First BBQ of the season!

On Monday we had family over for a Memorial Day cook-out.  We had a blast!  It was pretty hot, so Micah splashed around in our little pool, and we filled up some water balloons too.  Hopefully this is the first of many such BBQ's - enjoying good food, lively conversation and of course lots of laughs.  God has blessed us by being so close in proximity to Scotty's family!  (Sure looking forward to some upcoming trips from my family to MI too...hopefully once baby brother arrives we can get us all out to CA as well)!

Mahalo nui loa

Thanks for the surprise package, grandma and grandpa Sovilla!  The kids love their towels.  They've already divvied them up, deciding that the one with the turtles is for baby brother.

Mom and dad have already dug into their chocolates - yum!!  Let's hope they have enough self-control to share the second box with the extended Ruth family as your post-it said. ;-)

Green Things

Joy fits real nice on Micah's old green John Deere Gator (a kind hand-me-down from a boy at church several years ago)...

...but she really likes the size of big brother's motorized one!

Micah and Joy getting acquainted with a little green caterpillar...

 
...a little too close for comfortable in my opinion (shirt sleeve).

Passing On the Teaching Baton!

Yesterday the kids and I were going to "swing" by a friend's house from church, to sort through her collection of kids book and maybe take a few home.  Well, 2 hours later I left with oodles of goodies!!  Our friend had been a teacher for 31 years, so she had boxes and boxes of organized and categorized books and teacher's guides.  Not only was her collection an absolute goldmine, but our friend herself has such a wealth of knowledge inside of her!  I kept gathering teaching tips from her as she spoke through different developmental patterns of kids, techniques, and issues.  WOW.  I came home with more than my fair share of manuals, workbooks, storybooks, educational picture books, early readers, a game or two, and even a couple board books for Joy. 

It was such an encouraging visit, and she was way too generous with her time, resources and conversation.  And while I had delved into box after box, her husband was "teaching" Micah all sorts of things - bird sounds, rainbows, piano, crafts...what a blessing. 

THANK YOU, dear ones (you know who you are)! :-)

Animal Sounds

"Moo, Baa, La La La" by Sandra Boynton is a favorite book in our household right now.  Joy has fun saying all the animal sounds along the way.  Here she and big brother "read" it together. :-)

no rhyme or reason

I've really slacked in the posting department here recently (sorry, grandmas). :-) Here are some pics that tell stories of some things we've been up to over the past few weeks...

Who would've thought that a pack-n-play could be a fort?

Micah's biggest Lego challenge yet - a locomotive with several attached cars, and a semi-truck too.  We had to color-coordinate these oodles of pieces, and he received only minimal help from mom and dad.  Took about a week!

Joy's new favorite pastime - standing and walking!

Joy is attached to her new snack cup (and her big brother)!

Flowers from my sis Rachel for Mother's Day - way too nice of her!

Joy "helping" daddy do the dishes

I picked up Monopoly Junior at a garage sale last week, and Micah is a pro!  He's beat me every time (and no, I haven't "let" him win)!

Let the "nesting" begin!  I pulled all these totes out of Joy's closet and I need to sort through the kiddos clothes.  Pack away the pink and pull out the blue (from when Micah was a baby) for munchkin #3...

The kids found the open closet to be a fun new cove to play in...

End Endo Pain for Rachel

My big sis' Rachel is having surgery soon for endometriosis. If you're interested in learning more about this condition, and ways you can pray for her (and give if you feel led), then please visit her campaign page. Thanks and God bless!! http://www.giveforward.com/rachelsovilla

And the gender is...

We saw our baby on ultrasound today - so precious!  God has given us a healthy and growing baby BOY.  Micah is so excited for a "Lego buddy." :-) 

Frontal face picture: