"Children"

"Children are an heritage of the Lord." Psalm 127:3

"I love these little people, and it is not a slight thing, when they, who are so fesh from God, love us." - Charles Dickens

"Of all the dear sights in the world, nothing is so beautiful as a child when it is giving something. Any small thing it gives. A child gives the world to you. It opens the world to you as if it were a book you'd never been able to read. But when a gift must be found, it is always some absurd little thing, pasted on crooked, ...an angel looking like a clown. A child has so little that it can give, because it never knows it has given you everything." - Margaret Lee Runbeck

They are idols of hearts and of households!

They are angels of God in disguise;

The sunlight still sleeps in their tresses,

His glory still gleams in their eyes;

These truants from home and from Heaven,

They have made me more gentle and mild;

And I know now how Jesus could liken

The kingdom of God to a child.

- Charles M. Dickinson

Tire Swing

Haley and Allie helped me hang a tire swing today. Here are the pictures we took. Enjoy!

Lunch!

Emily started eating solids month. She's an enthusiastic eater. She likes pears, sweet potatoes, green peas, applesauce, rice cereal, mango, guava, squash and pumpkin. She doesn't like carrots.

I just wanted to share these funny pictures of Emily eating her lunch today. Her face is all messy because it's hard to keep her attention. She's always jerking her head around trying to watch what everyone else is doing.

She looks like such a big girl sitting up in her high chair holding her spoon. Emily will be 7 months old at the end of this month. She gets sweeter all the time!

Snake, it's what's for Dinner

Allie ate "snake" instead of "steak" tonight for dinner. Haley was a little distressed when I, daddy, confirmed that it was a snake that we were eating.

Haley's distress didn't last long, nor did her naivety, as this is her portion of steak. I took a picture because I knew everyone would have a hard time believing that such a small girl could consume so much steak.

We want to thank Grandpa and Nana for buying the steak when they came to visit. They bought a sirloin roast and we cut it into steaks. We saved it for a special occasion and had it tonight. It was delicious; wish you were here.

"This One's for Allie"

I love this picture of Haley, Allie and me. Allie was less than a week old in this picture. Brent was so amazed how small Allie was when she was born (8lbs 3 oz is not a small newborn) that he named her "Chica Chiquitita" (say that three times fast) which means "very little girl."

Haley looks like such a baby with her footie PJ's and sippy cup, not to mention her cherub cheeks.

Allie was a year old in this picture. I love that Haley is giving her a flower. Allie probably tried to eat it!

Haley and Allie have always been great friends. Allie is about 3 months in this picture. Hmmm...who do you think she favors?

Can I just say that my little Allie-bug is about to be 3 years old! Can you believe it!?

So here's the real reason for this post...

We always have dinner as a family at the table. Lately, it's been a struggle to get Allie to sit through dinner. She takes two bites and then asks to be excused (And yes, she asks to be excused from the table. Great manners!) If we ask her to stay and have dinner with the family she claims that she needs to potty and heads for the bathroom or says she's tired and runs off to find her pj's. Well today, Allie hadn't eaten much all day and I knew she'd be hungry for dinner, but true to form, she asked to be excused. As she was walking around the table I said, "Have a seat in your chair or go to time-out." Apparently Allie would rather stand in time-out than eat dinner with us. I guess we need to try to be more appealing!

"A Chair of Bowlies"

I once saw a Mary Engelbright illustration that read, "Life is just a chair of bowlies." Sometimes life can feel that way, but I'm grateful to the girls and Brent who regularly remind me not to take myself too seriously. They're always showing me that the cherries are all around us.

"The Talent Show"

We had a Talent Show at church on Friday. Haley and Allie decided they wanted to play a song on their xylophones. They chose a couple of songs they learned in ORFF. Everyone was very impressed with our little ensemble. Haley played the bass xylophone, I played the alto, and Brent and Allie played the glockenspiel. Haley and Allie did a great job.

Haley's also been learning to play the guitar. It's been difficult to convince her that she needs to learn to play the guitar rather than strumming it wildly and spontaneously. When she does pay attention during her lesson she does a great job. She's learned the "C" and "G" chord so far.

Haley also likes to write her own music. In ORFF she's learned to read and write her own rhythm patterns using quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, triplets and rests. She's still learning about placing them on the staff, but she can play "do re mi fa so la ti do" on the piano. Her ability to sing on pitch and her sense of rhythm is amazing. She can read the rhythm patterns out of the hymnal at church. She really loves music. Allie isn't far behind either. She's understanding more and more all the time.

I've included Haley's latest compositions: