Girlies Update

 The girls looked so so cute at church a few weeks ago, that I had to snap some pictures before they changed out of their pretty dresses.

Molly is such a fun age lately. She is so so so curious and plays imagination so well. This morning she was telling me all about the elephants in the back of the van, but I couldn't see them because she had pressed a special button so that they could only be her friends. It was adorable. She is very black and white--things are either enormously wonderful or terribly wrong. She came up to me sobbing the other day and said "I want to be part of a different family!" because Ruthie wouldn't share her slime. She wakes up like a firecracker though. This morning she was dressed in her favorite rainbow stripey dress and taking water and a brush to her hair and singing away in the bathroom. She dances through the kitchen and bounces the entire way to the elementary school. She loves her school and always has such a great time. She is a little more shy in big groups and still likes to hang back and give me lots of hugs but she's starting to just walk right through the door and not even look back. She likes to tell me the highlights of the day at school--usually involving which colors of play dough she got to use and whether or not they painted. She is constantly chatting and singing. And bouncing. She also loves gathering things. Acorns. Pinecones. Little infinitesimally small sticks and rocks and dust clouds--she picks it all up and carries it all around. She has a collection of things in the garage that isn't allowed inside, haha. But she loves her treasures and I love how she is always spotting beauty everywhere!

Ruthie wanted her hair braided all around her head--and it turned out so pretty!

Ruth has gotten SO GROWN UP this year! Poor girl practically begs me to give her piano lessons when I forget and fall behind-she's determined to earn her points and get her chocolate bar, ha! She comes home from school every day and sits down with her homework, does her chore, she hardly ever complains even when I give her bigger and longer chores and proudly shows it all off when she finishes. Yesterday she sat up in my bedroom (Russ will completely undo any folding you do almost immediately, so its safer to fold in my room) and folded a huge batch of laundry and she never even said a word. Just saw that it was on her chart and headed upstairs to do it. She LOVES gymnastics right now, but really is dying to be in ballet. She blows me away with her excellent swimming skills and I can't decide what to push her in and let her try! She wants to be in the school choir, she loves doing art, she pushes herself to be better at the things she's working at. I never have to help her with homework, and I've caught her reading chapter books in bed with a flashlight (so hilarious I almost died--mark of a true Rasmussen right there!). The minute she has an assignment, she takes it very seriously--after I wrote down her primary part she practically had it memorized. She is the big push to remember to say our family theme for the year every morning at breakfast. Honestly--she runs the house and I love her so much for her effort and her personality that just wants to help and give so much! She also has made some really awesome friends this year and gets spoiled like crazy when they do playdates--one is a single child and they get milkshakes and pool time and museums and zoos and all sorts of things when they hang out. Huxley's mom said we have to live here forever because Huxley can't handle Ruthie moving away--they are the sweetest! She also adores her teacher and now wants to be a teacher when she grows up, as well as a ballerina. She still says hilarious things and is always the one to giggle away at Sterling's dad jokes. Love that girl!