Compassion

I saw this at a second hand store about two years ago and had to buy it because it reminded me of Elia. I also love ducks and all kinds of birds and well, my pen name is Momagoose. :) The girl here reminds me of Elia because of her compassion and empathy for people, animals and even inanimate objects. She has the biggest imagination and is very tender towards animals of all kinds. She even loves flies! 

Today we went to the nursing home with our co-op for the second time. Elia did not want to miss out on this trip because she loved it so much the first time. On the way there she asked if we could go as more often without the co-op, like any time we wanted to. I said “yes, we can.” She then said “does it cost money?” My heart exploded... to her it is so fun that she thought it costed money to go. I love watching this girl live life. She is deep, kind hearted and so very genuine. ❤️ love you, Dolly! 

VBS God Sighting

This year I served in the Preschool room for VBS and Elia got to hang out in there with me the three days I worked. She went to the toddler room the other two days. 

  

Today our lesson was about when Jesus washed the disciples feet. Each crew leader used a pitcher of water and a towel to wash each of their crew members feet. This meant that ever single child had their feet washed. 

  

After this we had a plate of crackers to share for each crew to represent the breaking of bread Jesus did with His disciples. Well, in the preschool room there was 5 groups of kids.  In our group of 6 kids there was a boy who was having a very rough day and because of some medical things he is going through he had a very hard time sharing crackers with the group.  To cope he went off by himself upset. 

Our next step in our lesson was to ask each child if they knew someone who was going through a hard time. I asked Elia and she pointed over to the boy and said "he is having a hard time". I said "you are right, I think he is having a hard time".  Then we were instructed to ask the children "what should we do to help that person?" And I asked Elia what we should do to help the boy having a rough day and she thought for a moment and then said "cheer him up!" I said "go ahead, go cheer him up." She then walked over to him and stood right next to him quietly, the way Elia does and just stayed there...after a few moments he turned to look at her and started talking to her very calmly. She had cheered him up...by simply "being there".  I walked over and gave them a few linkin logs to play with and they played for a good 20 peaceful minutes. I finally walked over and said "Elia do u want to come and do a craft?" And she said "no, I am still cheering him up." They both then decided to come with me to do the craft with the group. 

Wow! Prior to all of this I had worked up a sweat trying to calm the boy down and get him to stay with our group. It was SO beautiful to see God use Elia in such a powerful way, right before our eyes. The other leaders in the room saw what happened and we touched. The most precious part was that Elia's heart in her actions was pure and simple...it wasn't about "look at me minister...", it was truly about A. Someone needs help and B. This is what we need to DO. And C. Do it. That simple. What a lesson! 

Love you, Princess! God loves you and has awesome plans for u...He is already seen in you! 

Southern Belle

Elia LOVES sweet tea!! This is a new discovery as I hadn't made any in a long time. I was craving some, made some and we chugged some all day long. Poor Daddy's servings were small with her insisting he share. I had never seen her drink so much of anything. So cute!

Project 365 Week 22

Sunday, May 27th

Liliana drew this picture for the Kratt Brothers of Wild Kratts, her favorite show and she wrote them a letter.  Sad thing is that they have NO mailing or emailing address for their fans, you can't even send something to them through facebook, I tried sending them this picture, with no success.  Those guys have a very special fan in Liliana!

Monday, May 28th

Elia playing with a little doll... she layed her down and found this burp cloth to use as a blanket... SO SWEET!

 Slip-n-Slide fun with Daddy... he is so brave to flop on his belly and show them how it is done since it was his favorite summer fun as a kid!  I have never been good at it... ouch!

Tuesday, May 29th

This morning we had Pawley in her kennel for a few minutes and I was in the other room and I heard Elia in there talking to Pawley, which I thought sounded so so cute!  Then I started to hear a repetative light sound of something dropping...??...so after a minute or two of that, I walk in to find Pawley in her cage, Elia squatting in front of it dropping in one doggie bone at a time... the cutest thing EVER!!!  :)  

 In the evening Liliana had piano, and then I went to a friends house for fun girl time!

