Oh The Joys of POTTY TRAINING!

"I DO IT.. I DO IT! ... I DO IT!" Halie's favorite thing to say latley... Fine... try to put your underwear on by yourself:)


She is a very determined little girlSo happy about getting a Nem..(mnm's) She is easy to bribe!
Proud that she got her "unda-mare" on all by herself!

(P.S. Her stitches are out.. it is looking...well better I guess ... but she wants a "barbie bandaid" on all the time! I think she is scared of her cut.... she doesn't want to see it!)


Potty Training

Day 1- No success...(due to the fact I forgot I was potty training her and never put her on the toilet.... bad mother I know... ) I wanted to quit after her first accident

"Do I really have to do this... YUCK"

Day 2- Starting to figure it out... Hmmmm... You sit them on the toilet and they might begin to understand the whole concept! (I know I am bright!)

Day 3- Doing Good... "NEMS" MNMs' are working like a charm... A little bribing always works!
Day 4- Really GOOD...Stayed dry while we went to the library, and a few stores! YEAH! I think that is like a record on day 4! (I think I can do this!... Oh...and I think Halie can too!)

So now that she has gotten the hang of it... I haven't made as big of a deal when she wets on the toilet... so earlier today she went to the bathroom.. I told her to wipe... and went to take her off the toilet and she said... "Mom-hip hooray... clap mommy clap" She is so funny! We have made the biggest deal when she goes to the bathroom.... me and Micah shout "hip-hip-hooray...hip-hip-hooray" and apparently we will be doing it for a while:)

Great Christmas... Not So Great Sunday Morning!

Poor little Halie... this morning she was in taking a bath with her brother when all the sudden I heard Micah say "Dad, Halie is bleeding"... Jeff walks in to find Halie's face covered in blood, and then I heard him say oh.... and then I went running! What a scary feeling to see your daughters face denched in blood! It was definetly bad... worse than any other accident my children have had... so we hurried... got her in some jammies... put a bandaid on and a towel to hold in the bleeding and off I went with Halie to the hospital.. towel on my head wearing who knows what! I know we looked nuts! I get to insta care after honking my way through a few red lights... run in, and then they send me over to the emergency room... where I left my car on (some random stranger parked it for me) ... by then the bleeding had slowed down... I began to calm down... they took us back looked at it and said she defineltly needed stitches... soon Jeff and Micah arrived.. thank goodness and Jeff stayed in the room while they gave Halie 8 shots to numb around her eye and then 9 stitches to close up the cut! It was not fun!... She is doing fine now... just wants to play with her "dollies"... She gets the stitches out in a week.... and don't worry Micah and Jeff are at church... Micah did not want to miss his "last week of Sunbeams!" He was so worried about missing church I don't think he even realized what happened to Halie!

So we did have a great Christmas which I need to post about but everyone wants to see Halie's poor stitches... so here are the pics and I will post about our Great Christmas later! :)

I wish had a picture of Micah's lovely outfit that Jeff put him in to come to the hospital.. a pair of warm and cozies {zip up pajamas} and brown church shoes! I swear I was living my worst nightmare... I was in pants with a hoody with no bra.. with a towel on my head... and Jeff shows up with Micah looking like that... are you kidding me... can someone pinch me!

Christmas 2008!

What a fun Christmas we had this year... Our first year not traveling! Jeffs parents came down for the week and it was so much fun! We just bounced back and forth between their house and ours and ate so much yummy food... played games... and visited.
It was fun to be here... relax and enjoy our little family.

Christmas Eve Dinner! Yummy! Rhea went all out!

The food was DEEEE-LICIOUS!


The first doll of the season (opened on Christmas Eve)... from a family friend!
Halie was so cute...
"A BABY DOLLY A BABY DOLLY!!!"
She got us all excited for Christmas Morning :)

Our Letter from Santa... Cookies.. Milk.. (Santa must have been hungry! When I was little we were told Santa liked diet mountain dew.... next year we are leaving "him" diet coke!)
and of course carrots for the reindeer!

Christmas morning was so fun... "Jim Grandpa and Rhea Grandma" came over to watch us open our gifts... We opened... and then enjoyed a yummy breakfast
and then off to their house for Round 2....

(^Please don't look to close at our worse than Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!... )

The tree "accidently" fell over Christmas Day... so we had to take it down! Shucks!

