Smarter Than the Average Duck

Gracie has "Leap Frog" letters on the fridge that she likes to play with. If you are thinking about buying them, I totally endorse them. They are sturdy, bulky (so even little uncoordinated hands can handle them), and best of all- three dimensional. Not only can she plug them into the music box and hear the letter sound, name, and a little song, but I like to use them with play-dough. Because they are 3-D you can stamp them in the play dough and letters like A, T, M and more dont come out backwards so it is fun and good practice.

Today, I was loading the dishwasher and when I turned around Gracie had sorted the letters by color and lined them up in rows. I was completely suprised! We haven't really practiced sorting like that and she did it all on her own. When I turned around and saw it I got really excited and told her what a great job she had done. Gracie said "Look, Mama!" and proceeded to go across the rows and name the letters one by one correctly (we have practiced letters). Wow!

Songbird

(In this video, she repeats the chorus a few times. Note that you can hear Kemp crying in the background. He wasn't so much crying as calling out from the other room because he wanted to be included. Poor guy.)

For the last six months Gracie has been amazing us with her talent for singing. We take a lot of time before bedtime and naps to sing her songs and lullabys, mostly which are primary songs. All of the sudden one day we were driving in the car and we could hear Gracie quietly in the back seat singing "I am a child of God" almost perfectly! She had most of the words (or her interpretation of what she thinks we are singing) and the right beat and melody. We thought for a two year old it was pretty amazing. Since then she has expanded her reprotoire to MANY songs including

Teach me to walk in the light- all verses

Twinkle little star- and MANY other children nusery rhyme songs

Dearest Gracie (children) God is near you- two verses

Love is spoken here-two verses

I like to look at rainbows (when I am baptized)-two verses

I love to see the temple- two verses

There are many others. She often sings verses twice or adds an extra chorus or two. Its also so cute to listen to the words she sings. Example "Jesus wants me for a sun BEAN". If she isnt sure of the words she'll sing the tune and insert some "uh-uh-uhs" with the correct beat and syllables. I love hearing her sing lyrics like "cherish virtue, cherish virtue" (dearest children hymn) it is so sweet. I love our little songbird.

Below: The ABC song (video starts at H-I-J)

Just Can't Get Enough

I know I am not the most objective/unbiased person when it comes to my kids, but I think they are the cutest ever! Here are some more pictures of Kemp. He is growing so fast and so I am very camera happy.

Its a match!

This Thursday was the big match day for Sean. The medical school makes a big deal of it. Families are invited, there is breakfast, pictures, skits, and finally the big moment. One student would go up, recieve their envelope, put a dollar in the pot, and pick the next student to come up. The last student gets to take the pot; about a $100 reward for being last! The whole week leading up to match day was incredibly stressful. I was VERY anxious. And now the moment you have been waiting for-we will be going to..........PROVO!!! We are very happy because this was our first choice. My sister Sarah is there finishing up a masters at BYU and somehow or other a lot of my friends have ended up there. Farwell Tucson! We will miss you but to be truthful we are happy to go.