The Nitty Gritty

Van loves his stuffed Cat in the Hat, or as he calls it, "Cat Da Hat." He treats it like a little girl would treat her dolly. He dresses it in clothes, gives it lots of hugs and kisses, brings it along for car rides, cuddles it while he sleeps, holds one-sided conversations with it, and holds it in his lap while he watches the PBS show "The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That". His vocabulary has really exploded this past month and it's fun to hear his teeny voice speaking in sentences.  I can't believe how fast he is growing! I still call him my baby because that's what he is to me. My baby Vanners.  He hasn't taken one nap this week (heaven help us) and he wants to do everything, I mean EVERYTHING, by himself. Buckle his car seat, walk instead of ride in the stroller, get up and down from his highchair, dump his potty into the big toilet, turn the lights on and off, close the garage door, turn off the water at the sink--you name it, he wants to...

Ok, family and friends! Remember when we had you vote on names for our babies? Now, it's time to vote on where you think we'll move to! You can vote on the right hand side of the blog.  I can hardly stand the suspense myself. This is a big change for our family and I only hope we get to move to the right place for our family to have the most positive experience possible.

On Saturday, my niece Lauren was baptized. She looked beautiful. I played the piano for the program. Lauren asked Isaac to perform a musical number. He played his uke and sang "I'll Walk With You".  He  said that the first time he distinctly remembers feeling the spirit in his life was when he sang that song in primary.  My brother, who got to conduct the meeting as Bishop, devoted his remarks at the end praising his wife, Sara, and paid a tribute to all of her hard work and the constant service that she renders as a mother. It was a special occasion. I love occasions like this where the family comes together and feels the spirit and an outpouring of love. After the baptism, we walked over to Sara's parents' and ate dinner. After dinner, Sara's brother began directing a music video. He instructed us to put on a costume and do something crazy when the music started playing. I was completely unfamiliar with the song they were playing and was a little confuse...

  My second year or third year of teaching, I remember one of my students commenting that her Kindergarten teacher sang "Skidamarink" at the end of the school day. I honestly did not know what song she was talking about, so she sang it for me and taught me the actions. Our class started singing it every day before the bell would ring and the kids would go home. It was the perfect way to end the day because everyone left with a smile and a happy feeling in their hearts.  About six months ago, I found this book in my teaching stuff and pulled it out. I read/sang it to the boys and taught them the actions. Since then, we sing it every night after we read the scriptures and say prayers. Again, the perfect way to end the day. The boys go to bed feeling happy, and I am happy watching their cute faces light up as we sing the song.  Sometimes we do the actions. Another variation is the boys sit in our laps, face each other, hold hands and we rock back and forth.  ...