Happy Birthday

My life changed forever 3 years ago.

I was given the miraculous gift of being a Mother.

I was entrusted with being a parent to this little girl.

Although, "little" does not describe anything other than her stature.

Her remarkable spirit, has always been bigger than her limited body.

Her gratefulness for things, expressed through sweet her demeanor, giant hugs and ear to ear grins, make you feel like one proud Mom and sometimes, even a perfect Mom.

Her belly laughs, silly jokes, dancing, and singing still stop me in my tracks. I am her biggest fan. She captivates me.

She is a better sister than I prayed for her to be.

She includes only a select few people in her prayers every night. Charlee is generally always the first to be prayed for.

She gives me something new to think about daily, even when sometimes I don't particularly feel like learning that day. I am most thankful for those "pop quiz" lessons. It makes me a better Mom. I become a better person. Many times I have failed, and pray for a new day to bring a "do-over" so I can have another chance to get it right and do better. Admiringly, she is also a very forgiving person.

She is, beyond argument, beautifully gifted in every.single.way

And she is only 3.

My sweet little Emme blesses us all more than words can say. I feel so deeply honored that God has entrusted our family with a child as exceptional as her.

I love you, Emmelyn Deborah. With all of me. I do.

Mommy

Memory preservation

I would never forgive myself if I didn't write this down.


Let me start off with some history:

Emme has wowed me with how wonderfully she has taken on the "Big Sister" role.
She is a natural and is always looking for ways to help Mama with her Sissy.

Then there is Charlee.
What an exceptional little baby.
She is SUCH a joy to have in this family.
She happily "goes with the flow" and is so content.
On crazy days, where it seems everything is happening at once, she doesn't mind just relaxing and chilling in the bouncer watching Mama run around like crazy. I guess it may be entertaining to her, who knows : ) Sometimes she hasn't been held longer than I would like, but she seems not to mind. Which absolutely blows me away.

Although, there is something that she does not like. Driving in the car at night.
If she is wide awake, she usually is pretty fussy on that drive. And the only cure is pulling into the garage. But there is another way.

Emme will use her sweet little voice and sing to her. I get such pleasure singing to my babies. It is something that is so special to me. So to have my oldest know the importance and the power of song, does my heart good.

Emme's favorite song to sing is " I am a child of God".
It is the sweetest thing to hear her try to console Charlee while she is being fussy in her car seat.


And I thought that was the sweetest thing she has done.

So something happened the other afternoon.
Something that I never ever ever ever want to forget.
Times when they are fighting and bickering, I will bring this story up to try and show them the sister love they "once" had.

I had just put Emme down for her afternoon nap.
About half and hour into her snoozing away, I attempted to rock Charlee to sleep.
She wasn't having it and started to be fussy.
Fussy turned into some pretty heavy crying.

Just at that moment of consoling the crying, I heard the most beautiful thing ever.
Emme started to sing "I am a child of God" from in her room.
She sang 2 verses and in that time, we were able to get Charlee to stop and fall asleep.
Emme finished her beautiful song, then it was silent.
She went back to sleep for the rest of the 2 hours.

Something about that touched me to the core.
It was the purest act of concern I have ever witnessed Emme do.

She woke up, sang to her Sister from in her room, then went back to sleep after the crying stopped.

What a sweet spirit she has.
What an awesome child I was given.

Merry Christmas, Liz!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my very thoughtful, VERY sneaky, VERY loving Husband???

AND he gets extra brownies for letting me open it early ; )



Oh, and the "Suri" feature? Amazingly. ridiculous.

Florida Family Vacation

I bet some of you are wondering what's been up??

To sum it up-
I've been making some pretty amazing memories with my family.

We just got back from a week long trip to Orlando where in it, we spent 4 days at Disney World, a day at Sea World, all while staying at the most beautiful timeshare my WONDERFUL in-laws so generously let us use. We have told them time and again, we wouldn't have been able to fully enjoy and let loose on that trip if we didn't have such a HUGE expense waived. For that we are blessed. For that I am so grateful for Parents like Eric's. I hope they understand that loud and clear.

Let me start by saying that I have a full. blown. family now. This is more than likely it for us. So, it was nice to see how we work as a new family of four. What better way to test that than by going to Disney, right?!
We had plenty of opportunities throughout to do just that. We were determined to not let one.thing. keep us from having the time of our lives. With that attitude, we avoided all unnecessary bickering and just had a freggin blast. We discovered a new found respect for one another and for our girls. We found confidence needed to run a family of four. Yes, Sir! We rocked.

