14 Reasons

Curt has school all day and night today. He got up at 5 o'clock this morning to deep clean our kitchen for me and to leave out a present for me to find. He really is wonderful and so good to me. I sure do adore him...

He left me a list, this morning, of some of the reason he loves me. Which is pretty funny since I started putting together a list a month or so ago for the same reason. We have been accused of being the same person. It's practically true. 

14 Reasons I love you on the 14th:

1. you are my favorite person ever.
2. you thank me for anything and everything I do.
3. you seek out ways to make me happy.
4. you help me with, mostly do, the never ending laundry.
5. you take care of me when I'm sick. 
6. you almost always sacrifice and get out of bed when there is something to take care of so I don't have to.
7. you are willing to learn and DIY when it comes to fixing up our house.
8. you can read my mind.
9. you live your life in the service of others.
10. you are always interested in what I'm working on.
11. you make dinner when I'm too tired to make it.
12. you still write me love notes.
13. you love Sushi as much as I do.
14. you are totally and completely perfect for me.

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

For the past few weeks, the annual Stock Show was in town. While we had free tickets, we never made it out there cause we've been so busy and lacked motivation to go on a Saturday and fight the crowds. Curt's mom ask if she could take us. I agreed...reluctantly. While I knew all three of the girls would love it, I knew it would be a lot of work. It was, but the girls did really good.

We started out in the commercial area, just to go see Elsie the Borden cow. Before we left to go, I had told the girls that we were going to go see animals. Emery asked, "I wanna hold a cow." When we showed her Elsie, she immediately was scared and wouldn't even get down to see the baby cow. Ella would look from afar, but didn't pet the baby. Isabelle loved it. By the end, both Ella and Emery may have petted her, but they were definitely not practiced enough to touch the cow at the beginning of the day.

 I let the babies get on the tractors while Isabelle had a potty break. They loved it.

 Isabelle loved it too...

 They did not want to leave the tractors. At all. They didn't want to go see the animals. They didn't want to get off. They would have been completely happy if we had just stayed there a while longer and then gone home.

We pushed ahead though and took them to the children's 4H barn full of the smaller animals. You couldn't pet them at all, but the did enjoy seeing them all and poking their finger in the very small squares to poke the animals who were up against the fence. :)

As we predicted, the next part was their ultimate favorite. The petting zoo and pony rides! Isabelle took to feeding the animals like a pro. Emery and Ella both liked to hold one piece of the food and hold it far away from the animals, so I don't know that they ever got a single animal to eat their food. They did enjoy it though. Ella and Emery both did some petting too.
Horse:

 Alpaca:

 Goats:

 Rabbit:

Then came the pony rides. Even Emery got to do it this time, unlike at the Pumpkin Patch. She was hesitant at first, but she did it. They all loved it!

We finished up the day with a long walk back to the car, realizing the keys were locked in the car and then having lunch there while we waited for the spare keys to be brought to us. It was a long, exhausting, but lots of fun day. Thank goodness it's only once a year! Phew!

Chinese New Year

Today is Chinese New Year. We dressed the girls up as little Mulans for church today. They were very excited and kept telling us, "I Mulan!" Unfortunately Ella was not in a picture friendly mood at all. At least she's in them, I guess...

This little big girl was not happy to not be Mulan too. She moped about it for a good 30 minutes. She told me, "You know who my favorite princess is, Mom?" I answered, "Ariel?" "No!" Ummm... "Aurora." "No!" (Which by the way, are the CORRECT answers!!) She then proceeded to tell me, "Mulan is my favorite princess!" My answer to that was, "Well, I tried to get you to wear the Mulan dress Sunday after Sunday a year ago and you wouldn't and now it doesn't fit you." (So there!) At least she cheered up for the camera and let it go after that...

Water Tower!!

There are seriously fewer things, currently, that make my children happier than our local water tower. You can see it from our back yard, when we are driving down our street (we live on a hill), on our way to the access road and the entire time we are getting on the freeway. The whole time, all three of the girls yell, "WATER TOWER!!!" over and over and over again. They love it. I think that anything tall translates to a water tower for Ella though. She sees them everywhere. Especially when we drive past the grain silos. They are for sure water towers to her. It is so fun that they are so attached to the water tower. It definitely is a big part of who they are right now. 

Flashback Friday 8: Self Portraits

Last Fall Isabelle's drawing abilities really started to take off. We loved watching her draw pictures of people she knew. These pictures are of her very first self portrait. She was so proud. So were we. :)

Conversations with Isabelle: Part 10

Isabelle: singing "I not ready to be a princess" over and over and over again finally added onto her song. "I wanna be a rock climber."

She'll make her Uncle Luke proud.

***

Emery and Ella were pretending to blow their noses and playing that they were sick.

Isabelle: "Ahh... I not feeling good for Christmas!"

Emery: cough.cough.cough.

Isa: "Is snot coming out?? My snot not coming out. Ahhh...we can't feel good."

Em: "I not feeling good."

Isa: "Ahhh....My snot coming out!"

Em: "It's coming out."

Isa: "Ahhhh! I not feeling good for Christmas."

Em: "Christmas yights???"

Isa: "Where's your tissue, Emery?" (Blows nose.)

(Emery blows her's too.)

Isa: "Are you not feeling food for Christmas, Emery?"

Emery: "Christmas yights?"

Isa: "Creepy lights aren't feeling good. I smelled them." (Blows nose.)

***

After unrolling half a spool of Baker's twine, Isabelle got caught and Curt took it away.

Isabelle: "But we were playing with rolly!"

Curt: "No."
Isabelle: "Rolly is sad. We were playing with him for a long time."

***

Isabelle made up another song:

"I will get my knife and I will cut you. Cut, cut, cut. I will cut you."

It was very disturbing. 

***

Isabelle: "Let's play hide and seek. It's my favorite game. I will hide here and you will find me. Now count."

She hides, Daddy finds and now it's Isabelle's turn.

Daddy: "Okay go in the kitchen and count."

Isabelle: "You hide here." Points to the same place she hid.

Daddy: "Okay. Go to the kitchen and count."

Isabelle: "I have been a very good counter."

Me: "Yes you have!"

***

While dancing on pointe, Isabelle encouraged Curt to try and dance on his toes.

Curt: "I can't do that. I will break my toes."

Isabelle: "I didn't break my foots. They are still on."

***

While playing outside, Isabelle ran in the house to tell us:
Isabelle: "My hair is blowing in the wind like Pocahontas."

***

Isabelle: "Ella, can I squeeze your belly?"

***

Isabelle: "Look Mom!"

She points her toes as she walks across the room, then takes a big leap.

Me: "Wow!"

Isabelle: "That's why I'm a ballerina."

***

Flashback Friday 7: The Holy Ghost

Back in September Isabelle drew this picture of the Holy Ghost. Four months later, she looked at this picture and knew that it was the Holy Ghost. Originally when she drew it, it was unprompted and we were surprised to find out that she even retained enough information from Family Home Evening to remember the Holy Ghost.