"Yeah we had a wedding that we considered our wedding," said Amy. "As far as we're concerned we've been married since then and as far as our families are concerned. But it wasn't legally recognized."

So last week they joined 3,000 gay and lesbian couples in line in San Francisco to get that legal recognition. They got married and now have an actual marriage license: the first legal document to say that the two moms and their daughter are all family.

"And to have the guy say 'by the power vested in me by the State of California' that's the only thing we didn't have," said Amy. "It's not that I feel like we're any more married than we were but I feel like we have a lot more validation by the government."

Now they feel that validation is threatened by the President's push to make their marriage illegal, proposing Tuesday a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages.

"I'm not at all shocked that this announcement would be made," said Jennifer, "but I really think that they could spend their time on more useful things."

Useful things, they say, like solving the daily problems they have already.

"I had a woman at Swedish Hospital tell me my next of kin had to be a blood relative which I found a little disturbing because most women aren't married to their blood relatives," said Amy of one of the many challenges they have without being considered legally married.

For now they watch the debate and concentrate on being moms, moms guaranteed to part of the coming presidential election.

"And I don't understand why that's threatening," said Amy. "I don't think we're very scary people."