Life is beautiful!

Sometimes it takes the hardest moments in life to teach the greatest lessons and to realize what and who are important in our lives. I thank God for these lessons, as He continues to provide opportunities for me to grow and learn from my past and see a bright future full of possibilities. I am slowly learning to be more proud of the person I am and see that it's perfectly okay to be ME and stand up for what I believe in.

This morning, Juliana and I met up with Jenn and Elyse for a brief playground trip...it was HOT! I looked at the picture below this evening after a difficult moment and was reminded that what matters if her, Jacob and myself. Yes, of course we love our friends and family, but our roles as parents is to raise her and keep our lines of communication open as a married couple. Jacob and I have learned a lot in the past year and grown tremendously individually and as a couple. God sometimes has used devastating circumstances to help us learn life lessons and change our direction, purpose and goals. He knows just how and when we need redirection in our life and provides the perfect opportunities to put everything into perspective once again.

This amazing child is God's daily reminder that life is a gift and that He is walking right beside us throughout everything, the good times and especially the bad times. There is always something to learn and build our faith, helping me to continue to turn to Him for strength, hope and guidance.Thank you Lord, you continue to instill in me the power of prayer and trust. You have helped me to be less judgemental while also still holding on to my values and beliefs.

Peace, be still. With Christ beside you, you can face the storms of anxiety of today and tomorrow with a quiet anxiety. ~Dr. Robert Schuller

Off to Vivo City!

After a very rough night for me (I got around 2 hours of sleep...sigh), I woke up to my beautiful girl and husband. She was in a very good mood this morning, bouncing up and down on the bed, chatting away and excited to play, play, play!!

This is adorable...she put her two training undies on her feet and used them as shoes to walk around. Such an imagination!After all of us were ready and fed, we headed out to Vivo City just to walk around and do some shopping. Here we are at the bus stop...

One of our stops was Toys R Us to purchase a new toy and two new DVDs for the plane ride home (Juliana doesn't get them until we are on the plane). While there, I also got her a Fisher Price camera since she has a new interest in taking pictures. Once she can focus on the scope, she will also discover that she can see several pictures of different animals!!

After lunch, it was off to the play park. Down the slide... Then back up the slide... She's so funny! She ducks even though there is obviously plenty of room for her to go through this tunnel!A row of tubes to climb through...

On one of the neat swings with daddy...

Part of the play park are these gigantic sculptures that she got to climb on...

Oh how I love her even though she can be a pain in my butt at times!! Yes Camille, she has her moments too, believe me :-) Aw, she gave this one a nice big hug!

After a good day and her short nap in the stroller, we headed back home. Jacob discovered the best way to get Juliana to smile is to say, "Show me your teeth!" Here's the proof...

Well, it was a good weekend and today was a national holiday, Hari Ray Pausa: an Islam festival that truly began a month ago with Ramadan, a one month fasting period when Muslims do not eat or drink for 12 hours, from dawn until sunset. For the holiday, most people get tomorrow off, but Jacob is working :-( Ah well, it will be nice to have a Mommy and daughter day and we're planning on spending part of the morning with some friends!

The Willerton's birthdays: 2 and 4!

This morning, the three of us headed over to a friend's house to celebrate the birthday of both their boys...Caleb turned 4 today and Levi turns 2 tomorrow...talk about good planning, huh? Here's the family, although Caleb is hiding from the camera...

The wonderful cake made by Jennifer...

Juliana had a blast, because Jennifer set up different stations in the rooms, such as coloring and play-dough. Here she is with Levi and they're both using stuffed hammers to "bop" each other. It was all laughs though, so no harm done!

I think Juliana felt like it was a big toy store since they had all "new" toys she's never played with before! Oh and of course, she got to eat lots of goodies too...

Love her in this hat as she eats a cheese puff!

Coloring some pictures of Pooh, Piglet and Darby, but it didn't last long. I mean, we have coloring books and crayons at home, so that's no fun! Gotta play with all the "new" toys.

Playing with Handy Manny's miniature tool bench...

Juliana and Elyse under Caleb's bunk bed. Juliana called it a house and they did some puzzles together...Oh, the laptop! Juliana was nuts over this Vtech toy and so was Elyse. A play laptop is actually one of the gifts mommy and daddy will be giving Juliana as an early birthday gift for the plane ride home. Little does she know that there is even a Dora one!!

Oh, so cool in one of the boys Diego sunglasses!

I adore this picture of Elyse. I wish the lighting was better, but look at that precious face!

So, it was a great birthday party for the two boys and Juliana had a lot of fun playing with all the kids and toys. Loaded up on junk food too, so she was a bit wired, but that's what parties are for, right? Fun, fun, fun!

Happy Birthday Caleb and Levi and thanks Jennifer and Justin for having us over!

An unexpected gift!!

