Little league

Six years ago I couldn't have even imagined this day. Eric had his first little game. He plays for the Bluejays and Coach Steve is great. Bu kids himself, he does it for the love of the game and sharing it with these little boys and girls.

Happy big 3 birthday Noah

Noah is sweet and kind and spirited and he is three years old. Noah is in the junior preschool at Clif Base Camp and on his birthday it happened to be the student prepared picnic. Once a month the parents are treated to lunch prepared their children. Each time we have this event I say I am only going to stay for a half hour -work and workouts calling - but each time I can't bare to leave. This lunch was no different. I stayed extra long and read him a story then he says, "You go now Mom." This is my queue. He gives this queue each day when I bring him to school and I have discovered if I stay any longer after his send off, he is begging me to stay or take him home. It is his way have making our separation possible. He gives me a hug and a kiss and then says go. Today he also added another little "tear jerker" for Momma. "Thank you for having lunch with me today."

 My baby is really three years old and while his sentences are choppy with pauses as he shapes his words, he is putting words and thoughts together like a three year old does. He is reasoning and attempting to reason with his brother. His personality is blossoming and showing up in a whole knew way. Where we once had to guess at what he was thinking he now openly shares his thoughts. At times its surprising to hear what he has put together. What he has to say is so important to me I never want to miss a word. Happy Birthday!

 Party time with Zane, Taavi, Jayden, and Colt

New Legos from Colt

Party #2 with the Family! Eric always eager to help his brother out, especially when presents are involved.

Birthday cup cakes from Gina

Whip cream!!

Bicycle painting in Mt Rainer

Good morning Mt.Rainier parents,

This week in Mt. Rainier. We welcomed Niko Belur to our class. He has jumped right in to the routine in Mt,Rainier and is doing a great job. Way to go Niko. We also celebrated Noah Thies's birthday with streamers and super cool car shaped banana muffins. Thank you Tara for making the muffins and reading a book to the class. A great big thank you to all the families who purchased books for our class. We have read all them a few times and the children are really enjoying them!! Have a great  and safe weekend and we will see you all on Monday!!!

With Love Ms Rochelle & Ms Sarah

Busy Beacon week

Eric school was hopping with activity this week and I was lucky enough to get to enjoy a lot of the new experiences with him. Eric's love of movement combined with his ability to follow directions and sequence makes him a natural in his weekly dance class with teacher Carol.

The kids classes k-5 showed the progression of what is learned through her dance program and it goes  beyond just moves. They learn geology, teamwork, problem solving, and math all through dance. They also get to be creative with patterns. What I was really amazed by was each kid expressed themselves in their own way and then out their expressions together to create and entire ensemble of movement.

Here we watch Eric class perform their class warm-up.

Next up in Eric's week of activities was the 100th day of school celebration. Eric has been building this up for a while and invited me to participate in the celebration. How could I refuse?!

I joined in the math portion of the celebration to help in counting to 100 in many different ways: by ones, tens, the even fives. Every child in the class brought in 100 of something. The kids were so excited to share what the had selected and they each got to say a little something about their choice. They were so proud of what they brought.

Here is Eric counting his 100 "monies" with the class.

Eric first field trip

Yes, this was in October and this is the Pumpkin patch in Clayton. I was a chaperon and it was one-hundred and ten degrees HOT! I drove William and Eric in my car. William told us many stories on the drive. He also told his he has SIX babysitters so if one "dies" he as more.

Scene from Clif Bar Camping Trip

Leighton & Noah playin some frisbee

Eric setting up camp with Logan and Harper

Our navigator for the hike

Snack break on our hike 

Scooting to Base Camp

To Clif Base Camp we go. Noah practiced and practiced on his brother's scooter for three straight days until he mastered the two wheel scooting technique. For Christmas he received his OWN scooter from Oma and Opa!

We loaded the scooter in the car so he can zip on along from the car to the base camp's front door.

Before you freak out, yes I am holding his helmet in my hand effectively chasing him with it out of the frame of this picture.

Off to an athletic year

On January one we all skied as a family together at Alpine Meadows and had a blast. Noah requested the fast hill and Eric skies run after run seeking out new challenges all on his own like jumps, lifts, longer runs, and more complex turns.

Noah also has started in his own Li'l Kickers class at Bladium on Saturday mornings.

Our kitchen is broken

Noah is right when he says our kitchen is broken. In the beginning of December we launched into our first ever remodel and ripped out the kitchen until there was nothing left but the  floors with a big hole in it. Three weeks later, and totally planned for, our kitchen is still broken but with some major progress towards being "new"!

To some, starting home improvement projects during the holiday season is an overwhelming prospect. With a small amount of apprehension, we went for it. It actually made us do something we hardly ever do- keep the holiday decore to a minimum and better evaluate what HAD to be done to enjoy the holidays together.

