Lots of Little Joys

Today I'm thankful for...

1. Rocking Liam to sleep.  Normally Liam likes to be held upright so he can lay his little head on my shoulder.  But the past two nights he has let me hold him like a little baby (not that he isn't still a baby, cuz he still is and he'll always by my baby no matter how big he gets).  It's been sweet to hold him and rock him and watch him fall asleep.  I should probably be letting him learn how to fall asleep on his own in his crib, but I'm a sucker and I like to hold him to help him fall asleep when he's having a hard time and wailing his eyeballs out.  I won't be able to hold him forever, so I'm going to take advantage of it and enjoy it while I can.

2. Orion's belt.  It was shining brightly above our house the other night when Bobby and I were bringing the kids inside.  We took a moment to point it out to the girls, and helped them find the rest of the hunter's constellation.  I'm grateful to my dad for taking me out many a-nights to go stargazing and for teaching me where to locate Orion's belt.  Every time I see it in the night sky it reminds me of him.  And of star-filled skies twinkling over farm fields and cow pastures.

3. Musical talent.  No, not mine.  I dare say I have very limited (if that, even) musical abilities.  I'm just thankful for those who do because I am very much enjoying myself at this moment, sitting on my couch and listening to my Mormon Tabernacle Choir channel on Pandora.  It's a good mix of the MoTab singing and hymns played on guitar and piano.  There's even some Enya, Josh Groban, and Jim Brickman thrown in there, too.  It really invites the Spirit.

4. My big brown boots.  They are as high as the entire length of Sydney's legs, but somehow she manages to get them on and tromp around the house in them.  Today she was pretending she was a pop star putting on a show.  She kept looking at her paper to see what she had to sing.  I tried to get her to strike a pop star pose, but she was a little camera shy.

 

5. Three afternoons.  I try to read scriptures with the kids every night.  We have scripture books with lots of pictures and very simplified text.  Tonight we read from the Old Testament stories about Jonah.  When I got to the part about Jonah being swallowed by the big fish, I read, "Jonah stayed in the big fish for three days and three nights!"  Lillian piped in and said, "And three afternoons!  Three days, three afternoons, and three nights!"  She is very detail-oriented...just like her mama. :)

6. Root beer bubbles.  I splurged for New Year's Eve and bought fixins' for root beer floats.  We still have some Root beer left over in the fridge, so Sydney and I busted it out for lunch yesterday.  After Sydney took her first sip she smiled and said, "It's so bubbly in my mouth!"  Yay for soda bubblies!

7. Snow.  We got a few inches of white stuff a couple weeks ago.  Lillian and Sydney were so excited to go outside and play in it.  Lillian wanted to make snow angels, build a snowman, and have a snowball fight.  Sydney just wanted to eat the snow.  Like every good mom does, I warned her about the yellow snow.  ;)  Liam tried to figure out what all the white stuff was that was falling from the sky.  The only view of snow he got last year was from a small opening under blankets in his car seat, and that snow was all crunchy and icy anyway- not big and fluffy like these flakes.  It was fun to see the kids have fun playing, and Bobby brought the girls across the street to sled down the neighbor's little hill.  I was inside feeding Liam lunch, but I could still hear Lillian squealing with delight every time she went down the hill.

 

 

8. Gma and Gpa!!