Time with my Sis in Santa Barbara!

It had been too long since Kristen and I could just hang out together and catch up. Even when we were at Lake Chelan as an entire family, at the end of the trip Kristen and I couldn't believe that we never spent time one on one. Our babies schedules were just too opposite and we were constantly busy with them.

So my wonderful, amazing husband let me fly to Santa Barbara for 4 days and be with her (without the girls). I know...he is amazing. He took off work Friday and most of Monday and watched the girls by himself for 4 days straight while I...played. And yes, I did feel extremely guilty, but Cade really insisted that I have that time with my sister.

Of course the night before I was supposed to fly, I had the stomach flu and was in the bathroom all night. I thought for sure I would have to cancel my flight so first thing in the morning, I went to the Doctors office to get a written note to fax to the Airlines in case i needed to switch my flight. But with a lot of prayer, I was able to fly there with no problems.

I was so excited to be able to just be with Kristen and talk one on one. Friday was very low-key since I still wasnt feel great. I slept in (really late) and we hung out at her house for most of the day- ran a couple errands but that's it. After Andrew got off work we went to an Italian Restaurant for dinner. Saturday was our girls day out. Kristen and I went to state street and walked through lots of shops, then ate lunch at a cafe, got pedicures, and walked some more :). It was so fun! At night, Kristen and Andrew went to their Bishop's house for a new member dinner (they were there to welcome the new members) and so I got to spend time chasing Jaxon around! Man, that kid NEVER stops moving! I was trying to get pictures of him, but he wouldn't hold still long enough for me to catch him! He is so adorable and so much fun! I also added a video of him that is adorable. He loves making lion sounds and it is so cute!

 

As you can see, he wasn't a HUGE fan of his costume at first :). It was hilarious!

 

 

After they got back from the dinner we went back to state street ate ice cream and handed out cupcakes to homeless (well, Andrew did...Sisten and I just watched him :).

Then came Sunday and after church, we went on a walk along the beach and pier which is one of my favorite things to do! It is so beautiful and it was a VERY warm day. We also ran into a Porsche Show so of course we had to walk through for fun :). I don't know anything about cars, but Andrew loved seeing it! We went home and took naps, then made dinner (which was SO yummy! Thanks for the recipes Sisten!). After dinner we drove to Butterfly Beach. The sun had already set, but it was gorgeous! I guess it's a beach that a lot of celebrities go to- and I can see why because it's so beautiful.

Sunday night we just talked, and giggled and played some games. I LOVE spending time with sisten! I love her so much and am extremely grateful to my wonderful husband who allowed me to go and spend that time with my sister! Another thing I am very grateful for is technology these days. Because of having FaceTime on my phone, I could see my family every day and see my girls giggle and smile! And now that I am back in Utah, Sisten and I get to do FaceTime any time we want and see each other and our kiddos. It makes long distance SO much easier. I love her and am very grateful for the time we spent together!!!

My Potty Training Adventure

Wow. One of my least favorite things I've ever had to do in my life. I mean, giving birth had an incredible product of all the pain I had to go through. Potty training- painful and not a great enough reward to make up for it :). Okay, okay it's not horrible now that I'm writing this, but if you would have talked to me those first two days, they were horrible. We tried this whole adventure a few months ago when I wasn't ready to deal with the battle of her refusing to go on the potty. But I decided I would try again (since she'll be 3 in a couple months) and not go back to diapers! But this girl has got amazing will-power (or stubbornness :)...whatever you want to call it).

Day 1- cleaned up 8 messes all day long. No success in the toilet. And every time she had to go I would try and put her on the potty and she would scream, run away, and go run in a closet or corner or wherever she felt like it. It was SO frustrating because I knew she could do it and she just wouldn't! I even just tried setting the timer and putting her on the potty every 45 minutes. I made this cool potty chart that she gets to put stickers on and depending on the spot gets a prize, candy, etc. I also had her help me wrap up Barbie princesses that she knows she gets when she is completely trained. Nothing, I mean NOTHING was enticing her. At least Reese had interest :). And Resolve became my best friend.

Day 2- seven accidents, FINALLY 1 success. Started the day with 5 accidents and I about had enough. My mom came in the afternoon so i wouldn't go absolutely insane (which i am so grateful for! My poor mom got to see me hysterical. What are moms for, right?). My friend let me borrow her little potty so maybe that would get Emma excited enough. After i left, my mom introduced it and Emma seemed SUPER excited. But still refused to go in it. My mom left around 3:30 and still no success in the toilet. But my mom told me to leave her naked and just take the potty around the house with us wherever we went. Finally when I was upstairs changing Reese, Emma yelled "mom, I went pee!!!" I thought, "oh great, where did you go this time??". I went downstairs and she actually had gone in her little potty! I couldn't have been more excited. We called everyone we knew. Then we left to a church event, came back and she wouldn't go before bed. I was prepared to change the sheets in the night but morning came and she was STILL dry. She still wouldn't go and wouldn't go. FINALLY after holding it for 18 hours she went. 18 hours!!! I didn't even think an adult could hold it that long let along a toddler!

So day 3- five successes, NO accidents!! Of course Cade had her for that day and he never had to clean up anything...good for him :). At this point, I didn't care WHO she went for, just go already! She knew she couldn't wear her Repunzel dress if she had an accident. Good incentive :).

Day 4- NO accidents.