The kitchen remodel has given us nice new perspective on how to do less and have more all while taking the "hectic" out of the season. It helped us to calibrate a nice balance. We have a small tree with some special ornaments and our beautiful outside lights up with the same, if not more joy in our household.

This is not the little tree I spoke of. This is our Montoya Family tree..

We did print Christmas cards this year and we will send them. Keep an eye out for them in the new year!

Hope, peace, joy, love

We went to church last Sunday. We actuallly made it past the children's sermon this time despite the boys outward disagreement of who got to play with Action Chugger during the service. You see, usually when we go to church it goes like this: we arrive late to miss announcements. No need to waste Eric and Noah's young boy short attention span on announcements. We sit down shuffling who sits where, try to sing a hymn, and then they go up to the alter for the children's sermon. They LOVE the children't sermon.

Today Noah got to place the sheep in the nativity scene and Eric got to bring Joseph along his journey across the room. After the children's sermon, the children are invited to a play room with Birdie. Noah and Eric have outgrown the play room and want nothing to do with it. I am lucky to get through the readings let alone the sermon before these boys need to move their active bodies. So I usually feel satisfied with the lesson they have received and we retire to the backyard where we play kickball until community coffee hour which is perfectly aligned with snack time.

Today we made it through the entire service! Being it was the fourth Sunday in advent, the 4th candle was lit. After all my years going to church with my mom and watching the candles being lit, today I actually took in what they meant. Hope, peace, joy and love. Whether or not you believe in Jesus or even God for that matter, these four things are something everyone can strive to believe in and celebrate over the holiday. It is hope, peace, joy and love that bring us together. I was touched today by the sermon and that "belief" is faith in something even though logic, knowledge and science can't make sense of it.  Humanity can not survive without hope, peace, joy, and love. Yet, it takes faith to accept them into your way of being because they come with uncertainty, unanswered questions. Hope, peace, joy, and love often defy logic, yet everyone needs them.

Christmas is the celebration of our Savior, our belief, our faith in all things good in this world all centered around the birth of a child. To me it through our children we learn to accept hope, peace, joy and love into our life. As adults we must re-ignite the child within us so we can be parents. We jump into parenthood with all its uncertainty and accept the challenges. This is true faith in action. There is a Carter's ad that says when a child is born, so is a new mom. We learn side by side with our children. As the grow into themselves we grow into our parenting-selves.

For this Momma it is through all children I can see true hope, peace, joy and love.

This is my understanding of what Christmas is. Bless the birth of all children.

Team USA

Eric goes to soccer club. Movein' up from Little kickers.

If its not a school day what is it?

Noah understands the morning rules quite well. On school days we don't watch cartoons. Cartoons use to work well as incentive to get dressed and eat breakfast. Over time cartoons mucked up the steps to getting out the door. New rule. No more cartoons on school days. What does that make a non-school day to Noah?

A cartoon day. He states to us, "Tomorrow is a cartoon day?" as a half question half statement.

What does that make a non-school day for mom and dad? A morning between the sheets day.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am lost for words these days. This photo, courtesy of Joey Chandler photography, captures my forever thankfulness.

Happy Thanksgiving.

All the things we have been doing that I have should have been posting about

I wish I could write about everyone of these things in grand detail! I will but for now it is the experiences that carry the weight!


Kindergarten begins at Beacon
10th anniversary weekend
Eric turns 6
Noah comes into his own: Buddies at Basecamp and temperment and doesn't like Z Bars wibbily or worms wormy
Game 1 of the World Series
Addison turns 3
Halloween: Clif Parade, Batman, Power Ranger, and 400+ trick or treaters
Kitties Blessed
Fall Fun at Petaluma Pumpkin Patch
Cable Car ride with Grandma and Grandpa cable car museum
Pictures in the Presidio
Momma's birthday
Mom adjusting to kindergarten
Eric playing soccer on Team USA
Noah at Soccer Shots with Coach Ce Ce
Eric telling me his misses being little
Gina with us for one year
Our new family ride
Remodeling the kitchen
Momma visting DV, Caleigh, and Graham
70th Birthday party for Oma and Opa
......oh my what have I missed?!

Sights and sounds of San Francisco

Looking over at Buena Vista park this fine fall lunch hour and I see a paint crew playing a breaktime soccer scrimmage to the sounds of kids pelting out God Bless America from the playground. The Giant's World Series fever could have something to do with the singing.

Most of all, I was happy to have a play date in the park with Noah.

Kindergarten and beyond

Today we drove by Daddy's high school on our way haircuts for the boys. Clearly we weren't heading to our local hair salon since we found ourselves Moraga. Our much loved CLIF hair.stylist invited us to her house for weekend trims.

Eric, who began kindergarten in September, had lots of questions about when Daddy went to school here. "How old he was? Did he know to drive? How did get old enough? How is it different from my school".

