Joy

Sometimes your joy is the source

of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. -Thich Nhat Hanh

Please Pray

I just wanted to come and ask for prayer for my aunt Norma (Nunu to Isabella). Those of you who are closest to me already know that my aunt has been fighting breast cancer for some time now and I know that you are already praying for her. I have mentioned my aunt on here before, but I haven't asked for prayer on here much, not because I don't covet prayers, but just because I know she (as well as other family members/friends we are praying for) read the blog and I don't want them to feel as if every other post is about them and embarass them. Anyway, I just got a call from my mom and she said that Dad got a call that my aunt has been taken to the hospital. The type of cancer she has is inflammatory breast cancer, its very aggressive and she has been undergoing different types of chemotherapy for a long time now. Just last week, she had gotten some good news that the tumor had shrunk some. She actually has a tumor in the breast and on the outside -- I'm not sure if I'm explaining that right but when we went up last month, Norma had this unbelievably painful looking sore (tumor) on the outside of her chest. I don't even know how to describe it to you, it wasn't just a lump it looked like a huge open wound and just looking at it made me hurt for her and it bothered me to think just how painful things must be for her. She doesn't sit around complaining about anything, but you just know that it hurts and of course going through treatment is bad enough with it wiping her out for a couple days. From what my mom said, they took her to the hospital because that tumor on her chest has gotten bigger over the last couple days. I just really covet your prayers for her now. I don't know what God's ultimate will is for her life, but I know that He is in control. And I know He answers prayer, so until He tells me otherwise I will continue to pray for healing. If earthly healing isn't His will, then He is still faithful and He is good and He loves her more than any of us here on earth love her.

More Pictures

I wanted to post some more pictures from the beach.

Plus I thought I would show off my girls and show you the clothes I was sewing that kept me busy the couple weeks before our trip. I didn't really realize I had made so much for them, but I made them each 5 outfits, embroidered their name on 2 dresses. I had so much fun and one of these days they will either look back at pictures and like the outfits, or say "Aw, come on mom, did you have to dress us the same and in homemade outfits. " :) Anyway, the first pictures in pink and black, although its not the best background, but I took a picture last year of the girls on these steps (and actually in pink and black) so I did the same this year - I'm going to try and do that every year we go there. The alligator dress, I made because we see alligators down there and Isabella loves that-- but I of course had to make it look girly with the purse and pearls. And I couldn't get Amelia to stay in the picture, but not to worry, she has a matching dress as well. Then I thought I would post some pictures from the day we went to Hunting Island. We had a good day, but everything we did was "a day late and a dollar short". We got to this place that we love to eat 15 minutes after it closed, we didn't make it to the pier in time to fish because it closed .... you guessed it 15 minutes before we checked, we got to the nature center 15 minutes BEFORE it closed (at least the kids got in there) and it was such a windy day that we couldn't lay/play on the beach. The guys did get to take the kayak out on the lagoon but even that was so windy that only Kenny, my brother and my nephew Tyler went out for a long time because paddling back against the wind was pretty hard. The younger ones did get to take a quick little ride in the kayak and I think Isabella is hooked -- she's going to enjoy going out with us. Also the guys were the only ones that went up the lighthouse -- didn't realize there was an age limit on that, but due to steep steps they said they had to be so tall or at least walk all the way on there own. They might have been able to walk it but Kenny said he was so glad he didn't take Isabella because when they walked out the door up top the wind was so strong it felt like it could blow you away -- it would have really scared her. At first I felt bad thinking, "Great, we recommend this place and the day is not going like we planned and then Isabella said while on the beach, "Good summer days!" She cracks me up, where does she come up with this stuff. Anyway, here's the pics from that day.

Yes, I know the sun is in Garrett's eyes in this picture (trust me he told me :) but how could I resist, it was so cute. It was taken when we took a little walk and the kids got to see thousands of fiddler crabs.

Here's the guys at the top of the lighthouse.







