A Child's Prayer

I have to share something sweet Lainy did the other night.

For the past couple of weeks, Lainy has been saying her own prayers at night. She needs a lot of help, but it's so sweet to witness!

To understand the story, I'll have to give you a little background info. Our neighbor is a single Mom of two busy boys, a full-time student at U of I, and a new convert to the Church. Her name is Rhonda. Needless to say, she has a lot on her plate, but she is just amazing. Lainy loves her.

On Friday, Rhonda had to take her two boys to live with their dad for the summer. They've all been pretty sad about the whole thing. After she dropped them off, Rhonda came over to our house to ask us a favor. Lainy (who was getting ready for bed) came running out yelling "Rhonna! Rhonna!" She and Rhonda had a nice little chat.

After Rhonda left, we took Lainy into her room to say her prayers. Her prayer went something like this:

Brad: Dear Heavenly Father,
Lainy: Father
Brad: We're thankful for this day.
Lainy: Day
Brad: We're thankful for our friends Reece, and Payton, and Troy.
Lainy: and Rhonna!
Brad: Yes and Rhonda. Please bless Rhonda.
Lainy: bless
Brad: We're thankful for Jesus,
Lainy: Jesus
Brad: and the prophet
Lainy: Prophet
Brad: Bless Lainy to sleep well
Lainy: sleep
Brad: In the name of Jesus Christ,
Lainy: Amen!

I almost started to cry. I thought it was so sweet of Lainy to remember Rhonda in her prayer. How could she have known Rhonda needed our prayers that night? I'm not sure. But I know that I said an extra prayer for Rhonda after being reminded to do so by my little 21-month-old. Aren't kids sweet?

"Hayee and Tassee"

That is Lainy language for "Hayley and Cassi", my sisters who came to visit us this weekend. They braved the long 9 hour drive to come see us, and we had such a fun time with them!

All week before they came Lainy would come up to me, grab my hand and say: "Hayee come! Tassee come!" She was so excited! So was I.

We tried to go on at least one adventure every day. The weather was gorgeous, so we spent a lot of time outside during the day. Most evenings found us either playing games or watching a movie. We sure had fun together!

Outside a restaurant

(Left to right: Cassi, Brad, Traci, Lainy, and Hayley)

Making banana boats. Can you see our bananas on the fire?

Hayley, Lainy, and Cassi at the park

Checking out the bears at the Bear Research Center in Pullman

Walking through a park on the UI campus. Can you see Lainy with her arms behind her back? She walked like that forever! It was so cute!

All of us in the park

Lainy was sad to see them go!

A few notes to our girls:

Hayley came to us a little worn-out from a hectic school schedule. We tried to keep things relaxed for her, but she was just so quick to help clean, do the dishes, and take care of Lainy that I don't know how much relaxing she did. Thanks for all your help Hayley!

Cassi and Lainy have always had a special connection. It was fun to watch them play together. Cassi taught her to say "yo" and "chuckle" and a couple of other things. Thanks Cass, for keeping her (and us) entertained!

We're sure lucky to have such wonderful sisters! Love you guys!

Mini Vacation

Brad had a week off between school ending and his Osteoporosis research beginning, so we had some fun as a family.

Tuesday we drove to Coeur d'Alene. We spent the afternoon walking around "Tubbs Hill". It's a big hill that sticks out into Lake Coeur d'Alene. The city has forbidden any development on the hill, so today it's a nice little refuge in the middle of the city. We picked one of the many hiking trails on the hill, and ended up on a little sandy beach.

View of the lake

Lainy had fun throwing rocks into the water, while Brad climbed on the rocks.

Eventually, Lainy was more interested in what Brad was doing than her rocks. This led to her very first climbing lesson at the hands of her capable Dad. Brad was thrilled! He kept saying, "Look at her! She's a natural!" I'm sure it was the first of many climbing adventures to come.

Look at her concentrate!

At four o'clock sharp, we headed to check-in to our hotel. This hotel was our real destination in Coeur d'Alene because it is attached to an indoor water park. I was thrilled we found it! We hurried and checked-in, threw on our swimsuits, and went to the water park.

View of the slides from our room

The park is awesome! There are three big water slides, a wave pool, a hot tub, and a children's playground. Lainy was excited to play in the kids pool, so we went there first.

We had barely put our toes in the water when we heard a loud, thundering noise. I was slammed in the back with a wave of water and Brad was blasted in the face while trying to protect Lainy. We both yelled and jumped to get out of the torrent, wondering what had hit us.


After calming Lainy down (she was pretty freaked out) we discovered a huge bucket atop the children's playground that had filled with water and dumped all over us. I guess we should have been a little more observant!

Kids Splash Park

Bucket dumping on BradIt took us a while to convince Lainy to get back in the water, but soon she was splashing and having fun going down the little slides.

We had a blast! We only left the water park to eat and sleep. After breakfast Wednesday morning, we headed straight back. It was great! And because it was the middle of the week, we basically had the place to ourselves. What a perfect mini-vacation!

Brad and Lainy in front of the waterfall and dinosaurs

I guess the bucket dumping all over us had a profound affect on Lainy. All week she's been saying, "Bucket! Dump! Water! Aaaaa!". She's getting so funny!

Bye Bye Binky

Yes, you read right. We got rid of Alaina's binky. Bye bye binky.

It's been coming for a few months now. (I think we've held onto it this long more for my peace of mind than Alaina's.) For the past few months we've only been giving it to her in the car and at bedtimes. But Thursday night, Brad and I decided now was as good a time as any to say good-bye.

Friday morning Alaina woke up, not suspecting a thing. We spent all morning prepping her for the big event. Then, we gathered up all her binkies and huddled around the garbage can.

Alaina took one last suck on each of her binkies, then put each of them carefully in the garbage can.

We cheered and congratulated her on being such a big girl! Then we went to the store and let her pick out any toy she wanted. She acted pretty excited about the whole thing.

Alaina's nap went much better than we expected. It took her longer to go down, but she eventually did and slept for a couple of hours. Brad and I were feeling pretty successful by then!

Well, bedtime didn't go nearly as well. The poor girl was exhausted but just couldn't settle herself down. She kept looking at me very seriously and saying, more clearly than she ever has before, "Binky. Binky". I kept reminding her that she was a big girl now and had thrown her binkies in the garbage, but she really didn't care about that.

Brad was the one that finally got her to sleep. She woke up many times that night, each time searching around her crib for a binky, and each time looking at me with big tear-filled eyes when I told her the binkies were gone.

Poor girl! I felt so bad for her! She was just mourning the loss of her friend, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Each day since Friday has gone a little better than the last. Alaina still isn't sleeping as well or as long as usual, but hopefully that will come soon. Still, we're proud of our "big" little girl! She's been so brave about the whole thing!

So it's with some sorrow for our current sleep deprivation, some relief that we're free of it, and mostly gratitude for the good friend it's been to our baby, that we say a fond good bye to the binky.

Various News

We've had a fun weekend. Brad finished his finals on Friday (he passed all his classes, in case you were worried). Lainy and I have loved having a daddy and husband around who has nothing to do but focus on us!

Saturday we all took a much needed four-hour nap. Afterward we went to some gardens in Pullman. The weather was gorgeous! So were the flowers.

I had a great Mother's Day too. Brad and Lainy made me a yummy breakfast, my family sent these beautiful flowers...

and it was another gorgeous day outside!

Here are the pictures we have of Lainy last week. Notice anything in common between them? We just finalized plans with my family to go to Hawaii in August! We're all super excited! Lainy has worn her "grass" and her "coco's" almost every day all week. Aloha!