Happy 7th Birthday Sophie Ann

On July 31, 2001 we welomed this beautiful little girl into our lives and now she's SEVEN . . . lucky number seven. What a blessing she has been to our family - such a precious, sweet, and loving girl. So gentle and kind to all her friends and filled with so much spunk around her family :-). When she was a baby, her great-grandma Jean nicknamed her "Sparky" and it still fits. Her grandma Janice and grandpa Terry call her "Ladybug," and the rest of us refer to her as just "Soph." We LOVE you Sophie and are so happy you are ours!

Some of Sophie's favorites: Anything and everything that has to do with a HORSE, playing tennis, giggling with friends, riding bikes, ballet class, the beach, swimming, and reading.

Here is the rundown of Sophie's birthday "extravaganza" as Chris referred to the past couple of weeks . . .

Her "big" present: Two private horse riding lessons. She was in heaven . . . if you want to see what pure, unadulterated joy looks like - take a look at Sophie's smile. She learned how to groom the horse, use the reins, halt, turn, and trot. Now she believes her life calling is to be a professional "horse rider" as she puts it.

The birthday festivities began in Bear Lake when grandma Janice pulled out surprises for all three Howick grandkids who celebrate birthdays in the same week (Miriam turned one on the 27th, Avery 4 on the 30th, and Sophie 7 on the 31st). The only drawback was when grandma made her grand entrance with birthday goodies for the three kids, Liza immediately wondered what was up and why she wasn't getting a surprise too . . . . oops, we had some explaining to do!
Celebrating all three birthdays with the Tilt and Howick families at the park before Jenna and Bryan made their way back home to Oregon. Avery was nice to share his "dinosaur cake" with Sophie.
Now, for the actual birthday . . . a little gathering at our house with a few friends, first lunch . . .

then SWIMMING! Fun times . . . well, except for Liza who was disappointed that she didn't get a ring-pop in her goodie bag. Oh well, she survived, and Sophie made it up to her by making her a sno-cone from her new "Snoopy snow-cone maker" that evening after our family birthday celebration.

Well, chalk up another 7th Birthday success in the Cantera family - boy, I still remember Ryan's 7th birthday party like it was yesterday . . . time flies, but we try to enjoy it all and make it special for each child. Gotta love a birthday, even if mom is completely wiped out by the end of the day!!

Pioneer Day Weekend

The 24th weekend was spent up at the lake with my sister Jenna who was visiting from Oregon with her two little ones (Avery & Miriam) while Bryan was in China. So, we made it a girls trip and left Ryan and Chris home to spend some "male bonding time" eating fast food every night, going skating to hone their hockey skills, playing guitar, and seeing the new Batman movie. Ryan loved having dad all to himself. While they guys were hanging, we gals were having some good times of our own:

Caroline and cousin Shelby McDougal (our newest cousin, adopted from the Ukraine in February). Caroline really enjoyed getting to know Shelby better on this trip.
Caroline flying thanks to Michael's "let's see how long they can hold on until they wipe out" skills.
Cousins in the tent (with mom) - they loved it!
Sophie just couldn't get enough of her little cousin, Miriam.

Jenna, Miriam, and Avery . . . her kids thought the lake was the greatest!
Time out of the sun with fun activites on grandma's "toy blanket."
Liza and Avery deep in conversation while grandpa plays frisbee with Sara's dog.
Shelby, Heidi, and Sophie on the boat. We love our Howick cousins!
Julie proving to her kids and the young punks in the boat that she can still waterski. However, I didn't let them in on the aches and pains that made it almost impossible to get out of bed the next morning ;-). Oh, and I STILL can't straighten my left arm out completely . . . and don't tell me it's because i'm getting old. OK, you're right, it IS because i'm getting old and my joints for some reason haven't got the message that I still want to do all the same activities I did 20 years ago without any pain!

