Dress Up!

Dress up with Mommy


Dress up with Daddy


Cowgirl riding her "horsie"

Itsy Bitsy Spider!

A New Heartbeat

Well, this is the official announcement! Motherhood 101 has progressed to Motherhood 102! Sammi and I went to the doctor's today. I told Sammi on the way that we were going to hear the baby's heartbeat. She kept repeating "baby heart" on the way there! And, just to prove how smart she is, just after we listened to the heartbeat she told the doctor, "baby heart!" The heartbeat was so fast! The doctor said about 170 beats/minute! I forgot little hearts go so fast.

Now I am about 12 weeks. I'm looking forward to entering the second trimester and getting my energy back. We are really excited about having a new baby come to our family. If it's a boy we have a name picked out, but if this baby is a girl, we are up in the air. Brent vetoed my suggestion of Daffodil. (As has everyone else I've told the idea to. Although I almost convinced my brother Jonson to back me up!)

So, if you have any suggestions for girls names, I'd love to hear them.

Hinckley Challenge

I have been very emotional this week as I've watched reports on President Hinckley's life. He was a great man and an amazing example. He was more productive in one day than I feel I've been in my whole life!! I started his biography by Sheri Dew but haven't even finished it (it's been about two years!) My new goal is to finish it before she comes out with the conclusion to President Hinckley's life.

Another goal I have came to me in the form of an email. Normally I don't read forwards and such because I hate the guilt trip at the end to make others endure the email too. But this email was different. I got it from a close friend of mine and it contained a message I could really get behind. It's a challenge organized by Jake Anderson and reminiscent of President Hinckley's own challenge a few years back. He's named it the Hinckley Challenge and it is a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days-one day for every year of President Hinckley's life. What a wonderful way to honor this man's life and to keep his legacy alive. 97 days means reading about 5 1/2 pages a day. For me, I think that will be quite productive!

The challenge begins today! I encourage all who have an interest in President Hinckley's life or in Book of Mormon to join me in accepting this challenge and opportunity to honor President Hinckley's legacy.

A Thankless Job?

So often we hear that parenthood, and especially motherhood, is a thankless job. We slave away day after day and our efforts seem to go unnoticed by our children. Well, today was a bright spot that proves it's not always thankless.

As I was getting Sammi ready for breakfast, I had her all buckled in her chair and her cereal ready for the milk and then found the tray to her high chair still covered with food from dinner last night (Yuck! I know) So I grabbed the tray and headed to the sink to clean it off. As I was returning to her chair to put the tray on, Sammi looked up and said "Thank you, Mommy." I don't know if she realized that I had done something nice for her or if she just spontaneously said it, but I sure felt thanked for cleaning off her tray!

Then, we were getting dressed after her bath and she was running around the room away form me as I was trying to get her shirt on. I finally got the shirt over her head and on her arms. I asked her to lay down on the floor so I could snap it up. As she laid down she said, "Thank you, Mommy!" At this moment I thought she was doing something nice for me, so I responded by saying, "Thank you, Sammi." She looked at me for a second and then said, "You're welcome."

So maybe our kids do have glimpses into the work we do for them. What I know for sure: I really needed Sammi's Thank-yous today and she was kind enough to oblige.