Daddy's Girls

For Father's Day, we surprised Paul with some pictures of all his girls together. I was proud of Millie and Grace for keeping our secret for over 2 weeks. We sure love our Daddy!

18-Month-Old Claire

Claire is at such a fun stage! She is growing so quickly! It's no wonder we view 18-months as an important milestone--there's just so much that happens between age 1 and 2. Her vocabulary is multiplying daily. She is a little person with a mind and will of her own. She adds so much love and laughter to our home each day. Here are a few fun facts about her at 18-months old:

• She is as sweet as they come!
• So good at obeying, even when it's not what she really wants to do
• Is very social
• Loves to copy what her sisters are saying and doing
• Cares for her dollies each day
• Sings "Twinkle, twinkle" many times throughout the day (with the right tune but wrong words)
• Loves singing "Five Little Monkeys" and other fun songs
• Runs away from us EVERY time we try to get her dressed--she loves this game of chase!
• Always takes her dish to the sink when she is done eating
• Says words like: No, uh-huh, ice, mama, dada, dink, pease
• walks around imitating our words and sentences all day long
• Talks to Dadda on the phone every day at lunch, starting out with "hi, dadda!"
• Loves to be held

Millie at age 5

Words that describe Millie the best: determined, thinker, fun, social, smart, curious, tricky, creative, daring, excited, energetic, busy, feminine, friendly, negotiator


Favorite activities:

• practicing cartwheels and handstands and the splits in the living room
  
• drawing, coloring, & painting
• printing and making copies to color (sometimes 20 at a time)
  
• writing notes to friends and teachers by sounding out the words on her own
• riding her 2-wheeler bike as fast as she can down the sidewalk and back
  
• dressing up as Snow White
• listening to fun music and dancing around the living room
  
• playing make believe the she is someone else
  

Favorite foods: mac'n cheese, potatoes, lasagna, chinese
Favorite treats: brownies, cookies, 'smarshmellows', smoothies, and of course, bubblegum!
Favorite color: black, white, and all of the colors
Favorite Disney character: Tarzan (she has informed us that she LOVES him and she even wrote a letter to him this week!)

If she talked to you today, she would tell you...that she is 5, and she learned how to ride a bike in 2 days, and she knows how to skip "for reals" (followed by some skipping).

What we love and appreciate about Millie:

• She is always willing to help out with younger sisters
• Even at a young age, she loves to teach
• She responds well to responsibility and respect. lately, she has taken on the responsibility of feeding the rabbits and she has done very well with this.
  
• She loves Heavenly Father and Jesus. She wants to bear her testimony each month, and today she did it all by herself. Also, today, we found her crying in our closet because she had found a picture of Jesus that we had replaced. She was so sad that we had taken it down, and wanted all of the pictures in our house taken down until we had put Jesus back up again.