A Few of Our Favorite Things

Each and every day is a special gift!! There are SO many things to be thankful for, what started as just a little idea has grown to tons of pics and videos and a huge list of things we're thankful for every day!! Some of River's Favorites:

River and Silver play SO well together!
Our Happy Girls on their Tramp: Funny story about this tramp: So, we like to be frugal and save money where we can. Most everything we have is 2nd hand. We save lots of $$ and don't worry about it too much if it gets ruined (which just tends to happen sometimes with little helpers). Anyway, we found this tramp on Craig's List and drove to St George to pick it up! We were so excited to drive home and put up our tramp. Small probem: When we got home, one of the frame bars had fallen out of the trailer. We couldn't set it up without that piece! We finally got another piece wielded for it, and have had SO much fun on our $20 tramp!

Dollies! River's new thing is that she wants to grow up to be a Mommy (and a Doctor, we got her a doctor set for Christmas - she LOVES to gives shots. She wore her stethescope the last time we went to Dr. Bowman's and she got the biggest kick showing him she had a stethescope just like he did :)

Whether doing dishes or cutting things with a sharp knife or taking care of babies: Look mom, I'm a mommy now!! I tell her she's practicing all the things she needs to be a mommy.

Our tent is SO fun! Here are River's cousins and best friends John Wayne and Easton.

My River Smiling!

Joy School! River and Jakob get together twice a week for Joy School. What a fun program and a chance to get together and learn and have fun!

Art Projects: River LOVES art projects. Her constant daily question: Mom, What can I do next? If it involves any type of art or cooking, cleaning too, she's SO excited. How many kids can you get to clean the floor and think it's fun? Or try water in a squirt bottle and have her squeegee off the sliding glass doors! Tons of FUN!

Toys!

Fingernail Polish!

Stickers!

Tramp!

Jumping and Running!

Reading!

I LOVE this picture! She is SO into books. River loves reading books all day long, and at night we let her have her light on and read books. She'll read for hours at night.

Art Projects! This one is a Smelling Collage.

Our Daddy! Daddy is a girl Magnet! When he's home he's either got 1 more likely 2 and sometimes all 3 girls on the couch with him :)

River loves taking her naps on Mommy and Daddy's bed. River and Silver sleep in the same room, but for naps, it's easiest if River is in our Room and Silver is in the kids room. That way they won't wake each other up when one wakes up.

Water!

River was Well Named

Being Part of Everything!~ Silver Dawn is a go-er! My goodness, she is into everything and running as fast as those legs will go most of the time. She sleeps well when she finally stops!

River loves puppies! She wants a pet of her very own. We bought her - it's kind of like a chiia pet - that grows grass out of the head that you can cut. After about a week she comes to me: "Mom, I want a real pet this time!!"

Makeup!

River just can't wait to grow up!

This picture is River to a "T" Nailpolish in one hand. A sucker in the other. Comfy Pants (she won't wear jeans) and a necklace to boot with a princess shirt. Messy hair end our ensemble. Most of the time we do her hair and it gets pulled out a couple of minutes into church, looking worse than ever with crazy hair everywhere :) Memories!

Precious Archive Video. Book of Mormon Stories! We love singing! This was just after Silver Dawn was born - February 2009.

Bedtime made up Stories HAVE to be on a list of our favorite things!! River makes up stories too. She's not shy about sharing them.

Colt's favorite things:
Coyotes
Float Indicater’s showing a strike
High Mountain Lake in a Float Tube
My Honey’s Blue Eyes
Cookie Dough
My Girls in the Morning

River: When asked what she is Thankful for:
Daddy, Mommy, Silver Dawn, Ruth (next door neighbor) Necklaces, Reading Books, Watching Movies, Joy School, Library Time (every Wednesday and Friday the local library puts on a fantastic reading hour). Dancing (we just signed River up for Ballett lessons - she LOVES her dancing. It is the CUTEST thing I've ever seen. The best entertainment of the week watching 10 3 year olds having fun! Computer Games, Pushing/Wrestling, Made Up Stories with Daddy, Something to Hug (Teddy Bears at night) Stickers!

