Commandments for Parents!

When I had Amanda almost 4 1/2 years ago, the pastor and his wife that married us came to visit us in the hospital. They brought presents for our new baby and his wife brought me a devotional for moms. (I love to read devotionals!) My hubby found this devotional today and I found the little note his wife had written me. I was reading through it and came across this list and it was a great reminder for me as a mom. Lately, I have been thinking about the set of expectations I have for Amanda and sometimes I need to just remind myself that she is just a CHILD! I think I will post this one on my fridge since I can't seem to stay out of it! Enjoy!


Commandments for Parents written from a child's point of view:

1) My hands are small; please don't expect perfection whenever I make a bed, draw a picture, or throw a ball. My legs are short; slow down so I can keep up with you.

2) My eyes have not seen the world as yours have; let me explore it safely; don't restrict me unnecessarily.

3) Housework will always be there; I'm only little for a short time. Take time to explain things to me about this wonderful world and do so willingly.

4) My feelings are tender; don't nag me all day long (you would not want to be nagged for inquisitiveness). Treat me the way you would want to be treated.

5) I am a special gift from God; treasure me as God intended you to do-holding me accountable for my actions, giving me guidelines to live by, and disciplining me in a loving manner.

6)I need your encouragement ( but not your empty praise) to grow. Go easy on criticism; remember, you can criticize the things I do without criticizing me.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Ephesians 4:29

Our baby is 6 months old?

We still can't believe how our little baby could possibly be 6 months old! Time just flies even faster now that we have two so we are trying to just enjoy each moment in every day! Some days this is easier to do than others so we are constantly reminding ourselves to live life to the fullest each day. Even if I am just reading books to my girls, I no longer just want to read them so we can go on to the next thing, but read them and enjoy that special moment. Life is soooo short.........

Lately, we have had three reminders how quickly life can be taken away and how short it really is. My mom's life-long nursing buddy, my former Sunday school teacher, and a friend's mom. While I am saddened for all of their family members and friends loss, in these three cases I know I will see them again one day in heaven. I can't imagine how families face a loss of a loved one not knowing if they had made that commitment to Christ and had a personal relationship with him. To not know if they were going to spend eternity in heaven or hell would be so frightening to me.

I listen to the TV and hear all about these recent earthquakes, and the tsunami coming, and can only think back to my study of the last book of the bible, Revelation and how it tells us that this will happen in the last days. So I am not really shocked when I hear the daily news. I am actually pretty excited about walking on those streets of gold and seeing the one who gave me life, died for me, and loves me, in person!

Ok, not sure how I digressed from blogging about my daughter to walking the streets of gold.......but back to Amelia! She is eating baby food once again after a little hiatus from it due to some digestive issues which we think have worked themselves out. At her appointment on Thursday we did discuss it and don't plan on giving her anymore rice cereal for a long time, if ever! The doctor said rice cereal and bananas are two of the toughest things to digest and her little system couldn't deal with it right now.

We tried carrots last night and so far, so good! She had three shots and had the same nurse that gave them to her 6 weeks ago! She looked at her and started crying! The nurse said, "oh I think she remembers me from last time" Personally, I didn't think so until she cried again when the nurse came back right before the shots! Yikes, does this mean she is going to remember all of the mistakes I make? I thought kids didn't remember things like that?

Amelia loves spending time in her exersaucer. The other day I was doing my ab machine, Amelia was in her saucer, and Amanda continues to love rowing on the rower. I am so thankful my girls are into exercising with me!

Amelia continues to sleep anywhere and is like clock work when it comes to her naps. I cannot tell ya how many times we are just busy playing and enjoying life and she starts fussing, we look at the clock and say, "yep, it's 10:26 she's ready for her morning nap. She loves her sleep and goes to bed at 8 and sleeps until 6:30 waking for a snack and then sleeps till 8. For a little while she woke up at 4am for a snack which is a sure sign that she is going through another little growth spurt and her body needs more milk. She will probably start that up again real soon since she is 6 months and research says a lot of babies go through a growth period at this time. So she is waking up because she needs a snack. I love how God wired little babies to tell us when they are hungry because I am so not a clock watcher. How can I be when I am busy playing! I am thankful she is growing but just wish it wasn't soooo fast!

Big sister is really loving having a little sister even more so now that she can play with her. No one can make Amelia cackle continuously like her big sister Amanda. She just watches her and laughs! (Unfortunately, Amanda fell and got hurt the other day and Amelia laughed!) Amanda said, "I can't believe she laughed at me, it is not funny!" ha ah

I love seeing them interact with each other and hug and kiss. It is just so sweet. I make sure I take lots of pics of them playing and being friends to show them later since I know too well that will change when Amelia starts messing up Amanda's dollhouse.

The scary news is she
is scooting backwards and forwards, and in circles, rising up on her little hands, rising up on her knees. You know what that means? If she puts those 2 things together she will be doing the dreaded......crawl. Unless she just continues to roll every where she goes, she's really good at that! I dread the crawling because she loves to cuddle and be held right now and once they crawl they just want to crawl so I better just get my hugs in now!

Ice show fun!

The day before Valentine's day we left Amelia at mammaw's and pappaw's for our second outing with just the big sister! We want to be able to spend time alone with both girls as they grow up and as a family too. Not to mention couple time, oh how does one fit it all in? We are trying! Daddy bought the tickets months ago so off we went to Disney on Ice.