There are 2 stories to go with the picture of Isabella, below. First of all, she loves to look for sea shells, of course most of the time I will point out the WHOLE pretty sea shells and she picks up broken pieces of a shell instead. Hunting Island is such a good place to find seashells, when Kenny and I went there 4 years ago, we would go out walking in the morning and each day we would find sand dollars as well as some other unusual shells. Anyway, Isabella found her "true love" shell there. I wish I would have gotten a picture of her holding it there. She didn't call it true love until we had left the beach. If you've seen Cinderella 3 you will understand why she calls it "true love". When my mom asked her who her true love was she said "My true love is my parents" How sweet and silly is that -- and she usually doesn't call us her "parents". :)


The other reason I love this picture is just my sentimental self. Four years ago this August, Kenny and I went to Hunting Island and camped for a week. We had just been through all kinds of stuff, especially that year and this was a confusing, yet sweet time for us. I remember feeling like God was taking us through trials, but that he was working in our lives. Do you guys have places like this, places that you love because of a particular way you felt while you were there, places that make you feel extra close to God or yearn for that closeness? Several of the mornings when we would walk on the beach we would see this little girl with her grandmother searching for sea shells. I said to Kenny "One day, I hope we can bring a little one back here and watch them enjoy things like this -- that little girl looks about 3 or 4..... so I guess it might not be anytime soon" And here I am, not quite 4 years later and I am bringing not just 1, but 2 precious girls back to that same place. (Granted, the little one would prefer to eat the sand/sea shells) And it definitely doesn't seem like its been 4 years. Its not the best pictures I've ever gotten of Isabella or anything, but for me to see this, its hits me and I just have to say "I hear you Lord, Thank you!"

Just a few beach pics

Very few beach pictures for today, but actually I don't have alot of pictures of the girls on the beach. My mom has more so I will probably get them from her. Sitting in the wet sand making a sand castle is not the wisest time to be holding an expensive digital camera -- nor is it easy while chasing this little hula girl down the beach. :) And as it is every time we go there, we don't spend as much time on the beach as we would like. For some reason the last few days at the beach are always windy -- not your typical breeze, but the kind of windy where the sand is blowing and stinging your legs. Isabella LOVED the beach, she loved playing in the sand, destroying the sandcastles Daddy would make for her and she and Garrett loved playing in the shallow (to us), up to their waist, pools that are there when the tide is out. Amelia loved the sand and running in it -- but unless the water was just under her butt, she wanted nothing to do with it. (As evidenced in the only pool picture you will see of her -- I am not raising little fish I guess) These pictures were taken Monday morning, Kenny and I got the girls up and ready quick so we could get down to the beach. We enjoyed our time as just our little family, but that wasn't the reason we did it. Most of you know or have read how my Amelia loves her crib, naps, sleep! - so we had to be aware of her schedule. Unlike Isabella who will just get more hyper and silly when she gets tired, Amelia actually gets cranky - so by 11:30 she is ready for her nap and one of us would have to take her in. She is still taking 2 naps, so we would also split the naps duties later in the afternoon. The upside of this is that we put her in the pack and play and she's out. I'm not sure when babies typically give up their morning nap, but I'm not seeing that happen anytime soon for her.
And for my little hula girl pictures, I found this little suit/skirt set last year at TJ Maxx for $4 and I couldn't resist saving it for this year. This morning on the beach was one of those days where you realize that its not just you that think your kids are cute, but lots of other people do to. :) As Amelia was running around the beach people kept talking about how cute she looked in her little skirt and then they would pass by me and tell me how pretty she was and then one older couple stopped and said "Can we please take a picture of her?" So some couple in their 70s is showing my little hula girl to their family. :) When Isabella saw this couple taking a picture of Amelia, she came running across the beach yelling her typical welcome "What's your name?" to which this nice little old lady responded "her name is Amelia." I kind of chuckled and then explained that they were sisters. :) So here's the beginning of my beachy pictures -- I'm sure to get more from my mom of all the kids playing together. And I have another 6 days worth of photos to post. :)

Blogging Etiquette

Quick question, before I begin all my beach posts.... when someone asks you a question when they comment, which way do you answer, in your comment section or in theirs??

I'm Back....

