Birthday Hike

For my birthday, the one thing I wanted to do was go on a hike up at Shaver. I love being up in the mountains and we are definitely spoiled here in Fresno to be only an hour away. My actual birthday was this past Saturday but since Andrew has Fridays off we decided to head up to Shaver a day early. Christian, Lacy, and Winston (their adorable Pug) came with us. It was surprisingly really cold but we had checked the weather and dressed appropriately. The scenery was beautiful as always and the day ended up being perfect. 

Levi is in the pack on Andrew's back

Lacy helping Christian along=)

Levi took a little nap on the walk back. His face was flat against Andrew's back... so precious

I think a birthday hike might be the new tradition... you are all invited next year!!!

8 Months

                                                   

- We felt and saw Levi's first tooth on Mother's Day. What a great gift to me!!!
- For the past few weeks when we put Levi to bed for the night, between 7 and 8, he has been waking up about 45 minutes later as if it was a nap. This has created not very relaxing evenings for Andrew and I has we spend the next hour or so getting him back to sleep. (Lots of crying)
- He is starting to figure out the whole keeping things in his mouth thing but it is hilarious to watch the funny faces he makes with new foods.
- He is finally starting to move to only needing 2 naps a day.... Most days
- Still waking up 1-2 times a night.
- We have really seen a growth spurt this month.
- The hair is really starting to come in=)
- We are on the verge of crawling. He is wanting to reach things that are further away... lots of face plants going on around here.
- Cherrios are still not making it into the mouth
- Loves to suck on frozen blueberries out of the little mesh bag
- Levi loves the mirror. Especially a floor length mirror that he can sit in front of and hit with his hands. I think he thinks that the person in the mirror is a friend.... very cute to watch
- When he reaches for me to pick him up I just melt
- Love the turn the pages when we read to him
- This month I started to jog with him in the stroller facing forward rather than in his car seat
- Still sleeps the whole way down to Bakersfield, as long as we leave around his nap time
- Smiles, smiles, smiles.... keep them coming sweet boy!!!

7 months

- Levi is having a tough time figuring out how to eat. That tongue just keeps getting in the way

- He loves to play with cheerios but is yet to put them in his mouth

- Still makes all kinds of noises... most often we hear "dadadadadadadadada" not sure if this is meant to be DADA as in Andrew or not. Andrew thinks it it=)

- Levi was dedicated this month at Church

- Levi met his friend Liam and Aunts Erin and Susan for the first time

- He still wakes up 1-2 times a night

- I either feed him or rock him to sleep for naps

- Levi loves grass, No need for a picnic blanket on the ground. He loves to pick at the grass and play with it in his hands.

- Levi is a happy boy, for the most part unless he is hungry or tired he is smiley and making lots of noises.

- I just can't get enough of him!!!

POOL PARTY...

You're all invited!!!

Our new friends from Uruguay...

Andrew and I are apart of something called Couch Surfing. If you have ever heard of Mennonite Your Way, it is basically the same thing. If someone is apart of this site and they are travelling they can find someone in that area and stay with them for free. Over the past few years we have had about 7 different people (groups) stay with us. It is usually for just one night since Fresno is not the most exciting town and people use it more as a stopping point while heading to Yosemite, San Francisco, L.A. Las Vegas, Grand Canyon...
                                     

This past week we had 5 people stay with us from Uruguay. They are in an engineer University there and at the end of their 4 years they raise money to go on an around the WORLD trip to see the different building/structures that exist as their final project. Sign me up... how cool is that. They were coming from Las Vegas and heading to San Francisco to meet up with the rest of their school. They were really nice and very grateful for a place to stay. Their English wasn't the best but we made due.

They loved Olive. Andrew and I laughed because before they left they asked if they could take a picture with her. (Sorry for the blurry photo)

                                    

All babies need

Who needs toys... Levi just needs tissue paper!

This picture was taken at Henry's birthday party at the fire station. Henry would open his present, take out the toy, and Levi would grab the tissue paper.... entertainment for days=)

The sweetest moments...

I knew I was madly in love with my husband before we had Levi but watching him with Levi, supporting me, and not being afraid to jump in and be a hands on dad has made that love deepen so much more. Some of my most precious moments so far are watching Andrew with Levi. Reading him books, sitting on the front bench together, bath time... these are the sweetest moments. When Andrew gets home from work, Levi's face lights up with the biggest smile. He loves his daddy. If you have hung out with Levi for any amount of time you know that he is a little chatter box. Screams, babble, screeches, and the most common, "dadadadadadada". Andrew is convinced that he is saying his name Dada. (I am not so sure about that but it is cute to think so!) I am so excited to raise a family with Andrew and see where God takes up along our journey.

Hanging out at Reagan...

I was truly blessed to teach at an amazing school. The school that I taught at has a lot of young teachers which made it easy to build community and create amazing friendships. Young and newly married teachers also means that babies are not far behind. This was the year!! 5 of us had babies this school year and they were all BOYS. Levi is the oldest and the last one was born 4 weeks ago. Today we had baby day at Reagan. Our principal bought pizza for everyone during lunch and all the babies (except for my partner teacher Veronica's little guy because she is already back to work) were there to hangout and meet everyone. Levi has already hungout a few times but it was a first for the other little guys. Here is a picture of the 4 of us...

Myrna and Ryan (4 weeks), Levi (7 months) and I, Bree and Grayson (8 weeks), 

Theresa and Evan (3 months)

It is fun to see all of the different stages of the boys and how just a few months make such a difference in their development. The scary thing is that Levi is growing up so fast that I don't even really remember him being as small as the other boys. (ok, well never that SMALL but as young as the other boys=)

Chickens

We are loving our chickens! We refer to them as the Ladies and they have quickly become apart of the family. They are becoming quite comfortable around us. In the evening, Bryan and Kim let them roam around the yard and they will come right up to you. The best part is that when it gets dark they go right back into their cage all on their own. Most of the time we get 2 eggs a day which means that we get to enjoy eggs for breakfast more often.

Family evening with the chickens

Levi and Viv are best friends=)

Getting a new look...

The back of our house, deck and patio are in. Now getting prepped and ready for a new paint job.

Levi's Dedication

This past Sunday, April 29, Levi was dedicated at our church. This was such a special day for us. Dedicating him was a time for Andrew and I to make a commitment to raise Levi in a way that teaches him how to love Jesus. Our home needs to be a place that radiates God's love to each other and to those around us. We invited our family and friends to be apart of this with us. Not only is Levi going to watch how Andrew and I live but also how we treat and interact with the special people in our lives. We desperately need the support and prayers of our friends and family to raise up a boy who loves God and loves people.

Last year we were in a couples life group with some amazing couples. Two of those couples were Orlando and Casie Ramirez and Brandon and Kimber Jones. As we were doing life together, within 4 months of each other, we all ended up pregnant. It was fun to experience this new step with such great friends. We decided that we wanted to mark this moment together and have our kids dedicated on the same day. It is so much fun to have accountability and to have friends that we can go through life together with. The Well always puts a photo up of the baby that is getting dedicated so we decided to take a photo of all 3 kids together. Here is Levi (7 months), Bella (8 months), and Jude (10 months).

Levi's new thing

Levi's new thing is to grab and suck on my face. He does this when he is really excited (or starting to get tired). I like to think that this is his version of kissing me=)

It is pretty cute!!!