My Little Girl is 3!!

My Dearest Amaya....I can't believe you are 3 already!  You have been such a joy and blessing to Daddy and I.  The past 3 years have not always been easy. At times it was even a bit scary when things were happening to your body that were out of our control. I am truly thankful that you are now a strong healthy little girl and that the only thing you have on your body is a scar to show what you've been through.  
Amaya...you are always ready to learn and listen.  I love how you take the things Daddy and I teach you and use them...just tonight you said, "Daddy let's go downstairs...vamonos". (You read Dora for your naptime book..enough said). 
I cannot say enough how truly proud I am of you. Some of the things you like to do:  
when I am praying in tongues in the car, you always want me to pray for you, Daddy and Mak...and you usually remind me to pray for me too. =)  Sometimes you even "pray in tongues" too.  
You love putting on the "full armor of God" (Ephesians 6).  You can finish all the parts of the armor yourself...plus the few other things I add to that confession.  You remember so much that I teach you sometimes I am amazed! 
You know your numbers up to 11..after that it gets a bit hazy...
You know ALL your capital letters and 90% of your lowercase letters
You know about 70% of the sounds of the letters...something that makes me smile every time as you sound out letters. =)
You've started drawing our family on your doodle pro and you still include Teresa (something that also makes me smile). I love watching you draw and making the "stick figures".
You are beginning to color the items on a coloring page but still prefer to color with just one color and you don't care too much about staying in the line.  
You love playing with playdoh and playing in sand can keep you occupied for a long time.
You love feeding the turkeys, deer and crows with Daddy and I love watching you two throw the corn..so sweet!!
You know the road signs and what a stoplight is for and usually tell me when ..."red means stop, green means go and yellow means slow down."
You also recognize when you see a bicyclist with a helmet on...and one that doesn't and of course we always talk about safety after that.
Your favorite songs: "This Old Man," "Jesus Loves Me," Jesus Loves the Little Children," and "Oh Come Let us Adore Him".
When I sing Jesus Loves the Little Children..I add a verse like this: 
"Jesus Loves Miss Amaya
How He loves Amaya Kaylan
He died and rose again
So that she might have life
Jesus loves Miss Amaya Kaylan"
(As I am singing this the smile on your face is so precious...you look completely at peace and I can tell you feel so safe...the absolute best look for a parent to see.)
You understand how to calm yourself by taking some deep breaths.  This is especially helpful before naptime and bedtime.
I could go on and on with all that you have filled our lives with but for now I will stop.  You are our precious firstborn. We will NEVER stop thanking Jesus for you!  We love you dearly!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS AMAYA KAYLAN!

I love you my daughter...love, Mommy

Being Thankful

Today I made a pact (in my head)...I am going to post every day until Thanksgiving with my top 10 list of what I am thankful for.  Today's message at church was about being thankful and I realized that I need to be more thankful.  I need to remember what God has done for me and my family!

Today's thanksgiving will be in remembrance of some things that God has done for Chad and I.

1. I am thankful that God supplied a 2 week honeymoon with exactly what we wanted!
story: Soon after we got engaged Chad and I discussed our honeymoon. We decided that we wanted to be in the mountains and on the beach and if at all possible we wanted it to be 2 weeks long.  How we were going to do this was a mystery to me. A week after this conversation a dear friend came up to us and said, "I would like to give you my beach condo for a week."  About a week after that another dear friend came up to us and said, "I would like to give you my timeshare - it's good for a week." In the midst of this discussion, a family member said, I would like to give you $1000 towards your honeymoon.  All that happened within about two weeks after our initial conversation. That had never happened to me EVER! We went to the beach, the mountains and finished in Washington DC.  It was actually a little longer than 2 weeks!

Picture from our honeymoon 

2. I am thankful that God supplied a full-time job for me about 8 months after I graduated from IU. 

3. I am thankful that God answered our prayers for a healthy first child (I was praying for a girl).  Amaya was born in April of 07.

4. I am thankful that God has blessed us with several vacations that we didn't have to pay full-price for.

5. I am thankful that God answered our prayers for a healthy second baby (I prayed for a boy).  Makiyah (Mak) was born in January of 09. 

6. I am thankful that God answered my prayers for red hair (I honestly don't know where it comes from other than God answered our prayers).

7. I am thankful that God speaks to us and let's us know that He loves us.  (When we were praying for Makiyah we wanted a nickname and we asked God to show us one.  He showed both of us a picture of a sky...so Makiyah became "baby sky" until he was born.

8. I am thankful that God sustained us through several months of being unemployed except for a couple part-time jobs.
 

9. I am thankful that God opened the door for a wonderful full-time job that Chad loves while at the same time continuing to some degree his work at the church.

10.  I am thankful that God provided for almost $30,000 of medical bills since last November.

I have a loving and compassionate God! Thank you Jesus!

Some of our recent happenings

Today, I took some pictures of one of Amaya's favorite activities. I got the idea for this in the Montessori

Catalog I get.  It has some fun activities - that I have to buy of course - but who needs to buy anything when a few baby jars and pyrex measuring cup will do just fine.   (Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'm going to purchase a few things when I start "pre-schooling" Amaya. Right now though, I can improvise.)

After I attending the IU game in Wednesday night, I had some popcorn left which I mistakenly left on the toy box.  Nothing is safe anywhere in this house at the moment with a super busy 9 1/2 month old boy.

Yesterday after church, I wanted to get some pictures of Amaya and Mak while playing outside.  Amaya was a willing participant but Mak not so much.  I'll have to post more pics soon.  She was so cute.  At one point, she had a big stick in her hand and was heading down the driveway to "school."  This totally corresponds with her, "I'm six" statement whenever you ask her how old she is.  (haha)