for his first day of 7th grade so this is the picture I got

The kids LOVE their new teachers and we are looking forward to an AMAZING year filled with learning new things and making new friends!

County Fair

Yesterday we went to the county fair. I don't really like crowds of people and hot sun but since they set-up a block away from my house and the kids are old enough that I can't trick them, we went this year. I let the kids invite friends so here are the girls with their oldest and best friend Talya. Alex had a friend come too but he got there a little bit later.

The kids got bracelets so they tried all of the rides......

and the slides. Their favorite was the Gravitron. I think they must have set some type of record for most rides in one day!

It was hot so I had them take a break and walk around and check out the booths with me and get some water. They were excited when they got to meet Andy the Armadillo. Yep, that's right, Andy the Armadillo was at our county fair:)!

After a long day, Alex needed to refuel so he found one of his favorites......Chinese food:)

We had a lot of fun yesterday and I love that as my kids get older, I am still cool enough to hang out with.