Sights and Sounds

San Marcos has a sweet little Christmas tradition that Tom and I have enjoyed each year since we were dating. It's called Sights and Sounds of Christmas and it's pretty much your typical small town Christmas festival. One of the endearing main attractions, for me anyway, is a whole Bethlehem set up, with live nativity, camels and donkeys, candlemaking, breadmaking, and angels that stand sentinal on either side of the "city" entrance. As all good things do, Sights and Sounds has grown through the years to include carnival rides and lots of food and craft booths - more than I think is necessary. But, it still remains one of our favorite events to fit in each December. Petting the donkeys

Valie at the water well

At the Nativity
Cambria by the fire

Making candles

On the carousel

The Negotiator

A conversation heard recently in the May household between Valie and me:
Valie: Can I have some candy?
Me: No
Valie: Please!
Me: No
Valie: Why not?!
Me: You didn't eat your dinner.
Valie: If you give me some candy, um, I'll give you a trophy....
Me: what?

My First Tagging

So, I've now experienced one of my first inductions into blog world - I've been tagged! (thank you Kristen!) After needing an explanation of exactly what that meant, I discovered my job is to post the 8th picture out of my 8th folder. Well, I have to say I'm SUPER excited about this one!! Because here is that super special picture :) (I hope you don't mind, Mom!)I LOVE this picture of my mom. She had just turned 4 years old - so sweet!!! And if you'll indulge me, here are two other pictures I have of her as a little one. They bring a smile to my face everytime I see them!

Here's to you, Mom. I love you so much!

Rolling into December

There's not much new to report around here. We are all fighting off colds and coughs, unfortunately, including me, which is the reason for the lack of posts or Thanksgiving pictures.

We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving holiday. Dinner with Tom's mom up in Austin on Thursday. Did a little shopping on Friday. And settled in with breathing treatments, cough meds and warm sweaters/PJ's the rest of the time. Hopefully, we'll be on the mend soon - and I pray we don't catch the stomach virus that's going around! Yuck!

We had lots of sleeping bag time!

Avery in her warm footed pj's!

Lots of hugs and kisses to make us feel better!

This one about sums up our weekend. :)

Non-Christmas Pictures

With the babies, I've always tried to do pictures every 3 months until they are 1 year and since Cambria was at the 6 month mark - it was time. So, I called Penney's and scheduled our appointment for the earliest time possible for last Saturday. Anyone that has taken young children to get pictures done knows - go during the week and go early. Unfortunately, now that Carson's in school and I'm working M-F I knew my first rule would have to be broken. I scheduled it for a Saturday but at least I was able to get 1030, thinking that they opened at 10am. 10:30 would be only the 2nd appt of the day so they shouldn't be too far behind, right?

After the appt was made, I then (agonized) umm, contemplated for a week over what they could wear that wouldn't require me spending lots of money on new clothes (darn it)!

And the day arrives. We pack everyone up in the car with extra brush, spray bottle, hair spray, hair bows and clips, bib for the baby, etc (you all know) and we headed to the mall. Because we are always on the verge of being late, if not already way past late, a jumble of May kids plus 2 parents bustle through the mall and are then stopped short by (literally) a crowd of people standing OUTSIDE of the studio waiting area at Penney's. Lots of kids and less parents all standing around in their Christmas finest, waiting.... I think we were the only crazies who were there to NOT get Christmas pictures. Why I didn't remember never to go get pictures on a Saturday close to Christmas - I don't know. And as it turns out they open at 9am during the holiday season, not 10 as I originally thought. So, what are we to do, but join the waiting. And we did. Our appointment was at 10:30, I believe we were taking pictures at 11:30 and finally out the door at 12:15. And not a moment too soon since all of our kiddos were, of course, dying of starvation! Oh well, it is almost a humorous memory by now, made somewhat better by the CUTE kids in (the non Christmas) pictures I now have. :)

