Happy Birthday Angela!!

Today Angela is three! Wow - I know everyone always says this, but where did the time go? I can't believe my baby is a big girl now. She has mastered the art of potty training just in time for her third birthday (hallelujah chorus). Today is the first day I put on a pair of My Little Pony underpants without hesitation. Due to our "Potty Training Woes" (see previous post) we resorted to Pull-ups for a while. After two days of no problems, I promised she could wear underwear on her birthday.

For lunch today, I let Angela pick a place to go - we rarely do this for lunch. She picked "Kizz-No's" or Quiznos and we took our food to a nearby park to eat and play. It was a nice idea, but as soon as we got settled to start eating, nature called. Angela had to go. There was no potty at the park. I had her go before we left, but her bladder can't handle much just yet. (o: She tried to pretend like she didn't need to go, but I insisted that we could just have a picnic at home with nice dry underwear instead. Sarah was the most disappointed. Hopefully our fun activities tonight with daddy will make up for that little flaw in my plans.

Since we didn't get anything too "big" for Angela's presents - she has simple requests - I thought it would be fun to get one of those big, outrageous Mylar balloons. I found the perfect princess-y one with all the Disney princesses in separate hearts all connected. Hard to explain - let's just say it's one of those splurges I'd never normally get - $9 for a balloon! I put the balloon in Angela's room when I knew she was asleep, so she would wake up and have a surprise. Unfortunately, my plan backfired when she woke up at 2 a.m. from a bad dream. I went to soothe her and hopefully hide the balloon from her view. As soon as she saw it looming behind me - her eyes popped open and she exclaimed, "My birthday balloon! - you tun de light on so I see it?" She practically yelled this for all to hear. This was the reaction I wanted, just not at the time that I wanted. I obliged and let her enjoy her surprise and then tried to get her to calm down and go to sleep. She tried hard, bless her heart, but she couldn't help but sing for a while before finally falling asleep.

Angela's only present she has opened so far today was her Enchanted CD. Boy has it been a hit. She LOVES the songs and just beamed when they started playing. I got some really cute video of her dancing and hope to figure out how to post a piece or two on here.

Now I have to wake up princess Angela from her birthday nap so we can go PAR-TAY!

Natalie's Joke

This was a funny joke Natalie told us today...

Natalie: "What animal likes to eat cheese?"
The rest of us: "Which one?"
Natalie: "A dinosaur"
The rest of us: Silence
Sarah: "I don't get it."
Me: "Me either, Natalie."
Natalie: "Me either."

Natalie's News

I intend to still try to highlight each of the girls, like I used to in our weekly, ahem, monthly e-mail posts. Above is a picture of Natalie and our first cucumber from the garden. She is the only one of my girls who will have anything to do with vegetables and fruit. She has always been more adventurous in many ways.

However, Natalie has not been so adventurous when it came to swimming lessons two weeks ago. I had her taking lessons the first week with my friend Kirsten, but by the third day, Kirsten suggested we let Sarah switch and give Natalie some time to get used to the water. She was just freezing up, refusing to try anything that would get her face wet, and not getting anything from her lessons. This was quite a different little Natalie from a couple years ago - she used to be fearless in the water - but age has brought on new understanding and fears. (Understanding that you can't breath under the water!) After several days of swimming with me and daddy a couple times too, Natalie was ready to finish her swimming lessons this week. She did awesome! She put her face in the water and started learning the basics of the front crawl. She is so proud of herself and so are we.

Natalie is always making me laugh. She is such a good girl too. When it comes to helping out around the house - she has her complaining moments, but for the most part, she will respond with a "Yes, Mom." I feel like she is a little soldier the way she says it - kind of in a "yes sir" tone. If someone didn't know me and heard Natalie respond this way, they'd think I had my kids well trained to respect me and do what I say. But it's not me, that's just Natalie's personality. She just takes things as they come and doesn't complain much. (Most days that is.)

Another little tidbit to share some insight to sweet Natalie was something that happened at the beach with grandma and grandpa. During our vacation with them, grandma had little presents for the girls she'd bring out every now and then. One afternoon grandma brought out new coloring books and crayons. The girls were excited to sit down and get right to coloring, but when Natalie opened her box she found the nice sharp tips broken off of about half her new crayons. It was just a random unlucky thing that probably happened before grandma even bought the crayons. But Natalie was the one that ended up getting that box. She pointed out the problem, but didn't really complain much - she went to coloring anyway with the other crayons and pieces of broken crayons. Grandma was very impressed, and so was I, at how Natalie just took what she was given and didn't throw a fit or complain that her sisters had nice crayons, but she didn't. I can almost guarantee that another little person would have been very sad and would have felt like life was very unfair if she had been the one to open up those crayons. Grandma rewarded Natalie with a new box of unbroken crayons, which Natalie appreciated, but would have been fine with her broken ones too.

Natalie does have her moments, but for her age, she is not much of a complainer - that is something I love about her. And she is very much a peacemaker in our family. Sure, she pushes buttons and teases Sarah to no end - because she is like her daddy and LOVES a reaction, but she is always the one to offer a toy first that is being fought over and she is ALWAYS the first to apologize when she has done something wrong.

Another little thing about Natalie that I have mentioned before - she is very honest. Sometimes a little too honest - pointing out my zits or "owies" as she calls them or commenting on how big my pants are when we fold clothes. But as soon as she sees that she has said something that might hurt feelings, she follows up with something to ease the pain, "But I love you mommy" is a common one. (o: How can you feel too bad after that. I may be large and have a zitty face, but Natalie loves me. (o: And I love her too.

Rah Rah Rah!

