I want to remember this moment...

Tonight in an effort to stay up later Rora was showing me some signs that she knows. She was signing Mother and Father, please, thank you, I love you, etc. I then taught her a couple more signs, there is nothing sweeter than watching little hands signing. I showed her the sign for Heavenly Father and she was so excited. After doing it she said, "He's my Daddy in Heaven." To which I responded in the affirmative. Her next statement made me pause. "My Mommy up in Heaven too." "Yes," I said, "You do have a Mommy in Heaven." She sat there with this huge grin on her face for almost a minute just thinking about it. Oh how I wish I could look into her mind and see what she was remembering from her time with the Lord. For now I will have to get by with my little glimpses into Heaven through the eyes of my children. Oh how I love them!

Rora!

I know this post is a couple months late, but Rora just had her 2 year old check up so I figured it was time to post about my baby at age 2. Rora now weighs 26 pounds, she gained 6 pounds in 6 months! She also grew 3 inches!
Rora is my daredevil. She is afraid of nothing and is stubborn as all get out until she gets her way. I know what you're thinking, just like her dad...she in no way resembles her Mother... ;)
Back in September she fell off the stool and hit her head causing a concussion. Now I know after spending the night in the er that throwing up IS a sign of a concussion, but if they don't throw up again than their body is able to take care of it. Since she only threw up once, on top of her other symptoms I learned that her concussion wasn't that bad and now I know what to look for the next time. Yes, i'm sure there will be a next time.
Rora is singing all the time and a sure fire way to make her happy is to sing songs with her. For over a month she could be heard singing 'happy birthday to ME!' Silly girl! She says pretty much everything now and is speaking in 5-6 word sentences.
She loves food and likes everything. Mostly thanks to Kira and her love of all 'healthy' foods. Her favorites include strawberries, grapes, cheese, peanuts and spaghetti.
Rora is still potty training. She usually does great at home but gets to busy when we are out.
She is a great helper and can't wait until 'Baby Awielya' comes.
Rora is such a special little girl and I love her so much. I can't believe how fast she is growing up. Where did my baby go!?!






Rora at the McWane Center laying on a bed of nails. Kira was too scared to try it, but Rora jumped right on.

Pierced Ears!

About a year ago Kira asked me if she could get her ears pierced. It really caught me off guard. To give myself a chance to think I told her she could do it when she turned five. October rolled around and she mentioned it again. I really didn't want her to get them pierced since i'm allergic so I told her that she would have to wait until February when Daddy got his bonus. For the next four months I was bombarded with the excitement about pierced ears! Well, February is here and Josh got his bonus yesterday so today was the big day. Kira brought piggy along for moral support.





Before.

Ready...Set...Go!

Right as they pierced her ears. Thank goodness they pierced them at the same time! She whined for about 15 seconds after and then was all smiles that it was over!

From the face above to an immediate

smile for the camera. What a tough girl!

The finished product! Sporting the rainbow daisy earrings and looking oh so beautiful!

**Sorry the pictures aren't all the same. It's really bothering me but I can't figure out how to change it. I am so not computer savvy!**

Food!

I have always known that I am picky. As I've gotten older I feel like I've gotten even more picky if that is possible. I have little tolerance for many foods that as a child I loved. Things like Kellogg's rice crispy treats, spaghettios, store bought spaghetti sauce, etc. Even store bought white (and sometimes wheat) bread tastes fake to me.
Recently it came to my attention how many people have developed allergies to any and everything! Almost every family has someone with some sort of allergy or sensitivity. Be it peanuts, gluten, strawberries, etc. The number of allergies and sensitivities keeps rising. It makes me wonder and has gotten me to thinking. Is there a correlation with the foods people eat, the health care they receive and sensitivities? There are already questions about vaccinations causing or aggravating autistic tendencies. Whether real or not, it has gotten me thinking.
I want to state that my musings have no basis in facts and these are just my opinions, ones that I would love to see many studies come out on.
As a child in utero our Mother's body filters out the majority of the 'processed' foods that we get. We are then born and even many Mothers who breastfeed give their baby formula here or there. So it starts as a baby. Being unable to completely digest the food that we take in. Then the baby matures to the baby food stage. Of which according to store shelves there are 3 (I think) stages of baby food, starting with rice cereal. The child then progresses to jars of pureed food that has to have something in it to keep it fresh, some sort of preservative to make it last. Then there are the special melt away crackers, whole meals that are put in jars 'semi-pureed.' And so on and so forth until the child is eating everything that the parents eat. From frozen meals to fast food. Everything is preserved. School lunches are just as bad, if not worse than the frozen meals and the fast food. What does that do to a body? What ramifications does that have for the child? The adult? How does that differ from someone who puts wholesome foods in their body?
When Kira was a baby I bought 1 box of rice cereal. She would never swallow it so I gave up. She ate what we eat. I would cook sweet potatoes and puree it and that's what she would have for a week. She would share whatever we had for dinner, I wasn't concerned about limiting her to the recommended one new food a week. Some weeks she would eat two new foods, others five plus.
With Rora it was a bit different. I also bought one box of rice cereal because my Mom had told me how she had found it so convenient. I thought I'd give it a try. Rora ate it up. Yet that night she had terrible stomach pain and constipation, completely abnormal for her 6 month old body. She was wracked with pain. I never gave her 'store bought' baby food again. One of her first foods was spaghetti sauce. I had made spaghetti for dinner and she really wanted to eat with us so I gave her some sauce to play with. She ate a lot and never had any problems. Perhaps it was because my sauce is made completely from scratch? All fresh vegetables. Would it have been different if I had used a store bought sauce? I'm not sure, but I'd love to see the study...that said though, I am not sure that I want to see the study because I don't want kids subjected to processed foods.
I'm not saying that every child with a food allergy or sensitivity is because of processed foods, yet I have to wonder what the relationship is between a wholesome diet and allergies vs. the more convenient diet and the same allergies. Are allergies one of the ways our bodies are trying to fight back against our processed culture? Even the honey that is bought in stores is lacking the pollen that helps make honey so good for our bodies.
I could go on and on, but I think I put enough of my theory down on paper. What do you think? And just because you have made it to the end of this post, here are a couple of pics of my kiddos being healthy. Rora enjoying the fruits of her labor while strawberry picking and both girls with a refreshing smoothie (the color is because of the spinach.)

It's all relative

I've been thinking a lot about family. Family is one thing that we have no control over. Makes me wonder what will happen when we get to heaven. When all is revealed, what will be said about the people around me? This person was put in my life to teach me _____. That person was to teach me _____. And so on and so forth. And then you get to that one person who gets you like no other. The one that people look at you and wonder why you are so close. If we weren't related, we wouldn't have even crossed paths. And yet, I bet that when I go to heaven and see all that I will understand. I will understand that she is here because I need her. So that no matter what happens, I have someone to fall back on. Especially when family is the problem. So thank you Lord for having the foresight to place her in my life!