Amanda never directly asks for anything at any of the shows we have seen. It shocks me. We asked her if she wanted a snow cone and she replied, "I was thinking you might ask me!" It was right after she had spotted the guy and told me, " I am feeling a little thirsty."

She wasn't sure what to think of The Incredible's or Mulan because she hasn't seen the movies.
Her facial expressions were intense! I watched her face more than I watched the show I think.

Her favorite friends from the Beauty and the Beast were there! Of course Belle is her favorite.

How could a show be complete without cotton candy? We have really been concentrating on eating healthy at home so it made me feel better about allowing her to have cotton candy. Plus, we knew she would share with us!

My favorites Mickey and Minnie were there!

Nemo was there with his dad and shark friends, I can't imagine ice skating especially with a big costume on!

Our Toy Story friends were there too. We had just seen the movie during the blizzard so we were thrilled!

If there were any doubts about her being "daddy's girl" I think this pic says it all.

It's A Small World was recreated like the ride at Disney. When we reminded Amanda she had ridden on it and told us it was her favorite she didn't remember a thing about being at the Magic Kingdom!

I just love everything about Mickey and Minnie, they were even on the top of our cake at our wedding I love them that much!

The Little Mermaid was there with Prince Eric.

This was the very long dragon from Mulan.

The Lion King was there and she did remember him from our trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom in January.

Jiminy the Cricket was the narrator. He came out with Pinocchio!

Goofy and the army men came alive! It reminded me of how I use to chew up my brothers army men. I think I did it just to annoy them and it worked!

The Genie from Aladdin multiplied!

Hanging out before the show starts. We were more than a little early but daddy was with us and even I wouldn't be late for a show! I was getting annoyed at the tacky late people walking in front of us trying to find their seats and blocking our vision once the show had started. Even I, can be on time for a show!

I loved watching her face throughout the show.

Cinderella (my favorite princess) was there with Prince Charming.

Umm.....daddy really liked the Cinderella mug the snow cone came in I think we might have to watch him so he doesn't take it to work.

The finale was fabulous with real fireworks!












What a fun day with our big girl.

Valentine Fun!

We love Valentine's day at our house! I even loved Valentine's day when I didn't have a Valentine. There is just something about a day set aside just for love! Every day should be Valentine's day Amanda and I think.

The snow storm came at the perfect time! We were stuck in the house so

Amanda and I decided to make Valentine sugar cookies. After narrowing down which recipe out of the five we have, we decided on a butter sugar cookie. We loved how easy it was to roll out! (That's Amanda's favorite part of cookie making)

She was quite proud of her cookies! I was excited to know that I can do this! I have never made sugar cookies with her from scratch before we usually use the refrigerator dough (gasp) because I never thought I had the patience, or the ability to make pretty cookies like you see on the cover of all of those magazines at the grocery check out isle.
We even made our own icing from a yummy recipe we found. Now we have done that once at Thanksgiving when we made turkey cookies but we just used a simple icing recipe then. We went all out for this! Daddy even helped with rolling out the dough and cutting cookies only, he was in his robe since he was home from work and I have been instructed to not post those pics on my blog. But if you really want to see them you can check out my other blog with all the other pics that I am not allowed to post! JK!

The cookies might not be magazine perfect, but we thought they were pretty and the experience was so much fun I am sure we will do it again. It just might become a Valentine tradition. Although, daddy really isn't a big fan of sugar cookies. He's a chocolate chip cookie man so we decided to whip him up a batch since we were in the cookie baking mood. We even found a new recipe to make them thicker like Mrs. Fields cookies and he loved them! (I think we discovered the secret to thicker chocolate chip cookies and it is oatmeal.) Yummo!

Amanda has the cooking and baking bug I think. She came in my room the other day and said,"do you think we could watch a cooking show?" She loves to watch Paula Dean! She is also learning a little math in the process. She now knows 1/2 plus 1/2 make a whole. Why didn't my math teacher teach me math by making cookies? I bet I would have listened better if cookies were involved.

We loved having Valentine's day on a Sunday! We went to church and then out to lunch with two of our favorite people, mammaw and pappaw! Then we went home and opened our Valentine presents. Amelia loved the card her sister bought for her more than the book she picked out for her. Amanda chose a book called "My First Easter" for her little sister. She wants her to know the true meaning of Easter! She already has her Resurrection eggs out. (they are eggs that tell the entire Easter story) If I can get it on video I will post it sometime for ya.

Our little baker really enjoyed eating and sharing cookies with mammaw, pappaw, and she even shared some with her Uncle RRRRRR!

She's really into aprons lately. It started when her little friend gave her one for her birthday. She wears them all the time! For playing, baking, and art time fun!

My sweetheart brought me some beautiful roses! They lasted for a whole week!

Amelia made Amanda's day when she gave her a dollhouse accessory! She got the office so now her dolls can use their computer and email like she does!

We gave her a tiny box of chocolates that we told her she didn't have to share and she has really enjoyed that. It cracks me up how long she can make her candy last. She still has some Halloween candy left and just finished the treats up from Uncle RRR and her cousins from when Amelia was born, last week. How she makes candy last for six months is truly a mystery to me! (Especially with me in the house!)

After church we tried taking a Valentine picture but never seem to be able to get both girls looking and smiling at the same time!

NO WAY! They are both looking, smiling, at the same time! A true Valentine Miracle!