Monday, January 28, 2008

In memory of President Hinckley

President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away yesterday evening at the age of 97. He was the Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the past 13 years- since Rob and I were in high school.

I will personally always remember President Hinckley's warmth and humor, as I'm sure many others will as well. We had many opportunities to hear him speak in our years at BYU, and he always conveyed his great love for both the Savior and the restoration of the Gospel.

We will miss our prophet dear, but at the same time we are sure of the joyful reunion he must be having with his dear wife Marjorie, and we are secure in the knowledge that the Church will move on as it always has.

President Hinckley's words to the hymn "My Redeemer Lives" express his unfailing faith in Jesus Christ.

I know that my Redeemer lives,
Triumphant Savior, Son of God,
Victorious over pain and death,
My King, my Leader, and my Lord.

He lives, my one sure rock of faith,
The one bright hope of men on earth,
The beacon to a better way,
The light beyond the veil of death.

Oh, give me thy sweet Spirit still,
The peace that comes alone from thee,
The faith to walk the lonely road
That leads to thine eternity.


Thursday, January 24, 2008

15 months, snow days, and a biker dude?

First off, Charlotte had her 15 month check-up on Tuesday! She is now 21 lbs. 2 oz (25th %) and 31 inches long (75th %). So she is still our long skinny Peanut.

Also this past week we have had some very cold snowy days. Charlotte tested out the sled in the living room with her polar bear (a good choice for an advisor on all things snowy I suppose.)


And then we got all bundled up and went out to play. :)

She didn't like that at all! She only wanted to stay on the part of the walkway that I had shoveled and watch the snow fall from the sky. It was like it was some sort of magic substance that she didn't dare to actually touch.


Finally, on Sunday we visited Joshie and his parents and had a nice dinner and watched football. Charlotte and Josh played very nicely together- but Josh kept wanting to kiss Charlotte and she wasn't really happy about that. It was adorable though! He'd kiss her hand, or her head, or wherever he could get a hold of her. LOL You can see how stoked she was about all of his advances. ;) They did have a good time playing together though- Thanks Spiveys for a fun evening!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Snowfort

Charlotte would like to introduce you to her most favorite companion.



This is "Snowfort."


Snowfort is a polar bear that Rob received as a Christmas gift at a work holiday party when Charlotte was just 2 months old. Charlotte loves Snowfort SOOOO much, that no matter how much I wash his face, his nose is still all gray from her sucking on it and giving him kisses. She sleeps with him almost every night and would take him everywhere with her (if we'd let her.)


Now we seek out books at the library that feature polar bears. Our favorite so far is A Splendid Friend, Indeed. We also love finding the polar bears on each page of the book about Noah's Ark that Aunt Elizabeth sent for Christmas. We also like the Little Polar Bear books by Hans de Beer.

Oh there are so many polar bears in children's picture books!


Best buds.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Portrait of the artist as a young girl

The artist at work.
Charlotte is definitely a lefty. I'm glad she enjoys coloring with the crayons she got for Christmas. She also likes painting with the Crayola toddler paints- but BOY is that a messy experience! So we've only done that twice so far. ;)

Here is Charlotte's first drawing that she did "all by herself."

And here is her first painting that we did together on Christmas day.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

happy new year

We hope that you all are having a very happy new year so far!


A few months ago we noticed that the faucet dripped in our upstairs bathroom. Despite trying 3 different stores we were unable to get a part to fix the faucet, so we just shut the cold water to the faucet off. Well, that worked for a while, but then it started dripping again! It was time to replace the faucet. But if we were going to do that, then I wanted a new vanity too. :)

So, on Saturday, we put a new vanity into our upstairs bathroom. I am very happy with it. I am even more happy about the fact that we did it all by ourselves and didn't have to call our very handy home teacher for reinforcements and/or advice. Yay us! ;)

Next will be the mirror and lights to match!


So that is pretty much all our news. Oh, also, we decided that "ring around the rosie" can only be fully appreciated in video. Charlotte wants to do this EVERY day since Victoria taught it to her.