baby pictures

Tonight Sarah and I were looking through some older pictures. Sarah enjoyed looking at herself as a baby. She talked excitedly about the pictures as we viewed them. One picture especially captured her interest and caused a reaction.

Here is the picture:




Sarah commented, "That's at Mike and Mumsy's house! And Mumsy is taking care of me!" She paused for a moment, then exclaimed, "How cute can a baby be?"

I think we have a long way to go when it comes to working on that whole modesty thing...

it's a plastic world

We took Nelson to Outback Steakhouse for his birthday dinner this evening. When the meal was over, the waiter jokingly asked Sarah if she was buying. Sarah decided she liked this idea of paying for the meal! So Nelson allowed her to hand the waiter the debit card and bill. She got a big kick out of that and has spent the rest of the evening bragging about how she bought Daddy's birthday dinner!

When we got home, I sat at my computer to check email and such. Sarah picked up a small plastic license plate (it has her name on it) and began swiping it along the side of my keyboard. She said she was paying with a credit card! We live in such a plastic world! Even three-year-olds know how to swipe credit cards!

Oh, and speaking of birthdays, Sarah's prayer today included "Thank you, God, for cake." :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Nelson/Daddy!
Happy birthday, Darrell/Dad/Grandpa!

We hope you both have a wonderful day! We love you very much and are blessed to have you in our lives. Happy birthday!

Love, Karen and Sarah

unique rendition of "Jesus Love Me"

Sometimes some of the most memorable moments occur when there is no camera handy...or in this case, no tape recorder. Yesterday, Sarah and I were hanging and reading on my bed. Suddenly Sarah decided to sing "Jesus Loves Me." Only she altered the lyrics a bit! Unfortunately, I couldn't quite catch ALL of her words, but I do have a couple of the highlights! She sang, "Jesus loves me, yes I know!" and then "Jesus, you're so cool!" (Spontaneous and heart-felt praise, that last one!)

She continues to like to ask the blessing over meals, now usually saying, "Thank you for all our food and all our drinks!" I guess she figured she had better stop neglecting the gratitude for drinks. :)

prayer, outdoor play, and Scooby Doo

Wow, has it been a week since I've posted?! Sorry to all who get the shakes if you don't get a regular dosage of "Sarah stories." ;) (You know who you are!).

Sarah is enjoying playing with our new neighbor, a 2-year-old boy. They have a great time together, playing in the combined backyards. It's great that she finally has a playmate close by. Later this week, one of her friends from church will be coming over for some play time. Sarah is quite the social little girl!

Nelson and I have a badminton set that we got out the other evening. We didn't actually play a real game, we just batted the shuttlecock back and forth. Sarah also used one of the rackets to attempt to hit the birdie. She kept saying, "I'm killing the birdie!" She has asked to kill the birdie several times since then. (Better than shooting the birdie, right? Sorry, bad joke--couldn't resist!). ;)

Saturday night Nelson and I actually had a date, and we got home very late. Because of the lateness of the hour of her bedtime, Sarah was less than enthused about waking up for church Sunday morning. Nelson went in to her room to try to rouse her. "Sarah, it's time to wake up," he said. Sarah didn't so much as stir. Nelson tried again. "Sarah, you need to wake up so we can get ready to go to church." Still no movement, no response. Nelson decided to try another tactic. "Sarah, you need to wake up. Scooby wants to eat breakfast." Without so much as an eyelash flutter, Sarah mumbled sleepily, "Scooby doesn't eat breakfast. He eats Scooby snacks!"

Sarah continues to like to pray (she prayed at our community group Sunday night, in addition to praying over several meals throughout the week). Her prayers follow a specific pattern. I can't tell if these are just things that a 3-year-old girl thinks to pray about, or if she has picked up a memorized prayer somewhere. She says, "Thank you, God, for all our food and all our hearts and all our strengths, and thank you Jesus, and all our food. Amen." Sometimes it varies slightly, but the basic pattern is always the same. Not a bad prayer at all, really. She's got the essentials covered! :)

Sarah prays

Mondays are Kindermusik day, so we are in Greeneville all afternoon (we spend time visiting my parents after the Kindermusik class is over). It's getting late when we head home, so my mom always gives me supper money so that I don't have to go home and cook. Last night Sarah requested that we go to Chef's Pizzeria to spend said supper money. This is a local pizza place with yummy whole wheat crust and one pizza so large I've seen it feed over 20 people! We of course did not order that super large pizza; there's only 3 of us! The pizza arrived at our table, and before any of us had a chance to say anything, Sarah launched into the blessing! She said, 'Thank you, God, for food and for snack!" It was a neat moment, watching her spontaneously give thanks without being asked or told. And it was funny that she mentioned snack in there! :)

"let's rock and roll!"

Yesterday Sarah decided that she wanted to play with her musical instruments. She has quite a few! She pulled out a Kindermusik bag that contained a harmonica, a bell, two sandblocks, two "fiddlesticks" (you can tap them together like rhythm sticks, or shake them and they make a sound), and a couple of drums. She kept switching around which instruments she and I played, and each time she was ready to launch into a new musical combination, she would say, "Let's get ready to rock and roll!" I daresay we sounded more like a cacophony than like music though! :) Hmm, maybe that IS true rock and roll then... ;)