fourth of july and God's love

So we ended up going to Virginia Beach to visit our parents for the holiday weekend since Cecilia (my niece) was sick. The past few road trips have not gone so well with Lily. She doesn't just sleep in the car the whole way like she use to so she is awake for a good portion of the time. And since she is so active she does NOT like to be confined in the car seat for extended periods of time - making travelling much more difficult. If you're familiar with Lily, you know that she LOVES Baby Einstein dvd's. They have always worked like a charm when she was fussy since she was probably 2 or 3 months old! So we decided to go ahead and purchase a portable DVD player for the car since we would be getting one at some point in time for her. It was truly a Godsend!! Played it once on the way there and two times on the way back. :) No - she doesn't usually watch that much baby einstein (I try to limit it to one a day - which means only a half hour). But when she was just fussy and upset about being in there I turned it on and it worked great!

This weekend was my parents turn to have us at their house (we trade off). So after we got there and unpacked we headed over to Matt's parents house (with my parents in tow) to have a cookout and a dip in their pool. The cookout food was GREAT since we can't have a grill at our apartment. Lily's cousin Aaron LOVES her to death and just wants to squeeze her like a teddy bear. They were really cute together!

At bedtime that night, Lily did not do so well. She usually goes right down after her bottle without any crying. Well she started screaming her head off. We couldn't get her calmed down so I finally made some more milk and she took 4 more ounces and konked out. I don't know if it was just a really odd night and she was still hungry (never has done that) or if it was just a new place and the bottle finally calmed her back down. She does always have a hard time going to bed/napping when we are in a new place. After Lily went to bed we watched some fireworks on tv.

Saturday we just chilled at the house for awhile. Lily loved playing on Grandma's piano!! She thought she was hot stuff...

Then we took a trip to Babies'R'Us and of course Grandma bought Lily a bunch of new things - two books, a new sippy cup, two new toys, and an inflatable bathtub for grandma's house (one less thing we have to content with when we visit). I know I've said it before but I hate that we don't have a Babies'r'Us here. I LOVE that store - it is baby heaven! Then my dad treated us all to a delicious expensive meal at Longhorne Steakhouse. We had the most delicious steak there (besides Ruth's Chris steakhouse)! And then for dessert we shared this HUGE chocolate cake thing. It was amazing! Then it was back to the house and Lily got to swing for the first time. She wasn't a big fan of it but that could also have been due to the fact that she was a little fussy at the time anyways. As you can also see - Lily found a new favorite "toy" at grandma's house. She LOVED chewing on a coaster they have! What crazy things amaze babies.

Sunday morning was church and then we got on the road. On our way home we made a pit stop. Matt LOVES those claw machines. Well.. they had one there so when I came out of the bathroom he was winning Lily a stuffed toy:

It was a busy weekend to say the least! This month is gearing up to be very busy weekends for us. Next weekend we are headed to Maryland for my cousin's baby shower. The following weekend we are headed to NC to visit my sister's family. Then we're hoping that we'll be back for a visit to virginia beach the end of this month or beginning of next one for Matt....

On a final note... In church on Sunday, Pastor Todd was talking about how God's love for us FAR surpasses the love that we have for our children. He dwelt on that for awhile and it really got me thinking. I, of course, knew this already. But it really hit me yesterday. I can't imagine how much love that must be because I know how much love I have for Lily. And the great thing he pointed out for us is that no one is for us as much as God our Father is. Just like as parents we are the biggest supporters of our children, God is our biggest supporter. That doesn't mean we won't face hardships or experience discipline - but it's all for our best. For those of you that are parents... take a minute to really think about the fact that God loves us SO much more than even we love our children. WOW!

P.S. - I posted all the pics from the weekend on our shutterfly picture site if you want to see more (http://bruns924.shutterfly.com)