Although.
Although, I did forget to mention the tram.
The Tram gets you from the parking lot to the front gates of Disney. That was an experience. Getting on and off the ONLY thing NOT family friendly in the entire trip was CRUEL! Unloading and folding 2 strollers and loading 2 kids and yourself while trying to hold all the belongings you need that day (camera case, 2 backpacks, sweaters, baby carrier, and Minnie Mouse ears) all in about a minute was...difficult. After the first couple times we got the grove of it and after the 4th or 5th time though, we OWNED it : )
In the end though, we all worked together as a Kick-A team. We each played pretty important parts. Yes, even the girls. Em's job was to try not to get hit by parking lot traffic while mom and dad loaded up the tram. And Charlee's was to keep being her happy, perfect, content self. If you added a crying cranky baby to that already crazy stressful mix, I think that could have been the deal breaker for me.
But again, we rocked.

So now we made it to the park. Everyone and everything is loaded back up and ready for our first day of fun at Magic Kingdom! And FUN it was. Emmers wore a per-ma-grin all day. She quickly learned that Fantasyland was toddler Heaven and the rides it held were squeal worthy each and every time. She had a hard time at first about the waiting her turn in line thing, but what kid wouldn't?? Lots of snacks and Daddy tickles saved that from turning disastrous.

We bought a 4 day park hopper pass and we chose to only go to 2 of the 4 parks. Magic Kingdom was the main stay. We also checked out Hollywood Studios for a day and saw some cute Disney shows where Emme was able to meet her hero, Jake from "Jake and the Never Land Pirates".

Emme was able to ride on a lot of rides.
The Carousel was her favorite. We rode that 3 times
Small world 2 times
Snow White and the Scary Adventures 3 times
Peter Pan's Flight 3 times
Autopia 2 times
Tomorrowland's Rockets once with just Daddy
Dumbo 2 times
Tea Cups 2 times
Pirates of the Carribean 3 times (loved it, too)
Haunted Mansion (she did well. surprised us that she wasn't scared)
Jungle Book Cruise
Aladin's magic carpet ride
Tiki room
Swiss family tree house

We watched 4 different parades and 3 shows.
Best part is, Charlee was able to go along on most of those rides, too!

We have heard that the best time to go to Disney was the period of time after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. We did just that. It was magical!

To say I love this time of year, is the understatement of the year.
It has brought such happiness to my life ever since I was a child. Now that I have children of my own, it makes it even that much more exciting!

The parks were decorated SO beautifully and Sleeping Beauty's Castle was absolutely breathtaking when it was lite at night.

Enough talking. Here is the proof:


Orlando's Marriott Grande Vista



At the end of a long day of walking, this spa tub was enjoyed by all the family :)


Found a yummy Hibachi restaurant nearby

Thanks to "Salute to the troops" program Sea World offered, we spent a day free of charge!
The weather called for rain later in the day, so we enjoyed playing until mid afternoon with practically NO ONE in the park. It was wonderful!!


Everything looks better with Christmas decorations

They had an area in the park dedicated to kids Emme's age. It had about 6 rides and a huge play area. Em's was able to ride all the rides AND her FIRST roller coaster! You can't even see her in the seat next to Daddy :)

What an amazing creature

I really can't say enough about how good Charlee did the ENTIRE trip. She is such a blessing.



Disney's Hollywood Studio's

: )


Honey I shrunk the kids play area. It was really cool.


*Magic Kingdom*



Eating at a buffet where we had a meet and greet with Winnie the Pooh and friends! Tigger was an absolute crack up! He was so entertaining to watch him interact with people. The buffet was DELICIOUS too! It had the most amazing Salmon I've ever tasted! Yummo!




Em's second favorite was the Tea Cups



Mama's all time favorite




The Gang!


Hot Coco and Fireworks


This photo had absolutely NO editing done (except the writing I put at the top). The picture still doesn't do it justice.

I am SO grateful for this special trip.
I am grateful for establishments that take care and support their Military and making it possible for families to afford such a nice vacation.
I am grateful for 2 easy going, happy Children who slept the whole way home and by doing so cut our travel time home by 3 hours.
I am MOST grateful to my Husband, who insisted we took this trip. Who insisted that I got a spa day while on vacation. Who insisted we buy keepsakes we can have to remember forever.
Even if all of it made a pretty good dent in the wallet.
I appreciate that more than he knows.

I appreciate my family and the memories we get to make together.