The POLICE

Saturday night, after 20 long years, the Police finally returned to SLC. The last time they were here, I missed Sting in all his 80s glory. However, he couldn't have looked better and this time Chris and I were among thousands in the mid-30 to mid-50 age range who came to watch Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland work their magic . . . our 13-year old and his friend were as excited as all the oldtimers. What a concert it was - amazing, AMAZING! It's one of those rare moments when it's completely acceptable to behave just like the teenagers in the crowd, if only for a couple hours, and believe me, I took full advantage of that those hours :-). We were lucky to be with such a fun group of great friends . . . we were on our feet the entire time and it was sweet to attend with my son and watch Ryan and his friends groove with the beat as well. Good times had by all!
So, as we were singing Police tunes in the car driving out of the parking lot we suddenly found ourselves in an unfortunate fender-bender. For the whole story, visit this blog. I was so happy that the cute girls we hit had a camera since I forgot mine, so I stole this pic from her blog (I just HAD to get a pic of Ryan and Sam in their concert t-shirts). We made two more friends and even discovered that one of them was in the same Nutcracker cast as my daughter - small world.

Just to rub it in a little more for those of you who missed out - here's the set list:

Message in a Bottle

Walking on the Moon

Demolition Man

Voices Inside My Head/When the World is

Running Down

Don't Stand So Close to Me

Driven to Tears

Hole in My Life

Every Little Thing She Does is Magic

Wrapped Around Your Finger

De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

Invisible Sun

Can't Stand Losing You/Regatta de Blanc

First Encore: Roxanne, King of Pain, So Lonely, Every Breath You Take

Second Encore: Next to You

Summer Family Vacation 2008

We're back from a glorious week of family fun spent first in Bear Lake and then Island Park, Idaho. It was absolutely WONDERFUL - our days were filled with amazing mountain scenery and beautiful vistas, long bike rides and walks, and especially memorable days spent with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Bear Lake Highlights:

• Biking with Caroline and my mom along the lake up to the scout camp.
• Mountain biking with my dad and Chris around Round Valley in Laketown.
• Ryan's fireworks show each evening while we made s'mores.
• Relaxing on the beach, watching the kids play in the water, and riding as FAST as legally possible on the waverunner.
• My favorite - Bear Lake evenings when the temperature drops and the sun begins to set behind the hills.

Island Park Highlights:

• 
  
  Cantera clan together in one place - all 30 of us!
• 
  
  Kevin's ab routines in the morning, Scattegories and movies every night.
• 
  
  Cousins in the hot tub.
• 
  
  Fishing with uncle Brian . . . and eating those 5 fish the kids caught that night.
• 
  
  YELLOWSTONE - ahhh, the beauty of that park.
• 
  
  Fun in the river on canoes and kayaks . . . maybe too much fun ;-).
• 
  
  My favorite - an early morning bike ride by myself down to these amazing wildflower filled meadows with the Teton range to the east and the forests of Island Park on the west . . . believe me, it felt like I had died and gone to heaven, either that or I was being featured in an REI ad!

Top Ten Cantera Reunion "had to be there" moments:
10. "See, even the Japanese tourists think it's funny!" - Chris
9. "It wouldn't have been that bad if the same man didn't have to rescue me twice." - Pat
8. "Julie look, it's a desert muskrat!" - Linda
7. "He's a teaser dad too." - Becca
6. "The traveling side show has rolled into Mack's" - Chris
5. "Man, it's just like an anthill in here." - Kelly
4. "We are NOT engaged, people!" - Laura
3. "Backyard B-B-Q!!!" - Kevin
2. "I'm NEVER getting in a canoe with you again!" - Liza
1. "Everything alright?" . . . . "you look a little flushed" - David, then Carrie

Cantera family reunion pics

Happy Independence Day

"Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, measures in which the lives and liberties of millions, born and unborn are most essentially interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the history of the world."

- John Adams -

(an excerpt from his final, passionate speech given July 1, 1776 . . . the day before the signing of the Declaration of Independence)

It's a split personality thing

OK, so I hope I didn't sound too negative in describing Sophie's behavior lately because as you all know, on her good days she's an absolute joy to have around, as I described in this post back in April. She is so funny, one moment you just want to squeeze her to death because she's so loving and sweet, and a split second later you want to put her up for adoption! On the days I'm not the "worst mom ever," I'm the "best mom ever" and the days she doesn't want to go live at Annabelle's house, she couldn't dream of being away from our family. Anyway, I keep one of Sophie's cute little notes up on a bulletin board in our kitchen and yesterday I walked past and read it once again and figured the kid deserves a break, which for her came in the form of extra attention from Mom, a trip to the library, and lots of piggyback rides around the house :-).

