Pray for Levi

Today I put a link in the Friends and Family section of the blog to a site called Pray for Levi. He is the two year old son of some friends from college, Dan and Kara Ryska. Levi has a brain tumor and is going in to surgery on Friday. Please check out their blog for updates, and please join me in praying for Levi.

May Days

I promise that someday I will be better at staying current with this blog. We've had some fun times this spring and summer, here's what we were up to back in May.

Hannah's preschool had a spring art show. The walls were covered with creations from the kids. We now have a large storage box under Hannah's bed with artwork. In case you can't find her in the sea of kids, she's the one in the middle with her arm straight out.

We also took a field trip to the beach with Hannah's school. The kids played in the water and explored the tide pools...and got very wet. I learned a wonderful new beach tip. Before you hop in the car with sandy kids, put baby powder on their hands, feet, etc. and rub. The sand comes right off! Amazing.

Another quick trip to Cayucos. Hannah got a day of play with her cousins Stellan and Preston.

Mimi and Papa came down for a visit for Mimi's birthday, Aunt Megan's birthday and Mother's day. Chris and Mike (Papa) made dinner for us on Mother's day, including this yummy angel food cake with strawberries.

Of course we've been excited about baseball season

And we got our new patio poured (thank you, tax return!). This is Hannah and Tucker enjoying the new patio one morning. Since this photo, the rest of the yard was completed with plants and sod. I have an album of house pictures on fb.

April Review

My sister Megan and I made a quick trip up to Mom's house to help host a baby shower for our sister in law Kristl. It was a lot of fun but a little tiring only going for one night. David and Kristl are now the proud parents of Kolton David Mayes, born May 13. This was the first time I took a trip without Hannah. She did pretty well, but had a few melt down moments. I think Daddy appeased her with donuts and cheeseburgers.

See any family resemblance? Any at all?

My mom and Mike worked hard to get the backyard ready and ensure that 99% of the patio was shaded. Success!

I took my architecture licensing exam the day before Easter, but we managed to fit in some cookie decorating that evening.

So there's the April update. In the midst of all this, my company was again participating in the Ventura Corporate Games. I played darts (we got 3rd) and horseshoes, and ran the 5k again.

What's Happening? Or maybe, What Happened?

I apologize for the 2 month lapse in posting. I'm not sure what happened. Oh wait, I know. I took another grueling architecture test (and passed!). Those things suck up all my free time. So I'm happy to get this post in before I start studying for my last test.

Let's back up all the way to March. Hannah finished her ballet class, which she loved. Next we are going to try gymnastics, the kid loves doing summersaults.

We need to work on our plie form a little

So proud of her certificate, it's now hanging on her bedroom wall.

At the end of March, Chris finished recording the worship CD that our church just put out (you can check it out here). So we celebrated by taking a family trip to one of our favorite places, Cayucos. Spring is such a beautiful time on the Central Coast, the hills were bright green.

We spend lots of time at the swings on the beach

My mom-in-law met us there and Chris and I got a date night. After dinner we went to Montana de Oro, a spot we went to frequently while in college to watch the sunset. I have a picture similar to this from 2004 when we were dating.

Pancakes

I was inspired by my friend Kacy to go on the search for a healthier pancake recipe. I wanted to try her recipe, but I didn't have almond meal so I started poking around (Kacy, I will try your recipe sometime, if I can remember to pick up almond meal next time I'm at TJ's). I found this recipe below in my Taste of Home Cookbook. I doesn't sound too healthy when you read through it, but with a few modifications it gets better. They turned out really great, especially with blueberries added.

1/2 C. plus 2 T. quick cooking oats (I had rolled oats, and ground them up in my mini food processor first)

1/2 C. whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat from TJ's)

1/2 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/3 C. packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 C.)

1 egg

2 T vegetable oil (I used unsweetened applesauce instead)

1 C. buttermilk (I've used non-fat plain yogurt, or 1 T lemon juice plus milk to make 1 C; let sit for 10 min before adding)

Combine the oats, flours, baking soda, salt and sugar; set aside. In a small bowl, beat the egg, oil and buttermilk. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

*At this point, I had to add some milk to get the right consistency, maybe 1/2 C? I didn't measure it.

Pour batter by 1/3 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top; cook until second side is golden brown.

Let me know if you try this, if you like it, and any modifications you made. Enjoy!

Snow Day!

We took advantage of the President's holiday and finally made it up to the snow. It was sort of a spontaneous trip...weeks before we had been talking about going to the snow that weekend, but didn't actually make plans until that Monday morning. I am not the most spontaneous person, so as a result of not making a packing list or preparing ahead of time, I forgot my ski jacket, beanie, and a nighttime diaper for Hannah (yes, she still wears 1 at night, don't judge me! One battle at a time...)

Anyway, we didn't want to drive up and back in one day, so we did some research and stumbled upon the Pine Mountain Inn, our new favorite getaway! It's about 15 miles past Fraizer Park, off Hwy 5. We drove up Monday afternoon and got there in time to check in and have dinner. We even got to bring the dog! It was a fun night of just hanging as a family watching movies. The next morning we got all bundled up and headed down the road about 5 miles to a snow play area. Hannah LOVED sledding, and Tucker loved all the freedom to run. Maybe next winter we can get her on skis. :)

Movie time!

Getting ready for the snow

First run of the day

Love these two

This is what Tucker did for most of the time, just run

Yum!

To Be Honest...

I recently heard a pastor on the radio speaking about having a right perspective versus having a right picture. A right perspective is fixing our eyes on eternity, seeing things as God sees them and not getting hung up on the temporary. A right picture is like a photograph, a snapshot. It may look great, but it doesn't tell the whole story. Just because we can put on a smile and take a beautiful picture, doesn't mean we have the perfect life. None of us have that. I've been confronted with this lately as I look at so many wonderful pictures friends have posted on blogs or fb. Of course we want to put our best foot forward and share the happy moments of our lives, I'm no different. You'd probably rather see a picture of my smiling, happy daughter instead of how she looks when she's super cranky and it's way past bed time. Or (gasp!) me when I first wake up. So in light of all this, here are my pictures for this post.

The first ones are of our living room before we moved in.

And here is a picture of what it looks like now, the snapshot. (I had to wait until naptime so I could straighten up before taking the picture.)

However this is the reality. Frumpy pillows, a coffee table covered with preschooler accessories and things strewn on the couch. Although it's not as picture perfect as above, I still feel so blessed to call this my home.

"O Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; you maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes I have a good inheritance."
Psalm 16:5,6