The Five of Us: May 2010

5.28.2010

Us

New Abby Pictures

Thought since it'd been awhile I'd update all that's going on with us...

Hannah: Still lovin bugs, puddle jumping and princess dresses. COMPLETELY potty trained now! I can say this with 100% certainty! (Yay!!!) A great big sister to Abby...just gets a little crazy excited over her sometimes. Really into dancing and wants to take ballet very badly. We're working on getting her into that...although many places the minimum age is 3. So we will see. She is very excited for her special date out with her daddy tomorrow. :)

Abby: Is growin like a weed! She is an INCREDIBLY joyful and easy baby! She is smiling all the time and has started laughing recently. She is rolling and kinda scooching. She lights up everytime she hears Hannah enter the room, until Hannah starts smushing on her. Sleeps like nothing I've ever seen! She loves to sit and talk and babble and talk some more! And is just a cutie patootie! I am so lookin forward to seeing more of her personality develop!

Adam: He's still enjoying his work...he works so hard for all of us! I am so proud of him! He is going to have to have knee surgery come July. Several years ago he injured it really badly while playing basketball and has put off having the MRI because of cost etc...but our insurance is so good right now that we decided now would be a great time to move forward with it. Turns out he tore his ACL so bad there's no sign of it there and he's torn some other tendons as well, so he has to have tendons and other things taken from his hamstring to rebuild the ACL and repair the other tendons. Doctor says he should be out a few weeks....we will see. Adam gets REALLY antsy after like a day of rest. Then he goes crazy! :) He is also looking forward to his annual camping trip with his older brother come June! They have gone every year for several years now only this year he's even more excited because he has a boat of his own to take and go fishing with! So he is most excited!! Plus he gets to see his brother that he doesn't get to see all that often!

Me: Just plugging along. I've started taking a bunch of fitness classes with my sister again and I love it! I am trying to look into eventually becoming certified to teach a spinning/cycling class because I love it!!! Other than that I've been hanging out with the girls...leading worship @ church, trying to make my way thru the mass amounts of books I have to read! I am looking forward to the first weekend of July where we do the Catwalk Run in Hillsboro for cancer with a bunch of family and friends!! I haven't done it the last few years but the 4th of July weekend is one of my favorites and I'm really excited to be feelin well and motivated to do something this year. Last year I felt like barfing. :) Wasn't feeling so hot. It will be very fun to watch Hannah get to really get involved with all the 4th of July holiday things!

So that's us right now...now I'm off because Hannah is on a major chocolate chip pancake kick lately...and is asking for another one! :)

5.15.2010

She rolls!

Abby officially now rolls over!! What a cutie. It's amazing how one day something new develops for her. She's chattering away to Hannah and me and herself in the car, very extremely cute! She's so happy all the time! Oooh we love her!

5.13.2010

Over Protection??

I think about random things...often. And lately I've been thinking about how hard we as parents work to try to shield our kids from hurts and disappointments and whether the way we go about it is really in the best interest of our kids. Since having the girls, protection mode has switched on for me and I would do anything to make sure they were safe or that they don't get hurt...but I wonder...I see a lot of over-protecting. It's hard to know where to draw the line as a parent I think, when do we let our kids see things for themselves?
I think we are in the midst of an age where we try overly hard to protect our kids, so much so that it actually ends up hurting them more. We want so bad to protect them from the hurts of the world, when in reality it's those hurts that help us learn to pick ourselves up and begin again. We want so badly to shield them from the pains of relationships and break-ups, but it's those pains and hurts that help us either grow stronger in our relationships or help us move forward and know what we will and will not stand for in the next relationship. We want to badly to deflect life's disappointments, if something we want doesn't come our way, when in reality it's those disappointments that help us strive harder for our goals, that make us try and try again and let nothing stand in our way if we really believe in something.
But, how bad would we feel if we could see into our children's future after shielding them from some part of their life, and see that we derailed a future olympic athlete or a president or a doctor...simply because we didn't let our children experience their own lives, their own hurts, their own disappointments. All because we told them not to get their hopes up, or not to dream too big...
In Hannah I see a girl who wants to conquer the world...I see somethings in life being very hard for her because she has to take the difficult route on a lot of things. But as her mother it's my job to give her my best, to help her become a well rounded person that can make her own wise decisions and send her off into the world to use what she has. It should be my job to cheer her on and support her in anything positive she chooses to do. I want to be the kind of mom that even if inside me I think...oh this may not happen for you, I keep those thoughts to myself and say, "GO FOR IT! You'll never know if it can or cannot happen if you don't try! And if it's something you really want, keep trying! Move forward!"
And if it's a relationship hurt, I want to be able to come to her side and support her. To help her move forward and learn from what's happened or to stay and try with whoever it is if that's what she wishes.
I so hope I can be that kind of mom, that kind of parent to both my girls. Because I want them to be able to live life and experience it for themselves, even if it pains me to watch life hand them disappointments and hurts. I love them both so much, but I hope I love them enough to let them make their own mistakes...just in case those mistakes lead them to be the next president. ;)

