Created to Love

This morning at church Donnie and I got to sneak into service together. Yes, it felt like a fun little date as we haven't been to a service together in a few weeks between our seperate responsibilities at church and vacation, etc.

We sat towards the back and had the sweetest time together. The sermon by Pastor TW was about taking the next step in your christian walk and he was talking about how God created us for a purpose and Donnie looked at me and said SO CUTE out of nowhere in a playful, yet sincere way "I was created to love you". Tehehe!!! It was the sweetest moment... we laughed.

Yes, Donnie was created, among many other purposes, to LOVE ME and I to LOVE HIM!

Bliss!

Liliana's First Dance Recital

Liliana did a beautiful job at her first dance recital. The whole thing was 2 hours long. Her class, the "My First Dance Class" was fourth up and then we had to wait and wait for everyone else to go so that Liliana could be on the stage with everyone for the final bow. I thought it was good for her to get the full experience, even though it was a long time of waiting for Noah and I with other things that needed to be done at home and church. :o)

Yes, I am biased, but it seemed that the audience loved this group of adorable tiny dancers the best becuase they were roaring with "awe's" and laughter throughout thier routine. They danced to "Wish Upon a Star" and were the sweetest dancer's ever!

You can see in this next picture that Liliana stole the show. The girl who was up there guiding their dance placed Liliana out of order after their circle routine, which I think threw Liliana off. She kept to the routine excellent during the rehearsal, but this time, she started walking away from the line and towards the teenager helper - dancer and it was so cute because the girl totally worked with Liliana and played it off like it was part of the routine. So sweet! :o)

Yes, Donnie, I am looking forward to my 24 X optical zoom! :o) I NEED it! :o)

NO MORE PACI

Mother's Day this year was EXTRA SPECIAL for so many reasons... gifts I could never have planned or predicted to recieve.

The first one is that I got to spend it with all of the most special people in the world to me, Donnie, the most amazing husband in the whole world, Liliana - my baby girl who is getting so big, Noah, my LOVE-BUG, and Courtney and her mommy Pam! Had my mom been there too, it would have been PERFECT.

We began the day with a lovely service at church. Courtney loved the choir and they both loved the message. They felt so revived and energized by all of the fellowship with the sweet people at our church.

After church, we got in some more casual clothes and headed off to Mystic, CT for some delicious seafood and a walk through town. It was lovely! Before we drove out off to Mystic Donnie gave me a beautiful "MOM" heart photo pendant necklace and a card. Very sweet! :o)

Now, here is the most SPECIAL part of this years Mother's Day for me... the day before Mother's Day, we were driving home from bowling...

Liliana's first time bowling. We all had a blast!

...and Pam was having a heart to heart BIG-GIRL talk with Liliana about her giving up her paci. I had never seen Liliana so serious and quiet, she was really thinking hard about this challenge to take that big step into "big-girldom"... it was huge... Liliana LOVED her paci so much!... well that night, she went to bed and never even asked for it and when morning came, I asked her how she did all night without her paci and she giggled and said, "I found it in my pillowcase and put it in my mouth". ha! So, she started the night on the right track, but ended back at square one. Well, the next night, Mother's Day night, after going to Mystic and having a long day of fun, we brought her to bed without her paci and some more encouragement from Pam and SHE DID IT... SHE GAVE UP HER PACI!!!!! FOR GOOD... She has not used it since and only half-heartedly asked for it one time! What a big girl and a HUGE thank you to Pam for using your skills to help bring our baby girl over that big threshhold without a hitch... believe me, Donnie and I were dreading having to wean her off of that thing, but a third party is often-times much more convincing than mommy or daddy... because mommy and daddy are suckers! ha! What a wonderful gift that was for mommies day! :o)

After we laid the kids down for bed, we headed downstairs for the finally of The Celebrity Apprentice - ha! We had fun looking at photo albums during commercials and Donnie and Pam telling Courtney and I to "hush" through the show. Well, at 11:00, when the show ended, being that it was Pam and Courtney's last night in CT, we asked Courtney if she wanted to stay the night at our house (she was to shy to stay the other nights). She said "yes, I want to stay", so I drove Pam up to the hotel and Courtney got her pjs on and we headed back to my place. We had the coolest sleepover ever! We ended up sleeping in the duo-recliner sofa together and talked for a few hours until sleep took over. It was a special bonding time for us and a very special gift for both of us! We are so thankful that Donnie and Pam let us have time together like that. Pam was so excited for Courtney to have such an opportunity and so was Donnie... they both knew how magical it was for us.

