JANUARY

These pictures describe our life lately. I remember struggling to find things to do when Isabella was younger so I am in love with this age because everyday is a new adventures. Winter can be tough cause of the cold but we have learned to love the indoors and the library is our best friend like always. Dance parties, cooking lessons, bubble bathes, and eating a lot are our current interests. Isabella is getting older and older and she is growing so much into her own little person that sometimes I am overwhelmed by all the parenting that needs to happen. Like discipline or the lack of it around here. I am really good about making her life fun and filling our day with activities but I really need to work on time outs and teaching her that tantrums are not ok or throwing stuff when she's mad or screaming her head off during sacrament. I am both excited and terrified to dive into this stuff. I've been reading an amazing parenting book called "I didn't plan to be a witch." Here are a couple of lessons I have learned: 

1-Having 9 children is an insane amount of work but it also seems insanely fun

2-Disciplining children and teaching them good principles takes a lot of work and it's a slow process 

3-One day I want to build a log cabin from scratch with my kids to teach them real hard work

4-My mistakes as a mom should not be rocks that crush me but stepping stones towards my goals

I've been repeating that last one in my head a lot lately and it has really helps.

My mom is here and it's been a blast. It's so nice to sleep in, have the dishes done, and not have to cook so much. One thing I love about my mom is how much she takes care of me. I forget sometimes that I am someone else's child. It's nice to take a break from being an adult all the time. And there is nothing better than my momma's cookin! 

This is one of my favorite pictures of Isabella. She was mooing like a cow when we took it hence the cute little lips. 

 This picture perfectly describes her current obsession with purses, nail polish, lip gloss and dressy shoes. She might love to get dirty, kick a ball around and wrestle with her dad but she is also really girly about certain things. 

I made this apron for Isabella for Christmas. Cooking lessons are my favorite thing we do together and she is so into it. Hopefully it will stay that way;)

These pics remind me of how big she is getting. bittersweet. 

She got that dog purse from Santa this year and oh man did Santa hit the spot.  She puts all here little treasures in it (lip gloss, sour ice breakers, bottle for bubbles) and takes it everywhere. If we leave the house without it she will run back yelling "wow wow!!" (what she calls dogs)