Autumns 1st Talk 8/19/12

Today at church Autumn gave her first primary talk. She was so anxious and excited for her talk. She was most excited to use the microphone. During Sacrament Meeting she kept asking after every little thing if it was her turn to give her talk. She asked after the opening prayer, after the sacrament, after the first speaker, etc... She was definitely prepared and willing to speak in front of everyone. Drew said she spoke clear and loud enough for everyone to hear. A few of my friends complimented her talk and how well they understood her. She was very proud of herself!!

Her topic was "I should do things on the Sabbath that will help me stay close to Heavenly Father." When I sat down to write her talk I asked her what things we did on Sunday, and what we didn't do. Hoping she has recognized that Sundays are special. She had some great comments and so I put them in her talk.

"There are many things I can do on the Sabbath to help me stay close to Heavenly Father.

Our family likes to sings songs out of the Children's Songbook. I like to look at pictures that go along with the songs.

Our family also likes to read stories and look at pictures from books with scriptures stories in them.

My dad works on Monday night so we do Family Home Evening on Sunday night. We sing songs, read church stories, discuss scriptures, and pray.

To help me stay close to Heavenly Father on the Sabbath I do not go outside and play, or go to any stores. I spend the Sabbath Day at church and doing quiet reverent things with my family."

I held up the visual aids which were the children's songbook, old testament stories book, and a picture of a family during F.H.E. I am very proud of her. She did great and I now know she doesn't have a fear of speaking in front of large crowds. :)

1st Day of School- 8/6/12

I am still in awe that I have a Kindergartener. I was emotional all weekend. We went to Meet the Teacher on the Thurs night before school started and I could hardly keep myself together. So it was no surprise how anxious and nervous I was all weekend for school to start. Monday morning did not go how I had invisioned it. I did make a big breakfast, but we had to wake Autumn up at 7:30 so that we could leave by 7:45 and it just felt rushed. I did get a quick picture before we left.

Since my morning picture wasn't all that I wanted it to be I figured we could make up for it after.
This picture is when I picked her up after her first day. She was so excited to see all of us.

When we got home I did the picture that I planned to do in the morning but we didn't end up having time to sit down to have her write out what grade she was in. I have loved all the ideas on Pinterest for first day of school photos and I admit I am a perfectionist and would've loved doing something cute and clever with perfect penmanship, but there is something special about a childs handwriting, so I decided against all the ideas I had seen and originally planned and went with this. I admit I got onto her for writing too big, but then apologized because did it really matter? She still got all the letters on there. And it's her writing. I will treasure seeing how her writing skills change over the years.

I get to walk Autumn to and from school, I truely feel extremely blessed to live so close to her school that I can walk her to and from. There is about 10 houses in between the school and our home. The heat is pretty intense on our walks after school and she drags her feet but I feel like we talk more and get those few minutes to communicate about her day that we wouldn't get if we were in the car. She is loving Kindergarten so far and we are enjoying what time we get with Autumn in the afternoons and evenings. We definitely miss her when she's not here.