Friday's Walk

 There is a field near Kyle's work.  He showed me where these purple flowers were.  I never would have noticed them if I was driving.  I'm so glad we were walking and got to enjoy their beauty.

 Can you find the spider?

Eliana was busy trying to find the puff cereal in her hand.

9 Months Old!!!

Last Friday, Eliana turned nine months old!  I fully intended to post these pictures on Friday.  However, my wee one decided to take a 30 minute nap rather than a nice hour or even two hour afternoon nap.  We rescued the rest of the day from being overly cranky by bringing Kyle some strawberries at work and walking around his work until he got off.  We then headed over to another area to eat some delicious Mexican food and do some more walking around some shops.

Eliana now weighs 17 and 1/2 pounds!

  

She is a little less than 27 inches long.

We found out that this runny nose and congestion she has been fighting on and off since February is allergies.

She doesn't always enjoy taking pictures right before nap time.

She still has just two teeth.  You often can't see them when she is smiling.

Other details about our bouncing bundle of joy:

* down to two naps

* takes at least one if not both naps in the crib

* enjoys playing with everyone at BSF on Wednesdays

* LOVES being outside

* has a hard time sleeping at night due to congestion

* gets SO excited when her dad comes home

* loves getting all of the attentions from Rachel, Ruli, and Bryce

* tried black beans and zucchini recently

* will get to try watermelon and cantaloupe soon!!!

* loves to stand

* can scoot around while sitting

* is very close to crawling

* LOVES to stand

* is growing out of the phase where she smiles and giggles at every funny face, and that makes me sad.  Although in part, it might be due to all of the allergies.

A Gift

Did you know that I was in choir as a child?  I even had solos and parts in plays!  I find that rather humorous since I can be such a shy person at times. During one summer we put on a play after just one week of intense preparation.  My team wore purple shirts and we sang about being purple people eaters... something that at the time didn't make any sense to me at all.  At the end of the performance, the pastor stood up to pray with all of us kids still on stage.  He had us cup our hands and think about a gift we could give God.  I didn't have a job or much money.  In fact, I don't remember money even coming to mind.  It is possible the pastor lead us to think outside of financially how we could bless God. I thought for awhile and wondered what I was good at that would be a blessing to God.  That day, as a young child, I handed over art.  I loved art and thought I was good at making art.

It has taken me many years to figure out how to give this gift to God.  An idea started back in August when I was desperate to go back to work, and yet completely unwilling to leave Eliana in someone else's care.  In the middle of the night, during one of Eliana's many feedings, I prayed about how to serve God while staying home.  I craved teaching, yet I had no idea how I could possibly teach full time as a new mom.  I initially thought it would be really cool to create an art club.  I had played with the idea during the five years I taught, but I really didn't know when I could find the time or energy to add one more lesson to my week.  As I prayed, a thought hit me.  Giving kids the opportunity to create art is fabulous, but in the grand scheme of eternity is it enough?  I started Bible studies when I was in high school, college, and beyond, but never with kids.  Was there a way to tie the Bible and art?  God gave me the seeds for my first art and Bible lesson.  And then came a long winter, literally.  I had talked with my former superintendent about the idea back in September, but the ball really didn't get rolling.  I had prayed, and prayed, and prayed that this club would take off if it was God's plan and in His timing.  I sent emails once a week for a month to keep the ball rolling, and decided that God needed to move for the club to start.  Over the months of not hearing back I tried to be okay with God's timing not being mine.  Let's just say that I was unsuccessful at times in being okay with His timing not matching mine.

At the beginning of this month I got a call from my superintendent.  Among other things, he wanted to discuss the Bible and Art Club.  I was blown away.  It had been six months with not even a single word about the club.  Not only could the ball get rolling again, but the club could start this year.

Today Eliana and I paid a visit to my school.  Eliana visited with teachers while I showed students some sample art work and talked to the 4th-8th graders during lunch about a Bible and Art Club that I'll be starting next Wednesday.  I had been given 30 permission slips to pass out.  After the 6th-8th grade lunch, I didn't have any left and had to go make copies for the 4th-5th graders.  I passed out another 30 and went back to make 20 more copies.  Nearly ever copy was gone by the end of lunch.  Now, do I really expect nearly 80 kids to come?  Um... no.  I know that some were simply excited about seeing the art, others will be in tutoring, and sadly there will be students that find their parents don't want them in the club.  I'm hoping and praying for 20 students.

