Family Birthday

It was our family's birthday this last weekend. We've been married for 6 years!!! Hooray!!! My mom said she thinks we're out of the kindergarten stage now. What fun! We celebrated by going out to breakfast at the Waffle Co. It ended up being somewhat disappointing.....but it was fun to be together! Logan got to take the whole day off!!! Which is very rare, and incredibly wonderful! After breakfast, we took a little trip to the airport, for some fun walking around, and then headed home for some relaxing time together. We got to play a new game we found on the clearance aisle at Walmart, which was a Crayola color mixing game, that didn't use paint or anything, so it is a no mess situation! Elise really loves it. It was fun just to spend the day together. We have always celebrated it together as a family, instead of going out as just a couple, and our girl LOVES being involved, and celebrating any kind of birthday! Logan put our wedding/honeymoon pictures as a slide show on our screen saver, and it was fun to remember back to that experience, and the fun time we had! And to realize how much family actually was there, and took the time and traveled all that way. I think at the time, we weren't so focused on everyone that came all that way, especially since we'd never met each others families. I remember clearly Logan and I in the temple, but I think lots of some of the other details are somewhat blurry. But as we look back now, it is a good feeling to see how loved we are, and how much our families supported our marriage! It is fun to see the pictures, and it helps bring back some of those memories, like the dinner at the Olive Garden the night before, after we finally found the hotel after driving around lost for a LONG time. And how, due to some mix ups, we ended up stranded at the temple without a phone or car keys, while everyone had gone back to the hotel to set up lunch.....we ended up trying to walk and got picked up by some nice people who were on vacation. Their car was stuffed, but as they saw us walking down the street away from the temple, they stopped and offered us a lift the few blocks to the hotel, where we got my purse, and then hitched another ride back to the temple to get our car and bags. What fun! And it was a great little luncheon Logan's family put together, and his sisters found us some wonderful flowers, on really short notice, even though it was Memorial weekend. And then we spent the next couple weeks driving down to see my family in California, and then to see Logan's family in Oregon, and stopped at really random places along the way (including a little airport museum, the redwoods, and a hole in the wall aquarium where you could pet sharks). Good thing we took pictures, so we can remember it always!
So, we are very grateful to be together and to say that our biggest difficulty is still deciding what to have for dinner each evening--sometimes it would be nice if we could just have that decided for us....but we love 'one an each other', and are looking forward to many more years into eternity, together!

Colors Together Rainbow Song

My girl LOVES to sing. We practice songs together lots, but sometimes she picks up songs that I don't realize she has learned. A couple weeks ago I heard her singing this song, and found her happily sitting on her 'special seat' singing away. She had pulled out her headbands and her bow with the rainbows on it and was using them as her visual aids. I just had to get a video of her! She since has been singing this song a LOT. When our visitors were here, they encouraged this song, as it was not one they had been familiar with. It is one my girl learned from watching Barney, and it comes out at interesting times....like the other day we were at Jo-Ann's, looking at the buttons. My girl burst into song, loudly singing about all the colors. It makes shopping much more interesting that way. And of course, it just gets stuck in your head......and she sings it a LOT, sometimes really fast, but other times she takes her time. So, here it is, the colors song from Barney:

"We will find a little nest..."

My girl drew a beautiful picture on her floor poster, and told me it had a poem to go with it. She asked if I wanted to hear the poem, and when I said, "Yes, I would love to hear your poem," she want over to the picture and sang a little song she learned in primary at church. It goes, "We will find a little nest in the branches of a tree. Let us count the eggs inside, there are 1, 2, 3. Mother bird sits on her nest, to hatch the eggs all three. Father bird flies round and round, to guard his family." She drew a picture of a tree in blue, with a blue nest and 3 purple eggs, with a blue mother bird next to it. She drew a great purple father bird near the tree. It was great how she came up with this whole thing, doing a visual aid for the song, all by herself! What a great girl!

Thankful Wall

We have been trying to focus on things we are thankful for in our family. Sometimes when things aren't really going the way you would choose yourself, if you had a choice, you have to instead focus on all the things you have to be grateful for. In November, we put a tree on the wall with leaves, and we wrote things we were thankful for on the leaves, until they were all full. We left it up for several months, because it was just a great reminder.

