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I’ve been absent from this blog, I realize that.  And, honestly, my absence has been done with intention.  I have thought numerous times about the many posts I would love to be sharing.  However, this year I have been learning a lot about that little word…intention.  I claimed this word on the first day of 2012 and, I have to admit, it has stuck with me.  I’ve never been a fan of new year’s resolutions, but claiming a word is something that can be accepted.  That single word has brought much needed transformation in my life.  Being intentional is something that can be addressed across many avenues of our lives…our family, our friends, our work, our play, our personal time…our faith.  I was finding that I was lacking a lot of intention with many areas and I needed to do a check on who I am and who I want to be for those that I love.  It has been enlightening to say the least.  Have I mastered the word?  Oh, my…no.  But, I am so thankful that it creeps in day in and day out to remind me that there is more to this life than checking off my never-ending to-do lists.  I will be sharing more of this journey as the time passes, but honestly, I have more to do today than sit and write a forever long blog post.

This leads me to the next section of this post…Gabe’s first day of 2nd grade.  The moment I am getting ready to share with you reminded me once again why the word intention has been placed on my heart this year.  I had wanted to say a prayer with Gabe before we headed out the door to greet the bus, but in the hustle-bustle of getting out there, I forgot (intention failure).  However, just as he was getting ready to climb on the bus, I gave him a hug and told him that I would be praying for him today and would ask Jesus to help him have a good day at school.  I felt bad that I didn’t take the time to pray, but hoped that me sharing those few words with him would help him remember the importance of our friendship with God.  Well, as he was getting off the bus that afternoon, the first thing he said to me was, ‘Mommy…Did you pray for me?  Because I had an AWESOME day in 2nd grade!!!!!’  He was so excited and so thankful that I prayed for him to have a good day that he actually had an (even more) awesome day!  Wow!  And, all because I chose to be intentional.  What a great reminder for me that the first day of school is full of excitement, feelings of anxiousness, taking pictures, meeting friends, and so on, but being intentional about the underlying foundation of developing our child’s faith can turn out to be the biggest reason for having a great start to the school year.  I hope your little ones found the same joy on their first day.

Jeremy and I always thought we would have a house full of boys.  Afterall, he’s 1 of 4 boys, I have 2 brothers, and there were 6 nephews born before Claire came to be.  So, the thought of going to ballet was far from our imagination.  However, I must say…it has been quite the treat.  Claire started ballet at the Ballerinas Academy of Dance last fall with her little BFF, Jordan.  They have loved every minute of it.  And, I must say…the moms are enjoying it as well. ;)  They are so cute and doing such a wonderful job.  Below are some photos I took during one of their classes last fall.

Then, came their first recital.  I’m not going to lie…I didn’t think it was going to be that big of a deal-until we got there that night.  There were between 200-300 people in the audience (!!!!).  The moms were thinking…yeah, they’re not going to do it.  But, sure enough they did.  They enjoyed it so much that they wanted to go back out and do it again.

They did a little tap dance to ‘California Girls’…Beach Boys style.

Had to share one from Instagram.

Jordan’s grandma made the girls little bouquets for a job well done.  They were so proud of their accomplishment.

Proud of our baby girl…