Jimmy * Esther * Zeke * Lilly

Doesn’t that look fun?!

Cool poses Zeke!

I love these ones of Zeke looking at himself in the upper window

Jimmy and I spoke in church today on gratitude. It was nice to be reminded of the importance of being thankful. Here are some of the things I am thankful for…

I am so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ. For His life, example, atonement, and love for us. I know it is because of Him that we may be able to repent and be worthy to live with our Heavenly Father, and loved ones eternally. I am so grateful for His gospel of peace, and for the blessing of being able to have been raised in it by loving parents. They have been the best mortal examples to me of righteous people trying to do what’s right.

I am thankful for all of my brothers and sisters, and relatives, and in-laws- Jimmy’s family is all so great!

I am so thankful for my little family. For my wonderful husband who is so loving, and patient with me! For my darling children, and for the blessing of being a mother!

I’m thankful to have a son, Zeke is so spirited, and fun, he loves to play games with me, and he’s my little buddy!

I’m thankful to have a daughter, Lilly is my sweet mommy’s girl, and she brightens my days with her kisses, and smiles!

I am SO thankful for my children! I could say that a thousand times, and some days I nearly do :)

I am also thankful for each of their birth parents, and birth families, and I love them!

I’m thankful my little brother, Carlin can be living with us, and that he’s such a good kid.

I am thankful for our past prophets, and for our current prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, and for all our church leaders and the time they give to serve us.

I’m thankful for all of my wonderful friends.

I am so thankful for excellent health, and abilities.

I am thankful for the scriptures, and to live in a free country where I can worship how I want.

I am thankful for good food, a nice warm house, and cars that run well.

I’m thankful for the little details like running water, electricity, good entertainment, and other modern conveniences.

I have so many other things I am grateful for, I know I’m not even doing justice for explaining my blessings with this post, but I’ll still post it anyway :)

I can’t believe Lilly is already half way in between 1 and 2 years old! She is a sweetie, and has a fun sense of humor! She loves to joke, and tease, and make us laugh. Lilly looks up to her brother, and wants to do the things he does. Here she is drumming on the pots and pans after watching Zeke-

Lilly will smile on command, and sometimes it looks like this-

haha! She’s so funny!

Lilly LOVES toothbrushes! She goes up to their bathroom, and opens the drawer to get a toothbrush all through out the day!-

here she is going for Zeke’s toothbrush :)

Lilly is a true girl, she loves shoes! Her own, her brothers, mine, and anyone else’s she sees-

She put on Zeke’s boots all by herself, and was so proud!

stylin’!

Lilly’s favorite activity is to do “Yo-Ho’s”. Jimmy will swing the kids in the blanket while singing the Disneyland Pirate’s of the Caribbean ride song- (Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate’s life for me). Lilly learned to say”Yo-Ho” really quick to be able to tell us she wants to do them. She will also go find the white blanket we always use and bring it to Jimmy :)

Lilly is a thrill seeker! It surprises me how similar she is to Zeke, I figured she’s be the cautious, mellow child, but she loves a thrill as much as her brother! She will climb to the top of the slide, and let go standing straight up, and do the same thing on our kitchen stool. She is a little climber too, and she’ll climb on the counter, table, and anything else. It’s becoming trickier to keep things out of her reach :)

Lilly pushed the stool over to climb onto the counter, and was so happy with herself!

Lilly says a few words really well, they include, “Ma!, Da-da, dog, yo-ho, ball, and Hi!

She also says these words a lot, “nan!”-candy, “mih”-milk, “sss”-Zeke, “hss”-horse, “aww”- hot, “neh”-please, and she does only signs for other things, like for her favorite blankie, we can’t get her to say anything when we tell her to say “blankie”. She always holds her hand by her head like she’s snuggling it to tell us she wants it, or when we tell her to say “blankie”. “Denk en” – thank you! My favorite thing she says is, “Blethe,Blethe” for I love you! :)

Lilly loves my phone, and can get into my calendar on it which I don’t even know how to do :)

Lilly loves baths and showers! The other day she had two baths, and one shower. She almost always showers with me in the mornings, she is a water baby!

Lilly waves to everybody that drives by when we’re outside. Last week we were out, and Lilly fell and was crying, right after she fell, a car drove by, and she looked up and waved and said, “Hi!” then continued to cry.