birthdays

Ella Grace Broach...minutes old

Daddy gets to know Ella

Eden and her buddies collecting pinata candy

Blowing out the candles for the third time.
(Pete decorated that mermaid cake!)

on october 19th eden a. dockery turned three. i would have preferred her to stay 2...but I suppose I really don't have a say in matters of time and aging. we were flying home from Hawaii on her actual birthday, so we had chick-fil-a that night and celebrated with ice cream and playing on the slide. we had a big el paso style party last saturday with a bunch of friends and family. my parents were able to fly out for the occasion, and we had tons o' fun. we grilled some hot dogs and hamburgers, crock potted homemade charro beans, and pete wowed the crowd with his cake decorating abilities. the kiddies jumped in a bounce house (jumping balloon, whatever you want to call it), and then hit a princess pinata until candy filled the grass. it was a crazy, wonderful night. eden was overwhelmed with gifts and love and we were incredibly grateful.

among the guests were our friends brandon and emily broach. sweet emmi had to sit down most of the time because she was so very pregnant with little ella grace. ella was due a week and a half from then. I was thinking she'd be late. little did we know that two days later she'd be perfect and beautiful in her mother's arms. in the early hours of october 26th emily's water broke. she texted me...but my phone was on vibrate. I got the message around 7am, talked to emily and brandon...figured I'd have awhile to find someone to watch my girls and the little boy that I keep every morning. first babies, they usually come slowly. around 9am emily was dilated to 7cm! whoa baby. I threw on clothing, said goodbye to my parents, strapped children into their carseats, dropped them off with sweet friends...and broke all speed limits getting to the hospital. emily was already pushing when I got into the room (YES they let me witness the birth of their firstborn child!). A few pushes later, at 10:54 a.m., a gorgeous baby girl was screaming and bringing air into her lungs. It was a moment I will never forget as long as I live. It gives me chills just typing it all out. I was snapping pictures like a crazy woman...watching this new family of three.

throughout ella's birth and first minutes of life I thought about the birth of my own beautiful daughters. the warmth of a baby freshly born. the excitement and shock of becoming a parent. the incredible love that instantly invades your soul, and keeps growing and growing and growing. how beautiful the gift of children truly is. how I will never be able to thank God enough for letting me birth and mother Eden and Charlotte.

So. happy birthday to Eden Adeline. my spectacular firstborn. you are such joy. I cherish you.

and happy birthday to Ella Grace. I am so honored that I was able to be present the moment you came into God's great earth. I will love you forever.

10 things I love about Maui...in random order

1. laying charlotte in the sand...nudey.

2. going on a real date with this guy

3. listening to charlotte talk to papa. our sweeties live 1500 miles from any grandparent.

4. the view outside our condo. seriously?

5. watching my family play in the sand

6. how the air smelled like these white flowers

7. going to a real luau! hula girls... singing...dancing...fire throwers...buffet!

8. the way eden's hair curled up in ringlets

9. hula pie. one of the most delicious desserts of my life.

macadamia nut ice cream piled high on a chocolate cookie crust, topped with fudge, whipped cream, and more macadamia nuts. as big as my head.

10. macadamia nut and pineapple everything. coffee, smoothies, syrup, pancakes, you name it. heavenly.

i am so grateful we were given the gift of this trip. it has been refreshing, relaxing, and too beautiful to describe.

the BEST playdoh

I got this homemade playdoh recipe from my sister a few months ago. I must must must share the recipe because it is indeed the BEST playdoh EVER. I made some weeks...months ago, and it is still soft and moist and wonderful! way better than store bought...and it's just fun to make it with your kids. so here's the recipe:

1 cup flour
1 cup boiling water
2 tbsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup salt
1 tbsp. oil

  Food coloring

just mix all that together and then add the food coloring when it looks and feels like playdoh. 
I just keep ours in ziplock freezer baggies. 
have fun.

Bible reading with Eden

after eden and I ate scrambled eggs for lunch, she brought me one of her bibles to read to her. it's a children's one with pictures and abbreviated stories...but more grown-up than a board book one. it has 300 or so thin, pretty pages.

so....we begin in Genesis. she is fascinated that adam and eve are in the garden of eden. we've told her this before, but today it seems to really click. her eyes twinkle and she says "like me! dockery! I'm EDEN dockery! and God loves dockery! can you believe it, mom?!" yes, eden, I can.

we read that God made all the animals and she reaffirms her love of aquariums. and going to them with Jackson (her cousin).

we keep going and she asks what is happening on each page.

we get to pharoah and he is illustrated as a bald guy....she asks "mom, is that charlie brown?"

we see the plagued nile river turned bloody...she shouts "what BEAUTIFUL red water!"

on to the arc of the covenant..."is that baby Jesus in there?"

daniel with the lions, mean kings, moses in the basket. she just can't get enough of the stories.

then we hit the new testament. she is thrilled, as always, to see baby Jesus amongst the cows and lone donkey. she says "there was nobody at their church that day". well, sort of, eden.

Jesus gets baptized and "the fishies were watching". I bet they were.

then He eats the last supper with His friends. I show her the cross and He's hanging on it. He died so we could go to heaven. she says she misses Him and wishes He could come to her house. I told her He is always with us and He's coming back to get us. we look at the picture of Him in the sun shiney clouds. she says she's going to hug Him and that would make Him happy.

I have no doubt it would thrill Him.

then she learns we are supposed to tell other people this story.

my greatest prayer is that she does. and that I don't screw up trying to teach her about Him.

I want to raise little world changers. and by God's grace and love, I'm gonna.

seriously embarrassing to me...

I had to post this so that my family could see charlotte being so cute and trying to sing/talk while having the hiccups. I sound so ridiculous that I can't even handle it. but, it's just mom voice. so I'll get over it.

a word from charlotte...or maybe just a pretty noise

our little talker...ready for halloween in her glow in the dark skeleton onesie (thanks walmart).

sweet moriah

hey everyone!

we have some very sweet friends that have a little girl named moriah. she was born just days after charlotte (and was also an upside down breech baby!). on thursday, september 24th, she will be having surgery to repair two holes in her heart. just wanted to ask you blog readers to please pray for her and the winchell family. their blog is called team winchell and is on my blog list over here ---->.

we love you moriah pearl winchell!

sorry, but...

...they are just so durn cute.