The Curse of Potty Training

 I found this is my "draft" box. Oh the good ol' days. Atleast I can laugh at this now. And I did.

We've tried everything, or so it seems, and for a while it seemed to be going well. Then this week came along. I'd like to just throw it away and start over but unfortunately they don't let you do that. It started with Breanne making a great first impression with the nursery leader by wetting her pants. Now, I blame myself mostly for this one because I couldn't figure out how to take Breanne to the bathroom and hold Kaitlyn at the same time. We were at a new ward and I didn't feel comfortable asking a complete stranger to hold my 6 month old. So I took a risk and obviously lost. Then, on Monday, she woke up and found Cameron in the bathroom in the shower and felt that she couldn't go in so Cameron comes out of the shower to find Breanne changing her own wet underwear and I think she pooped her underwear that day to, they're all starting to blend together. Tuesday she did well in the morning. She woke up went potty and then we took her to grandma's house and she ended up pooping in her underwear there! Wednesday, today, it started out fine again but come noon time she wet her underwear again. Now, I know what some of you might be thinking "this is all part of potty training". But we've already been through this! She hadn't had an accident in her underwear in a few weeks besides pooping in them every couple of days, but even then she pooped in the toilet all by herself. I thought that we we're really getting some where. Apparently we have to start back at 1. so between cleaning up wet or poopy underwear and Kaitlyn spitting up (more like throwing up) on the carpet every time she rolls over, not to mention that I can't get either one of them to sleep today, I feel like I just might lose it today...just might.
Anyway, the whole reason that I was writing this was to show my next idea in the potty training adventure. I made a chart that she'll get to put stickers on if she goes potty and poop in the toilet and if she does pretty well the whole week then we'll get to have some kind of "party" at the end of the week. I don't know if it will work. I've tried punishing her for going in her underwear and that hasn't seemed to work too well. I've tried giving treats after every time she goes, but that has only led to her deciding that she really doesn't need that treat so she doesn't need to go in the toilet. I think this might be the last idea I have. If it doesn't work I just may give up, okay, I won't but I don't know what else I'll do. I desperately need more ideas in case this one fails. HELP!

Trip to WA and a Birthday

 We started out our trip to Washington with a layover in Denver. This is what we were staring at for 5 Hours.

 But we made it on our planned flight, by some miracle. It's a good thing too because if we hadn't I would have had two little girls in tears as the plane pulled away without us. BUT it didn't so we were ready to party! We celebrated Bre's 6th birthday and at her request we had a Tea Party.

 Between my mom, my sister and I we were able to get all the food done. The cake pops, while cute and tasty looking, are really a paint huffers dream. Here's the story and a lesson to anyone wanting to make cake pops.

My sister has a cake pop pan so that made it fairly easy except they kind of looked like balloons. Anyway, so we melted candy melts and started dipping. But the candy melts cooled and hardened quickly, the cake balls were falling off the sticks and sticking in the candy, it was dripping so the candy decorations were falling off...lets just say it was a lot harder then I would have thought. But 49 cake pops later they were done. This would have been fine but we needed something to stick the cake pops in to keep them upright. My sister had (what I am sure was a great idea in her head) an idea to spray paint some foam blocks. I won't get into all the mess ups I made completing that task. I'll leave it with my mom ended up with a green sparkly rock and I had green hands. Like I said, we needed these to keep the cake pops in so we didn't have a lot of time to let the block sit. We put them in the block and them in the frig to keep them from melting. The next morning the taste test reveled that the cake pops were more like "paint" pops. While they were in the frig they soaked up the fumes from the spray painted blocks. The adults graciously let the children have as many as they wanted. We figured the only thing wrong was that they tasted strange and no brain damage would be caused. The research is still out on that. So the moral of the story is, "Don't let Nicole use spray paint when it involves children's birthday parties or food".

 A few of the victims of the "paint" pop experiment. No, they hadn't had any up tot his point.

From left to right: Sophia, Piper, Austin, Breanne, Kaitlyn

 I'm  pretty sure everyone had fun, including the Birthday Girl.

 And I can't miss a photo opportunity when my dad wears a tie. This was his "Tea Party" best.

 He found an accessory at the party.

 Cousins, Aunts and Uncle

From left to right: Chase, Sophia, Benjamin, Heidi, Piper, Marina,

Austin, Breanne, Kaitlyn

My Birthday Girl 6 years ago.

I can't believe how time has gone by. I know everyone says that but I don't think you really listen to the people who tell you that until you experience it for yourself. She's lost 2 teeth, reading short books by herself, helping make meals, growing tall, skinny and beautiful. She only wants to do good and be obedient (even though she forgets sometimes). She has a strong testimony and her faith is so sure. She's a light to our family. I really hope these next 6 years slow down a bit.



Another Place to Call Home

 So that there's the place. I think what grabbed me about this place is all the grass out front. LOVE grass! It's been so long since we've been somewhere so green...and with trees! I love my hot weather but it does tend to kill off anything remotely beautiful. I also really like that we have a large patio (for apartment living, anyways). The dog has a place to go out without me taking her for a walk every time she needs to go and the girls have a place to play. There is one drawback. It's all dirt, as you can see in the picture. We've been getting quite a bit of rain lately (I know, I know, it's probably not that much compared to else where) and it's making things a little muddy. I need ideas on what to do. Keep in mind that this is an apartment, I don't want to put a lot of money into it but I want to get a lot out of it. I can have everything, right? ;) Anyway, comments and suggestions are required for everyone who reads this (I'll know who you are and if you don't. Okay, not really, but please!) The place is small, 2beds 1bath, but other then that it's been quiet and the people have been REALLY welcoming. We had about 20 people helping us move all of our stuff in, that we didn't know, in the pouring down rain. Since then we've been invited to dinners, play dates and been visited by a number of people. Some bearing gifts in the form of food! Moving on to more exciting things then jelly bellies and banana bread...
Cameron FINALLY had his first flight! He flew all over CA hitting San Fran, Santa Barbara and spent the night in Eureka. Today he's flying all the way up to Medford, OR and staying the night in Montery, CA. He called me at 1AM last night and told me all about it. I was so excited for him. He's having so much fun and it's so very apparent that this is what he was meant to do. It would be a crime to keep him out of a plane. His first landing he said that he "slapped it one the runway" but the second one was much better and today it was "text book". He's also very modest, did I mention that? ;) He'll fly again tomorrow and be home by midnight tomorrow night. This is all so exciting It felt like we would never get to this point. Waiting for him to have enough hours, trying to find the right company to apply to, trying to get that company to hire him...phew! After almost 3 years we're here. I think some people felt like it was just talk when we said that one day he'd be an airline pilot (don't worry we did too sometimes) but it's happened. It's funny when you finally get to a major goal in life. All the struggles you face getting there seems like they're set backs but once you're there...you can see the whole picture. That those things weren't set backs you just needed the experience so you were ready. We are soooo ready!