They pray

So for the past few months or so we have been teaching Charlotte to pray.  This age is so fun to watch how quickly they learn.  It started with us saying short prayers with her like "Heavenly Father, thank you today, thank you family, bless family, bless daddy, name Jesus Christ Amen" which she would repeat after us word by word.  We have now graduated into full sentences though much of it is a bit garbled as she tries to fit in all the words.  The other night she wanted to say the prayer and I said okay you can say it and then just waited.  She got the "Heavenly Father, thank you this day" all by herself before she was stalled and asking for help.  Such a sweet process to be a part of with them and what a blessing for me to teach her something that will prove to be so valuable fro her for years to come.

Ava says prayers all on her own now of course and she used to pray for similar things in every prayer she said and they were mostly all things that she has heard us say.  Lately however, she has started making the prayers her own which sometimes make for very tender moments like when she prays that her and Charlotte can both try harder to do what's right and also for very silly moments like when she prays for Charlotte to stop talking during the prayer or prays that mommy will let us watch t.v. today.  Either way, I love that she is developing a sense of the conversation she can have with her Heavenly Father and thinking about all the things she can tell him.  Because even he, I think, enjoys the silly.

Beautiful nightgowns

Ava loves all things fancy and pretty. She has lots of nightgowns and her favorite ones used to be a couple I made her from her dads old t-shirts. Lately though, several nights a week she comes out as she's getting ready for bed and asks me "mom do you have any beautiful nightgowns for me to wear?" She only has a couple she considers worthy to be called beautiful so 5 out of 7 nights a week they are in the laundry. Those nights she reluctantly puts on one of those non-beautiful ones. ;)

I wanna show daddy

All day long Ava is asking me to take pictures of things or remember things so she can share them with her dad when he gets home. Here's today's first. She carved a butterfly shape in her playdough! ;)