life lessons

i feel like i have learned a lot in the last year about being a mom. i have been taking a class at the college here called a biblical perspective on relationships. it has been so great, i am so glad i took it. i am learning a lot about how to have a good relationship with my kids and my husband. i have also recently came to the realization that i do way too much. so i have let go of a lot of my responsibilities and let mike help me out with them, so that i can be the mom i want to be. i get to do all kinds of stuff with my kids that i didn't get to do before. i am a more patient mom and scarlett is really benefiting from it. i am learning how to parent so that my kids will hopefully be well rounded responsible adults. i think the key to being a great parent is loving the heck out of you kids and showing them who god is by your actions as a parent. i am trying to let scarlett make some decisions on her own by giving her choices. just spanking your kids when they do something wrong is not the most effective way to do things. i think there is a time for spankings. but i think by putting them in time out and taking away privileges is also really effective. i think if we all try to be a good parent to our kids we can't go wrong. we need to love them enough to discipline them, and i think there is more than one way to do that.

yeah scarlett!

scarlett is finally potty trained! well i shouldn't say finally, i haven't been pushing her to do it. i just thought i would wait until she decided to do it herself. and she has decided that going potty in a potty is a great thing. i am so proud of her!

a tapier?

the other day scarlett and i were playing outside and she said "mommy, whistle like a tapier!" i had no idea what this was, nor did i know how to whistle like one. yet another word my two year old knows that i don't. a tapier is an mountain cow. it looks like a big wierd pig. she learned this from go diego go.

sister christy came to visit!

mikes sister christy came to see us last weekend. it was so great to have some of his family here, and she was such a great help to me. i was joking with my mom the other day about the fact that she was here for a few days and i was already used to having a "burper" for owen, because every time i got done feeding him christy would say "hand him over i will burp him". it was so awesome. scarlett was pretty sad when she left and is still asking where auntie kwisty went. they really bonded while she was here. we love you christy and thank you for taking the time to come see us!

Face painting fun!

the other night while i was at school, mike and scarlett got in to the face paints. they have so much fun when i am gone...i am jealous!

this is a prada shoe store in the middle of a field in texas. there is no door to the store and no town near it. it is just in the middle of no where. totally creepy!
this is our newest family picture. i have been having a hard time adjusting to life as a mother of two, so we took a little two day break and drove to a town in texas so we could relax. i got a hot stone massage and we had some time to spend together as a family which we have not had since i had owen. it was just what i needed. i feel a lot better and i am getting better at my great job as a mom.
scarlett found this pig and she was hugging it and talking to it and trying to feed it leaves. she has such a crazy imagination. when we were driving home from texas we stopped to get something to eat. they only had chicken strips and the only way scarlett will eat chicken strips is if i say they are giant chicken nuggets. we ate them in the car. as we were driving we saw a blimp in a field, so scarlett tore her chicken strip in half and she was talking to each half like it was two of her friends and then she held them up and said "look Josh and Raina, theres a blimp." also she is really in to peter pan, so she watches the movie all the time. i can't find a peter pan doll so she takes the brochure from the inside of the dvd case(it has a picture of peter pan on it) and she acts like it is her doll. she feeds it and puts it in the car seat. to everyone that sees her it looks like we are too cheap to buy her a peter pan doll.

This is scarlett's hair in the morning. the other day she went up to mike and said "daddy, my hair's all jacked up"! huh? who does that sound like? you remunds should know.