Peeks from Up North

We are in love with our new home.  I wonder if I will ever stop being almost moved to tears while walking around here (especially since winter brings weather cold enough to freeze those tears mid fall). Here are pictures from a hike we did awhile ago.  It was amazing. 

The hike meandered around this beautiful forest and brought us to this gorge. We hopped into this cage to hand tram across this glacier runoff river! 

Tiago was really into this "huh" pose all day.  I tried not to giggle every time he did it.  He would even take a cute one for me and then ask me to repeat the picture with this pose.

I think this was the last time we forgot to take our hiking back pack in the car.  I think that as uncomfortable as it was for Fernando and I to carry him, I was probably even more uncomfortable for Joaquin.

This water was such an amazing color.  In fact all the colors here are incredible.  While we were down by the water, this couple struck up a conversation with us.  Ok, actually, I started the conversation apologizing for ruining their moment after I saw their private picnic set up.  They were totally friendly and welcomed us up to this heaven on earth.  Then they insisted on taking a picture for us.  All I had was my iPhone, but he had this rockin' camera since he was a former journalist.  I am glad we all kind of coordinated.  I just wish that we didn't look so tired and I didn't look like a giant lording over my kingdom.  Still, it was nice of him to take it.

Kidnapping

Living in Alaska has proved to be a very unique experience. We have enjoyed so many beautiful things, but aren't in love with the weird fees that come from being not in the lower 48. Shipping is redonculous. The internet for our home is like paying for a cell phone plan with limits on gigabytes used. Most interesting was the charge from our cable company. We owed $789. The charges were for unreturned equipment and unreturned clients. Fernando and I wondered where we might have put that client so stealthily. Too bad we didn't think of sending a ransom note and then may be they would have been paying us. On the same vein of kidnapping or kid napping. Talia is going through that undesirable faze where she doesn't feel like she needs a nap, but desperately needs one. It is so sad how she falls asleep instantly while in her carseat around 3 when we pick up the kids but has to wake up for all the obvious reasons. The girl then can't fall asleep until 9 at night. Poor thing.

New Chapter--Graduation

June 7th marked the end of residency. It just so happened to also be the same day that the movers were packing up our home. Thankfully, my dad had come out to help me on our epic drive up to Utah so we could have the required adult there at the house at all times while the rest of us went to the graduation. The graduation was held in some building downtown San Antonio. In classic Tovar style, we slotted too much in with too little time. We raced downtown and dropped Fernando off with Mia near the entrance. I planned to park in our usual $2 place conveniently located a few blocks from downtown. Looking back I should have just forked out the $10 and saved us the hassle, but something in me just can't pay extra when I feel like we don't have to. The other kids were distraught that they didn't get to go in with Fernando and proceeded yelling and screaming which made me have a very difficult time navigating streets I never travel on which in turn made me miss my turn and put us on the freeway. We had only minutes before the thing started so it made me even more in capable of thinking. I finally looped around and found a spot. We jogged the whole 3 blocks over, dropping the keys out a few times and only once stopping for a cross walk. We found Mia waiting for us in the foyer and went in to what turned out to be the longest graduation in history. (or least it felt that way) I was then very grateful for the run with my two most restless kids.

We proudly watched Fernando pick up his diploma? and shake hands with special people we never saw before or will see again and then waited through a myriad of other specialities.

Did we bring anything to distract the kids? No. Thank heavens Tiago never leaves home without some little toy. (this time it happened to be some little Mario Bros characters which means the people sitting near us got to hear graduation proceedings to the tune of the mario theme song mixed with sound effects of blowing up things, Mario sayings, and stomping noises.) I had both of our i phones which was tricky splitting between 3 kids. Near the end, Tiago had finagled the boy next to him into letting him give running commentary on his iPad games of choice. Finally, after singing all three branches of service theme songs which was really kind of fun, we were done. Well, the kids and really Fernando and I were done probably before it started, but we left. As we were leaving, I felt the need to get the keys out. I am glad I did because I couldn't find them anywhere. Luckily, from picking them up several times on the run to the event, I knew that they could only be somewhere in the near vicinity. I asked the people in charge of clean up if they would keep an eye out for them. We looked on the floor near our seats, we looked everywhere we walked, we looked in the nearby hotels, and nothing. While searching, we bumped into some friends and neighbors who offered help, but really there was nothing to be done. My house was in chaos and I had no clue where the extra key would be. Everyone was off to special lunches in celebration and we had no extra car seats to send them home with people anyway. Here we are outside one of the Hotels we searched in vain for our car keys. Our friends kindly offered all sorts of help and to take our picture.

