Cherish the Moments

I've recently had some great reminders to cherish the little moments in life and the importance of keeping life in perspective.

Today we attended a 100th birthday celebration at our church. We enjoyed lunch with the extended family and had a lesson in perspective when we looked over the scrapbooks and artifacts from the last century.

Just look at Erma's spirit and joy celebrating with family -- quite inspiring!

We were also reminded of a simpler time when a birth certificate was filed a week after the birth (which likely took place at home) and a person born on November 11 was not born on a holiday.

For those who are curious, November 11, 1918, is the date the Armistice ending World War I was signed; Wilson declared it Armistice Day in 1919 and it became a legal holiday in 1938. Eisenhower signed into law a bill in 1954 declaring the Veteran's Day holiday to celebrate all veterans' sacrifices.

We had so much fun recently when my family came to visit and a lot of the fun of course centered around my sweet niece Allison who is at a truly hilarious age. The best parts always seemed to come in the sweet, quiet moments of the day.

Riding in the car provided many great moments just listening to Allison. She likes to sing and chatter--and she really likes to imitate her mom and dad talking on the phone. She has even learned to pause for the "other person" to talk, and just keeps saying "yeah. yeah." Precious.

This was such a sweet moment to catch. Allison is highy entertained by her Mimi Jackie's iPod. They had finished a log play time while Kristin was doing a photo shoot and decided to wait for us at the car.

This is the sight we found.

Last but not least is this great shot with Uncle John as they were both just waking up.

So, don't forget to cherish the little moments as they happen, and to keep some perspective on life--things will probably look a little different a few decades down the road.