Big, Bigger and.... STOP!

I have two awesome girls. I have two girls who I adore and love all of these phases they are in. (ok, maybe I don't ALWAYS love Stella's stubborn streak....). Isabel loves being measured so the other day she wanted to see how much she had grown. Much to her dismay she had only grown about 1/4 of an inch. She is now up to my armpit. Yes, she is 5. So then she wanted Stella measured... we measured Stella 1/1/2012 then again on 2/20/2012.. in that time, my baby grew 2.5 inches. Yes 2.5 INCHES in 50 days. Insane. Couple that with the extra 5 teeth, yep, it's been an entertaining two months. And that is why her shirts are not fitting her, her cute little belly shows all the time now. She is built like me, so her pants are still too long. Go figure.

The other great thing Isabel has started doing it making her own breakfast. She loves to make her own eggs in the morning. She really does it all by herself. I do watch over to make sure she doesn't burn herself or get egg shells in her food but the rest is all that tall 5 year old. The part that has made me more centimental then other times.. this morning she got up and made her own lunch too. I am so proud of my big girl, soon be young lady, but it was a tad sobering.

I love that I get to raise these girls and learn how to be a mom at the same time they are learning how to be people. Learning together has its pains, but I wouldn't have this fun crazy life any other way!

Who will stand?

A friend of mine wrote this today on her facebook wall. Although I do not have teenage sons, the impact of what she said it profound. I will stand with her and teach my daughter how she needs to be viewed, and embrace her divine heritage.

Dear Mothers of Teenage Boys:
Society has been degrading womanhood for quite some time now, teaching our daughters that it is more important to be hot than to be beautiful, more important to be desired than to be cherished, more important to look a certain way than to BE someone of value. Having raised a teenage daughter, I can tell you that these societal forces are strong, they are coercive, and... they are difficult to overcome. Now that I am raising a teenage son, I recognize that he has a huge responsibility to shun these societal messages and show his (girl)friends that he will respect them, even when they do not respect themselves. Yet this is not something that society is teaching him to do. It must be ME who teaches him this. He does not understand how much power he has to influence the mind and countenance of his young (girl)friends; I have to help him learn this. I have to be willing to say the hard things, correct the wrong comments and actions, teach him over and over how he SHOULD be treating these young women. Unless I tell him what is appropriate, he will never know, because EVERYWHERE ELSE he goes, he is receiving a different message. Young women should be recognized for their beauty, both inside and out; 13 year old girls are never hot, sexy, or fine--no matter how much they may WANT to be those things. Our young men need to help our young women recognize what is of REAL value inside of them. They need to compliment their (girl)friends on their intelligence, their creativity, their compassion, NOT their bodies. They need to help these young women recognize that they are so much more important than the way they clothe (or don't clothe) themselves. Young men are naturally drawn to all the physical things about young women. That is the way they were created, and it is a strong force. The rest of it MUST BE LEARNED, and if we aren't willing to stand up and teach our sons...who will? So to the mothers of teenage boys, will you stand with me? Will you teach your sons of the power they hold, the power to influence young women? Will you teach them to respect and honor the virtue of women? Will you monitor their facebook accounts and their cell phones, holding them accountable to a higher standard? Will you hold MY son accountable when you hear him saying things he shouldn't be saying? Will you stand with me so that MY son will not be the ONLY ONE who is trying to do what is right? Will you teach, over and over and over, the RIGHT way to compliment a young woman, thus allowing our young women to learn to believe in themselves? Can we begin today to instill in this growing generation just how amazing they can truly be, so that when they reach the age to marry they won't have allowed Satan and the world to degrade them? Who will stand with me and shout the world down? Will you?

the joys of mother/wife-hood

I love what I do. And what I do is try and keep a happy husband and raise some cute kids. However, I must say, today I am not loving my job as much. There has been more vomit and poop today then I have dealt with in a while. Isabel woke up with a weird 12 hr flu. She threw up 8 times from 7:30-11:30. Then she was all done. Mike started throwing up about that point. Stella was doing ok then just threw up on me at 8pm tonight and had some awesome exploding diapers. So here is to hoping that by tomorrow all of this funk will leave my home and we can get back to normal.
To add to all of the excitement around here. My Dad flew into town for a quick visit. He flew in Saturday night and will leave tomorrow (MOnday) at 1. He has yet to lay eyes on Isabel or Mike. Stella still loves him though. So here is to a lot of prayer and hope and everything crossed that I will not be sick and that Dad can see Isabel for a few hours in the morning before he flies out. :)

Some new cute pics

First up, Dresses from G'ma




new skirt from G'ma



Bubbles after church one day.

Holy February

I can not believe that 1. it's already Feb. and 2. that I have worn capris the last three days. It's been 60 and higher all this week. I just have a hard time believing Puxatawny Phil. This isn't really an overly exciting post for most. I just can't seem to write in my journal all the funny things Stella has been doing lately so I'm going to do it here...that way my sister can read it also.
(ok.. this one is Isabel but it was pretty funny)
when asking about her vitamins she wanted to know if Costco made her dinosaur ones.. yes they do.. "well do they still make the cave man ones?" What cave man ones? "you know, the ones with the man in the cave". Me: Oh! you mean the flintstone ones!

Stella.
- Dances.. or just turns randomly.. around in circles to the left until she gets tired or too dizzy.
- tries to jump while playing peek a boo off the bed.
- signs please with both hands rubbing her belly when she sees smokoes
- tries to blow raspberries on cheeks and hands
- points to everything she wants and says mama... apparently that means she thinks momma will get it for her
- goes insane for peanut butter. squeals, begs, whines
- likes peanut butter on anything
- if she is trying to play in the bathroom, I have to call for her and keep eye contact with her until she gets to me (like in runaway bride), otherwise the second I lose contact, she is turning right back towards it.
- she likes to claw faces.. and leave marks
- loves to walk around with one shoe on. She will bring a shoe to me and beg and beg until I put just one said shoe on.
- scrunches up her face and nose and then squeals in laughter when playing any game with her.

I think that's about it for now. I feel like I am missing one or two but I'll add them later. So that's Stella my 24lb baby that feels like she's 30lb.