The Noriega Family

Volleyball season started two weeks ago.  I love volleyball season, but it totally consumes me; especially at the beginning.  The first week is tryouts.  I hate cutting kids; I feel like I am crushing their dreams.  Sometimes they cry and that makes me want to cry too.  At the same time, I am grateful that I have enough kids interested in volleyball that I can make cuts.  I would dislike to be forced to keep the kids that have bad attitudes or do not work hard just because I did not have enough kids to fill the roster.  Unfortunately I have so many kids that I have to cut good kids who are descent volleyball players. This year I had 65 kids tryout for 36 spots.  Needless to say, I am really happy that tryouts are over and we have our teams selected.  The second week of volleyball has been filled with lots of practice.  I am really excited about my team.  I think that all three of our teams will be good this year.  I have such nice girls who play and I have great coaches as well.  Natalia and Sienna have been troopers.  They come with me in the mornings to the first practice of the day.  Hector is home from work by time the second practice roles around.  We really only have one more week of two practices and then I will only have to leave the girls once Hector is home from work.  Natalia likes coming to gym much more this year than she did last year.  She thinks its funny when I make the girls run.  She just follows me around and hovers around my legs while I am coaching. 

Natalia really loves to count.  The problem is that she forgets three and and four.  It is really cute; one, two, five every time, but she will count anything that she see multiples of.  We are having so much fun listening the cute things that our little lady speaks.  Krystale babysat the girls last night and when Natalia woke up this morning all we heard was, "Kystal, Kystal, I want pay (play) with Kystal." 



Everybody in the Family

 Part of our vacation included Grandpa Camp.  I love that my parents put this together every year.  It was fun to see Natalia participate more this year and I know that she and Sienna will look forward to it each year as they get older.  It is also so much fun because it gets everyone in the family together at the same time.  I love to go back to my parents' house and see/spend time with my siblings and their families.

Grandpa camp started off with a yummy pancake breakfast (grandpa likes to hide little surprises in the pancakes).  Then all the kids got to check in to grandpa camp.  This included being weighed and measured, plus literally signing their name.  Natalia added a nice little scribble.  All the kids received their grandpa camp shirts and and necklaces.   After that we headed to Cabela's Outdoor store.  What a fun place this was for kids; tons of animals to check out and huge fish tanks. 


Garret, Natalia, Adele







Spencer, Naomi, Natalia, Garret, Adele



Natalia getting her beads



Adele, Ridge, Naomi, Spencer, Natalia, Garret




Grandpa, Garret, Adele, Natalia




Spencer, Natalia, Adele, Garret, Grandpa





Natalia, Hector, Leah, Naomi, Fishies



Naomi, Leah, Natalia

The kids had a blast at Cabela's.  When we got home the kids got to enjoy a yummy special lunch from Grandma's Goofy Garden. 




After nap time, we headed off to the beach.  My dad build a great row boat for the kids.  Natalia loved riding in the boat, but she wanted me by her side the whole time.  She would lean over and let her hand run through the water as we glided along.  She is still talking about the boat and the water and how she put her hand in.  I believe she thought she was pretty brave.  We tried to put her in the kid kayak, but she wanted nothing to do with that. 


Hector and Sienna

  

Me and Natalia



Natalia taking a break in the stroller with her fruit snacks

I am still convinced that Natalia's favorite part of the trip was the unlimited supply of fruit snacks that my mother provided.


Natalia and her "fout nacks"




Spencer, Dan, Natalia, Me




Spencer, Natalia, Me

 By time we walked back from the beach the kids were pretty dirty and hot, so the little pool that was out on the lawn became a makeshift tub.  The kids stripped down to their undies and played in the front yard in true redneck still.  My mom even had a tepee for them to play in (homemade of course). 

Natalia, Adele, Naomi

 The kids had a great first day of camp.  They all loved earning their beads.  Spencer got a special bead for being the first kid to tip over in the kayak.  Hopefully he will be the last one too.  The men all went off on a man night and us ladies stayed around the house and enjoyed some girl time after all the kids were in bed. 

