The Kiss

So - every year my sweet husband takes my daughter to the Adrian Parks and Rec Annual Daddy Daughter Dance. It's a wonderful tradition that we started in first grade and it's something special that Chloe looks forward to every year! The closer to Valentine's Day we get - the more excited she gets! I love it! I love everything about it. Picking out the dress, doing the nails and make-up, curling the hair, making sure everything is just perfect! I love that they go to dinner before hand and that he usually takes her to get a "special ice cream or slushie surprise" following.

Another favorite is "the kiss" pose that we get every year! :) I just LOVE the kiss pose! Here are the last 3 years of daddy-daughter kisses just before the big night!

2009...














2010...















2011...















These are my favorite people on the planet earth and I thank God for them daily! I pray that their special bond will carry over for years to come! Chloe loves her daddy so much and I am ONE PROUD MAMA and ONE BLESSED WIFE!

Finding JOY in the JOurneY,

Chloe's First Movie

I have been telling myself I would do this for a long time now. And sad to say - 4 years later I'm finally getting around to it! :)

Back in '06 my husband purchased me a MacBook for Christmas. Chloe was pretty excited in checking out some of the cool features of the computer, and it was no surprise that iMovie was her favorite! She was only 7 at the time - but she was pretty tech savvy, making her way around that computer better than me! (Okay - that's not saying a whole lot!)

On this particular night in January '07, she was checking out just how this whole movie thing worked. Trevor and I were pretty much oblivious to the whole thing. We didn't realize we had a comedian in our midst performing her first act!

So - here's the video. It's 6:13 minutes long - but it is well worth it! I imagine you'll get quite a chuckle out of it, as did we! NOTE: you'll want to go to the bottom of the page before watching to pause my playlist first. You'll hear a lot of commotion going on in the other room... some of it's the television and some of it's Trevor and I.

EnJOY,

From a Child's Perspective!

It's amazing to me the wonder of a child's perspective on things. Oh to be able to see the world through their lens!!

I was reading this blog post to my mom on Thanksgiving when I realized that Chloe was listening in. She was taking it all in and I believe, experiencing the pain all over again. I wasn't trying to be insensitive, I just didn't realize the impact on her little life and forgot, for a moment, that she, too, endured some tough nights as we prayed for a miracle.. for her daddy.

Unbeknownst to me, she's been writing a story, similar to mine, only from a 10-year-old's perspective and I'd like to share it with you, exactly how it was written in her own handwriting, spelling errors and all! I think it will touch your heart...

This is My Story (by Chloe Bender)
I will never forget my last Christmas. My dad had just went on a work trip and was spost to be there for a week or so. So we knew he was going to be home in time for Christmas or so we thought. He called us to tell us he was not feeling well. He thought it was some bad Mexigain food he had the night before. The next thing I know is that called us the next day to say that he had gone to the hospital. Three days later we left to go to Arazona where he had been staying. When we got there I could not go in because of the H1N1 but the sichuation was so bad the nurse came downstairs. I got upstairs and the nurse said I had to go back down. I thought it did not make any sense. Every day we went there. Finally my dad called us and said I could come in his room. I went there and as soon as I walked in that room I could tell he loved me!! I still had to wear a mask because of the H1N1. I felt safe and warm with my dad in that hospital bed. That night in the hotel I felt lost, and alone. The next say when I went to see him again it was wonderful. Then came Christmas and me and my mom were in my dads hospital room eating a big Christmas dinner, and my dad is there eating jello. That night before me and my mom had went to go get my dad a stocking and a Christmas tree. He opened his stocking with joy and happiness. That night I was in the hotel again and felt a lot more safe. My dad got better and out of the hospital, but could not go o the plain yet. So it then felt like we were on a vacation. When we got home our house had been cleaned by some friends and we had cookies and wine on the table and presents under the tree! My cousin bought me a dress. I was so thank-ful for safety and just about everything else. And that's my story!

Oh how I love that girl!! Reading this has been a gentle reminder of the tenderness and sweetness of our children. THEY have a voice too and even when we think they couldn't possibly be mature enough to handle certain situations - they surprise us with a unique perspective on life and love.