Wednesday, May 30th

Liliana found an inch worm... she was THRILLED!  She said her teacher just recently talked about these at school.  :)

While Liliana was at school today I gave Noah a hair cut!  :)  I think this may be the shortest I have ever gone with his hair.  Look at those huge loving brown eyes and those perfectly kissable cheeks!!!  :)  He was getting hot with his long hair, so now he is ready for summer!  :)

 Elia saw me taking pictures of Noah and climbed down and sat in front of me for a picture!  haha!  I think those two look a lot alike! 

Look at thse huge blueberry eyes!!!

 And these curls!!!!  What!?  :)

Thursday, May 31st

This week I discovered a new favorite flower...the Peony!!!  What a LOVELY fragrance!!!  I cut this one and put it in a tiny vase for our bedroom and enjoyed the sweet smell all night long!  :)

Friday, June 1st

Riding the dog.

S'mores with the neighbors!  Love those guys so much!!!

Ready for bed, cute as can be!

 Saturday, June 2nd
I tried really hard to get a good picture of Pawley... she is so busy!  All of her front bottom baby teeth are out now... hopefully that means teething on everything will calm down a little... 

Since Donnie is in a bowling League this summer, he gets to bowl free every day, so he brought Liliana and Noah bowling today... they had a blast and did not even use the ramp or gutter guards this time and bowled a 63 and 68 or so... wow!

Donnie also took them to the store with him to grab a few things and included a prize for each of them.  Liliana got a horsey and Noah got a Lego set with Batman and Catwoman.  It was fun to walk Noah through putting together his first real small sized Lego set.

Elia took a long nap and Momma enjoyed a very lazy, somewhat productive, super relaxing day!

Uhmm...

"Uh-Oh, I'm stuck!"

"Okay, I will put the dolly in there..."

 Since Elia had such a LONG cozy nappy today, I let her stay up a little later than the other kids and "help" me fold laundry... she had me put a good variety of sock on her and here she is pictured with 4 pairs of Noah's underwear and one of Liliana's... LOL!!! Oh, and the bandaid is on her leg because I was about to put it on me and she started patting her leg... so, she "needed" one too...

 We had THE SWEETEST time together tonight!  Her personality and interaction with us is just blossoming like crazy right now!  She is 80% more vocal than she has ever been and that thrills my heart to see her growing in this area!!!  She says all kinds of words now:  doggie, sister, eye, teeth, eat, hi, bye, ouw, uh-oh..."  Just a sugary sweet love bug!!!

Off to bed now with my heart smiling HUGE!!!!  Just overwhelmed with love and thanksgiving and joy!!!  :)

SO BLESSED!!!!!!!!!

Sweet Superheros!

The other morning Noah said Elia wanted to wear his Batman shirt, so he took it off himself, since he wore it to bed the night before and I put it on her... So sweet! Noah acts as Elia's interpreter and it is SO cute because he says things what she wants and what she is saying and thinking. Today when Liliana handed her a stuffed animal to comfort her from crying, Noah said "I think she want a real stuffed animal that talks and moved by itself."
Noah also still...for as long as he has been able to speak words has talked about his "mom's" house...today as we headed home from our family outing he said "when am I gonna get to go to my mom's house?" totally cracks me UP!!!! :) hahaha! I have no idea where he gets this from but he has the biggest imagination!!
He also talks about his school that he goes to, very matter of fact! ;)

Project 365 Week 33

Sunday, August 7th - no pic

Monday, August 8th

Daddy left last night for Guatemala for 11 days!!! :( here we go...

She climbs up and slides down all by herself now!!! :)

Tuesday, August 9th - no pic

Wednesday, August 10th

Spent the day at the Snyder's house and went blueberry picking! We always have a blast with them!

HUGE Blackberries in the works!

Kevin is the sweetest helper!!! Don't they look alike here!?

Thursday, August 11th

The new playhouse! :)

A little sweet someone LOVES it! She spent a good half hour in it first thing.

Elia LOVES corn on the cob!

