My Thoughts

Rebecca is amazing. She has improved so much with her walking. Today she was walking, fell down and got right back up to finish her way to her destination. I loved it. I was so excited. Usually she just drops and continues crawling. She’s been standing up for a while now. Soon after she learned how to walk actually. Maybe a few days or so after she was first walking she started pushing herself to a stand using my leg. Then I realize a day or two after that she could stand all by herself.

When I talk to Rebecca she seems to answer “ya” in the appropriate place. It surprises me every time. I told her to say “thank you” today and it sounded just like that. Really odd, or is she really trying. I just can’t tell. It seems she is trying. It seems she has “mama” and “dada” straight and she still says “dadadada” and “mamamama” and “babababa” to express her feelings. “Dadadada” when she’s excited and happy. “Mamamamama” when she’s upset. “babababa” , and the first two, just because she wants to talk I guess.

Meredith is trying really hard to read. I’m not consistent with teaching her out of our book, “How to read in 100 Easy Lessons.” She amazes me at the words she can read in our scriptures. She wants so much to please me. She can be so sweet and she can be so much trouble.

Emily is improving in her speech. I believe it has a lot to do with my working with her. The best has been getting my girls to sing. We learn new words and say them over and over again because we’re learning to sing it. “Father” was one of those words. She says it quite well now. There are many others.

I’m so proud of my girls. They’re beautiful and they make me laugh, and cry, and happy, and frustrated, and all of these wonderful feelings. It’s so great to be alive, to be with them, to stay home with them. They are my little miracles that keep me on my toes and remind me to enjoy life. They remind me of the purpose of this life and what I want in the next: To be with them forever.

Count Your Blessings

The girls ask for the same songs every night. One of the favorites is "Count Your Blessings". They finally have the right name down, but they were calling it, "Count Your Numbers". At first, Nathan and I didn't know what they were talking about. So for FHE we counted our blessings. This is what they found.

Then they stood by each one and counted their blessings.

And then I added 3 more blessings after they were done.

Donuts

For Christmas we received a donut maker and some cute aprons. The aprons we use a lot of and they were dirty while we were doing this. (Much to my dismay.) The first time Nathan tried the donut maker the donuts were...(sorry, Nathan)...disgusting. Not that it was his fault. I just didn't like the recipe. So, try, try again. I tried a chocolate recipe that I found online with a chocolate glaze. Mmmmm. Much better. The girls and I enjoyed them.

Meredith! Yuck! Go wash your hands.

Swing

Rebecca loves the swing. If I need just a few extra minutes to finish something she is perfectly content swinging with the girls pushing her. I love to go push her on the swing just to see this happy smiley face. Oooh, I could just kiss those cheeks!

Breadmaker Bagels

I've been trying out a LOT more recipes lately. I'm realizing that almost anything that comes prepackaged at the store I can make at home that's way tastier. Of course, I'm scared about trying bread for several reasons. The fact that it seems difficult to make a nice sandwich bread (at least from the different blogs I read). Mmmm. Maybe I don't care and I'll just toast everything from now on. :) I don't know if my family will go for that.

I found a recipe for breadmaker bagels. Yummy! These do NOT last at my house. I even gave some to my piano students when they came over and they raved over them for weeks. Oh yes, that good. These were my first try. My current bagels look much prettier.

The Picnic

I feel incredibly blessed right now to live near my sister. So near, in fact, that we are in the same ward. It's fun. We went into the mountains, the day after our zoo trip with my sister and her husband.

It was a momentous occasion where Rebecca tried her first cheeto (spelling this escapes me. I ask google and all it can tell me is how to spell "cheetah". Well, duh! but what about cheeto?)

Cute face. She loved it! I'm sure she's wondering why it took us so long to give her one of those.

And here is the last picture we took while we were out there. (Note to self - PLEASE take more pictures next time!)

Zoo With Old Friends

We went with our friends to the Zoo in March. It's almost been 2 months and I'm just now getting around to posting it. Um...I don't know what to say. But, blogging is my favorite form of journaling and I need to do better.

The girls just loved holding my this little girl's hands. It was more like a game at the beginning.

Here's "Happy". I was trying to show her the ducks. She was just chillin in the stroller.

And shortly after she fell asleep with her water bottle.

I just loved these two pictures that we got. And that of course is Meredith, vying for the center of attention.