Eric's first lost tooth

 He scored a 1979 Silver Dollar that once belonged to a little figure skater. She received this coin from her skating coach, Myrna Smith, after successfully landing her axel. This little skater is all grown up and donated the coin to the Tooth Fairy to share with Eric when his first tooth fell out.

Your children are not your children.......Kahlil Gibran

So much to celebrate that I haven't even had time to post about. Eric turning 6 and starting kindergarten and soccer team all in one week! Not to mention the 10th anniversary of the marriage of his Momma and Dadda.

Here is something I read to remind me of the role I play has a parent to this beautiful boys.

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

To work or stay home, that is the question, or is it?

We all do the math, playing out different scenarios. Many mothers and fathers have no choice but for both to work full-time, especially if you live anywhere urban and in demand like the Bay Area.

We have played out several scenarios ourselves. One scenario moves us to a sweet little mountain town  in Montana like Bozeman that would allow us to share our passion for the outdoors, winter sports, and just a more simple way of being with our boys. This scenario also has only one parent working full-time while the other attends to the full time to the daily needs of the family.Which everyone know requires both parents to put in overtime after hours:)

As Eric begins kindergarten this fall and both of our jobs and homeowning pressures seem to get even more demanding, the drumbeat call of Bozeman seems to get louder and louder for me. Of course it has been a long time since I have spent a winter there but with the right gear  and the right price to take your family skiing every weekend you can weather and temperature, right?!

The cost of living the life we want to live and raising our kids in the way we have dreamed of just seems so out of hand it makes a person wonder if "here" is worth it.

With both of us working full-time we have needed to find the best way for  our kindergartener  to spend  the other half of his day. He is used to a full pre-K day of full attention! What insane person set up a public school system that short changes a kid's opportunity for learning with a 3 - 4 hour school day, and then loads on homework (before they are developmentally ready for it)that has to be completed by their parents during their precious family hours when parent's get home from work and bedtime. This system clearly dates back to the days when one parent was able to be home.

When we looked at the price for after-school care and before-school care and saw what of attention we  were paying for we decided for the price and value we might be better off looking at a private school. We found a sweet little private school with a full school day and year-round teaching until the 4th grade. Eric's class has only 12 students and along with learning to read, write, and do math he will have weekly classes of music, art, science, Spanish, dance, and gym. Perfect for Eric whose interest in learning is massive!

And it is perfect for us because we know that while we are at work  forging away at some sort of career our impressionable little boy is getting the caring attention he needs at such a young, impressionable age. Private school is priceless for this at least until we decide to flip our entire lifestyle for a scenario where one of us is home.

Our gradute

Ready for first day Mt Whitney Pre-School September 2010

Graduating Pre-K Mt Denali June 201

Eric started attending Clif Bar Base Children's Creative Learning Center the first day it opened, September 9 2010. He was thrilled have somewhere new to explore and new friends to meet. Momma was thrilled to have him right next door, on site at CLIF BAR. He was so excited that first day to pile into the car and drive to "work" with Momma.




Eric's first day care was spitting distance from our house. Our first drive to  BASE CAMP it was as if his whole world had just expanded exponentially.  I had never seen anyone so enthusiastic spotting the BART train and the AM-Train (aka Amtrak).  It was then we began our game of "who can call BART first" and getting excited when we saw two crisscross .

Eric and Momma ready for first day at Base Camp

Soon after, Noah joined in the fun and began his Base Camp experience as one of the first infants to attend. Both boys have grown leaps and bounds since we started. Noah moving through infant(Mt Hood), toddler (Mt Shasta), and now jr. pre-school(Mt Raineer). Eric began in pre-school(Mt Whitney), then pre-k (Mt Denali).

On June 21,2012 Eric celebrated as the first graduating pre-k class from Clif Bar Base Camp. The ceremony included his close-knit friends. They performed the song "The World is Our Rainbow" and each received their pre-k diplomas. My heart melted and when the moved their little tassels across their faces the stream of tears came pouring out.

You see, it wasn't just my five year-old standing there so proud and joyful. It was my 1 pound 14 ounces preemie baby big and strong; healthy and happy standing in the Clif Bar auditorium in front of so many of our Clif Bar friends that supported us through his tiny times. There he stood proud and strong not only bringing tears and smiles to Momma's face but all those from CLIF who know his story. It was very special.

Now we move on to our newest adventure. Kindergarten for Eric, and for Noah creating daily identity a bit more separate from his favorite person, his brother.

Base Camp is a special place bringing together compassionate big-hearted kids who, much like their parents on the other side of the wall, race laps, tell stories, and strive for the top.

Miss Sayaka & Class

Special Friends Nolan Fay & Eric

Great Buddies & lovers of italia Logan Simmons & Eric