Wilbur

I've been enjoying this very inspiring book about reading. It's called The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. He covers a huge amount of research in a very easy to follow way explaining the benefits of reading aloud. He also makes it more accessible by tossing in personal anecdotes from his own life and the lives of readers who have shared their successes with him. My favorite thing he has said so far: "Parenting is not supposed to be a time-saving experience. Parenting is time-consuming, time-investing—but not time-saving."

That said, Sammi and I have renewed our interest in reading together. She's getting very interested in longer picture books. So, after reading about lengthening attention span I decided to try for something a bit more challenging. I pulled Charlotte's Web by E.B. White of the shelf and gave it a go. We have been reading it every morning during breakfast. We started Monday morning and today we reached chapter five! My throat was getting tired this morning so I set it down and Sammi said, "I'm not done yet!" I thought she was talking about her cereal but she informed me that she wanted me to keep reading!

I haven't read this book in so long. I forgot that Wilbur is a white pig and that Fern had to send him to her uncle's house to live in the barn. We were at Gardner's Village yesterday and ventured into the petting zoo. They just happened to have a white baby pig—just like Wilbur! Sammi was excited to make the connection between the two. It's just so much fun. I wish you all happy reading!

Dress-Up Day!

Elizabeth's first dress-up! Isn't she cute?

Baby M, the superhero cowboy!

Sammi Sam: I did it myself!

Options

There are tons of new posts and pictures today so scroll down until you reach a post you've already read!!

So, Brent has prepared, studied, sweated, traveled, and interviewed. And all that he has to show for that? Four acceptance letters to the four schools he interviewed with! I knew he was an amazing candidate, but he was a bit nervous. I'm so glad that he was accepted to a school and completely overwhelmed that he was accepted to four! Now we have options, but that means we have a major decision to make. We think we know, but we're not officially sure just yet. So for now I'll just tell the the four possibilities:

• Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Erie, PA
• West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, WV
• Lincoln Memorial University DeBuske College of Osteopathic Medicine, TN
• A.T. Still University Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville, MO

These are listed in the order of his interviews, so as not to indicate in which direction we are leaning. Once we know, we'll let you know! Any advice?

Baby Blessing

I know these are way overdue (thanks, Ann, for the reminder!) We blessed Elizabeth on October 12. It was a great weekend. Lots of family members were in town to celebrate Great-Grandpa Passey's 80th birthday. Unfortunately he and Grandma Passey didn't make it down because they were taking other family members to the airport. But, we really enjoyed spending the day with those who were able to come. It was a celebration of life and family. I am in awe of how precious little children are. They are so tender and innocent. It inspires me to be a better person and mother for their sake. I don't want the guilt of hardening them to this world (although I think it will probably be my fault in the long run...)


So, after church we had a nice lunch of my favorites! I made chicken salad sandwiches. I will have to post the recipe later because they were delicious! And even better the next day. I had my mother-in-law, Wendy, bring my favorite salad: spinach greens with cranberries and other yumminess with poppy seed dressing. My own dear mother brought Texas sheet cake, always a treat! And Grandma Chatterley brought homegrown and made grapejuice slushy mixed with Fresca. I don't know about anyone else, but I was in food heaven! The company was great, too:) We missed those of you who are far away. Don't worry, we show the girls your pictures and talk about you all the time!

Sleeping Baby

Isn't she a doll! I will never get sick of looking at my babies sleeping...

Sticker Day

I'm going out of chronological order today because these are cute and I felt like it! Sammi found the box of stickers on Monday and I let her go to town while I was tackling a veritable mountain of laundry. I found a cute little giraffe on the bottom of Sammi's foot. She was kind enough to share a star with Elizabeth.

More From Discovery Gateway

There are lots of new posts today so scroll down to see them all!
These are pictures from Discovery Gateway (as explained in the post below)

Discovery Gateway

When we picked Brent up from his first set of interviews, we headed into SLC and hit the children's museum, Discovery Gateway. We were there at Christmas and it's amazing how much Sammi has grown since then. She played so much more with things. She still loved the water feature. She beelined right for it and we had to drag her away to see the other fun things. Her growth was especially apparent in the pretend play areas. She loved putting gas in the car, grocery shopping and playing in the garden.

More Sleeping Shots

She's just so cute when she falls asleep! The no napping thing is working well, although she crashes every few days or so. She is sleeping so much better at night and there's not more fighting over getting her to go to bed. She actually looks forward to her routine and climbing into bed!

Random pics from around the house

She really loves that purse. Oh, it warms my heart...

She's looking so grown up

Only a toddler could get her toys to defy the laws of physics!

We tried hot rollers for church. The picture doesn't do justice to just how cute her hair turned out!

The back was super curly!

Adventures with Grandpa

My dad was here quite a while ago and these are some of the fun things we did with him. Kim was here over labor day weekend, but somehow I don't have any pictures of her visit or our trip to the aquarium! How did that happen?

First we went to the Bean Life Science Museum (My favorite at BYU):

We also went to the zoo:

Patty Cake Video