Reverent Awe

This past week seemed to be a perfect time to visit a local farm to get in the autumn mood. I mean what could be more charming than a bunch of farm animals? Tractors! Yes, tractors are really far more amazing than any hairy creature. Sheep, piglets, pigs, rosters cock-a-doodle-dooing, and a cow calf are nothing compared to the giant man made metal machines scattered across the farm. I even tried to lure him away with goats walking across a precarious set of timbers high above the ground, but no luck. Oh well, the animals were a little stinky anyway.


After ogling several models of tractors, we found a "pumpkin" patch (also man made) to run around in. Poor skinny bummed Tiago was running faster than his pants could keep up. More than once we had to pull up the pants to prevent indecency and tripping.

Today is Your Birthday. . .or is it Your Birthday?

So the great thing about little kids is that dates are kind of irrelevant. This proved to be advantageous this year with Tiago and my birthday. It just so happened that my birthday, Sept 22, fell on a Saturday and Tiago's, Sept 23, was you guessed on Sunday. Seeing as how my birthday wishes could all be filled while keeping the Sabbath Day holy, we decided to switch birthdays. We didn't really do anything too out of the ordinary. We played at the park, ate macaroni and cheese with octopus shaped hot dogs, and followed Mia's suggestion to stop by the pet store to see all the animals. Tiago loved it. After the pet store we stopped off at the nearby grocery store to pick out Tiago's birthday cake mix for the train cake he selected me to make. I was helping him lean towards getting the triple chocolate cake, but he seemed intent on getting the Chocolate Cake butter recipe. We couldn't find any difference with the boxes appearance except for the written words and figured we could pull a fast bait and switch. Both times we tried, he pushed the triple chocolate out of the way to find the other chocolate cake. Go to the store and look at both boxes and you tell me what made him capable of selecting the "right" cake.
Back at the house we worked together to build his choo-choo cake. It didn't look exactly like the illustration from the internet, but it was enjoyed by all.





PS Yes we are all geared up and fully committed for the Game that played later that day. Go Cougars!

Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

Mia has suddenly become infatuated with the Disney movie The Lion King. She has even convinced Tiago to be a fellow lion to tromps about the house roaring. It really is cute. This morning, while I was trying to catch a few more moments of sleep, Mia was busily scribbling on a paper. When I finally did wake up, she showed me this.

The picture is an illustration of "Simba, his uncle--Scar, and two hyenas" (from right to left according to Mia). I was pretty impressed, but I am the mom. Whatever, it's genius.

Cleatus

As standard with prior such events, our family waits to announce any baby news until we hear the heart beat and, in this instance, see the little peanut via utlra sound. Everything looks good even though it is difficult to see in the picture. We will be expecting to see the final result of Cleatus the Fetus April 10. Mia is hoping for a baby girl, but said she would be satisfied as long as there was one baby girl and one baby boy in mommy's tummy now. The second option has already been ruled out and we will keep you posted on whether Mia gets her wish or not.

Part Man, Part Sherpa

Our family seems to have many a made for tv moments in our lives. I think part of the reason is that I am a bit on the lazy side of things and that always gets me in trouble. Just the other day, Fernando decided to study at home. He set up all the necessary equipment in our room up on our third floor. I, like usual, was still loafing about the house in bedtime attire, no contacts, and hair/armpits in desperate need of a shower. Tiago tried earnestly to distract Fernando. I eventually made my way upstairs to take Tiago away to a better play place. I found him frustrated outside of our bedroom door. I figured Fernando couldn't wait for me to get Tiago out so he took matters into his own hands. No biggie, I would just quickly shower and be on our way to some adventure. About the third knock and jiggle of the locked door handle, Fernando appears at the bottom of the stairwell. Now if this were a sitcom, there would be a dramatic pause as the camera jumps from my eyes to Fernando's and the canned noise of choice would help move the plot along. Unfortunately, this was our life quite literally since the test Fernando needed to study for was Step 2 of his medical board exams. Even with all our MacGyvering, we could not break the lock. I made a few untimely jokes about clever mice, but Mia was the only one who got excited about that idea. Finally, thirty minutes later, Fernando concocted a intricate plan involving a stolen church ladder. This was like the fourth time that week I had wished we owned a truck. Truckless and braless, we walked as a family the three blocks to the church. Tiago and Mia were loving the family frolic and meandered their way pushing a stroller full of toys and a rumbling lawn mower. Eventually we had the massive ladder and made the reverse trip even more interesting for the passerby. Fernando insisting that I shouldn't try to help, hoisted the ladder over his head. At the half block mark, he asked Mia for a Care Bear to ease the pressure of the ladder. It proved slightly better except for the infernal plastic hearts on the nose and bottom. Once home we extended the ladder to maximum capacity since our room is three stories up.



After several unsuccessful tries to break in, we said a prayer. Inspiration struck and Fernando made his next attempt with a pair of patent leather military dress shoes and our snow scrapper from the car. Miracle. Strange how you always hear those stories of people praying for really "silly" things as compared to world hunger and yet Heavenly Father loves us enough to answer all faithful prayers.

Rough and Tumble

I am not sure exactly what happened, but Tiago was playing one minute and screaming the next. At first I assumed that he was releasing some pent up emotion about some toy truck not having movable wheels or a toy wasn't staying in the wad of paper he put it in. While attempting to acknowledge his "frustrations" though, I saw blood streaming out of his mouth and all over his hands. I scooped him up and ran to the bathroom, asking in vain where the blood was coming from. No sooner had I cleaned the blood off, the crying stopped and he was off on another adventure. Amazing considering that it looked like an emergency room visit in order to stitch up his gums was inevitable.

Fruits of our Labor

Labor day weekend is a chance for many to relax from the daily grind. Fernando, on the other hand, thought otherwise. He wanted to make the weekend full of labor. Luckily, he kept the kids and myself in mind when he was planning. The weekend kicked off with an early morning hike in the back trails of Black Hills Park. The trail was kind of creepy so I was glad that one could easily run the whole thing without really breaking a sweat. There were plenty of good finds though. Tiago was loving ALL the rocks and dead branches on the trail. Mia loved all the spider webs especially since there was Charlotte from Charlotte's web in everyone. We even found a cool silk worm dangling in the middle of the path. As you might notice from the pictures, the kids were already dawning their Cougar paraphernalia in preparation for the BYU game that night.
After some good neighborhood barbecuing, we headed over to watch the game in HD style on an obliging friend's big screen. Sorry if you missed it because it was awesome.
The weekend also brought a visit from my brother, sister-in-law, and their friend Josh from New York. Mia was so excited. Fernando was equally excited since my brother always was up for some good competition at anything. This weekend's competitions of choice were XBox tennis, how many sit ups in a minute, how many pull ups on a hang board, soccer, and football. Pictures are coming. To add to the fun, we picked some fresh raspberries (which were surprisingly difficult compared to other years we have done it. I think Fernando was glad.) Then used a borrowed ice cream maker to enjoy the fruits of our labor.