Don't forget your blessing

Anytime we sit down to eat a meal or snack, Faith always reminds us to say the blessing.

 First, she folds her little hands together.

Then, she presses her hands to her forehead and says, "I wun pay!"  (I want to pray!)  How that warms my heart.

Faith, too, is following in my shoes

Not to be outdone by her big sister, Faith grabbed my shoes as soon as Grace stepped out of them.

Faith has more than a minor obsession with shoes.  She's majorly obsessed.  Especially with David.  She is forever picking up his shoes and toting them over to him and then trying to put them on his feet.  And she usually keeps it up until David caves in and puts them on.

Actually, Faith seems to think that everyone should always have a pair of shoes on.

In fact, my baby often falls asleep before I even attempt to remove them from her feet.  The howling and screeching just isn't worth making her go barefoot.

As much as she loves wearing her shoes, she really seems to get the most pleasure from wearing either mine or David's shoes.  Most often it's my shoes, or even Grace's shoes, probably because David's shoes are so big and too heavy for her to actually walk in.

And while watching both my girls walk around in my heels today reminds me that both Faith and Grace are watching every little thing I do.  So too, are they watching David and everyone else around them.  They learn more from our actions than they ever will from our words.  It is my hope that David and I will be parents that show them extraordinary amounts of love and understanding.  That they will follow in our footsteps and come to know Christ as their Savior.  That they will walk daily with Him.  And that they know that they have two parents who are so proud of them and love them so much that it's more than our hearts can hold.

Her head was stuck

As you know both of my girls now sleep in bunk beds.  Grace on top.  Faith on bottom.

Hoping to prevent them from falling out of bed, we put up side bed rails.  And I went a bit further by putting a bookcase right next to the bed leaving only a small area by the ladder left open for Faith to climb in and out.

I thought that I was making her bed safer for her.  At 3am this morning, I found out otherwise. I woke up to Faith screaming like she was hurt.  I rushed down the stairs with my hands sweating and my heart racing only to find her lying partly on the floor.  Faith had fallen out of her bed and landed halfway to the floor with her head facing up and solidly wedged between the bookcase and bed frame.

In fact, she was so stuck I couldn't get her out.  The more I tried the more Faith screamed.  Rather than panic, I took the logical approach.  I yelled for David.  Needless to say, he came running downstairs half asleep thinking we were about to make a trip to the emergency room.  As soon as he arrived, we pushed the bookcase away from Faith's head while David pulled her out.  After Faith was free, she clung to us until she fell back to sleep just moments later.  And somehow, through it all, Grace managed to sleep peacefully just like a little angel.  I, however, did not. 

Taking a nap all by herself

Faith really wore herself out today.

She fell asleep on the sofa while I fixed her a mid-morning snack.

There's nothing more precious than watching sweet innocence at rest.

Where's Faith?

This morning I went into the girls' room to wake them up and get the day started.

Much to my surprise, Faith was missing from her bed.  Perhaps she had a bad dream last night and decided to climb into the bed with her big sister...

Tenacious Faith

Faith, what do you have in your mouth?

Open up!

Dog food?!?!  Gross! 

I'm not sure why but for some reason Faith really likes playing with Chloe's dog food.  I think it's because she knows that is something she's not supposed to do.  She enjoys testing her boundaries.  Whenever Faith is playing with Chloe's food and sees me or David coming for her, she looks at us and quickly crams it all into her mouth and then plays  sweet and innocent.  She'll even go so far as to start banging magnets against the refrigerator hoping to convince us she really wasn't in Chloe's food and water.  All the while with a mouthful of dog food.  It's quite obvious that Faith is very headstrong.  Exceedingly stubborn.  Unyielding.  And she's only ONE year old.  At times like these I really start to dread her teenage years... 

Down low bed

We've been struggling with Faith at night.  For some reason she really fights going to bed.  We make sure she has a full tummy and then we rock her to sleep.  As soon as we stand up to put her in her crib, Faith wakes up and starts screaming.  So my brilliant husband came up with a new strategy.  He put her in the bottom bunk. 

