Just Some Pics For the Grandparents

With all of the sickness that we've had (which has finally seemed to subside), we've had some fun with the camera.  Jon Mark brought the camera out one night while I was making egg rolls and asked the kids to do different things (like show him how to run, make funny faces, spin etc.).  Joshua is into showing off for the camera and it's hard to get a good "normal" smile out of him.  Usually he is either making funny faces, putting his hands in front of his face or he plain won't smile at all.  Mercedes is good for the camera, but she squints quite a bit because she's "afraid" of the flash. 

I love the picture I took below.  We love sunny days over here in the winter time, and it seems as though this winter is never ending.  One day when I had my camera out, I caught Joshua looking at the sunset as if to say, "please, Spring, why won't you come stay a while."  He looks sad in this picture, but he wasn't.  He was more mesmerized by the sun than anything.  I love the lighting. 

 Jon Mark took this picture of Mercedes.  The back ground is blurry because in the picture Mercedes was showing him how she runs.  She runs very, very slowly but her feet go double time.  It's cute to watch.  She's very proud of herself in this picture.

 Like I said, Joshua is a giant goofball lately.  Here is his "funny" face. 

 I'm not too sure what he's doing here.  We'll pretend like he's cheering for BYU's basketball (which is doing very well this year). 

                                                              Mercedes is so silly. 

 I know I have said it before, but I LOVE (L-O-V-E!) the shape of her baby blues.  She's got gorgeous eyes and I am jealous of her eyelashes! 

I made this tutu for Mercedes a LONG time ago (in a galaxy far away) and lost it in the move.  I recently found it in a box with some other toys that were stashed away in the basement.  I brought it out thinking that Mercedes would like it, and she was scared to death of it.  I pretty much had to force it on her, and once it was on, she did rather like it.  She spent a few minutes twirling around by the window and even wanted to eat dinner in it.  But, she hasn't seemed to miss it much since then.

 These two really are good friends lately.  Joshua is patient with his sister and usually will let her "play" with him without too much complaint.  He loves chasing her and making her laugh.  Mercedes will often come up to Joshua and hug him around his waist for no particular reason and stay there hugging him for a few moments.  When she does this, Joshua always pats her on the back and says, "Ah, look, she loves me."  He really is a great big brother who always tries to keep her safe.  It's so cute when he holds her hand to help her across the street.

Here's Joshua looking at the sun again. I need to stop and brag about my son for a minute. Joshua loves primary and since I get to be in primary with him, I can attest that he is a good boy and loves to sing and participate. He loves reading the scriptures and if I ever try to skip the scriptures at night (because we got home late from scouts), he lets me know that we should never skip out on our scripture reading. I love this about him. He will sit there and listen to me read for as long as I want to read. He also loves to watch past general conference talks with me on the computer. Joshua also loves to pray. His prayers are actually very thoughtful. He rarely is repetitive, and he will often talk to Heavenly Father about events that happened earlier in the day. I hope he is always like this. It does my heart good.

Although we're ready for winter to end, February was still a good month.