The Sorbellos: March

At the beginning of the month, my camera suffered a serious casualty. This errant portion of the shutter had lost a critical fastening mechanism and was flopping all over my pictures. I started to look to buy a new camera because the Rebel had essentially been totaled but before investing, decided to try "fixing" it myself. Voila! If the quality of my pictures seems compromised - well, you know why!

We have been playing outside a lot (until this rain showed up). The girls love to feed the fish who are starting to get used to their shadows looming over the water and will come up and eat while we watch. Sofia's VERY FAVORITE thing right now is a "pah-bah" or popsicle. She asks for them several times a day and will linger by the freezer until you give her one. The popsicle rule, however, is that they are NOT to be eaten on the carpet. Kitchen or outdoors! So outside they will roam while the sticky goodness runs down onto their shirts. My dad helped me build a kid's picnic table out of an old pallet and I finally finished it up and got it out there.

On the first, this handsome neighbor boy turned ONE! He is such a smiley guy and we love having the Rices as neighbors. Anne threw a "dog" party which was fitting since Caleb means dog in Hebrew! The best part, according to my girls, was the cupcakes!

Can you tell that Colson liked them too?

After a long day of partying, Sofia conked out while I read to Siena. Normally she will scream and grab at the books I am trying to read so this was a unique and welcomed experience. :)

It was Pig Day at the Farmer's Market again. The strip is decorated with pig balloons and the lawn offers a variety of piggy activities, including petting live pigs. Unfortunately, three little pigs and a big bad wolf terrorize the children who come to check out the festivities. ;)

Sam and I completed our 6 mile training run at the FM and Shiloh met us there with the girls.

Shiloh was trying to show Siena that the little pig is not scary by taking her brave baby sister over there. The plan backfired. Two seconds after this high-five, Sofia started crying.

That evening we went to the last UCD women's home bball game to support some of Shiloh's coed IM hoops teammates.

Shiloh is really good at supervising. ;) (While I sit idly by and snap photos...)

The Rice's niece, Randy, came up for the weekend to celebrate Caleb's birthday (with her awesome parents and little brother) and these girls never tired of playing together or talking about each other. How fun to have little girl friends!

Last weekend was our church's "Seaside" women's retreat. It was great to take some time out with just ladies (and no babies!) and I am so thankful that Shiloh is so good with the girls!

I got to lead one of the "breakout" sessions so I led about 30 ladies through the steps to make letter blocks to adorn their mantles or shelves or somewhere else. It was a lot of fun!

And then the rains came...

The Rogges have a pass to the Sacramento Zoo. So what do we do on a rainy day? Head east on 80!

Who needs animals when you have puddles?

Heeeere kitty kitty kitty...

Happy St. Patrick's Day! While Shiloh was having breakfast with an older, wiser dude from church, I loaded the girls into the bike trailer and headed to the Davis Farmer's Market. I am not sure what I was thinking. It was a FREEZING day, colder than we had had in a long time!

Our good friend Carie just returned from a six month trip to Australia/Thailand with YWAM to do their discipleship training school and application "in the field." Her lovely family hosted a brunch where we could all come and hear her life-changing stories while eating some seriously good food. We had a great time. Here is the Davis contingent.

A typical day/lunch with my monsters...

The following Wednesday: Mommy & Me returns to Raley Field! Siena informed me that, "Maybe when I'm four I will be brave of Dinger."

Dinger may be scary, but my girls love Sam K.

Later when Shiloh took Siena on a date to a real RiverCats game, she asked him to take her into the dugout. When he said he couldn't, Siena declared, "But when Mommy takes me to Sam's work, she lets me go in the dugout!"

March 22: Feeding the ducks. Shhh.

We spent a weekend in/around Fresno getting our teeth cleaned and spending time with some great friends up at Shaver Lake.

Little Logan is going to be a heart-throb.

While Arris, Alissa and I went for a 9-mile training run (1/2 coming up on April 28th) Shiloh and Dave held down the fort. Turns out Arrielle is a good chiller.

After much skepticism about his barber skills, David allowed Shiloh to take scissors to his long-overdue hair and I think he was pleasantly surprised!

Snow! Last year Siena was NOT thrilled about the snow, so we were very happy that she enjoyed it this year.

The Sorbello Four, ready to play...

Shiloh, despite a torn ACL, dragged these cuties on a fun ride (until Siena was hit in the eye with a snowball and melted into an irreversible puddle of frantic misery...) to the waterfall.

The Forester Four...

And the Shabaglian Four!

There is something very wrong about what we're teaching her here...

Good morning!

Good work, men!

This made for a tricky (but much quieter) hike back to the cabin.

We are thankful for such good friends!

Later that week I took some action shots at the WCHS baseball game and snapped some of my helpful girls too.

Our next fun outing was to the Equestrian Center on the UCD campus. We originally wanted to visit the Raptor Center, but it was closed for Spring Break. Fortunately, the Rogges (who used to be resident feeders at the EC) showed us around their old stomping grounds.

Ladybugs are also fascinating.

Sofia's MO: Reckless abandon.

This Algerian Oak is one of my all-time favorite spots in Davis - somewhere I have visited regularly since my freshman year at UCD (in 2001!).

Scarlet, the cutie our friend Libby nannies for, is always dressed with impeccable style, usually adorned with a sweet clip such as the one here. We love when they come out and play with us!