moments

2009...
In one year we have lost teeth, gained new friends, learned to ride bikes, to blow gum bubbles and to swim.

In just 12 months we have finished another year of residency, started kindergarten, preschool, sleeping through the night (well, some of us!), and second grade.

Over 52 weeks we have turned 2, 4, 5, 7, and, well...some other much bigger numbers.

During 365 days we relaxed at the beach, played soccer, sat in way too much traffic, and flew on our first airplane.

Within 8,760 hours we learned to laugh, tried to stop crying, learned to forgive, worked hard at listening, even harder at waiting our turn, and tried to share.

In just 525,600 minutes we moved out of old rooms, moved into new rooms, gave up bad habits, and tried to start good habits.

During 3,153,6000 seconds, we learned to trust God with the details, let go of the little things, focus on the really important stuff, pray often (really often) and hold tight to God’s promises.



Taken one at a time, our moments are like grains of sand...tiny and barely noticed.
But together they become our lives.

May your moments, gathered together, bring joy to your hearts.

May they remind you of the grace, love and power of our GREAT God.

He IS in the moments.
Have a merry CHRISTmas and a splendid 2010!

Peace to you all,
dan, christa, selah, samuel, miguel and elia

little

elia esperanza... your name means "thankful to God"


our fourth small blessing.
november 22, 2007
suddenly you are two! and not so small, although selah has nicknamed you "little".



you are sweet as honey, tough as nails.

our family's exclamation point.

we celebrated you with your best little buddy, clark, and his family.


you loved the birthday song the best...well, that,and getting to eat a super yummy cupcake!


your favorite present by far is this adorable little sweater dress from anissa and chris!! you request to wear it daily!!

we treasure each day we get to have with you!

tremendously 4!!!

from this...


















to this...








november 19th...

our third small blessing turned FOUR!

we celebrated Miguel in our usual family way...

he got to pick breakfast: pancakes, eggs and sausage. (of course!)

and dinner: pizza. (his favorite)

and dessert: chocolate cake(he decorated it himself! he actually asked for a black cake...this was as close as i could come).


the friend he picked to join the dinner was Daniel, a sweet new friend from preschool!


it was a great day!




he loved showing everybody how old he was,by lifting his shirt and showing his number four written on his chest!

we love you buddy, and we are so glad you are in our lives...

happiest place on earth

our awesome cousin Joseph (joe-phish as some in our home like to call him) flew down to our end of callie for a 48 hour birthday celebration complete with a trip to DisneyLand and the beach!






even though some famous Mouse claims to live at the "happiest place on earth", after 48 hours with Joe and his awesome mom, we are pretty sure that our place is way happier than Mickey's!!








we love you Joe!!!!!!









Happy 11th b-day...thanks for spending it with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


ps...go to stanphillstory.blogspot.com for some great shots of us all at the beach...i didn't bring my camera(shocker!) but Rebecca did and took some great pics!

family fall fun

Happy Halloween to you all!

here are some fotos of our many small blessings enjoying many fun moments dressing up,

carving up and eating up this CRAZY halloween tradition!

we had a school dress up day on friday...

then pumpkin carving today after soccer...

then (phew) canvasing our neigborhood for candy tonight!

...brushing and flossing many small teeth are the two things we will be spending most of our time doing!

our love to you all

Muchisimas Gracias Meredith!!!

this is a post especially for one of my most dear friends from Fresnillo, Mexico...a place i once called home... many years ago.

several weeks ago our "many small blessings" received a package from my sweet "sister in the Lord" and old house mate , meredith omland. inside the package, they were overjoyed to find these great VBS T-shirts!

every year in Fresnillo, these amazing missionaries love heaps of little kids all year long, while teaching about God's love for them through songs, play, crafts and Bible verse memorization. At the end of each year, every kid that is able to memorize all the verses for the year gets to sport one of these totally cool T-shirts, with one of the verses from the year on it.

meredith was so thoughtful and awesome, she sent our kids each a shirt!!!!

meredith, they LOVE them and wear them all the time! they are so proud to get to wear them!

thank you so much for thinking of us here in the states!

we love you and continue to pray God's gracious hand leads you on in your fruitful labor down in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico!


ps...to anyone out there that may read this and want to know more about how these amazing missionary friends of mine are spreading the love of Jesus to the small blessings of Fresnillo, Mexico...or how one might help them do so, please feel free to contact me at ccortez24@yahoo.com

dental hygeine

i walked out into our garage/playroom the other day to see my sweet, charming, hilarious third small blessing enjoying tossing around his "cropodile" (as he likes to call it).


i was so touched by how great he was playing just by himself.



he had his back to me, so i asked him how he was doing, but he wouldn't answer.



being the nosey mom i am, i asked again!



still no answer. now i was really interested.



i got right up next to him, tapped him on the shoulder and said,"hey, buddy, what ya doin?"

this is what i saw when he turned around:





i think he spends every waking minute trying to think of new ways to make me nearly wet my pants from laughing!


enjoy.

surprised by quiet

after dropping off most of my many small blessings at their respective schools, elia and i slowly walked back home, enjoying every step on the newly washed sidewalks that are still wet and smell full of fall from our first rain since March.

she helped me fold the morning's laundry then she wrapped up in a cozy blanket to wait on the couch while i made our favorite morning treat...steel cut oats with lots of yummy things thrown in.

it only takes 3 mintues to warm it all up and get it ready to enjoy...

but apparently 3 minutes was longer than she could wait.

i came into the family room holding our bowl full of warm goodness to find this:

my sweet as honey, tough as nails elia...taking a spontaneous, morning snooze! i guess the house is just too quiet for her...

the noise-less-ness lulled her to sleep at 9:30am!

what?! one of MY many small blessings falling alseep, on their own, before the age of 5, at midmorning!? who is this blonde kid??

and silly i, risking it all to snap these pics just so i can have proof of it!

but oh, the wonderful sound of quiet!

sweet, sweet quiet!

here are some fotos of my morning napper in her usual state of being...

enjoy!

may you have some of your own surprise quiet time today as well.

seven sweet years

two became three and so our family started to be.

september 22, 2002.

our gentle, nurturing, generous, funny selah is SEVEN!

we celebrated her in our own fun family-tradition way...she picked out every meal of the day, including the type of dessert we were to have after dinner. Then she chose a special friend(grace who lives on our street!) and their family to join us for an fun evening of tons of balloons, squeaky horns and silly party hats (all selah's idea!).

the highlight of the night for dan and i was the fact that selah made it through the happy birthday song without excusing herself to another room until we finished singing!

so much has changed!

her best present by far (she says) is her upcoming trip to visit her cousin and gram and papa in New Castle (northern callie!!)

i will get to be alone with her(for more than an hour) for the first time since she was 16 months old! i think it is my best present too!

you are a delight to our hearts selah...we love you so!