Daphné is 2!

Our sweet little bugga boo is two!
January 9, 2017

Still soaking it in how old she is.

Champagne glass cheers with Tonton.

Gifts from Tonton are always fun.

It's one of those things you turn over to make a cow "moo-ing" noise.  HA!

Picking her favorite delicacy from the bakery choices.

I'm pretty sure chocolate won.

She loves her Mamie!

I don't think I had it this good when I turned 2.  

Do you like the mandarine thrown in for a well-balanced dessert?

Yep.  Chocolate won.

Yum.

Present from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tim.

Stickers!

Card from Kikik and Robi.

Reading the card.

And Papi bought a bubble gun!

Tonton Seb captured a lot of these moments with his camera.

Light flooding in.

Such wonder!

She is truly a ray of sunshine!

Popping the bubbles with a dust pan broom.

Way more efficient.

And here is the traditional picture by her measuring stick.  She is 86 cm tall (2'10") at 2 years-old.

You can see the comparison from age 1 in 2016 to age 2 in 2017.  At age 1, she was 70 cm tall (2'3").  She grew 7 inches.  Can you imagine if we still grew at this rate?!  Phew.  Good thing we stop after a while.  HAHA!

Daphné, your name means "laurel" in Greek.  Laurels were used for the crowns given to the winners of the Greek olympic games.  So, you are not only our joy, but also our crown, like it says in this verse in the Bible : 

"Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved." -Philippians 4:1

We love you!!!

Love Maman and Papa

I'm back!

Well, hello guys!
I guess I could never make a living being a blogger.  My inconsistency would never rake in the dough.  Ha!  No, but in all seriousness, I'm sorry for not being more on top of it.  I did have a slight glitch... my computer was TOO FULL of pictures, and I couldn't download anymore from my phone.  Since then, my genius husband has made a little more room until we find a better solution to cater to my trigger-happy photo finger... hehehe!

I'll start small.  Here are a few pictures from right when we got back from California.

January 7-9, 2017

Keeping her awake with a pain au chocolat.

Nap time thinking it's night time.  SO HARD to wake her up and make her stay up.  Disclaimer: as an adult, I didn't mind jet lag.  Now, as a mama with a small kid, I really do despise it.  Thankfully, God has given me an amazing husband to help me.  It only lasted 5-6 days.  Thank you Jesus!

Worship practice.  First Sunday back.  None of us were really awake this day.

Our little night time kitty cat.

Morning napping.

Bribing her with chocolate to stay awake.  Don't you love the hair?!!!

Love Linz

Flight Prayers Answered!

Hey guys, we're just about out of the jet lag fog... ay caramba!  Each time we go through it, I think, "Man, I don't know if I can do that again."  Yet, we do, and God gives us grace and rest and helps us with re-acclamation.  

So, for those of you who have been praying for Daphné to sleep through the night, THANK YOU!!!  God has answered your prayers, and she is sleeping all the way through the night now.  [Which means Mama and Papa are sleeping too... huge high fives!!!]

I wanted to share our flight story with you!

We also asked you to pray for an extra seat near us for the flight home so Daphné could sleep.  Well, during this moment above (cutest thing to see Daphné jamming to Papa's music), I went to the desk to ask the lady if there was any wiggle room.  She replied with, "I'm sorry.  We have a completely booked flight.  There's not one open seat in economy."  So, I sat down and told Ton that it was going to be a cozy flight.  All the while, I'm still clinging to the hope that something could change.  

We get on the very full plane, and something did change.  A couple in front of us gets bumped up to business.  I ask the flight attendant if we could use those seats.  She said go for it.  Then, we ask the mom and teenage daughter next to us if they wouldn't mind moving up to the row ahead, so we could have some space for Daphné.  The mom replied so sweetly, "It wasn't that long again that I was in your same position.  I totally understand.  No problem."

AND BAM!  We had, not just one extra seat, but TWO EXTRA seats!!!  Above is Daphné sleeping.  She slept for 7 hours of the flight!!!  Another huge answer to prayer.

So, through all this, God is good!  All the time.  He is good even if we would have only had our original two seats.  I'm thankful that we have such a peace knowing God is always on the throne in Heaven looking out for His kids, the ones who call Him Abba Father, Daddy.

Thanks Daddy for our seats.  You deserve the glory!

Love Linz

Last pictures from our trip

So sad to leave my family, but so happy to get back to our home in France.  It's just bittersweet living far away.

Grandma and Grandpa took Daphné to the beach for a last hoorah!

Windy

Instagram picked my top 9 most liked photos of the year 2016.  I love that 4 of them have been from just this trip alone.  You all must really like that I'm with my family.  

Taking down Christmas with Grandma.

Love Linz

LA Zoo

We met some of our good friends at the LA Zoo. Jordan and Michelle Taylor and their 3 girls.  Unfortunately we didn't take a group picture, but here are a few that I took.  Enjoy!

Love Linz

Christmas Day + Beyond

Merry (late) Christmas from Agoura Hills, California!

We fly back to France in a few hours (red eye), so I'm trying to make my last picture drops.  Please enjoy the pictures without any commentary... still need to do some laundry and finish up some packing.

Love Linz