Good morning

   Praise the LORD!  His mercies are new every morning!  This morning Timmy and I had a fun time playing together before the girls woke up.  When they did wake up, they came downstairs together holding hands and smiling huge smiles all dressed and ready for the day.  It is such a blessing to be greeted by their joy and observing their sweet friendship as sisters.  They gave me big hugs and then joined Timmy on the floor.  Timmy loves to watch a DVD called "Baby Praise" so Hannah decided she would put it on for him.  Once the video started playing, they all sat next to each other on the floor in front of the screen (without any prompting), and I was able to capture a precious picture of them as an onlooker from behind.  Notice Lauren leaning on Hannah in the picture.  :)  The dog then started begging me to go outside, so I gave into his wishes to let him do his business.  When I was walking back toward the house from outside I was greeted by three smiling faces looking out the back door at me.  How cute!  Timmy was standing up leaning against the window/back door just grinning from ear to ear, and Hannah and Lauren were right there with him.  I couldn't get in the door because Timmy was blocking the way.  So, Hannah helped him sit down so that I could squeeze through the door with my big tummy.  :)  

   Then, it was breakfast time for the girls and nap time for Timmy.  Lauren suggested we have french toast, which was a fun treat!  When we sat down to eat breakfast both girls wanted to pray for our food.  Lauren prayed first, followed by Hannah.  Then, I asked both girls to tell me two things they are thankful for, which they did.  After that I said, "God, you are wonderful!"  Then, I was silent and without any prompting they started praising the Lord as well.  Some of the things they said were, "God, you are so strong," "God, you create light," "You provide this warm house and food for us," "You died for our sins and rose again... Hallelujah!"   Then, after we kept going for a couple of minutes we concluded with, "Gloria a Dios!"

   While Timmy took a nap the girls and I had "school".  We have been taking a break from our normal school routine for a few days and learning about money, which has been fun.  We also read quite a few books this morning.  I really enjoy Hannah knowing how to read now.  It's so fun to share in her excitement after reading new words/books.

   After Timmy woke up from his nap, all three kids were in our room with me.  Over the weekend Marilyn (Tim's Mom, also known as YaYa) gave me a cassette tape that many of you may have heard of from many years ago.  It's called "The Friendship Company" by Sandi Patti. Tim and I both grew up listening to those songs and can sing them all from memory.  Today was the first time our kids got to listen to The Friendship Company.  Hannah and Lauren had a blast jumping on our bed while listening to the songs, and I got to take turns dancing with all three kids.  They loved it!  Timmy has so much fun "dancing" now and gets so excited about music ... giggling and laughing while moving to the music.  

   What a sweet morning.  Thank you, Lord, for these precious moments each day with our children.