Rilyn | the paquettes

Archive for the 'Rilyn' Category

Jun

my birthday girl

Categories: Birthday, Family, Kids and Rilyn
Tags: Birthday, Five, Julie, Rilyn

God made me a mommy by blessing me with Rilyn FIVE years ago today. She is such a sweet little girl who simply desires to please others through obedience and kind acts.

She is artistic. One of the best gifts I could give her today would be a ream of printer paper! She sits for hours at our kitchen table creating art for her family and friends.

She is a girly girl! I asked her a couple of questions yesterday and her answers, I think, sum up her ‘girlyness’.

Mommy: What do you first think about when you wake up?

Rilyn: Princesses.

Mommy: If you had a million dollars, what would you buy?

Rilyn: a wedding dress (James, do we have a savings account started already for the girls’ weddings?!?)

Mommy: If I was a genie and granted you three wishes, what would they be?

Rilyn: First wish would be to be a beautiful princess. Second wish would be to be a beautiful queen. Third wish would be that all my friends would be my sisters.

Rilyn is a lover, not a fighter.

Mommy: What are you most scared of?

Rilyn: Ella hitting me.

I was interested in finding out Rilyn’s vision for her future in her wise old age of five.

She told me very matter of factly that:

When she is 10 she will be at Disneyland.

When she is 15 she will be graduating high school. (Sorry to burst your bubble, sweetie, but that’s not going to happen.)

When she is 20 she will NOT be taking naps anymore.

When she is 25 she is going to be married, a teacher, and a mommy with four kids (wow! A true mommy’s girl-minus one child)!

When she is 30 she will be cooking. (I hope she will be doing more than that at 30!) 😉

And when she is 35 she will be sitting in a wheel chair. (I told Rilyn that 35 was older than I am and I guess she thought that naturally old people sit in wheel chairs!) 😉

May

these are the moments

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Christianity, Ella, Family, parenting and Rilyn

Today was the first day that the good ‘ol wading pool came back out and I let the girls ‘swim’ in the backyard. I had only two rules for the girls to follow: No chalk in the pool and no sand in the pool. They repeated the rules back to me and knew them. I go back in the house and am pleasantly surprised how entertained they are and how much fun they are having. I love watching them through the window when they think I’m not looking. Awhile later I go back outside to find…dun Dun DUN…sand in the pool! Rilyn immediately starts bawling when I asked who did it and she confesses that both her and Ella brought sand into the pool. “Well, that’s it,” I said. “No more pool for today.” (Both girls are crying their eyes out now.) You both broke the rule, and the consequence is no more pool/backyard for the rest of the day. (You really would of thought I sentenced them to life in prison by the way they were crying-but this is how my girls are-DRAMATIC) Then Rilyn, through her blurry eyes, looks up at me, ever so innocently, and asks if she is still going to heaven.

Wow. I quickly say a little prayer for God to give me the words…

“Yes! If Jesus is King of your life, nothing can separate you from Heaven. Not the worst kind of sin you can think of. And God wants to forgive our sins if we ask Him.”

I then explained to Rilyn and Ella that I sin everyday too, just like them.

“I think we should all ask God for forgiveness right now,” I said.

After our prayer and confession, I told the girls that God has now forgotten that they put sand in the pool! Their sin is no more! Rilyn then asked, “Does He still love me?”

“He will ALWAYS love you. He gets disappointed in the wrong choices you make, but now He forgave you!”

“Where did our sins go?”

“Remember, when we went to the beach 2 weeks ago? Our sins have been tossed in the deep part of the ocean.”

“Wow!” is all she could say. And then they both wanted to cuddle.

Lord, let me be Jesus with skin on.

Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”

Micah 7:19 He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all oursins into the depths of the sea.

**Shock! There are no pictures of the girls in the wading pool because I’m trying to cut back my picture-taking in May, (a little bit of a detox if you will), since I have over 250 pictures to scrapbook right now of Easter, Disneyland, and Asher’s birthday!

Mar

my mini me

By Julie P. 1 Comment

Categories: Family, Julie, Kids and Rilyn

Rilyn may look like her daddy but she has my personality! Yesterday, after she had finished cleaning the playroom (one of her chores), James found this list. She told us matter of factly that she had to make a list of all the toys she had to clean up first. I love that she even started to ‘x’ out the toys as she had cleaned them up. A daughter after my own heart! It is so fun to watch Rilyn as she is an emerging reader and writer. As a former kindergarten teacher, this is what I loved to teach!

