My Girls!

So there are many reasons I love ALL my girls so, so much. Here are a few things that they did today that melted my heartstrings...

We had Aunt Carly's baby shower today at church and I brought all 3 girls with me. While we ate and "showered" Aunt Carly & Uncle Rob, the kids who came played in the church nursery and had fun running and playing tag up and down the hall. Their squeals, laughs and smiles were endless. After the shower Doug came to help where needed, but Ava stole him and Kate down to the sanctuary and led them through a "whole" church service. They prayed at the alter...quoting Ava "thank you Jesus for loving us" and sang Jesus Loves Me and Deep and Wide. Ava even snuck in communion.

This melted my heartstrings for two reasons:

The first...it warms my heart watching the girls play in church. My parents always had us at church. Whether for Sunday School, service, spaghetti or Maggie and Jig's dinner's, cleaning days, leaf raking days, youth group, Christmas decorating...we were at church quite a bit. I remember playing in that same nursery, getting yelled at for running up and down that same hall, playing hide and seek underneath the church pews...even playing red light/green light up and down the aisle of the sanctuary. And our very best friends were there...many of them who will always hold a special place in my heart. So it makes me happy watching the girls play in church. I know it did me some good...the people there were my second family and growing up not only did I feel comfortable and welcome there but I always felt that I had a larger loving support system than just my immediate family.

And building on that...the second reason watching the girls today melted my heart...while I played a lot at church, I also learned a lot at church and it was there that the very first seeds of faith were planted in my heart. The same faith that gets me through all of the ups and downs of life like nothing else can. Both Ava & Kate have been walking around during the day singing songs they learned at Sunday school and Ava's asking a lot of questions and making comments about Jesus...which shows me that the same seeds of faith planted in my heart have been planted in theirs. And I hope and pray that those seeds grow into the same beautiful relationship and faith that I have come to experience and trust. So it makes me the happiest as a parent to see those little seeds planted.

Here are a few pictures of Ava hanging up pictures in the hallway at church. She said she wanted to hang pictures "for everyone to enjoy".

A few other funny things from today:

1. Ava called Kate "slimy" when Kate threw Ava's flip flops over the balcony. Slimy? Where did she get that one? I told Ava it wasn't nice to call people names...after Kate got in trouble for throwing things over the balcony (as she gets in trouble for every day:-)).

2. Doug made Ava a lady bug jar, and she has been carrying it around with her all day. Even at the baby shower. Doug didn't think it through all the way...it's a glass pickle jar and could shatter at any time, but we took the risk all day long and let her enjoy her lady bug jar:-)

3. While Uncle Rob & Aunt Carly opened their gifts...Katelyn crawled over one of the larger ones, sitting right in front of them (in front of 70 people) singing "Deep and Wide" at the top of her lungs. She was in her own little world and didn't realize she had a few tables laughing at her:_) Here's a shot of our curly top eating her french fries.

4. Olivia slept through it all. Our little peanut is starting to smile (first smile was October 30th). You can't tell from this picture...I'll have to keep my camera close to catch a glimpse.

Such a great day! Sorry for the long post. Some days you wish you could tape record for future, so I'm trying to document as best I can!!!