Poor, picked on Sophie

This blog aptly describes Sophie as "our drama queen" which is no exaggeration whatsoever. This summer with all the sibling closeness (i.e. they are all stuck with each other all day) that's going on at our house, I am desperately trying to keep Sophie's tattling to a minimum. Really folks, the other day after hearing "guess what he said . . . " or "she did this to me . . . " twenty times before breakfast I had to come up with a plan. Remember, if you look at Sophie wrong or say the wrong thing, or heaven forbid sweetly ask her to practice piano, she takes it a tad too personally and tells you immediately that you are the "WORST MOM EVER!!" Then if she sees you stifling a laugh, you get fits of screaming and crying . . . . ahhhh, parenting.

So, in the mode of trying to stay positive and not let her constant rants drive me insane I came up with a plan the other day, and to my surprise, it's actually working. I believe it was Saturday, when the sibling togetherness gets a little too much for our Sophie and she could use some space. Anyway, i doubt the sun had even come up and she was well on her way to explaining every injustice committed to her since she went to bed. I told her "enough of this . . . from now on, unless there is BLOOD, i don't want to hear about it, so here is some paper and a pencil and a box - every time someone does something you don't like, you WRITE it down and put it in the box then we'll discuss your grievances in a day or two."

It was no surprise by the end of the day that the little box was stuffed with scraps of paper explaining all her gripes. It was pretty funny and I just have to share a few favorites. So, here you go - Sophie's own words, spelling, & punctuation:

1. Caroline punched me and poped my muceuls! (I believe that's "popped my muscles" - what the??)

2. Liza coffed in my face.

3. Ryan was mean!

4. Liza frew my baby doll down.

5. One time Caroline lefet me out. (meaning: "This happened a long time ago, but I will never forget and I'm going to hold it against her until I'm 30.")

Ode to Pixar

They did it again! Tonight we took the kids for a belated "great job in school" celebration. The outing of choice was of course dinner and opening day of the latest Pixar movie "WALL-E." You know that only Pixar can entertain the entire family from kids to adults, grandparents, teenagers, and even little ones. It was simply delightful - so entertaining and enlightening (truly an insightful commentary into our consumer driven society) at the same time. After the show the discussion became heated about what which pixar film in "best" (Chris said this one, "Incredibles" still is at the top of my list, and the kids love them all).

However, we always look forward to the Pixar "shorts" before the feature, and Ryan and Caroline said tonight's was the funniest one yet - they were laughing so hard I could hear them from the other end of the row. So, in honor of Pixar - here's the "short" that was in first place before tonight . . . our family fell in love with this computer animated little girl, especially her frustrated expressions at the end - too much!

Summer is HERE

Finally, it has arrived in all it's glory and HEAT - summer! It's been wonderful . . . swimming lessons every day, hanging out at the pool, hiking (four hikes just last week), going to the park, planting the garden, etc. So, in celebration of this most wonderful time of year, I put together a slideshow of all the reasons why we love summer - enjoy!

What a Dad . . .

Happy Father's Day Chris - really, what an awesome dad you are. I'm not sure if any other dad on the planet can make up silly songs on the spot for practically any occasion, or has his kids laughing hysterically every night during story time, or has invented such cool entities as "blind monster," the "prayer mice," and "dot-to-dot," or has "fill in the blank" prayers for the kids when they are little. Just a few things about our dad that we couldn't live without, so thanks Chris for always keeping things fun.

Of course, just like Mother's Day, the best part of Father's Day is the homemade cards . . . the little girls were so excited to give Chris their latest creative endeavors - check it out:

And since it is Father's Day - here's to all the other wonderful dads in our life:

Grandpa Terry goofing off with the kids in Sea World. Thanks Dad for always being such a great example of love, kindness, and patience for all of us. Travis, Jenna, and I were pretty lucky kids to grow up with a dad like you. Now the grandkids adore you and are so blessed to have such a fun grandpa.

