heaven on earth

I know most of you have already seen my pictures from this weekend's trip back east on facebook, but in case you hadn't (or in case you needed to see them again, because they are SO precious!) here is our weekend in a nutshell :)

I absolutely fell in love with my niece. Lily is perfect, absolutely perfect, the most precious baby I have ever met. Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I don't think so...:) It was pretty crazy meeting her, knowing that this is probably the only baby I've ever held that I am guaranteed to get to be a part of her life forever. I'll get to be at her baptism in February, her graduations, her wedding, holidays, hopefully some birthdays. It was SO cool knowing that I am not in her life just for a season, but that she really is part of us. She was wide awake one night at 4 in the morning and I was up with her and we were rocking in the glider chatting. I was telling her how incredibly beautiful she was, how she was created absolutely perfectly, and how when she is 14, I will still tell her that but she won't believe me...but that's okay because I'll keep telling her that until she does believe me again one day. And I got to pray over her in the wee hours of the morning as the rest of the world slept. As tired as I was, when I would hear her start to fuss at 3 in the morning and got up to get her, I couldn't be angry. She is so little, and so helpless, and such a little bundle of sweetness that picking her up and watching her snuggle down into my arms and calm down was incredible. I get to see her again on December 23 and I'm already counting down the days!

Our first meeting, she was very enthusiastic, clearly!See my mittens! They don't stay on very well because I move too much but they keep my fingers warm while they are on!This is what we did all weekend, we bounced on the ball with Taylor (the puppy) underfoot. Lily LOVES the bouncing!Bath time!The Backman zoo--Anna, Dorothy and Taylor. Don't get out of your chair, you'll loose it!Hanging out with mommy and TaylorWhat she looked like when we took her out of the baby carrier I had her in on our walk. Sleeping, limp baby!My favorite moment of the weekend, she slept like this on top of me for 2.5 hours Sunday night, it was amazing!