My Blessings

 I was talking with Brien the other night, saying how blessed we are, what a good life we have.

We have three beautiful daughters--two of whom are still here with us physically, and one keeping watch over her baby sisters.

 The "baby" is no longer a baby.  She is turning into such a big girl.

 There are still vestiges of babyhood about her, the snub nose, the soft, full cheeks.

She's a cutie patootie and she truly does keep me busy.

LOVE this face.  :o)  She is such a sweetie.  She won't be one to let anyone push her around, though.

She keeps an eye on things and knows to whom each and every item in the house belongs, and will chase that person down, calling their name, in order to give it to them. 

She sees photos of people she knows and loves and identifies them.  Last night, she looked waaaay up high on my tippy top shelf and said (while pointing), "GG!)  And it was. :o)

She loves to look at photos of her big sisters and try to figure out who is who. 

She doesn't have time to be little.  She is ready to be big.  RIGHT NOW! She helps move laundry from the washer to the dryer (climbing almost inside as her little feet leave the ground), pushes the buttons to start the machine, and so much more.

She makes sure her laundry (and mine. and daddy's.) is in the hamper and puts her pajamas away every morning.

She loves to play with anything that may potentially belong to Lily.  She is especially enamored of Lil's Tag pen and her new 'mote control car.  Oh, and my lap top and phone.  She loves those as well.  :shakes head:

Her speech is exploding all over the place.  "Lil-lu-lu-lu-lu-ly" has been replaced with "Will-wee" or "Wil-ly" and she can say the names of most of her family members. She has yet to meet a stranger and will walk up to anyone to size them up and then demand a hug.  Yikes!

Her newest favorite food is "chock-ick" and her pallet is beginning to contract some.  I hate it when that happens...

Meanwhile, this big girl's pallet is expanding all over the place!  She will try and eat so many things we couldn't get her to go near just six months ago. :o)

Lordy she's getting big. 

 Okay, maybe "big" isn't the right word.  You saw that picture of her with the two other angels--who are YOUNGER than she.  But, she's looking so much older.  In our house, we like to say we have "babies", "toddlers", "big kids" and then "kids".  Well, she's now a "kid".

 She's a truly wonderful child, full of imagination and fantasy.  She makes my heart nearly burst when she shows such love, care and devotion to her little sister.  Her 'mote car was brand new yesterday and she let Ellie play with it, showing her how to work the controls.  She doesn't gripe or complain when El gets into her Tag, she simply cleans it up. 

Six.  What a glorious age, six.  She believes--oh how she believes--in Santa and fairies and magic, and yet, she's practical and wants to know how everything works.  She constantly needs explanations about the wherefores and whys of the world. 

She's a messy little pack rat who has been known to stuff dirty clothes into corners, but she's patient and kind and truly seems to want to be friends with everyone.

She's cracker jack smart too.

 Her reading is coming along beautifully and I'm hoping we get to experience the "Christmas Miracle" that so many primary grade teachers are privileged to witness.

The "Christmas Miracle" reveals itself when children who could barely read or were struggling along, or, were even on grade level suddenly find all those letters and sounds make sense in that context and start reading like gang busters.  It could be a big miracle such as that, or a smaller one, but somehow, it always seemed my kiddos would come back from break, and over half of them experienced it.

I so dearly wish for Lil to love reading as much as B and I. Oh, and her little sister. ;o)

We are blessed by her. 

And, continuing to count my blessings, we have wonderful family close by with whom we can visit fairly frequently.  I'll be getting together with Jen and her kiddos this evening.  I know Lil will be stoked to visit her cousins. :o)

 I'm blessed to have a husband who is handy and a child who is healthy and walking and climbing and an excellent problem solver.  For the first time ever in this house we are without baby gates downstairs.  You see, the other day, B was walking through with a large load and Ellie opened the baby gate for him and promptly closed it behind him.  Yup.  Those baby gates are really effective at this point...

So, I'm left with a wall that needs some repairs and a bit of paint (boy, I have no idea how I lived with that tobacco gold for so long...).

 I blessed I have a husband who rather ungrudgingly tolerates having four Christmas trees in the house, even though he has told me if he were to live alone he probably wouldn't put up any decorations.  Wha...? I can't even imagine.

 I'm blessed I had a grandmother who loved us all so much she started a family tradition of candy making and passed the recipes down to us so we in turn could show our families our love for them.

 I'm blessed to have wonderful friends who send random gifts out of the blue and include gift tags with butterflies because of a special Monkey Girl.

And friends who continue to send ornaments for Hannah's tree every year.  Thank you, Jaydee and Lou, this is perfect.

And, still more butterflies. Dani, the girls loved this one--as did I. :o)

I figure I must have put something good out there to have so much good come to me and I'm thankful for that.  I gave thanks at Thanksgiving, but I'm even more appreciative as Christmas approaches and we'll be celebrating the day once more without a special sparkly girl.

**************************
Today's Sparklies:

1.  Holly was sent an early Christmas present:

 It's almost as big as she is!
2.  Just about all the gift wrapping is done!
3.  All cards are addressed, signed and stuffed into envelopes.  Now to get stamps tomorrow...
4.  It's the last day of school until 1/3!!!!!!  I'm SOOOOO excited!!
5.  Meeting up with Jen and her kids tonight. :o)
6.  Talking with Dani today.  It's always good to catch up.
7.  This one is from Monday, but still fun:

Fisbee and Santa remembered Lil's birthday!

Fisbee even has a sparkly party hat to match the one on the card!

No milestones.