Coloring and Engineering

Audrey's obsessed with making books these days.  She loves to empty my shelf of paper and draw for hours at a time.  This time she got Grandpa Rod in on her book making.  They sat and colored for what seemed like hours.  He was drawing designs for her and teaching her to color inside the lines and she was coloring page after page after page.  

Later Audrey spent time showing her Dad how to build "machines" with the gear set. Paul built a big "machine" and then added Audrey's to the top.  She thought he was pretty awesome.  She still can't stop talking about machines.  

The Christmas Pageant

 When my whole family gets together for Christmas we always have a Christmas Eve dinner and a telling of the Christmas story.  This year all the kids dressed up.  Audrey was an angel.  

She told everyone that she was going to sing "Angels We Have Heard On High".  Except for when they told her that it was time she didn't want to.  I'm sure it was because all she knew was the chorus and she got confused when they weren't calling it the "Gloria Song".  I helped her along and she sang her first part solo ever.  I was proud of her for even wanting to sing in front of everyone.  She's already leaps and bounds ahead of her Mom.  

It was so nice to be with everyone that night.  There's something special about us all being together.  We may not agree on everything and we may even get on each others nerves every now and then but when we all come together like this I can't help but think that I wished that we all lived just a little bit closer to each other.  

I loved to watch all of these kids together being so reverent, Tessie as she sang, Jennifer with her sweet new miracle baby, James as he got in his Mom's face to give her a kiss.  This is what it's all about and I'm glad that I got to be apart of it.   

Singer

She's a singer and I can't help but love it.  Most of the time she doesn't sing the right lyrics, she prefers to make up her own.  She really never stops singing.  I think my sisters doubted until they spent some time with her during Christmas Vacation.  Sometimes I have to turn on the radio to get her to sing something else.  After hearing the same phrase over and over it's the only way.  I try not to sing songs out loud that I don't want to hear for the next few days.  :)  

I'm excited to teach her and see her grow.  We'll see if she decides to continue with it.  She seems to love a lot of things right now.  

Th Kindness Elves

Meet Audrey's Kindness Elves.  I know what your thinking...the whole elf on the shelf thing.  This is different.  Every morning Audrey would wake up to her elves doing something kind.  In their note they would challenge her to do something kind during the day.  Everyday they made mention of the Savior and the things that he did to be kind while he was here.  

Every morning she was so excited to find the elves and see what they were doing.  

Just a few of the things we did were:

Made cookies for someone who needed a cookie and a smile.  

Made a couple dinners for people in need.  

Watched someone's baby who had to go to the hospital.

Wrote love notes to Daddy.  

Wrote Christmas cards to cousins who are Audrey's age.  

Made Christmas goodies for the people in our neighborhood.  

and so many other things. 

I was a little nervous about this tradition over running my life, but it was so fun to hear Audrey talk about the Savior during Christmas and all the good things that we were doing.  It was so worth every note written.

I think that this one is a keeper.