If I had my child to raise all over again

If I had my child to raise all over again,

I'd build self esteem first, and the house later.

I'd fingerpaint more, and point the finger less.

I would do less correcting and more connecting.

I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.

I would care to know less and know to care more.

I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.

I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.

I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.

I'd do more hugging and less tugging.

I'd see the oak tree in the acorn more often.

I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.

I'd model less about the love of power,

And more about the power of love.

by Diane Loomans

When I read this poem on my friend Erin's blog I began to tear up.  This is a subject that had already been weighing heavy on my mind.  I just want to cherish every single second that I have with my kids because I know that before I know it they will be grown.  I want to spend more time recording their childhood so I can look back and remember every day.  I regret so much not keeping a better journal when Joie was younger and I've already forgotten some of the adorable things she use to say that melted my heart.  I know its not New Years yet but I figure anytime is a good time for new goals and resolutions.  I want to spend every day playing and loving my kids and hopefully find time at night to record our experiences. I want to be able to print off my blog books and have it read as a journal and the story of my kids lives.

These are some totally random pictures that are not related to each other or this post but I thought they were all pretty cute.

A few little Joie-isms

Well little 3 year old Joie may be more like her momma than I previously thought.  She basically never stops talking.  If she is awake, she is talking.  There are days where I bribe her with treats and toys if she will be quite for 30 minutes.  However, most of the time I adore her little voice and I adore most of the things that come out of it.  I want to write down a few things that Joie has been saying lately to make sure I remember them. 

We went and visited my parents for Thanksgiving.  Andrew and I took advantage of the free babysitting and went on a couple of dates.  While we were gone my mom discovered that not only does Joie love having books read to her, she also likes hearing stories about people she knows.  I guess my mom told her some stories about a "little girl" that Joie knows very well.  Joie thought this story was so funny that she has been telling me the readers digest version for days.  

"Once upon a time there was a little girl named Courtney.  She got the chicken pox.  It itched so she used pink lotion (Caladryl).  The End."

She really loved playing with her gigi.  First she wanted to "sleep" on Gigi's back then she thought it would be funny for Gigi to "sleep" on her back.

A couple of Sundays ago Andrew and I laid the kids down for their afternoon naps and continued with our Star Wars marathon.  We were only about 5 minutes into the empire strikes back when Joie sneaked out of her room and informed us she had a good nap and was awake now. I told her she could stay awake as long as she just sat on the couch and watched our movie with us.  Joie actually loves "big girl" movies, as she calls them, so she got really into it.  When it was over she spent about 2 weeks saying "Mommy, I'm Darth Vader ' I AM YOUR FATHER'".  She also said this to everyone she encountered at the playground, the grocery store, and anywhere else she could find people to listen to her.  We had a similar experience with Harry Potter as well.  We were at Chick Fil A and she was playing in the play place with some other kids and I heard her yelling something.  I went in to see what was going on and saw that she was using her straw as a wand and pointing it at kids and yelling "peliamus".  What she meant was Expelliarmus and I don't know why she was trying to disarm all the other kids at chick fil a.  


She loves talking to her baby sister.  Joie always wakes up before Berkeley and when she hears Berkeley babbling in her room she always says "(Gasp) That kind of sounds like Berkeley" and she runs into her room and turns the light on and says "MY BERKEY BOO" and then baby talks and over and over compliments her chubby cheeks and says "Your my sweetheart!".  This is my favorite time of day because as soon as Joie opens that door Berkeley's face lights up and she just smiles and giggles and laughs.  This morning Joie was sick and she was in the bath when Berkeley woke up so I went to get Berkeley and when I walked in Berkeley stood up at the edge of her crib just staring out the door and I knew she was looking for Joie.  So I shouted to Joie to tell Berkeley good morning and Joie yelled from the bath "GOOD MORNING BERKEY BOO" and Berkeley lit up just like she always does.  Watching the two of them play and interact is so much fun.


I love these little girls so much.  I just wanted to make sure I wrote down a few of these things so I dont forget them :)

Apple Pie

While we were in Vegas my mom decided to make a couple Cranberry Apple pies and she asked Joie if she wanted to help.  I remember so vividly when I was younger that any time my mom was using apples for cooking she would always get out the apple peeler and let me peel the apples for her.  I thought it was so much fun and I would eat all the long strands of apple peel.  Joie obviously loved it as much as I did!

