Happy Mother's Day!

 I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year. Jon gave me the day off by taking the kids to see his mom, so I had brunch with my mom, Grandma, sis, and a handful of other extended family members. Then I had some alone time (truly a special treat these days), including a pedicure while reading some good-old-fashioned celebrity gossip magazines :) Plus some time to relax at home and daydream about the HOUSE WE'RE BUYING! That was by far the best Mother's Day gift of all: knowing where we are going to live and knowing that our country dream is really happening. Happy Mother's Day to all the hard-working mamas out there, and my mom who continues to give me all the love and support a girl could need.

Ariel is TWO!

I can't believe my baby is two years old. Well, I guess I can believe it because I love two yr-olds and I have been enjoying Ariel so much lately. She is so funny and sweet and sassy all at the same time. Here are some photos from her little birthday bash. It was a balloon-themed simple party at the park. Although the balloon theme pretty much FAILED due to windy weather, the party was fun for Ariel and her buddies - and therefore a success overall.

Posing for mommy:

Not quite getting the whole "just hold up two fingers" concept:

Annual birthday photo! 

 Hanging with her beloved sibs at the party (we changed to swimsuits after her above photoshoot):

At the swings with her pals Ava & Evie:

The whole party gang!
Cade, Evan, Cameron, Ryel (well, his leg), Ava, Kaitlyn, Macy, Evie & Lance

Yummmmmmmmm cupcakes!

   

Happy birthday sweet Ariel. I love you and I enjoy watching you grow and learn everyday.

Glimpses of April

I am pretty much in denial about the fact that its already May. 

Here are my favorite pictures from April (buckle up, we had an eventful month!)

 On Easter when we are with the Prays, we do a little family photo shoot. Here are the results:

Jeremy & Hayley

Jeff, Kelly & family

 Tommy & Jamie

All the Pray girls

Proud Grandma & Papa with their grandkids

All of the Prays!

Happy Bath Baby

Cameron's first book report: title, summary sentence, and date

We went to the Jelly Belly Factory during Spring Break 

Ariel... Oooh Ariel...

Folsom Zoo Train Ride

Jon made his debut as the Easter Bunny at our MOPS Egg Hunt! 

It was hilarious and he was a big hit (in spite of that scary bunny face...)

Cameron loves Grandma's iPad

Great shot of our kids and the Ochoa kids

Cameron has a love for neatness - can you tell?

My favorite knight in shining armor

It seems even toddlers play with electronic devices while on the potty :)

Sister kisses!

Found some sweet bike jumps while on a walk in Loomis

The weather is warming up and dinner has moved outside. Welcome summer :)

Bike riding with my big boy

(This is his newest trick, imitating a dirtbike rider of course)

Following him through the secret tunnel...

 

Cool grandmas play video games!

 Our favorite strawberry stand is open again. Heaven!

I love how my kids love & play with each other.

This is Fireman Cameron visiting Miss Macy's Bookshop :)

Gym Time!

These days I spend a lot of my time on the bleachers at Extreme Gymnastics. 

Last year Macy tried beginning gymnastics for about 7 months with her girlfriend Hannah. Macy loved it but I had her take a break during the soccer season (trying to keep to 1 activity per child at a time for the sake of my scheduling sanity and our $$). She did really well in soccer but as soon as the season was coming to an end she asked if she could return to gymnastics. She had some asthma during soccer and it (understandably) killed her enjoyment of the sport (picture me shedding a quick tear in the name of soccer). We found a new gym in Loomis and she has been steadily improving ever since. After a month of trying to figure out where she belonged, she was moved up several levels to the PreTeam class. For those of you that know her well, doesn't she just look like a little gymnast? 

At her first gym there was a poster on the wall that said "Gymnastics builds CONFIDENCE!" I thought it was so cheesy... Then I realized that its true. Her physical and social confidence seemed to grow with every class and I am so thankful for that. Here are some shots of her on the beam and the climbing rope:

 

tuck jump!

(this beam looks much taller in person... at least to my mommy eyes)

this on her way down, after she rang the bell at the top of the rope

After a few months I decided to enroll Cameron as well. He was hesitant when I signed him up, but from the second he stepped foot on the floor he was IN. He came off the first day and said to me "Mom, I want to do this every day!" He also daily asks me how many more days until his next class. His coach is playful but firm (aka awesome). We are planning on letting him stay in gym until soccer this fall.

Here he is getting air on the little vault:

crawling the tiny beam

       

walking the incline beam

 the whole class, happily following Coach Ted to their next adventure

On Faith

"Now Faith, in the [first] sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods ‘where they get off’, you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently one must train the habit of Faith."

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins 2001

I love CS Lewis. He has taken the things that I am deeply experiencing & learning and put them so eloquently into words. And lately I have needed a little pep talk on maintaining self-control and perspective in the midst of my moods... What a wonderful man whose writing talent blessed so many, and continues to even after his death. 

Glimpses of March

My favorite photos from March...

Ariel's belly button access hole. 

See my previous post for a more thorough explanation.

Jon found this in his cubicle at work. It makes me laugh, I'm not sure if its serious or a joke?

I just got the pictures from Jon's phone for the last 6 months, so these are late.

Last Fall we went to Bakersfield to meet our new niece, Kennedy. 

While we were there, our kids got to ride a horse for the first time with their cousin Brady!

Jon started bike commuting (he drives partway, bikes partway) last Fall, very cool.

Watch out for the Pray kid bike gang.

 

This month the kids and I went to visit Jon at his office. 

I had no idea that CalTrans was so high-security!

The kids left Jon a note on his whiteboard.

This is how Ariel rolls lately. I can't hold her while I cook, so she is my little countertop buddy :)

Remember last month when I mentioned that I find surprise pictures on my phone camera?

Well this month I found a whole series! This only about half of them:

  

  

We all got very sick this month, so this is what the kids looked like during every car ride:

On the subject of sickness, Macy has chronic croup. To avoid heading to the ER one night, I made a bed for her on the back porch because the cold, damp air can soothe the bark-cough. It was the only place where she could sleep soundly that night. Poor girl :(

No words needed here... 

Ariel has begun her fettish with babies. They go everywhere with us right now:
To the park and in the swings, to sushi...

My (little?) brother turned 30! He came home to visit (he currently lives in Israel) and brought his German girlfriend, Anika to meet the family. We had a big party with both extended families, which was really fun. The following pictures are all from that party:

Here are the guests of honor. Anika fit right in with the fam :)

 This drink dispenser was labeled "Potent Sangria" Hmmmmmm....

Miss Sassy Pants in all her glory.

Our little buddy Jadrien

Tyler and Cameron

Macy and Annette

Someday these two will love each other too... Abbigail and Ariel

Jon showed the kids a hole in the floor where they could spy on everyone downstairs.

Love my pretty little girl