Balloon, Moon, and Stars

Dear Little E,

Here are a couple of fun memories for you. When you were almost 2 you asked your Daddy to draw stars and moons all the time. On your magna doodle, coloring books, etc. Then one day he drew them on your hand at church. At first you only asked at church but it became something you asked him to do whenever you found a pen. "Moon and stars Daddy! Moon and stars!" You would even bring him pencils and crayons and get mad when it didn't work on your skin. It became one of your very favorite things. :) Eventually you learned the difference between a "crescent moon" and a "circle moon" and would tell us which one you wanted. I think you figured those out because you played a game on Daddy's Ipod with him. It was a shape identifying game "find the circle. find the crescent" etc. I remember him downloading that game and playing it with you before bedtime. He used to show you off to me. "Look Jen! She is amazing at this. She is doing it all by herself." He would say with a huge grin. He was always so proud of you. :) You were his shining star that got him through his hard days. You brought him so much joy.

This is a "shaker" I made with you one day out of some beans and a can of your Daddy's morning shake mix. He came home and I had him draw on it with you in permanent marker. As you can see it was during your moon and star phase. I think you changed your mind about wanting a circle moon to wanting a crescent moon. So he fixed it for you. You also had him draw you a baby. You were always requesting he draw you things. Especially yourself. :)

Another fun memory from church happened just before he went to Alaska. He was holding you during sacrament meeting and you were being pretty rambunctious. So he tried to distract you. He would use the paper program to make things for you, and to color on. He was amazing at making things. I don't know where he learned all of them, but he always had something new that he could pull out of his sleeve. On this particular day he decided to make you an origami balloon. He took the program, folded it in front of you, and handed you a "ball."

You were so excited that you grabbed it from him and chucked it at the man's head in the row in front of us. You totally nailed him! We were both so embarrassed but had to laugh at your amazing aim. He looked at me and said "Who says girls can't throw?" We decided balls were probably something he shouldn't make for you at church anymore. So instead he would make a "mouth" to eat you with. He loved entertaining you.

He also liked to entertain himself at church too. One thing he used to do when I was pregnant with you was pick on you to get you riled up. He would push on your bottom or a foot until you would start thrashing around. It was his way of getting back at me for all the pestering I would do. He wasn't aloud to do anything back while I was pregnant, so he would get you to do his dirty work. lol

I love you honey, I hope I can help you to have many treasured memories of you and your Daddy.

Love,
Mommy

These were taken 7/21/10. Just a few day's before your daddy left. He was playing with you using photo booth on the computer. He would make his head "Explode" by using this effect. He would say "Ehhhh" in a really high pitched voice and then "Bchh!" his head would vanish on the screen because he leaned the other direction. You would laugh and laugh.

Same day. You can see how much he loved you. You were one of his very favorite people in the whole wide world! He still loves you. I am sure he is here watching over you always.