Summer Echo - Blessing





I think this is the most darling picture!

This is Summer in her Blessing Dress.

Summer is such a mellow child - very peaceful, sweet and happy.  The name Summer brings to mind watermellon, swimming, being warm, playing in the creek, green grass, adventures, flowers, family reunions, evenings laying on your back watching the stars come out, sprinklers, fireworks, walking along the beach.....etc.... It is a name full of life. 
It's important to us that names be easy to spell and easy to remember.

Echo reminds me of the word remember. Remember who you are, remember where you came from, remember who loves you, remember where you are going, remember that what we do here impacts eternity. On my mission, someone said to me that hearing the gospel was like an echo of something they already knew. When hearing it for the first time, they said it felt good to them and was like they already had it as part of them and just needed to be reminded of that.

Echo is something that comes back...softer when it comes back. Summer is a soft personality.

  River takes such good care of her sister :)

She is very gentle, and caring, always looking out for her.

 Silver takes good care of her too...she just shows that love differently.  Here are Silver's favorite things piled on top of Summer.  There were over a dozen books, add to that a doll and a teddy bear with animals on her head...this was Silver's best way of saying she loves her!!!

 Silver has started to smile and "talk".  As soon as the camera comes out though...she just stares and doesn't interract so much.

 Here's Silver being soft.

At 2 months old Summer weighs 11 lbs 13 oz and is 24 inches long. 
She's gained 5 lbs and 4 inches. 

95th percentile on hight and 50th on weight

Tall and Skinny - Fits right in our family :)

We love our baby Summer!

We are blessed!

Here are some past posts on the meanings and feelings of River Joy's and Silver Dawn's names:
http://ckhendersonfamily.blogspot.com/2009/03/river-my-joy.html
http://ckhendersonfamily.blogspot.com/2009/03/silver-dawn.html

Nummy Nummy Juice

I LOVE slurpees!

River has a love for slurpees too and calls them "Nummy Nummy Juice"

Most every time we go on a trip, we need to stop and get us a nummy juice.

We recently got a home-made ice-cream maker from the DI and can now make nummy juice at home!!!

I think it was a smashing success!

Silly faces, nummy juice and great memories!

Fall Quote Board

River to Silver: "Silver!! NO toys at the table!! It's a Rule!" then to Mom: "Is that a Family rule or a Heavenly Father rule?"
River: Sigh....I wish I was 2 again...then I'd only have to take 2 more bites!!

Big Sister just wants to help: Silver yells "BABY!" every time Summer makes any sound at all. Silver loves Summer and many times just wants to play with her, whether she's awake or not! I regularly get a screaming baby where seconds before she was deep asleep.

Silver likes to rock baby Summer in her bouncer. She'll bounce her gently....sometimes. Most times she bounces so vigorously Summer's head is bouncing off the bouncer. After being told no and sometimes time out - 30 seconds later Silver's doing it again. Oh, having a newborn and a toddler not quite 2 has been challenging :) This I will say - Silver LOVES Summer, and shows that love ALL day long. Oh, the sweetness of kids.
 
Don't smell socks to determine if they are clean or dirty. Just trust me on this one - throw it in the hamper, it's not worth the risk of olfactory overload!
 
Colt and I were sitting at the table talking when in walks Silver carrying ....Summer! Summer was so tiny in Silver's arms she looked like a baby doll. We explained to Silver not to pick up Summer, but to call Mommy to get her up. Twice more the next day I caught Silver trying to pick up Summer. Yikes!

Silver's Sayings: "Whoah!" Said progressively louder as she bends over to examine something more closely. Today it was ants that found a cookie on the floor. "Whoah! (louder) Whoah! (louder) WHOAH! Bees!" She calls all bugs bees. Another cute thing she says all the time "Oohhh" When I explain something to her: Oh! When I tell her I'll do this and then we'll do that - I get a "K!"
 
I tell Silver she's my big girl for going potty or that she's a big girl and doesn't need a nuki anymore. Most every day she either crawls in the baby carseat or comes to me with her hand on her chest and says "baby" while patting her chest. It's really cute!