Grandpa Terry and my Grandpa Les Howick at Bear Lake. Grandpa Les loves all the grandkids and great-grandchildren and enjoys spending time with us all . . . the kids especially look forward to the ice cream cones Grandpa always keeps on hand just for them.

Grandpa Ron just loves his grandkids! He is always so thoughtful to think of each child on their birthdays and send something special just for them. We all appreciate the kind cards and e-mails he sends to all of us for each holiday and special occasion.

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads in my life - I love you all!

Here's to my great kids

I know, I know, everyone believes their own kids to be the best - the most wonderful, special, intelligent, and creative creatures to grace the planet. Ours are still working on that, but I have to say that this first week of summer break has truly been delightful, just sweet moments watching my two oldest children take on more responsibility and realizing that they are no longer little . . . that they are now really growing up.

Just this evening at my bookgroup, one of the younger mothers commented on how she is worried about her little ones becoming teenagers. I thought for a moment about how really great it is watching your children begin to be their own people, to gain more independence, and to learn from their mistakes. Both Ryan and Caroline have demonstrated their maturity and their desire for more responsibility and independence these past few weeks and I couldn't be happier for them.

Summer is the time when they become little entrepreneurs and try to earn some money for themselves. I don't believe in giving an "allowance" or paying them for chores, so for some extra spending cash they get to earn it. This will be Ryan's second year his "dog sitting" business and he's worked hard delivering fliers around the neighborhood, as well as attaching several to neighborhood mailboxes and lampposts. Caroline decided to get in on the action and begin advertising her skills as a most excellent babysitter, so she came up with her own flier and made the deliveries to all the families in the neighborhood with young children.

This evening watching Caroline come home ecstatic from a babysitting job with a crisp $20 in her hands, and then picking Ryan up at 11pm from a friend's home after a day of fun and then night games with good friends who come from great families, I couldn't help but be proud of my two oldest kids. They are a wonderful example to Sophie and Liza and have made wise choices regarding their friends and how they use their time. I couldn't be prouder and tonight I was just filled with gratitude for Ryan and Caroline, for the good friends they are to each other and how lucky I am to be their mom.

These pics are from the last day of school: Ryan and good friend Sam, Caroline and Kaitlyn in the outfits of choice for the last day of school - Caroline is never one to miss out on a chance to dress wacky and I love that about her! Btw, she began the day with a wig, dark sunglasses, and a baseball cap on as well - what a kid :-).

This is NOT happening . . .

OK, so this is what greeted me when I woke up this morning - a dusting of snow on the mountains here behind our house. So, the heat is turned on and my kids are asking for hot chocolate for breakfast and it's freaking June 11th!!

I guess the big question for today is: "Do I take the girls to their swimming lessons in an hour??" I think I'll wait until it stops hailing before I make that decision.

"Under the Big Top"

Well, the annual ballet recital was a success . . . meaning I successfully had all three girls in costume with hair and make-up and to the theater only 10 minutes past the time they were supposed to be there. Now, if my mom wasn't helping me get them ready, we would have really been in trouble! Thanks to everyone who came and supported our girls, it was a delightful evening and ever so entertaining thanks to Liza's onstage "Lion" antics, Sophie's intense focus during her rousing "circus horse dancer" performance, and Caroline's beautiful dancing. A fun evening for all . . . .

Caroline, Grandma Pat, Grandpa Terry, Grandma Janice, Liza, and Sophie

The "Entertainer of the Year" award goes to . . . . LIZA, for the best circus lion performance EVER, oh, and don't forget keeping the entire audience in stitches during her time on stage!
My three beautiful dancers.
Elizabeth and uncle Travis after the show.

A Preview

Tomorrow evening is the annual ballet recital and this year all three girls are performing. As they were waiting with their friends across the street for a ride down to the dress rehearsal I couldn't resist the photo op, so here you go: one ferocious LION, one darling ACROBAT, two fancy CIRCUS riders, and one sweet ELEPHANT.

Obviously, the recital is entitled "Under the Big Top" and from what I saw at this evening's rehearsal it is about the cutest thing ever!

Everyone is welcome - 7 pm Saturday night - call us for details.