Halloween 2011

The weekend before Halloween Andrew had to work on Saturday and Sunday. I decided it was a perfect time to go visit my parents with the girls.  Since Andrew had already seen them all dressed up when we went to Mickey's Halloween Party I decided it would be fun to stay in Vegas for Halloween so Gi Gi could go trick or treating with us.  We had a total blast!  Even though Joie had fun trick or treating last year she liked it even more this year.  After she would get her treat at the door she would say "thank you" and run down the drive way screaming "LETS GO TO THE NEXT HOUSE!"

Joie decided months ago that she wanted to be Cinderella for Halloween.  She also decided Berkeley needed to be Belle so they could "all be princesses"

Trick of Treating at my parents house where "Uncle Ben" was handing out candy.  She saw his mask and said "Ben take it off.  It's a little bit scary".

We had so much fun and got way too much candy!  By the last 5 houses or so Joie asked me to carry her bucket for her because it was too heavy.  That thing was over flowing with candy.  Joie is already planning all of our costumes for next year!

Sisters

I have two girls.  I am fully aware of the future issues I may have because of this.  I definitely do not need you, random lady at the grocery store and everyone else I encounter, to tell me about how much they are going to hate each other some day.  I know that as these girls get older they will probably fight like crazy and most likely even claim to "hate" each other at some point.  I only have one sister and I am 11 years older then her so I don't know what it will be like for these girls but I can imagine.  However, I also know that most sisters grow out of that phase after they leave the teenage years and frequently become very very close friends.  I will cherish this time because right now my girls adore each other.  Berkeley is completely obsessed with Joie.  Joie is the only person who, without fail, can always get Berkeley to smile and laugh.  She loves her so much.  Joie also loves her baby sister.  The only time she doesn't like her is if Berkeley grabs her blanket and slobbers on it.  Multiple times a day for months now Joie will hug Berkeley, which of course makes Berkeley laugh and smile, and says "Look Mommy look" and I always say something like oh how cute, or you guys are so sweet and then Joie always say "take a picture!".  So we have about a million pictures like this.

I literally have at least 20 more of these on my cell phone.  I've embraced the fact that these girls might not always like each other but at least I've got the proof that at one point they were very best friends!!

Pony girl

Last night we were all winding down after dinner and we started getting ready for bedtime.  We had a little extra time so I asked Joie what she wanted to do.  She responded "I want to take pictures".  So I said "okay do you want me to take pictures of you?"  and she responded "no.  I want to take pictures of my ponies!!!".  Joie is OBSESSED with My Little Pony (weird right? a My Little Pony come back?).  There is a new My Little Pony cartoon and of course there is a ton of new merchandise too.  Everyone caught wind of her newest obsessed so for her birthday she got a lot of my little pony toys.  She has at least one pony with her every where we go including the bath and when she goes to bed.  So last night I helped her use my camera and helped her set up her Ponies and pose them for pictures.

So I'm sure you can only imagine how thrilled Joie was when I went to a pumpkin patch with my sister in law and her kids and she got to ride a real pony.

This ponies name was Shorty but Joie renamed him Pegasus.  She was petting him and kept screaming "Giddy up Pony".  It was pretty much the highlight of her entire life.  I am very aware how boring this post will seem to pretty much everyone however I find it so adorable to see the things that mychildren decide to become attached to.  I have never encouraged ponies or horses and they were never my thing when I was a little girl.  This is all just 100% Joie.

Mickey's Halloween Party!

On Friday we headed over to Disneyland with our friends the Purles' for Mickey's Halloween Party.  We had such a blast (besides the ridiculous crowds) and the girls all looked SO cute!!  They had an adorable Halloween parade and the best firework show.  They had trick or treating on every corner and all of the characters were out taking pictures.  It was an absolute blast and so worth every penny!  We didn't even go on any rides we were having so much fun doing the rest of the Halloween stuff.  We will definitely be making this a tradition!

Joie was just practicing her princess wave before we headed off to the party

If you can't tell by the pictures Joie was VERY excited and thought she looked beautiful.  She also insisted upon being called Cinderella for the rest of the night.

Joie and her friend Alexis both dressed up as Cinderella.  They are only 3 days apart in age.

