Yah...even in the rain

It's raining outside but we still go to the beach. It felt good just to be outside. I was remembering the time when I loaded up all our beach stuff and walked the kids to the beach and it started pouring rain. We still decided to keep on walking to the beach and saw one other family on the beach. I said to the kids, "Hey, look, their is another family on the beach in the rain!" Then when we got closer we saw that it was my sister, Tera, and her children. We didn't even know that she was going to be there.

Gavin doing a little sand surfing...


...and rolling.

My beautiful girl, Linnea.

Elvis loves chasing balls into the water.

Albert throwing the ball for Elvis.

Micah and I

Gavin started digging a hole and then this little dog came up beside him and started digging a hole too.

We saw a full rainbow but I could only get half of it on my camera.

Girl Party

We had a Going Away/Birthday Party for our friend, Shauna.

Girls + Lala Grill + birthday= Good Time


Shauna, We are going to miss you so much! I'm so glad that I had the chance to be friends with you. I consider myself a better person because of you and your example to me.

(On a funny side note, someone counted up how many children we had between ourselves and it was twenty-eight! )

Easter Morn

They were so excited for Easter morning. We usually get up and have a sunrise picnic breakfast on the beach and read over the Easter story of Christ. However, because we were driving all the way to San Diego that day, we decided we'd better save our energy for this time. They were fine with it.

Micah was pretty amazed at this little bunny riding its bike all by itself.

Jacen endures another picture.

San Diego

We are headed South. See ya later...

We are sooo excited about Easter egg hunts!We are so not excited about Easter egg hunts...

I found an egg! Well, a half of one.

We missed the Burciaga's egg hunt.
We missed the Heywood's egg hunt.
So we had a little one of our own...last minute....across the street.
Thank you Hollobaughs for sharing it with us.

Happy Birthday Grama!

Tera and Maila--aren't they cute?!
I made Danna's recipe for vanilla cupcakes and it's my favorite vanilla cake recipe! Yum!
The red "G" stands for Grama.

Jacen and Micah

Maila (Tera's daughter) had so much fun playing with Micah. She needs a baby sister or brother!

Grama just loved her present--photographs framed.

We love Grama so much! Thank you for being a really wonderful mother and grandmother. Your family thinks so much of you!

Photo Shoot

I will be forever grateful to Shauna for doing this photo shoot with Micah and I (and some of Linnea) to preserve our precious memories. She did a fabulous job. I have posted a lot of pictures because it's difficult to choose my favorite.

Linnea and Micah looking out over El Estero Lake in Monterey.

Linnea is such a sweet big sister. Micah is lucky to have her. I am too. (:

(pictures taken at the beautiful Monterey Museum of Art)

Micah is 10 months

I posted a ton of pictures but I couldn't help myself because he's such a cute little thing!
Micah is 10 months!
I can't believe how fast the time has gone by.

Micah's brand new trick is clapping and he loves to do it! It's so cute!
Micah wants to stand all the time and takes steps holding on to something.
Micah loves to eat everything. I've never given him anything that he doesn't like.
He loves to play with his brothers and sister.
He loves to go outside!

Micah makes me so happy. I love to spend my days with him.

(Thanks to Shauna for the pictures! They're awesome!)

My 7 Day Challenge

I need to get back on track with my eating. So, I have decided to give myself a little challenge and follow the following seven rules for the next week. I'll let you know how it goes. Some of these will be easier then others. The hardest one is my sweet treat--yes, I'm a sweetie. But I have been disciplined before and I need to be so again. Wish me luck!!

7 Rules for 7 Days..or more
1. Start every morning with a fiberlicious cereal!
2. No WHITE bread, tortillas, rolls etc. If you HAVE to eat grains, only eat 100% whole wheat.
3. Drink only water, no carbonation, caffeine of alcohol!
4. No Red Meat, I haven't posted about this but I think you all know how bad red meat is for you. Stick with lean cut turkey and chicken. Any meat that qualifies as a "fowl" is best for your digestion.
5. Eat food closest to it original form, this will be a majority of your diet-- fruits, vegetables, chicken, turkey, beans, etc. Stay away from pasta!! Its been processed like crazy and no where near its original form.
6. No processed sugar! I know this seems harsh--no candy, cake, ice cream, etc. Get your sweet fix from ONE sugar free treat a day.
7. The simple but true, don't eat for 3 hours before you go to sleep. If you get hungry drink some water, work out-- get distracted from something else, ANYTHING else besides food.

This list comes from: http://adailydoseofdieting.blogspot.com

Garrapata Hike at Big Sur

Off to the left there was an amazing gorge but you can't see it well.

All the wildflowers were really pretty.

Micah and I

We stopped for a snack along the way and had sandwiches, hummus and pita bread, apples, carrots and water.

We crossed several creeks. The water was especially high after all the rain we've gotten recently.

This picture doesn't even do the clover justice--it's HUGE!

Gavin by this cool waterfall.

Micah in the hiking back pack. At first he really wasn't sure about it. It's the first time we've used it. But then he Loved it! He loved looking around up high and I loved hearing his happy squeals and laughs.

This was further up in the redwoods. Beautiful!

Linnea with this cool lizard. Gavin wanted to bring it home really badly.

Poppies--we thought of virtue. That is the focus of our Stake right now.

I loved these pretty wildflowers growing in front of this dilapidated old fence. This was at the beginning of the hike.

This was towards the beginning of the hike.

Our view at the end of the hike.