Cinco de Mayo

Ready to celebrate like never before!

I have a lot to write about this little cutie.

But for now - I'm going to bed early!!!

Who Needs TV?

My parents always said we kids were their entertainment. This gave us a good laugh.



Halfway through Lily's little show Sierra got really excited and started to join in. Lucky I had my Ipod (excuse my thumb). So funny ;)

Reading!

Another milestone in our family! Lily has been doing lessons with me from a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." A friend from church recommended it to me. I'd wanted to do home preschool with Lily for a long time and either she or I when we tried it would make it too elaborate to be practical so we didn't follow through with it as a regular thing. We read a lot, and sang songs at times, but I wanted to do more. She was ready to learn more and I wanted to send her to school a little better prepared in some way to give her added confidence because she gets very shy and nervous around new people and in new situations. Mike and I figured reading was the most important thing we could teach her. So when we heard about this book - lessons all ready to go it sounded like just the thing. We've been doing it for (what feels like) a long time (much more than 100 days) and tracking our progress on a sticker chart.

It hasn't been easy. Actually, it was pretty easy at first and for a while -- it was going really well. It was super exciting to see her learning to sound things out and watch her progress...but somewhere in the middle or maybe about 75% through it got very difficult. It started to turn into a battle - get a little boring, get a little more difficult with a baby sister grabbing at the book wanting to eat it, etc, etc. We tried mixing it up -- doing it during baby's nap, throwing some math lessons in there some days of the week, changing the look of the format (so it didn't look so long) going through the material just once instead of twice, changing up the incentives so that what was supposed to be a twenty minute lesson wouldn't take us 2 hours... (Trying to add an incentive to speed it up actually had the opposite effect and ended up being scrapped.) There were many days where other things in life just kept us from getting to her lesson, or Lily just wasn't cooperating. I thought about quitting, worried that pushing her would make Lily hate reading, but ultimately decided I wanted her to see it through. (Besides any kid who loves reading bedtime stories with her dad as much as she does, and is part me - just isn't likely to end up hating reading!) So I don't even know how many days later...We finally reached the end. Lesson 100! Woo hoo!!! I can't even tell you how excited I am to be done with this book! The learning to read journey is not over, and we plan to continue on in our own way, but it is so nice that we completed our goal, Lily earned her reward, and now we can change it up even more  and move forward! 

Dun da dun tah!

 A big sticker to finish off such a big accomplishment - we use what we have - this was Lily's choice :)

So proud! 

The original plan to celebrate was to go to a movie with her Dad and get popcorn and candy, but like most of our plans they got changed up. Lily decided she wanted to pick out a movie to buy and watch at home instead, and we went out for McDonald's and she got to spend $10 however she wanted and pick out a candy. She picked out a DVD pack of Max and Ruby epidsodes, a Barbie fridge for her doll house, and Starburst. On the way to pick out her reward she was reading me street signs. "Mom, I just read 'No Park, and I thought it was a park, but then I realized it was No Park-ing!" "Mom, I just read part of another sign that said 'No Stopping!'"

Here's a little sample of her reading...and me trying to correct without helping her too much.

She tries to go too fast, and maybe I do too. We still have a lot to work on, but I am so proud of my girl!!! I remember learning to read being very hard for me - I certainly wasn't doing it at age 4! Go, Lily Go!

Walking!

Sierra is really walking! Today we've seen her longest stretches yet - more than just a few steps. 11 months old!





This is good because carrying her has really been messing with my back and arm, but she is getting into way more stuff than Lily did so I'm sure I will still be grabbing and holding her a lot just to keep her out of trouble! Can't believe how steady she is already, but she has been working on it for a while!

Little Miss Independent :)

Miracles happen

The best gift I got today was one I already had, but that could have been smashed to smithereens if my Heavenly Father hadn't had my back.

We started out to dinner tonight and (I did something I never do) I stupidly set my digital camera on top of the car for just a sec... Right. Totally forgot about it, of course. To my surprise, several turns and blocks away, driving at 45 miles an hour... my little camera swings through my open window - cracked open just enough to admit it through - dangling precariously by my little camera string, case gone (ripped off and recovered later), just long enough for me to reach up and grab it before it could bang about and crash to the ground.

It was totally like an angel was holding it there until I could grab it to protect it for me.

Yeah I know you can explain it - the string just happened to catch a little in the door (my window just happened to be open enough to let it through, and keep it from swinging back out!). After other events of the day -- I totally feel like it was a little reminder from my Heavenly Father that He is watching out for me, that He knows me, and that He was protecting my sometimes fragile emotions. Yeah, it's just a little pocket camera - but... I'm really particular about my camera, low on funds to replace it willy-nilly, and having a little camera like that to capture memories of my kids is really important to me. I think He knew that losing it would have really not been good for me today! But having it swing through the window safely into my hands made me feel totally different from the way I had been feeling 2 seconds before that - when I had no idea my camera wasn't safe in my bag in the car, and I was dwelling on a misbehaving child and other aspects of my day and life that I wasn't feeling too happy about or in control of.

I've been in a reflective mood today. (And though I am far from perfect and far from a pillar of strength...) I'm so grateful for my Heavenly Father's influence on my life. The good habits and blessings I have from being raised with his gospel and knowledge of his eternal plan. It's so easy to get weighed down by all the hard things in life - it's nice to be reminded that there is more to it than what I am currently caught up in, that I'm a daughter of a Heavenly Father too, who really does know and love me and have His own wise plans for me and my family. I am thankful for my camera, and my testimony. This incident gives me hope that some other good things will swing into our lives soon!