...eight months old and so much more!

paige turned eight months old on may 1st...she has two new teeth and is about to crawl!

our moms and more group ended for the summer...here is a picture of our group with our kids (we are missing a few people). what a fun year- i miss it already and am so anxious to get started again in september. this group has been a saving grace for me as a new mom!

meeting little marty...what a cutie. he is so tiny- i forget how small paige was as a newborn!

first swim! (check out the video below)

A FUN FILLED WEEKEND IN APRIL...

the princess gets her food (these pictures are for you matt)!

celebrating uncle drew's birthday. drew loves paige!

drew and kyle

drew and allison- when you have two older sisters you get to know their friends pretty well over the years. and allison has been in our life since drew was like 8...so there you go!after an amazing home cooked meal we ran to the dairy before it closed...yum!

paige and i got to go to melissa foster's baby shower too...what a fun weekend!

and finally... valley bible church @ the crossing... (the church i grew up attending) celebrated their 20th anniversary. it was a fun celebration and kind of like a family reunion. i was grateful that aaron & paige got a chance to see just how special vbc is and the community of believers that have been a part of my life through the church. many people visited and we saw some funny old videos and heard from most of the founding elders about how it all began. those of us who have been on the worship teams over the years got to go sing with the band and we took so fun pictures of old youth group friends. i don't think it is possible to have a perfect church- but vbc has set the bar very high...it is a sincere and loving place that seeks to know God and share his love. i am grateful for growing up there and always enjoy visiting when i am in pleasanton. thank you Lord for a wonderful group of people who have taught me so much and who demonstrate your love and grace...i look forward to the next 20 years!

tim with paige and us girls...tim has been the youth pastor at vbc for a long time and he is awesome. i learned so much from him about God. i honestly loved my high school youth group experience. he is a great guy and he loves the Lord...he took us high school punks on many adventures from mission trips to yosemite...i have even hiked half dome with him a few times. he was the pastor who married aaron and i...and well we just think he is swell!

paige and makenna always have fun together

all of us went through the youth group at some point...so fun.

this is a group of us that all graduated in the 90's...does that make me sound old? we went through youth group together and have a lot of funny stories!

paige tried to get in on the picture

natalie me sarah & allison (i love these girls)poor tate was so distraught over paige's loud yelling that he cried a few times...eventually he got over the shock of her screaming and grabbing him...but i just think she is too much women for him right now! as you can see in the video she's a man-eater!

road trip 2008 (part 2)...idaho & sactown!

our nine hour trip from susanville went pretty well...until the last two hours when paige proceeded to cry non-stop. we actually sang itsy-bitsy spider for about twenty minutes to try and calm her down. it worked- but only when we sang that song. who can sing that song- or any song- for two hours? also, this was my final day of being sick and it ended with a bang. i will spare you the details- but it was the worst day of my stomach flu and it was not pretty. shannon was a great nurse when i got there and thankfully i woke up the next morning feeling like a new person!

paige loved idaho!auntie shannon is so wonderful with paige...she helped feed her and bath her and play with her. it was just too fun! she is always buying paige great books and of course welcomed us with a new one when we arrived! shannon is a wonderful hostess and an amazing cook...we had some yummy food and i went home with two new recipes that i will eventually post on my everdayVALENTINE blog.

uncle kevin and paige are pretty tight too...

paige loved hanging out with uncle kevin and juggy...and juggy was very sweet to paige. hoggy was not interested in paige what-so-ever. every time one of the dogs walked into the room paige would stop whatever she was doing and just stare at them.

shannon and kevin were awesome tour guides...they took us around nampa, boise and caldwell. we also went to this cool coffee shop called Rembrandts Coffee House in eagle (a fancy upscale area) where we sat and talked for like 4 hours. and no trip to boise would be complete without a special stop at the Cabelas super store...aaron could have been in there forever if we had let him. paige got a pink camo sippy cup for her road trip souvenir.

one of the highlights of our tour was this amazing Anne Frank Memorial...it features a statue (see below) to honor her life and story...as well as famous quotes by humanitarians and human rights activists. it is set outside in the middle of this great area of parks and trails and museums in downtown boise. it is beautiful and educational and it made me grateful for my heritage and the freedoms and rights we have in this country today. i really loved it. if you are ever there you should check it out!

paige found the whole thing fascinating as well!

saying good bye...so sad. we wish we all lived closer and could visit more!

juggy wanted in on the picture...and paige agreed.

the drive between idaho and californai is BEAUTIFUL...northeast california and southeast oregon...along 395...i hope we can get up there for a camping trip some time. there are a ton of lakes and small towns- i snapped a bunch of pictures through the window because we did not want to stop and wake paige up. it made a long trip very enjoyable and we will be back for sure!

one of our pit stops! she makes us laugh constantly!

this shoe tree was our last stop before susanville- we stayed there one more night before heading to sacramento. it was sad to leave susanville and to say goodbye to aaron's parents again...they treated us to breakfast at the black bear diner...yummy...and we were on the road again.

our last leg of the trip was in sacramento...our state capitol...very fun. we looked for arnold but no luck. i guess nobody works at the capitol on sundays...it was a ghost town. on saturday we went to the train museum, walked around old town, stayed at the holiday inn (it was really nice and in walking distance of everything) and had a lovely sushi dinner. on sunday we walked around the capitol grounds before heading home to fresno. the capitol grounds are beautiful...the flowers, trees and building itself are really nice- i had not remembered it from my 4th grade field trip. also there is a california fire fighters memorial on the capitol grounds that aaron's mom told us to check out....very cool (you can always rely on teachers for this kind of good information)! sadly, the camera died right as we got there and we could only snap one shot of the memorial. oh well.

yeah for sactown!

it was the perfect ending to an amazing trip!