11 year happenings

Brent and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary saturday! We got a babysitter (thanks Kate and Chloe!) and we went to dinner with no kids. I believe this is the first time we have ever paid a babysitter to come watch our kids, and 4 kids at that! It was nice to have time to ourselves and it was a delicious dinner at Biaggi's....yum. We don't go out to restaurants very often so when we do it is a treat and always tastes good. (partly because I don't have to cook it!)

• Since we have been married:
• We had 3 wonderful fun years before we started having kids
• had 4 wonderful beautiful kids
• had 2 cats and got 2 more (although we could do without the 2 more!)
• been on some fun vacations
• had Many Many church callings, ward missionaries, ward mission leader, eq president, executive secretary, hight council man (current), enrichment committee, enrichment leader, nursery, RS counselor, primary secretary, primary 1st counselor, primary president (current)
• bought a new home together
• bought a few cars together
• have had wonderful Holidays
• established a fun wonderful life together and are looking for many many more to come!

Happening of late:
We bought Halloween costumes this past weekend. I have found that buying or making Halloween costumes a month in advance works best than trying to find costumes a couple weeks before. Megan is going to be a black cat, Joseph an alien (which Sarah is terrified of), Sarah is going to be a Carebear, and Daniel a cow! I can't wait to see them all dressed up together!

Daniel started rolling over the last few days, he can now roll over from his back to his tummy and his tummy to his back. He has some strong legs on him and we won't be surprised if he learns how to crawl at 6 months and walk at 10 months like Megan and Joseph did. He is so adorable!

Sarah's potty training is going so well. She does not like to go potty in a diaper now and hopefully soon she will start going #2 in the potty seat. time....it just takes time. We are so proud of her!

We got our new dishwasher this last week also and I love it! it is so quiet! compared to our other one you had to raise your voice to be heard above it and this one it sounds like a little trickle of water. I also just purchased a new camcorder online that should be here this week! So exciting to get new gadgets!

Megan will be baptized on her birthday Oct. 10th! We are so excited about this and so is she. I can't believe it sometimes.

Life moves so quickly with so many things that go on, but it is all fun to be a part of and I feel so blessed.

Joseph made spaceships out of blocks


These pictures might need some explaining. Megan and Josephs school was renovated this past year and part of the renovation the school wanted to do a fun mural on one of the front halls, so I agreed to be one of the head chairs for the committee to put it together.
We started with nothting, came up with some sort of idea, found a parent from the school who put the design together, found companies that could help, one company donated all the colored tiles! Then during a week at the end of last years school year, the kids were able to place the tiles to make the design.
Then just a couple weeks before school many people got together and put the mural up. The black and white tiles around the mural we called donar tiles, those are tiles that funded the wall, people could buy a tile and have something printed on it and they make up the border. It was a very fun thing to see go from nothing to this. All the pictures on the mural have to do with the school and surrounding neighbrhood and the kids who go there were able to put it together!

We recently went to a cousins wedding and these are pictures from that weekend

Potty Training 101

Potty training is going GREAT with Sarah! She has picked up on it so quickly. I think it does help that she is the 3rd child I have potty trained but mostly because she is one Smart little stinker! These are a few things that have helped me with potty training (pt) my 3 kids:

• first off start talking about pt with your child for WEEKS leading up to it. every time you change a diaper talk about when they are going to wear underwear and start going in the potty seat. Buy pseat way in advance
• liken it to everyone else. Mom, Dad, brother, sister, friends, cousins we all use one
• Visual -I don't know about everyone else and how they feel about it, but Sarah Loves going into the bathroom with me or her siblings. So she sees what is going on.
• Don't fret about pt at night until they are pt during the day
• with Joseph I told him every night for a month before he turned 3 that 3year olds don't wear diapers at night so the night of his 3rd bday that was it, I think we had maybe 2-3 accidents but that was it. pick a deadline and prepare them for it, after a vacay, a bday, a special event and go with it.
• I think the perfect age is between 2 1/2-3
• sometimes you need to take a break for a couple hours during the day. Not all day though. Sarah has problems going #2 since she was about 1, and she like most kids pt are scared to go #2. this is a great time to give them a break every now and then, encourage going in the pseat but also don't push it to much. I found with Megan she was going #1 all the time but when it came to #2 she would go and hide and most kids have a certain time of day that they are regular with 2, so with Meg I put a potty seat in her closet (that's where she always hid to go) so I showed her what to do and she started doing it all by herself, in her closet. Once she was comfortable with that I moved it into the bathroom and told her she could just go hide in there and go. Still working on this with Sarah but we will get there. Hiding helps I think though.
• that brings me to the next point, have multiple pseats, one in the family room, bathrooms, where ever needed.
• sometimes the BIG toilet can be intimidating, I recommend starting with a little one then going to one that you can take on and off the big one, then when they are comfortable enough just using the BIG one by itself.
• sorry pull-ups but you are of no use to me when pt. I have found that you hinder rather than help so I go straight with underwear to wear all day long and a diaper at night, May sound a bit crazy but I even keep them in underwear when running errands and nap times. We have had accidents but a change of clothes and a little encouragement to tell you next time helps. I have bought a pkg of pull-ups and I think we have used 1 this week in the pt process on the 1st day so she wouldn't have an accident while I was upstairs getting ready for the day, but she pulled it down and went like she was supposed to, so with Sarah I am not using them. Maybe for traveling this weekend but they can be soooo expensive compared to diapers.
• I know it seems like a pain but at first take them to the bathroom every 30-60 minutes the first few days and make "do you need to go potty" your everyother sentence.
• reward and treats. Stickers are great, she gets one for going 1 and 2 for going#2. Also a treat every now and then helps. a sucker, ice cream for breakfast :), a hershey kiss and LOTS and lots of hugs, kisses, smiles and words of praise and excitement from everyone, even siblings! Sarah gets a new dvd once she is going 1 and 2 all the time and is trying pretty hard to earn it
• try to stay close to home or make outings short the first week and just let them wear a shirt and undies
• let them take charge. Sarah loves doing it herself, being independent is so rewarding for a 2 year old.
• every kid is different, find what works for yours and run with it
• i know it can ba discouraging but keep with it, diligence and consistency are everything!

I am no Michelle Duggar who has pt a dozen kids, but I like to think I have experience and when my 3 kids have all been pt in 2 weeks I think I am doing something right. I hope some of this helps others if not it will be helping me in about 2 years for Daniel!

These are just some fin pics of the kids we took last night.

Can we say "I am growing!"