Baby Girl's Curls 117/365

Baby has the sweetest curls.

Birthday Celebrations, Day 2 116/365

Double Cream Brie, Cranberries, and Gluten Free Crackers.

Quilting Show

A quilt of Generations.

For generations different family members have added patches and their names to this quilt.

Old Timers Day Band

Ms. Old Timer Pageant

Baby Girl made friends

And played in the park. She followed the other kids around.

Then we had lobster for dinner...

And it was amazing.

Sweet Birthday Fun 115/365

I am very loved and very spoiled. I got lots of wonderful gifts today...

A giant cupcake pan, a cupcake making book, a tea pot from England with my favorite rose pattern on it with matching sugar bowl and creamer, my favorite movie and little gold plated tea spoons to match my tea set.  The handles on the spoons are little roses!

I spent most of the day working on my giant cupcake birthday cake. I like baking and I would really like to get better at decorating cakes so I was really looking forward to making my own cake.

It had two layers, the top one yellow and the bottom one rich chocolate with chocolate chips and I made Boston Cream custard for the filling.

It was a very heavy cake and since it was Gluten Free it wasn't as strong... and it kind of didn't make it...

At least my normal sized cup cakes turned out pretty well. I had fun playing with my frosting bag.

Well the cake didn't turn out looking the way I wanted it to, but it was still fun to make and to eat. I learned something about what not to do and now I just need to practice a few more times. Any one want to come over and eat all the cakes and cupcakes I'd like to try out?

Thank you every one for all the love and phone calls. It was a wonderful birthday.

Eye Teeth114/365

Baby Girl is getting her eye teeth, also known as vampire teeth.  They really hurt. Today she woke up from her nap very upset and it took a long time to calm her down.

We sat outside for a long time. Her favorite thing...

and played in the dirt for a while.

Then we watch a whole Baby Signing time.

And after dinner we gave her a special treat...

We let her play with her chocolate Easter bunny until she figured out he was tasty.

That cheered her up and she was very happy after that.

Chocolate is always good for cheering any one up.

Cards and Stumps 113/365

I got birthday cards today. They made me so happy. I got one from my Gramma and Grampa, who never forget anyone's birthday and always send a card on time, and one from my dear friend Julie, who knows me better and longer than anyone (outside my family) and loves me anyway... no matter how terrible I am at keeping in touch. (And I am terrible at keeping in touch with my family and friends).

These are the first birthday cards I've gotten in years. Thank you making me feel loved.

Baby and I spent most of our day out side, again, in the back pasture with the goats and the dogs. This is Baby's favorite stump to play on.

It has a hollowed out hole in it that she likes to put sticks and rocks in.

But mostly she just likes to sit on it and talk to her dog-dog and watch the goats.

I'm so thankful that we are in a place where she can run around and play in the dirt and get muddy and spend lots of time with animals.  I'm so thankful for blue skies, and big fluffy clouds, for clean air, for clean rain and lots of safe places to run and laugh.

And I'm thankful for my little angel who loves to blow kisses.

112/365

Baby Girl likes to organize things. She such a good baby.

The tin she is putting all her plastic eggs in was given to William by his grandmother on his very first Easter.

It's very special to us and very fun to be able to give it to Baby Girl now.

Mercy 111/365

William says that praying pre-written prayers is like cooking without spices.  It gets the job done and sometimes it's good, but it's also bland.

That may be true, but sometimes when I don't have the words pray on my own it's helpful to have those written prayers. Especially when the written prayers make you think about and ask for things that are really rather difficult to pray on our own.

The following is a prayer written by Saint Maria Faustina (1905 - 1938). We prayed in a special service I went to on Sunday afternoon.

It touched me and challenge me:

Oh Most Holy Trinity! As many times as I breathe, as many times as my blood pulsates in my body, so many thousand times do I want to glorify Your mercy.

I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, o Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that  of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor.

Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbor' souls and come to their rescue.

Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors' needs and not indifferent to their pains and moanings.

Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all.

Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.

Help me, O Lord, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in service of my neighbor.

Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even to the who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me.

You yourself commanded me to exercise the three degrees of mercy. The first: the act of mercy, of whatever kind. The second: the word of mercy - if I cannot carry out a work of mercy, I will assist by my words. The third: prayer - if I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer. My prayer reaches out even there where I cannot reach out physically.
O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself, for you can do all things.

(Diary, 163)

110/365

Spring Saturdays are for planting in the garden,

sitting on a moss covered stump in the back pasture with the goats...

And spending the evening sitting on the porch watching the baby chase the cats and cuddle with the dogs. 

Spring Saturdays are perfect.

A Royal Wedding 109/365

So today was the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  When I first heard about it I didn't think I'd really be that interested in it. Even up until a couple days ago I wasn't even sure if I was going to watch it.

But of course I got caught up in the excitement of it all.

I was especially inspired by my Sister-in-law, Annie, who has been keeping up on the wedding news since day one. She was even interviewed on the radio about her take on the wedding and got up at 5am today to watch it at a pub with champagne and wedding cake.

Our Royal Wedding celebrations were not so fancy but we still had fun.  We did get up at 3am to watch the start of the coverage...But it was still two hours till the wedding so we went back to bed. When we did get up to watch the wedding we had English scones and coffee for breakfast.

(My mom bought me this cup at Buckingham Palace, it's part of the Royal Collection to celebrate the Queen's Coronation Anniversary)

Even baby got up early to watch the wedding...

She liked the music the best

And she liked the waving. When the Prince and Kate were driving and waving she thought it was great fun to wave back at them.

She also enjoyed the scones very much.

And since we were all being happy and silly anyway, I got out my wedding veil and wore it. William took and edited this picture with his iPhone.

I know alot of people have been compaining about the coverage that the wedding got. But like they said in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 

Harry:"It seems a bit silly to be having a wedding with everything that's happening"

Hermione: "Maybe because of everything that's happening is why we should have a wedding"

There's alot of crap going on in the world right now, so it's rather nice to have a royal wedding to offer some distraction and some joy.  Weddings are joyful and hopeful celebrations. And that's just what we could all use right about now.

So many blessings on the newly married couple. We wish you joy and love and happiness...

 and lots of beautiful babies.