Elayna on Marriage

Recently we published a cute story about Elayna's very Victorian mindset toward marriage. We don't know where she came up with such strong puritanical views (honestly--we only joke about pre-arranged marriages :), but don't let her fool you. While she may have very high ideals, she's very occupied at the moment with her preparation. I'm having technical difficulties getting the video to embed correctly on the blog, so in the meantime click here to listen to her current issues with marriage.

Never too young to guard your heart

(This post is written by Paul & Audrea's friend, Dawn)

I have the most amazing opportunity every week to teach young kids about God and His Word. They are always attentive and eager to learn and somehow remember most everything I teach them. It is a HUGE encouragement to me to see how much they learn and remember. I am blessed every week with 3 beautiful little girls, Makayla, Sabrina, and Elayna. There have been though, many a Wednesday nights or Sunday mornings where somehow I know I am at church, but I feel like Art Linkletter or Bill Cosby are present filming a secret episode of "Kids Say the Darndest Things." We added a friend last night to our Wednesday night events. Taylor, a boy, who is in Kindergarten, joined my beautiful girls. We went through our normal activities of Play-dough, coloring books and crayons, and a short Bible Story. I brought in some Kids Worship music last night to play while we ate our dinner and colored. After class, we had a bit before the kids got picked up, so I proceeded to turn the music on and they all decided to dance around and enjoy the music. They were all laughing and smiling and enjoying each others company. Sabrina decided to dance with her sister Elayna and Elayna was more than willing to enjoy that with her. Well, Taylor, my only boy, decides he wants to dance with Elayna as well, so when Sabrina finished, he made his way to Elayna and took her hands to dance. Elayna stops, plants her feet to the floor, quits smiling and laughing, and yells "NO ROMANCE BEFORE MARRIAGE!!!!!" She dropped Taylors hands and went on dancing by herself enjoying the music. I mean seriously, where is Bill Cosby and Art Linkletter when these things happen anyway? :)

Elayna

This morning I want to introduce you to my darling Elayna. Elayna turned 4 this year as you can clearly see in the picture below.
Baby Sweet's happy grin is always such a warming sight! Here she is doing one of her favorite things: munching on snacks!
Here she is doing her most favorite thing: sleeping whilst sucking her thumb under her cuddly "tt-woobee-bubba" (as she calls it--she keeps adding new names that she likes).
Elayna can't decide who she likes to play with more: Will or Sabrina. She has been such a big helper with her brother but does tend to get into the most squabbles with him :)
Here's my little lovely one helping make these flowers look even more beautiful.