Mara's Tumbling Meet!!

If Mara could do one thing all day long it might just be doing cartwheels! She loves doing cartwheels over and over! We signed Mara up for tumbling and she loves it! She had her first meet and did great. She practiced hard and really enjoyed performing her routines! Way to go Mara Lew!! We are proud of you!

Mara earned a 1st place ribbon for her group! Everyone also earned a medal!

Mara was really excited about doing tumbling with her friend Ada! They both are great tumbling girls!

8 months old!!

My baby is just "So Big!" Already!! I can't stand it! When I see pictures of my cute little tiny nephew born yesterday it makes me want to cry that the newborn stage doesn't last longer! Eight months just flew by! Before I know it Carder will be eight years old! But that makes me want to cry too! So I'm not going to think about that, I am just going to enjoy every minute and moment I can of this sweet baby boy!

Speaking of "So Big" Carder can say "So Big" with his arms!

 Carder enjoys discovering new toys! He seems rather bored already of his baby toys!

 That is a sad look! Carder wasn't too happy when I took his toy away from him for a picture!

This is one happy boy! We are hoping the weather will warm up a bit so we can go to the park more often!

 I can't believe Carder can sit up on his own! He loves being able to sit up and play with toys instead of laying on his back and tummy!

 

Carder is ready to crawl! He is so close! He does the worm crawl and the army crawl! It's just a matter of days! He gets up on all fours and tries to go forward but gets frustrated when he falls! Our house will no longer be safe when this little guys learns to crawl!

 Carder has a thing with hats! He loves to take them off his daddy and brothers. He doesn't exactly love to wear them but he sure does look cute with them on!

The bath is a whole new experience now that he can sit up! He loves to sit and splash and kick! 

I'm loving the spiky hair! What a fun kid! We are just ever so blessed to have him in our family!

Mara's Quilt!

Mara Lew is one amazing little girl! She loves to sew and when she puts her mind to it, she can do just about anything she wants! A while ago she started a little sewing project for her cousin Cedar. Every time she went to her Grandma Lewis's house she would work on it. Less than a year later Mara finished sewing her "I Love Cedar" and when she was asked what she was going to do with it now she said "I want to make a quilt!" So we went to the store and picked out fabric and she sewed a quilt for her 1 year old cousin Cedar!!

 

Grandma Lewis drew the x's on for Mara to sew. She is quite good at cross stitching!

 And here is the finished project! Amazing! She sewed the entire thing herself! I cut the strips and pinned them together and she used my sewing machine to sew a straight stitch!

 I was very impressed how much patience she had with it! She was pretty determined to do it!

Cedar lives in Alaska and was coming home to visit on Easter! So Mara wanted to finish it in time to give it to her when she came. Mara was so excited to present this gift to her cousin!

 

Kisses for cousin! 

 Mara is a wonderful girl! She is so loving and kind to her little cousins. She is very thoughtful, what six year old thinks to sew a quilt for their cousin?! Mara is just a sweet girl!

We enjoyed Easter Sunday at Grandma & Grandpa Lewis's with the aunts, uncles and cousins!

Here are all the Lewis cousins! One more is coming in two days another announced and due in October! It sure is fun to have so many cousins! They love playing together and being with each other! They sure are a bunch of cute kids!

Farewell Zion! Until Next Tme!

What a quick camping trip! It was too short, we weren't ready to go home! We woke up Saturday morning bright and early, and jumped in the car, ate breakfast on the road, and headed to the trail head for one last hike! We wanted to see the sunrise on the mountain peaks, however it was a little overcast that morning!

The hike we did was called Canyon Overlook. It was a great hike!

We made it! What a view!

I love hiking with Carder! He snuggles right into me and he is so cozy!

 The panoramic view of our destination! What an incredible canyon!

 

The trail was really fun, it went under a cliff, around a mountain, on a bridge...it was great!

 Mara found a nice little chair along the hike!

 And that was our first camping trip of the season! We are eager for our next vacation! The kids keep asking when we can go camping again...soon! We are ready to go camping again soon!

Hiking we did go!!

We had the most beautiful weather in Zion, perfect weather for hiking! We were not able to hike Angel's Landing this time with our little people, but some day I want to do it as a family! We did do plenty of other good hikes though!

 

 There is just something about red rocks and blue skies that I love! We started our morning off by hiking the River Walk Trail. It was so busy, the whole park was packed with people.
 

It was actually a little chilly at the beginning of our hike but warmed up nice for lunch. We enjoyed a picnic before our shuttle ride to the next hike!
 

The next hike we did was weeping rock. It was a perfect distance for the kids, and they loved it. They thought it was hillarious that the mountain was crying! They stood under the drops of water and giggled when they got wet! 