Dance Recital Rehearsal

Liliana's MY FIRST DANCE CLASS Recital Rehearsal.

First of all, this girl has the biggest smile I have ever seen!

She danced and danced and smiled up there. Not a shy bone in her body. Very well aware of her stage presence and presentation. Absolutely the most adorable thing ever!!!
They were all so sweet and so were their mommies! It has been such a wonderful class! We will miss them!

Get down, girly girl! :o) Love it!!!

Too sweet for words!

Liliana is the one of the far right shading her eyes from the bright stage lights.

Afterwards, she begged to go back on stage and do it again!

WhaaSay???

Liliana has been in and out of this "WhaaSay?" phase lately. On vacation she did it bad - it became a family joke. Donnie and I began asking her "whaasay?" haha!!! :o)

WhaaSay - What Did You Say - all mushed into one annoying word! :o) lol

Speaking of vacation, we had the BEST time having Donnie around for a good long week. It was wonderful to see him TOTALLY take a break and relax from work, etc. He is a very hard worker and is all-consumed with the ministry, so it was wonderful to see him take a true break. I am proud of him. He is the best husband and daddy I could ever dream of! The kids, especially Noah really LOVED having him around so much. Noah really became a "daddy's boy"! So sweet! We hit the pool a few times and the parks and Donnie and I had some good ole' movie nights together. One of the ones we watched was Valkiere (spelling)... it was excellent.

Webcam

We got a webcam! :o) We got one so that we can visit Courtney online and Grandma too! :o)

It is so awesome to be able to see Courtney on a regular basis now! We can show each other stuff and see each others quirky mannerisms when we talk now. So much better than talking on the phone. We visited the other day online and Liliana squealed and screamed, she was so excited to see Courtney! Ha! :o) Awesome!

Last night we talked online for 1 hour and 30 minutes and it felt more like 20! :o) We are SO BLESSED to have one another! God is so WONDERFUL and SO SWEET to us!

Courtney and I are starting a blog together that we will both write in. I will post the link to it once we get it started. It will be about our unique journey together and apart. We are very excited about it!

Liliana and Noah know exactly who Courtney is and will always know every detail! The word of God says that "God is LIGHT and in Him is no darkness AT ALL". I believe that we should not ever keep people from knowing the WHOLE truth about life! My life's saying is "There ain't NOTHIN' under my rug!" :o)

Love you Jesus!!!!! :o)

The Smokies

Yucky slobber! :o) Ha!

Liliana's first time put-putting. Daddy teaching her the ropes. She was a natural!

Liliana feeding a zebra! Super-cool!

The goats were so sweet! One of them started sucking on my thumb! ha!!! :o) Above are Liliana, Noah and cousin Jonathan.

PawPaw, Noah, Donnie, Jonathan, Mom, Me, Liliana and Great Grandma. We had a blast! What treasure it was for the kids to have 4 generations in one cabin! :o)

We just returned from the BEST VACATION!!! We went to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg TN/The Smokie Mountains and we LOVED every minute of it.

It was about a 14 hour drive, which was not bad, a little long for the kids, but we managed. We stayed in a gorgeous cabin in the mountains in Pigeon Forge. We went to Capes Cove, Ripley's Aquarium, The petting Zoo and pony Rides, Ripley's Where Pigs Fly Put-Put, Gatlinburg, all of which were amazing! We would do every single one of them again and again!

Noah's first pony ride! He LOVED it! He hummed and giggled the whole ride! The ponies name is Smokie.

Liliana riding Little Joe. She also loved the pony ride!

Here is Liliana handfeeding a peacock a big cheezit on our cabin deck. It just walked right up the stairs and made himself at home. So cool!

Above: At a stop on Cape Cove. I could live right in that very spot! The air was so amazing up there. So peaceful!

