oh....BOY!!

I love having daughters.

I love the relationship I have with my girls, and I love that they love to talk to me.

One of the hardest things about having pretty daughters is BOYS.

Since Akayla turned 12 - no, since I put my two oldest girls in public school - we have had trails of boys following both of them.

Corina is very sensible with boys. She thinks boys are cute and likes them, but she doesn't get really crazy. She's had a few boys that she really liked ask her to "go out" with them and she just told them she wasn't going to date until she's 16 and even then she won't have boyfriends. They still like her and chase after her but she doesn't get caught up in it. School and getting good grades is far more important to her.

Akayla is not so sensible. She is so friendly and flirty that she has 8 or so boys all the time telling her they are crazy about her and they want her to be their girlfriend. She loves the attention of course, but unfortunately they can't all have her and many have had their hearts broken. Only a few of those boys have caused us some.......shall we say STRESS!!!

• The 16 year old when she was only 12 who was practically a stalker. We had to go talk to his parents to get him to back off. He cried when we told him to forget about her because he liked her so much. He asked our permission to date her when he returned from his mission. I tried not to laugh out loud.
• The 16 year old last summer when she was only 14 that she really liked. He was so good looking it hurt your eyes to look at him.......but he had far too much experience. It was very difficult but she told him she couldn't be his girlfriend. He cried too. I think she still resents us a little for this one.
• The favorite from all last year. They are only a year apart, but still not 16 so neither of them can date yet. They liked each other for almost a whole year. We had to limit phone calls, emails, and make sure a parent chaperone was with their group whenever they hung out. We really liked this kid a lot, but they were pretty close and we feel very strongly about the no-dating-before-16 rule. They both decided to just be friends when they went to high school.
• The 17 year old from this year. Luckily Akayla only liked him for a few weeks so we got out of this one without too much heartburn.
• The 16 year stalker from another high school. Luckily he lives too far away to make us too crazy.
• The 3 other 16 year old boys from this year. They all have Dave for seminary and yet they still try to get her to date them. It's kind of funny! She was worried that he would scare off all the boys. OH NO!! They just have an opening line when they meet her - "so is your dad Brother Ferrara?" Some boys have even asked him about her. He just tells them about his shot gun. HAHAHA!

We've had a lot of long talks with Akayla. She has really had a hard time not being allowed to have boyfriends the way most of her friends do.

I have to admit she has worried us a lot too because we thought she was only going along with our rules so she wouldn't get in trouble but that she didn't really believe it was the right thing to do.

This last fast and testimony meeting she got up and bore her testimony. She gave such a beautiful sincere testimony and said she was so grateful that she's not allowed to date until she's 16! She even said she knows the rules and guidelines of the church are not to torture her but to keep her safe. She has a friend that has been doing bad things with a boy and she is a really good girl. So this really helped Akayla to understand. I feel really bad for the girl, but in a way I'm so grateful it helped Akayla to see what's right.

I know people think we're strict but we really want to follow the prophet and keep our kids from any harm.

Luckily we've gotten pretty good at the talk because as of last week we entered the danger zone with Adriana. She is turning 10 this week and the boy she has had a crush on for all of 4th grade asked her to be his girlfriend. She said yes. Apparently she didn't hear anything we've been saying to Akayla and Corina all this time. Then 2 days later another kid asked her to "go out" with him. Both of them are almost 12.

Maybe Dave really should get a shotgun!

good things:

If we mess up with one we have 6 more.....just kidding

My daughters tell me EVERYTHING so far

They still listen and obey even if they don't agree yet