Every Tuesday for six weeks (we just did week 2) the girls get to attend a Cheerleading class through the Hillsboro Parks and Rec. They love it and get to use the looong gymnastics trampoline to practice jumping for about a half hour of the class. It is a great workout for them and they have tons of fun. There are about 8 other girls, mostly older. They wear leotards and shorts/tank tops - but not Natalie. Natalie wanted to wear her fancy, sparkly Barbie cheerleading dress up! A lot of the moms watching from the bleachers got a kick out of her outfit. What a fancy and fashionable girl my Natalie is. (o:

Sarah and Natalie both do pretty well considering the very uncoordinated genes they may have gotten from me. I really enjoy watching them do their tricks - as far as I can tell (sometimes it's hard to hear) and from what Sarah tells me - the tricks are called, "clean" - straight like a soldier, "T" "high V" "low V", "tucks", "stars" and oh so many more. (o:

Little Angela was very sad she didn't get to play out on the mat with her big sisters. It broke my heart when she heard me call the girls downstairs to go to cheerleading class and Angela, just like her big sis, came running down in a ravishing red satin and sequin cheerleading dress up. As a consolation I brought a box of Tic Tacs and let her eat the whole box during the hour class. (That sounds really lame - but she seriously LOVES Tic Tacs. Two bonuses with this treat - barely any sugar and great breath!) Luckily, this kept her satisfied, but I had to promise Angela that we'd find her own gymnastics or cheerleading class to go to. For now, she enjoys cheering for the girls with me from the bleachers.

Young Women

Many of you know that recently I was called to be Young Women's president in our ward. I got my new calling in June with mixed emotions. I was so excited to get back with the girls that I got to know over a year ago. We have about 30 awesome young women in our ward - (FYI 12-18 year old girls), but having to be in charge of the whole program (Sundays, activities every week, meetings, etc.) sounded intimidating. I like to be one of those people who supports others and I am not a big fan of being up in front of people all the time. However, I knew from past experience as primary president, that things would work out - I would not be alone in my responsibilities and the blessings would far outweigh the sacrifice of my time. It has only been a few weeks, but I feel my life so enriched because of my association with these awesome girls. Being with them makes me excited for the time when my girls are teenagers - I am so grateful for the standards the church provides to help the girls navigate this crazy world. (http://www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,6924-1,00.html) I am impressed at how great these girls have turned out so far - they are well grounded and really a joy to be around. We have a lot of fun. So far we've had a BBQ and karaoke night - hilarious, a free carwash at the church and a planning night for future activities.

The first week I got to attend Young Women's as the president, I issued a challenge to the girls to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover before school starts. It is 531 pages long, which might not sound lengthy, but reading scripture is different from reading, say, a novel. It is quite a challenge for the girls, but it has been a great experience so far. One, because I am doing the challenge too (I can't be a hypocrite!) and I am benefiting from "Feasting on the Word" as we've entitled the challenge. Second, it has been awesome to hear the experiences the girls are having reading the scriptures and the things they are learning. I am excited for our Break"feast" we will have in September to celebrate together and share our experiences.

When I issued the challenge, I brought up the story of my first time trying to run. I told them how I was just giving it a shot and didn't expect to get much out of it. I didn't really think I would get that far, but I kept going. Even when my legs hurt and I just wanted to stop, I kept going. Then I started to notice how it felt to be exercising my heart and my body - it felt good to be doing something good for my body and as I got farther and farther, I was so proud of myself. The rest of the day I noticed that I felt more energized and after running a few times, I didn't get winded so easy after running up the stairs or playing with the girls. A lot of times we limit ourselves from things we think we "can't" do. It is so liberating to break down those misconceptions about ourselves. I shared with them that this is just like scripture reading - it might sound boring and pointless at first, but if you can stick with it through the times when you just want to stop, you will have those "lightbulb" moments and recognize all kinds of miracles in your life. It has been neat to hear the girls talk about and realize how cool the scriptures are and how much they can get out of them. The scriptures are so awesome and the only way for the girls to find that out is for them to see for themselves. Maybe we'll move on to the bible next . . . we're on a roll. (o:

Decoding Angela-Speak

Sarah and I had a good laugh the other day when we were trying desperately to translate something Angela was trying to tell us. This is a common occurrence, unfortunately, for Angela. I feel so bad when she is trying to communicate something that is important to her almost-three-year-old mind. She tries so hard and gets frustrated when we say, "What?" for the fourth time in a row. I can't imagine - I don't think I would be as persistent and patient as she is. I'd throw my hands up in the air after three times and say 'never mind'. So Thursday afternoon, there was something important Angela was trying to say to me. It sounded like she was saying, "I want to Kae Kub". "What?" I said. She repeated the same thing. "Huh?" I said. Angela repeated again. "You want to what?" I asked. This time Angela said it slower with a tinge of agitation, but it still sounded exactly the same. I had no clue. "You want makeup?" I guessed. "Nooo." Angela sighs and emphasizes the last part, "Kae KUB!" Sarah sitting nearby throws out a guess, "Angela, do you want Jacob?" (our neighbor boy who was over earlier in the week.) Angela is starting to get really annoyed, "NOOO! I want KAE KUB!" I am baffled and just repeat the nonsense-sounding word, "Kae kub?" I ask. But when I say it the same way, Angela says, no, that is not right either. I can't remember all the other things we guessed, but this went on for some time. I apologized to Angela and Sarah and I assured her that we were doing our best to figure it out. She kept trying and, finally, I figured it out! "Kid's Club, Angela? Are you saying Kid's Club?" The look of relief on her face was priceless, "YEAH! Kid's Kub! We go to Kid's Kub?" Hallelujah!! I was as excited as Angela to finally have figured out what she was trying so hard to communicate. And even though we didn't go to Kid's Club that afternoon (the daycare at L.A. Fitness) we all felt better. It's tough to be two! (o: