For those of you who don't participate in the Facebookosphere, I posted this note on my profile tonight. It's actually my personal journal entry for tonight, but I thought it was too good not to share.
Stephanie and I have done the same bedtime routine with Heather for a long time. We probably started getting consistent with it when she was about 6 months old, maybe even before that. Needless to say, we've done the same bedtime routine for over a year now. All of us read together from the children's scriptures, then Stephanie bathes Heather, then I dry her off, get her dressed and read her a story. Finally, we say a prayer together and Stephanie sings Heather to sleep. The same 5 songs every night...in the same order! We feel strongly that kids need structure and consistency, and we've been working very hard to provide that for Heather.
Although we have our "assigned" bedtime routine tasks, I've filled in for Stephanie enough times to know the whole bedtime routine very well myself. Between Stephanie's responsibilities at church and our ASL classes, I have been doing the bedtime routine by myself at least once a week for a while. And at the end, I sing Heather to sleep...the same 5 songs each time...in the same order, just like Stephanie!
Tonight I had a wonderful experience as I was singing Heather to sleep. I decided to do a little experiment. As I was singing one of the songs, I decided to stop right before one of the words we've been teaching her to say and sign. "Temple" she filled in. So I sang a little more and came to another word we've been teaching her and stopped. "Day" she said. I must have done this at least 10 times between the 5 songs, and each time she said the correct word--clearly too! I was impressed enough by the fact that she could say the words we've been teaching her ("temple", "day", "heart" to name a few), but she also said some words we haven't been teaching her ("Spirit" and "true"). Mind you, this isn't something we've been practicing--I just tried this out of the blue and Heather was perfect!
I'm not going to pretend this is because Stephanie and I are such great parents. Heather is so bright and special in so many ways. But I can't help but wonder how much the consistency is helping her learn and grow. Stephanie is a wonderful mother and has been so consistent in so many of the things she does with Heather--she is the reason we have a bedtime routine in the first place! I'm so thankful for the two girls that I have been blessed with!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Halloween
This was the first year Heather was able to really appreciate the fun of Halloween. Our ward had a trunk-or-treat activity on Wednesday, and despite wind and cold, they kept most of the activity outside. the excitement of decorated cars and excessive amounts of candy gave the kids (and adults) enough gumption to brave the blast.
Halloween itself fell on Sunday this year, and the die-hard Iowa State fans would never be happy if they had to choose between trick-or-treating and a Cyclone football game on Saturday night, so the community decided to celebrate Halloween and do trick-or-treating on Friday night. Our neck of the woods didn't get much action for some reason though. Oh well, Heather really enjoyed the 5-10 houses we went to.
We hope you all had a fun Halloween! Don't start your Christmas music too early now, we've still got Thanksgiving to celebrate!
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| Heather was a clown and mom wore her 50s poodle skirt. |
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| Heather again with daddy in his doctor outfit. |
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| Scooping out the pumpkins with mommy. We miss doing this tradition with family! |
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| Heather scoopin' and daddy carvin'. You can see the nice window treatments Stephanie finished sewing the other day. |
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| Daddy and Heather going out for trick-or-treating, daddy as a doctor and Heather wearing a different clown costume! |
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
It's a...
I'll let you check it out for yourselves. :)
I think most of us were right! His name will (most likely) be Joshua Christian Standage. We are excited to have a bouncing baby boy to love!
Oh how I love the little toes!
On a side note, my mom had her baby this morning at 6:47am EST. His name is Isaac Stanley Coleman. He weighed 10lbs 5oz! He was 21 inches and some change. (A VERY big, chubby baby.) I still can't believe I have another sibling! I think Joshua and Isaac are going to be best buds...they probably planned it. :)
I think most of us were right! His name will (most likely) be Joshua Christian Standage. We are excited to have a bouncing baby boy to love!
On a side note, my mom had her baby this morning at 6:47am EST. His name is Isaac Stanley Coleman. He weighed 10lbs 5oz! He was 21 inches and some change. (A VERY big, chubby baby.) I still can't believe I have another sibling! I think Joshua and Isaac are going to be best buds...they probably planned it. :)
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Half way there!
This past Wednesday I hit the 20 week mark of the pregnancy. We are excited to find out the gender of the baby on Wednesday. Any guesses at to what it may be?
Here are some pictures of Heather. She loves hats and gloves.
Love you all!
Here are some pictures of Heather. She loves hats and gloves.
Love you all!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Sibling Memories
The last few weeks I've been thinking about some of my favorite memories growing up with my siblings. I would like to share a few in this post (special thanks to dad for help with the pictures).
My fondest memory with Stephen is building model rockets. It was a lot of fun to build and paint them, but of course the best part was walking up to the park by Greenwood Elementary to launch them. Stephen had a rocket that he painted black and maroon that he called "the hornet." He bought me one that I painted bright blue and yellow and called "mighty ducks"--how much do you want to bet I had just seen the movie?
Building rockets may not have been the most exciting thing Stephen and I have ever done. Indeed, the picture above was taken during my visit to Utah for EFY in 2000. Sliding down the ice pack on the back of Mt. Timp or the suicide jump at the narrows probably qualify for the most exciting things we've done together. The reason that building model rockets is my favorite memory is because it brings together all of the things that made Stephen a good big brother--his patience and his time when he very well could have been doing something else with friends or on his own.
