Modest is Hottest!

I've been meaning to write about this a long time ago but just keep on forgetting. A while back when Rosie was 2 or 3 years old, she had a dress that was sleeveless. I bought her a cute sweater to go over it so that she could be modest, yes, even at the age of 2. At first, Rosie wanted to take the sweater off. In fact, it was a bit of a struggle to get her to wear it. After explaining to her that it is important to dress modestly to show respect for our bodies, respect for those around us, and most importantly to show respect for God, she's never fought me when it comes to modesty. As a matter of fact, she's obsessed with modesty now. Here's a few examples...

Sometimes she'll wander into the bathroom while Dave or I are in the shower. We'll poke our head out from the curtain to see who the intruder is. The second Rosie gets a glimpse of a bare shoulder she exclaims "Hey, you're not modest!"

Whenever baby Michael is in just a diaper, weather it be because he's about to eat a messy meal, or if he's about to be changed into something new, Rosie will always point out how immodest he is.

One day we were at the YMCA and a girl was wearing a tube top sun dress. Rosie ran over to me and said "Mommy she doesn't have sleeves on her dress!"

She has also taken her Barbies and put Ken's suit jacket over their outfits to make them more modest.

When we were shopping for her aunts wedding gown, Rosie got very upset and let everyone know that she did NOT like the strapless dress. When April put on a dress with sleeves, Rosie started to jump up and down and say "I love it! It's so modest!"

My favorite example of how much Rosie loves modestly is when she was coloring a picture of the Princess and the Frog. If you've seen that movie, or just seen posters or toys, you'd know that the princess is in a strapless dress. Rosie decided to fix it. She took her crayons and drew sleeves on the dress! What a cleaver girl!!

I've explained to her that sometimes people don't dress modestly because they don't know about Heavenly Father and they don't know that it is important to be modest. Some people don't go to church and learn about modesty and maybe their parents haven't talked about modesty to them. The other reason is, some people don't care. However, Heavenly Father cares and is sad when we don't respect our bodies and treat our bodies like temples. We've also discussed with her that there are other things to worry about besides just modesty. We need to be kind to others, use good manners, and share, among other things.

I'm so very glad that I taught her the principle of modesty at such a young age and ever more thankful that she understands. I often see parents dressing their kids in all kinds of immodest clothing because they think it doesn't matter when they are young and that it's cute. I'v never had that philosophy. When are they suddenly old enough to have to dress modestly? When they hit puberty? When they're 18? When they're about to be sealed in the temple? How do you suddenly shift their focus to modesty? I believe that we should dress modestly ALWAYS.

Hopefully Rosie will always understand the importance of modesty and, as she gets older, she'll understand even more why. She'll learn that it helps others around us have clean thoughts. She'll learn that they way we dress can dictate how we behave. If we're in pjs we'll want to lounge around or sleep. If we're in a soccer outfit we might feel like running around. If we're in formal attire, we're more apt to sit proper and act proper. If we're in a sexy outfit we'll more likely draw the wrong kind of attention, plus we're more likely to act sexy and flirtatious, which leads to immorality and other sin. I want her to understand her infinite worth in God's eyes and in our eyes. I want her to understand that Heavenly Father loves her so much and that she doesn't need to conform to the world's standard or dress. She needs to seek first the approval of God as he knows what will make us the happiest. I pray that her friends will be good influences on her and that she in turn, will be good influences on them. I want her to always know she is a daughter of God and that modest truly is hottest!

Me Ka Aloha
- Elisabeth

Is He Yours?

The other day I was shopping at Bath and Body Works getting my fix of antibacterial soaps when a lady came over to ooh and ah over Michael. "Oh he's so cute! Look at those blue eyes!" Then she took a glance at me, noticed my Asian-ness and asked "is he YOURS?" I knew this day would come, when someone would mistaken me as the Filipino nanny.

I love how different all my kids look. I wonder what the next one will look like?

Me Ka Aloha

- Elisabeth

Amazing Day!

Yesterday was great! Lately Michael hasn't been the best napper, and Joseph is going through the usual terrible twos, and Rosie's been sick, so you can see how not-fun it's been around here. Then a miracle happened. They ALL took a NAP at THE SAME TIME!!!!! It gave me some much needed peace and quiet, something I haven't had in a while. Thank you kids!

On another note, last night Dave and I cleaned up the toy room. Most days there's a million toys scattered all over the floor and when night time comes, I'm too exhausted to do anything about it, so it stays. Any way, this morning it was clean! Joseph came down to the playroom, and in a very concerned voice said "there's no more toys!". Haa haa I had to show him that he still had toys, they were just in their toy buckets.

Well, Michael just woke up from him cat nap.... I'm off!

Me Ka Aloha
- Elisabeth

Look Who's Talking

My cutie baby boy, Michael, is starting to talk! He's only 7 months, but last week he said "dada" and today he said "mama". I know he knows what he's saying because when he was tired and wanted to nurse, he looked right at me and said "mama!" I just LOVE hearing my babies talk :)

Me Ka Aloha

- Elisabeth

P.S. He also started army crawling a few weeks ago!!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012!

Another year has come and gone and what a year it's been. Before I get into the exciting things that happened in 2011, I want to apologize for being such a lousy blogger. I guess I've felt that I needed to be in the mood to write a big, long, funny, creative post every time. I avoided blogging a lot of days because I didn't think I'd have the energy to write up a "news paper article" type post. Today, as I was taking down the Christmas decorations, I realized that I should blog more even if it's short and sweet. After all, I started this blog as a journal type thing and I want to remember things that happen in my life. I need to write it weather I'm in the mood for a long creative post, or short and sweet post. It just needs to be documented, period. So I'm sure you've guessed what one of my new years resolutions is. That's right, to post more often on my blog.