5.11.2010

Lil Coversations

Recent conversations with Hannah:

Mama: Argh! I have something in my eye and it's really bothering me!
Hannah: Oh! Mama look up look up! (so I look up)
Hannah: Yup...it's a cheese ball all right there it is!

---------------------------------------

Mama: Hannah you are kind of driving me bananas today!
Hannah: Oh! Well...you are kind of driving me into a banana too Mama!

----------------------------------------

Hannah telling me a story: And here is the armadilla walking aross the road and here is a car and here they come and they're going to SPLAT the armadilla into a pancake!

-----------------------------------------

Hannah to her aunty Becca who has kind of a rough week: Aunty Becca are you ok?
Becca: Ya.
Hannah: Oh. Ok. Just making sure. Are you taking shower?
Becca: Um yes.
Hannah: Oook...just make sure to take your clothes off first!

Mama's Day

Happy Mama Day!!

Me & Abby

I am very blessed. I confess it's easy to forget to count those blessings or to feel as blessed as we truly are in the midst of mounds of laundry, or potty training or whining and tantrums...etc. But I am so very blessed with all I have in my life. Being a mama has made me a much better person (I think) and a more aware person. When we found out that Hannah was a girl when I was pregnant, I panicked! I had such low self esteem among other things and I thought there was NO way I was prepared to raise a girl when I wasn't really lovin myself. But funny enough she has taught me more about what it means to be beautiful and truly joyful and exhuberant and to really love every inch of who I am. Now with Abby I feel that all of those things have multiplied in my life! What amazing girls I have! How blessed I am to wake up every day (many times much earlier than I'd like to-thank you Hannah) and have them there and present in my life. So very blessed!
I am also thankful for a mom I have inherited certain things from that make me the mom I am...and for a wonderful mom-in-law who's given me the gift of her son so I can have the family I have. Yes...life is pretty good. There will always be things that try to take away from that in our lives...but if I continue to come back to these blessings. These very things that make celebrating mother's day this year a privelege for me.

5.07.2010

Grumpy Abby!

She's normally such a ray of sunshine but she woke up from a short nap this afternoon lookin like a storm cloud! Woo-Eee! Here she is with her Gramma Sonia.

Hannah's Wedding Veil

Gramma's house is the best when your're a kid! You can find all sorts of things to play with that you can't find at home! Gramma Sonia found a great old table cloth that works fabulously as a princess cape and wedding veil...Hannah had a blast running about shouting "I'm married!"

Washington Continued....

Diggin in the mud pit...

Gardening with Gramma Sonia

Dirt Yoga :)

Finally a sunny day to enjoy!

I do love her so!

Playing "Princess gets married"

This girl is nearly always happy and joyful!

Mowin the grass with her Papa

5.05.2010

More of our Washington Visit to Gramma Sonia and Papa's

Papa playin with Abby

Oh does Hannah love kittys! This is the neighbors cat who is stupendously calm around her!

Out for a ride!

I love lilacs!

They are my absolute favorite and always make me smile because it means apring and warm weather are here...well usually. Not lately so much but...I sure do love them.

Preggers Pictures

Back in December my cousin came up from Cali for Christmas and took a few impromptu pictures of me pregnant with Abby and Hannah lovin on her Abby sister. These are taken only a few weeks before Abby's debut! Thank you to Diandra for taking these gorgeous pictures...I miss you so and wish you were here more often so we could share pictures! :)