Band Competition

Here is a short video of Micah playing at competition in San Antonio, Texas. This was the only time they played during the day (1:30pm). Micah is in the front playing the marimba in the middle of the field. We just love going to see him play.

Music and Art concert/show

Jonah at school with some of his friends, he is the one in the middle. This was the art show making those masks.

Jonah looking cool with sunglasses after the singing. I was too far back to take pictures when he was singing, but he did really good.

October 8, 2008

Micah was born on Larry's birthday. He loves sharing his birhtday with his dad. And Larry said that from that day forward he stopped having birthdays.

Here we are posing for a family picture. Jonah, too, wanted a cup cake with a candle. I baked 4 dozens cup cakes that day (2 dozens for seminary, and 2 dozens for swimming). The left over cup cakes we ate for dessert after dinner. At Micah's request, I made the cup cakes with a box of chocolate cake mix and added a 12oz cherry coke (omited the other ingredients), they came out pretty good.

Swimming

Micah is in the swim team at Canyon High School (Canyon Cougars). This is his second year swimming with the team. After seminary at church (6 to 6:50am) I drive him to the YMCA for practice until 8:30. So gets a good 1 1/2 hour practice 4 days a week and the other day they do land exercises.

Here he is getting a good luck on his event from Dad.

This was the first time Micah swam with his team in the relay 400 free style. Coach was very happy with them, they did very good. Micah has improved so much this year. The first day of practice she told Micah that he improved 4,000%. And after the first week she moved him to the second fastest lane for practice. He is so used of getting up so early in the morning that he is pretty awake for practice. He is super tired when I pick him up to take him to school, but is able to handle it. He knows that he wants to do better and he is really trying. This is the best sport he can do for his rheumatoid arthritis, and it is really helping him.

Soccer

The day after the Fair, Jonah had a soccer game at 10:30. At least we got to sleep in a little.

This is practically the only sport he has played (besides swimming). He really enjoys playing.

I could not believe it when Jonah's coach put him as goalie. Jonah is really small for his age. And I was just dreading it when the other team got near his side to score. He did ok, but that was the one and only time his coach put him in that position.

Football game

Later that night on Fair Day it was the homecoming football game (which we won). Here is Micah taking the marimba near the field.

Jonah loves to go near the rails to see his brother play. Can you see Micah playing towards the middle of this picture.

When Micah is concentrating doing something he loves to do his lips like he has in this picture. He really gets into this song (one from Lord of the rings).

Parade 2008

Micah is here marching with the school band. Next to him is his friend, Clayton, from church.

Micah playing the marimba at the fair.

Jonah and I had about 30 minutes to wait until we had to get Micah from school. So we thought he had only time for 3 rides. Even in this short time, you can see the great big smile on Jonah. Anything this simple makes him very happy. He always has a fun time even if he rides all by himself.

Cub Scouts

On September 26, 2008 was New Braunfels Fair Day. Jonah got to participate by riding in the float with his cub scout pack. He is now a bear cub. He has been part of a pack from his school and has been doing really good with all of the advancements. Our day started with taking Micah to school by 7 and Jonah to the float by 8. After Micah's performance at the fair, he had only about 1 1/2 hours to rest before the football game that night. Then, it was the homecoming dance (which lasted until midnight). So their day off ended up being a busy one.

The kids were giving a paper with the songs they were supposed to sing during the parade.

This was the first time I let Jonah ride by himself. The last two times I rode with him. I waited with a friend and took pictures of the boys as they passed by.

July 2008

This summer was a busy one for us. We did a lot of fun things with the boys. One of them was to visit my niece Jackie, her husband and kids. They live in Harker Heights, TX, which is only 2 hours north of New Braunfels. Will has alot of useful things, gadgets, etc. that he shares with Micah. Like the inner sleeping bag (for the cold weather) he is in, which he can use when he goes backpaking in December with his troop.

Here are the Santiago children - Christian, Xiomara and Cassandra. The boys had such a good time with them. Cassandra likes to play video games, so she likes to hang out with Micah. And Xiomara and Jonah are only a few months apart, so they play together. Christian just likes to be the center of attention and hangs out with everyone.

Here are Jackie and I - looking good Jackie!!!

This is the Santiago Family - Jackie, Cassandra, Will, Xiomara and Christian. What is that face Xiomara is making? (I think she was pouting when I took the picture).

Micah just loves to stand next to Jackie, you can see why. She is not so pleased though, first the fact that Micah is taller than she is and second he put those bunny ears on her.

Boy scouts

On September 9, 2008, Micah became a life scout. He has worked really hard to get where he is now. He only has a few required merit badges to start thinking about his eagle project. I don't even want to think that far yet.

I want to think that I, too, earned this badge. Larry and I are very proud of him for all of his accomplishments.

Micah went to his last camp out with some of the boys from his troop. He signed up for canoeing thinking he would not be able to acomplish it. To his disbelief, it was the one he had the most fun. His scout leader made this paddle to remind him of his awesome experience.

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend we went to Dallas to meet my sister and her girls. They left Kenner because of the threat of hurricane Gustav hitting the area. My boys love to be with they cousins. They have grown up together even though we are a little far away.

My sister Leonor (or Noni like most people call her) and I just had fun being together and enjoyed relaxing by the pool.
Here is my sister and her beautiful girls.

Here we are sisters with our kids. Don't they all look like brothers and sisters? We had a great time eating at Pei Wei before we left out to go back home.

The day after we came back to New Braunfels, Jonah was still so tired that he got up after falling asleep in his bed and went to the bathroom and laid back down behind the door. When Larry went to check on the boys, he could not find Jonah in the bed. I started panicking until I looked in their bathroom and found him there. He could not believe it the next day when we told him what he had done, but luckily we had a picture of him there. It was funny afterwards but he gave us really big scare.