...and wishing we were still on vacation! We had a really nice time at the beach and as always it went by way too fast. I will definitely be posting some beach pictures and talking more about it - probably in several different posts, but I am going to post some "non-vacation" pictures this time. We actually got back on Saturday, but have just finally "settled" down today. When we got in Saturday, my in-laws were already at our house. Kenny's nephew's wedding was on Memorial Day, so we were able to visit with alot of Kenny's family over the weekend. Isabella really enjoyed having them here, as soon as we got out of the car she saw her cousin Josey and within minutes was holding hands with her. Josey is 6 and Isabella 3, but they played so well together. They also haven't seen each other in 2 years, but instant friendship. Here's a picture of them: Isabella was so sad Tuesday when she woke up and Josey wasn't here. I wish we could live closer to all of our family so she could grow up with all of her cousins. After they all left, on Tuesday Isabella had gymnastics and then yesterday we spent some time with her little friend Makenna-- thankfully -- since she had been with grandparents and cousins for the past 10 days, she was definitely wanting to be entertained. While we were on vacation, we missed a little awards time at gymnastics, so they did a little thing for Isabella and one other little girl who had missed as well. Isabella was (and still is) so excited about the little medal she got. Daddy met us for lunch and she was so excited to show him and then we had to go show it to Papa and Noni and she even wore it to youth group last night. :)

Isn't she my cute little gymnast?!? :) She will continue to do gymnastics over the summer, but not as often. I wanted to keep it up though, because I think its good for her and I didn't want her to forget things over the summer and start back up in September -- forgetting things, meaning forgetting how to stay in line, take turns, listen to her teacher, etc. :) And for the last little set of pictures I'm going to post Amelia's portraits that we had taken before we left. I believe GLouise asked me to post them and I'm always happy to oblige and post pictures of my girls. After I post beach pics you may get tired of seeing them. :)

Going to the Beach

Well, after a busy last couple weeks preparing for vacation, now I am definitely ready for it. We will be leaving tomorrow morning and returning the next Saturday. The day we return my in laws will be coming in to stay for a few days as Kenny's nephew is getting married on Memorial Day. Most of my busy-ness has been totally self inflicted. Of course, there is the normal stuff, tons of laundry to do, writing my list of things to take, packing, cleaning -- extra for company :), but then I also spent most of my morning/afternoon taking Isabella to Daddy's work to drop her off there and then I went and got Amelia's 1 year pictures taken. I realize it seems like something I could have done after I got back, but we promised my mother-in-law an 8x10 for her mantle when she came down and since I procrastinated, well I had to do it today. I don't normally go get my girls pictures taken, this was the first time for Amelia and I only did it once for Isabella, but I would definitely recommend Portrait Innovations if you have one close by. I learned about it from someone else and I was very happy with the pictures of Amelia. Although, Amelia didn't want to sit or stand still, so the fact that they got any pictures was a miracle. Then as I mentioned before, I' ve been sewing the last couple weeks for my girls -- I'll post pictures of them in their outfits when we get home, because I'm sure to be taking some while we are at the beach. :) I'm so looking forward to being away on vacation!!!!! Of course, I'm sure some of it will be "interesting" as we have a 1 year old, 2 y.o, 3 y.o, 4 y.o and 11 year old (obviously, he's not a problem) That many little kids in a condo is going to be..... loud. :) Lots of fun! I probably won't be posting again until after Memorial Day and then you can expect to see lots of pics. Have a good week!

Daughter for Hire

I've decided that I should rent Isabella out to anyone who needs to go swimsuit shopping. I could make a fortune! Yesterday I took the girls to the store and I was trying on some swimsuits. Isabella kept saying (in her "I didn't know there was an inside voice" voice) "Oh mommy, you look pretty!" "That is SO cute, mommy" "I like that, mommy" "You're cute, mommy." I'm sure everyone in the fitting room and surrounding area heard her. So any of you dreading to try on swimsuits -- contact me, she is guaranteed to make it easier and almost (ALMOST) ennjoyable. :)

Happy Funty's Day!