From March 2009

Jan

I have a dream

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Rilyn and Silliness

Rilyn loves to talk about what she learned at school. She asked me yesterday, “Who killed King Martin?”
“What?” I said.
“You know King Martin, he made the children of all colors love each other?”
“Oh, Martin Luther King!”
“Yes!! Man I miss that guy! I have him in my heart.”

Dec

halo from the ‘hood

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: christmas and Rilyn

You know those darling, handmade ornaments you look forward to getting at Christmas when your child enters preschool? Well, in 2005, Rilyn was 18 months old and in a Mother’s Day Out program. I couldn’t wait to open that white paper bag with Christmas stickers all over it when she brought it home. I just knew it was going to be the sweetest, cutest, Christmas ornament ever! (That is truly one of the things I looked forward to when I found out I was pregnant with my first child-homemade gifts from my children.) As I pulled out the ornament, though, I didn’t quite feel the “oooooh awwwww” that I thought I would. Here’s what I got.

“You don’t want to mess with me!”

Not exactly the best picture of my daughter who yes, had a hair growth issue. So, it’s not how I would picture angels looking in heaven, but it’s my girl, and as I pulled out the ornament this year to decorate our tree, I will forever cherish my “halo from the ‘hood.”

Nov

stumped

By Julie P. 1 Comment

Categories: Christianity, parenting and Rilyn

Rilyn asked what a ‘Christian’ was because she heard the word on the radio in the car.

I told her that a ‘Christian’ was someone who wanted Jesus to be King of their life and they realized that they are a sinner and need Jesus to forgive their sins.

She then asked what a ‘sinner’ was.

I told her that ‘sin’ was any wrong choices and that we all are sinners. (She told me she wasn’t a sinner so I immediately knew this conversation wasn’t going to be ‘her coming to Christ’ moment.)

She wanted to know how I sin so I told her “one way mommy sins is when I get angry at you or daddy.”

She then asked me if Jesus was a sinner and I told her “No. Jesus is the only person who has never sinned.”

She then thought for a moment and said, “What about when Jesus tipped over the table in the temple (John 2:14-16)? He was angry then and you said being angry is a sin!”

I told her we will talk about this later with daddy. How do you explain “righteous anger” to a 4 year old?

Oct

genes

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Asher, Family Pics and Rilyn

From October 2008

Rilyn is 2 and Asher is 5 months old in these pictures

Sep

School days

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Rilyn and School

Rilyn is officially a bus rider this week and both mommy and Rilyn couldn’t be happier! (I don’t have to load up 2 crying kiddos in the car to drop off and pick up Rilyn from school and Rilyn gets to be ‘a big kid’ and ride the bus! She feels so cool.)

From September 2008

One of her first assignments at preschool was to draw a self portrait. Of course, that is Rilyn’s favorite thing to do! Here is her masterpiece!

From September 2008

(that is a ‘4’ next to her name because she is 4 years old of course! And the orange dot on her pink shirt is her belly button. She insists on putting one on every person she draws!)

Aug

first day

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Rilyn and School

Today was the first day of preschool for Rilyn at Manor Elementary school. She reported to me that she had a great day of school and that I was to remember a very important rule, “if you ever go to the playground, do not go into the grass because there is snakes!” When I asked her who she sat by in the cafeteria, she said, “Two girls from Mexico but I don’t remember their names.” 😉

This year, I couldn’t just take Rilyn’s picture because Ella was wanting a ‘first day’ photo too even though I explained to her that her ‘first day’ was in September. (I don’t know where Ella gets those poses from!)

Here is Rilyn’s ‘official’ picture

We’ve come a long way baby…(this is Rilyn’s real first day of preschool!)

Aug

nothing

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Rilyn

If you know my first born, you know that she loves to be doing social things at all times. She really thrives on family gatherings, play dates, going out to a restaurant…

So today, we were ‘just chillin.’ (She dreads those words.)

Rilyn is at the table doing her favorite thing-coloring and writing. She asks me, “how do you spell ‘nothing?'”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because we’re doing nothing!!!!!” she tells me.

I proceed to spell it for her and then she wants to write out ‘we’re doing nothing’ to make an emphasis to me that I must be a horrible mom for keeping her home without any plans. oh well.

Here is her declaration of independence: