We Praise Thy Name O Lord

My Sweet Little Girl

I can't even get over that my sweet little girl is a year old.  We have had a blast this last year as we began getting to know her sweet little personality.

She is so sweet and cuddly willing to give lots of hugs and kisses.  Her favorite "toys" are her books and she can sit and read by herself for hours.  She gets bored easily if she isn't learning something new or engaged in something interesting.  I was amazed when my mom to entertain her began showing her the letter O on a book cover, within minutes she could find all the o's in the book.  We have started "reading" lessons with her and she learns very quickly.  She is not a pleaser, however, she can be very stubborn and is only willing to preform on her own terms.  Often she acts like she thinks she is a big girl and gives her mama a look like "what do you think I am, a baby?!?" She is not very verbal and doesn't generally babble like most babies, but (mostly) when she talks she uses words that she has learned, her favorite word of course being NO.  She also will say short sentences such as "I want __" and "I love dada".  She also likes to walk when we go to the grocery store and is happy to hold your hand and walk all over and help.  She especially likes to help with the dishwasher and the dryer.  She is a chaos out of order kind of girl and will unstack blocks, books, ect.  She systematically will remove every toy from her basket, and seems to generally like to pull things out, down, ect.  Her daily ritual every morning is to open Daddy's drawer and throw all of his underwear and socks on the floor, piece by piece!  She thinks it is very funny and will giggle to herself as she does it.  She finds most things to be very funny and is usually laughing all day.  Even if she doesn't think something is funny, she still will fake a courtesy laugh to be polite!  She isn't usually allowed to watch T.V. but sometimes she will see a computer and desperately try to get to it until someone plays a youtube clip of the Gigglebellies or the Ni hao Kylan theme song.  Then she will dance and sing along. We love her so much.  She has brought a special spirit to our family.  This last year with Chiara as part of her bedtime routine we read her the entire Book of Mormon, so she will be able to start the goal of reading it once every year! She loves the primary songs and will "sing" along with "I Love to See The Temple" at bedtime.  We are happy for her strong personality because we know it will help her to gain and defend a strong testimony of Jesus Christ.  WE LOVE YOU CHIARA!

Chiara Turns One!

The Elephant in the room...

Some thoughts about this year's election for posterity's sake:
The Republicans picked up about 65 seats in the House of Representatives and about 20 in the Senate...why this wide swing in parties?  Well, I think that the American people are making a statement that they are unhappy about the way things have been going with our government.  Although many people are saying that they made "hold your nose votes" (the kind where both candidates stink so bad you just hold your nose and choose), it seems that many people voted against anyone who had been in the government for awhile, because as a whole the American people are unhappy with how decisions are being made in Washington D.C. regardless of what the people want.  This is why we are seeing movements like the Tea Party Movement (Taxed Enough Already).

At least 8 important overturned seats in the house were won by Republicans in the Tea Party Movement.  The movement's primary concerns include, but are not limited to, cutting back the size of government, lowering taxes, reducing wasteful spending, reducing the national debt and federal budget deficit, and adherence to the United States Constitution.  The Republicans elected are on trial to see if they are anymore successful in making the kind of changes the Americans want.

The other thing that was significant about this election is the number of women candidates in the election.  We saw our first Latino American and first Indian American (Nikki Haley here in South Carolina) women voted governors.  This is something that would have been a huge deal a few years ago, but now it was hardly mentioned.

Finally, it is amazing how much Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging impacted the election.  This really is a different world we are living in!

This is Halloween

We had a Sweet time for Halloween this year!  We enjoyed a Trunk or Treat and Pig Roast at the church and the festivities around the neighborhood.  I still can't believe Chiara kept her wig on!  Alot of people said that Stuart was a good sport and asked how I bribed him.  The truth is he gets into the fun too, and helped make these costumes.  Happy Halloween everyone!  Hope you are recovering from your sugar comas!