My mom found an idea to do different pictures, like for a bulletin board, that would be around a different theme for each season or month, would be laminated to be reusable with a dry erase marker, and could be our 'thankful wall'. I loved this idea! My mom and sister have helped me figure out what pictures/die cuts, and get them laminated. I did the first one in April. It was umbrellas, with a sign in blue that said, "Showers of Blessings", with raindrops coming off the letters. It was so spring and cheerful!
Here is some of what my girl had me write:
rainbows, bum spinning (this is where she sits on her bum and spins around...pretty funny!), spending time with friends (like our visitors!), remembering things, finding tracks, visitors (HOORAY!!), rhymes, writing thankful notes (she has really gotten into this. Logan found her some cars at a garage sale, and put them out for her to find when she woke up. She came out and said, "Are these for ME? Did Daddy get these just for me?" After I confirmed it, she went right over to get paper and her crayons and said, "I'm making a thank you card for Daddy for giving these cars to me." When he got home she ran over and gave him the card. She is so wonderful!!!),
going fast, rain to make flowers grow, "I am thankful that Jesus was resurrected" (that was a direct quote from my girl!), floor posters, "I love you" (another direct quote, she wrote it all by herself on an umbrella),
making up rhymes, bunnies, love one another (she says this in her prayers a lot, that she is "thankful we can love one an each other"), "I love my name", Jesus, butterflies, riding bikes, being a good friend, snowy days (we do pretend snow inside with her scarves), "I love my family", good food in our bodies, "I can spell my name", for showing our love, shiny shells, the bike "pouch" (we got some bikes at a garage sale, and a bike trailer, which she calls her pouch), trying new things, new leaves growing, teeth for chewing food, doing things together, playing games together, making Valentine hearts (which she does for many occassions, it is one of her favorite ways to decorate. We have so many on our walls around the house. Sometimes she'll pull one down, color it, write a name on it, and give it to that person. It is very sweet!), watching birds eat at the bird feeder. And the one I wrote was being thankful for my special girl. Sometimes we go over to our wall and think of things to write, sometimes I write down things she says in her prayers, and sometimes we'll be talking and she'll ask me to write something down on the wall.

Then for May, we made a sign that said, "Garden of Blessings" and has bees and flowers all over the wall. We have been writing many things we are thankful for. One day this last week we were getting ready for a small friend to come play for an hour. We pulled out paper and crayons for a floor poster. My girl went over to our thankful wall and said, "My favorite word is washable. What is your favorite word?" I knew she meant from the box of crayons, which one of the words did I like, but I told her, "My favorite word is your name." She thought for a moment, and said, "Oh, well, my favorite word is LOVE!" We wrote ALL of our favorite words down on our wall. I have really enjoyed having this bright colorful wall, and a visual reminder of our blessings! And it is fun to see the things that my girl comes up with, that are sometimes things I don't often remember to be thankful for....like bum spinning!

I recently finished reading Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up, and was just uplifted by how optimistic she was, and how she just tries to see the good in EVERYTHING. This thankful wall has helped us as we are trying to focus on the good, count our blessings, and realize how much we really have to be thankful for!

Pausing to Enjoy Responsibilities

Well, today I have two funny stories of things my girl has said in the last week or so to share. The first one happened some time last week around bed time. I was reading something, and my girl decided she wanted my attention for herself. She placed her hand in between my eyes and the book and proclaimed, "I paused it Mama!" When I looked up at her, she told me what she had wanted to tell me, then removed her hand from in front of the book and said, "I unpaused it Mama, you can go ahead now." I must admit I was surprised at her creativity. She has tried this technique several times over the last week with varying degrees of success. While I can think of more polite ways of getting one's attention, I must admit it makes me smile every time she says, "I paused it!"

