Day: January 31, 2013

Letter to Bella (Sissy)- 3 Years
My precious darling baby girl, you are THREE. Not so much a baby anymore, but to me you will always be my baby girl. You amaze us with something new every day. Numerous times you have made mine and daddy’s mouth drop from something you have said or a word that you have used. You are a very intelligent girl that has the greatest sense of humor with the most contagious laugh. We love you so much! Watching you this year has been not only exciting but also heartwarming. You have gained a baby brother and you have showed him nothing but love. He is crazy about his sissy and you love him right back. You have been the most amazing mama’s little helper and your curiosity keeps growing more and more. You want to learn how to cook, how to tell time, how to read and write and to color the right way. The consistency is a bit lacking but you sure are eager to learn. You love asking “why”? and not just a word “why” but you always make sure to put it in a huge sentence and demand an answer. You have showed your mommy that she has amazing patience that even she did not know she had. I love teaching you new thigns and telling you new stories. I absolutely love reading to you and your excitement about every story I read to you. I treasure our moments with projects which you love dearly and give your fullest effort in every activity I give you. You have began to enjoy toys more, you have always loved puzzles and books, but now you actually like toys. The dolls are not your forte just yet, but you seem to warm up more and more towards playing with them. You have acquired a friend that you do not like to part with no matter where we are going. Whether it’s a super quick trip to the store or for a long road trip, you always make sure that he is right by your side. You call him “Misha” who is your “brown bear”. Your relationship with “Misha” started off when you found him wearing a bow and you gave him a name of a “present bear” . Since then you two have become best buddies and you make sure to include him in every little thing you do. Your very favorite activity is probably dancing with him. You love to dance and you are so great at it. Mama will sign you up for dancing classes again. I truly believe you will keep enjoying it. I loved taking you to the Nutcracker and watch your little eyes light up when you saw your first real ballerina. You told your nana and mama that you will dance on stage like that one day and I can not wait to see you dance up there. You are gentle, girly, strong spirited, you love bows, dresses, puzzles, lolly pops, your plasma car, you love outdoors, you love to trace, color, build towers, play with balls, you love to run, take walks, go on trips and so much more. You have been sleeping in your big girl bed for over a year now and just recently you asked to take your bumpers out. Your daddy and I almost cried, because that was just another great reminder that you are growing up. Sweet baby girl, your daddy and I truly believe that you will go far in life as long as you keep God in your heart at all time. You love God dearly and talk about Jesus quite frequently. It makes our hearts happy 🙂 We love you very much and are very excited for the years to come. Kisses sweet baby girl!

Letter to Joshy (lil’ brother) – 1 Year

My sweet Joshy bug, you turned ONE. What a blessing that God gave you your first year of life, nothing but praise goes to Him! You are my bundle of joy that keeps on giving. Your smile is contagious and your busy spirit just makes things so much more exciting in our home. The day you were born and the second I got to hold you, you stole my heart. You are the most handsome little boy I have ever seen and I want you to always remember that. Since day one, we have been watching you blossom and take on life the way you perceive it, with open arms. You love everything about life, new food, places, people, but you definitely love home. The reason I know that is because every time we go away for a short while and bring you home, you just get ecstatic. You have a strong personality just like your mommy, daddy and sissy. We are not surprised, we only pray that God will use this amazing personality to take you further and further in life where God can be proud to call you His child. Some of the things you have been enjoying this first year: jumperoo, trying new food and just food in general, crawling, playing with toys (you love toys and I love that about you. You take your time to make sure you play with each toy) With the amount of toys you and your sissy have, it makes my heart happy that you appreciate them. You absolutely love your sissy Bella and you say her name about ten times a day. You light up every time you see her and when she plays with you, you have the best time. I praise God for these precious moments you and your sissy get to share. Ever since you learned to shake your head “no” you have been letting us know what you like and what you don’t. I still smile every time you shake your head but you always listen when mommy or daddy asks you to try whatever it is that you are shaking your head “no” to. So far, you have been a good little listener. You say many words already, some of the ones from the top of my head, ball, Bella, mama, daddy, apple, chandelier, water, bread, thank you, pear, toy, papa, thank you, grape, nana, and of course yeah!!! . (I absolutely love the passion in your voice and excitement). You started walking on January 22nd and you have not stopped since. You enjoy every minute that you get to explore new things. You love kisses and you love to be held by people that you love, you love to be outdoors and you love to dance. You are very ticklish and love to laugh. You are my precious jewel and I cannot wait to watch more and more as God molds you into a Godly young man. I love you my prince!

