My Girl

My Peyton-of-Grace,

Do you now how rich I am to be your mommy? When I say "I love you" my heart nearly bursts with thankfulness and joy that the Lord has given you to me!
All of you is precious. Your sweet smiles. The way you squeal when you see your daddy. Your babbling. The way you are learning to "share" (although you require it to be given right back to you so you can "share" again.) The way you play "peek-a-boo" with your hands on your ears. Your sleepy actions - rubbing your face in my shoulders and cuddling. Bath and bedtimes. Moody and crazy times... your love for your "Gary-bear". :)

Who am I that I should receive such grace? I am overcome with God's kindness through you, my sweet and miraculous baby girl.
You cause me to glorify God in a way no other gift has ever done... and I am so very humbled.
I love you more than I can express,
Mommy

Ta-DAAAHHHH!

I'd like for you to meet the newest member of the Manz automotive family: Our brand-new (to us) 2007 Honda CR-V!
(Okay - it can snow now 'cause I've got my 4x4!)

So this has been a big vehicle purchase year for us - the van in February and the CR-V now... we should be done for a while now, though! :)
(hope! hope!)

10 Months Old

Wow...

Longings...

Yesterday Peyton found Autumn's bear. She was really quite fascinated by it and proceeded to climb all over it and give it crazy kisses.

As I watched her with amusement, I found myself wishing I could be telling a certain 22-month old that she has to share with her baby sister. The whole scenario played out in my mind - complete with a tantrum on Peyton's part after her sister ripped the bear out of her arms with a vehement, "MINE!". (small smile)

There are some days when the business of life makes the loss feels far away.

Sweet moments with an (almost) 10-month-old and a teddy bear can bring it back close enough to cause tears...

In Case Anyone is Wondering Where I've Been...

I guess I should mention that I'm taking a blogging/facebook hiatus. :)

I plan (hope) to get back into the swing of things come fall when things slow down a bit - but suffice to say that we have a TON of stuff going on (nothing bad, praising God...) and computer time is hard to come by.

Thanks for checking, though! :)

A Tale of Two Bathrooms

We have three bathrooms in this house. Odd way to start a post, I know - but stick with me if you can...

When we moved here last year in May, I put all my stuff into the ensuite off of our bedroom - but Kurt decided to keep his toothbrush and other personal toiletries in he main bathroom off of the kitchen because there was very little room in the ensuite cupboard. We've been talking for a while about when Peyton and possible siblings (no! not yet!) start to use that bathroom more often he should move his stuff into "my" bathroom.

But honestly?

I'm kinda selfish with my space. I've got more stuff - and it tends to take up both drawers and under the sink. And since he never really complained about having to go to the other bathroom to put on his deodorant in the morning, it just kinda stayed that way.

But two weeks ago, we bought a toothbrush. Not just any toothbrush. A Phillips Sonic toothbrush. I haven't had this much fun brushing my teeth since I had those little chewy-things in grade 4 where all the guckies on your teeth became obvious. But this brush needs to plug in. So after much rearranging of the limited counter space in our bathroom, we made room for it - mainly because I was tired of going to the main bathroom to brush my teeth. (chuckle)

But that's not the point of this story. (Although it has taken up half a page already.)
The point is that while I was rearranging in order to put the Phillips Sonic toothbrush in our bathroom, I found space for his toiletries. (All 3 of them...)

So this morning - after I brushed my teeth and got happy, and he was finishing up getting ready for the day - I said to him, "I think you can move your stuff into this bathroom now."
He froze, and was like, "Seriously??
(I'm chuckling just remembering...)
And I was like, "Yeah - seriously. I cleared a space in the drawer."

So he went to the other bathroom and got this stuff and brought it back into our room. After he put his stuff in the drawer we just looked at each other and grinned like something momentous had happened. I threw myself in his arms and said what we were both thinking:

"We just moved in together!"

Romantic, no?
What can I say: after almost 6 years, you gotta take the excitement where you can. (lol!)

9 Months Old

... and two more teeth today! :)