the strength to bully a bull

Who, you ask yourself, has the gumption, the steeley nerves, the outright raw driving fury to attack a giant inflated bull who is wearing an aloha shirt and wranglers?
It's SUPER SAMMY. He got up some serious velocity and continuously flung himself violently against the cloved hoof, only to spring back having done absolutely ZERO damage. But of COURSE that didn't thwart his battle mood. Miranda joined and...
...the lightning-quick reaction of the seemingly oblivious giant marketing ploy was too much for her. (She did get up. She's not still in that position there at Murray Park today, weeks after the encounter, although you'd think so after such a blow.)
Is that a smile? Is the warrior possibly enjoying the fray?
Clearly it's not the size of the kids in the fight, but the size of the fight in the kids. And the fact that the bull is tethered down might have inspired some confidence.

Bye Bye to Miranda Honda

This is my cute husband happy in his car Miranda. Yes the car had the same name as our daughter. This should show how MUCH my husband loved Miranda the Honda. Miranda was always his favorite name for a girl so his Honda got it first. I insisted that we stop calling the car Miranda once the daughter Miranda was born. The Honda has been in declining health ever since. Hearbreak.

Speaking of heartbreak, this is how sad Fernando was to have to give up Miranda when she finally passed on. He passed her on to one of our home teachers who is also 16 or 17 and is looking for a car AND has a dad who can fix just about any car. So at least she's still in a good place. But he had a hard time saying goodbye.

He was reminiscing about how we had all of our dates in this car, how he used to drive up to Logan to see me in it, how we brought our kids home from the hospital in it, drove away from being married, how he had it all through his MTC teaching and EFY and BYU life...Miranda the Honda was good to us. Things become more than that when they've glued themselves to really wonderful memories. Poor Fernando.

Plus in exchange he drives a minivan.

We're having a . . .

And the next loco Seminario child will be.... (drum roll please)...

A BOY!!!

We are so excited. Miranda honestly looked me straight in the face one day and asked me, "Mom do you believe I can have feelings about things?"
Me, taken aback, "Uh....yes. Of course I do."
Miranda: "It's a girl."
Me: "Okay, but what if it's a boy?"
Miranda: "It's a girl."

So we were worried about her reaction. But she took it so well. We gave them blue slushies to help them guess what the new baby would be and when she figured it out she was happy. She says now she can have another brother to protect her in case of dogs or she has a bad dream or in case of Jumanji. So now I know her three greatest fears. Sammy seems a bit oblivious but I'm sure he will enjoy his little bro. Fernando called the new little boy "Sammy's punching bag" already so I guess we'll have to watch for that.

But we are EXCITED! YAHOO! I know Mimis and I can hold our own as we become outnumbered because, well, let's face it, we have got a lot of feminine drama going for us. Frankly, the boys need another man. We can't wait!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

I'm back blogging. I will try to make up for lost time in the next little while as a WHOLE bunch of fun stuff has been happening and I haven't written about it at all! The shame. So anyway...we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house and LOVED IT. The kids were so excited...Miranda kept reminding me, "Mom, before they say the prayer on that temple can we go in there?" The kids loved the paintings (so many paintings of Christ with the children), the light, the water features, the little trees--they said Christmas trees to remind us of Jesus--the glass, the stairs. It was a beautiful experience to be together as a family in the temple. I would highly recommend it to anyone who can make it!
Miranda had the special priveledge of getting to use the bathroom in the temple! She had to go and I was so glad they let her use that little beautiful bathroom. We did not want to leave that kind of Seminario family "mark" on any of the temple upholstery or carpet. Miranda said her favorite part was the feeling of Jesus in the Temple. She's also commented on how many houses Heavenly Father and Jesus have.
Sammy LOVED the baptismal font. He seriously had to be constrained from jumping in, wearing a full suit. We laughed about that later. He said his favorite parts were the lights, and kept telling us it was booootiful.


And of course getting free cookies complete with kid-sized water bottles afterwards handed out by nice grandma ladies wasn't a bad finishing touch. I really appreciate all of those people whose thoughts and actions went into making the experience so positive for us and our kids (even during their usual nap hours).

We just love the Temple...the kids too...they always ask me if they can go back. Sammy even cries when we drive past it without going in. I need to be more like that. I think we are pretty lucky to live here in the valley of the temples and we can't wait to go back with these children in the future!

Chalk Art Festival

The kids and I went to the Chalk Arts Festival at the Gateway. We had to pass the fountains where all the kids were playing so I did a "fun mom" thing and bought cheap swimsuits at Old Navy right then and there and the kids played. KIDS HAVE SO MUCH FUN. I love it. Suprisingly, Sammy was more hesitant while Mimi got water right up her nose several times and went back for more with a big smile on her face. I guess it's good for them to switch roles once in awhile.




Then we strolled around looking at the amazing chalk artists. I'm in the process now of trying to convince Fernando to become one. We'll see how that goes. The kids got to draw their own chalk art in the kids area. Miranda is totally into art and so she loved it, while Sam scribbled a bit and moved on to putting a random stick of thin plastic in and out of a grate. But we were all entertained. I love LOVE events like this! It's like going on vacation in our own city...a staycation, right? That's what they're called I think. And it was all to benefit the Utah Foster Care Association. So a good cause AND fun. That's the way we like it.

signs of summer

haircuts

Daddy gave the kids haircuts. I think they look so nice. I'm probably a little biased though.