I know I'm late, but I still wanted to post and say that I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. If you are confused by my title (you should be) here is the story behind it. Sunday morning I was up and in the family room and I heard Isabella waking up and talking to Daddy. Kenny said he told Isabella to come in and tell me "Happy Mothers Day" -- to which she repeated it to him "Happy 'Mutters' Day". She came in the room with her little excited grin on her face and said "Happy.... Funty's Day Mommy!" :) I have no idea how she got it all confused, but it was so cute -- after that she said it correctly all day.... to everyone. :) We had a really nice weekend, my girls and I went to a Mother/Daughter brunch with my mom, my sil and her mom, and my niece. Then came home for the girls to take a nap and went back out shopping with my mom --- no children along, and then out to eat with my hubby, kids and my dad. Then Sunday, my sweet husband made me breakfast and had Isabella help him get presents ready for me. I told him that I really appreciate how he got her all excited about Mothers Day and doing stuff for mommy. Then after church, we went up the mountain and went to the same place we went for my very first Mothers Day. I wanted to go last year so that I could get pictures with Amelia on my first one with her, but it had to have been the windiest day of the year plus I was sick, so I definitely wanted to do it this year. I don't like pictures of myself, but here is one with me and my precious girls.
Unless you've really struggled with infertility you have no idea how it feels to dread Mothers Day. To not want to sit in church and hear what a wonderful thing motherhood is, to hear others being recognized for having the one thing you are longing for -- children. I've heard alot of people say that lately, some who are still struggling/waiting to be a mommy. I hope that I can always be sensitive to those around me that are still waiting to be able to celebrate. It has also made me realize more on Mothers Day what a wonderful and special gift it is to be a mommy. Some of you, just celebrated your first Mothers Day and I remember so well what a wonderful feeling it was to finally celebrate my first Mothers Day with my precious little one. Being a mommy is definitely the best, most wonderful, encouraging, discouraging, hard, fun, rewarding, frustrating, fulfilling thing I have been called to do. I don't take for granted how blessed I am and how wonderful it is to be a mommy. There are so many more encouraging and rewarding days, but then there are the days where I get so discouraged thinking I am going to fail at this and raising my girls to love and serve the Lord is one thing I don't want to fail at. I read on someone's blog recently that a friend had mentioned to her that as mothers we can take too much of the responsibility/control in our own hands and forget that God is bigger than us and our sin (paraphrased and reworded. :) And then I realize that being discouraged, not trusting, etc is sin and then I get discouraged about my sin, and..... its a vicious cycle. :) I am constantly praying that God will mold me to be the mommy that my girls need and that He will control their hearts and draw them close to Him. Thank God He is in control because choosing a sinner to raise sinners seems pretty crazy to me.

There are so many things I think about on Mothers Day. Although, my mom and I have always been close, being a mother has definitely made me appreciate all she did. My dad was in the military, so he had to be gone months at a time -- I don't remember her actually complaining about it or anything, but I do know how hard it had to have been. I understand that even more since I am married and a mom. I also have been extra busy the last few weeks doing things for my girls, taking them places, lots of sewing... things my mom did for me.

And I'm so thankful for the wonderful godly husband I have and that makes me appreciate more my mother-in-law and the work she did in raising and teaching him. Even if he is the only son she didn't teach how to cook. :)

I also don't know how single mothers do it, and I know one of you who reads my blog is choosing to be a single mother through adoption. I am amazed. Maybe my husband just spoils me too much, but I can't imagine doing this by myself. I hope that those of you who are single moms have a wonderful support in your friends/family/church to help you out when needed and give you the encouragment you need.

Of course, two of the main people that have been on my minds even more this week are my girls' birthmothers. I woke up early Sunday morning to my precious Isabella crawling in bed with me to cuddle, then I was able to go and get sweet Amelia with teddy in hand and arms reaching out to me out of her crib because of them. I wonder how they feel on Mothers Day, is it harder than other days. I still pray that someday they will get in contact with us and maybe I can tell them just how much I love and appreciate them on Mothers Day. Every child is a gift, but it is also a special thing to see God choose your child for you and not use you/your body/your genes at all. Not long ago, Isabella was having a bad week -- maybe two -- where she was just getting into all kinds of trouble and Kenny and I were kind of laughing and said something like "Man, with as bad as she's being tonight we about shouldn't have given her that gift" (or maybe it was doing something special with her I don't remember) And I said "Yeah, aren't we lucky that God does the same for us." I am a sinner even more than my girls, I know I disobey my heavenly father and yet somehow He still gives me gifts I don't deserve. Above all He gave me His salvation and then He gave me a wonderful husband and then He chose to give me 2 unbelievably precious girls! I have so much to celebrate!