Several weeks ago, I began talking with someone online after having read each other's blogs. She has a personal blog, but also one in which she shares all of her recipes since she loves to cook (I wish I could have half her talent). Some of her recipes look like art work and you can see Raihana's website called, Taste Buds here.She brought this to me today, an arrangement of cookies that simply look too good to eat! I was truly amazed at the wonderful gift and wanted to share a picture to make your mouth water...YUM!!! Thank you so much Raihana, I can't wait to try them!

Fun in the sun and sand

The other day, Juliana went to IMM with Jean for some good outdoor time and fun in the water!
Probably trying to fly like the humming bird on her DVD!

I love this picture! Flower in her hair and so serious...

She's such a happy little girl (when she wants to be!)... Today, Chris (a new friend in our building), her two girls, Juliana and I met up with Jenn and Elyse at the Lakeside MRT to go to the park by Jurong Lake. I've been to the area before, but was never aware of the playground and how much it had to offer for children, even little ones.

This is one of Chris's daughter's, Sophie. She's precious, as well as her little sister.

Juliana enjoyed the playground and running in the sand...

Yup, that's a fishy...

After some time, a bunch of children from one of the school's showed up. Juliana and Elyse enjoyed watching them all go down the slide...

Cuties :-) They matched today!

My beautiful fairy!

One of the things at MOPS is an exchange table for moms to bring in clothes and toys that their children have grown out of and for other moms to look through and grab whatever they may need. I saw this dress up outfit and had to grab it for Juliana since she has been playing dress up lately and keeps wearing the same outfit she got from her Nana.

I couldn't get my pretty little fairy to pose, but she had fun wearing it around the house and saying "Pretty, pretty."
The back view with the cute wings...
Now I have a place to bring some of Juliana's older clothes and toys too!! Whatever doesn't get picked up goes to an orphanage in the Philippines, so it's win-win no matter what.

The wonders of MOPS

Yesterday, Juliana and I set out for MOPS, picked up by Hope which is a treat since we can avoid a taxi at rush hour!! I hadn't made it last week since I was ill, so I was looking forward to being around friends and meet some other wonderful woman. Juliana seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself too with all of the other children in the Moppets room. I also loved the "Mommy, mommy" when I went to pick her up and the giant hug she gave me :-)

The topic of the day was discipline, perfect timing!! It was focused on 1-2-3- Magic, which I have started implementing for the last few weeks. It truly does work when it's done correctly. The speaker was wonderful, outgoing and had lots of information to share with all of us moms.

I didn't realize how important it has become to surround myself with other moms until yesterday morning. After a few weeks of rest, appointments, etc., I was in dire need of adult interaction and loving from my friends here in Singapore. It felt good to just be open and share what's been going on in my life, without having to worry about judgement. Just hugs and prayers...all I really need!!

If you're reading this as a mom and live in Singapore, please think about joining MOPS and contact me for further information. It's a wonderful environment to just be YOU and get priceless feedback about what to do in the toughest situation or how to handle the most difficult moments in your children's lives. It's also a great place to share what's worked for you and what hasn't. Probably the most important thing is that MOPS can help you develop wonderful connections and friendships to help you along the path of motherhood!

Play play play

Juliana always gets so excited on the weekends to have us both home with her. She points to us, "Mommy" and "Daddy" over and over throughout the day to show her excitement at seeing us together with her at the same time!! Although we like to get out and do stuff on the weekends, it's also fun to just stay home, relax, enjoy the pool and the company. Sunday consisted of the Monkeydoos again...
One of her many adorable faces and such a cute outfit from my mom with the matching hair clip!
Priceless face!!

Deeply concentrating on the DVD as it came to an end...

Later on, we headed down to the play ground. Enjoying the monkey bars...

There were two little girls playing with a balloon and one of them let it go, so this is Juliana staring at it up in the sky as it floated away...More staring...

Then Jacob asked her where the sky was. Good answer :-)

It was a quiet weekend at home since we have two pretty busy weekends before our trip back to the States and then the last one that will probably consist mostly of packing. Enjoying the quiet time whenever we can!

To the pool!

Hello everyone, Juliana is here!!Tried to get her to go down the short slide, but no such luck today...

Getting out to jump back in and she looks adorable in her pink bikini...

She loves jumping into my arms from any surface she can and I make big splashes to make her laugh...

Practicing our kicking and she had to check to make sure daddy was watching...

I LOVE this picture. Shows how happy we both are and I thoroughly enjoyed being in the pool with her today. She's so much more animated lately!

Sooooooooooo happy and posing for the camera!!

I was blowing bubbles and she wanted to catch them...

Down the big slide. She usually can go alone, but wanted mommy with her today...

After swimming, she ran up to the tennis court to watch the players. She kept calling it baseball though and was so excited to watch!

We haven't been down to the pool this week for many reasons, so I really enjoyed swimming with her today. It took a minute for her to get used to the water (temperature), but then we had a blast. She loves splashing around, jumping into my arms and kicking. I lie her on her stomach and move around while she kicks and I was amazed at how strong her legs are!! Guess we need to spend more time at the pool :-)