Day 5- Emma got to go to the mall and ride the train because she had gotten so many stickers on her chart. We rode the train and she loved it of course. After that we went upstairs and ate some lunch and as I was giving Reese a bottle, I saw Emma run over to a corner behind a tree (which is exactly what she does at our house EVERY time she poos. Cade calls it the "pooping tree" :).) So holding Reese with a bottle in my arms, I ran over there and Emma was red in the face. I tried getting her to run to the potty, but it was too late. Of course! Reward, then promptly go poo in your pants.

And that is how it always is now. She never has accidents through the night or during nap time. And we got #1 down like a champ!!! But I have to clean up poo every day and it's so not cool. No consequence or incentive will get her to do it. No matter what we try. I'm sure it will happen by the time she starts dating, right?? At least we have #1 down! She always let's me know and can do it all by herself. Now if she would just get #2 down...then the adventure would be complete. But alas, we will continue our adventure and one day she will decide on her own.

(On a train ride one day and the carousel another for rewards)

Fishbowl Day of Service 2012

This was the 4th year of Fishbowl's Day of Service. I am so proud of Cade and all the hard work that goes into these successful service days for the company. He takes so much time out of his normal work responsibilities to put together the day of service. He first got this started 3 years ago and it's still going strong. Luckily he has a group of people that help him a ton to make it even more successful than he could on his own.

This year was at an elementary school in Payson. This was probably my favorite of the 4 years because we got to work with the school children in the morning (some helped out teachers, but didn't get to interact with the children as much). Cade and I helped Mr. Cope's 3rd grade class do times table flash cards. I LOVED working with those kids! It made me want to volunteer when my kids are older or help out in their own classrooms because I love working with children. That was only the first few hours in the morning along with working on different projects outside that needed attention. The main project was the leveled library. The company completely re-did how the library was set up. A ton of reorganizing, boxing, alphabetizing, and entering into the computer.

It was a great time. I wish I took more pictures, but this is all I got :).

Random Summer Fun!

These are all pictures from the entire summer that I have not put in a blog post yet, so.....it's very random :). Enjoy the randomness :).


Reese enjoys princesses almost as much as her sister :).

This slide was the best $20 we ever spent! Reese likes it even more than Emma. It's the ONE thing that they continue to play with without fail. And Reese is a little too brave...she's only fallen over the other end once :). She's a little more careful now.

She also likes to find this mushroom in the play kitchen food and use it as a binky. It looks so funny!

I thought this was a good idea...too bad it only gave me a good 5 minutes of her being entertained! It's just as good as a TV, right?

A good friend Rachel Lyman and I took our kiddos to Riverwoods Mall to play in the splash pad and ride the carousel. Cade had the 4Runner that weekend, so fit all 6 of our kids in Rachel's Yukon. 3 car seats in the middle! It was crazy but so fun and the kids had a blast. They even got to bowl in a little kids bowling alley! Emma absolutely adores Adrianne and Brigham too. She talks about them all the time and we love that they are just a few houses away! You can see in the second picture how excited Emma was that we were all in the SAME car together :).

I took this picture so I could remember a little fact about Reese...she HATES, I mean REALLY HATES loud noises- vacuum, blender, blow dryer, etc. This picture was taken trying to vacuum the house. Every time I turned it on, she would scream and scream so any time I vacuum, I have to hold her, bounce her, and shhhh her the entire time and she was still grabbing on for dear life. And the blender and blow dryer are the same. She brings on the tears fast any time she sees me get one of those items out....silly girl.

 I also learned that Reese would much rather sit in her stroller and watch Emma on the carousel than ride it! She was so scared when the horse started going up and down...it was kind of funny because it was complete opposite of how Emma first was with them.

 

This August, I got to go to BYU's Education Week with Rachel Lyman and Sarah Robinson and it was SO fun! I'm sad this is my only picture to put on here. We just enjoyed the day so much that we forgot to take any pictures. We only went one day (Friday), but it was so relaxing, rejuvinating, and wonderful to get that extra boost to want to become a better wife, mother and friend. I LOVE Ed week!

 

My birthday! It was really low key, but still fun. We went out for breakfast in the morning to IHOP. A great start to any birthday. I got to open my gifts- all clothes :). I have been wearing nothing but maternity clothes for the last few years so Cade let me get clothes for my birthday and I loved it :). We got a babysitter at night time so Cade and I could go out together. We ate out, walked through the mall and ended with ice cream. Any time with my wonderful Hubby is amazing!

We spent a lot of time rearranging the rooms in our house. Our original plan of having the girls share a room and keep our office/craft room upstairs did not work well. Their just too young to share right now- schedules completely different, Reese still crying at night sometimes, blah blah blah. So we moved all of the office into a small closet room in the basement, moved the crib and dresser into the old office with the craft desk still in there, and Emma now has her own cozy play space in her room. We like how the arrangement is right now.

We enjoyed Labor Day with my family. We just met up at a park for some food and games. Emma was excited to spend time with William! The thought this giant volleyball sand pit was their very own sand box and played in it for a long time!

 My little princess. Emma is definitely OBSESSED with this Rapunzel dress and wants to wear it every day.

 

A fun rainy day that I took Emma and Adrianne and Brigs outside to dance in the rain. Then we came inside for some hot chocolate. It was fun to act like a kid again!

On a slower work day, I was pleasantly surprised when Cade took the girls and I up Provo Canyon to Sundance Ski Resort for a scenic lift to see all the colors. It was SO beautiful! The pictures don't really do it justice, but it was so fun. The girls got a little bored after a while, but luckily we brought a bottle for Reese and snacks for Emma. I absolutely am in LOVE with fall so it was so fun to enjoy nature for an evening!