This one is always challenging, because I never know where to start. To sum it all up, 2012 has been one of the most growing years for me personally. When I say growing, I mean spiritually and emotionally. This year unlike any other, I have felt like each day is a gift, a gift that you can’t just take for granted. I turned 31 this year and it hit me hard, because I have realized that years are flying by and I have not done all that I want to do. I have just touched the tip of an iceberg. I also have huge hope for the future and that God has some amazing things in store for me and our family. He has been nothing but faithful and loving. This year He gifted us our son Joshua, who has been nothing but joy and pure example of love and innocence. He has a great spirit about him, definitely a busy little bug. Oh how I love my children! God has gifted us the most precious gifts and watching them bloom has been the most amazing and breathtaking experience. We pray constantly to keep us focused and equip us with the right tools to teach them what is the most valuable in this life. He has blessed us abundantly with health and the growth of our business. Just when we get a little weary, He picks us right up with a miracle and we can’t help but smile and know that He is always just right there by our side. Why oh why do we so often forget that? This year Barry ran his first marathon. What a huge accomplishment for him, I am very proud of him for sticking with his plan and desire and finishing strong. Barry also started working with Fellowship and Market Place Christians and it has been nothing but a blessing to watch my husband grow and mature in his faith. Our princess had her first ballet and swimming lessons and loved both. Of course swimming involved a little bit of fear of the water but she was able to overcome it. Now that I look back on it, I think we could have handled it a little differently, but hopefully there will be other swim lessons 🙂 Barry and I had an opportunity to volunteer at church side by side for the first time and we loved it! We also committed to give above tithing 10% and have stuck with it, even in some doubtful moments. God has showed us over and over that He has our backs and never lets us down. It has been exciting to watch our church grow and change this year. We have fallen even more in love with it and the direction it’s headed. We are both extremely grateful for our families and that God has blessed us richly with gifting us our parents and grandparents for our children. There are many people that do not have parents or grandparents to visit and spend time with. I would call this year, a year of relationships. We have made some new ones and closed some chapters on old ones. It’s always exciting where God will take us next.
As for resolutions, we often times don’t set those, because it seems as we fail half way through, but if we don’t try we will never succeed. This year our goal is to be much less critical of people, nobody is perfect and never will be, all we can do is our best and be grateful every day for gifting us His Grace. Another big one is keeping a tighter leash on our money and evaluate where and why we spend. There are necessities in life and there is foolish spending on things we already have and want to simply upgrade. At the end it’s all just stuff but unfortunately we only notice hundreds and thousands of dollars later. The last goal is to cease every opportunity to serve, whether it’s making a meal for someone, baking something for your neighbor or letting someone in line to go ahead of you. It does not matter how big or how small these acts of service are, I know and believe that every single one counts. Often times it’s as simple as smiling at a perfect stranger.
Happy New Year!

I wait for Christmas every year and as it approaches, I often even get sad that it will be gone too soon.  Then I asked myself, what am I doing?  What is this all about?  So, I have decided to not get caught up in my feelings but to actually celebrate the Christmas season.  I have decided to do 25 acts of kindness before Christmas came and share it with family so that from early on, our kids would be exposed to doing good and serving others.  I cannot describe how rewarding and special it was, to serve others and remind them of what Christmas is truly about.  I wish I kept better track of all that we did, but that’s not what’s important, so here are just a few things.  We made some packed lunches for the homeless and drove around passing them out, bought some gift cards and passed them out to strangers, left a small gift for our mail man, rang the bell for Salvation Army, left poinsettia flowers for some of our neighbors, delivered some kids books (the true story of Christmas) to random doors of people with kids, bought a toy and handed it to a child in need, helped elderly when saw need, invited neighbors for dinner, made goodies for some of our neighbors, volunteered at church…  There were things we did not get to do this year, but will definitely try to do this month or next.  The biggest thing that has been on my heart is to go to the children’s hospital and hand out balloons to kids and to deliver flowers to a couple of nursing homes to people that don’t get visitors.  As I type this, my heart is overflowing with gratitude to my amazing God , who is all about love, giving, kindness and forgiveness.  I hurt for people that do not know what an awesome God He is and I feel convicted over and over for not sharing His greatness.  Majority celebrate presents, songs, and decorations and the most frightening thing is their kids will follow those exact same footsteps and where will it get them?  To the world of emptiness and always feeling as if nothing is enough.  That is the truth, there is not one thing on this earth that will make you feel content until you find Him, the One who created you, who knew you in your mother’s womb.    In fact, life is absolutely meaningless without Him, the one who gives me hope every single day and I will do my best to pass on that hope to my kids.  It makes me want to jump for joy that I have Him to love me at ALL times and to always be on my side no matter how much I screw up in life.  As I was reading the Christmas story to my babies this year, I felt like I was there when Jesus Christ was born and felt that indescribable joy.  While reading the story, trying to relay the joy of Christ’s birth to my kids and look at Bella’s lit up eyes was absolutely priceless.  I hope as they grow up, they will be shaped into people that serve the ones in need and always find joy in the one and only God.