The other funny little thing happened yesterday as my girl was sitting playing with some of her 'friends'. I love to listen as she plays by herself, and hear the things she is pretending, and am always amazed at how creative she is. This time was no exception, and I overheard something entertaining as well as enlightening. The Big Nutbrown Hare, Little Nutbrown Hare, and Giraffe were all having a discussion. The giraffe was explaining to the little bunny, "If you have a problem, you ask your Mama, and she will fix it. If I have a problem, I ask your Mama, and she will fix it. If your Mama has a problem, she will fix it." I had to laugh at her 'definition' of motherhood, especially because I can't ALWAYS fix it!
She has been practicing the Primary song "Mother, I Love You" to sing with the children on Sunday, and it is really nice to hear her singing how much she loves me ----even when I am not able to fix things, or solve all the problems. There are times where I feel challenged to 'solve' the situation. On Sunday there was a moment where I was trying to get the dishes done, and Logan was involved in something at the same time, and my girl came up to me and forlornly exclaimed, "I wish I had someone to play with me....." (That ALWAYS makes me feel guilty!!!!) But, we 'solved' it by finishing the dishes and then playing a game together....Finding someone to play with you is just one of the challenges of being an only child. Even though she is great at playing by herself, and we do LOTS of things together, there are just times where she would appreciate a friend that is NOT Mama....
After a long week of my trying to get things done, we did Friday just for my girl. She got to choose where we went and what we did. We went on field trips to the pet store and the airport. After the airport she wanted to go "just one more place!" as though she couldn't bear the thought of the trip ending so soon. So we went to the bookstore and found some GREAT books, (we have a FABULOUS used bookstore) then headed home for lunch and quiet time. She decided quiet time would be extra special if instead of just laying down in our beds and listening to quiet music, we both could sit on my bed and watch a movie and have popcorn and juice! We also talked about some 'friends' coming over in a short amount of time. When I told her some of her special friends were coming, she wanted to go to the airport right then and get them. When I explained that it was more than a week away, she said, "I hope they like to play dinosaur train with me. Do you think they like to play dinosaur train?" So for now, my girl is waiting with patient anticipation for friends coming long distance for a 'play date', and I am getting time to 'pause' to enjoy my responsibilities as chief 'fixer of problems', and best friend for my girl!

Bringing the Outside Inside

The other day, my girl did a floor poster, all by herself. I put the paper on the floor, and pulled out the dot paints, and she did the rest. She made a beautiful garden of flowers, with a family of birds flying in the sky. Then she added Clifford the Big Red Dog, and his friend T-Bone, as well as bones for each of them. Then she put herself in the garden. She finished her poster, and then came over to me (I was working on cutting out her Easter/Spring Dress on the floor nearby). She invited me to go 'outside' with her and play ball. She agreed to help me with the fabric until 'outside' was dry enough for play time. When the paint had dried, we each stood on one side of the poster and tossed the ball back and forth. I thought this was a great way to enjoy flowers and birds and play outside, and yet not have to worry about the rain or the dirt! And I am always impressed with my girl's creativity!

Shoes? Made of What?

So, my girl is very creative, and uses all kinds of things in her pretend play time. Her favorite things are those which can be used to represent LOTS of different items, including scarves, rocks, shoe laces, and of course, stickers. One example comes from a few weeks ago when she was doing an art activity with stickers. She had a page and a sheet of stickers and was coloring and putting stickers and having fun. Then she finished with her page, and took her stickers over to find her box of dinosaur friends. She started asking them what activity each wanted to do for sports day, had them do the activity, and then put a sticker on their chest for a medal. They each won one, since we are ALL winners. She has done this many times, and it is always interesting to see the sports they are involved in (many ideas come from the Clifford episode where they do sports day activities, or from the Dinosaur Train block party episode where they do some fun games). She really enjoys acting out things she has seen in a show or read about in a book. And then she gets creative and does things a bit differently. This particular day, she started putting stickers on the dinosaurs tails (for those that had them), and then put stickers on their feet. When asked about it, she explained that the dinosaurs had gone to the shoe store, and had gotten shoes. She was very generous and gave them all sticker shoes, and then found ways to give them more than one shoe on each foot, so she could use all her stickers up. It was very fun!

Of course, the stickers didn't all stick, and we've been finding them all over the place as she's played with the dinosaurs who keep losing their shoes. But it was fun while it lasted! And very creative too, I thought!