Stopping to smell the roses . . . and foxtrot with my baby

After the wonderful general conference we just had, I am thinking a lot about what I am thankful for. I suppose that for a lot of us, our thoughts tend to turn in that direction this time of year anyway. It seems like every talk that has to do with parenthood comes with the advice to cherish every moment of it because it goes by so fast. I can attest to that. That's one thing that I took from President Monson's talk: "enjoy the journey". I can't even believe that Carolyn is over a year old, and this time last year she was still wearing new-born sized jammies! I am so glad I have a digital camera that has allowed me to have so many memories from her first year (thanks again, Leese!).

Life is good right now. Sure we have been sick recently, and Carolyn just cut a molar, and we are "starving students". But really, we aren't starving at all. Thanks to the providence of the Lord and careful budgeting, we are okay. And when we have a little set-back like delayed financial aid disbursement, we have more than enough credit to see us through.

In the past week or so, Carolyn and I have kind of created a tradition of sorts. When we switched back to regular cable with our move, we got music channels which I LOVE!!! I can listen to jazz and opera any time I want. And Carolyn is getting a lot of exposure to good music because of it. When I want something on for "background noise", I do that. One night when she and I were tidying up the house waiting for Craig to get home, I picked her up and we danced around. She thought it was great fun. So now we do it almost every day: foxtrot around the house together in the evenings. It's fun. And while she still thinks I am the coolest person on the planet (next to Daddy, of course) am going to keep doing it until she just thinks I'm weird and doesn't want to.



P.S. She finally has enough hair to use these baby barrettes that the Leethams gave her for Christmas. Cute, isn't it? :)