Exhausted Sienna


 Day two of Grandpa continued with great fun.  Anna's family joined us at the park in the morning and we had everyone together finally.  It was so much fun to see my parents with all their grand kids.  What a fantastic family we have!  We had fun playing at the park, even the men enjoyed some Can Jam (who says grandpa camp is just for the grand kids).  In the afternoon there was a boat making wood project.  Natalia was surprisingly good with the hammer.  More playing in the pool for the little kids.  The older kids went on the zip line and the rope swing, used blow guns and BB guns and I am sure other unsafe piece of artillery, but they had fun.  The adults and kids alike had fun with grandma's guessing game and the kids had a blast with grandma's crafts.  The kids were quick to inform me that because they did three different crafts, they needed three craft beads.  Natalia wore her little coin purse that she made the entire trip home.  We practically had to pry it off her.  The big kids and grandpa slept in the cabin Saturday night, maybe in a couple of years Natalia will be ready for that.  Sienna still has quite a while before she is ready.

Tyler and Joe




Hector and Dan




Back: Nicole, Garret, Spencer, Hailey, Grandpa, Ramona, Sienna, Grandma, Titus, Ridge Front: Lydia, Kyle, Naomi, Katie, Adele, Natalia







Popsicles! Yummy!




Hector and Katie playing the jar guessing game



Heather, Ridge, Katie, Hector

Natalia doing crafts

The last part of Grandpa camp ended on a spiritual note.  Since we were all together on Sunday morning, Rachel decided to bless Titus while we were all attending my parents' church.  It was so nice to have everyone there for his blessing.  He is the newest addition to the family and a good reason for everyone to be together.  I am so glad that we got to be a part of his special day.  Because we live so far away we miss most of the special occasions in the lives of our nieces and nephews.  It was really nice to be a part of this one.

Heather, Rachel, Mom, Anna, Leah, Stephanie

 


Rachel and Titus

 

Natalia and Sienna had their doctor appointments last week when we returned home.  Natalia had her two year check up and she was supper happy to not need any shots this time around.  She is 35 1/4 inches tall.  This puts her in the 85th percentile for height.  She is 27.5 pounds which puts her in the 57th percentile for weight.  She is 30 pounds on my scale, but who really knows.  She is a great little two year old.  I am amazed at how much her vocabulary has improved in the past few months.  We love hearing all the cute things she says.  Some of my current favorites include:

When she wants to be carried she says, "I carry you" (she gets those pronouns a little mixed up).
When she plays Peek-a-boo with Sienna she says, "Peek-you" and puts her hand over her mouth.
She says, "No Way" as opposed to just plain old "no".  Not sure I am really a fan of that one.
Any time I get out the broom, she comes running, " I want to sweep too, me too, help, my boom too".
She is still afraid of the vacuum, but I can tell that I have told her several times that the vacuum will not hurt her because whenever she sees it now she says, "Me no like it, no hurt you, no hurt mommy, no hurt baby".
Any time she hears a sneeze, she says, "Bess You".

Sienna got to see the doctor for her four month appointment.   Unfortunately for Sienna, she did have shots, and she was not a fan.  Hector got to hold her this time so now he understands how heartbreaking it is when you have to watch your kids get shots.  Time is flying by.  She is 24 3/4 inches long which puts her in the 57th percentile for height and she is 14 pounds 12 ounces which puts her in the 65th percentile for weight.  We are having so much fun with our four month old.  She is so smiley and happy.  She loves to look and look and look.  She continues to be a great sleeper.  I expect at tooth at any moment as she is drooling like crazy these days.  She is also rolling like crazy.  She can do both the back and the belly role proficiently now, but she still gets frustrated when she is on her tummy. 

Hector and I have been married for six years.  We celebrated our anniversary while we were on vacation at my parents' house.  Our actual anniversary fell on Grandpa Camp, so we celebrated a little early by going out to dinner one night before the house was totally filled with guests.  It was a nice and laid back anniversary.  Honestly, on the actual anniversary day, I totally forgot it was even our anniversary.  We had a lot going on that day.  But even though I did not spend much time thinking about my anniversary on the actual day, I would say that Hector and I are in a really good place in our marriage.  We have long passed the Honeymoon phase and I am happy to say that we have also moved past the disillusionment phase.  I love Hector for his perfections and his flaws (hopefully her feels the same way about me; I know that he does).  I love that we are tackling the challenges of parenting together.  I love that we get to share our lives, hobbies, goals and dreams together.  We have had and continue to have fun working together on our goals.  Six years at times seems like a long time.  It is hard to imagine not being married anymore.  I know that in the big picture six years is nothing, so I look forward to many more good years of marriage.