My favorite memory with Michele is the trip we took to Sedona, Arizona right before my freshman year at BYU. Michele picked me up from Lesa and Eric's and we pulled an all-nighter to get to Sedona. During our few days there, we slept in a tent, we visited the souvenir shops, did some wilderness hikes, and of course, enjoyed some fancy dutch oven cooking. Our pizza crust was a little burned, but it tasted great anyway!
Michele is a great older sister. She was always nice to me growing up, and she was like a second mom. Hearing her play Chopin on the piano is the reason I ever wanted to play the piano in the first place! Our trip to Sedona is one of the few times in my life that we got to spend lots of 1-on-1 time together.
I was almost too embarrassed to share this photo of my fondest memory of Julianne. One year for Easter, Juli "wrote" a "play" that she and I performed for the rest of the family about the Easter bunny--guess who she got to play that part?!?! I don't remember the details much, but luckily mom and dad have a few photos of the ordeal in their archives!
This isn't my fondest memory of Julianne because I had a great time doing it. In fact, I might not have enjoyed it at all! Looking back, it's just funny to remember how good Juli was at convincing me that what she wanted to do was what I wanted to do too. I probably ended up doing a lot of things with her that I didn't really want to do just because I needed some company. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Julianne wasn't a great sister or that I didn't enjoy anything we did together. It's just funny to think back on what she was able to get me to do sometimes by exercising her persuasive powers!
I'll let Stephen tell you his version of the Daniel-and-Julianne story, which I like just as well. You should also ask him about the Julianne-ketchup-on-pillow-while-wresting story!
My fondest memory of Laura growing up is wrestling. We spent a lot of time together, especially after Juli graduated. Sometimes it was hard to come up with things to do together since there was such a large age gap. However, we were able to find some common ground in a few things--Star Wars (which she could quote at a very early age), legos, and wrestling. I taught her a few moves, but her best move (as shown above) is the half-nelson!
Wrestling with Laura is probably my favorite memory because we bonded a lot doing something we both enjoyed. Laura was happy because she some moves and I let her get her fair share of pins, and I was happy because I didn't have to play stuffed animals or watch Jungle Book for the 137th time with her!
My fondest memory with Stephen is building model rockets. It was a lot of fun to build and paint them, but of course the best part was walking up to the park by Greenwood Elementary to launch them. Stephen had a rocket that he painted black and maroon that he called "the hornet." He bought me one that I painted bright blue and yellow and called "mighty ducks"--how much do you want to bet I had just seen the movie?
Building rockets may not have been the most exciting thing Stephen and I have ever done. Indeed, the picture above was taken during my visit to Utah for EFY in 2000. Sliding down the ice pack on the back of Mt. Timp or the suicide jump at the narrows probably qualify for the most exciting things we've done together. The reason that building model rockets is my favorite memory is because it brings together all of the things that made Stephen a good big brother--his patience and his time when he very well could have been doing something else with friends or on his own.
My favorite memory with Michele is the trip we took to Sedona, Arizona right before my freshman year at BYU. Michele picked me up from Lesa and Eric's and we pulled an all-nighter to get to Sedona. During our few days there, we slept in a tent, we visited the souvenir shops, did some wilderness hikes, and of course, enjoyed some fancy dutch oven cooking. Our pizza crust was a little burned, but it tasted great anyway!
Michele is a great older sister. She was always nice to me growing up, and she was like a second mom. Hearing her play Chopin on the piano is the reason I ever wanted to play the piano in the first place! Our trip to Sedona is one of the few times in my life that we got to spend lots of 1-on-1 time together.
I was almost too embarrassed to share this photo of my fondest memory of Julianne. One year for Easter, Juli "wrote" a "play" that she and I performed for the rest of the family about the Easter bunny--guess who she got to play that part?!?! I don't remember the details much, but luckily mom and dad have a few photos of the ordeal in their archives!
This isn't my fondest memory of Julianne because I had a great time doing it. In fact, I might not have enjoyed it at all! Looking back, it's just funny to remember how good Juli was at convincing me that what she wanted to do was what I wanted to do too. I probably ended up doing a lot of things with her that I didn't really want to do just because I needed some company. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Julianne wasn't a great sister or that I didn't enjoy anything we did together. It's just funny to think back on what she was able to get me to do sometimes by exercising her persuasive powers!
I'll let Stephen tell you his version of the Daniel-and-Julianne story, which I like just as well. You should also ask him about the Julianne-ketchup-on-pillow-while-wresting story!
My fondest memory of Laura growing up is wrestling. We spent a lot of time together, especially after Juli graduated. Sometimes it was hard to come up with things to do together since there was such a large age gap. However, we were able to find some common ground in a few things--Star Wars (which she could quote at a very early age), legos, and wrestling. I taught her a few moves, but her best move (as shown above) is the half-nelson!
Wrestling with Laura is probably my favorite memory because we bonded a lot doing something we both enjoyed. Laura was happy because she some moves and I let her get her fair share of pins, and I was happy because I didn't have to play stuffed animals or watch Jungle Book for the 137th time with her!
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