Last weekend

Since this weekend is upon us I thought I would post just a few pictures of last Saturday. I was going to do a slide show, but for some reason my slide shows have now turned sideways and I have no idea why. Saturday we took a trip down to the acquarium with our youth group, although you won't see them in any of the pictures because I don't think they were up to walking slowly around with an inquisitive 3 year old the whole time. :) We had a really nice time though. We went to a park first and had a picnic and then headed into the acquarium for the next 4 hours! I decided I'd post a picture of our sweet Amelia walking around everywhere, although I know a video would be better. Then Isabella and I had a little photoshoot time. She wanted mommy to take some pictures of her and I was happy to oblige. The funny thing though is that my Isabella is absolutely beautiful, and she has a great smile with her big dimples, but when you ask her to smile, she gives you the silliest looks, like she's not quite sure how to do that. Isabella LOVED the aquarium. I believe she has my love for anything wildlife/nature. They had a playground area and we asked her if she wanted to play and she said "No, I want to see more fish!" She really didn't get bored at all and would just look at all of the fish and take it all in. Of course, her favorite was seeing Dori. :) And although I don't have a picture of it because it was way too crowded, she touched a stingray and was very proud of that -- but she also makes sure to say that she didn't touch the shark, even though he kept coming up for her to touch him. I know the pictures in the aquarium are of her back, but she was happy so I definitely wasn't going to constantly ask her to turn around. The only part she didn't like about our trip was the 3D show they had. BIG MISTAKE! Lately, Isabella has gotten more afraid of things, I don't know if its an age thing, but its been more recent for her -- even the child that slid face first down the huge slide has been acting a little afraid of slides lately. Anyway, we go to the show and its a little cartoon and she's excited, she has her little 3D glasses on and at the beginning of the show a fish "jumps" out at you and you get splashed with water. She jumped off of her seat and was screaming "NO, MOMMY! I want to go HOME!" I convinced her to take her glasses off and it was fine for a while until they had something shoot out from under your chair, then a shocking sound, etc. Its kind of hard to explain to a 3 year old that this is all pretend and then trying to explain 3D, definitely not going to happen.

This picture of Amelia is supposed to be her "Diva" face (although I think I caught her in between so she looks a little like a pirate.) We now will look at her and say "Where's my diva?" and she will scrunch her nose and eyes and pucker her lips. Its so cute and we are constantly asking her. Yes, I realize we are training our children to do tricks, like you would a dog, but we get so much enjoyment out of this. :) With Isabella, we would say "Are you cute?" and she would cock her head over to her shoulder and give you this sweet little look. I love all the new little personality they have at this age. Amelia has been into everything lately, which has been slightly frustrating to Isabella, but hilarious to me. For instance, today Amelia was chasing Isabella around the room trying to grab her snack out of her hand, then Isabella went to go potty and Amelia followed her, which was fine, until Amelia stole Isabella's panties and was walking around with them. Then as Isabella was taking a bath today, Amelia threw Isabella's panties in the water - she has a fascination with the panties, lets hope she's a quick potty trainer. :) Actually, she also has a fascination for throwing things in the bath tub when there is water in there, she brought teddy in and threw him in the other day. I might just have been blessed with TWO little mischievious girls.

And my favorite picture of all is this one below. It just makes my heart rejoice when I see them enjoying each others company. I know that they will probably drive each other crazy sometimes, but I just pray that God gives them a special bond.

Where HAVE I Been??

I have really been slacking on my blogging lately. Along with daily life, some sewing projects, trying to enjoy some of the nice weather, the last few weeks have been very busy -- mostly good busy so I thought I would share pictures. Right after Easter, my cousin Trish and her kids came down to visit for the day. Christian and Amelia are birthday twins as so we wanted to get the kids together shortly after their birthday and get some pictures. Here's my two favorites - but I'm hoping Trish got better pictures, because the shadows on this one are bad. : Then there a couple pics of my sweet Amelia, who is just getting more precious.... and active every day. Yes, she is officially walking -- really walking, not just a few steps, she only crawls as a last resort. She's so cute with her little swaggering walk and you can tell she is really proud of herself.



We also celebrated my Dad's 50-10th birthday. :) We spent the afternoon at the park having a picnic and letting the kids play. As you can see, even the big kids had fun -- yes that's my dad, sliding down the twisty slide on his 60th birthday. And here's a couple pics of Isabella and my nephew Garrett -- I had to post the silly one of Garrett because it is so Garrett and it cracks me up. (you might have to click on it to get the full effect of his little bug eyed look) Too funny -- these two are such good buddies!