Here we are sitting in front of Roo's Retreat. :o)

Journaling About My LOVES

We have been so busy lately between the Mother's Day Celebration at church and our dream weekend with Courtney and vacation, I am just now finding a moment to catch up a little on my journaling. :o)

Liliana is the SILLIEST Goose EVER lately! :o) I told Donnie that she is 3 going on 12 because she talks lots of jiberish to try to fit into me and Donnie's conversations. She makes up her own words all the time. Today she drew some pictures of sea creatures and gave them each their own, very strange name and individual unique characteristics. She has been so energetic since we got back from vacation - ahh!!! Naps are becoming more and more scarce with her too.

Liliana is very concienscious of her body right now. Whe she eats something or anyone eats something she says "mommy, what's in my belly?" or "mommy, what's in your belly?" She also is very curious about all of her body parts, she randomly asks things like "mommy, why do we have faces?", "mommy, why do we have hair on our heads?", "daddy, why do we have lips?" So cute and so fun teaching her all of these things and helping her to make sense of it all! :o)

She is also SO animated!!! She is a big crack up and SUPER dramatic about everything! :o) She puts her hands on her cheeks and says things like "I am SO excited", "Oh, my goodness" or "that's going to be so fun" with her nostrils flairy and her voice chocked up with excitement! She is hilarious! There are so many funny things that she says to us every day that it is hard to remember them all! Who needs TV!? :o) ha!

Noah is the mushiest little love-bug. He still loves to give kisses and gives them with a big "mmmmmmaahhhh". He is very expressive with his lips and his mouth when he eats, talks and just plays silly. He has the SOFTEST, I mean THE SOFTEST, perfectly chunky ivory white skin EVER.

Noah's big thing right now is saying "no" and "mine". So cute! On the trip to and from TN, he had these spats where he sat there in his seat saying "NOWah" (Noah) over and over and over again! So cute!!!

He loves to play with his hair. He twirls it and holds it especially when he eats or is just being cozy! Super sweet! My dear friend, Heather Lee always did that to her hair when we would hang out and watch movies, her unconcious comfort thing, even as an adult... makes me wonder if this is something Noah will always do since he has been doing it pretty much from birth. So sweet! :o)

My Great Grandmother said a couple of days ago while we were together in the Smokie Mountains that she and her life-long friend were reminiscing on the days long ago when they raised their children and the playdates they had together, etc and they longed to have those days back. She said those were the most priceless memories she holds. Awe!!! I realize this will be SO TRUE for me as I truly do cherish and love EVERY SINGLE MOMENT I have with Liliana and Noah, my babies as I know that time goes by tooooo fast, especially when they are young and innocent!!!!!!! Jesus, please slow down the time! Thank you for every moment of every day!!! I am truly the most blessed person on the planet!!!

I am sure that I have written this before, but if I haven't... to me, heaven would be to be in this very moment with my babies forever... to be able to hold on to these experiences, the freshness, the feelings of love, joy and newness, to savor it over and over again. Awe...

Sigh* :o)

Courtney Gail Browning

So distracted lately... so in love with one of God's greatest gifts!

I don't have my bible up here right now but I have these scriptures in my heart:

"All things work together for the GOOD to those who LOVE GOD, who are called according to HIS PURPOSE!"

Psalm 139:16 All the days planned for me were written before one of them came to be.

BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE!!!!! Will post details and more photos from our DREAM Weekend soon!

Treasures

I told Donnie the other night that when I am old and I look back on my life, some of my most treasured pictures in my mind will be the messes in the yard! There is nothing like evidence of innocent children at play!!! Absolutely nothing! Oh, that we could all keep that simple, pure spirit!

What a busy week+ it has been! Tonight as I was winding down I walked up to the loft and found the "messes" that the kids left from playing up here earlier in the day and I just had one of those special moments of reflection upon the babies and their play. Here is where Liliana had one of her dinosaurs placed in the dollhouse. My greatest hearts desire is to preserve my babies innocence as LONG as I possibly can... to guard and protect it... playing with dinosaurs in a dollhouse... not a single care in the world, not even the knowledge to consider having a care. sigh*Love.... my heart melts and tears fall as I write... Dear Jesus, you hear my heart's cry! Thank you for being at work always! :o)

Don't Touch My Apples!

Noah LOVES apples! Can you tell!? :o) The kids raided the apple basket somehow. As with all things food, Noah needs to have one in each hand! I don't know why he raised the apples like this, but what a priceless photo! Ha!