September 2010 - kids started school the very last part of August, and by September were in full swing with lots of homework, Ashley started 4th grade and Cristiancito had to get used to the longer day now that he is in 1st grade. He is also getting used to his new glasses which he needs to use for reading, writing and playing the piano. Ashley started dance class at Colette's Dance School, and is loving it. Mateo started walking more stable this month, when it comes to walking he was a late bloomer compared to his older siblings, Ashley & Cristiancito both started walking at 10 months, but Mateo wasn't too interested until about 14 months. Now that he is walking, he is traveling all over the place!

August 2010 - Cristian turned 40! :) At midnight (Chilean time) the kids gave their dad a gift basket filled with 40 of his favorite things - including golf balls, favorite cookies, chocolate, etc. Then that evening we had a family dinner, and then Cristian and I left the kids with his sister Mariel and his mom, and we got away to the Little America Hotel in downtown SLC. I worked on a special gift for about a month before his birthday came, which were two nice frames, one containing a collage of pictures of our life, and the other a picture of our family. One of the pictures had a text overlay with a list of the "40 things I love about you", the other picture had a text overlay of "40 things you've accomplished so far". These were meant to be special gifts for this milestone birthday, and Cristian really loved them.

Youth Activities - This was my 4th summer as Young Women President in our ward, we had Stake YW camp this year, up in the mountains behind Park city, and even though it was July, it still snowed up there! Luckily I missed the snow because I arrived the next day, but we have some courageous young women who stuck it out through the rain, snow, and mud! Then Youth Conference with our ward was down to St. George Temple and Historic Tours as well as Zion's National Park, what an amazing experience, filled with the spirit!. This was absolutely my favorite youth activity to date!!! Two of the young women in these pictures were investigators at the time, who have since been baptized. One of them is still in our ward and is an amazing young woman who not only was recently baptized but also shared the gospel with her mother who ended up being baptized on the same day.

July 2010 - Vacation time! We spent the week of 4th of July in St. George and Las Vegas. My sister-in-law has a client who loans us their condo in St. George twice a year. For the past 3 years we have gone down in the summer, and again at New Year's, we have some really great memories in St. George. We rented a vacation home with a pool in Las Vegas - this vacation was all about rest and relaxation. We spent almost the entire time in the pool, and at the house relaxing, what a great time we had! Then, back to St. George for the 4th, where we let off our own firecrackers and had a great time together with Cristian's family. Then later in the month, my sister Megan visited with her 3 kids Noah, Hannah, and Leah, we had a blast with them, and went to a lot of fun places around Salt Lake and up to the canyons, and Cristiancito was so excited that he would have both his boy cousins who are the same age - Tony & Noah - both at his birthday party this year. The kids loved spending the time with their cousins, and were so sad when it was time for them to go back to Albuquerque.

More fun in June 2010 - June was a busy month, we had a visit from Grannie Annie and Grandpa Bill, they were able to participate in a lot of activities with us while they were here, including my oldest nephew, Joshua's High School Graduation, a fun trip to the Hogle Zoo, This is the Place Monument, (where Ashley got back on a horse for the first time since 2007 when she fell off of one and dislocated her elbow), Ashley's piano recital, and Mateo's 1st Birthday party! Cristiancito lost his very first tooth while we were at the Hogle Zoo, this is the picture I took on my phone and sent to my husband who was at school the day we were at the zoo. It was so fun for the kids to get to have YaYa, Grannie Annie, and Grandpa Bill all here for these fun times!

June 2010 - kids school performances, Ashley's favorite teacher so far was her 3rd grade teacher Miss Howell. She is a returned missionary, who served in Brazil, and has a great enthusiasm for teaching, she really helped spark something in Ashley last year. Cristiancito had a great year in Kindergarten, he did really well learning to read and with math too.

Summer 2010 - kids practiced tennis this summer, any talent they have for this particular sport comes from dad for sure