my girls

just a warning...this post is going to be all about how fantastic my daughters are, for future reference.

the other night, while listening to elder dieter f uchtdorf at the rs general women's broadcast, i was feeling very much like i should write a few things down. one thing he said was that we all have talents and gifts. it struck me that maybe i should have a family home evening to talk with my girls about this. i try really hard to emphasize how kind and loving and generous and so on, they are every day, but i really felt like i needed to sit down and tell them some of the gifts and talents that I see in them. so, i thought and wrote down a few for each girl and then i shared my thoughts with them in family home evening last night.

ella: fun, full of energy, sweet, gentle, good at writing her letters, a great friend.

afton: creative, kind (especially to animals), willing to share and be a good friend to her sister, funny, easily able to laugh.

i shared ella's first and afton had the sweetest smile on her face while listening and would add in a few items here and there. i think afton will remember this evening more than ella, but maybe that's the point. i don't know. all i know is that i felt like i needed to tell them, and anything positive you hear about yourself will only help you feel better about yourself and others.

when i was pregnant with afton, ryan said how important he thought it was to always use positive words to describe your children. if you say they are bratty, then they probably will be. but if you say they are sweet, then they probably will believe that about themselves. when afton was born, everyone would say how beautiful she was and i thought to myself...i want her to feel beautiful, but i also want her to know that she is smart, kind, loving, strong, etc. so i would tell her (and ella as well), "you are my sweet, smart, strong, gentle, (etc) girl" each day while i was dressing her. i still try to tell them these things when we have a quiet moment. i hope it helps them develop these characteristics as time goes on.

i love both of these beautiful girls and i hope that they will always remember that they are individuals with different gifts and personalities, but that they share one important common thread...that they are both daughters of Heavenly Father.