Love is in the air

With February, comes Valentine's Day, parties and Daddy Daughter Dance!

Dave had the privilege of taking his 2 oldest daughters to Hope's Daddy Daughter Dance again this year. I love how excited they all get in anticipation. They love the dancing, the flowers, the playing and the candy! I love watching my husband enjoying time with his girls. I love watching their relationship grow and, of course, I love taking their picture every year and seeing them grow up before my eyes.

Fast on the heels of Daddy Daughter Dance is Valentine's and the school parties!

This year the girls decided they wanted to make homemade Valentine's for their friends. N0w, those of you who know me know, this sends shivers down my spine. I don't do homemade crafts! I can hardly cut a heart out, yet alone think of creative ways to decorate it. So, I set out to google "awesome homemade valentine" but Claire stopped me. "No mom, we don't need to do that, I know what I want to do." "So do I!" Says Ella.

Now, I'm no perfectionist, oh wait, I am. I needed to know what they were doing, how it would look, what was involved. God bless my kids. They just told me to relax and take them to the craft store. There we loaded up on red poster board (out of which I cut 50 large hearts!), foam Valentine stickers, lace doilies, and suckers. We came home, dumped it all on the table and had a great time cutting, pasting and coloring.

What I learned: creating gifts for our friends isn't about being cool or perfect, it's about making something from the heart that we can be proud of. Oh, and it also means giving mom a callous from cutting 50 poster board hearts!

Happy Hearts Month!

Sleepover weekend

One of my favorite things about being a mother of girls..... sleepovers!!!!

Dressing up, dancing, cheering, eating, giggling, laughing, pouting, then starting it all over again!

Thank you God for little girls!

10 minute parenting

10 minutes to perfect parenting. Sounds like a book I'd buy. Unfortunately, it's just not a reality. But, I have discovered that I can really make some headway in good parenting in just 10 minutes.



Claire and I have started a new "tradition". Refer to earlier posts if you don't know my love of "tradition, tradition!" (Great, I have that song stuck in my head now!)

Anyway, Claire and I have started a new tradition. Every night, right before I tuck her in, we do several pages of Brainquest questions together. It only takes 5 - 10 minutes, depending on how tired I am. But the reward is amazing! We sit, all cuddled up in her bed, and I quiz her. The cool part, we have a great time. She is so smart, I actually am shocked sometimes when she throws out the right answer. She loves it when she gives me an answer and I have to flip the page to see if she's right (sorry, I don't remember all 4 parts of a green plant!) We laugh, learn and bond. I have more of a connection with my daughter in those 10 minutes at 8:00 at night, than I do all day long. In those 10 minutes, she knows I love her and care about her and just how important she is to me. In those 10 minutes, I feel good. I feel loved. I feel right.



I used to think it was so hard to be a good mom. Well, I still think that! But, for the most part, I allow my expectations to make be believe that it's hard to be a good mom. My kids love me. They want me to pay attention to them, remember what they tell me, spend a little time with them, and occasionally go out of my way for them. That's not really too much to ask. If I can slow down just long enough to do that, every now and then, we're going to be okay!



Now, if I can just get Avery to stop sticking her tongue out at people I'll be doing alright!

One more

I forgot one of my all time favorite Avery quotes....

"Something stinks in here!"

Said loud and clear just about everytime
we walk into just about anywhere!

Out of the mouth of my babe.....

Avery is forever saying the cutest little things so I wanted to take a moment and jot some of them down before she's all grown up and not being nearly so cute.........

"Mama, why you lookin' so strange?"

"My tummy's not feelin' so well"

When asked why she isn't doing whatever it is she is suppose to be, "cause I'm not feeling so well today."

When asked, "Avery, can you go potty in the potty chair" or "Avery, can you carry this in for me" or "Avery, you don't need that pacy, put it away" or "Avery, can you help mommy?"

Answer, "I'm just a little girl mommy. I'm not a big girl yet."

"I'm shakin' my booty!"

"Why that guy doin' that?" To any person, male or female, that is doing anything around her. Including family members and friends of which she knows their name.

"I workin' on my 'puter mama. You go away!"

"Shoo! Shoo!" When she's doing something she shouldn't and I walk in the room.

"Go away mama, go away! You go out!" When she's doing you know what in her diaper and I walk by.

"What you talkin' about mama?" When she walks in and I'm on the phone. Sounds just like "what you talkin' 'bout Willis?"

Sweet, sweet Avery. Music to my ears. Except this one,

"Mooommmmm, I so mad!"

Jump Rope for Heart

It's that time of year again. Jump Rope for Heart is here!

Jump Rope for Heart is a fundraiser to benefit the American Heart Association.
As you know, Ella was born with Pulmonary Stenosis, so heart disease is a subject near and dear to our "hearts"!

This year both girls have the opportunity to participate in the Jump Rope event. Which means, we get to raise double the money, right? No, we just want them both to have the opportunity to learn a little bit about giving and a whole lot about Heart Health!

If you would like to donate to one or both girls I have attached the links to there Heartquarters page. I will also be sending out emails with the link attached.

Thanks again supporting the American Heart Association and Claire and Ella's Jump Rope for Heart efforts.

Claire: http://honor.americanheart.org/site/TR/JumpforHeart/JRFH-MWA?px=1860796&pg=personal&fr_id=1284&et=bRFJJSif3R3ZQVuzku73vA..&s_tafId=3919

Ella: http://honor.americanheart.org/site/TR/JumpforHeart/JRFH-MWA?px=1860765&pg=personal&fr_id=1284&et=AHBfxZNUE21BATVPrpxBbw..&s_tafId=3920

Blessings

Mystery solved!

I am happy to report that our medical mystery is solved!

Ella has been diagnosed with a couple separate conditions, both of which are easily treatable!

First, she has what is called Functional Abdominal Pain. That pretty much means she has a "sensitive tummy". If she gets anxious, worried, busy, stressed, excited, pretty much any extreme emotion, it settles in her stomach. This causes very severe, and very real, stomach pain. This is not terribly uncommon, in fact her GI specialist has suffered from the same condition all his life.

We are going to be treating her with a prescription medication and a healthy (whole grain, whole foods) diet for 1 year and then see how she is doing. We are confident that this will help alleviate most of her pain and, with all of our help, we will help her learn to manage the pain that does come along.

If you want more info, check this out: http://www.gi.org/patients/gihealth/functionalab.asp

Second, she has been diagnosed with Hypermobility. That is a fancy way of say that she has extra space between her joints. This space allows her bones (and whatever else is in that joint area) to "bump" against each other over and over during the day, which is what causes her pain. The good news is that her condition is mild enough that we hope she will outgrow it on her own.

Her treatment is exercise, especially swimming, biking and running. The more she can do to help those joint muscles get stronger, the better. We are very excited about her "prescription" to swim as we are a swimming family! We will continue to monitor her, especially her right ankle which appears to be the weakest and may need to be braced later on. Hopefully very soon, with healthy eating and lots of exercise, she'll be running all day and sleeping peacefully and pain-free all night.

If your bored, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermobility

All in all, we are very grateful for, and happy with, her diagnoses. While it may not always feel like it, Ella is very lucky. She gets to be this amazing example of healthy eating and energetic exercising that we all need. Thanks to Ella, our pantries will be well stocked, our fridges will be very green and our Y membership will be well used.

I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. The calls, texts, emails and FB posts have meant so much to me and have often come at just the right moment to remind me to look forward and up!

Blessings