Flippity Floppity

The girls are 19 months apart.  Morgan is 11 and a half (yes, the half is important!) - and Sarah will be 10 in a couple of weeks!  Looking back, I'm not even sure how we made it through those early years of parenting.  To say we were busy is an understatement!!  But there have been so many blessings having our girls so close together, I couldn't imagine it any other way now.  

Here's just one little way I love them being so close together:  They got some gift cards from their aunt and uncle and they had this idea to each buy a pair of flip flops and then swap just one of them -- so they could have matching mis-matched pairs! Aren't they cute?! I LOVE THIS! I love that they are so close together that they can share fun little things like this! 

And it's kinda hard to 'sea' their toes...but we are getting them ocean-ready! Sparkles (oh, and I had to add more sparkles 'cuz my daughter who was born with glitter in her veins didn't think one coat of sparkles was enough!) and polka-dots and stripes! Impulsive Purple and Optimistic Pink...good colors for the sunshine that will soon be kissing those toes!

#growingup

Oh, sweet children of mine...you are growing up waaay too fast!  Thanks for letting me capture these photos of you on our walk the other evening...on a January day that felt more like Springtime than winter.

Morgan found this heart in a rock on our walk and snapped a picture of it. 

My 3 favorites!

How'd I get so lucky to be their mom?! 

Sweet Sarah. She found this branch hanging over the water. 

Do you see how tall she is?! 

Doesn't everyone walk on their hands on a walk?

She first had the idea...as a way to walk across river without getting wet. 

Silliness. Glad you got over your 'I don't want to walk!' attitude. ;) 

Look at all that Green! In January!

Changing before my eyes...

BSFEL (Best Sisters for Eternal Life)

Girls' New Blog: BSFEL

So I asked the girls if they wanted to start a 'sister blog' this summer.  I thought it would be a fun, modern, way to journal over the summer, as well as, work on some typing skills, spelling, grammar, proofreading, adding details, etc - I'm letting some errors go and coaching them through some others.

Well they liked the idea and decided to call it the Best Sisters For Eternal Life Blog - It's like the BFF thing, but instead of Best Friend Forever, they've always called themselves the BSFEL!

I kinda hope they keep up with this fun experiment - I think it would be fun to watch it 'change' over the years. But time will tell if this even lasts through the summer! If it does, I'll have to print it up into a book for them for them to remember the summer of 2012! :)

Feel free to follow along on our summer adventures, through their eyes, at BSFEL! Oh, and Morgan is Sunshine and Sarah is Sweetheart! :)

Yep, I blinked!

Well apparently I should not have blinked...because this is Morgan's first  day of elementary school...

...insert blink...and here she is today as she heads off for her last  day of elementary school...

Pulling up the picture of Morgan's first day of Kindergarten, I found one of Sarah's first day of Preschool...

...again I blinked...and now she is finishing up 3rd grade today!

Oh these six years have flown by! I am so glad I get to be their mom and very thankful that summer allows me the opportunity to spend extra time with these beautiful girls! Here's one more picture from down memory lane...

and once again...blink...

Sisterly Love?! NOT!!

Oh what has happened to my sweet children?! THESE ONES...

Summer 2010

They have apparently been kidnapped and replaced with duplicate children I do not know. Seriously, things have become quite ugly around here. I can hardly stand how they are treating each other these days. They are terrible to each other. Horrible! And honestly, while Spring Break begins today and I'm looking forward to my parents arrival and the time my girls will get to spend with them - I am not really looking forward to having the next 9 days with my children.  Which if you know me, is not normal! Even Darian commented (from her weekend spent with them last month) how mean they have become to each other. I'm telling you, it's bad!

So while I try to remind myself that THIS is NORMAL. They are NORMAL. Siblings fight and argue and say mean things. It's part of childhood. I still DON'T have to like it. And while I can know this normal, I still feel like I have a responsibility as a parent to guide them, remind them, that they have the power within themselves to treat each other differently. I can't make them be kind - but I can encourage it. My personal challenge is to parent through this calmly. (I know, wish me luck!) 

So, I woke up at 5am this morning and my brain has just been spinning, but now, I've come up with a plan! And while it may or may not work - at least it's a plan! :) I'd rather be making some effort, rather than no effort, to encourage this sisterly love to return!

Here's the plan for spring break... It's a jar that I will label, "The Gift of Sisters".  The jar has about 30 slips of activities (note: I do realize that this may not be enough slips to last even the first day, but I'll put them back in and they can do them again and again!). Every time Mike or I hear the girls being mean to each other they will have to choose one of these activities for their consequence. Here are just 10 of the activities I came up with for consequences -

• THANK YOU SIS!: Think of two specific  things nice your sister has done for you. Write her a letter telling her thank you.
• CARD MAKING: Using my scrapbook stuff and/or cricut machine, go make your sister a special card.
• A LITTLE WALK: Look up this verse: Ephesians 4:32 and write it on an index card. Walk around the outside of the house 3 times, reading the words on the card the whole time.
• THANKFUL HEART: Go find your thankful journal and write down 10 specific things you are thankful for about your sister.
• MAKE THE BED: Go and make your sister’s bed really nice for her. NOW, Sit on her bed and say a prayer of thanks to God for giving you a sister.
• I’M NOT JOKING AROUND: Find 3 jokes and then tell them to your sister.
• COMPUTER BIBLE: Go to www.youversion.com and look up this bible verse: Proverbs 12:18. Type it in a word document in the NIV version, the NIrV version, the MSG version and the ASV version. Ask mom to help. Print it up. Highlight your favorite one.
• I HEART YOU: Make 10 hearts out of paper. On each heart write something you love about your sister. Start with “I love you because…”Hide the hearts around her room for her to find. 
• DICTIONARY: Find the definition for KINDNESS on the dictionary on my phone. Write down the definition of kindness. Below that write down 3 ways you can be kind to your sister today.
• 10 WAYS: Write down the top 10 ways you can make sure your sister does NOT like you today. (or, 10 things you can do to make sure she goes to bed mad at you tonight.) - trying reverse psychology with this one! ;)

Oh and when I told Mike this morning that I was working on a plan - he let out this half-sigh, 'wooo' kinda noise and informed me that I might be attempting the impossible with this one! So here's to attempting the impossible! :) I'll let you know how it goes.

First Day of School

My beautiful daughter, Morgan, begins 5th Grade today! And let me tell you how beautiful she is, the first thing she says when she wakes up this morning? "I'm going to make Sarah a special breakfast this morning when she wakes up!" You see, Sarah has had a fever the last two days, so Morgan knew her sister wasn't going to be able to go to school on the first day of school and she wanted her sister to have a special morning too! (See, I told you she was beautiful!)  Well the good news is that Sarah woke up bubbly and with no fever, so hopefully she can have her 'first day' of school tomorrow! :) Crossing my fingers!