Some of my favorite things: and things I'm most thankful for: The Gospel, COLT! – Tops the list, My biggest blessing! Having Gone to College, Having Gone on a Mission, Living on a mini-farm while growing up and learning to work hard, Being Debt Free, Being okay with me, my body, myself, being able to be in a quiet room and okay with that, Good Health, GRASS, An American Flag, The Seasons, Avacados, Sugar - in most any form (River has this too: she tells me, Mom, what has sugar in it that I can eat?) Sunshine coming through our windows, Sound of Rain, Hot Showers, So I don't know if I've shared this story yet, but Hot showers in the morning, to be able to stand up and enjoy a refreshing showers is just about one of the most wonderful things to be enjoyed every day!! On my mission, very, very few people had stand up showers. They were mostly a tub with a small hot water tank literally above your head. There were no cutains on the tub either. And they always had 2 handles - one for hot and the other for cold. The water tank was so tiny, that you'd have to get wet fast, turn off the water. Soap up. Turn on the water, finding the correct temperature and rinse off. Same thing for shampoo and conditioner. You almost always ran out of hot water by the end of it. All this was done while kneeling in the tub. Very awkward. For zone conferences, all the sisters would go to the apartment of the sisters in town. There would be 6 to 8 of us sisters in one apartment. One time I was "showering" when all of a sudden hot, scalding water poured into the tub. I was so confused for a while trying to figure out what was burning me. Their washing machine emptied into the tub! I jumped up, unable to fathom where the water was coming from. I dropped the shower nozle which was spraying all over the room. I tried to jump out of the tub, slipped and literally fell into the scalding water. With all the commotion, I have 5 sisters on the other side of the door asking if I'm okay. When I did manage to jump out of the tub, my foot pulled the hot water plastic pipe out with me, so I was still standing in the unbearably hot water!! It was hard to walk on burned feet that day. Standup, warm showers are one of my daily wonderful blessings!
Water, rivers, lakes, streams (I don’t care for living in a desert, and take the chance anytime I can to be around green and water, plants and flowers)
Dancing, Restaurants – any time I don’t have to cook or clean up, Birds, Butterflies, Laying on the tramp looking at the stars, Aquariums, Looking back on some of the hard times: Because they've made me stronger and wiser, and the good times even better. Songs you hear when you need them most, Today!

Silver Dawn's First Birthday

Silver Dawn's First Birthday:

Instead of a cake, we did a birthday Jello - Jello powder mixed with cool whip.

Silver had SO much fun.

And yes, red jello comes out of clothes!

Silver rocks back and forth when she really likes something. We also know when food is yummy by the "hhhhmmmm, hmmmmm!"

This is a keeper recipe for future 1 year birthday parties!

Silver is getting around really great. She's so small and walks so good. People can't get over how well she walks. It takes everyone by surprise. They say, "but she's SO small!"

This horse was given to River last Christmas. She was wasn't big enough to ride it around last year. This Christmas, it's like a whole new toy. She's gotten a lot of miles this year on the horse! River and Silver LOVE to play together. River usually sleeps on my bed for nap time so that they won't wake each other up. Today I had her in her bed for nap. Silver woke up and after a while playing by herself decided she wanted her sister to play with. She climbed up on River's bed and was pulling her hair to wake her up.

Happy Baby! Fun Memories!

November and December Quote Board

River LOVES dancing, she pronounces ballett instead of baa leigh, she says it bu leigh, it's so cute. She has great dance moves that she's made up all on her own. Twirls and spins and has a wonderful time. She talkes with her hands alot. When she's thinking - she either taps her head or rubs her chin. She raises her hand in a wheel-of-fortune manner to show her different choices.
River: Well, mom here's the deal: I could watch my movie (with a wave of her hand with the palm up) and THEN take a nap (other hand raised with that option in the palm of her hand).

River: Mom, these Shrimpies are SO scrumptious!

River: I want to sit in the seat with the checklers (plaid)

River: Mom, these are my Bestest! Or, This is my Bestor!

I call Colt my Macgyver. Have you ever seen that old tv show? Macgyver is in these incredibly impossible situations and has to get out with the common things he finds around him. Colt can fix most anything and in the most creative ways with common things - hair ties (still making our toilet flush) hangers (oh, hangers are used for most everything including keeping car lights working) and duct tape. I grew up with baling twine holding the world together, Colt has introduced me to the value of duct tape. Isn't marriage wonderful, the merger of baling twine and duct tape - our home is secure!

River was telling us tonight that when she prays to Heavenly Father tonight, she wants to ask for a baby brother. When asked what good brother names would be, her answers: Mustasher, Eyebrower and Watchtver

Marrying in to Colt's family has brought the enjoyment of Rook at many family gatherings at our home. While playing Rook:
Kin: Is Yellow a Color? (didn't have yellow in his hand)
Kin: I don't do the communal food thing so well

Signs we live in a tech age:
1. River: Mom, I want to play Disney.com
2. River: Mom, I'll be done in just a sec. I have to send one last email.
3. Instead of a lemonade stand, a kid outside of a dairy store was selling MP3s and Cellphones.

River has entered the Why stage. Everything has about 10 whys. River: Mom, why did you put milk in that? Mom: Because that's how you make enchilladas. River: Why? Mom: Because I'm following the recipe, milk is one of the ingredients. River: Why? Mom: To make it yummy River: Why? (About 10 more times) She LOVES exploring her world!

River loves here Treasures: Freinds, special pretty rocks, little animal figurines, River loves small things that she can put in her pockets or little backpack or purse. She loves collecting and taking pictures of her treasures.

River: "Are my teeth still white?"River has learned about cavities and that we need to take good care of our teeth. Every day before she brushes her teeth she asks if her teeth are white, she's worried about them turning black.

Our girls are growing up so fast!
Karin: Can we pause time?
Colt: Nope, I'm afraid it's stuck on fast forward.

River is totally into Glue! She got a preschool book from Grandpa that she can cut out and glue. She has glued a picture of a little boy to the wall to remind us that she wants a little brother.