Hot Topic: Twilight

So most of you who know me, know that I'm, unashamedly, a pretty big fan of the tween craze book series, "Twilight." I was reserved for a long while, wondering if the books would really be worth my oh-so-valuable time. However, as a 6th grade English teacher in the thick of hearing my little girls chatter non-stop about Edward and vampires, I thought, "Eh, what the heck, at the very least it'll give me a new topic of discussion with them." So I dove in. A few weeks later, I was finished with the series, and maybe a little bit convinced that vampires and warewolves existed, and that Edward was coming to sweep me away to our own remote island where we would have vampire babies. Ok, that's an exaggeration...sorta.

Anyways, not long after the series came out and subsequent movies, the inevitable media frenzy that followed the Harry Potter series (another great one!), took over. Preachers and parents began swearing them off as "satanic", "inappropriate" and "witch craft." At first, I dismissed them, knowing that every big cultural trend brings out the extremists, but the more I listen to it, the more irritated it makes me. When I first read the Twilight series, I was not a parent. I never gave much thought to if I would allow my future children to read them. However, I can now appropriately reflect on that. My answer? Yes, I would allow the future teenage Sophie and Campbell to read them. I would most likely be a little hesitant to allow them to read the last one, only because their is a rather graphically detailed "sex scene" between the married Edward and Bella. I think Stephenie Myer did an excellent job of bringing these characters to life, she has an inspirational story of quite literally "following her dreams", and overall, I see virtually nothing in her stories that would be a bad influence on teenage girls. I think it would be a great platform to discuss what makes Stephenie Myer a great writer, and further encourage the girls to be great, imaginative writers. I would think any parent hopes and prays their children fall in love with books, and what type of books to children typically most enjoy reading? Good fiction. Key word: fiction. As a teenager, my favorite types of books were horror books. I loved a good thriller (and by good, I mean the Goosebumps series), and other actual, really scary books that my mom couldn't understand why I liked so much. If you looked at my bookshelf as a young teenager, you probably would have pictured me as a goth kid wearing black lipstick. Alas, I was probably the furthest thing from that. I am nearly certain that it's because, from an early age, I very clearly understood the difference between reality and fiction. Credit that to me being involved in church from an early age, having good parents that were able to teach me this, or having friends that would have probably not liked me very much if I showed up to school wearing black lipstick and weird piercings. 

I say all of this because I believe that each parent acts in the best interest of their children. I'm sure I will run into parents for the remainder of the girls' youth who make choices for their children that I do not agree with and wouldn't make for my children. However, I hope and pray that I raise girls who do not look to fictional books to guide their moral compasses, but instead their faith, family, and hopefully great friends who help steer them down the right path. Reading, for me as a teenager, was fun and exciting. I can't think of a time that I allowed any of these scary books, or any book (aside from the Bible) for that matter, to dictate my actions or values. Just as I don't think playing violent video games leads to boys who bring guns to school. Essentially, I suppose what bothers me the most are these preachers, parents, etc. who seem to think that books, movies, and video games lead to bad behavior in children. It makes me want to shout to these parents, "It's really YOUR fault!" As a former teacher, I saw time after time, parents wanting to blame anyone or anything on their child's behavior, except themselves. I saw girls who read the Twilight series and took it to a ridiculous, unacceptable extreme. And I saw girls who read the Twilight series who wrote silly "I love Edward" sketches on their notebooks. The girls who took it to the extreme were the same girls who had some pretty questionable emotional issues beforehand. So was it the book's fault? Doubtful. 

You may or may not agree with my crazy ramblings, and I would not judge any parent for using intelligent discretion when it comes to what your children read. I think everyone should consider hot topics like these as a great opportunity to reflect on what you really believe. 

Until my next rant, peace, love, and Edward. :)

xoxo

P.S. This guy would be one of those people that makes me cringe. I won't even get started on how many issues I have with him or his "sermon." 

Fall Photos

We had quite the ordeal trying to get the girls' one year/fall family photos taken this year (yes, we combined the two photo shoots!). We had originally signed up with a wonderfully talented local photographer (Holli B. Photography), but due to weather delays and me reeeeeaaaally wanting pretty outdoor photos for the girls' one year portraits and family pics, we were forced to give up our slot after re-scheduling twice with Holli. She was so booked, she wouldn't have been able to squeeze us in until December. :( In case you didn't know, this time of year is easily one of the busiest for most photographers (I guess we aren't the only ones who like pretty fall leaves), so we were left with very limited options. Fortunately my sister has a fancy photographer camera and is a great photographer (and did I mention, free?) I had her take a few maternity pics for me while pregnant, and since she did a great job with that, I entrusted her to do a great job with our family pics. And she did indeed! Although Sophie refused a nap at all that day, leading me to believe she would hate life during our photo shoot, both girls did pretty well! We were able to get a few good family shots and lots of cute ones of the girls. Happy fall!

Daddy and his girls

Adore this one of sweet Campbell

Maybe my favorite of both girls :)

Mommy and Sophie

My favorite Campbell face

Let's be serious. The girls ripped off their bows no less than 15 times. But their dresses were too pretty not to have an accessory!

Love this girl

Weeeee!

Leaves are fun

Big girls

Sweet Sophie girl

Campbell Jane

Sophie Kay

Thanks again, Aunt Sara, for saving the day and capturing your sweet nieces so perfectly! :)

xoxo

Printables

So I've seen these printables all over blogs/pinterest for awhile now, but have been too lazy to print any. I decided our house needed a little Thanksgiving flare, and I plan on printing a few Christmas ones, as well. It's a cheap, easy way to add some Holiday spirit to the home. 