And if that wasn't enough cute for ya, feel free to login to our Smiles by Wire at https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0822102971JCP and just type in Kim May next to customer name. Enjoy!

aaand.... it begins

Things around the May house are about to become tricky! Just this morning, I set Cambria down in the livingroom next to her basket of toys and went to go strip the beds. After picking up a few toys in Carsons room and pulling off his sheets, I peeked into the livingroom to check on the baby and she was no where to be found. Hmmm.... I looked around and ultimately found her in the kitchen - right next to the dog bowls. I hurried over to find her little fists full of dog food and 1 piece in her mouth! Noooooo! I don't remember her asking if she could start crawling!

The Price of Cute

We had our first real cold snap of the season this weekend. Cold, at least as far as Texas is concerned. So, I took the opportunity (I had been waiting for) and put a hat on Cambria's head before going out to church on Sunday morning. Not just any hat, but one my sister handmade for her before she was even born! She looked so cute in her little pink flower hat, I couldn't resist a few pictures. Unfortunately, as you can see, she would NOT be still long enough for my cheap little digital camera to get any clear shots. But you get the idea!My sister also knitted Cambria a beautiful little purple cardigan, which she has already worn several times. I remember the first time I put it on her it was probably only 68 degrees outside that morning. Tom looked at her in the sweater and said, "Um, I don't think it's that cold outside!" Oh well! I took it off when she started to sweat! Call me a bad mom for teaching my girls all about the "price of cute"!! :)

Learning to Ride

So, we had a fun and busy weekend that extended over into Monday for me. I was able to take the day off on Monday and spend precious time with the kiddos. I have to say I'm grateful for my job but I sure do miss being home with my kids. On Saturday while Tom worked, I took the kids to my parents house and we went on a little road trip to Medina to visit the Love Creek Apple Orchard and Country Store. It really was a beautiful drive. We stopped at a little park by a river and took a few pictures. I had to laugh at most of the pictures because in the group shots the sun was SO bright and right in our eyes - the kids could barely stand it. Can you tell?!
Look at Avery in this one!
Too funny! Anyway, in spite of the killer sun, it was a great time!


Then on Sunday afternoon, Avery decided it was high time we take off those training wheels on her bike. She was determined to ride with 2 wheels! It's funny how kids decide these things and then all of a sudden they are ready. We've been talking about it for a while with her and she never wanted to do it. But, when she decided, that was it. She did a GREAT job and I'm so proud of my "girly" girl, with all of her princess ways, that she stuck it out in spite of the falls and scrapes and everything else that goes with learning how to ride a bike.

All in all it was a great three days and a beautiful weekend.

Here we are!

Well, wonders never cease! To those of you who thought it would never happen, here is my blog in all of it's green glory! I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone this way and hope to post frequent updates on our family for anyone interested. As so many of my eloquent friends use this forum for all kinds of thought provoking and mind stimulating conversation, don't expect much of that around these parts! My main intent is to provide fun pictures and stories about the excitement that perpetuates in the May Household. :)
So, to begin....
If you are reading this you probably already know all about us. However, for those who haven't been recently updated on our comings and goings, I am Kim, the wife of a wonderfully bold yet sensitive husband and amazing daddy, who is an artist in every sense of the word. We've been happily married for going on 9 years. I am also mommy to 4 sweet blessings, Carson - age 6, Avery - age 5, Valie - age 3 and Cambria - 6 months. You can probably guess, there is no being bored in our home! To indulge more, I work fulltime outside the home and am right there in the middle of the struggle between balancing work and family - all the while maintaining family as priority. I am an artist in waiting, hoping one day to return to my love of making pots! I am also a daughter of the King, to whom I humbly give all of the praise and glory for the many blessings He has bestowed on me and my family. To whom I also must daily submit my fears and inadequecies. I am so thankful for my family, The May Six, as well as my extended family who made me into the woman I am today.
More to come....