Mark 10:13... “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

I Am A Mom

I waited my WHOLE life to be a mom. Really. I did. I remember playing as a child with my baby dolls and having a longing to mother another human being. I guess God blessed me with that innate desire for nurturing.

I remember when Chloe was first born. I couldn't stop looking at her. I stared for hours into that tiny face, studying her every feature. The way her nose twitched, the way her mouth drooped when she giggled and those eyes... those beautiful eyes that could melt your heart!

I remember praying for her. I prayed that God would protect her. I prayed that she would have a heart for pleasing Jesus and she would grow up tall and strong, kind, caring and smart. I prayed over and over again that she would make wise decisions and live a life filled with joy and peace.

I still pray every day for this precious daughter of mine! She is a gift from God. Now my prayers include thanksgiving. Chloe loves Jesus and lives her life to serve Him and others. She is strong, kind, caring and smart! With Gods help, she is making wise decisions that make her daddy and I very proud.

I am a mom. God, help me to be the best mom I can be!

Proud Mommy Moment # 1,009 :)

So... my daughter decided today that she'd like to go see Santa at the Adrian Mall. This is a far cry from last year when she would barely walk past the man without "feeling embarrassed."

She marched right up to Santa's station and before I knew it, she was on his knee. Have I ever mentioned how cute she is?

He started out with the same question he asks all the kids... "Have you been naughty or nice?"

Then he asked what she wanted this year for Christmas.

I think some of her answers surprised him.

First she started out with all the normal things she's been asking for for some time now... a guitar, pix-o's, HSM3 stuff etc, etc.

But these last 2 requests made Santa a bit speechless.

"I'd like a hardcover Bible." (He mentioned that for him, this was a first.)
"I'd like some soup for the poor people."

I love how compassionate Chloe is.
I love her heart and how she's always thinking of other people's needs before her own.
I believe that's how Christ intends for us to live.

I'm such a proud mommy.
I have the best little girl in the world!

I love you Chloe!

She's 8...

Had an interesting conversation with Chloe tonight while cutting her nails...

Chloe: Don't cut that one too short, that's my special nail.

Me: Why, is that the one you use to pick your nose?

Chloe: NO! I use my middle one for that.

Ha! That kid cracks me up!

Wherefore Art Thou Toothfairy?

I'm ashamed right now to even admit this.

I blogged earlier in the week about Chloe losing 2 teeth right?

So... She goes to bed on Tuesday night and decides that she should tape the envelope with her teeth in it to her bedpost so that 1.) It doesn't fall behind her bed and 2.) So to make SURE that the Tooth Fairy sees the tooth (after all she's very small, you know?!). I have a pretty smart kid. :)

Wednesday morning she wakes up. Envelope still there. Teeth still inside. No money.

Darn that Tooth Fairy must have forgotten all about it!

Wednesday night Chloe decides to tape it to the very top of her bunk bed ledge. This time "she's sure to see it" my daughter cries out!

Yep - for SURE she should have seen it.

She didn't.

She forgot.

Again.

So... we will try again tonight.

Must be the Tooth Fairy is getting old.

And forgetful!

;)

Losing Teeth!

There's an epidemic going around Chloe's third grade classroom! Everyone is losing teeth like mad! This week Chloe lost 2 teeth. Other kids in her class have also lost multiple teeth too! Good thing picture day was LAST week!

Here's my very own jack-o-lantern! :)

My Daughter Cracks Me Up!

So - - Chloe sat in the service with us yesterday. (She does that far more than I like to admit!) And she's become a pretty good note-taker. She pays attention and even though I know she doesn't always "get it" she always seems to take something away from the service she attends.

I'm afraid this is not so true for yesterday.

Pastor Scott's message yesterday was entitled Shadows. He talked about the valleys we go through in life and how even in the midst of those valleys we should fear no evil, because as Christ-followers, we can rest in the knowledge that God is always with us. He said that all dark valleys are inevitable... we're either just coming out of a really dark valley, we're currently in a dark valley or we're getting ready to go into a dark valley. Either way - valleys of the shadow of death are unpredictable, impartial, temporary and purposeful.

