AWANA Awards!

The kids were involved in AWANA at Long Beach Alliance Church and loooved it! They were used to a much bigger program back in CO but this smaller group proved to be perfect for these guys.

This is Jack & Mr. Tom who is in charge of Sparks. Jack loved Tom! He always came home telling us all the fun stuff that Tom taught. Jack was the only kindergarten Spark to get the perfect attendance medal - woohoo go us!! He also got an award for finishing his first book which means he memorized a heck of a lot of verses.

Crap pictures but you can kind of see him in the back. Look for the blue wristband!!

B-Dog graduated from Cubbies and did an awesome job!!

Another crap picture! But there he is on stage accepting his award. He had a great time at cubbies but is super excited to be a SPARK next year with Jack. Yet another crap picture..ugh. You can kind of see Beau on the left next to the chick with the blue dress on.

I know the kids have stored so much of God's Word in their heart because I hear them telling other kids the verses they've learned. It's really great to see them on fire and being around other kids that love God too.

Next year Maizie girl will be a Cubbie and then we'll have Wednesday evenings all to ourselves YEAH!!!

Beau's PreK

Beau loved showing us around his Pre K class during his recent open house. He gave us the ultimate tour and showed us how he jumps off the playground every time he's there.

What a good big brother Jack is - catching Maizie! Beau's favorite room in his class - the dress up room! His teacher Miss Laura says that he dresses up as Batman every chance he gets.

Maizie can hardly wait to be in pre K too because she loved the dress up room too.

Here's where they sit on their square and listen to stories.

Here's Beau's cubby!

He'll be graduating from Pre K next week and he is so excited!! He's glad to start going to kindergarten everyday instead of only 2 mornings a week. Our Big Dude BEAU!!

Earthquake!!!

We had a big earthquake here last night! Ok, maybe not big for everyone else but big for us. I think it was a 5.0 and it totally shook the entire house with this big grumble!! The kids started screaming and freaking out and ended up sleeping in our room in their sleeping bags. May I say that I was totally traumatized realizing that there are things that are huge that are not under my control.

Mudders Day!

Beau's preK class had a Mother's Day Tea on Friday and he even served me tea, cookies and sandwiches without even taking a bite out of them.

He made me this lovely card that has one of my favorite things on it - a purse!

We had a great time together - just me & him in his class. This is his best buddy Alejandro and all they do pretty much is wrestle.

Me & the kids on a walk on mother's day. The boys rode their scooters while the rest of us walked.

Maizie is totally the mama's girl, which I don't mind one bit.

Jack actually has a real smile here not his fake cheese one! So handsome that boy.

Beau would rather be scootering but I know he loves my cookin!

We had a fun day together and I actually got to eat some Mexican food which I have been craving for-ever!! Even when it's not fun sometimes it really is great to be a mom to these guys.

Olvera Street in Los Angeles

Went to Olvera Street which is a Mexican shopping street with the parents & Tiffani in April.

Here I am trying to get the kids for a picture and Dad is trying to get Mom for a picture!

This is the best picture ever of us! We are at the oldest standing house in L.A. built back in the early 1800s the "Avila Adobe".Travis' sister Tiffani & Beau

The kids couldn't resist playing on this ginormous tree.

Easter with a visit from los Padres!

The traditional Easter activity of course!

Maizie dipped her eggs in her favorite colors pink & purple only so the bright purple one and pink one are definitely hers. My parents got to come and celebrate Easter with us. This morning Travis was already at church getting ready to play Jesus for the kids, that's why he wasn't in the picture.

Maizie is wearing a crocheted poncho made for her by her grammy (my mom!). She loved it and would not take it off all day.

Grammy got new easter clothes for the boys and Maizie finally got to wear her fancy dress that Travis' dad (Pappy) got her for Christmas!

Hunting for eggs in the yard! Living in CO for so long we weren't used to having Easter egg hunts outside! Woohoo!

The boys were excellent hunters!

Jack found the most eggs of course! He was so excited! This is usually how Maizie finishes any kind of fun activity :( But she's getting better! I think she just realized that there weren't anymore to find.

Kindergarten Jog-A-Thon!

To say Jack loves to run would be quite an understatement. So when he found out that every elementary in Long Beach does a "Jog-A-Thon" to raise money every year, he was quite ecstatic. Even Beau got in on the action.

Jack ran his fastest pace for almost the entire run which was 25 minutes and only walked when the teachers made him. It was about 75 degrees out there today and so he kept his bottle of water with him. We definitely need to hone in on this running thing. Maybe he should join a running club for kids?? I'm not sure where he gets this running bug since Travis & I would both rather die than run. Go Jack Go!!

AWANA Boat Race & Happy Birthday Pico!

This is definitely a first for us! Back at our old church in Colorado the kids did a Pine Derby Race and made cars to race. This year at their new AWANA group they do a boat race. It's very fun and the boys had fun helping daddy with their boats.

This green one above is Jack's and we definitely know how next year to improve our design :) Beau picked black for his boat. For these races the kids are supposed to blow on their sails all the way down a rain gutter and the fastest boat obviously wins. Beau won both of his races! Yey Beau!! Jack is winning this race! He only won one race out of three but didn't even have any attitude about it, which is something that is super hard for him as he's very competitive.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY PICO!! His birthday was on Sunday and we loved on him extra special! The kids helped him pick out his new toy and treats at Petsmart. Maizie & Pico are very much BFF's. She said that if Pico were gone she would be very sad. They are always cuddling and playing with each other. Hopefully Pico will be with us for many many more years!!

Booklovers!

Hey everyone! For you fellow book lovers I found an awesome website where you can actually swap the books that you've already read with other members on the site. It is totally free. You just pay for your shipping when you send a book which is usually under $3 because they mail media rate. Then you request books and receive them for free. It's very cool. If you're a book collector like me and your bookshelf is getting filled up it's the perfect way to unload some books that others might like and score some that you've really wanted to read! Thought I'd pass it on!!

Here's the link for those of you interested!

Jack is officially front toothless!

We were wrestling on the couch and I accidentally bonked him in the mouth. The tooth that was dangling there just popped right out, it was awesome!! So now he talks all cute and can officially say that his mom knocked his tooth out. He also thought the surfer do wasn't working out so he agreed to get a hair cut. He's so handsome!

ROOTS!

I took a big leap of faith. Now it may not seem huge or even medium size but in my heart it is big. I'll start at the way beginning. I started a tomato plant from a seed. It was quite unintentional really. At a street fair 3 or 4 months ago they were handing out sticks with tomato seeds attached to them that you could just stick in the ground. I stuck it in a bag and never really thought much of it but about 6 weeks ago I discovered it again. I decided to plant it in a container just to see what would happen. I've never known anyone that could start a tomato plant from a seed. Sure enough it started growing. I think that I was kind of sad that it was actually growing because I didn't know if we would even be here to take care of it. I thought that our life here in CA is so temporary and vulnerable to everything. I couldn't invest any kind of love into this great little tomato plant knowing that next month I may have to turn my back on it. But I realized that I've had that same attitude about everything here so far. I haven't intentionally made friends or gotten involved in church or anything because I wouldn't want to tear myself away if CA didn't work out. God put us here and we need to take it in fully and totally dive in. How can I be open to all that is great here if I can't even plant a tomato plant in the ground! There are friends to be made! There are beautiful places to see! There are causes that are worth getting involved in! So, I planted that tomato plant in the ground and who knows what will happen, but I am getting rooted baby!!