10 Months!

Here are 10 things I want to remember about this precious 10 month old.

1. Your pure, baby-face sweetness that I think this picture captures so well.

2. All of your rolls in your arms and legs. I love that the weather is warm enough to wear shorts and show off your chubby legs.
3. It is nice that at this age, you are starting to feed yourself more. You LOVE avocados just like mommy.
4. You are definitely an adventurous explorer. I love to watch you figure out how you can get over/under/around/through obstacles. If you take a tumble, you usually hardly blink and just get up to try again.5. You have found your voice and constantly remind us of it! Here you are screaming in this picture. This voice can mainly be heard when your sister is harassing loving on you too much.
6. You have the cutest expressions these days. Like this one:
This is your guilty look. Whenever you are getting into something you shouldn't and I say "no, no, no", you put your finger in your mouth.
7. You get such a big smile on your face when daddy comes into the room. I've noticed that you do little things to make sure you get his attention.
8. It is sweet to watch you and Anna's relationship develop. You love to be where she is and doing what she is doing.
You definitely want to grow up faster than I want you to!
9. While I loved the tiny baby phase of carrying you around in the Beco all the time, it is fun now that you are big enough to ride in things like the wagon and the grocery cart. 10. You have started to like to cuddle on me when you are tired and be rocked to sleep. I love that if you are ever upset, almost the minute I hold you in my arms, you stop crying.

All Sons and Daughters

I just wanted to share about a group that I just discovered and haven't been able to stop listening to. I even purchased their music on iTunes which I rarely do! I'm sure many of you have heard about them already, but if you haven't, you must take a moment to listen.

All Sons and Daughters are a music duo out of Nashville where all my other favorite folksy singer/songwriters live. Their music could be described as The Civil Wars meets praise and worship. Their songs are instrumentally simple and lyrically beautiful which creates an intimate listening experience. My favorite song is Oh Our Lord off the Reason to Sing album.

The Church

The family was ordained of God that children might be trained up for himself; it was before the church, or rather the first form of the church on earth. Pope Leo XIII

Yesterday, as I was rushing to leave the house with the girls, Anna was whining and not getting ready to go. I was frustrated and snapped at her. She looked at me then bowed her head and prayed "Dear God, Thank you for mommy to be happy and not to scream at me". I immediately stopped in my hurried tracks. My heart and mood softened in an instant. While I hadn't exactly screamed at her, I had raised my voice and spoken in an unnecessarily harsh tone. I had hurt her little heart and she knew I needed prayer in that moment. I hugged her, thanked her, apologized to her and let her know that God heard her prayer because I was so happy now! Later, when we were in the car she said "Mommy, you are much better happy!". :)

The exchange was both a parenting low and high for me. The low - I was deeply convicted about my attitude and treatment of my sweet child. I'm sure the next time I begin to feel tense and upset with Anna, I will remember her prayer. The high - I was so encouraged by her response. I thought to myself that through the time I am investing in being with her, she really is learning from me and I have a role in shaping her heart to depend on God.

Earlier in the week I attended a women's fellowship time at my church and the lady who spoke is a mom of five children. One of the things she said that left an impression on me was that they were "a little church together". What a picture of a mom and her kids going about their daily routine of running errands, eating meals, doing chores, playing, and reading books - together - as a little church. Loving one another, encouraging one another, praying for one another. Later in the week, I started reading a biography of Rich Mullins and read the quote at the beginning of the post. I reflected on my incident with Anna and how she prayed for her mama...in that moment we were the Church.

Thank you God for the ways you speak and for revealing how you desire for our little family to be the Church.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

This is a picture of me when I was 9 months old.

I did my best to recreate the picture with Haven at 9 months, and I think I got pretty close.

I love it when people say she looks like me. It is a little early to tell, but her personality seems to be similar to mine as well.

The other day I was snapping close-ups of her sweet face and after I took this one, I opened the camera to view the image.
Tears immediately welled up in my eyes.
Just seeing that little smiling face and everything it represents...life, innocence, hope, sweetness, pure JOY, a sister, a daughter - my daughter - His daughter, a little soul.
I was just overwhelmed with emotion for her.

Then I quickly snapped this picture of the two of us. My eyes were still wet from the tears.

I'm thankful for this blog that helps me to remember precious moments like this one.

9 Months!

This little girl is only 9 months but she looks and acts so much bigger!

At her 9 month checkup she weighed 24 pounds and was 29.5 inches, so she is still topping the charts.

She is into everything these days...

and so proud of herself. She is quick, too. Clearing this bookshelf took maybe a minute. One of her favorite places to play in is the bathroom. The other day I heard water splashing and went to find where it was coming from. She was reaching into the toilet and had water everywhere! Anna never would have thought to do such a thing. :)

As you can tell from most of these pictures, she doesn't like to sit for very long and prefers to stand most of the time.

She started walking with the stroller, too.

She likes to let go and stand by herself and we have fun cheering her on (can you tell by the expression on my face?).

It is funny because when we make a big deal of Haven's new developments, Anna is quick to let us know she can do those things too and wants us to watch her do it. Anna will stand with her arms out like Haven, wobble around and fall to the ground. Such a first born. :)

Although we've only had this "sweetie girl" (as Anna calls her) with us for 9 short months, I can hardly remember what our family was like without her. She has been the perfect addition.

Cowtown Half

Run half-marathon after second baby...check.

I trained with my friend Mindy. She is a personal trainer and without her persistence and encouragement, I'm not sure I would have gone through with it.

The first mile or so we got to run behind Elvis and a cow!
One thing I love about these races is getting to run through parts of town that you can usually only drive through. I thought it sounded fun to run through the Stockyards. Until I got there halfway through the race. It smelled like, well...the stockyards.This is the best picture Brad could get of me as he was trying to take a picture, hold Haven, and keep Anna from joining the race.

I was so happy to see them at the end. Knowing I would see them soon got me through the last 2 miles. I think it would be fun to do races like this with them one day.

Ballet Magnificat!

This weekend I took Anna to her first ballet and Gigi came too. One of the special privileges of having a little girl. I was not a dancer when I was little. I took ballet/tap for one year, got through the recital and said never again. BUT, what girl doesn't love to watch ballet. It will be interesting to see what the girls' passions are and if it is dance, I will support it. It's even in writing now so I guess I have to be held to that statement. :)

We watched a few ballet youtube videos a few days before we went, so Anna was practicing some dance moves before we left.

Ballet Magnificat is a ballet company "committed to presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ through dance" and let me just say, it was beautiful so see God worshiped in that way. Anna sat quietly through the entire two hours, taking it all in and loving every second of it.

Such a sweet mother, daughter memory that I am so thankful for and never want to take for granted.