Jesus and icecream

Tonight we took the girls to church and met with our very awesome friends Alicia and Kavin Tubbs. We had such a great night of conversation and ministry. God always uses them in tremendous ways to speak into our life! We love them so much!
Anyway, afterwards when we picked the girls back up from church they were both in such wonderful moods! Aubrey was trying so hard to talk. She was saying every word she knew...I mean every word she knew trying to converse with us. It was so cute! She now knows where her nose and mouth and eyes and toes are. She is such a smart little cutie pie!
Well... the main reason I wanted to blog tonight was to record the conversation we had with Alyssa. She was so excited about Jesus when she got out of church tonight. We got in the car and she went on and on about how Jesus is coming out of the sky today! She said it about a hundred times! "Mom and dad, did you know Jesus is coming out of the sky today?" He is coming down from heaven out of the sky today." She said we had to go home and get some icecream and sit and wait and watch for Him to come down. She then proceeded to tell me that there were a lot of people in heaven and that there is going to be a big wedding and that Jesus probably has icecream in heaven too! When we got home she got out of the car and said, "Look do you see him. He is coming down." She ran in the house and got the flash light and took it back outside so that she could see him better when he came down. Aaron told her that when He comes, that we will be coming down behind Him and told her how awesome it was going to be, and he told her she was going to have a new body and be wearing a beautiful white dress. She told him, "Maybe my dress will be pink dad." It was so cute!
Having my almost 4 year old get so excited about Jesus and His return and hearing how much knowledge she had, got me so excited. I think God is so awesome!
Also I just wanted to add that the other day we were talking and I told her that I loved her heart and that she had such a sweet heart. I put my hand on her chest when I said this and she said "Momma, do you feel his head in my chest." she was talking about Jesus being in her heart. She is so precious with her "child-like faith." That is how I want to be, and that is how I think God wants all of us to be!

Easter

This year we had such a good Easter. The night before me and Alyssa decorated eggs and made deviled eggs. It was so much fun, but stunk up our house. It smelled like an egg and toot mixed together...horrible! I lit candles in every room to get the smell out. Before we went to bed that night I was laying in bed with Alyssa and I prayed over her and told her I was so thankful to have her as my daughter and to have Aubrey and Aaron. I told her how great a family we had and said I am just so lucky to have such a wonderful family. In her little soft voice she said, "me too." Just melted my heart to butter! So sweet. I told her the Easter story about Jesus and what he did for us and what Easter meant and when I was done she said, "tell me again momma, tell me a hundred times again! " Have I ever mentioned how precious she is and how much I love being a mom??????? It's the time of my life!
The next morning the Easter bunny had visited and the girls woke up and went through all the Easter goodies. Aubrey got a toy bunny, a new baby praise DVD, which is her favorite, a monkey cup and plate, and lots of candy. Alyssa got a new BOZ DVD, tattoos and stickers, lipgloss and a new plate and cup to match Aubreys. When she looked at her plate she said,"HEY, they had this at Target." Whoops! The Easter Bunny will have to be more careful next time! :)
Then we went to a great church service and headed out to my dad's for lunch with the Gilbert clan. It was so good seeing everyone! The upside to being married is also a downside, you gain a new family, but you don't get to see yours as often anymore. Does that make sense?
I hadn't seen the Gilbert side in a while, but everyone was the same and it felt as good and comfortable as ever! SueAnn had everything set up real nice and everyone brought a ton of good food, and we all sat around eating and talking. The rainy day ended up turning into a beautiful day. The kids were able to hunt their eggs outside. Memaw made an extra basket of eggs for the kid that got the least amount. That ended up being Alyssa. She took her sweet time hunting the eggs, opening up every one and peaking inside to see what she got before she went to the next one! That was so sweet of Memaw!
Alyssa, Adrian, Emery, and Avery stayed outside allllll dayyyy longgggg! From about 1:00 pm until we left which was around 8:00 pm. They all play so good together and played so hard. They ended up taking off their shoes and socks and pants and playing in the creek. So much fun!
We ended the day just sitting on the back driveway chatting and enjoying the weather. It was just a perfect day! I am thankful God blessed me with such a wonderful family!

Aubrey's Shoe Obsession

So Aubrey has learned a new word and I think it is her very favorite word...shoe. I have never in my life heard of a 1 year old loving shoes like this girl. The other night Aaron got up in the attic and pulled out a bunch of shoes of Alyssa's when she was Aubrey's size. Aubrey was beside herself with excitement. Aaron said she wanted to try them all on and was smiling from ear to ear. This morning I still had all those shoes sitting up on the countertop. First thing, Aubrey starts pointing to the table. I thought she wanted her cup so I handed her the cup. She got mad and threw it down. So then I grabbed a shoe and she started laughing and held it up for me to put it on her. She was giggling the whole time saying "shoe, shoe." After breakfast she followed me around the house bringing me different shoes wanting me to change them out, probably every 30 seconds. She is hilarious! She wants to have her shoes on all day long and a purse over her shoulder too! At least I always know where she is because I can hear CLOP CLOP CLOP on the floor.

Hannah Montana

This may sound a little silly, but today was one of my favorite times as a mom! Alyssa and I went to the movies to see the new Hannah Montana movie. It was so much fun! We got popcorn, sourpatch kids, junior mints and a coke and went to the end of the line of young girls that were waiting to watch the movie. Some girls were decked out in their Hannah gear and one girl even had on a Hannah wig! It was so funny watching all those girls get excited!
We sat in the back and poured all of our candy out into our popcorn bag and just had our own little party, just the two of us. Alyssa likes Hannah Montana, but she loves Taylor Swift, and Taylor had a little cameo in the movie. She didn't take her eyes off the big screen and kept saying momma, when is it going to show Taylor? When it finally did, she got so excited! Her eyes got real wide and she said there she is, and sat straight up in her seat! Other kids in the theater got excited too and started clapping and yelling for little miss Taylor! This is the silly part...I started to cry a little bit! It was just so precious being there in that moment with Alyssa and watching her get excited. In that moment I felt so so very blessed to be her mom and to have my sweet girls! I thought about the time my mom paid $200.00 for me a ticket to sit in the 5th row of the New Kids on the Block concert, and thought to myself...I would so do that for Alyssa to see Taylor Swift or Hannah Montana up close. That little look on her face was priceless and to see her excited and having fun was so amazing! I would pay good money to see that excitement and joy! So in that moment I understood why my mom paid that kind of money for her 5th grader to see Donnie D. up close! My absolute favorite thing in the entire world is seeing my girls happy and having fun!
Anyway, the movie was precious! I loved it! I think it will be one to buy!
At the end, I wasn't the only mom that was crying...another lady walking in front of me was crying and laughing at the same time, saying Oh my gosh I don't know why I am crying at the Hannah Montana movie! She had 2 girls with her too! I guess she got it too...what Hannah Montana represents...those little girls that like to dream big! That innocent precious time in their life that will pass so quickly! I savored every second of it! It really was one of my best days as a mom! I had so much fun with my sweet girl!