Friday, August 12th - no pic

Saturday, August 13th no pic

Elia Updates

Elia is cruising all over the place!
She takes one or two steps alone here and there, then plops down to do her favorite Miss America upright crawl with her right hand up in the air.
She shakes her head "yes" all the time. :)
Two days ago as I fed her lunch I said "you want that", referring to the spoonful of food, and she looked at it and said "yes" ...WOW!!! :)
She tried to put a headband on her own head this week.
She pushes cars around and even tries to work the wind-back kind that go.
She says "that" a lot.
She loves to point at stuff and at pictures in books.
She loves to pull books off of the book shelf and look at them.
She sits right along and listens to story books with the big kids.
This evening, she grabbed my hand and placed it on the keyboard and looked at me implying "play, mommy". :)
She is still super busy with that tongue! She twists is all around. Totally reminds me of Liliana's 9 month portraits... I have one of her with her tongue twisted. :)
Her hair is growing... so sweet!
She is still an amazing sleeper and napper!
She is not picky about food at all. She loves yogurt, cheese, most fruits and veggies, pizza, ice cream.
Last night I let her hold her own McDonald's vanilla cone after I ate a good portion of the ice cream off the top... she would not let me touch it after she got a hold of it!!! SO CUTE!!! She loved it!!! :)
WE ARE ALL... LOVING EVERY SECOND WITH THIS GIRL!!!!!!!!!!

Elia Updates

Elia had her 9 month well visit on Monday, June 13th and weighed in at 20 lbs 11 oz and 28 inches long. :) She continues to be the "shortest" of the 3 kiddos according to the numbers on record... :)

Within the past month she gained 3 new teeth and one more about to break through, bringing her to 6 teeth! :) I am tired, so my sentences may not make sense... ha!

She is on the verge of walking...

is the cutest thing EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

Drummer Baby!

I FEEL LIKE A PRINCESS!

I have SO MUCH to blog about, but I need to get to bed because we leave for the New Beleiver's Retreat in the morning and I am preaching tomorrow night and Sunday... so I better get some sleep, it is 12:26 a.m. right now... ahh! :)

I had to at least post a photo pic of the day before I went to bed... Here it is... Donnie covered all mommy duties for me this evening after dinner and was the most charming wonderful husband EVER in his handling of things... he waited on me with such love and desire to help me and cheer me on... HE IS MY LIFE CHEERLEADER and I am SO BLESSED to have him!!!!! Here is the a photo of how Elia fell asleep tonight in Donnie's arms...

Project 365 Week 20

Sunday, May 1st

Backyard fun!

Look how happy she is to be putting a non-food item in her mouth... Mommy swiped it! :)
A friend gave us this basketball hoop last night and here is Noah's first session... I have multiple shots of him getting that ball right in the hoop-hoop (as he calls it) and he is GOOD! He likes to have it on the highest setting... 6 ft but I think it is at 4 or 5 ft here... :)

Donnie's friend, Josh rode his new bike over... I can't believe I let my little baby boy sit on that giant thing... ahh! =}

Monday, May 2nd

Some of the kitchen cabinet doors do not stay closed so Noah got his Handy Manny wrench and actually fixed one of them! Too cute! :)

Tuesday, May 3rd

Elia looks JUST like Daddy here:

Liliana discovered that Elia is really good at walking her legs backwards...

Wednesday, May 4th

Thursday, May 5th

Noah's new bike!!! AWE! He got a big boy bike with trainin wheels. :)

We headed to the park right away!
He is such a big boy. He will not let you help him trek his bike around... he muscles his way along... so sweet!!!

Look at that tongue!!! :) Friday, May 6th

She has made her way under just about everything she can fit under... :)

Saturday, May 7th

About to fuss... hungry... :)

Elia and I walked over to look for baby turtles while the kids rode their bikes... found no babies, but how cool is this...

Another package from Grandma!!! She is the bomb!!! Noah put these pj's on right away! Here he is laying down to show us how big and tall he is... he does this a lot and at random times, like during breakfast... haha! :) Saturday, May 7th

Love the Cheerio on the finger! :)

Standing around everywhere she can pull up!