The Good and the Bad

Well, law school has begun and Joe is in the thick of it. He's been very busy and I know it's just going to get worse. It's been a challenge for the girls and I (mostly me). I keep thinking that it shouldn't be this hard since the girls are pretty independent and I have a good amount of time to myself. I'm realizing that just because they are not little babies anymore, doesn't mean they aren't demanding in some ways. Every stage has it's challenges.

I've been having trouble with Elizabeth lately. She's entered a stage of being purposely disobedient and it's so frustrating. For instance, she snuck a cookie off the counter after I had told her not to and then when I caught her she tried to shove it in her mouth before I took it away. Grrr.... Another day she was purposely taking every toy Natalie picked up away from her just to make her mad. Grrr.... Another struggle I have been having with her is trying to teach her to obey quickly. She seems to have no concept of this and it is SO frustrating.

Natalie has been having problems with screaming again. She's also in that broken record stage of repeating the same thing over and over and over no matter how many times I answer her/ignore her or whatever. Some days it feels like everything that comes out of her mouth is either in the form of a whine or a shriek. It's not that bad, of course, it just feels like that sometimes.

So, now that I'm finished with that, I would like take note of some of the great things my kids are doing. Elizabeth is a really good big sister. She teaches Natalie all sorts of things and is always very kind in her teaching. She teaches her colors and letters and tells her what things are called. She also always helps Natalie take her shoes off when we come inside and never complains when I ask her to help Natalie with something. Elizabeth's favorite thing to do is to help Natalie say prayers and it's so cute to hear them. Also, I don't think I've ever seen a time when Elizabeth ever refused to share a treat with Natalie, no matter what it is. When they are given a treat, Natalie usually scarfs hers down and Elizabeth savors hers a little more. Then Natalie will ask for more from Elizabeth and she always shares willingly. It amazes me every time. I mean I'm an adult and I sometimes whine about having to share something with Joe. :)

Natalie is so sweet. She is already noticing more when she has hurt Elizabeth's feelings and she will say sorry sometimes all by herself. She loves her big sister. Elizabeth is still learning to ride her bike and she sometimes gets stuck and can't pedal. Natalie is always willing to run over and push her so she can get going again. Then Elizabeth will come and push her on her "bike" (just one of those ride-on baby toys). They love to play hide and go seek and ring around the rosies and dance to music together.

The other day, Elizabeth was wanting to help Natalie say a prayer but one of us was going to help her instead. Elizabeth said, "But she's my best friend!"

I hope they'll always be best friends. I hope that I can remember how special they are to their Father in Heaven and treat them accordingly.

Sorry for complaining and rambling. This has been therapeutic, though.

Natalie's Video

I decided to post Natalie's video through YouTube. She is reading from her favorite book, Baby Food. It has baby animals made out of food. It's a really cute book. Anyway, here it is:

As you can tell, we had to make up sounds for a lot of the animals. It's funny to hear Natalie repeat them. My favorites are:

armadillo - "I'm an armadillo"
caterpillar - "Soon I will be a beautiful butterfly"
turtle - "I'm so slow"

Cuteness and Coloring

We took this picture a couple Sundays ago. I love this cute little rosy-cheeked girl!

I was putting the girls shoes on one morning and looked up to see them holding hands.

Both Elizabeth and Natalie love to color. Here's a picture of Natalie absorbed in it.

Elizabeth wrote her name for the first time last week! As you can see, she has problems with "z"'s but it's still recognizable. I was so proud of her.

Family Pictures etc.

Here are the family pictures that my dad took of us. It will be good to finally have Natalie in our family picture, seeing as how she is 20 months old now. These are the best ones. I think we are going with the last one but I was wondering what you guys think.




Here are some other pictures from the reunion.

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids. Elizabeth had her shirt in her mouth and her entire stomach showing in most of the pictures we got except this one.

Natalie with her "muh-guh"

These next pictures were taken by my brother. Joe went with a bunch of my siblings and siblings-in-law to bike the Flume trail that goes part-way around Lake Tahoe. I guess the views were amazing although the trail was much harder than they were anticipating. Joe hadn't biked in forever but did pretty well, I hear. Seeing as how I'm not much of a mountain biker, I helped team-babysit all of the kids and we had fun eating popcorn and watching a movie together.

Look at that view

Joe might kill me for posting this picture but I thought it was hilarious. Classic Joe. :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We celebrated Joe's birthday yesterday. It was funny because the girls were insanely hyper all day getting ready for it. We had a birthday dinner for him, followed by cake and ice cream and opening presents.

Here's the cake.
Not too pretty but I think he appreciated the effort. I told Joe that I keep wondering when my cakes are going to start looking like the ones my Mom made. I guess it will take a few more years.

Elizabeth and Natalie showcased some of their talents on video for their gift. Here is Elizabeth singing "Castle on a Cloud". I love hearing her sing this song. Of course she was doing much better while we were practicing but she still did pretty well. (Sidenote: It seems like there are Kirkland wipes featured prominently in every video I take. I need to work on this. :)

I couldn't get the video of Natalie doing animal sounds to post but I'll keep trying. She did a great job.

After the kids went to bed, we watched a movie together, interspersed with the amazing opening ceremonies of the Olympics. What could be better?

We love you, Joe! Happy Birthday!!