“A baby is God’s way of telling us the world goes on”

Our friends, Greg & Cathy Risling, used that quote on their son Nolan’s baby announcement last year and I loved it! I will always remember that because it is exactly why I love babies. I love the idea of babies and all the good things they represent. I love their sweet little smiles, and tiny toes and little tiny clothes. The idea of a baby is the sweetest thing in the world to me. I have three colleagues with babies due in the next couple of months and it is such a sentimental reminder of the specialness of that time. Lucky us with two perfect people already! I can just celebrate with my friends!

More importantly though, Ed and I are very excited to welcome a niece in August. Stacy and Eric just found out yesterday that their healthy bundle will be a sweet baby girl. I am thrilled. A baby girl close enough to spoil and buy hair bows for, but one that I get to send home when she hasn’t slept for hours. Fantastic!

And in other special baby news – our friends Jose & Kristin Rios are the proud parents of their second son, Jake Ryan Rios. He is a little earlier than expected and only weighs 3 lbs 5 oz, but he has just the sweetest face. He still has some growing to do before he is a big Texas boy like his Dad and older brothers but for now he is perfect just the way he is. Please pray for his continued progress and for his family.

Jake Ryan Rios ~ March 2, 2009

I can't wait to see what other exciting news Spring brings with it next week!

Late, but Great

We have been so super busy in the last few weeks. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good, but never really bad. Max and I are home sick this week and that's not so good, but it does give me a little time to update our blog.

Max's birthday celebrations were very good! The day OF Max's birthday was a Thursday and I very uncharacteristically let him play hooky and we all went to Disneyland. He had SUCH a good time and it was a special memory for all of us.

Sophia saw her very first Disney princess while Max was taking on Space Mountain with his Dad and his Gregfather. I think she had the better time in this one instance, but his day overall was, in his words, "just amazing". He got to fight Darth Maul in Jedi training and that was a very big deal. Max Montoya is obsessed with Star Wars vehicles and action figures. To fight the real bad guy may have been the highlight of his life so far.

We sent him off to school on Friday and his party was at 4 PM that day. His little friends were waiting in the parking lot of school to come down right at 4 and we were not quite prepared for them. The good news is that 6 & 7 year old boys don't care. They played with sticks and balls and whatever they could get their hands on. That was the idea, but as a Planner I was a little panicked.

I unknowingly started a tradition with him last year of making him a themed, homemade cake. I thought I was off the hook this year since we were camping and he prefers s'mores, but no such luck. He really wanted a camping cake, and I delivered. I am NO good at baking cakes, but the beauty of a themed cake is that there's always something available to cover up the mistakes. Max didn't even eat the cake, but he was thrilled with the concept and was very proud.

His party was a "Campout" and he had 19 friends at Doheny for hot dogs, s'mores and wild, boy fun. Only a handful of boys spent the night, but the ones that stayed loved it. Ed and I were so tired and SORE from sleeping in the back of our 4Runner with Sophia in the middle, but we'd do it all over again in a minute. With an air mattress and less boys.

Since Max's birthday we have finished our basketball season, and started our baseball season. Our basketball team (who I have blogged about before) was NOT an All-Star Team. The League rules state they have to be 6 OR 7 years old to play. Of our 10 kids, all but 2 of them were 6 and it showed. We didn't win our first game until the very end of the season and then went all the way to the championship game for our division and lost by one point. Unbelievable! The pressure for Ed as a coach was ridiculous and as a very competitive parent it is hard to watch. The boys played very hard and left proud - that's all we could ask for.

We missed our first baseball game last weekend because of basketball and Max will miss practice this week because he's sick. The good news is the season is reeeeeaallly long and we have games through June. We will all get our fill of baseball and we are looking forward to it. Max is playing machine pitch baseball for the Padres this year - woo hoo! We have that gear - good news!!

Last, but certainly not least, we're looking for some spring activities for Sophia. The challenge we have for her is that everything offered for 4 year old girls is between 10 AM and 3 PM on weekdays. Not so convenient for a working family. We are doing lots of research on cheerleading, dancing and/or gymnastics. We'll find something and I'll be sure to keep you posted!