Sarah Esther Kingsley

Some neat things about our princess-

First off---the name: Sarah is translated from Hebrew and literally means "princess". Esther is also translated from Hebew and means "star". She is our princess from the stars, a.k.a. our princess from heaven. I try really hard to teach her about her divine heritage and to always remember that she literally is royalty.

Sarah started reading the Book of Mormon independently last week! What an accomplishment! She had come into my room in the morning while I was still reading my scriptures, so she picked up her own copy and sat beside me reading. She's pause every once in a while to ask what particular words meant, such as 'remnant'. She read the title page completely through and only needed help with sounding out one or two words. Then she flipped through the scriptures reading highlighted verses. We're so proud of her reading skills! I am comforted that she'll do well when she enters public school in first grade next year.

She loves to put on make up and paint fingernails, and she insists on wearing skirts everyday. She absolutely hates wearing pants, which is ironic, because I much prefer pants to skirts. She'll only wear pants if she doesn't have any clean skirts to wear, which doesn't happen often. She loves doing her hair in braids and being feminine, but she's also a tomboy. She loves to play in the mud and construct forts in the backyard out of wood, rope, and bricks. They often concoct colossal tubs of 'chicken soup'...water filled with dirt, rocks, leaves, grass, and bugs. They call it chicken soup because they feed it to the chickens. She loves collecting bugs with Matthew for their collection. She particularly loves feeding bugs to the chickens.

One time we were turning over the soil for an extension in the garden. Fat white grubs would glisten in the sunlight as the soil was moved. She'd squeal in delight each time she found one, with the eagerness similar to a pirate finding gold. Then she'd scoop it up in her bare hands and run it to the chicken coop. She also loves orchestrating grand adventures with her brothers and going on pretend expeditions or making elaborate traps for the notorious pretend ghost in our yard, "Mr. Sneaky". I think we've been blessed with the perfect daughter...feminine and clean except when the time is appropriate for dirty adventures.

She loves to read and she reads 1-2 hours a day on her own. She's been consuming all the books we have happily. She really loves curling up with me and listening while we read the original Winne-the-Pooh collections, the American Girls series, Pony Pals (thanks again, Aunt Rachael!), the original Alice in Wonderland, and she claims her favorite book to read is the Book of Mormon.

She used to struggle a lot with reading and get so frustrated, so a few months ago I gave her a cheap Book of Mormon on Sundays and told her to highlight any words she could read. The first page of the book only has 3-letter words highlighted, like 'and', 'the', 'but'. I really think letting her take this approach helped her with her reading skills. She was exposed to the scriptures and when she could read bigger words we could talk about what they meant.

Her favorite movies include classics like Singing in the Rain, A Little Princess (the old Shirley Temple version), Heidi, and her very favorite is the old TV series Little House on the Prairie.

Um..let me think....oh, she loves creating art. We've done art lessons some nights after the boys were in bed, so she's been growing quickly in her abilities. She loves to draw pictures for any guests that visit and she loves to draw pictures to hang in her room. Her bedroom looks like an art gallery, with almost every square foot of wall space completely covered with her art.

Sarah is also pretty organized. She loves to organize things, so she gets very excited to help any time I'm reorganizing food storage, emergency kits (those are her very favorite to update), the home school desk, or the toys. I'm really glad she takes pleasure in this, since it's such a chore for me. :)

She likes to play the piano, although I think she likes it now much more than she did when she had piano lessons. She loves playing simplified primary songs the most, since she can sing along with them. I love being in a room working and hearing her notes float up the stairs to me.

Shes' very responsible and loves to help with everything. She can make lunch for herself and the boys and bathe and dress Daniel. She loves cooking, especially with Nathan.

She says she wants to be a doctor when she grows up, and a volunteer librarian on the weekends. When asked why she wants to do this, she says because she wants to help people be strong and she wants to be surrounded by books. We'll see what comes of these ambitions. I'm glad she knows her interests.

We're so thankful that Heavenly Father blessed us with such a wonderful daughter! I can't imagine living without her. She is such a blessing in my life, and she's so great to remind me of the eternal goals I have. Her testimony is growing much stronger this year and she understands much of the scriptures and gospel. When we have fmaily scriputre discussions, her insights are often wise beyond her years, and sometimes I am prompted to think of the scripture..."out of the mouth of babes".