Pretty good stuff.

As I look down at the fill-in's on my eight-year-olds paper, here is what I see...

Valleys are COOL
Valleys are WIRD (supposed to be WEIRD)
Valleys are DISASTERS (surprisingly spelled correctly!)
Valleys are INSTANT
Valleys are TENTS

What to do in Dark Valleys
Refuse MOM (what?!?)
Remember LIFE
Rely on DIEGO (what can I say, he's one of her best friends!)

3 Important things about Shadows
Shadows are always WIRD (there it is again!)
Shadows cannot SKIP
There is no shadow HERE

I'm not even sure what to think about this...

:)

Turning Eight!

My BABY turned eight years old on June 27! It is down right crazy to think of her as that old! It doesn't seem possible! I swear to you that it was JUST yesterday that we loaded her up in the car to come home with us for the first time and I wouldn't even let Trevor drive on the highway because "What if we get hit or something?" Now here we are celebrating one more year closer to double digits!!!

For the theme this year, Chloe picked out "Under Water Sea Adventure". How cute was that? We had sea shells and sand, blue and green cupcakes, fish table skirting and some neat birthday gifts for her friends in plastic blue fish cups. :)



We invited 3 friends to join her for a celebration! We started off the evening with a trip to see Wall-E. What a cute movie! If you haven't seen it - I highly recommend it! Then it was off for pizza at Basil Boys in Tecumseh. This was her choice - she loves the bread sticks (so much like her mom). Then it was back home where she opened presents from her friends, ate cupcakes and watched Air Buddies. All was pretty quiet when I went in to check on them at 1 A.M.!! :)

Happy Birthday Chloe Jean! :) We love you so much!

My Daughter Rocks!

I had one of those VERY proud mom moments today on my way home from picking Chloe up from summer camp.

Her Eighth Birthday is Friday, June 27. We leave on vacation Sunday, June 29, so we didn't have a whole lot of time between to do a big birthday party as I have in the past (yeah... I'm one of those moms and we're one of those families that REALLY do-up birthdays!) So - I told her she could have 3 girls over for sleepover. The plan is - we are going to do Wall-E at the movie theatre and then going for pizza. The girls will then sleepover and go home by 11 a.m. the next morning. She invited three of her BEST friends in the world - Hannah, Samantha and Maya (who is actually her friend AND cousin). Hannah is her VERY best friend! She's been her bestest bud since they were only a year and a half old - and so she was the FIRST invitation that went out. Until today - we had received an RSVP from everyone but Hannah. Today, we got the news that Hannah wasn't going to be able to make it - she will be out of town on vacation with her family. BUMMER! I was NOT looking forward to relaying the information to her... I knew she would devastated!

I was right. She was. She cried. I wanted to cry for her. Hannah doesn't attend school with Chloe and we have only rare opportunities to see her - so this was total sadness.

After some tears and a bit of silence (I could tell she was really thinking), she finally said something to me, I don't think I will ever forget. She said to me,

"Mom, even though I'm really sad that Hannah can't come to my party, it's probably a good thing ... because I would just want to play with her the most and then the other girls would feel badly and I wouldn't want them to be sad."

I could feel the tears well up in my eyes. I knew that she was sad, but through her pain, she was able to find the GOOD in a bad situation.

God taught me a lesson through my child today. To find the good... the blessing... in each painful experience.

I love you Chloe!

Blessed Are the Pancakes...?

So... there I am working with my daughter on her March Bible Memory verse for School and she's reading along on her own (and doing a marvelous job I might add) and then I heard something that didn't sound quite right. Here's what I heard (Matthew 5: 7-10)... "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the PANCAKES, for the will be called the sons of God."

I had to laugh! I think THIS is what she meant, "... Blessed are the PEACEMAKERS, for they will be called the sons of God."

I kind of like pancakes, though. :)

I love that girl!

