Dear General Public: Yes, Sienna is a little doll. Yes, she does give beautiful smiles!!! Yes, Josh is a little character and full of life, yes he does have white blonde hair etc etc. But before you move on you've missed someone... and it's a very special little someone who does notice that between her brother's antics and her baby sister's babyness that she does get overlooked whenever we are out and about... and so I want to make sure I introduce and make sure everyone in my online world at least gets to stop and have a good look at my beautiful first born daughter - Chloe Renee Devenish.

In just one day Chloe can be a princess, a beautiful ballerina, a fairy, a mummy, a mean girl being mean to the sisters, a fireman, a doctor and so on... she has the most vivid imagination!! At times I wonder if she is aware of the line between reality and imaginary worlds she slips so easily in between the two. She puts on fantastic voices, although I cringe when I hear the mummy telling off the kids voice... I hope I don't REALLY sound like that! The storylines to her make believe worlds are fascinating... the main theme seems to be someone being mean to others and the others feeling sad about it and so her favourite character says "oh" really sadly to comfort them... not surprising really because so far Chloe has shown herself to be the most empathetic of my children. She can't bear to see someone upset and is very sensitive to boys or other kids being rough or mean to one another... you can hear in her voice when she comes home from kinder how concerned she is when she has seen another kid pushing someone else. I know myself that if she ever sees me upset she becomes so concerned that I end up concerned about her!!!!!!!!!!

When it comes to funny comments, Chloe is the queen. Her perspective of the world is so unique and strange and... hilarious! I laugh several times a day at the funny things that she has to say. Even her way of talking is funny... it goes something like "I wanted da milk over on dee table"... and has two pitches, very high and girly, or this funny little low voice. Some of my favourite quotes of hers - "does daddy miss your milks when he goes to uni?", "Dumma, are you old dumma?", "when joshie grows up will he drink from daddy's milks?" and "when I grow up I will marry Joshie". (And yes, she may have had a bit of a fascination with breastfeeding for a while)

Chloe is an extremely placid, easy going, sweet natured and well behaved girl. She has her moments (such as when a bit of her sandwich is cut crooked) but generally, a stern voice or 1/2min on time out will cure her... she did not inherit her mother's terrible stubborn streak! She loves cuddles and tickles, loves people and omg she LOVES to talk... she does NOT shut up!!! She also is little miss organised... tonight for example was a game in which her and Josh had to pack her kinder bag with all kinds of stuff, and then they had to drive to another point to pick up more things to put in her bag, and then another spot which was Josh's kinder apparently and so on.

She LOVES dancing, especially ballet. I have no idea what skills you'd expect in a child of her age, but as far as we are concerned (as extremely unbiased judges hehe) she has a gifting in dancing... she watches ballet on tv/computer intently and then copies - not perfectly, but it is amazing to watch a 3yr old's hand movements become softer to match what she is seeing! She is ridiculously flexible (as kids are) and so can do the splits with her legs in the air!! She also has a love of music - she sings a lot, and makes up her own songs... which are usually hilarious to listen to although you have to keep a straight face!

We are so incredibly blessed to have Chloe. She is my sweet little ray of sunshine who does not have a malicious bone in her body but is full of kindness, empathy, laughter and her own unique way of viewing the world. When I look back on my pregnancy with Chloe in which we nearly lost her so many times... it seems incredible that that tiny speck that was being threatened was the beautiful vivacious girl who now clings to me for cuddles!!!

And so, that is a tiny glimpse of my Chloe... I couldn't possibly capture the true essence of her unique and precious personality on here but I at least have given it a go!!!

The moments that define you (another "Christian" blog)

So here are a few things that have been on my mind lately, mostly have come up due to the book we are reading as a connect group (Strong women, soft hearts by Paula Rinehart... AWESOME book). It is nothing new or mindblowing but I just wanted to write about it because it helps me get my head around what I'm thinking about deep down.

There comes a point in your walk with God where you start to realise that not everything is going to work out in the exact way you would have liked. That some things are not going to be ok (at least, not in your eyes), and that God is not going to do things in your way, in your time. God is not tame; unlike some examples of imperfect parenting on earth, our Heavenly Father is not ruled by our every whim & desire. And there are moments that we can never understand what the reasons are, but we are asked to walk through some great pain that seems unnecessary and destructive and we can't understand how that could POSSIBLY be God's will!
Those moments define you.
It is in that moment that you have a choice to make... a choice to become bitter and cynical and harden your heart and promise yourself to never allow ANYONE to hurt you again, especially not God. Or you make the decision, no matter what happens, no matter what price I pay, no matter if things never are ok, I will not stop following you God. As the disciples said "where else would we go?"
The amazing thing I have found is that once you make the decision, yes - you still may walk through some great pain, yes things still may not work out how you wanted... but somehow within that decision comes a great peace - the peace that surpasses all understanding. How incredible that somehow, in the middle of something that we never wanted to see happen, we are granted a peace because of our trust in the faithful & loving character of our Father!!!!!!!
And that is all I have to say!!!!!!!!!!