Sometimes Jessie just has to do the Robot.

We had such a blast and I should have taken more pictures but we were just having too much fun running around and letting our kids eat candy and stay up until 11:30.   If you noticed poor Berkeley's lack of smiles its because she has been sick for about a week now with a yucky runny nose and cough.  I think Andrew made such a cute Sheriff Woody.  We went out to eat right across the street from Disneyland before hand and the whole time kids kept saying, "Oh my gosh Mom look its Woody!!" and he would wave and tip his hat at them and totally played it up.  We had so much fun and we are excited to be able to dress up again in a month for real Halloween.

Warning! Joie's first bloody nose

Ahh the joys of motherhood!!  There is nothing I love more then catching dripping blood with my bare hands!  Today we had my friend Janica and her two girls, Emily and Allyson, over to play for a couple of hours and Joie and Emily were just playing around and getting a little crazy.  Joie was trying to give her a huge bear hug behind and Emily was trying to squirm out of it when Joie got a nice bonk to the nose.  She gave a whimper and ran to me with her hand over her nose and like the good mom I am I said "Its okay Joie, don't cry, you're fine".  Of course she uncovered her nose and there was blood everywhere.  Poor Joie got my bloody nose genetics.  When I was younger I got horrible bloody noses all the time so I'm sure Emily barely tapped Joie's nose but it was enough to turn on the faucet.  It was pouring out pretty good for the first 10 minutes or so and since I'm such an amazing mom I grabbed my camera and took a picture before cleaning it up.  Sorry for the graphic image.

On another note, I am feeling SO blessed right now.  I don't mean to be one of those corny women who gushes about how amazing her life is or anything but things are pretty great!  I am a pretty social person and even though I definitely need some quite time I also love spending time with people and I was really worried when we moved I would spend all day alone with the kids in my apartment.  Since we have moved here, however, I have met so many women that I would already consider to be my good friends.  There are a handful of women from church, some wives of Andrew's co-workers, and I have an amazing neighbor too!  All of these people have kids close to the same age as my kids and it has just been so wonderful and so much fun.  I also get to see my Grandma (whom Joie has renamed Gumi Gumi) at least once a week.  She has practically turned her house into a little nursery with a pack and play, toys, a bouncer thing for Berkeley, a swing in the back yard, changes of clothes, and about a million other awesome things.  Life still has trials but I must admit that in general, things are pretty awesome right now!

Since my last two posts were mainly about Joie I just had to throw in a little picture of my Berkey too!

Here are a couple little pictures I snapped at the beach yesterday too.  My sister in law took some really cute pictures so when she gets me the disc I will have to post some of those too!

Love her little baby boobies!!

My date with Joie

Yesterday Joie and I went on a little mommy daughter date to Disneyland!  I was so excited to spend a little alone time with my baby girl!!  While we were driving to Disneyland I heard a huge gasp come from the back seat and Joie screamed "OH NO, Where is my Berkeley Boo?" and was in a panic that Berkeley wasn't with us.  I never put much thought into it but I never go anywhere without both of the kids and I never thought it would make Joie sad but she asked me tons of times last night where her baby sister was and if daddy was going to bring her to Disneyland so she could be with us.  It was so adorable!

Once we got there we met up with my friend Darrien and her little boy Blaise.  Joie and Blaise are BEST friends and love to play together.  We had such a blast hitting up a few rides and watching the parade.

It was an absolute blast to go out with just Joie.  I LOVE spending time with both of my kids and you better believe I missed Berkeley (and Andrew of course) like crazy while I was there but I miss spending time with just Joie.  We laughed and ran and we didn't have to stop to make bottles or nurse the baby or anything like that.  Even in the drive home while it was dark she kept telling me it was okay for her to be loud because Berkeley wasn't sleeping in the car.  We had so much fun.  I also can't wait until Berkeley is old enough for her to enjoy mommy daughter dates too!  I love this little girl!  She helps me remember to make life fun and enjoy all the crazy little moments.

(as some of you may have noticed, Joie has a new favorite dress.  It is this zebra dress.  Her pink dress use to be her favorite and its about all she wore for 6 months.  I believe in letting your kids pick out their own outfits because I feel like its one of the few ways they can express themselves so get use to seeing the zebra dress because it is her newest obsession)