Moms are the best teachers and trainers in a child’s early life. There is no greater legacy for a woman than to have been blessed with a loving matriarchal lineage.

It is truly a blessing to have one on one time with each of my gifts. February was a particularly fun month for Gillian and I, as we got two very special dates together.

The first was a fun girls church event for young girls who shine for Jesus. It was a fun night with friends, good message and wonderful music.

Gillian and I also had the opportunity to get out of school one day and head up to Denver to see one of my favorite ballets, Cinderella. We had a great time and enjoyed the very beautifully performed ballet, it was really a dream come true to share this experience with my daughter. I still am so thrilled that she loves to dance. I love that we have that connection. I pray, that she will exceed my abilities and take full advantage of the talents that God has given her.

My sweet eight year old daughter is growing up so fast, but it brings me great pleasure to see her interested in creating things with her hands.

What seems to be a growing trend, many of my dear friends and mommies, like me, are trying to bring back the art of homespun simplicity.

Back in the day, it was the only way to get many such items by many American families. Today, in 2012, it is almost more expensive to make things from scratch. Even so, I love that our children are interested and willing to learn how to bake, cook & sew. In learning a few of these timeless talents, I think they are also learning how special and unique something handmade with love is.

A few weeks ago, Gillian asked if we could make matching blankets for her American Girl dolls and herself.  This week we picked out some fleece for the project.   I cut both pieces of fleece into the four parts.  Gillian helped me line them up and I cut the strips for her as she tied, all four blankets in one afternoon.  We watched a few episodes of The Walton’s while we worked.  It was a wonderful mother-daughter memory for me.   They turned out beautifully and I think that Gillian, Lillian, Libby and McKenna are very happy.

The request: Breakfast in bed Sunday morning before church.

Sweet as can be, how could a daddy resist this honor?  Flattered by the request Kip accepts this task.  Gillian, however is not quite confident in our feeble memory, so she decides to leave us a trail of notes from our room to her bed.  Each note simply scribed with “Berkfest in Bed….”

Sunday morning comes around and before our alarm goes off, Hayden is in our room, reminding us that Gillian wants breakfast in bed.  Kip looks at the clock and figures it is time to get up, but Hayden simply beckons Kip into Gillian’s room.  Curious, I follow along to see what was up.  There sat our little girl, perched in her bed with a breakfast tray at her lap, with chocolate milk and a bagel prepared for her by big brother, Hayden! 

I honestly cannot think of a better way to start any day let alone Sunday!!!  God is so good and is constantly revealing His love for us in so many precious ways.

My cup runneth over this day!  Thank you God!

On our wonderful trip this past weekend my daughter and I were able to go get some pampering together. Gillian had her very first pedicure and I do believe she is hooked. My girly girl loves all of that stuff- nails, hair, shopping, clothes. Truly it was so fun and so great that we can start such precious bonding memories together! I will forever have a spa buddy.  I had so much fun with you Gillian!  Love you!

H's Pumpkin

This year, I understand that Hayden carved his, himself. It is NOT a surprise however to see what he carved. You know my boy loves anything APPLE related. It would just be wrong if he didn’t carve an Apple logo into his pumpkin now wouldn’t it?

GG's Pumpkin

Gillian picked another cute doggie to carve into her pumpkin, she had some assistance from daddy who is a pumpkin carving expert!!!

I am so proud of them, they have both been so good at practicing their lessons each week. I actually think that they both enjoy it.   As hard as this is to explain, they both are picking it up naturally but in different ways.  Gillian has a feel for music, she is very lyrical thus her learning is from her heart, whereas Hayden is very technical, so piano is very methodical to him.  It is really cool to witness.

October 9th Piano Recital

We are blessed to have found such a wonderful piano teacher, she is great at encouraging and motivating her students. We were drawn to her and chose her because of her philosophy. Both Hayden and Gillian have practice two times a week, one private lesson and one group/ensemble lesson. This allow them to build friendships while they learn in addition to the many other wonderful benefits of a group lesson.

No school lunches to make, no rush about in the morning, no homework to get done. Just quality time with my babies, sleeping in, snuggling, baking, walks and reading. Thank you God for Fall Break.

Gillian's Kitchen

As I try to feed each of their souls with quality time, I feel that I get double the blessings as my soul over flows with greater return. As I bake alongside Gillian she has my undivided attention and just chats away, we are suddenly transformed into pretend land and I am a guest host on her “cooking show”. She talks to a pretend camera teaching her viewers how to make banana bread. Step by step, my little Martha Stewart shares our “secret family recipe”. As I play along, I think, “God, how does she know all of this, she is so wonderfully and perfectly made…..can I please tuck this day into my forever memory bank?”

Pumpkin Cookies

While Gillian and I bake, my sweet Hayden tells me that he woke up this morning and decided that our entire family needed to be on IOS4 (don’t ask b/c I do not know). Without letting Hayden know, I ask Kip if this is okay…he approves. Suddenly I see my son’s gratitude and confidence beam as he takes on this task for our family. He updates Gill’s iPod, my phone and some stuff on my computer, it fills his morning and he is smiling the entire time, even as I look blankly at him as he tries to share with me what he is doing – “Lord, please help me to understand his language a little bit better so I can say more than, REALLY?” I am so impressed by him, but I cannot engage the talented Hayden Russell.  I am blessed.

This week we took Gillian for her first full eye exam with our favorite Optometrist, Dr. Bergamo.  Gillian has been getting several headaches so we decided to start with getting her eyes checked. Although her eyes are NOT ‘bad’ there are some issues that glasses can maybe help with. She has a small astigmatism, which apparently runs on my side of the family, and a minor issue with her eyes converging when she is looking at something up close.

So my precious baby girl gets her wish, she gets her glasses.

I just hope that she will quickly learn to care for them, responsibly.  That’s not too much to ask now, is it?

Our dog, Zippy has finally discovered that he can sleep in Hayden’s room.  A boy needs his dog, always.

My mom is very talented in making doll clothes, so I asked her to make a period outfit for Gillian, (she will be needing it for school in the future) and it matches clothing from her American Heritage Doll.  It turned out lovely and Gillian loves it.  One night, I peeked in on her when she was sleeping in the cap. Needless to say, I HAD to take a picture, isn’t she just precious?

Why such a delay??  Well the card maker had all of the cards made and ready for the next step in the process (When did Christmas cards get to be such a production?), however the author of our “lil update’ seemed to have overlooked my deadline.  This year also seemed extra difficult to pin the kids down long enough to ‘catch’ a picture of them together!!!  After a few tears from Gillian and ME, we finally picked one!!!

See my little elves helping me with the envelope labels…..so precious, aren’t they?