Okay so here is my second resolution and it is going to be a very hard one for me:

2. Spend more time with my girls and less time on my "to do" list.
Whether it be to clean the house, make projects, work on my calling, improve the house, peruse the internet or any myriad of other things, there is always something that has to be done NOW and my kids suffer for it.
I realized recently that my "list" will always be here; my girls won't be. K will be going to school full time in just six months. I used to think I would be happy about that because it meant more time for me to do what I wanted and needed to get done. But about a month ago it hit me really hard that she wouldn't be around much any more. We wouldn't have much time to visit, play, or just cuddle together any more.
So my most important and hardest resolution is to spend more time with my girls and let everything else take a back seat. Now if you know me, you know how hard it will be for me to let my house be untidy, my projects go undone and ...well...to be unselfish.
Being a mom really is about looking outside of yourself and giving everything you have to your kids. You don't get to do what you want when you want any more. And really, that's okay because what you get in return is so much better. I will make great memories with my kids and hopefully build a wonderful relationship with them. One where they feel safe, secure, and are willing and happy to share their innermost thoughts and dreams with me.
What more could a mother want or ask for? What more could a child ask for from their mother than to know they are the center of their world, they are loved and they are cherished? I wish I had come to this conclusion when K was littler, but I guess better now than not at all. Now, I just need to put my desires into action. Wish me luck and I will keep you posted.

We are a month and a half into the new year and I am finally posting my resolutions. I have three this year. I thought about making it an odd five but decided that was too many to focus on. Better odds of reaching my goals if I stick to a few good ones. I will make a separate post for each so I can explain my reasoning but not bore you to death all at once. So, here is the first one:

1. Stop drinking coke.
Seems like a pretty easy and benign thing to focus on but really it isn't. I used to be a coke fiend years ago before I had kids. I would drink 64 oz cokes from Dairy Mart like they were going out of style.
When I got pregnant with K, I stopped drinking coke and after my pregnancy I couldn't stand the taste of soda. I tried a sip once in a while from my hubbies glass and it was always so nasty. But eventually, after I had my last daughter, I forced myself to drink it and started liking it again. That was such a stupid thing for me to do. Not only is coke full of sugar and calories you don't need, but we are always telling our girls they can't have it because it's bad for them.
Lately I have realized I use it as a crutch to deal with anger and frustration. The kids irritate me, I go down a coke. Something isn't going as well as I would like, I go down a coke. Now, I realize there are worse things I can be doing, but this seems like a bad habit to get into. So I have decided to stop drinking coke by the end of this year.
I have done pretty well so far. We don't have any in the house, which helps, but occasionally when we are out to dinner I get a coke. I feel guilty about it, as I should since it isn't fulfilling my resolution, but I WILL STOP before December. Besides, water is better for you and I find that I am drinking more of it lately. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Who Shall I be Today?

An Indian or a 50's girl?

A Japanese Princess.

A ballerina?

How about a Dancer?

Or a Genie?

I love all the cute costumes the girls have. I'd like to get a doctor, a policeman, a fireman, and a baker costume, too. They love their dress up box and so do I.

Dress Up, Anyone?

My mother-in-law is amazing at many things, one of them is wood working. Last year I mentioned to her that I would love a box for the girls dress up clothes and she offered to make one for me. I never imaged it would be such a lovely work of art. She has been working on it since December and brought the finished piece to us on Thursday. We filled it up with all the Halloween costumes Mel has made for the girls plus some cute items I found at a garage sale. The girls had a jolly ole time dressing up for over an hour and have gone back for more everyday since. I will post those pictures tomorrow.

Mel carved a different picture for each
of the corners of the doors.

I love the heart rooftop.

Don't you just love this gorgeous wardrobe?
Thanks again, Mel, we love this box!

The Wonderful World of Three

Today my youngest, my baby, turns three. I can hardly believe it has been that long since she was lying in my arms, a cute little bundle of joy. Well, not so little, but a bundle of joy none the less.


She is:
An amazing girl with such personality and attitude.
Really good at riding her two-wheeler with training wheels.
As tall as most the kids in her sister's kindergarten class.
Loving and caring to kids smaller than her, very nurturing.
Often counting to ten and likes to count objects.
Knows what she wants and will fight tooth and nail to get it.


She loves:
Her sister and emulates her in most things.
Coloring and does so outside the lines.
Her stuffed puppy which she can't sleep without.
Bears, dogs, and horses.
Games and she's really good at Memory.
Having books read to her.
Crawling in bed with me in the early morning hours to cuddle.
Being outside playing on the swing set, digging in the dirt, and going for walks.