 

Weeping rock was perfect to cool off. As you can see from the boy's hair they got a little wet, but dried off quick in the sunshine!

After hiking all morning and afternoon we thought the kids could use a break and take a little nap in the car as we went for a scenic drive.....well everyone got the memo but Carder!! One of these things...

 

 

....is not like the other!!  Caleb has no problem sleeping in the car! He is such a great hiker he sometimes just needs a little nap to recharge his batteries! (*Notice Caleb's little badge he is wearing! We now have three Zion Jr. Rangers!!) 

Mara too will take a little nap in the car! 

Our little blond haired buddy does not fall asleep in the car like the others. He is just programed different from the other kiddos, but he is just as cute and he may not have slept in the carseat but he loved taking his naps on our hike in the front pack!

 

After a nice refreshing drive through the east side of the park and letting some of the kids take a nap we were ready for one last hike! I love this picture of Ty! He is such a stud!

 

Princess Mara on her tower! The last hike we did started through a wash, then went up a mountain. We hiked and hiked without a destination just bush wacked our own way.

Love love love these hiking kids! We put Carder in the ergo on the back after he woke up from his nap and he loved it! He just sang and made cute sounds all the way back to the car!

 

We hiked to the top of a hill and decided we were too tired and couldn't hike another step! So the kids sat down on the top and threw rocks down the mountain!

 



This little buddy loves hiking and loves his daddy! They are good friends!

Spring Break: Zion

Our first camping trip of the year! We drove down to Zion on Thursday and had a wonderful time in a beautiful national park! The kids were so excited to go camping. I was a little hesitant about how Carder would do, but he did great! He was born to camp! The weather was spectacular: not too hot, not too cold, it was just right for hiking and camping! I was very excited to go to Zion, the last time I went there was twelve years ago. Nate invited me to go camping with him and a bunch of friends. It was on that camping trip we had our first kiss! I have always had a special place in my heart for Zion ever since. I must also say in twelve years I have come along ways with camping!

  Mama Mara took good care of Carder while we set up camp! He loved being outdoors and chilling in his 'tuba' (bumbo) as Mara calls it!

With the tent all set up the kids had a blast hanging out and playing inside the tents!

 Caleb loved wrestling on the sleeping bags with Carder!

  

With our camp all set up we set out on our first hike. We found a really awesome hike just blazing our own trail. I'm pretty sure the kids are saying 'we love hiking this much!'

 

 Along the path we found this huge fallen down tree! Mara and Ty climbed on top and Caleb and I tried pushing it up!

 I thought maybe I could swing from the tree branch, or lift my legs up around it, maybe not with the little guy on me!

We saw such different landscape along the hike. Highs and lows. We went down a wash bed, walked through a slot canyon, and hiked a plateau!

 This little Caluba ceases to amaze me! He really is the best hiker I know! He can keep up with his older brother and sister!

 Ty loves hiking! He just loves being out in nature and seeing new things!

 Reach for the sky? This is a stick up? Not sure here!

 This is the slot canyon looking up!

 Inside the sot canyon! So cool!

 The kids found a few good hiding places!

 The kids had fun collecting rocks along the way and finding holes to climb in.

 So we found this cool 'slide' for the kids to slide down. They climbed a little ways up and slid down on their bums. Then we hiked a little farther and went up on top of this mountain and hiked around. When it was time to go back we came to this exact spot and thought maybe we could get down sliding down on our bums. We were about where the pine tree is at the top. It was a lot scarier up at the top looking down. Right then I had this sick awful feeling that said DON'T DO IT! Then Carder woke up and started to cry, Mara started to cry and all heck broke loose! I said to Nate we better find another way down I don't feel good about this! So we did! We went the safe way and all was well! Glad we chose the right and didn't slide to our death!

Mara doing a rock angel? I love all the red rock country!

 Don't fall down the mountain Ty!

Caleb is one funny hiking buddy! He talk, talk, talks your little ear off! But when he gets tired from hiking he won't say a word! He won't even answer your question!

 Three awesome kids!

 Panoramic view of the mountains!

This was the mountain we hiked up! Let's just say I think it's time to get in shape again!

 

I love this little snuggle-baby! It's one of my favorite things in the world to carry my baby in the ergo and be able to snuggle with him! He loved hiking! He slept most of the time!

Time to go back down through the slot canyon! 

 Ty took this picture of us. He earned his photography beltloop for scouts on this trip!

Caleb was pretty tired after that hike! He was ready to go back to the camp sight!

Carder enjoyed the last part of the hike being carried by his daddy! I sure love this guy! Glad he would invite me to go with him camping twelve years ago and take a chance on me! Who could have imagined twelve years ago that we would be happily married with four kids and return to the place it all started! What a great family we have! Glad we can have one adventure after another together!