I shoveled the front walk today and was reminded of my grandpa. I could almost see him shoveling his walk and the church walk - with his coat, a hat and a quick smile and little whistle.
One year my grandpa used his tractor to shovel the roads of our neighborhood. He piled up all of the snow in our front yard. Oh, the hours spent in that greatest of all snow-forts!
While putting ornaments - fragile ornaments - on our Christmas tree Silver says to Colt "I'm good at something, Dad." Colt: What's that? Silver: "I'm Really good at dropping things!"
Summer came to me the other day asking what I was doing. I told her I was reading my scriptures. "Nu-uh!!" She says "I don't hear you!" I explained I was reading in my mind, without saying the words out loud. What a new concept! Now each time she sees me she says "Yous wea-ding (reading) yous scwiptoos in yous mind!"
Silver was driving with Colt up the canyon listening to the radio. When a song came on that she liked she asked Colt "Where do I push yes?" She is used to Pandora where when she likes a song she does a thumbs up and it plays more songs like that.
I was tucking Silver into bed when she bursts out sobbing in tears. What's wrong? She was watching River read her scriptures. River on her own reads scriptures every night. Silver cried out - "I want to READ! I want to read scriptures like River!!" Daddy cuddled her and told her that he promised to help her learn to read. It will still take a long time before she can read like River but with hard work and practice and starting and keeping going she can do it. She enjoys reading her picture scriptures with Daddy and making progress "like my River"
During Sacrament Meeting talks I let the girls draw. River takes notes on the talks that she hears. Silver was sounding out the word "PAT...P....AAAA....T! She repeated it several times...P.....P...."P!" A.....A....."A".......T....T....."T!" She spelled the word PAT. Started spelling before her 5th birthday. She is a very smart little girl. She was super excited. It is fun to do Preschool with her. We work a little every day. She LOVES learning. She loves preschool and reading and letters. I don't push it on her, but she on her own asks for our preschool books. It is fun to her.
Silver: "Daddy, I want to learn!"
Daddy: What do you want to learn?
Silver: How to read, how to shoot deer, how to shoot arrows, how to learn! I just want to learn.
Our area was hit with a snow storm with very slick roads so the Stake President asked to cancel church meetings today. It was such a special Sunday for us. River gave a beautiful talk and lesson about good choices to bring us closer to Heaven and a whole lesson about Noah. The choices he made, how he prepared to go on the ark, what it was like, and what we could learn from it and then how can we follow his example to apply it to our lives? Well well done! We had lots of Primary Songs, decorated Gingerbread cookies and then watched the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional. What a special/memorable day!
River and I were asked to sing a duet as part of our Primary Program. River LOVES to sing the primary songs and sits up and sings her little heart out. She loves the Savior and the gospel and this is a way for her to express her feelings. We started the first of 2013 and practiced all year long. We would sing as I took her to school every morning.
Her part:
Heavenly Father are you really there?
And do you hear and answer every child's prayer?
Some say that Heaven is far away,
But I feel it close around me as I pray.
Heavenly Father I remember now
Something that Jesus told Disciples Long ago
Suffer the Children to come to me
Father in Prayer I'm coming now to Thee.
My Part:
Pray He is There
Speak He is Listening
You are His Child
His Love now Surrounds You
He hears your Prayer
He Loves the Children
Of Such is the Kingdom
The Kingdom of Heaven.
The Song is beautiful as a child asks is he there? And a parent bears testimony that He is! The first time we sang it as part of the practice it was difficult because we were used to just singing it in the car without any piano music. So that threw us off. She practiced and practiced and was so brave to stand up and sing into the microphone.
Silver is picking up a lot of phrases. She uses them in context and it is so funny coming out of a 4 year old's mouth. Today was "Does she dig it?" Asking if Tanzi liked her green been rice cereal mix.
Silver and Summer decided to try Tanzi's rice cereal and oatmeal. Oh! This is so good! They just eat it dry. Dry baby oatmeal. They eat their bowl while she eats hers.
I Love Love LOVE feeding Tanzi baby food. I was talking to a sweet grandma in the checkout line today and told her I was excited to buy baby food to go home and feed it to Tanz. We started talking about how a lot of life is how you look at it. You can either look at it as a huge inconvenience to sit for 15 minutes at a stretch to feed tiny spoonfulls at a time or look at it as a grand adventure and the biggest blessing that you get to be with this sweet amazing spirit as they try all these new experiences for the first time. The first time eating applesauce, or green beans. She LOVES prunes and green peas, but does not like peaches at all :) What an amazing time to be with her and watch her progress! She is a supported sitter and eating her food like a champ. GO TANZ!
Silver heard the song "Silver Bells" She was excited that it had her name in a Christmas song, and that Silver is one of the colors of Christmas. She wants her middle name to be Bell. Summer also decided she would rather have Bell for her middle name. Tanzi Belle, Silver Bell, and Summer Bell!
We can Tanzi Tanz for short.
Silver wants to grow out her bangs. They are at the length that if her hair is down her bangs are in her eyes. We put it in a ponytail and then tuck the hair under itself so it doesn't come out. We call this a "chocolate chip" I was giving Silver a "chocolate chip" this morning and she says: "Speaking of Chocolate chips, can I have some real chocolate chips?"
Driving the girls home from school in our carpool.
Girl 1: My Daddy has 3 jobs. She then lists the jobs her daddy has.
Girl 2: Well, My Daddy has 4 jobs. Followed by the work her daddy does.
River: My Daddy has 5 jobs: Talking to Important people on the phone, Going to the Office, Working on the computer, Going hunting and fishing, and playing with his girls. His favorite job is playing with his girls.
