Just One Picture Please...Or Maybe 26

I usually try to take photos with the girls on Mother's Day and their birthdays. It seems like when we don't go out of our way to schedule getting a picture, Dave and I usually don't get into the photos with the girls. But anyway, on Mother's Day this year, I did not get any pics with the girls. It was just laziness to be perfectly honest. With having the musical in the evening of Mother's Day, I tried to get the girls to relax in the afternoon so they could be well rested, and I ended up dozing off myself :-)

After school on Monday I was determined to get a cute picture of all three girls so I could have my "Mother's Day" photo. It was one of those silly notions, because typically I take anywhere between 300 and 600 photos each month, so I certainly needed one more today. The other 400 in my May folder were not enough. It occurred to me that any photo I took on this particular day wouldn't be as nice as having them in their church clothes, but I just wanted something, anything. I momentarily debated asking them to change into their dresses from the previous morning, but that just seemed crazy. My willingness to settle should have tipped me off that this picture was not going to come easy.

I asked them to sit by the tulip bed and from the very start it was a mess of giggles, trying to make a swing out of their interlocked hands for Rebekah to pose on, not looking in the direction of the camera, closing their eyes and squinting because the sun was too bright and other acts of uncooperativeness. And I thought they were difficult to photograph when they were toddlers.

Alyssa and Rebekah sitting next to each other felt like the hugest obstacle to a successful picture {see the middle photo of the first collage, that's Rebekah pushing Alyssa's face away from her face. They are so full of love for each other, their hearts can't stand it sometimes}, so I thought a change of arrangement would solve the problem. I was wrong.

Photo 130 of 365, taken May 13th:

I never did get the picture I was hoping for that afternoon, but I can't begin to describe how thankful I am for these girls, the people they are becoming and that I get to be their mom.

I have been reading a book my mom gave to Alyssa and it's a book for teens, but I thought I would read it before Alyssa does. The prayer the author has for the book's audience resonated with me, maybe it will for you too. I often feel so caught up and cluttered with our day to day activities and responsibilities, and it's all good, worthwhile stuff we are busy doing. But how much better is this:

"I'm praying God will call you to do something great for His name and His glory. It may not make the headlines, but greatness is determined by God, not by man. Most of all, I am praying you have the courage to answer that call."
~ Living For God As Courageous Teens, by Michael Catt, with Amy Parker

It's my prayer that we always point the girls towards His target for their lives and simply enjoy the little people He has entrusted us with. Even when they won't take proper pictures for us :-)

Two Mother's Day Musicals

I began to look through photos from this year's Mother's Day musical when I realized that I had never shared any of the pictures from last year's musical. The 2012 Mother's Day musical was the very first Kid's Choir Musical that Rebekah was old enough to be in, and the very last one before Alyssa was too old to be part of Kid's Choir. So being a first and a last it was somewhat bittersweet and I knew I needed to have pictures of both here. The blue shirts are the 2013 musical, the yellow shirts are the 2012 musical...

This year's musical was called "The Star Factor" and was as cute and funny as ever.
Photo 128 of 365, taken May 12th:






I enjoy watching the musicals so much. I can so clearly see the girls' personalities in how they act on stage. Each song has a little choreography that goes with it and Emma is always very focused on their director the whole time, trying to be right on cue and doing every movement as precisely as she can. Rebekah on the other hand does her own thing sometimes, sticking with the motions and dance moves she loves the best.

The musical from 2012, Acorns to Oaks:



Alyssa had one of the leading drama roles in her last Kid's Choir musical. I am not sure if I have ever said this in other posts about the girls' involvement with choir at church, but I know it is because of her Kingdom Kid's Choir experiences and their awesome teacher, Gina, that Alyssa realized how much she loves music, singing and acting.

Music has become a part of her. There is not a moment of the day when she's not singing, humming, or tapping out the beat of a song with her pencil eraser. Music seems to help Alyssa think and it's always swirling through her mind and heart. She'd love to teach music someday, despite the current lack of job security for music teachers. I'm sure that if it's what she's meant to do, God will open the right doors, but for now, we could not be more thankful that Alyssa has been blessed by some really great teachers and found something she is very passionate about. She helps run sounds at all the practices now, since she is too old to be part of the choir itself.

Emma doing her thing ~ she had a solo.

With this being the first time Rebekah was part of the choir, I had to beg her to even stay at the first several practices. It was a tearful battle each week for the first few weeks, but I just knew if she went, she would love it! By Mother's Day she was ready for the show. I was fearful that she would do something very unpredictable, or possibly stand up there and cry, but she rocked it :-) {you should click the collage to see the photos better...we may have a future drama queen on our hands, see the bottom left photo}
It was such a fun musical and a perfect end to Alyssa's time in the Kid's Choir.


Happy Birthday to my Dad!! His birthday was May 8th and it always falls near Mother's Day so we get to celebrate both occasions on the same weekend.

Photo 129 of 365, taken May 13th:

One more choir related photo...the Monday after the church musicals a group of kids always goes to a nearby retirement community to give the residents an abbreviated presentation of the musical. Here they are being silly after their performance. It's often easier than I might imagine to make people happy.

Sweet Gifts

Happy Mother's Day!

These girls sometimes wear me out, but taking care of them and watching them grow has been without a doubt the greatest, most rewarding adventure! Being their mom is both harder and more wonderful than I could have ever imagined it would be, and they are the best gifts ever! They make beautiful homemade gifts as well...
Alyssa painted this most beautiful teapot for my collection.


Emma handmade a precious pink corsage for me to wear.


And Rebekah gave me this perfect plant with her little face in the flower. She wanted to be sure I knew that the "real flowers" in the cup were going to bloom soon.























We spent Mother's Day with my parents and it was my Dad's birthday too, so we had a lot to celebrate. Happy Birthday to my awesome Dad!! Happy Mother's Day to my sweet Mom!!

And of course Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms, Grandmothers, and Aunties that we couldn't share the day with, we miss you all {and we'll see you soon}! All our love to everyone...