Then last week my mom and I (along with my girls) took a quick trip up to see family. My aunt has been going through chemotherapy again and I've been wanting to get up there to see her. I figure my girls can always give an extra boost of cheer and sunshine, right? :) It was actually way too quick of a trip, but since her chemo is on Friday - we didn't want to go up during the weekend. And my mom had to get back to work so we had to make it quick. We travelled up Wednesday and came back Thursday afternoon. Here's a cute picture of my girls sleeping together there. But don't let these sweet sleeping girls fool you, most of the night was not like this. As I have mentioned countless times, Amelia LOVES her crib, and isn't so crazy about change, so she wasn't thrilled about being in a strange place in her pack and play. She did ok for her naps, but Wednesday night both of the girls were sleeping when I got to bed, then around 2 am Amelia woke up crying and wouldn't calm down -- which my sweet girl works herself up into a tizzy and gives herself diarrhea. My mom came in and got Isabella, so I could just keep Amelia in bed with me. This is what she was wanting - out of the pack and play with mommy, but she doesn't enjoy it at all. Unlike Isabella who will just quickly go to sleep next to me, Amelia was so fidgety trying to get comfortable. Then around 3am, I hear Isabella crying that she wants her mommy. Which I have to admit makes me feel good. She comes down the hall with my mom saying "I want to cuddle with my mommy" -- so now there are 3 of us in a double bed or at least 2 1/2, because I think half of my body was off the bed. :) For the rest of the night, I pretty much didn't sleep. Amelia would fidget, lay on top of me, sit up, pat my face, lean over and give me kisses (I know, how sweet!) Then Isabella would wake up and say "Cuddle, cuddle" and want me to put my arm around her. Plus, I had started having problems with my sinuses so I was awake with that as well. And all that complaining to actually say, when I got up in the morning and saw my two sweet girls cuddled together next to me, I had to take a picture of them and think how precious it is to have my two girls sleeping next to me (and then hope that it doesn't happen again anytime soon. :) It was nice to visit and see my aunts, uncle, and cousins, especially since my girls hadn't been up there since August --but definitely too quick. And if you think of it, please continue to pray for my aunt, my parents went up again this week so my dad could go to the drs appointment with her and he seemed encouraged by what the dr had to say. I obviously don't know God's ultimate will in her life, but I know that He is faithful and good. I am still praying for His healing because I know He is the only one that can heal and I'm also praying that He will be glorified through all of this!! I know that she is a testimony to so many around her, so I pray that He will continue to strengthen and encourage her.

Can't promise my blogging will be much better --- we don't have a free weekend until June so the next month will be busy as well. Once again, it should all be a good busy so I'm sure at some point I will have lots more pictures to share!

Easter Pics and Meet the Robinsons

Here's some Easter pics of the girls -- the one on my parents couch is the best of them, but not a good background. The ones outside are prettier in the grass, but the shadows are bad and I can't seem to get a good picture of my girls together -- one is cute of Isabella, but not Amelia, the other is cute of Amelia, but not Isabella. I guess that's the way it goes with more than one child in a picture. :)I had planned on taking them somewhere with lots of flowers on Saturday to take pictures, but the weather here was SO cold!! I will definitely be doing this in the future! It looks like it was pretty on Easter, but it was very cold, I had to get little cardigans for my girls because, of course, their dresses were made for spring, not winter weather. Its so interesting taking pictures of kids, We had a nice Easter. We had an Easter egg hunt and we colored eggs on Saturday. On Sunday we had a good service at church. We actually had 13 baptized. When I tell people that they say they think its crazy that we had a baptismal service on Easter, but I thought it was great -- what a great way to celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Easter. Our pastor hadn't really expected it to be so many when he planned this, we had a couple boys saved through Awana a few weeks ago and planned it after that, then we had more saved through Awana, some kids who had gotten saved at camp and wanted to be baptized, 1 teen and 2 adults so by last week the count was up to 13. It was great! Of course I loved dressing my girls up for Easter as well. Its so fun to see them all dressed up in springy colors. I know some people think that buying new dresses (although Amelia's actually was a hand me down from Isabella - poor 2nd child -- her hat was new though :) is too materialistic for a holiday celebrating Christ, but my mom talks about how her dad, my Pap-Pap as we called him, liked for them to dress up on Easter. He said it was a great way to symbolize the ressurection and our salvation --"putting off the old man and putting on the new" -- I like that. I think that will be a great illustration to use for my girls as they get older. Although Isabella still doesn't understand all about the reason for Easter, she was cute when we asked her what Pastor had taught them on Sunday morning. When he had the kids up front before Children's Church, he had some eggs (kind of like the resurrection eggs, but only 3) he had a rock in one for the stone, a piece of cloth in the other (the kids totally didn't get this one) and nothing in the last one. He went through and explained them to the kids and at dinner when we asked Isabella what she learned she said "About a rock, and then nothing was there" She might not understand, but at least she was listening. :) I hope all of you had a great Easter as well!!

