A Solo Visit to Los Angeles for the Mama!!!

I just returned from my first ever trip to sunny California to visit my beautiful sister, Dara! I had such an amazing time taking part in her life for 4 days! Holy Cow! It's definitely not a pace I am used to, but it suits her and she is thriving in her life and faith while out there. These pictures highlight some of my trip! Dara had the weekend off from most everything and so she took me everywhere there is to go in and around L.A.! Starting at the top left - if you squint real hard, you can maybe see the Hollywood sign over my shoulder. The next picture is of the famed L.A. fashion district's "Santee Alley," this crazy shopper's haven! We went back there twice! The top right is my first night there at the beach at Santa Monica - we went for the pier, but it was all closed due to the fact that it was a weeknight. In the middle is Dara and I rocking our big movie star sunglasses (mine purchased in the aforementioned Fashion District! - they're Gucci's, no really!!!), followed by the two of us on Rodeo Drive and then on the ferris wheel at Santa Monica Pier the second night - we had to go back, it's one of her favorite things to take guests on - it was worth it! A ferris wheel out over the ocean! Whoo hoo! The first two on the bottom are pictures of our trip to Laguna Beach - yes, it's true - I did go to look for Stephen and Kristin and LC and Lo! Didn't see any of them, darn it! I loved the sunset!!! And the last is a picture of Chinatown in downtown L.A. I bought Emma a "Mulan" dress and Dara bought her an umbrella to match! She is adorable, she wore it all to preschool this morning!!! Anyway, it was a wonderful time of refreshing for me as a mom, wife and sister. I got to visit her church home, Mosaic, on Sunday evening. It is so awesome! They go into a nightclub in LA and set up church there! It's an amazing community of artists and actors and people of every culture coming together to worship Jesus. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the pastor is Erwin Raphael McManus! He is a fairly up and coming and famous author and speaker right now. God is doing amazing things there! That's as close to a famous person as I got while I was there - I did get to even hold his microphone! (Dara backstage manages for the services there...)

Anyway, the kids did awesome here with their dad. Maybe he'll post about their time, we'll see how long it takes him to notice this...he hasn't put a post on here in forever! I missed them all like crazy and was very glad to be home, but so thankful for the May vacation!

(you can always click on the pictures on here and they'll come up in a new screen a little bigger for better viewing of the collages...)

Quick Bedtime Story

Just came down from tucking Emma in and she said something I can't resist posting. In her typical, stalling in every way, shape and form before bed, she was explaining to me that she was too afraid to go to sleep because of monsters. I assured her that there are no monsters here in our house, Jesus lives here and in fact, He lives in our hearts and so He was there with her. She felt her heart and started moving her hand around her chest and her nightgown and got a silly grin on her face and said, "I'll bet Jesus is saying, 'hey, stop moving me around,' right now!" It just made me giggle!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day from our family to all of you mothers who have touched our lives and continue to show us so much love!

 

Dirtbiking

Saturday afternoon took Paul and some buddies to their favorite place to dirtbike. Here are some shots of motocross Paulie! Gabe is in the bottom corner with his PawPaw. I picked this picture of him because it describes how he was all day. Every time an engine revved or a dirtbike went by, his head went crazy looking for it. No fear in that mind you, all boy!!! I'm afraid his daddy, Uncle Jared and PawPaw are a little too excited about his motorcycling career!

 

Get Ready....To Wiggle!

On Saturday morning, we fell into some free tickets to see The Wiggles, live on stage! We were so grateful! Emma had a fun time with Bree and Liv! They really enjoyed the show. Emma wasn't so into the dancing in the aisles, etc. and so on the way home I asked her why she was kind of quiet at the show. She answered, "I just didn't really feel like being silly today." Such a trip!

 

Crib Talk

We finally got Gabe's crib lowered this past weekend. And it wasn't a day too soon as just today he started going from his tummy to a sitting position and is looking to pull up on things! I kept telling Paul we needed to lower it so I didn't wake up one night to him tumbling out of bed! Here they are on Sunday night - Emma wanted to sit in there with him - cute for a picture, but we've had to make sure she knows it was only for fun! Gabe loved having his sissy right in there with him!

 

Beautiful Babies!

Well, Gabe is mobile!!! He's 8 months old - quite a bit sooner then Emma figured out the whole crawling thing. Two days ago, I gave Em a plate of cheese, crackers and apples and set Gabe down at his baby gym about 6 feet away and came back in the room a few minutes later and he had eaten her whole plate of food!!! It would be food that would make that boy crawl! He's still at it and as predicted, it's very upsetting to Emma. She's constantly aware of "her stuff" and the fact that he's always headed right for it! But they sure look like they're going to get along fine in this picture, huh?