Her Favorites:
Making the FUNNIEST faces.
The color pink.
The movie How to Train Your Dragon.
Cheeseburgers, Macaroni and Cheese, and Pizza.
Riding on the ATV at Bahmah's.


Though we frustrate each other and butt heads at times, you are the apple of my eye. I am so happy you are a part of our family. You are an amazing little girl and I look forward to seeing you change and grow in the coming year. Happy Birthday my sweet baby.

How We Celebrate Three

L's birthday started out with butterfly pancakes and then she had a play date with her friend Lanie while I went to an appointment.
During the day she got to watch a Sesame Street DVD and then we took her out to dinner. She picked the restaurant we went to and she got a free meal plus a sundae for dessert.

When we got home she opened her gifts from the family. She got a game, a view master with lots of reels to look at, a megablocks race track, and a cute sticker book her sister made for her.

The sticker book is really cute, I am only showing the
back because her name is on the front of it.

After opening all of her presents the girls played with the race track for about an hour. I think this might be her favorite gift. I am so glad I was able to find it on ebay. They don't sell these any more which is quite a bummer.

After playing for a while, we talked her into blowing out the candles on her birthday donut. She blew them all out in three tries. An extinguished flame for each year of her life, seems appropriate.

School Options

Every day after my oldest comes home from school we have lunch and then sit down for an hour to do school work. Mondays she always has homework, which she breezes through quickly. The rest of the week she works on workbooks I have gotten at Costco and The Learning Palace in town.
K is much farther ahead of the other kids in her class. When she started Kindergarten, her teacher told me she was already at the level the kids are expected to be at when the year is over. Not surprising after I spent some time in the classroom helping out and I saw they were working on the things K learned her first year in a private preschool.
K has always been very smart and eager to learn. But I fear she is going to loose that ambition if she isn't challenged. She has already come home many times this year telling me that she is bored at school and learned more in preschool.
We thought about skipping her to first grade, but she doesn't have very good social skills so we were concerned she would have a hard time fitting in. Plus we don't want to get her burned out in school at an early age.
I thought about home schooling her, but it sounds like a lot of hard work and tons of hoops you have to jump though with the government. I hear the tests are much harder for home schooled kids than the ones public school kids have to pass. Plus, I don't have good teaching skills or much patience. I fear I would go insane while making my daughters life at home miserable.
There is always private school, but they are so ridiculously expensive. I can't see spending as much for a year in elementary school as you would for a year of college. It doesn't seem very feasible.
So this puts us back to where we are now. K is already half way through a first grade workbook and is challenged, but not overly so. She can tell time on a digital clock and sometimes on a regular clock. She can do addition up to 20 and some subtraction. She reads at a first grade level and can spell pretty well. Plus she knows what a noun, verb and adjective are. When I talk to other parents they say she is very advanced for her age. I have nothing to compare to, so I really don't know. But I fear that public school is not going to challenge her enough.
So what do we do? Should we just keep schooling her at home while putting her through public school even though she learns nothing other than social skills there? Do we try to home school her and hope we both survive? Private school is out of the question. Or do we have her skip a grade and hope it works out? These are the questions we have been pondering for a few months now. Any suggestions?

K working on her math paper attached to
the dish washer. Keeps it interesting, right?

Animals on Display

When I was little I loved stuffed animals and I had tons of them. There were a few I particularly loved which you could tell by their well-worn appearance. I would arrange most of them around my bed during the day and at night I would sleep with them all around me as sentinels to protect me from the boogie man.
The other day we walked into L's room and saw all her animals arranged around her bed in a similar fashion. It brought back memories of my childhood, though I had easily twice as many. Guess we need to get her some more stuffed animals.

Dressed to Impress

The girls got lots of new clothes for Christmas this year. I stopped by Gymboree at the outlet mall in Woodburn and found wonderful deals on clothes for my girls. Their clearance rack had shirts for 3-5 dollars and pants for 5-7 dollars. That is cheaper than prices at Wal-mart and much better quality. I got several outfits for the girls plus hair accessories all for under 50 dollars. The girls also got some very cute outfits from auntie.

This I got at a second hand store.

These I got from Gymboree.

Another outfit from Gymboree.

Shirt and tights from Gymboree.

Church outfit from Auntie.

From Gymboree

From Gymboree.

Outfit from Auntie.

From Gymboree

Starlight Starbright

L received a package in the mail from her Bahmah for her birthday. She was very excited to open it. Inside she found a Ladybug Star projector. It lights up her ceiling and walls with stars and turns off after 45 minutes. It shines in red, blue, or green. I took her into the bathroom and closed the door so she could see what it did. She thought it was neat. She stayed in the bathroom for a while just looking at the stars and changing the color of the lights. Such a fun birthday gift. Thanks, Bahmah!