Pure Joy

This is our christmas card this year. I LOVE IT.

Solely for Emalyn's expression.

Most of you have gotten it already, so I finally decided I needed to post it for those of you I wasn't able to send one to.

We were having such a fun time picking out our Christmas tree, and the second the camera came out, so did Emalyn's change of expression. She's gonna love this documentation when she's 16, I'm sure!

I suppose this also is an announcement for our next kid!

Yes, we are preg-o....well, I AM. Due 6/26/10. Cam's birthday is the 23rd that month, so we'll see if we end up with 2 birthday's on one day...the first baby stayed in a little long, so knowing my luck, this kid won't be born until July 4th!! What a party they'll have!

Here's another from that day. She's just a sweet little thing...

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Wishing you safest travels and mounds of peace and joy this week and next! Merry Christmas, all!!

Pretties

So Emalyn loves sparkles. Glitter. Shiny Shoes. Shiny metal spoons.

And of course, jewelry.

Since she's been able to grab at them, I have used the word "pretty," in some way to describe the earring, necklace, whatever it may be in her clutches. Since we all know how kids love to grab and pull at that kind of thing (and HARD, mind you.) I taught her to kiss the pretties. So looking at a long, dangly necklace, she will start with "mmmmmm-"grab the said piece of jewelry, and "muah, muah, muah" until her heart's content.

It truly has kept her from pulling my earring out and shredding my earlobe to pieces. Promise.

Now that she speaks, the word pretty comes out fairly well, and we use it to describe many things, like: Her drawings or coloring. Her dresses. Ribbons. Christmas lights. Anything that lends itself to being "pi-tty." (As she would say).

This morning as we were driving to daycare, she was looking out her window and says...."oooh, pi-tty! Pi-tty." And points towards her window with her mittened little hand.

I thought, the sun's coming up , you can't really see any Christmas lights, what could be pretty right now? I glanced a best I could while driving and saw nothing of significance...until I saw the direction of her eyes.

The child was pointing at the sunrise. I kid you not. We had just passed over some lower ground where there are often patches of fog and above is a clear shot of the sky-no buildings, houses, or trees.

My kid saw the sun and its beauty and called it "pi-tty." In return, I got to stop and thank God for His beauty that I just drove right past. And it was Pi-tty.

My effort will be to stop and take a little more of His beauty in, especially during this Christmas season. I seem to miss so much.