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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Its another long one...

What have I been up to? Wow - not much.
We are just getting settled, and trying to get into the groove in this new place. It feels so weird to not be involved in anything, or totally stressed out about random unimportant things. But, I guess in time I will have something to get me out of bed in the mornings. As for now, it is kindof nice to walk the kids to school and then jump back into bed and cuddle with my babe - who BTW is growing up WAY too quickly.

So, chronologically, from my last post...
Aaron got a hold of my camera, and took a few (several) pictures. He really makes me laugh. You could see the thought he put into quite a few of the shots he took. He took a picture of his shelf - holding his favorite things like his trophies, and autographed WT evidence. He took pictures of his Lego car all posed on the ramp he built. He really must be Joe's son. ;)

Then, on the 10th, we had a little birthday party for Joe. It was nice to have a shindig at our house. Cherry and kids, Dan and Family and the Brann family came over for the festivities. We ate Joe's family favorite from when he was growing up - beans on bread. Trust me, it was a HIT! ;) we also ate some ghetto style cake made by yours truly. Actually, when I asked the birthday boy what kind of cake and frosting he wanted, Joe told Charity to choose. So she became my little assistant and even helped me frost and decorate it. Poor Richelle just sat miserably on my lazyboy (she had a horse accident at the ranch over New Years) but, I think she still had fun! ;)

YUM!!! I didn't get home-made whole wheat bread made (like Joe's mom would have done) but he did get whole green chilies on top...


He turned 35 - which is 3 (4+1)
The best part of Joe's birthday was a song written by his brother Sam. Then, another song was written by his brother Jeff... and so on and so forth.

Starting that Wednesday, I decided to take advantage of my completely BLANK schedule and potty train my 2 1/2 yr old. I knew he was ready, in fact, he was ready several months ago, but because of the move, I just couldn't do it. He did AWESOME. By Friday, we never looked back. The kids didn't have school that day, so Charity (and a new little friend Morgan), Aaron (and our across the street buddy Johnny), Nate (in his new Thomas UNDERWARE) and I headed out to Amazing Jakes. We had so much fun. The kids just ran around and had a blast. Nate never had an accident, and I couldn't have been happier. The innagurial pottytraining excursion was a SUCCESS!

Saturday morning, we took the kids to their EARLY games, and then headed out to the ranch to enjoy the long weekend. Jeff and his family came, and we brought our friends the Walls and the Branns too! Joe's dad wasn't there, so it was just us all weekend. We learned a new game, and really just had fun out there. I didn't get a single picture. I was still just thrilled to have my baby potty trained. He didn't have a single accident... until the drive home. He kept telling us he needed to go potty on the grass (as he had done several times already throughout the 3+ hr drive). But Joe refused to stop. The little guy was kicking his legs and kept telling us he needed to go... but we were SO close to home. ALAS, he peed his carseat as we were a mile from our house. Oh well... that wasnt his fault.

Fast forward to today. After threatening for a whole day, Dallas FINALLY iced over - which meant NO SCHOOL!!! The kids bundled up, and headed straight outside to jump on the icy trampoline. Notice Nate's bloody lip - I can't imagine it being fun to jump with ICE (not to be confused with fluffy soft snow) but they have been outside for more than an hour, and are LOVING it. Now, our super cute neighbor Johnny has come over to join the fun. Ah Kids!

Notice the awesome homemade/knitted hats I made the kids last time we went skiing...



Dear Sam, these pictures are for you:
My house. in desperate need of your famous landscaping skills
Across the street and FYI, if you google maps it, you can push on a little button called STREET VIEW... kindof a nifty tool. You should try it sometime.

8 comments:

Kiera said...

It was good seeing for a little bit the other day! Congrats on potty training nate! That is awesome!

... said...

nate is such a stud! he is so cute! you guys should come up to utah...

Sarra said...

i didn't know sam had famous landscaping skills! and i think you need to come up here and potty train stephanie for me. seriously. i've tried bribes, going naked, wearing panties, ridiculous excitement with success.....how do you get your kids to care? how to WANT to do it?

Shane Meredith Mason and Kendall said...

those are really pretty houses!
cute kids :)
yes, we will stay in AZ, I dont know that I could move, even though I hate AZ! my family and Shanes is all here.
I work as an aesthetician and my own little salon, and at a Doctors office. then i also work for a adoption agency
As for your friend, yes, have her contact me and I can totally show her where to go!

Brent Alvord said...

I'll have to fly you out when the time comes to potty train Eva. I should find out how you "knew" he was ready - that's probably the most important part of the whole ordeal.

Jennifer said...

Oh my gorgeous! The front of your house is so beautiful! Love it! Love the ghetto cake and the snow trampoline jumpers! Way to go Nate! I'll be crossing my fingers that Max gets the hang of it soon. Love ya!

tara said...

I love your house Em. I don't think I'll be finding anything like that in Aberdeen, unless I build it myself (: It looks like the Village builder homes here. It will be cute in time, you always decorate so cute.

Summertime Designs said...

Your house is gorgeous!!! I am so jealous. And that is awesome that you potty trained your little guy so fast. Brock is just over 3 and we're just barely getting started (however, he did go #2 on the toilet today for the first time!) Love the ice trampoline and way to go making homemade beanies! I tried to learn last year at mutual, but I had to start over 4 times and got frustrated!!