The Tiller!

This fall I started some seedlings growing in cups. I had some corn, some snap peas, green beans, yellow squash and cucumber. You can plant all year round here in South Texas and we were really excited to get started.

This is our back yard, staked out in 4 ft wide rows. Margaret, our land-lady came over and brought her tiller for us to cut down the work.

The tiller was super old and burned some oil but it got the job done. We really love how Margaret gets the most out of everything she has. The house we are in is pretty old, but she's taken such good care of it that it doesn't feel like it. She has such great advice from all her experience living here. Daniel started on the plot by the fence that we are growing snap peas and beans in.

Here's Margaret helping Daniel.


Daniel went at it for hours! He was amazing. I tried it for a little bit and could barely handle the shaking much less the lurching and pulling. It took alot of strength to keep it steady and working efficiently. Good job babe!

Here I am trying to till, but I basically did it only long enough for Daniel to take a picture. I don't know how he did it for 4-5 hours. He was amazing. And wa-la, the ground is all tilled up. After tilling we raked the ground and took the rocks out, then added some more top soil and transplanted. I water every other morning and just let em grow!

Brushing Teeth!

Ethan got his seventh tooth in and finally his eighth for 4 on top and 4 on bottom, so we got him his own tooth brush to practice. Here he is with Daddy practicing.

Ethan's teething again too. So many teeth.

Toys

Now that Ethan can grab things easier, he plays with his toys alot more. We got alot of toys before he was born but he didn't touch them for months - he couldn't! But now we are glad we got them. He loves a set of plastic balls a friend gave us. Here his is having fallen asleep with one of them in his hand.

First Football Game of the Season

Samuel's first game was the beginning of September and he's required to wear shirt and tie to school. It makes the football player stick out in a crowd, but Samuel really likes it. His games are on Wednesdays, but his coaches send around a pass for his teachers to sign the previous Friday to make sure he behaved himself in class. If he didn't he doesn't get to play, but Samuel has obeyed all the rules and has done an amazing job all season.

He told me when he got home that some of his friends gave him grief about the pink tie, but he didn't care - he's all about the pink.

He plays on the B-team, so here he is on the bench waiting for the A-team to finish.

Toward the end of the A-team game, the B-teams puts on their gears. Samuel is #55.

Ethan loves going to games. Some of the other parents and families know him and think he's so cute.

Go B-Team!!



And here he is after the game all sweaty and tired. I think he won the game, but I can't remember. I just know my voice was raw from screaming so hard and we were so proud of him.

Daddy's Home!

Daniel is blessed to have a great job. He can go early and come home early, they are flexible with his time, if he really needs to come home they are supportive. But baby and I still look forward to when Daddy comes home. We count down the hours after he calls at lunch time. When we hear the garage door open we get excited and run to the door "Daddy's Home!!"

We love Daddy.

Family Home Evening

This is a Family Home Evening we had at the beginning of September to prepare for General Conference. We printed off pictures of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve and played a matching game. We kept the pictures up on the sliding glass door for a whole month to help us remember.

Samuel helped me put them up.

My hubby was in charge of treats. I don't talk about Daniel very much, but just seeing this picture makes me want to say how much I love this man. He is such a pro-active, loving, hard worker. I am so impressed with him and the way he constantly shows love and selflessness in such a strong and confident way. I have changed since knowing him. I now think of myself as more than just me, he is now an inseparables part of who I consider myself to me.

And here are his amazing treats, or should I say treat, they kind of all melded into one big oatmeal-chocolate-coconut cookie. :) They were delicious.

Sunday Family Photos

We have church in the afternoon, so our mornings are pretty laid back. We were all ready earlier than usual so I thought I'd take some pictures.

Daniel is teaching Samuel how to tie a double Winsor. Samuel has been wearing ties alot more lately. Every Wednesday for game day he has to wear a shirt and tie to school and shows off his tie-tying skill. Most boys probably don't even own a tie, but Samuel has his own collection and is a pro at tying now!

We had Ethan in his first shirt and tie so I thought I'd take some picutres with the self-timer on the camera. They look pretty silly. It was fun taking them though. We've scheduled a photographer to get some pictures taken of the family for Christmas, hopefully they are better than these.

Ya, I didn't make it in time. But Ethan's smile is great! Maybe I can photoshop it into a different one.

Ethan must have seen something outside. You can tell that these are the "Wait for it...." smiles. Pretty funny.

Bowling!

For another FHE activity we went bowling. We had a coupon for up to 6 people to play one game for free. So each of us played twice, one round with bumpers and one without. Afterward we went to a pizza buffet place called CiCi's Pizza for dinner.


Samuel and Daniel were both a little disappointed with their scores, but still had a lot of fun.


I was worried a bit about Ethan, he hadn't eaten in a while, but the lights and noises distracted him, and he loved watching us with the colorful balls. He was a champ.

Family Home Evening

We went swimming a few months ago for FHE and had a great time. FHE stands for Family Home Evening, which is a family night once a week, usually on mondays. Each week we reserve that time to have a spiritual lesson/thought, a treat and a family activity. Here are some pictures of our activity one monday night. They are mostly of Ethan and the fountain in the kiddie pool.