{Found HERE}

There's so many great subway art printables out there.

{Found HERE}

Don't worry, I'm waiting until after Thanksgiving to leave this one out. 

{Found HERE, look on sidebar for download}

Gobble Gobble. :)

xoxo

Bacon and Eggs

Well, our Halloween this year was quite a bit different than Halloween last year. While I've always been a big fan of this holiday, it will now always have a new meaning to me in that it was the day we officially brought our sweet girls home from the hospital after 8 days of them being in the NICU. As you can imagine, I was less concerned about costumes and trick or treaters last year and more concerned with our teeny, tiny babies. But not this year! We had a crazy two weeks of birthday celebrations and Halloween, and this was just a small preview of what a fun time of year this will always be for us. Since my girls loathe things being attached to their heads, that pretty much ruled out about 90% of costumes (I'm hoping this might somehow change next year). I also felt a strong need to take advantage of twins and have them be something "Twinsy." I have a feeling I will continue to do this until the girls object. So, I thought I'd get crafty and do something my mom never did for us: make their costumes. Before you go thinking I'm Martha Stewart, their costumes cost about $10 and required scissors and fabric glue to make. I did sew on the egg yolk by hand after stuffing a kleenex in the middle to make it "poofy" (ok, maybe I felt slighty Martha Stewart-ish). I was a little afraid they might end up looking like the kids whose parents couldn't afford real costumes, but I think they ended up looking pretty darn cute. And hopefully someday they will look back at these pictures, roll their eyes, and say "Gah, mom, I can't believe you dressed us up as bacon and eggs. How dorky." But by then they will have probably realized their mom is a huge fan of all things dorky. :)

Fun Halloween play group with our friends!

We love Halloween!

Oh, I see Mom put a stupid bow on your head, too.

Doing a little trick or treating around the neighborhood

First birthday cake, now candy. Yessss!

Look, mom! Someone gave us unsanitary cheese puffs in a sack!

Daddy and his breakfast. 

Mommy and her breakfast. 

All this candy for us?!

My little skellies 

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! 

xoxo

Adios, bottles

It's a magical day here in the Nevels' house. Today we say hello to you (cute sippy cup holder with sippy cups)...

And goodbye to you (bottles and bottle paraphernalia)...

Aside from the fact that I now have less countertop clutter, more open dishwasher space, and more money in the bank account (we officially said goodbye to astronomical formula expenses about a month ago), I am so proud of my girls for stepping up to the world of big girls and strictly using the sippy cup! Other than bringing two newborns home from the hospital and making sure we kept them alive, switching the girls first from formula to whole milk, then bottle to sippy cups has been the single most daunting task as a parent. There's only about a million different ways to do it, and thankfully we finally figured out a plan that worked for us (and successfully taught the girls that sippy cups were so much cooler than bottles). While I realize I should have a teary mom moment and mourn the fact that this is yet another step into my babies becoming big girls, and I will so very much miss watching them taking their bottles and how sweet their little mouths looked while taking one (ok, I'm getting a little misty), it's also so freeing knowing I can just throw some milk in the sippy cups and head out the door. And geez they are so much easier to clean. 

In addition to now feeling like super mom (I know, this feat is relatively microscopic in the realm of parenting victories. Can you imagine how great I'll feel if my girls make it through high school without getting into hard drugs?), it's been a great reminder that although, as parents, we so desperately want all the answers on how to do everything and fix everything and snap our fingers to get us through the times of frustration, confusion, and inadequacy (or is that just me?), but as everything else goes in life, we would also never feel that great sense of accomplishment that comes with knowing you did something great as a parent. If I've learned anything as a mom, it's knowing that no matter how tough the situation, I love them too much to not find the right answer. Let's only hope I carry this nugget of wisdom into their adolescent years when I have to somehow teach them much bigger lessons that involve hormones, peer pressure, and the loser scum bag teenage boys I already loathe. :)

So please feel free to raise your glass (or sippy cup) in my honor this evening. And pray for the next double parenting feat I have to take on!

xoxo

The 8

Our little CJ has her blankie on her head, and our sweet Sophie has...the 8. It's become quite the joke around our house, but Sophie has an inseparable bond with the purple, rubber bath toy #8. Not the 9, or the B, or J or any other letter or number. Just the 8. She will choose it out of any other toy nearly 9 times out of 10 while in the bath, and has even been known to crawl into the bathroom in the middle of the day to search for her beloved 8. While it baffles and cracks Kyle and I up, we have speculated all sorts of reasons as to why she is SO biased towards this one specific number/letter. A special meaning in a past life? Trying to tell us early on what number she prefers to have on her volleyball jersey? How many brothers and sisters she wants (yikes!)? Early child genius that shows an affinity for math? Whatever the cause of her special love for this number, it keeps us all incredibly entertained and wondering why on earth she has chosen this specific digit as the object of her obsession.

Oh how I love my little, feisty red head. :)

Xoxo

We Have a Walker...

That's right, my oldest daughter who has led the way in all other developmental milestones (rolling over, crawling, getting a tooth), is now our first official walker! I think it's funny/ironic/cute that she's done everything first given she is technically the first born. While I think we are a few weeks away from walking being her main mode of transportation, I have to admire her for constantly getting up on her feet and practicing. Sophie is taking a few steps of her own here and there, but still gaining the bravery to take more than a few. She's a pro at holding your fingers and walking all around the house, though! Lord, am I ready to have two walkers? Ready or not, here it comes. :)

xoxo