Happy 5th Anniversary!!!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband!! I can't believe we've been married for five years already. In most ways, it seems as though just the other day we were driving around in my Escort talking about school and the latest gossip about our friends. And now we are here...married with a beautiful child, in a beautiful home, with tons of love for each other. I'm so grateful the Lord has had a hand in our marriage...I think that's what's kept us together for so long. I certainly feel blessed that God picked you for my soulmate and to be with be forever. Thank you to all our friends and family that have been so encouraging in the last 5 years and for helping us get through tough times and wonderful times. Your thoughts and prayers have been SO appreciated! Mike, my Mikey, my donkey, my butt-heeeaaaddd, my honey, thank you for making me the happiest woman in the world 5 years ago and continuing on this incredible journey with me. I will love you for a lifetime!

Cole's Cheesy Smile Finally Caught on Camera!

Here is Cole's famous "cheesy smile." This is the first one I have been able to catch on my camera. Everytime I get the camera out, he shies away and won't show me those two pearly whites! However, we finally convinced him that we needed it for posterity's sake! Doesn't he look chubby in this picture? I think so!





He's just such a ham...hmmmm...wonder where that came from??? :)

Peek-a-Boo!!

Cole says, "Peek-a-boo, Mama!"





You're probably wondering how in the world he got in there...well, you may have guessed right. His papa stuck him in there as a prisoner for continually destroying it. If you look at the first picture, you can easily see into the hamper. You're not supposed to be able to see into it...Cole has picked apart the wicker and is constantly trying to get the whole thing apart!! So, what goes around, comes around son! You'd better watch out! :)

Easter, Updates, News

Hello Everyone!! It's been over two weeks since my last blog entry and I know that I have been slacking off! I do have a bit of a reason though...I have started watching a little almost-5-month-old boy named Justin in the afternoons. It's been fun adjusting to all the new changes around here. Cole and Justin get along pretty well. Cole is really great with him and entertains him very well. Justin is still not so sure about this guy who is pretty loud and can scoot around him like crazy. I worked at Enterprise with Justin's dad, Eric, and they asked me when they got pregnant if I would think about watching their addition. I am very grateful to finally be pulling in a little money and helping out with the monthly expenses. It is a nice feeling actually contributing something tangible to the family other than meals, raising a kid, laundry and such. I know that is what counts most and I'm so excited that the Lord has afforded me this opportunity to continue to stay home with Cole and to make a little extra cash.
Anyway...Mike has been on Spring Break last week and this week and is thoroughly enjoying spending time with Cole and me. He has needed a break for a while and is so happy! He will go down to CSUN tomorrow night for his classes, but other than that we have been taking it easy for the last week and a half.
Last Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, we went up to Carpinteria and stayed with my mom and Emilie on their campsite. We were supposed to go up for the whole week, but I needed to watch Justin, so I just drove home for the 4 1/2 hours on Monday and Tuesday to watch him, and then drove back up. It was a ton of fun, and little damp. Mike, Cole and I tried out our new tent that we purchased a month ago...a huge 3-room deal with a doggy door and everything. It was quite an experience getting the thing actually up and ready, but once that was done, it was pretty cool. Cole did okay until about 1:30 a.m. when he woke up and I think was a little cold. So, I jumped up and got him and stuck him between Mike and I in our big double sleeping bag. He went right back to sleep, however, Mike and I didn't sleep at all for fear of rolling on to him! I saw the sun come up and was very excited to get out of the tent and move around. We walked over to the bird reserve about a block away from the campground and saw just a few birds and ducks. Nothing that I hadn't seen before, so I was kinda bummed. But it was still beautiful. We came home on Tuesday afternoon.
This is just a cool pic that Mike took of the beach.
Here's a great one of Cole and Grandma in the motorhome playing with his toys and having a blast!!!
This last weekend was fun...on Friday we went to the Passion/Good Friday service at Grace. It was AWESOME! My mom played harp in the orchestra and they sounded so amazing. I hope all of you had a chance to go that live in Santa Clarita! It was certainly worth it!! We just putted around on Saturday, saving up our energy for Easter Sunday. We woke up pretty early to go to church. We attended the 9 a.m service and then had nursery duty for the 10:45 service. I'll have to admit...we were not too excited about it, thinking it was gonna be packed, but it turned out to be just fine. There was actually only 6 kids in there and there were 5 workers. Not too bad!