In the end, the only thing that could be done (and should have been done in the beginning) was to pray. So as a family, we gathered together and asked for help. We needed to find the keys to get home to the packers, get food in the kids, and get out of our too hot for Texas clothes. The prayer was short but sincere. Then, looking back one more time at our seats, I found the keys wedge between our seats. Tiago and I were the ones who found them and we instantly said a prayer of gratitude. Several prayers of thanks later, we walked to our car, keys in hand. And on back to our miraculous adventure called moving. poor quality due to iPhone video capacity while holding an infant and trying to walk in crouched position walking sideways

Breakfast In Bed

For mother's day, the kids made me breakfast in bed (which due to time restraints for making it to our 8:00 am choir practice before church at 8:30 meant we all ate quickly on the table downstairs. The kids have been getting a lot of breakfast in bed practice.

All three of these pictures were from different breakfasts brought to me in bed. I must say that I live a spoiled life. I often hear them up and making things and yet fall back to sleep until I hear the clanking of plates against the cookie sheet they use for a tray. So sweet.

Cinco De Mayo

Although this was taken a couple months ago, I thought it fit the spirit of the day!!

Loves of March

Tiago lost his two front teeth during a mad race between him and his brother. Joaquin (although unaware) tied with Tiago in teeth events. Joaquin grew two and Tiago lost two in the same week.

Tiago also got a violent throwing up bug which was kind of scary since he has really nothing on him to lose. He and I for that matter were kind of out of commission dealing with the bought of sickness. Mia, like usual, thought that the best thing to do was make a sweet card and breakfast in bed to help heal her brother. My heart melted at the sweet tenderness she showed him.

Joaquin has been ever the explorer. He loves chatting in the mirror with his identical friend (aka his own reflection). It is so funny to watch him and his reflection interact. It kind of reminds me of the fish in Nemo just not as psychotic.

Finally, our friends invited us to Pi day. We celebrated with them last year, but didn't memorize any of pi and brought really gross pie. This year, in attempts to at least make up for my bad pie, I tried cute little pie tartlets. The kids were totally grossed out about the crust that called for vinegar. I guess that the No Fail Pie Crust didn't make the cut.

Conference Weekend

WALKING ON THE BEACH BEFORE SUNDAY SESSION:

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, four days each year (two in April and two in October) are dedicated to a marathon of spiritual/insightful words and music. General Conference has always been a priority in our family, even when I was a little girl (and even more so with Fernando and his family who drove to their stake building and camped out all day to watch in church clothes).

Now as a mother of 4 kids, I have tried each year to make Conference a meaningful experience for everyone. When I woke up to the reality that 8 hours of tv time, no matter how spiritually uplifting, is just really long for kids. I tried packets and coloring pages to no avail. The best attendance we got was when we did Word Treats. We allowed the kids to pick several gospel terms and then affixed those terms on different treats and foods. We tried to limit the types of treats to healthy fruits and veggies and a few semi sugary wonders but in the end it felt like we were just constantly eating which felt gross after sitting and watching the tv for hours on end.

Then, last year while scouring the internet for ideas, I stumbled onto the best solution ever (at least for my kids) on sugardoodle.net by Janna Barnes. She had little presents for each member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and members of the First Presidency. I also loved her idea of having mini snickers for the kids to eat each time they heard someone laugh and little hugs candies for the times someone cried.

I have done this for two Conferences now with amazing results. For less then $15, we had kids excited for and ready to "listen" to General Conference. Now, I am not so naive to think that it was excitement solely for the messages that would be heard, but I hope that this same concept could be applied here

"6 months from now you will not remember how the cookie tasted, but you will see the result" Our translation, 6 years from now, you won't remember why you were excited for Conference but you will see the result of a habit of watching all sessions with fondness.

We have one session to go and the kids are still excited to listen!! By the time the kids figured out who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and match it with the gift, open the gift, and played with it for a few minutes it was time to move on to the next activity. No one got bored and I could listen while they hopefully listened and learned by osmosis.

Our tweaks that I found worked best for us:

The members of the Twelve got various dollar store wonders. Play dough, egg dying kit, water bottle drink mixes, those capsules that dissolve in water and become some animal, etc. The best find for us were 100 piece puzzles. They took about a talk and a half to finish and took everyone of the kids working together to do it.

Then for the General Authorities, we had bingo cards. Each time a kids got bingo, they could pick an easter egg out. Inside each easter egg was a treat and quantity. Some of the treats were raspberry lemonade, yogurt smoothy drinks, mandarin oranges, carrots with dip, graham crackers, mini nilla wafers, chocolate chips, etc