Daniel set him on the fountain table and he got really excited.

He absolutely loved the fountain. Usually he has to make the water move, but here, the water moved on it's own.

He's actually sitting on the fountain in this picture.

My favorite picture! He's about to hug the fountain.

Here's Samuel in the kiddie pool with us. I look at these pictures and I'm amazed at how toned Samuel has gotten since playing football. The coaches work them pretty hard and it shows. Daniel too has been riding his bike almost every day for the past few months and I can really see the difference when I look at these pictures. I'll post some more recent ones after I catch up.

While we were at the pool we saw some neighbor girls, Destiny and Summer, who I babysit for a few hours after school. They were there for FHE too. They are really great with Ethan.

Samuel's close-up.

My boys. :)

Ethan's pickled feet after a half hour in the pool.


And here we are going home, as the sun was setting. What a fun day!

Look at me Mom!

A few months ago Ethan started pulling himself up and standing for a while at the couch or his piano with his feet flat instead on on his toes.

He loves this thing.

When he finds something new he'll turn to look at me. "Look at me Mom!" and "Is this okay?".

Football Gear!

Samuel came home a few weeks after school began with pads, a jersey, and a special high school helmet - I guess he has the biggest head on the team. It's probably his hair, it's so thick! Here he is doin' some muscle-man moves for the camera. One special feature of this uniform, one that Samuel was most excited about, were the contacts he got. He'd been wanting them for so long and we thought that with all of the hitting he'd be doing it'll be better not to have glasses on. He loves them!


It's all about intimidation

This is what he looks like on the line. He's a starter on the B-Team and gets a lot of playing time. We love going to his games. Anyone who has known me for a while knows how much I love to cheer! I love being a sports mom!!! I'm one of the loudest people out there and I love it when Samuel tells me after the game that he could hear me on the field. I'll see him out there and he'll look for me and wave and it almost makes me cry. He's my boy and I'm so proud of him.

Door Stoppers!

One of Ethan's favorite things to do is play with door stoppers. He'll go for a while swatting at it and listening to the twang-twang-twang. He concentrates really hards and just keeps batting at it. So cute!

We have one in every room of the house and follows me around to wherever I am doing something and goes to the door stopper to play for a bit before moving on to something else.

First Day of School!

Samuel had his first day of school on August 25th, and I'm so glad I got some pictures. Here he is waiting for us to go, all ready, reading some Harry Potter. One thing I really appreciate about Samuel is his punctuality. He hates being late so even if it means getting up really early, he doesn't mind, as long as he's early. He was a little nervous about starting at a new school, but we had been up there to check out his locker and his classes so I think he felt prepared.

Poor guy was told when he got there that he wasn't allowed to wear shorts, so I took some jeans up to him a few hours later. Luckily the school is only a few blocks away. I've been really pleased with Samuel's school. Their rules are very reasonable and they are great to work with.


Here he is all excited! He had already done some football conditioning but started practice for an hour after school. He also has his clarinet in his backpack all ready for band. After a week or so of driving him up there he started riding his bike to get there early.

Rear-View Mirror

I was driving the car one day this summer (seriously, it was months ago) and went to adjust the rear-view mirror and it just snapped. It had fallen off and was dangling by a wire. It looked so pathetic. So we unhooked the wire and Daniel tried again and again to attach the mirror back to the windshield with a few different types of glue, rubber-cement, even this stuff called welding glue. The mirror is heavy with some kind of electronic circuitry inside so Daniel needed to find a way to support the mirror against the glass while the glue set. His solution was to bring out some of my books from the bookshelf, some string and a lot of duct tape. Here is the final product:

Angle 1

A close up

And angle 2.

When he took off the support network but the glue couldn't hold the weight, especially in our texas heat. Not to mention that Daniel left the car doors open to air out the fumes and the car battery died. We made it to church just in time, with our rear-view mirror swinging back and forth on a string. At least he had fun trying to fix it. It's re-attached now with help from a $3 re-attachment kit from the auto parts store. :)

I am so in love with this man, look at his face!

Amazing Experience

Sergio and Isabel Martinez are so awesome! They were married 7 years ago around the time that Sergio became active again in the church. Isabel was interested but decided to take it slow because it was such a big decision. She finally got baptized last year after years of investigating. They have three kids, Juaquin who is 4, Jimena is 2 I think, and Janoah is 1.

I went to Janoah's birthday party a few months ago and she told me that she had scheduled an interview with the Stake President in order to get a temple recommend. I was so excited for her! Then she asked me to be her escort and I cried. I was so honored that she would ask me. We prepared and were able to feel the peace and comfort only found in the house of the Lord. She had a wonderful experience. Friends from the ward came to show their support and here are some pictures of afterward outside of the temple.




The next day she was sealed to her husband and children for time and all eternity. The kids were so gorgeous in their white clothes and they did such a great job! When you go to the temple and do proxy sealings it's amazing to know that you are binding families together, but to see the joy on their faces was so cool. I feel so honored to have been there to witness it. I love the temple!

Here's Jimena and Janoah climbing the stairs of the temple.