Here is a couple of pictures of Cole in his Easter outifit...a three-piece that was quite a hit with the ladies! He decided that he did not want to smile for my camera, so I don't have any pics of him with that oh-so-adorable smile. After church, we headed on down to Camarillo to visit Mike's parents. Emilie, Brice, my mom and dad, Bob, Michelle, Brian, Lindsay, Ashlyn, Addison, Katy, Beau, and Beverly all had a great time eating, visiting, and eating some more! Michelle had quite the feast prepared for us. Bob and Michelle prepared an Easter egg hunt for Ashlyn and Cole and they had a blast hunting them down. Cole actually got it...it was really cute watching him find an egg, get so excited that he would shake :), pick it up, put it in his little basket, and move on to find the next one. He's so DARN cute!! Here's Cole and Ashlyn trying to figure out how to use a new toy that Grammy and PopPop gave them in their Easter baskets. Ashlyn and Addison had matching dresses on....TOO cute!
We've had a great last couple of weeks and we are so thankful for the sacrifice in which we celebrated over the weekend! It definitely has new meaning when you are a parent as you can see just how much God had to give up when he let his one and only son die for all of us. An amazing plan that I am so fortunate to be able to see and appreciate believing in Christ! God is good. He is RISEN!

Another Baby Girl...Welcome, Natalie Ryan!!

Another baby congratulations goes out to our good friends Shaun & Kristal Sawyer for the arrival of their beautiful daughter, Natalie Ryan. She came into the world at 10:45 a.m. on April 1st. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 21" long! Kristal was actually a week overdue and getting pretty anxious to meet her little baby, which was still a mystery to her and Shaun as they decided not to find out the sex of the baby. Her original due date was March 24th and when that came and went, we were all super excited every day to get a call and hear...okay, we are finally in labor. She went to the hospital for a check-up on Friday night and the doctors decided to induce because the amniotic fluid was getting a little to low for their likes. They started with Cervidel at about 8 p.m. and by 10 p.m., she was feeling some good contractions. By about 2:00 a.m. she was in a ton of pain and went for the epidural. Her and Shaun were actually able to get some sleep and when she awoke at 7:00 a.m. she was 9 cm dilated!! It only took her a little while to become fully dilated and after just over 1 1/2 hours of pushing, their beautiful daughter was born! Praise God for the relatively quick and painless delivery!!! Kristal, I'm so proud of you. You did such an awesome job...I knew you would! Mike, Cole, and I along with my parents were able to go and visit the new addition that afternoon. Natalie, welcome to this big world. We are so excited that you are finally here and we can hold you, kiss you, and love you. I know Cole thought you were pretty cute and can't wait to play with ya! :) Again, congratulations to you and welcome to parenthood...you are gonna love it!

Happy Birthday, Emilie-la...my beautiful sister!!!

Happy 24th Birthday to my dear sister, Emilie!! Yes, her real birthday is on April Fool's Day...she was born 7 1/2 weeks early and no one believed my parents when they called to tell her she was here!!! They all thought it was just an April Fool's joke!
Emilie has been such an amazing sister...I love you so much. You are an awesome woman of God and I feel so blessed to not only call you family, but also a friend. You are such a constant source of encouragement for me and Mike and we truly appreciate that. Thanks for always been so much fun. Here's just some of our memories together...camping (Pismo Beach, Carpinteria, and El Capitan), mud pies, makeup parties as little girls, our cabbage patch dolls, sharing a bedroom at the Cabrera house, piano lessons, horseback riding lessons, birthday parties, graduations, charades, cranium, holidays with family, fireworks at the Speedway, falling in love with our guys, playing cards 'til all hours of the night, singing with each other in Jubilation, singing at the Halfway house, singing in our cars, singing in the bathroom, :) and so many more things that my hands would start cramping. You are the bomb dot com and I love you so much. Thanks for being such a totally dudical sis and cracking me up so much. Here's to many more precious memories. Again, I love you so much and may God richly bless your 24th year and beyond!!!
This picture is of Emilie and Brice, her wonderful boyfriend at our friend Mary's 21st birthday dinner down at Citywalk. Isn't she a babe??