Gabe and I got the chance to attend our first general conference session. My parents gave us two tickets that they had for the Sunday afternoon session. I have to say I got so much more out of that session than I think I ever have! I doubt it had anything to do with the fact that I didn't have any kids hangin or climbing on me asking what snack they could have now, or that I was actually dressed and sitting up in a chair instead of being all snuggled in my pjs under a blanket "listening" with my eyes closed. I usually enjoy the talks most from the Ensign. It was so nice to go! The talk on mothers really hit my heart. I have been in a stage of life where I sometimes feel frustrated and find myself wondering what I am here for. Does anyone notice what I do? Does Gabe realize in our almost 10 years together I have changed about 6,000 diapers, done 3,600 loads of dishes, or answered to the call from the bathroom of, "MOM, I'M DONE!" about 1,460 times? Does it mean anything? Why can't I get everything done right - how and when I want to? Many moments are filled with joy but it is overwhelming as a mom to sometimes feel inadequate. Here is a quote that I love and read often.
Woman to Woman
Someone will always be prettier. They will always be smarter. Their house will be bigger. They will drive a better car. Their children will do better in school. And their husband will fix more things around the house.
So let it go, and love you and your circumstances. Think about it. The prettiest woman in the world can have hell in her heart. And the most highly favored woman on your job may be unable to have children. And the richest woman you know, she's got the car, the house, and the clothes.... might be lonely.
And the Word says if I have not loved, I am nothing. So, again, love you. Love who you are. Look in the mirror in the morning and smile and say "Iam too blessed to be stressed and too anointed to be disappointed!"
"Winners make things happen. Losers let them happen."
I love all of you women in my life (even if most of you never leave me a comment) and I cherish our friendships. You are all wonderful women and mothers and most importantly..... daughters of our Heavenly Father.
Wow - that was a pretty deep post!
Gabe and I outside the conference center...... Do you like the haircut he gave himself???
General Conference
NEW POSTS!!!
OK! OK! OK! I have gotten all your messages in person or on the blog that you are all so tired of looking at my adorable Ranger! He's so cute I thought everyone just wanted to look at him over and over again! No, things have been so busy and crazy lately that bloging has not been at the top of my list, obviously. I have devoted almost this entire day to uploading pictures to catch everyone up on the Rojas family. So, now that you are here, this may take you a while. To start from where I left off, scroll down to Ranger's picture that you all know so well by now. I think I have everything close to the right order in which it happened. Love you all and hope you are doing great. I have much catching up to do on all of your blogs. If you are here visiting, please leave me a little comment so that I can keep in touch with you and get in contact with those I haven't seen or heard from in a while. If you have a blog and I don't have your link, leave it for me!!!!!
Snowboarding
I LOVE SNOWBOARDING!!! My sister Natalie and her husband Tommy followed us to our home from Moab so that they could go snowboarding. It worked out perfectly! We ended up having a storm that night and so it put some new snow on the mountain which made for easier learning. Because of the storm they also closed the road to Gabe's work so he was able to go with us. It was Natalie and my first time and we did so good, I guess. That's what the guys keep telling us. The first run took us forever but after we figured out the balance thing it was awesome. I wish I wouldv'e done this at the beginning of the season! Gabe took me skiing once this year and it was allright but by the end of the day I was tired and frustrated. I don't know why but snowboarding was much more fun. Look out for me next year! I'm going to start training for the winter olympics! Ha Ha. You all will have to come visit next year so that I can go and get better. Nat, I hope your buns have recovered from being frozen and fallen on all day. Next time I bet you'll wear some different clothes! Thanks for coming and having fun up there with us. Give it a couple of days and you'll be able to walk again!
Arches National Park
After all that Volleyball we got to wake up Sunday morning and go to the Arches National Park. That place was sooooooo neat! Gabe and I will be going back soon to see more of it. We didn't have that much time since my parents had to drive back to AZ that same day and I made everyone sit there while I took like a million pictures! We managed to get a couple short hikes in and see several of the arches. Amazing. If you live around here and haven't been there yet, I think it is worth the trip if you like that sort of thing. We are going to take the kids camping there sometime this summer. Anyone want to go?!! 
The boys and Emma
It was so fun to get to see Emma! She got to come to Moab with Stephanie and the boys were so excited to get to see their cousin. They had fun running around playing ball almost the whole time. That and watching us play volleyball was about all their was to do. We did give them a fun job though and I am so bummed I didn't get a picture of them! My dad brought several crates of oranges from AZ for us and he told the boys they could sell them to earn some money. They were excited and wanted to do it so they sat outside the gym doors next to their box of oranges trying to get everyone to but them at 5 for a dollar. They would get so excited when they would make a sell. Not very many girls had cash on them being in their vball clothes and all so after a while Ryder became a little frustrated. He came to me and said, "Mom, everyone just keeps telling us no or that they will come back later." I explained that they probably had to get their money and he got his big eyes and said,"I got a great idea! We could just give them out for free!" What an entrepenuer he is. The funniest thing about it all is that I heard one guy come in the gym with his wife and he was talking about how sad it was that those kids had to sit out there and sell oranges. He didn't realize that they had chosen to do it! Pretty funny. What a slave driver I am!
We're Number ONE!!!
