Piñata Time!

The kids made a dash for the candy as Aunt Kristi dumped it out of the piñata...well, MOST of the kids. Emma needed a little encouragement and help from Aunt Kristi.

Hudson's First Birthday

Hudson enjoyed his cake as well. He would have liked opening presents more if he wasn't so tired. Isn't he cute though?

Bella's 3rd Birthday

Look at her beautiful castle cake! Perfect for the little princess.

Silly Boy

John's being silly this morning.

Like Grandma

I got Emma dressed this morning, and she said, "mommy! I like Grandma."

I said, "how are you like Grandma?"

She pointed at her shirt. I guess Grandma's been wearing tanktops a lot lately. Lol

A New Phone

Yeah!!! I finally bought a new phone. I am so excited! Now I'm trying to figure out how to post to the blog on the go.

Here's the first picture I took on my iPhone. John was trying to save Emma from the hungry hippo at Jordan Creek Mall.

Deserving of a Post

Okay, okay, I realize it has been a VERY LONG time since my last post. And I have been harassed by a few people (ahem...mom, Alyssa, Arlys).  Well, this definitely deserves a post.  :)

Today at MOPS, we had a great speaker.  Geoff Safford is the pastor of Westwind Church in Waukee, and he spoke to our group last year too.  Anyway, one of the things he talked about was celebrating the little things from having a good day at school to working hard on a homework assignment to getting a job done, but especially potty-training.  Do you see where this is going?

Emma has been doing a GREAT job going potty.  She's been wearing panties since November/December (I think) when I decided we just needed to jump in with both feet.  She keeps her panties dry MOST of the time, although she tends to do better with this when I'm home than when Scott's here.  I think she's just testing him.  LOL

Going #2, on the other hand, has been more of a challenge to say the least.  I realize this is the case for most kids, but I struggle to get her to even sit on the potty for any length of time.  She's gone poop on the potty, quite often now actually, but it's never intentional and never initiated by her.  Usually, I know she's getting ready, so I put her on the potty and walk out of the bathroom to "get her something".  In other words, to leave her alone and make her sit there until I come back.  That's when she usually goes and then yells for me.

When she does tell us, it's ALWAYS because she's already gone in her panties.  We've now started taking away her princess dolls, hoping that would be her motivator.  Nope.

So when Emma wanted to watch Tangled yesterday, I told her she couldn't watch it until she'd gone poop on the potty.  After a short while, I put her on the potty where she did eventually go and got to watch her movie.

After MOPS today, Emma and I returned our books to the library, and while she picked out her princess and Barbie books, I found a Barbie movie for her.  I told her she could watch it after she went poop on the potty, so she decided she needed to go right then at the library.  But she didn't go.

When we got home, I was checking my e-mail in my room while Emma looked through the library books in the living room.  Typically this would be the time that she'd go in her pants because she's alone.  BUT NOT TODAY!!

She came running into our room and said, "I have go poo poo!" (Usually this means she has already gone.) 

Slightly disappointed, I said, "Did you go in your panties?"

"No, Mommy! My panties are clean!!  I go on potty!!"

And she did!!!!!  Let the celebrating (a.k.a. movie-watching) begin!!  I guess we've found Emma's great-motivation.  :)

Updated color

This post is nothing more than an updated on the background color from another post.  What do you think?  Is the darker color better?

The cupcake paper was designed by Summertime Designs.

My cousin, Alyssa, took our family pictures a few weeks ago, something that hasn't been done professionally since Emma was 6 months old.  If you want to see more of Alyssa's work, you can check out her website.

After all of this (and more)...

We were excited to get this...

Cute as a Cupcake

click to enlarge

Where have I been?

Are you wondering why I haven't posted lately?  It's because I've been busy with Summer Discovery Hour, VBS, camping, and simply having fun (or trying to have fun) with these smart kiddos.

The Mousers

As many of you know, my good friend, Shonda, and her family are going to be moving to California for a year.  Tom is going to be doing a fellowship in hospice care (the official name is some big medical word, which I will never remember, let alone know how to spell!) at Stanford University.  Although I will miss visiting with Shonda in person during that year (unless God blesses us with the ability for a visit!), I know that we will visit via phone often...thanks to Verizon!

I think one of the hardest parts for both of us is the fact that our boys will also be apart.  Oh brother, I'm going to start crying as I write this...grr!  Tommy and John are like brothers.  Sara and Emma get along great too (for the most part), but Tommy and John are best friends.  This year John will be starting kindergarten.  Shonda's going to work with Tommy on various skills throughout the year - like she does already, even if she doesn't realize it!  Then the next year Tommy will start kindergarten.  It saddens me to think that the boys won't be in the same grade, but Shonda and I both know that this is the best decision for both boys.  And if WE'RE fine with them being in different grades, THEY will be fine with it too.  Kids' attitudes often reflect their parents' attitudes, so we're keeping things positive.

Anyway, I wasn't going to go into all that, but oh well.  Now you know what's on my heart.  This whole post started with wanting to post a few pictures from yesterday when Tommy & Sara came to our house for lunch.  Enjoy!

ER Visit

Here are the pages from John's trip to the ER for stitches.  You may have to click on the pics to fully read the text.

John's Scrapbook

Getting Old?

On the way to church yesterday, John asked me some random question.  At the moment, I don't remember what the question was, but this was our conversation.

me: I don't know, John.

John: Why not?

me: Because I'm getting old.

John: You're not old, Mom.  Daddy's (pause) not old either.

me: Oh! Well, that's good to know.  Thanks, John.

John: But Grandpa is old!  Not Grandpa VM or Grandpa-Great though.

me: (trying to control my laughter) Why don't you think Grandpa VM or Grandpa Great are old?

John: Well, they don't have holes in their pants and shirts.

(If I hadn't been laughing so hard, I should have responded by saying that John must be old too since he keeps getting holes in his jeans.)