What do you see?

A name?

An insect?

Both???

What do you see?

A name?

Faces?

Both???

This piece is still in progress.  Kyle gave me the idea to show the students work in progress so that they don't just see a finished product and think they can't do that.  Actually, I showed them the first piece today and won't show it to them again until after they get their own ideas going for their own piece.  

Now do you see my wee one's name?  Go back up and see if you can find the butterfly.

Now do you see Daniel's Babylonian name from Daniel 1?  Daniel 1 is were our first lesson will be.          Click here to read Daniel 1.  Go back up and see if you see the totem pole looking faces.

  

Roadside Beauties

Eliana and I brought a meal to some friends who live about 30 minutes away.  In between our homes is some gorgeous country side.  On the way home we stopped off to capture some of God's stunning work.

Eliana is a roadside beauty too!  She has to have one of us by her when she sits on the toy graciously given to us this past Sunday.  Kyle and Eliana got a kick out of each other as he moved her around and made car noises.

I introduced this toy to Eliana this past Monday morning.  After her nap, I brought her back into the livingroom.  She got so excited to see this toy again!

I know St. Patrick's Day was yesterday and that I already posted a bunch of her in this cute outfit, but I decided I really like this shot too and had to share it!

Standing, A Few Seconds at a Time

Eliana's favorite activity is to stand.  She LOVES to stand and is quite proud of herself.  We got a kick out of her motor boat sounds and saying, "Da da da!"

She enjoys chewing on her books.

Smiling for the camera is something she has grown to be very good at.

OH and reading, she loves to read!!!  Or maybe it is just looking at the pictures;)

Happy St. Patrick's Day & Happy Birthday Mom!

When kids are little they know holidays are coming, but they don't know exactly when.  Or that is how I remember it.  Relatives birthday are even harder because the stores aren't decorated to tell you that a birthday is coming.  One of the first holidays I learned was St. Patrick's Day, because it is my mom's birthday.  Happy Birthday Mom!

 Eliana is getting so close to crawling.  It made this photo shoot quite hard.  She was on our bed and trying to get to me.  I happened to be next to the bed. Thus the problem was that she kept quickly scooting to the edge of the bed.  It is hard to take pictures and keep a quick baby on the bed!  Yikes!

 She has quick fingers too!  She kept swiping at the camera and me determined to win!

 This photo shoot happened to be right before nap time.  She became calm and enjoyed looking out the window for a few moments.

This is such a rare pose for Eliana.  She is so often up and ready to explore.

She didn't fall asleep during these photos, but I did lay her down right after changing her into something a little warmer.  The dress is super cute, but not quite what is needed for a little girl who has a runny nose that keeps coming and going for nearly two weeks now.

A Spring Walk

I know that it is technically still winter for a few more days, but I see spring everywhere!

 Kyle was sick Friday through Sunday.  He slept probably close to 20 hours of the first two days.  So, Eliana and I ventured outside while he napped.  Thankfully, he is feeling much better!  This was picture was taken at a bit of a distance.  I was hoping to find more of these flowers up close.  They are probably my favorite spring bloom.

I had never seen these before. I was started by them when I looked up close.  I'm guessing they'll bloom some more soon, but they are pretty neat in this form too.

Humming birds can be very hard to spot, but I found this one way up in a tree!

I was totally bummed by my walk, because I didn't find the flowers I was looking for from my first picture.  I took another way on my drive home, and ta-da I found a whole grove of them!!!

Fuzzy Flowers

I love that the weather was nice on Monday and Tuesday.  Eliana and I went on walks during the day and the Kyle joined us for evening walks!  

These flowers remind me of seahorses.  Does anyone else see them???

These are the same flowers but from a slightly different angle.  Pretty cool eh?  It is amazing what bending the knees can get you when it comes to photography.

Do you see the fuzz on these flowers?  I'm amazed at God's details in the small things.