Graduation - Kinder Style!

Last month, in the midst of clearing over 500 bachelors degree candidates at work for my College at Texas State University, our family was celebrating graduation on the other end of the spectrum. Carson graduated from Kindergarten to 1st grade and Avery graduated from Pre-K to Kinder! :) I'm sure my pride at each (very cute) ceremony could easily rival those parents I saw watching their college grads walk the stage! Here are a few pictures.

Carson waiting with his class to "walk the stage"

With his class on stage
Checking out his diploma
:)

Avery's graduating class

So smart.... ;)
Her 2 very sweet best friends from pre-k

I can't believe I now have 2 school aged kiddos! :)

In addition to that excitement, the month of May held so many busy activities, I don't even know where to start. We had Spring performances at church and school, award ceremonies (Carson received a "Terrific Kid" award in his class), Field Days and Splash Days at school, Field trips, etc..... Not to mention, work was extremely busy for me in May.

And June is gearing up to be just as busy. The three oldest kids will be attending a Summer Fun Day Camp at a christian school here in town, 3 days a week during the summer. Summer Fun will involve swimming, gymnastics, bowling, and other activities every week. And we've hired a very sweet high school student from church to come to our home to watch Cambria on 2 of those 3 days when Tom and I will both be at work. They are very excited about all of that! I'll try to post as I can, but be patient if electronic contact slows down for me as other things occupy my time! :)

Baby #5 update: Things are moving along, quite literally! I'll be 17 weeks tomorrow and have been feeling lots of tiny movements this past week. How fun! I had a regular OB appt last Thursday and got to hear a strong heartbeat! We have scheduled our 20 week ultrasound for June 23rd, which I'm so excited about. It's always so nice to get that confirmation of another healthy baby!

Happy Summer! Check back later for more updates!

1st Birthday Joy!

My sweet, sweet little Cambria is 1 year old today! How, on earth, did this happen? Where did the year go?

One year ago, at 6:40am, she entered our lives and changed our world forever. During this year she has learned so much, and taught us so much - like what a blessing the 4th child is!

• Cambria has mastered the "look" of shy coyness that only little girls know how to do. Who teaches this look? :) She will wrap you around her little finger with this look, so watch out!
• Cambria can hug you sweeter and tighter than any little 1 year old I've ever met!
• Cambria can make you laugh out loud at the little dances she does every time she hears music (or something that resembles music). All this while she tries so hard to maintain her balance!
• Cambria can make her Daddy pick her up into his big, strong arms at every little whimper. (Early-learned manipulation?! Nah!!)
• Cambria will give you the most innocent, sweetest, most beautiful smile you will ever see - with zero prompting.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, MY BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL!
We love you so much!

Monumental Weekend

So, it was a monumental weekend at the May Home. That is, in terms of milestones. I'll start first with our youngest! Little 11 month old Cambria took her first steps this weekend, and, boy, was she proud!!!! She's been practicing her stand for a week or two now, but had yet to take a step. And Saturday was the day. We saw 2 steps at first. And then an hour later she made it 1/2 across the living room all by herself! How exciting! And, oh, how cute!!! :)

And then there was Valie, our 3 year old! (You should stop reading now if you don't like the word "poop") For those of you that know us, Valie has been potty trained for a long time now. However, she decided at one point that she just would not poop in the toilet. It wasn't going to happen. "I'll do it when I'm 4, Mommy!", she would tell me. So, rather than fight her on it (which I learned long ago, does not work with this issue) we kept a supply of pullups in her room for her, and would change her whenever she needed to go. Well, I don't know what did it, but we were at Target on Saturday and she decided she needed to go potty. When we got in the Family Restroom (which I love, by the way) she said she was going to pee and poop.... in the potty. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it so I said, "OK! Go ahead" and it happened!
She did it! It was at that point that I made a HUGE deal out of it - yelling and clapping and hugging. You would've wondered what was going on had you been standing outside the door! But it was awesome and we are SO excited and proud of out little girl! And if you don't understand the hugeness of this, you will when you become a parent!!!

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!

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.