John 3:16 - The Story of Love

This is so beautiful...especially during this lenten season. It is long, but worth the watch.

Stop!

Last Sunday our pastor had a great message at church.  It revolved around this passage:

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

My favorite part was the beginning, where he focuses on the "therefore, as God's chose people, holy and dearly loved..."  He said that the "therefore" was a pause, a transition, a time to stop and consider what's next.  It reminds me of when Madeline, Millie and I are on walks.  Every so often, Madeline will stop and rest and say, "Stop, Mom!  Take a deep breath!"  We will then stop and breathe in the fresh air.  Then we look at each other and giggle and move on.  

Pastor Kevin said God is telling us to stop and know that he has chose us {we are holy} and DEARLY LOVED.  Loved by God, the perfect father.  Now that's enough to make you want to stop and breathe it in.  :)

From This...

to this...

Happy Birthday, sweet Millie!

My brother, Ross, is a great photographer.  Go to rossnave.com  for some really good pictures of the birthday girl and her festivities, as well as some other cool pictures!

Good Morning!

I love the view down our street.  I've blogged about it before, here.  The scenery down our street is the prettiest in the fall, but this morning's sunrise almost took the cake.  I think spring might be here, don't you?!

Rookie

Madeline was invited to her first non-family, non-family friend birthday party.  Her little friend from preschool was turning four and invited all the little girls from her class.  I have to admit, I was probably more nervous than she was.  Silly as it was, I had SO many questions.  Do I stay with her?  Do I drop her off? What does she wear?  What kind of present do I bring?

I felt like such a rookie mom!  It had been a long time since I felt that, probably the day Madeline was born!  So, I thought back to when I had birthday parties.  I remember a picture of my third birthday party with all my friends in their party frocks and black mary janes eating cake around my parents table.  There were no other parents in sight.  So, I dressed Madeline up in her church dress, cute shoes and decided I wasn't going to stay.  I bought a couple small little gifts and wrapped them up.  I took a deep breath and drove Madeline to the party.

As I pulled up to the house, there were numerous cars there.  I walk in and ALL THE MOMS ARE THERE.  In fact, one of the moms is actually participating...she's face painting all the girls faces!!  I walk in a little further and another mom is helping all the little girls with a project!!  As the party goes on, it gets more crafty and more educational and I am feeling more and more behind the times.  As the party wrapped up, the party favors were handed out and I couldn't believe the loot Madeline came home with. She may as well have been the birthday girl.

Don't get me wrong, the party was super cute and Madeline had a great time.  The only questions I have left are:  are ALL parties like this now???  and do I have to go next time???  :)

Madeline post party

I {heart} our camera

pinch my cheeks!

playing in the sunshine

sisters!

always reaching for something!

thinking of her next move

naughty!

her tower :)

Florida

Ah yes, Florida. Each morning on the lobby chalkboard we were greeted with the high temp and low temperature for the day. Can you see what it says?? 51 degrees. No, that's not the low. It was the high for all three days we were there. Not the best weather for vacation, but....

the beautiful hotel and fun things we did totally made up for it. See how cute this hotel is? It was featured  on the Today Show and I booked it the day I saw it! All the rooms looked like they could have been out of an Anthropologie catalogue. I mean, look at the cute fire pit and chairs. They even built the fire for us :)

And the view...dreamy! Even though we couldn't swim in the ocean, we stared at it all day and walked its sandy beaches. We found lots of sea shells and took in the sunshine that felt warmer than here in Michigan!

The girls loved the beach, fire pit, Tampa's aquarium and running around! For more info on where we stayed, go to postcardinn.com