Should I be worried??

These pictures are from June and I just found them on my camera! I chuckled when I saw them I had to share. Emily and Oliver are such good friends. We went to Sea World together and they enjoyed seeing all of the exhibits together, but when we got to the Bay of Play it was a whole other story. They were wrestling! Hilarious to watch so I had to capture some pictures. Apparently, my little girl is a tough chick. ha-ha!

Emotions

I realize that emotions aren't exactly "normal" for me these days. I can experience them all at such different extremes.....not in the bi-polar kind of ways...I just mean I know what happiness/giddiness and sadness feel like.

I can't always wrap my head around the idea of emotions. I mean, I get the happy times. It's easy to feel happy from eating your favorite snack (can you tell I'm pregnant) to hearing the sound of your child laughing or better yet the "Amen" after a prayer or the "I love you" right before you leave each other for the evening. Those emotions need no explanation.

I'm sure it's going to sound a bit strange....I mean, I have "everything" but sometimes I feel abandoned and alone. Last week I dealt with abandonment....not being good enough for people to love me or appreciate me. I get the whole "Jesus" answer. I completely get that in the midst of that kind of loneliness He is right alongside me, but I just don't know why I have to go there....why do I even enter that valley?

I think sometimes....our culture stinks. If we're not funny enough, pretty enough, free enough etc...we aren't worthy of love and acceptance. I'm really trying to focus on the truth that God loves us the way we are and letting that be enough.

Growing up!

My little girl is growing up in so many ways. Some of them aren't so fun for mom and dad because it means testing boundaries. From birth, Emily has been a very strong willed child, so as she gets closer to two we're going through a lot of challenges, but together we're building communication and finding discipline strategies that work......

Now, there are some growth changes that make us smile. We have a picture of Emily with Santa for Christmas 2008 with her mouth wide open in a screaming fit and a picture with the Easter Bunny 2009 with a slightly less open mouth, but still a screaming fit. So, you can imagine our giddiness when Emily practically jumped out of Brian's arms at California Adventure to meet two of her favorite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse stars. She didn't want to leave them.

The last two pictures are from Brian's birthday and she LOVED watching the parade. The last parade she saw was when she was an infant, so this was much more fun. We got to hear her sweet little giggle, hear her recognize characters and of course point, point, point!