Elia and Mommy Visit Courtney

February 24th - 27th

Mommy and Elia travels over many states to visit Courtney and see her world of Arizona!  :)

Look who's taller!!!  :)

We got to see Courtney barrel race while we were there!  So cool to see her smile so huge while riding Boomer around those barrels!  :)

Elia kept busy distributing rocks to us... awe!

 Elia had Courtney busy reading books to her... her favorite thing!

 Coutney cracked up watching Elia dig in her cheeks... she said she looked like a squirrel digging for food in those cheeks!

 The legend is that this was Jerry Lee Lewis' piano at one time!  Elia got to play it!

 "Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!!!"  :)

Elia loved riding Boomer!  She smiled and smiled!

 You can see that Elia is loving this!

 I thought Courtney's boots were so cool!!!  Real, worn cowgirl boots!

Courtney took me out for my first Gilato!  YUMMMMM!

 I tried to get a cool picture of the two Mater trucks... Courtney calls her truck Mater.  Love it!  She is a great driver!

We went quading!!!  SO fun!!!

 Elia had the best time feeding Courtney Fruit Loops.  :)

 Courtney had a lot of "firsts" this day... she got Elia dressed, put on a diaper and layed her down to sleep after they snuggled in the glider.  :)

Happy 14th Birthday Courtney!!! We LOVE you X a Billion!!!

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.

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)

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!