7 Years of Bliss.....

Today Donnie and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary! We did not do anything fancy or expensive as we have had so much going on the past few weeks, vacation, retreat, etc. We watched Up, Disney's first 3D movie at the theater and went to Texas Roadhouse and went bowling - ugh! Ha! :o) Donnie planned our date.

The past 7 years seems more like a few fun days! Donnie is SO MUCH MORE than I could have EVER dreamt of in a husband!!!

3 more years till we reach the big 10! I want to have a ceremony, just for the excuse of wearing a beautiful fancy dress. Ha! :o)

Smoochin' Again

"I see feilds of green,

red roses too,

I see them bloom,

for me and you,

and I think to myself,

what a wonderful world,

yes I think to myself,

what a wonderful world"

Ever since Noah was about 7 months old, he has LOVED this singing duck that my Aunt Brenda sent to Liliana when she was about 9 months old. The duck sings the above song very loudly and it's mouth moves to the words. Super cute. Noah leaned over and gave the duck a kiss right on the lips. As I have said many times before, he is my LOVE-BUG! :o) My little romantic.

Bowling

Donnie is part of a bowling league with some buddies from church. He loves to bowl and especially loves it when I join him. It is so sweet that he loves to have me bowl with him, but it is kind of torture for me sometimes because I am a TERRIBLE bowler. No matter how focused and well-formed I am or not, I am very random and it is frustrating. Ugh, anyways...

Liliana so far is taking after her daddy in her love for all things sports. She bowled a 103 with the ramp and gutter guards. I bowled and 80-something. She carried her own ball and everything!

I love that daddy is such a coach and is already instilling these sports quailities in Liliana! :o)
I felt bad for Noah having to sit in his stroller the whole time and then had him walk around and give bowling a whirl! :o)So SWEET!!! He looks so small in this setting. :o)

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!