Making Wise Choices

So last night on our way home from gymnastics class, Chloe says to me, "Mom, I have something to tell you. Please don't be made at me. I'm sorry." A bit intrigued, I said, "OK, baby, what is it?" "Well, at lunch today, I went up to get a milk and I saw some chocolate pudding sitting on the counter. So I bought one. When I got to the table I realized that I forgot that we were making wise choices, so I threw it away." "You threw it away?" I asked, now a little puzzled. "Yes, because it wasn't the wise choice and I felt badly for it, so I just got rid of it." Realizing that our life change was definitely having an impact on our 7-year-old daughter, I couldn't resist responding to her by saying, "Well, honey, you made the wise choice and I'm proud of you. But you know why I'm even prouder of you? Because you made the wise choice to be honest and tell me about it. Thank you for being such a wonderful little girl! God will reward you for being obedient. I love you."

I relish in these moments to be able to speak love into my daughters life. I realize that these days are precious. She's learning how to be the girl that God wants her to be and I couldn't be more proud to be her mom!

A Violin!?

Okay - so my daughter isn't much into 'toys' anymore. Well - - to be honest, she never was. I remember the times when we would practically need a fork lift just to haul the things out of grandmas living room on Christmas morning! It was THAT bad. We would buy her all kinds of toys, but in reality she would never play with them! Last year the big ticket items was a Bitty Baby from American Girl Doll Company! I got her the doll, 5 outfits and my mom got her the baby crib for the Bitty Baby. I can probably count on ONE hand the times I actually saw her playing with that doll and that crib! I think her playmates got far more use out of it than she did!

So - this year my baby is 7. She's not into toys and has no real need for anything. I'm not just saying this because I'm her mom and I KNOW she doesn't NEED anything - but that's exactly what she told my sister-in-law over the Thanksgiving break. When my sister asked her what she wanted from Santa this year, her response was fairly simple - "I need nothing. I don't play with toys, I don't like Barbie's and mom won't let me have Brat dolls! I just want a violin this year. That's all really!"

Um - - okay! I think I can... I mean I think SANTA can do that!

To be honest, she's a bit obsessed with playing an instrument and I can't figure out if it has less to do with actually playing an instrument and more to do with feeling like a big girl carrying her case in with the other students who take lessons at school once a week! Either way, we want our daughter to play an instrument and if she says she wants the violin, I think we owe it to her to try it out.

To that end - - does anyone know where I can purchase an inexpensive violin? Perhaps maybe even a used on in good shape?

This is going to be the easiest holiday shopping ever! :)

Where Do They Come Up With This Stuff?

So - I was on my way to my mom and dads this afternoon to take Chloe over there for a couple hours while I went to work. I don't know where she got this from, but clear out of the blue she says, "I KNOW the rules for grandma and grandpa's house... Don't make them tired, Don't hurt them, don't eat all their food, listen and SHUSH!"

I couldn't stop laughing....

Where in the world do they come up with this stuff?

(my parents got a real hoot out of it too!)

Tooth Fairy - - where are you???

Okay - so I have to be the world's worst mom... ever! My daughter lost her third tooth last week. Well - it was actually on Friday and she wanted to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy to find, but she was having a friend stay the night, so I didn't think it was a very good idea. So - we put it off to the next day - and then we forgot. Then last night we finally remembered -- THE TOOTH! It was still in her camp bag. We got it out, kissed the bag and put it immediately under her pillow. Surely we would wake to find a couple dollar bills under the pillow. :0

Well - can you believe it? The tooth fairy FORGOT US! ;) She just plum forgot the tooth was there and one sad mom had to "explain" to Chloe this morning that it must have been that she couldn't see it very well because it was in a rather larger plastic baggie.

Tonight before going to bed, I watched as Chloe taped the tooth in the baggie to the top of her bed post. "She's SURE to see it tonight!" I heard her say, getting tucked in for the night!

Nice going TOOTH FAIRY! Hopefully she WON'T forget tonight! A little girl is patiently waiting...

Elvis is dead?

So - we were at home last week watching one of my newest favorite shows - The Next Best Thing on ABC. If you haven't seen it - it's a good one to watch! It's on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. The show highlights celebrity impersonators and I'm telling ya - some of them are out of this world!