River says this multiple times a day "Mom (Or Dad) So, what can we talk about?" If I start talking about something she already knows, she says "Noooo Moooom! I want to talk about something I don't know...I want to learn about something!" Some of her topics: How do we get rice? After talking about that - "Oh, How do they pick rice? It's SO small!" What's a birth certificate? How do they make suckers? How do they make cars? How do they make houses? How do babies get in Mommy's tummies?

River: My Daddy can fix ANYTHING! Well, Except for my jewelry box!

River: "My Daddy's really smart - he knows everything." After a while she says "Mommy's know some things...not everything, but Daddys know everything!"

Our Names

Our sentence continues:

Colt Karin-ed (careened) into a Silver River last Summer. 

With middle names:

Colt Joy-fully Karin-ed into a Silver River at Dawn last Summer up Echo Canyon. 

Enjoy the Journey!

Fun Art Projects

We enjoy our Art Projects!!

River asks me nearly every day what we're going to do for art project today. 

It is a great way to spend some mommy-kid time :)

Here are some of our favorites:

This was a fantastically fun project:  Boil eggs, have the kids peel the hard-boiled eggs.  (Make egg-salad sandwiches for lunch - which was a flop - I had all the sandwiches to myself - Colt and the girls won't eat them - more for me :)  Then draw on the rough outline of the shape you want to make and find egg shells to fit the shapes.  Glue eggs shells to the paper.

Then color your masterpiece!!

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Here's one of River's drawings on the magnadoodle that I had to snap before it got erased. 

Creative!

This one's made with different colors of sand:

Put down glue on your paper and sprinkle the different light and dark sands over it. 

The library does a fantastic preschool program once a week.  This one was the project to take home. 

Here River is making little holes all around the outline of the leaf.  This is great practice for writing as it teaches the kids how to hold the pencil and coordination for putting it right where you want it.  Picking it up and putting it down - control!

In the end, all the little holes cut out the shape.

This was another really fun one.  Mix food coloring in a little water and dip tissue paper in the colored water.  It's fun how the colors bleed into one another and we talk about what the different colors make when they touch each other:  Blue and yellow make?  GREEN!!

This was River's own invention:  Color spots.  We took paper towels and an eye dropper with the food coloring.  Again, this was a blast to watch the colors bleed together.

Kids are like the flowers of summer, beautiful, happy and fun. 

Growing up and gone before you know it!!

River and Silver picked the flowers and put them in different cups. 

It's like a wedding here everyday with flower petals strewn along the walk way :)

Hidden Messages FHE

We opened our family night by talking about the Scriptures - that they have messages in them - things that Heavenly Father wants us to know.  Some of the messages in the Scriptures:

*Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer

*Heavenly Father and Jesus Love you

*To be grateful for what we have because we are "blesed of the Lord exceedingly" - 1 Nephi 16:8

*Love others

*Share the gospel

*Obey Heavenly Father's commandments (rules)

 Activity:  Write your message with white crayon on white paper, and other's can't see it - it's a hidden message.   Then paint your paper with diluted iodine, and presto!  Your message appears!!

 We had a lot of fun!!

What message is "hiding" in the scriptures for you to discover today?

Silver Dawn - Baby or Big Girl?

Silver is mischievous, delightful, exhausting, loving, energetic, and going, going, gone!

Silver loves Summer so much!  Here she is taking care of her sister:

 She's put the burp pad on her baby to keep her warm, and is turning on the swing.  For some reason, she always covers up her face. 

 Silver packs babies around most of the day.  It's a good thing she packs dollies and not Summer :)

 Our life revolves around babies right now :)

I've been really trying to give all the girls time - with spending so much time holding and nursing the baby, Silver gets time to cuddle, wrestle and read books together, and River gets time to play games and do art projects together.

 Silver touches her chest and says "Baby!"  She also climbs in the carseat, swing and bouncer and says "Baby!"  She wants her nuk, because only babies get nuks :)  Then at other times, she enjoys being a big girl to go potty and get to go with Mommy places.  I've made an effort to take Silver with me when I go out shopping and Daddy is home to watch the baby for a little break.  Silver has enjoyed the one on one time.  She also wants a bed instead of a crib now.  Every nap and bedtime, Silver will climb up on River's bed and say "Bed" that she wants to sleep in a bed now.  It's super-cute!

This is the look I get quite a lot, a half looking expression that is so endearing!!

To our Darling Girl!!  We love you, our Sweetheart!