Babies

Holly is really into taking care of her dolls and stuffed animals.

She changes their poopy diapers, gives them bottles or nurses them, and yesterday she even fed her teddy bear some pretend baby food.

But I love it when she has me fashion a baby wrap for her little baby.

Can you tell how I carried Josie around for the first six months of her life?

A Bike

(This is a re-post as I accidentally deleted the original one. Oops!)

My parents bought Holly a tricycle as a belated birthday present. Don't let this picture fool you! She was thrilled when it arrived by mail. Here she is waiting for it to be put together by the ever-hardworking
Andrew.

The fact that she had (and still has) no idea how to ride it does not matter. This girl loves her bike! She rings the bell over and over again and scoots around with her feet along the ground like Fred Flintstone.

We are still working on important skills like steering and pedaling, but no matter. She will learn how to ride it soon enough, and then we will actually have to keep up with her!

Family Home Evening

Our church has a wonderful program called Family Home Evening. Every Monday night, families are asked to set aside time to spend together as a family--whether it be for a lesson, to play games, or go someplace a little special together. We have been sporadic at best with our Family Home Evenings but last Monday I decided we were having FHE no matter what. Who's with me?

Well. Last Monday was kind of a nightmare. My two beautiful children were replaced with savage beasts who spent the greater part of the afternoon shrieking and howling and pulling each other's hair and otherwise making me want to kick them out of the house. I spent the greater part of that afternoon shouting at the two of them because, remember, all your problems will be solved if you just yell loud enough. Right?

Uh...yeah. Needless to say, by the time we all finished dinner I was barely hanging on and while the girls were bathing I had an internal battle. I knew I should still go ahead with FHE. But still...what kind of message am I sending to my kids? Alright, I know I've been shouting at you all afternoon, but let's have a spiritual moment together, shall we? I felt like such a hypocrite. I decided to push through and have our lesson as planned anyway, despite my internal struggles.

When I told Holly what we were going to do, she immediately perked up. "Daddy, daddy! Come here! It's Family Home Evening!" She then proceeded to sit down right in front of me and listen fervently to every last word of my 3-minute lesson. This has never happened before, friends. Then we made a picture together and she proudly displayed it on the fridge so we all could see it every day. What started out as a pretty crummy day ended with warm, fuzzy feelings for each other.

This is a lesson for me that my children do pay attention at my feeble attempts to do the right thing for them, and are excited about and appreciate my efforts. And I guess I should make more of an effort to hold FHE every week, because they are listening, even when I think all order has gone out the window.