Being Happy All Day Long

This morning while I was discovering some new piano websites to prepare for an upcoming group lesson, Daniel & Emily played happily together in the next room with a train set. I was pretty amazed they were doing so well for so long. I snapped a few pictures of them as I smiled at all of their "Let's pretend..." comments. A few minutes later they started to argue about riding trains on each others tracks. I said, "You guys were playing so nicely, I was hoping you'd play happily all day." Daniel asked, "Well, how can you be happy all day?" The words of a Primary song went through my mind about being happy all day but I couldn't think of the whole song so instead I said, "You could just sing this song... I'm Trying to be like Jesus..." and then you could be happy all day. Daniel retorted, "Well, that's just because Jesus didn't have any brothers or sisters!" I don't know where he comes up with these things.

Emily

Emily loves dressing up fancy and having her hair fixed. It seems like she changes clothes 4 or 5 times a day and most of the outfits are skirts or dresses even in the middle of the winter. If she had her way, she'd wear her fancy slip everyday:) I love this picture of her by the piano. She seems to really enjoy practicing the piano & learning new piano concepts. I hope her enthusiasm sticks! I'd love for all of my kids to learn to play the piano well - but I don't make them. I just provide lots of incentives like late night lessons, Piano Candy Bingo, and Music Money.

Fun with Cousins

My sister Melinda came up for a couple of days during Spring Break in March to visit. Emily is lucky to have a cousin so close to her age. Emily and Dessie had a lot of fun although it was hard getting them both to smile for the camera at the same time.
Mel's baby Andrew is so adorable. He looks like a Gerber baby. After reading my sister's blog post I just had to add this bit of insight Daniel gave after he watched Andrew spitting up.
"While we were eating lunch Andrew was spitting, so Dan who is 5 took the opportunity to enlighten us on the stages of child development:

"This is what babies gotta do. First they gotta learn to walk. Then they gotta learn ta' talk. Then they gotta learn to not spit. Then they gotta learn to ski. And then they gotta learn to dig holes to build character."

... In that order. Once you've mastered those skills, you've arrived; what more is there to life, really?"

Who Knew Painting Could Be This Fun?

In March we finished up a room in the basement for the girls to make room for baby Alyssa when she is born. Daniel and Emily were really excited about "helping" with the painting so Jared let them roll some paint on the walls. I just love Emily's expression of delight while working in these pictures.

St. Patrick's Day Fun with Family

Before St. Patricks Day we went down to visit my parents (and for Jared to go to the Mitt Romney speech). My mom had tons of fun activities planned for the kids including a gold hunt, musical shamrocks, decorating rainbow cupcakes. The kids also loved the green pancake breakfast and rainbow jello. Thanks mom for creating some fun memories for us all! Emily also had a great time riding "horsey" Grandpa. Just watching them brings back memories of me having fun doing the same thing when I was a kid.

Wrestling Season

March has been such a busy month for us - partly because it is wrestling season for the boys. Both boys have made a lot of progress. Jacob surprises us all with his drive to excel his ability to follow Jared's instructions with exactness. When Jared told Daniel to "go after those boys" he took it pretty literally. Its been fun watching him dance around the match trying to shoot in for the double leg.

Daniel's Primary Answers

Last week when Daniel's church primary teacher asked the class "Who gives us more gifts and blessing than anyone?" he quickly responded "Santa Clause!" When his teacher told the class that Heavenly Father and Jesus give us so many things he was quick to refute with this. "But they can't give me a dry erase board but Santa Clause can." He makes me chuckle.