The Love of a Daughter

These are my favorite pictures. And I thought I would repost them after I had photoshopped them a bit.

A Typical Sunday Afternoon

I don't think our family really has a "typical" anything, especially time. Usually Sundays we're visiting Grandparents, or doing something, or doing chores....or.... Goodness, "typical" is a word that doesn't really relate to our family.

However, if we had a "typical" this is what I'd want it to look like.

Grace and Justice love to read their books. Justice spent at least 1/2 hour reading Where's Spot? while sitting on this little table and chairs. He played, looked at the pages, and even tried to "read" the book!

But if that wasn't enough, Justice and Grace, LOVE to be read to. They always seem to be coming towards me with a book. Justice might not sit through the whole thing, but he does enjoy them.

You'll notice he's wearing shoes in this picture. Grace put on her shoes, and Brian said Justice INSISTED that he wore some shoes too. He wasn't happy until Brian strapped them on his feet. 

It was a lazy afternoon. We all were able to take naps, eat BBQ Chicken and Black Bean pizza accompanied with Vanilla Milkshakes... We played and read. We finally got a digital converter box for our TV so that we can receive digital channels over the air... but from our 3 stations, we much preferred it to stay off.

It was a great afternoon, even if I was sick, Brian was dead tired, and the kids were crazy! But, it was family time. 

10 Weeks Today

Awesome: inspiring great admiration 

It is so exciting to be pregnant. 

Again.

2 weeks ago Brian and I went to the first doctor's appointment. We got to see our little one via ultrasound. The features are not defined... but it simply AMAZES me how beautiful an 8 week old baby is. 

At barely an inch, this baby has grown to have moving arm and leg buds. There was a very strong heart beat. And then we got good look at the baby's spinal cord.

Spinal Cord. It was phenomenal. It was a tiny curved white line on the screen, but it was beautiful and AWESOME.  How far our little one has come, by the first appointment! I am sure there are plenty of people reading this thinking, "okay, she's gone off the deep end..." or "um, I don't get it." But neither do I! The blessedness and amazing thing of seeing our child on a screen, seeing a creation in the making, knowing that my body is providing a safe environment while the Father knits him or her together through no effort of my own.......

It can be none other that mystifying... incomprehensible... 

Awesome.

Our doctor gave us a roll of pictures. And two special ones for Grace and Justice so that they would also have a picture of their sibling.

The Story of the Dinosaurs

I have told this story to numerous others. It's one of the joys of having children... to see how they play and grow, even apart from parental influence!

The Story of the Dinosaurs

according to Grace

We have a puzzle. A dinosaur puzzle.

 The pieces are each a different dinosaur, brightly colored, and I must say...VERY FUN. Not only can you play with the puzzle, the dinosaurs are REAL and stand and do whatever you want them to do.

Grace, being 2, is very imaginative. And lately, we just celebrated at least 4 birthdays. She's had her share of singing, presents, and cake for birthday's sake.

So, playing out real life, I caught her playing...Birthday!

She had her dinosaurs around a "table" with a Little People's apple coin in the center as a birthday cake.

"Momma, sing me!....Happy Birthday to you......" And I sang with her the "Happy Birthday" song. This picture is of her clapping after the song. It was adorable.

The Story of the Dinosaurs

according to Justice

Justice's imagination is blossoming, even for 1 year old. I think he tries to keep up with Grace and watches how she plays and imitates play imagination play (yeah, try to figure that sentence out).

He is mischievous. Not naughty. In fact, he listens quite well. He just likes to push his limits, and he loves to tease his sister. His lips curl up into a devilish smile as he sees her unprotected blanket. He will pounce and walk away... the whole time giggling and looking at her for a reaction.

Anyway, it is HIS dinosaur puzzle after all. So, once in a while, when he actually gets to play with the pieces, he has a lot of fun.

"Justice, what does a dinosaur say?"

"GGGGGRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrAAaar!"

Anyway, he grabs one of the dinosaurs... "Grraar!" The dinosaur is looking for something....

Justice picks up a zebra puzzle piece from another puzzle. The hungry dinosaur promptly "gggrrraar"s and devours the zebra! Then Justice throws the pieces across the room. And he smiles at me.

The End