 And it worked!  Wonders never cease!

Faith apparently just wanted to sleep in a big bed like her big sister.  So from here on out, I guess Faith gets to sleep in the bottom bunk below Grace.  It works for me although it makes my heart ache thinking about how fast my babies are growing up.  Sometimes I really wish time would slow down.  Just for a few years...

Craft crash!

CRASH!  Something clattered to the floor and it sounded like glass shattering.  What did I find?

Faith managed to pull the color pencil jar out of the basket on our craft station and onto the floor.  Fortunately, the jar was not broken.  Mason really takes pride in their work for which I am immensely thankful.  It looks like now is the time to move our craft caddy to a higher shelf.

When Faith looked at me and smiled so big, all I could do was smile back. 

She just wanted to color.  And she was even willing to share.

Faith's baptism

Today was another very special day.  Faith was baptized.

She wore the same baptism gown that Grace wore.  A good friend and exceptionally talented lady, Angela, made it when Grace was born.  And just like Grace, Faith refused to wear the bonnet so I held it throughout the ceremony.  When the girls are older and get married, the bonnet turns into a handkerchief that they can carry on their wedding day.  And to make it even more sentimental, the beading on the gown and bonnet is from my wedding dress.  This baptism gown is by far the most beautiful dress I have ever seen and it one of my most cherished possessions.  

Here Faith is with her Daddy waiting patiently as she enjoyed the music.

Soon we were called up to the front of the church.

Pappy performed the actual baptism since he is an ordained Presbyterian minister.

Then Granddaddy prayed over her.  He's a minister, too.

How fortunate that both grandfathers were able to take part in the ceremony.

 And here we are with our family.  Such a handsome and happy group.

Seth, Queenie, Hope, Granddaddy, me holding Faith, David holding Grace, Pappy, and MeeMee.

What a special day for all of us.  David and I are so blessed to have such loving families and we are so thankful that both my parents and siblings and David's parents were able to be here with us as we celebrated Faith's first birthday and baptism this weekend. 

Faith's 1st birthday party: Cake, presents, and confetti

We started off the party by singing Happy Birthday to Faith.

And let her blow out her candle.

We've been practicing the blowing.

Faith clapped her hands after we sang to her and finally let her dig into the dessert!

Grace helped feed Faith her bee.

Faith thought it was "bee-licious!"

And buzzed her bee around in the air for another bite.

Then it was time to open presents.  Doesn't her little outfit look darling on her?

Grace helped Faith with her presents.

We made quite the mess!

Faith got her very first baby doll.  And she loves it!

And Faith walked around looking for more presents to open.

We gave her this little Queen Bee pull toy.  It's one of her favorites.  She's always liked Grace's "puppy friend" but Grace won't ever let her play with it.

Then it was time for the pinata.

After many tries we finally found the right pull string and out popped the confetti, glowsticks, and such.

I really have a mild obsession with confetti.  I think I may have enjoyed it more than either of my girls.

But the glowsticks were a definite hit.

Both Faith and Grace wore them all over the house.

And played with them for days.

Don't they look so sweet together?  There's just something about cute little bums in ruffled tutus that melts my heart.

Then Grace was kind enough to clean up the mess.  She's a little obsessive about keeping things clean.  Faith is the exact opposite.  Oftentimes Faith will go behind Grace making a big mess out of whatever Grace has just cleaned up.  But this time Queenie held onto Faith to make it easier for Grace to vacuum. 

Faith! That can't be comfortable!

Faith woke up during the night and cried herself back to sleep in less than 5 minutes.

When I came in to get Grace ready for school this morning, this is how I found Faith sleeping.

Her bottom on the mattress with her feet propped up the bumper pad.  The rest of her body folded nearly in half!

And holding onto her toes while snoring ever so softly.  It's amazing the positions that my little ones can sleep in.  And it's memories and photographs like these that I will cherish always.