I just had one of the best weekends in a LONG time! I have found this great group of girls here in Utah that love to play volleyball. We play about 3 to 4 times a week. We play at the church and then we play in some leagues out here. It isn't your typical church ball so I LOVE it! Tues. night we play Co-ed and Gabe is learning to play. I can't believe how fast he is picking it up. Anyways, back to our weekend, we put a team together here and I recruited my sister Stephanie and we entered a tournament in Moab, Utah. My parents drove with Stephanie and Emma and they met Gabe, the kids, and I there. We had an awesome team and we played volleyball non - stop for two days. It was the best volleyball I have seen played in a long time. We ended up winning the tournament so that made it even better! We are definitely making that an annual trip. Pregnant or not! Thanks family for driving all that way to come and play and support us! We loved getting to see you all!
Easter
Our Easter wasn't the best. We got hit with that terrible cold/flu bug at our house and it wiped almost all of us out. I got it, gave it to Gabe, who then gave it to Redden and Ranger. Gabe and Redden were the ones really sick on Easter and I was still at the tail end of it. Needless to say, Gabe and Ranger came home early from church and Redden laid on my lap the whole time so I didn't end up being able to get any cute pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes. I will have to get them all dressed again now that we are all feeling better. Stay tuned for some pictures that we will pretend are from Easter Sunday!
The neighborhood sheriff and his posse
The boys had their friend Nathan over to play and they were cracking me up! They got all dressed up in their camo, guns, walkie-talkies, binoculars, gernades, etc. They were playing inside and then decided to go out for a ride on the buggy. It looked hilarious watching them cruise around pretending like they were hunting for both animals and bad guys. A delivery man even played along by throwing his hands up in the air and when the kids drove by and pretended to shoot at him he grabbed his chest and fell down. That made their day. They couldn't quit laughing and talking about how funny that guy was. I thought for sure I might get a few calls from my elderly neighbors about the boys flying around waving their guns in the air. Boys will be boys and Gabe is always teaching them about guns and the importance of being safe. I know a lot of people oppose kids playing with guns but we feel like as long as we make sure they know how to use them and how to be safe with them, they won't be as curious. Kids can turn almost anything into a gun so I would rather them learn the dangers and be safe with them. Probably not a good idea to let them drive around the cul-de-sack waving them around though! I think we'll stick strictly to pretending to hunt in the future!
The Turners are in Utah!
I finally got to meet up with an old friend from high school that lives here in Utah as well. We met and took the kids to do something fun. It was so good to see Miss Jaime Church! How I love that crazy redhead! She has three adorable kids and I am so jealous because she got a girl. It will be fun to hang out and see them more often. She married her high school sweetheart as well so we all go way back. Give me a call Jaime!
Snow melts?
Well, we had a very cold winter here in Utah filled with two straight months of snow. In those two months we never really had a "warm" day so when we hit 50 degrees no one was ready for what happened. The snow all started melting and there was so much of it everywhere that it just kept coming across the road and the fields and several houses next to us got flooded. We would've been next if the fire department and all the neighborhood hadn't been out here to help. It was so funny to see Redden go running downstairs to save the gameboy and the xbox just in case the water made it to us. We had more sandbags in this neighborhood then my parents have dogs! LOL. The mayor and the news channels were out here and my cute hubby even made it on T.V. showing of his skills of unloading sandbags from his truck! What a stud! We also saw Jason Judy in the background trip on a hose and almost fall on his face. We all got a good laugh and loved to tease him about it. They finally got enough hoses pumping the water out to the drains that we were out of danger. They also dug a trench out in the cornfield to direct the water towards the lake. Ryder was excited to get to be up close to a fire truck so he thought the whole thing was great. Hopefully they put something permanent there so we won't get to do this next year!
Gabe's Wild Boar Hunt
The day after I got home from Georgia, Gabe left to go on a wild boar hunt in Idaho. I know this isn't the cutest thing to post about but Gabe was quite proud of his boar that he shot so I had to include these wonderful pictures. He went with a group of guys from work and each one of them were successful. Gabe shot his with his bow and then chased it for 20 minutes before they could finish him off with a gun. Lovely, I know. The best part was getting to see the skull boiling in a pot on my back patio while my dogs are going crazy trying to get to the yummy remnants Gabe pulled out of the skull. You are all hungry right now huh! The funny thing to watch was how different my two older boys are. Gabe was out in the garage skinning the rest of the skull trying teach the boys what men do. Hee Hee. Redden came in the house with his face looking pale holding his stomach telling me I shouldn't go out there. He could hardly swallow he was so grossed out! Ryder, on the other hand, was out there asking a million questions and wanting to help. He was poking the eyeballs and looking at the brains and seemed to enjoy every minute of it. I guess Redden takes after me and Ryder takes after Gabe. It'll be interesting to see how Ranger turns out!
Georgia trip
Ranger and I got the chance to go to Georgia to visit my sister Kim and her cute family. My mom was there visiting as well so that made the trip even more worth the fun plane ride with Ranger (Yeah Right). Not fun to fly with a one year old that is a goer and a doer. He just wanted to get down and run and let me know that he was not happy that he couldn't. Planes are very stressful with little ones. Our trip was fun but I don't have many pictures to show for it because my camera was on the fritz. Most of you saw them all like two months ago on Kim's blog though. We went to the Aquarium and that is where these pics are from. It was really neat. The biggest aquarium I've ever seen. I loved the little pop up hole to look at the penguins in. The kids were mesmerized by them! The weather was a little cold and windy but once the tornado sirens started going off it felt like I was back home in Texas. The whole place actually reminded me a lot of Texas. Thanks Kim for letting us come and relax and hang out with you. Kinsley is a doll and I wish we got to see her more! Thanks J for putting up with three Knights at once! 
