I Think We Did It - Warning: potty talk

I am a lucky mom. For all three children I have dreaded potty training and so far (cross my fingers) it has always been a cinch. Lucky, I know. Kate potty trained herself at 2 1/2 (really, I hardly had anything to do with it). She had a total of 1 wet accident in the first two weeks of training. I waited a bit longer with Parker, he was just over three and we only had to throw one pair of underwear away. I don't do the nasty rinse them out in the toilet thing and then wash them. Gross. And I figure if I waste $1.50 on a pair of underwear who really cares. It is worth not gagging as I swish swish.

Maggie and I started the process last Tuesday. I had to change a nasty diaper that morning and just decided that I had had enough. She was two at the end of November and I figured she could handle it. Also, our next baby will be born this summer and I wanted to make sure we weren't doing this anywhere near that time. So far so good. We have only thrown away one pair of panties and she hasn't had an accident in three days. :) Three nights ago she told me she didn't want to wear a diaper to bed and she has been dry the last three mornings. Am I the luckiest or what? I hear horror stories from my friends and I have to say I am so glad that we haven't had those problems. 

So, I am sorry to those of you who struggle with this whole thing (but maybe you don't have permanent marker on you new piano). I am going to have to remember to be thankful for this in my prayers. 

Snowmass, CO

Matt

Kate

Ben & Bridget

Jen, Tori, Garrett, Cami

Jason, Nick, Heidi

Grandpa & some of his Great Grandchildren

Tori, Nick, Garrett, Kate, Cami

Matt, Kate & Amber

Heidi, Jason, Amber, Jen, Ann, Grandpa, Bridget, Ruben, Kathy

Cards, our nightly ritual...which can sometimes get ugly

Grandma, Amber, Kathy, Grandpa, Chelsea, Jen

Grandma & Grandpa Miller

I've been lucky enough to be in a family that takes AWESOME vacations. Our yearly trip to Snowmass, CO is the highlight of our year. Our kids get to start coming on this trip when the are seven, so this is Kate's third year. And Parker will get to join us next year.  Waiting until they are seven builds the anticipation and makes them feel very lucky to be able to come. It was the same for me when I was seven. Here are some pictures from the week.

I Can Guarantee...

If Maggie is silent I can guarantee you that she has:

1) climbed up on the kitchen bar, gotten into the cupboard, unpackaged and eaten an entire pack of gum. (just this morning)

2) found a pen, pencil or crayon and colored on something she is not supposed to, i.e. the piano with permanent marker, the walls down the stairs with yellow highlighter, the cabinet with ball point pen, or herself with any of the writing instruments above.

3) climbed on the bathroom counter and unloaded the entire medicine cabinet. 

4) climbed on the top bunk (Kate's bed) and found Kate's stash of lip gloss. The evidence is left all over her body  and on Kate's bed.

5) reached into the top drawer of our bathroom (which she can't see into), found my mascara and gave herself two black eyes with it. 

I swear I watch her, but she is sneaky. And I have a hard time being mad about any of it. Her response to me catching her with the gum this morning was , "Just one piece Mom?" There were 10 pieces unwrapped.

HELP

This is not a news flash or anything, but I am not a computer genius.  And I have a HUGE problem.  We have an external hard drive that is dying. I'm kind of ticked since it is only six months old, regardless it is failing. And it has 5 years of pictures on it!!!! Which is about 10,000 pictures, of which I only have the year 2008 on my computer. Anyone know a genius who wants to help me? Since the starting rate to send this baby in for data recovery is $695.00 (and this was the cheapest I found, Apple referred me to a company that's starting rate was $1700.00), I thought I would try this route first. Connections anyone?

Sand, Dirt and Motorcycles

Last weekend we went to the Colorado river for a  short weekend trip. Obviously the water is cold, so we didn't spend anytime waterskiing, etc. But we had a great time in the dune buggy and the kids rode their four wheelers. The weather was perfect and Kate and Parker had a great time playing outside. Parker seemed to be in tears most of the time, so I don't have any great pictures of him on his four wheeler.

Thanks to Honey and Papa for a great weekend.

"More Yotion Mom"

Maggie loves lotion. She likes to spread it on her body, the dog, the carpet and anywhere else she can think of.  Today she brought me the baby lotion, which she especially loves, and said "Yotion please." I put a dab in her hand and off she went for thirty seconds. She soon returned and said, "More yotion, please Mom," as she was licking her fingers. I said, "Did you eat it." And she said "Yep!" in her cartoon voice. So we can now add eating to the list of things that Maggie likes to do with yotion.

We Tricked Em

Kate is getting to the age that she realizes what New Years Eve is and wants to stay up until midnight. Thus, Parker notices New Years Eve and wants to stay up as well. So this year I decided we would let them stay up...until 12:00 am EST. 

Throughout the day I changed the clocks, I figured they would notice if it went from 5:00 to 8:00 in an instant. At one point, when not all the clocks were on the same time yet, Kate was really confused and I thought she was going to figure it out. Especially when Parker checked his watch, which hadn't been changed at all. (We are big liars and told him that the battery must be going dead.) 

Grandma and Grandpa Teeples came over at about 9:00 pm EST with pizza and I put together our chocolate fountain for dessert. We had noise blowers and rocket streamers to blow off when the ball dropped at Times Square.  The kids thought it was great and we didn't have grumpy children the next day.