Ok - now totally off topic. Has anyone seen the movie "Meet the Robinsons"? Kenny had Friday off and we almost went. We had planned on taking Isabella to the zoo but it was WAY too cold. We ended up not going and from what I'm reading from other adoptive families/groups, I'm glad we didn't. This is the link to what an adoption website says about it and how they are meeting with Disney over this http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/media/20070409_press_disney.php I know my girls aren't old enough to grasp what the storyline is talking about, but I would have been upset if we went. I won't get into all of this, but I thought I would throw this out for anyone who hasn't read the reviews on this and who might be thinking about taking their kids to see it. I'm sure they were trying to make this movie as humorous as possible, and of course it has a happy ending, but I definitely don't want to watch anything that portrays adoption in a negative way. Maybe I'm just totally out of the loop, I probably am, I just had no idea it was about adoption at all. If anyone who has adopted has seen this, I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Birthday Pics and More

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I promised birthday pics, so although her birthday party was a week ago, here they are. I posted a couple of her so you wouldn't have to wait to look through the slide show. Since her actual birthday is the first day of spring, we had a "springy" party, although I didn't include pictures of the decorations, we had butterflies, flowers, bright springy colors, a butterfly cake and I served "caterpillars" on a stick, buggy mac and cheese, and cheesy "cocoons" (see if you can figure all of those out.) Amelia loved eating her birthday cake, much more than Isabella did her first birthday. She jumped right in! She was so cute and of course the slide show is mostly of pictures of her eating her cake. :) She got lots of cute presents, but wasn't extremely interested in opening them, except she loved the stuffed lamb Noni and Papa gave her. All together, I think she had fun and of course the other kids had a great time playing together, I think Amelia is ready to be up and running around with them.

All of last week was really busy. We had the party, 2 nights of special services at church, Thursday night Kenny's sister and family were in from Michigan so they came over to visit, Friday night, Kenny had an all nighter with the teens (for which the girls and I stayed late, but not all night!) then Saturday we went shopping with Noni while Daddy slept and then we were given tickets to the circus, so we went Saturday night. AND let me tell you, THANK GOD the tickets were free, because I can't believe what a money maker a circus is. If you're wondering why one of us isn't riding the elephant with Isabella, it's because we weren't "monetarily" prepared for the circus. We hadn't thought about breaking the bank and bringing a ton of cash with us. They had the slide, the elephant rides, a polaroid picture with a tiger in a box ($10, no thanks!), some jumping thing, the toys, the food, etc. etc. We weren't total grinches, she just had to pick wisely what she wanted. :) She loved riding the elephant and she also got to slide down the big slide. As you can see, she's our little daredevil, going down head first. I think she had fun, although I have learned that I am not a big circus fan. Maybe it was just this particular circus, I don't know. I liked some of it, but not my favorite thing to do

And the BIG news of the week: Thursday night, Amelia decided to take her first few steps!!! Out of the blue, we were all sitting around talking, she stood up next to Daddy and was standing there for a while (which that's nothing new) and then all of a sudden she took one.... two....three steps. We, of course, grabbed the video camera and she refused to do it for the camera. I think Kenny might have gotten her to take a step for the camera, but once she sees the camera she is more interested in getting over to the camera than trying to do anything else. So, I guess I don't have long until she will be completely mobile!! I think it will be so cute when she starts walking, but I definitely don't push it or worry about it because I know that will just prove that she really isn't a baby anymore. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. She'll go from being my baby to being my big girl that rides elephants by herself, slides down the big slide head first, ...... and I know that happened WAY too quick with Isabella.