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!"

Here We Go!

The potty training begins! Last night Sarah told me that "when the sun comes up again, I'll wear underwear!" So when the sun came up I took the little potty seat in her room, she sat down and went. I put underwear on her and that is the goal - to keep underwear on her all day, diapers at night, even with accidents we can make this work! Wish me luck!!!!!

First day of school!

first off we tried to give Daniel a mo-hawk, if you can see it, it looked pretty cute.



Megan started 2nd grade last thursday. She was pretty excited. She has done the whole school thing for 2 years now and knows what to expect but was most excited because her best friend from 1st grade is in her class and they get to sit by each other (at least until the seat change someday)


Joseph on the other hand was a little apprehensive and nervous and "embarrassed" he said. He did go to 2 years of preschool but full day kindergarten with 3 times the kids in his class is a little more than he was comfortable with. I knew it could go 2 ways, I would pick him up and he would LOVE it or he would say it was okay with not a lot of enthusiasm. Luckily it was the 1st of my thoughts and he loved it. He even made 3 new friends on the first day!





Megan at her locker. this is the first year she has had a real locker so this was pretty exciting. I couldn't take any pictures of Joseph at school, he did NOT want me too, to many kids and he was being a bit shy.

I was worried how Sarah would do with them gone all day since she has been so used to being with her wonderful brother and sister all summer long, but she has surprisingly done really well. We play lots of pretend games throughout the day and our trips to the stores keep us busy but she has been doing great. Now I need to start potty training!

and can I just say how much easier it is to go to the store with 2 kids than 4!!!!!!

Fair '09

We went to the famous Iowa State Fair on monday. It is fun to go but by the end of the day it almost feels like being tortured, being outside for so long and around sooooo many people, with so many different smells and such. I got a headache by the time we were done monday night and I still have it wednesday morning. But we did have fun and it was nice to spend a day out all together.

This is where Daniel spent most of his time.







Sarah went on her first amusement park ride, all by herself. Megan and Joseph were to big. She did pretty good but near the end she was saying she wanted down.

Having lunch on a park bench.

Enjoying ice cream. She wanted that SOOOO bad.

Megan opted out of having ice cream (to full from lunch still) but was sipping on my strawberry milkshake, yummy, and Joesph with a nice mustache

Like father like daughter. (He started it)

Sweet smiling Sarah

In the Animal Learning Center there were little chicks that were so adorable. We watched a few trying to hatch out of eggs, saw chicks waddling around a little "pond" in the picture, saw a video of goats and pigs being born, saw a "magic show", saw baby pigs and goats (the ones on the video being born), and got to smell the combo of all these animals under one roof!

and of course we had to do Little Hands on the Farm.



These are just sweet picture of Daniel smiling and being attentive to us. He is starting to be such a happy little baby, especially after he has been fed.

I wish his shirt said little guy, because that has become his affectionate name we all call him. The kids will say "where's little guy" or "I want to see little guy"

and our tired sleeping little guy!

(can anyone tell me how to add the updates on the blogs that I have listed, tells me when people update there own blog?)

Daniel's blessing day

This past sunday we blessed Daniel at church. We had my parents, my grandparent(who tagged along with my parents driving out here), Brent's parents and his aunt and uncle come for it. We were so excited to have everyone come and share in this special day, but I am kicking myself that I didn't get any pictures while they were all here with Daniel and the kids. ARRGGG (Grandma Higgins if you have pictures could you send me some?)

Anyway, Brent gave a wonderful blessing and all our prayers were answered that Daniel would not cry and whine during the blessing. He just sat there and looked around at them all apparently. Here are some pictures we did take of him after church in his outfit.
Megan's proud of herself that she can now hold him like this.



Sarah was NOT happy after church, but wanted me to take a picture of her crying.

I love his pouty face in this picture, he was Done taking pictures

Our not so little family anymore

Having family here this weekend wore the kids out. One night after my family left for back to their hotel all the kids fell asleep on the couch.

And last thursday I decided to organize our toys again, a very much needed project. Here is the MESS!!!


You can see the excitement on their faces. They were so excited and kept finding toys they had been looking for!

We lined up all the baskets and 3 (yes 3) Hours later, everything had a home. (some the garbage can or the sell pile for a garage sale next summer!)

and here is a happy picture of our terrible-2's daughter actually happy

2 months

Daniel is 2 months old and just had his 2 month check up. Crazy that he is already 2 months. Sarah was telling people he was 20, now she says he is 0.

He was 13lbs even (79%), 24.5 inches long (93%), and he sounded and looked healthy they said. Him being my 4th and him acting and growing much like the other 3 makes things a little easier on me. Daniel is such a delight and we enjoy trying to get him to smile and hopefully laugh soon. He gets pretty excited sometimes and lets out little noises that could almost be considered a laugh.

We had family home evening the other night on prayer so the kids made prayer rocks. They were pretty excited to decorate their rocks.

although you can't tell by Joseph's expression here

but Sarah's expressions shows how excited she was!

On a sad note, my brother and sister-in-law lost their twin boys this past week, Kyson Gary and Timothy Trevor. She was about 19 weeks,4 months. We are sad we won't be able to see them grow up in this earth life but are so grateful that we know of our Heavenly Father's plan of eternal families and that someday they can be reunited with them. My heart goes out to them and we wish we were closer to be more support for them but I know they are surrounded by those who love them and we love them too!