July and August

(7/14) "Car Accident"

I had my first "car accident" in July: I scraped the side of a parked car while trying to park at the Corrales Pool. I left my contact information under the wiper blade and hung around after our swim session to talk with the other driver. She was grateful that I was honest. I ended up having my car looked at by our insurance adjustor, since some of the paint had scraped off my bumper. We were pleasantly surprised that they didn't make us pay our deductible. The insurance company had the car fixed, cleaned, and vacuumed. And to top it off, they gave me a $100 check! Made me want to hit other cars more often! Ha ha! I counted it all as blessings for "doing the right thing."

(7/31-8/4) Albuquerque Swim Lessons

The boys both took the level 1 swim course at the Sierra Vista Pool this summer. It was fun that they got to be in the same class. We noticed lots of improvement in their swimming this summer. Beau can swim a good 3 yards or so!

(7/5) Hudson's 7th Birthday Dragon Party

Hudson's been really into "How to Train Your Dragon," so we had a theme party for him this year. He invited a mix of kids from his school, our neighborhood, his church class, and his cousin. We made paper dragons to race, did an obstacle course in the backyard (including Nerf guns!), had viking ship hot dogs and "Toothless" cake, and opened presents. We are grateful for our sweet, social, loving, funny, seven-year-old! He is the best big brother to his siblings and brings so much enthusiasm and joy to our household!

The course started out with "lasers" and a balloon obstacle to crawl through ...

Then balancing water across a balance beam and making a cup tower as tall as yourself ...

Then they had to shoot the villains!

Come on, guys! You can do it!

In the end, everyone got a golden dragon egg filled with candy and dragons!

Viking ship hot dogs (thank you, Pinterest!)

The party crew!

Cousins enjoying their meal together

What a fun group of kids!

Hudson digging into his pile of presents! It's always the best part!

These brothers are such good friends

Toothless cake!

My happy, beautiful birthday boy! (Man - that frosting was SO MESSY!)

Beau showing off his hoard of dragons!

Hannah with her opened egg

The nerf guns and bow and arrow were a big hit this year

(8/10-13) Idaho Trip for Kendall's Wedding

My parents and I took the kids on a long trek up to Idaho. My main objectives were (1) to attend my cousin Kendall's wedding, (2) to see my grandma, and (3) to spend a little time with Julie and her family. The sealing in the Idaho Falls temple was wonderful - I sat with Angie and cried as I watched Julie and Brad look tenderly at their son and new daughter, Hannah. My aunt is looking very sick and frail, but she was as beautiful as ever. It made me sad to know she was in so much pain, but she put on a happy face for everyone. We attended a delicious cookout-style wedding dinner and the reception, both held in the Hatch's neighborhood but in a friend's huge backyard. Looking back on the trip, I especially loved spending one-on-one time with Steve and Linda and their grandsons; getting to know my cousin Johnny's wife Emily better; and playing Farkle with my Grandma, my folks, Angie, Michael, Tyler, Ted, Jenny, Abby, and Juliet.

These cuties are best buds!

Picking Great Grandma's flowers - whoopsies!

Uh oh! More picking! At least it's not his nose this time!

Four generations of women!

Spending time with Great Grandma Hobbs

Woo that was a scary slide!

Hanging with Grandma!

The Daring Rock Climber!

Heidi's the prettiest babysitter ever!

Can't wait to see the BRIDE!!!

We sure miss Daddy when he doesn't travel with us!

What a big day for the Hatch family!

Hannah finally got to meet Hannah the Bride!

Gorgeous Heidi

The Lovely Emily!

The Queen of Fun, Angie!

Snagged this photo from Angie's Facebook page

I love the IF temple!

Playing in Grandma's gorgeous yard!

A last hurrah game night!

I sure love my extended family!

(8/14) Hudson is a 2nd Grader

Hudson started back up at Chamiza and is loving his new teacher, Mrs. Garcia. Hudson's made friends with a boy named Nathaniel and the two of them are really into Pokemon these days! We have a nice after-school routine going, where he has an hour and a half to do his homework and chores while Hannah is napping and Beau's at preschool. I enjoy reading with him (last week it was I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 and this week it's the Goosebumps book, Scarecrow Walks at Midnight), and he enjoys writing in his journal. When he's done with his responsibilities, Hudson is finally a "free man!" He usually wants to play the "Knight Game" on the iPad or watch cartoons.

Cute boy starts his third year at Chamiza!

Getting settled in Mrs. Garcia's classroom

(8/17) Beau is a Preschooler

Little Beau Boy started his schooling journey this year - he's a preschooler in the Peer Modeling Program at Petroglyph Elementary School. He gets to carpool with his friends from church, Spencer and Addy. His favorite part of school is ... everything! He loves playing with his friends at recess, serving himself at snack time, and doing crafts. I really hesitated having Beau go - why have him gone 3 hours a day when I'm just at home??? - but I've used the time with him away to take a nap each day and focus on getting Hudson's homework done! Beau's pretty wiped out by the end of the day, but I think he really likes preschool.

My sweet little munchkin man! Can't believe he's in preschool!

I adore this little man of mine (so does Hannah - on her nice days! Ha ha!)

Look how tiny he is!

Beau picked out his army man backpack

Look at that huge pile of school supplies! Took 2 adults to carry inside!

My only wish is that there were more trees and some grass! The playground is SO hot!

Notice Hannah in the mix?? She's ready for school too! Ha ha!

Baby #4

So this is way bigger news than just a side note in my July August blog posting, but yeah! We're expecting baby #4 April 9th of next year. I'm still pretty in shock about it, seeing that it took about 2 years to convince Sebastian to get on board with the idea. Ha ha! Earlier this year, we had set August as our target "start trying" date if - and that was a big if - we were actually going to try for it. In July, as August was right around the corner, let's just say were were not very careful one Saturday morning. Shortly thereafter, I was cleaning in the kitchen when a very thoughtful Hudson came up to me and said, "Mom, I have this feeling that a baby's joining our family." What?? I was shocked! Did Dad tell you something? Why do you think that? No - he just had a feeling. Inspiration if you ask me!

I'm pretty sure the baby has been waiting to come to our family. When I thought about things logically, the thought of a new baby was pretty scary and overwhelming. Four is a lot of kids! But I continually had this feeling that we needed to have another baby and it would not go away. It was a constant nagging - especially when I was trying to sleep and had nothing on my mind. As soon as we got pregnant, that nagging feeling went away. My thinking is that the little baby's spirit was pressing and prodding me to get busy! We're excited to meet the new little one next spring!

We have a little something cooking in the oven! (PS: This is my aunt Julie's peach pie recipe!)