I Did it Myself

Riley wanted to put her nightgown all by herself. I let her try and then I helped her.  Fortunately she let me help her.

She is a Child of God

Every 6 months, it's time to attend Stake Conference.  This time, our stake president spoke about a time in which he visited a ward and during Sacrament, the child started singing "I am a Child of God." The mother hushed the child, but the spirit was already felt.  He was impressed that the parents would teach such a young child such a wonderful song and that the child recognized that the sacrament was a time to feel the spirit.  My husband and I are not absolutely sure, but we believe the child was Riley because she has done this before and many of our ward members came up to us after his talk and asked if it was us.  It doesn't matter if it was Riley or not, but it does matter that she learns spiritual songs.  Because of this story, I don't hush her if she wants to sing spiritual songs during the Sacrament.

Cookies

We made cookies for the youth for a fireside.  The kids helped with the frosting (mostly licking it).  I made them Halloween because we couldn't wait for my favorite month.

The Spinning Wheel

Riley and I watched Sleeping Beauty one day and she was terrified of Maleficent.  She cried during the part Aurora is summoned to the spinning wheel.  After the movie, she kept whining that she poked her finger on a spinning wheel, as seen in the picture.  Fortunately, she didn't go into a coma and need to be wakened with Love's First Kiss.

While Eli's Away...

While Eli is at school, I have to think up some fun things to do at home until she gets used to him going everyday. So far, we have done bubbles(as seen in the pictures), Play-Doh, Paint and markers. When I bought the paints, she was so excited that she was busting at the seams with giggles. She wanted to paint so bad that she was ordering Eli to go to school in the evening. Who knew something that only cost two-dollars would be such a hit.
We also are using school to motivate potty training. She can go, but she wont do it alone, no matter what we do. We told her that if she wants to go to school, she will have to learn to do it alone. She responded, that it was okay because she could do bubbles.

Eli's First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Eli's first day of Kindergarten.  In El Paso, Kindergarten is not required by law and we put Eli in a private school because they are only half-day and most public schools are full day.  It kind of feels like he is going back to preschool and I wasn't too worried.  The first few weeks took some adjusting, as Eli liked to get up and wander from his seat and he has to do work in school, like coloring, writing and reciting words.  Those aren't really his favorite.  We worked with him to keep him in his seat and he simply told me that I needed to tell the teacher that we need some new rules.  We told him no and he responded "but I am cute and cuddly."
Riley on the other hand, missed Eli terribly and everytime we dropped Eli off, she would cry that she couldn't got to school.  It was ironic that she would run to his classroom and race to his seat and sit down and I had to pull Eli to even get to his classroom.  Next year Riley, we'll get you in school.

Grandma's Birthday

Grandma and Grandpa decided to brave the heat and come and visit El Paso in July.  None of us lasted the heat and we had to break down and buy a window air conditioning unit.  It was worth every penny. 
While they were here, we celebrated Grandma's Birthday.  Since it is El Paso, we don't bake and we decided to buy a cake.  (Fortunately my kids have birthday's in the winter and I will be able to bake theirs.) Here Riley is helping to blow out the sole candle on the cake. Happy Birthday Grandma!