My daughter, Chloe, and I love to watch it. Truthfully, I am not sure what excites her about it - most of the talent that is performed is from no one she knows. We've watched look-alikes of Dolly Parton, Cher, Robin Williams, Frank Sinatra and Madonna - - she doesn't know any of those people. But there WAS someone last week she DID know.

There was one incredible performance from someone doing an outstanding impersonation of Elvis Presley. Honestly, who HASN'T heard of Elvis? So - there he is doing his thing on stage when Chloe looks up and says, "Mom - THAT'S ELVIS!!" Smart kid, I thought, but "It's not really him, baby." I replied, "It's just someone acting like Elvis." Quite puzzled, she looked at me and said, "No, mom, that's really him!" Okay, so I have to tell her, right, "No, honey, that's someone just pretending to be him. The real Elvis is dead." Her response was hilarious... "WHAT? Elvis is dead?????? When did this happen?" She was really distraught over the death of someone she never knew who died 23 years before her birth! WOW! Out of the mouths of babes!!

I Bless This Food

My daughter, Chloe, loves to pray before meals. I think it's mainly because her prayers and short, to the point and heck - she wants to eat! Lately she has been asking God for a blessing on our food and this is how she does it... "Thank you God for this food, I bless it to our bodies." My very patient husband told her the other night, "Chloe, you are doing a great job, but you are not doing the blessing of the food, we are asking God to bless the food for us." So, in an attempt to correct herself, she repeated with this... "God, can I bless this food to our bodies? Amen!" We're working on it! :)

First Day of School!

It's hard to believe that my BABY (and I say this very quietly so Chloe doesn't hear me call her this) is in First Grade this year! Where does the time go? Someone once told me that time would FLY once I had kids... I never would have believed it until I sent her into that big girl school all by herself just one year ago.

This is Chloe's first grade year and that certainly means a lot of "frists" for her. The first time she will eat in the big cafeteria with her class... the first time she will actually have an art class outside of her regular classroom... the first time she will have homework (four nights a week of math is what I heard today!) It's a milestone year for her and I thank God every day for blessing my life with this remarkable daughter! I cannot wait to see what God has in store for her life this year!

I love you, baby!

Chloe's 6 Year Pictures

Got Chloe's 6-year pictures taken the other day - even though she won't turn 6 until June 27th. I always like to have them in my hand on the day of her party - so to avoid rushing, I got them done a bit early this year. It was such a fun time and I must say - the camera loves her. Must be she is so used to me clicking that flash in her face for so many years now.. :) She was very good and they turned out great! Here is my favorite one.

Our friend, Kathy, went with and here is a posting she had on her blog about the days event....


"Miss Chloe... it's time for your shoot"

I had the privilege today of watching Miss Chloe, a beautiful, soon to be six year old, have her photos taken to mark the milestone event. Chloe is the darling daughter of my "boss" Wendy at the church office where I love to volunteer. I help her with mindless, time consuming things and fill in for her so she can go get lunch, do errands and the like. Anyway, Wendy has become a Godsend to me. She has become a friend, confidant and someone to talk to when there is only self, me and God. Anyway, back to Miss Chloe....she chose to wear her Easter dress for the shoot...a darling pink floral chiffon and white sandals. She looked picture and princess perfect!
Mom and I watched the baby ahead of her appointment get her photos done and were absolutely giddy and silly with this baby's chubby little legs and cheeks :) It was such fun but then it was the star of the hours turn. I can honestly say in my 49 years on this planet I have never seen a child take to a camera more naturally than Chloe. She was AMAZING! She did as she was asked like "bring your smile down a notch". "How is a nearly 6 year old supposed to know what that means?" I thought to myself. But she did it perfectly, beautifully, amazingly naturally. She is such a sweet and happy little girl who loves life, God, her family, her friends and even looking at herself in the mirror. Not a thing wrong with that...she was looking at one of my favorite little people too! Thank you, Chloe, for allowing me to watch you today. You made my heart smile :)