It won't be long

First trip to the dentist

Faith in true form

I've been trying to make it a habit to pray with Eden. It's so precious to hear her talk to God, and it's rare that I don't cry when I hear her little voice doing so.

Yesterday, this was Eden's prayer: "Dear Jesus, Thank you for giving us a showing. Thank you for our swing set." I sobbed. Seriously. When Eden looked up at me she asked me if those were happy tears, and I tried my best to explain to her just how happy my tears were.

As soon as we got up, I wrote down her prayer on a little piece of paper and put in on the fridge. It's been the only thing on the front of our fridge since, and I love reading it.

We're trying so hard to sell our condo. We hope. We pray. We lower our price. Hope and pray some more. Clean out clutter and repeat the cycle over and over. It's been over a year and a half, and we've kept our hearts content. Over the weekend though, Mike and I both felt a heaviness, kinda like the hope-part of our hearts' was really wearing thin.

And then I heard Eden pray this prayer. It reminded me of the verse in Hebrews "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen." Wow. She nailed it.

Though we haven't gotten any calls for any showings, I do have faith and I'm thinking my daughter's words "thank you for giving us a showing."

Happy Birthday Love!

Michael, I'm a few days late in posting your birthday happenings. What's new, right? Me and the kids loved seeing you at work. We worked so hard to get out the door with no food on our face or in our hair and our teeth brushed.

 I love seeing you at work. Every time we come down and see you, I feel so thankful for you. You have a work ethic unlike I've ever seen, and I really want to thank you for that. You are the reason that I get to stay home with our babies and my heart is so full at that thought.

 I really wanted to do something huge for you. I don't know what, maybe I'll figure it out by your next birthday. I love birthday's and I think it's such a cool chance to show someone how special they are. In your case, how special you are and how much crazy love I have for you. Your comment at my shredded bed sheet made me laugh, but I think it turned out to be a cute party decoration and hopefully you'll look back and feel the same.

 I think the highlight of Eden's day was your cake. I let her pick it out as our air has been running nonstop and I didn't know if I could bake a cake with Micah climbing my leg. Again, another plan for me to accomplish next year. It was good though, too bad Eden ate all the "dots" huh?

 Right before you came in the door, I had all these blow thingy's all over the table. I had just looked out the window and saw your car and yelled really giddy-like "DADDY's HOME!" and then realized that I drove your car that day. Bummer. So the kids were really bummed as was I. We made a group decision to go out on the deck and wait and watch for you. Eden took the blow thingy's out on the deck and dropped  one over. It was so crazy the crying that ensued. You came home about 5 minutes later.

But once you were home, we were all happy again. Truly. Seeing you walk through the door made my heart skip a beat. I love making you feel special and want to make a more conscious effort to do that every day. 

 I think my favorite part of the day was after we put the kids to bed. We sat on the couch and talked and talked. We talked about little things, like the meal that you had for your birthday last year. We talked about some big things, like how we spent your birthday seven years ago--in Europe as friends. It's crazy. This beautiful life that God has given to us. So glad that birthday seven years ago took place--we never in a million years thought we'd be where we are now.

I love you Michael, Happy Birthday!

She made my day.

Both kids are napping right now, and Mike is at the pool. I'm relishing the silence but my mind keeps replaying my morning in delight.

I got up at 4. Micah is sick and had a crazy fever, so meds were in order and some magic milk:) He went back to sleep around 5:15. I decided that I probably wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, but was surprised when I heard my little girl singing from her crib. I kept thinking, "It's too early" or "maybe she'll fall back asleep". 

But then I realized something: if I got her, I could have alone time with her. 

It rarely happens these days, and when it does happen I treasure it so deeply.

I got her out of her crib, and she was delighted to see me.

We've had a rough couple of days around here. Let's just say that life with a two year old isn't always cute drawings and hilarious sayings.

We played while I drank my coffee and simultaneously I was awed at her. We were having conversations, but in my head I was carrying on conversations with myself.

Things like 'She is soooo beautiful' and 'Look how tall she got overnight'. Things like that over and over and over.

Being the daddy's girl that she is, I asked her if she wanted to wake daddy up. Her response shocked me  and made my day all at the same time.

"I like playing with just you Mommy."

I cried.

I know, I know, but it's rare to hear something like that from your child. At least that's my experience. It's rare, but so beautiful especially at five thirty in the morning.

Treasures

Mike and I always joke that Eden will one day be a hoarder. She has some big attachment issues to little things. For example:

These are the things that she's been carrying around with her everywhere. Not just out and about, but to bed. Micah knows how to jerk her chain and the instant she has her little hands off of her treasures, he makes a mad crawl to go and grab it. Eden wins though. Always.

So, she got the maroon little book on the left from my mother in law. It's actually a little book of recipes and she often sits in a chair and she'll be reading it to her baby at any given time of the day. The Hello Kitty phone book is something we got at a party shop in Madison. Fifty nine cents. It was such a good thing though. She clutched that little notebook all day, no running off, just holding her notebook.

The green phone book on the right is from her cousins' birthday party and the newest member to the collection. And lastly, the lip gloss. I don't know what we'll do if we ever lose that thing. The funny part is that it actually doesn't work. My mom bought it for her and opened it and tested it and saw it didn't work. She was about to return it, but as best as a person can with mouthing words, I begged her to let Eden keep it. It makes my life simple that way and she's still happy with her "lick stick".

She's quite organized too. This is how she carried it all around from point A to B. It's silly, but it also teaches me a big lesson. Materialism. I struggle with it often and I definitely don't want to be a slave to things. Eden is not a slave to things, but she treasures what she has. The things that she treasures aren't of value (to anyone but her) but are like her little memories that she loves to carry around with her. My family is more than enough, and again, she's teaching me.

Smiles

While we were playing today, I asked Eden to give me the biggest smile she could.

This is what she gave me!

 When we were finishing up dinner, I asked Micah the same, to give me the biggest smile he could.

This is what he came up with!

I believe I'm blessed beyond words.