Sweet like candy

Our sweet little bunny. She was ready for bed by 6:45....but I bet she still enjoyed her first Halloween.

shrieks and giggles

like music to our ears....

generations

"...future generations will be told about the Lord" Psalm 22:30

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made." Psalm 145:13

What an thought-provoking experience to birth, mother, and love future generations by mothering my tiny Noelle. My future generations will, Lord willing, be birthed through my Noey. Joe and I have been given the weighty responsibility to love, guide, and set the stage for our future generations. What will we leave them? I long to leave a legacy of loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength, and loving others more than ourselves. What does it look like to pass this on to a five-month old? As I sat rocking in a dark room tonight, holding Noelle to my body and feeding her for the seventh time today, stroking her soft head, and whispering a prayer over her, I thought, this is it. This is the beginning.

God speaks often and boldly regarding his protection, blessing, provision, and fulfillment of promises for generations after a family lives righteously. Lord, might I live in a manner that will someday bless my great-great-great grandchildren!

This summer we were able to introduce Noelle to her great-grandparents. They held our baby and prayed a blessing over her. Tears streamed down my face as I imagined the Lord's joy at this prayer. Marilyn and Ray Riihilouma gave their lives to the Savior and gave their lives to blessing others many, many years ago. Their lives forever marked my mother's. My mother's mine. And mine, I pray, Noey's. I hope to someday sit, hold, and pray a blessing over my great-granddaughter. I hope to see the joy of the Lord on her parents' (my grandchildren) faces. I hope their mother, my Noey, will be living boldly with a heart for her Savior and a heart for people.

"There is no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3 John 4

Times flies when you're changing diapers, and feeding, and bathing, and......

When did it happen? When did my baby go from this....























to this....







I kissed Noey goodnight a few moments ago and realized...I've never experienced such joy as watching my little one change, grow, and develop daily. It's like slowly unwrapping the best present of all. Thank you Lord for this blossoming life!

Not So Sleepless In Seattle

Last week Joe traveled to Seattle for some meetings. Noelle and I flew to meet him and spend a couple days with some of our co-workers there. I was nervous about traveling alone with Noey...driving to and parking our car in LA, flying out of LAX, and being the sole comforter should she have a mid-flight melt down. And what would I do if I had to sit next to some weird man and needed to nurse??!! (smile). Having already 'survived' sleeping alone at home the night before...no murderers arrived with Joe gone (hee!), I knew who to turn to as I drove off that morning. I prayed to our big God that he would be our "man", our protector, and my companion today. He answered!! I don't know if I've ever had such a smooth travel as I did that day. I found the long-term parking with ease, had to pay no extra for my baggage, flew through security, ended up with whole row to myself on the flight, and Noey slept the whole time. Praise God!

Once in Seattle, we had fun taking in all the sights. Seattle was everything I imagined it to be...beautiful, cool, misty, and grey. I loved the rolling hills, the water that surrounded the city, and especially the Pike Place Market! Pike Place Market is home to the very first Starbucks, many eccentric shops and restaurants, and the fish market. The fish market was truly a sight to see. Scruffy-looking men in plastic aprons hollered, cheered, and threw fish around. Crowds gathered to watch these men work, and people would buy seafood just to see their routine.

Sometimes the customers would even get into the act.

Every now and then, the men would surprise the newcomers in the crowd by throwing a giant fish at them! I shrieked the first time this happened...and then realized the giant fish was a fish pillow. Hee! It was still sick, however, as it was covered with fish juice from the floor. ugh!

Noey, was not so impressed with all the antics. In fact, she would cry every time they started up their chant. Not cut out for life as a sea fisherman I guess...

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

It's been awhile since updating this blog...and for good reason...we spent most of the month of August traveling for work, family, weddings, and such. God was so gracious with our travels. Noey transitioned GREAT, we found safety whereever we went, and we come home feeling full of life from all of our visits with friends and family.

Here are a few highlights from the first leg of our trip in Colorado:

Time with Auntie Amy in Colorado. Noey had her first real-live laugh watching Amy jump on the trampoline.

Visiting with Uncle Paul for the very first time. I think she was digging his new haircut!

Cousin Vivian was so beautiful and so much fun! Noey wants to be just like her! We did a "twinsies" photo shoot. It started out okay...
And ended up in tears...

I had a lunch with some of my best friends and their kiddos. What a great looking bunch!

Let's Go Dodgers, Let's Go

Thanks to our good friend, Mike, who treated us to Saturday night's Dodger game. Noey's first major league appearance! After our successful night at a minor league baseball game, we were pretty confident Noey would do just fine and wondered if she might even make the big screen in her cute pink Dodger's cap.

After one MAJOR diaper blowout (we had to throw the outfit away!) and fighting LA traffic, we arrived at the game. Ahhhh...the smell of hotdogs and garlic fries, excited kids running around, the thump of the latest 'Jock Jams' cd, the abundance of Dodger apparel, and seeing people from every neighborhood in the greater LA area coming together...what fun!

Mike had purchased us tickets in the infamous "bleacher" area. Fans here have the True Blue. Cheers are started here. Fights are picked with any opposing team's fan. Every now and then cheers with obscenities are shouted towards the opposing team (to which my mommy-glare always came out!) These "bleacher" fans pride themselves on being the loudest and most vigilant. We had a underestimated just how loud the cheering would be. After a few startling moments for sweet Noey, she seemed to be adjusting just fine. That ended with the home run hit by LA's new sweetheart, Manny Ramirez. The stadium erupted and as I watched all the children seated around us putting their hands to their ears. I also watched Noey's lower lip pop out, her face scrunch up, and her lungs fill. She had had enough. Poor baby, she cried into my neck as I tried to reason with her that this was simply a glorious moment and this is what good fans do. Maybe that will sink in next time. :)

But we, like every new parent, were learning the art of improvising. I tucked Noey on my lap in such a way that a burp cloth was snuggled up against one of her ears, and my hands covered her other ear whenever the cheering voices rose. She loved it! She could watch the crowd with none of the noise. Noey and I smiled our way through the rest of the game! I think she is an LA fan at heart...