Now, onto my reflections of 2011.

1. Taking our family to Utah. It was Rosie and Joseph's first time on an airplane and they loved it. They were so excited to be on a plane and everyone kept on commenting how cute they were. Joseph, because he was under the age of 2, was able to sit on my lap the entire flight. Although being huge a pregnant, it was nice to snuggle with my little guy all the way to Utah. I'd never been to Utah before, or seen mountains for that matter, so I was really excited too. I posted about that trip way back in January, so to find out more, read that post.

2. Dave's business (the quilt shop) has done amazing this year. We were finally able to take a pay cheque each month out of the business (at first all profits were re-invested into the business). What a blessing the quilt shop has become in our lives! I was even able to get my own sewing machine out of Dave's first pay cheque! I'm grateful for all the hard work Dave puts into his business and all he does to support our family.

3. Painting the kitchen and throwing out my back! My kitchen looks amazing, but I threw my back out in the process. I wrote a blog post about that when it happened in February. I never understood it when people would complain about their backs, but now I have huge amounts of sympathy for them. I couldn't do anything when it happened. I was so depressed because I couldn't even take care of the basic needs of my family. Changing a diapers was next to impossible even, and there was absolutely no way I could even attempt to pick up my kids. Another goal of mine is to strengthen my back so that things like that never happen again.

4. Finishing my third quilt. I made Dave an amazing quilt (which made have also contributed to my back problems. It was a difficult pattern, but it was worth all the hours and hours of work. I'm pretty impressed with myself!

5. Michael was born on June 3rd!!! This is the most exciting thing that has happened in 2011. He came basically on time according to my ultrasound (one said June 2, the other said June 4). My water broke at the in-laws house and about 14 hours later he was born. He weighed 8 pounds and 1 ounce. I was so surprised to see his blonde hair and even more surprised to see his blue eyes. I never thought I'd have a blued eyed baby, but I'm glad I do. It's fun to have children that look so different from each other. Michael is a very social baby and therefore never wants to be left alone, even at bedtime. I spent the first couple weeks of Michael's life holding him, ALL the time. He suffered from a bit of colic, but became a different baby once I cut of dairy and once Dave gave him a blessing. He's almost 7 months now and I'm so happy to have him in our family :)

6. I ran my second 5 km race. I raced at Bayfront park and it wasn't easy. I gained a lot of weight while being pregnant, more than I've ever gained, so I had more to carry around when I ran. It was a nice run and I'd like to do it again sometime. Running more is another goal of mine.

7. Rosie started school. It was very emotional sending my little girl off to school, but she's doing great. Her teacher is amazing and she's learning so much. It's like she woke up one morning and started coloring instead of scribbling, and she could suddenly write her name. She won the courage award and preformed in the holiday concert. I'm so proud of how far she's come since September.

8. Joseph went potty. Although he's nowhere near potty trained, he's gone on the potty a few times already! He's such a smart boy and I know he'll be trained in no time. Joseph also learned all his letters, uppercase and lowercase this year. Like I said, he's a smart boy!

9. Two of Dave's cousins were married this year.

10. Jane, Autumn, and Iris came for a visit. I really love that family and wished they lived closer, or could visit more often.... or maybe we should visit them in Hawaii (I like the sound of that!) Autumn and Iris are such beautiful and sweet girls and Rosie loves hanging out with them. I'm so glad the weather was nice the days they were here.

11. Halloween was a lot of fun. Rosie dressed as a princess, Joseph was Tigger, and Michael was a lobster and I was a chef and carried him around in a pot!

12. Thanksgiving was wonderful as always. It great to spend time with family, reflecting on our many blessings. I wrote a blog post about that too. I really love Thanksgiving and can't wait until we have a house large enough to host it. I have a lot of ideas up my sleeve, thanks to pinterest.com

13. Christmas was wonderful as always! I'll quickly list what the kids got for Christmas, since I neglected to write a Christmas post.

Rosie

- Ariel Barbie

- Gabriella Barbie (highschool musical)

- Purple slippers

- Light bright

- Tinkerbell sticker book

- Tinkerbell book with figurines

- New Christmas dress

- 150 piece puzzle

- New pajamas

- Color wand Fairy

- Princess Leia costume

- Princess dress

Joseph

- Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle

- Toy Story puzzle

- Winnie the Pooh puzzle

- Backpack from the Gap

- Cars sticker book

- Toy Story book with figurines

- Cars Color Wonder

- Superman T-shirt and new jeans

- Dinosaur toys

- Pirate ship

- New Pajamas

- Jedi Knight Costume

- Dragon hat

Michael

- Sophie the giraffe toy

- Fridge Zoo by Leapfrog

- Teething Toys

- New pajamas

- Canada outfit

- Yoda costume

- Baby toy car

I'm sure there's more stuff that each kid got, but I can't remember right now.

Mike, Katie, and baby David have been visiting all December and that has been a lot of fun. It's will be sad to see them go next week.

14. Katie is pregnant! She's expecting her new baby boy in February!

15. Shannon had her baby a few days before Christmas. Her baby girl was named Gwendolyn.

16. My friend Tara also had a baby in December and she also had a girl, named Gabriella.

17. Dave attended quilt market this year in Texas. He had a great time meeting all the industry bigwigs and spending time with his BFF Al. I sure missed him when he was gone, but I'm glad he was home in time for Halloween.

18. Dave started teaching seminary this year. It's a calling that he's very excited about, but stressed at how much time it takes. It's hard when we have a family with 3 small kids. I know he loves his calling but will probably only teach for 1 year.

19. April got engaged! Her wedding will be in May :)

There are many more exciting things that I just can't think of right now. It's been a great year and I hope 2012 will be just as wonderful, or better.

Me Ka Aloha
- Elisabeth