The best part about Christmas is the look on the kids faces when they opened their presents! Halie was thrilled with all the dolls she got!... Each time she opened one she would say "ANODA (another) DOLLY ANODA DOLLY".... Until we took it out of the package! It was so cute! Micah was so excited about the play house with the dishes and bowls and spoons and forks (This is what he would say when he told you what he wanted for Christmas)... but he complained that it didn't have any bedrooms (what was this child expecting??) ... This is what they got :)

Unfortunetly it snowed/rained on Christmas Eve... but we were glad that Santa was still able to deliver the playhouse... He was smart and delivered it to the garage instead of the backyard!

Besides the gifts.... it was so nice to be able to take a few days off from life and enjoy being with family... staying in pajamas all day... relaxing... visiting... and reminising!

Christmas is such a magical time of year... when I think of my childhood I can remember our Christmas's were so specail and fun!
I really cherish each one I get to spend with people I love!

This was ther little Christmas outfits for church! :)

A MUST HAVE TRADITION!

Okay... This is the CuTeSt... most cLeAvEr idea and now our NEW FAMILY TRADTION! "Rhea Grandma and Jim Grandpa" (as my kids call them) brought this to the kids this weekend! And so far it has worked like a charm!

It's Called: THE ELF on the SHELF

So it comes in this cute little box... in the box is the elf sitting on a shelf (cute)... and a book that explains all the rules about the elf (Like he can't talk to us... but you can talk to him... and you can't touch him or the magic will go away!) So... basically you take this elf out of the box, put him on a shelf and he is Santa's eyes. He sees everything you do, and then the cute part is.... EVERY NIGHT HE "FLIES" HOME TO THE NORTH POLE AND REPORTS TO SANTA... then "flies back to your house and finds a new place to sit! Then in the morning when the kids wake up they have to see where the Elf has moved...

We have only had "Elfy" (name chosen by Micah) for one night, but it has already worked like a charm! The first thing Micah did when he woke up is yell for Elfy and began searching for him. Elfy was up on our planter shelf this morning... and Micah shouted to me.... "MOM HE IS MAGIC!!!!.... HE CAN FLY!!!" It was the sweetest little thing! I wonder where he will be in the morning??... (Maybe hanging in the tree?!?)

The best part about it is whenever the kids are acting up... we say oh no... ELFY is watching... and it seems to help!

I am so excited about this new tradition! Thanks Jim and Rhea!

P.S. Elfy goes home with Santa on Christmas Eve and then reappears sometime next year!

IMPORTANT WARNING!

If your children are anything like mine... keep reading:

So... why is it that EVERYTIME you think to yourself,

"geeze my kids are being sooo GOOD...

in their playroom...

playing so nicely together...

not making to much noise...

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

not making any nooooooiiiiiiisssssssssssssssssssssssssse....

MICAH... HALIE?.....................WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

And then you find it... some disaster that has happened and they are quietly trying to fix it themselves!

Well this happens often at our house... Today it was macaroni and cheese spilt all over the carpet ...and Micah had "cleaned it up all by himself!".... LOVELY!?!

Another time it was ELMERS GLUE (YES GLUE!) ALL OVER MY WALLS!... "we were just trying to hang these pretty pictures on the wall mom... don't you like them?!"... NOT GLUED TO MY WALLS!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! and some other choice phrases.... like GET TO YOUR ROOM NOW! and... I AM THROWING ALL YOUR TOYS AWAY! and.... WAIT TILL YOUR DAD GETS HOME! (like he is worse than me)

WELL CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!... if your kids are anything like mine... and they are in their playroom together right now... being ohhhh soooo nice a quiet... GO STOP THEM! :)

LeT's bE fEsTiVe!

... So I don't know why I was having a hard time getting into the Christmas Spirit this year! It might be the fact that we got our tree a week late... and that our tree took 4 hours to find... and even longer to decorate and get to stand by itself. Who knows... maybe its because we missed the Jubilee of trees this year because I was in California... or maybe because when I go to the stores, look online or in catalogs there is nothing I really want to get my kids... I don't know but I just couldn't seem to get it together and get festive!

So anyways here was our attempt at becoming festive... and IT WORKED! Our neighbor Nancy got the kids a gingerbread house for Christmas.... so we decided to make a night of it! I cooked some yummy broccoli cheese soup.... we listened to Christmas Music and decorated our Ginger Bread house! It actually turned out better than I thought it would! Thanks to Ashley's work on the trees it made the whole house look better!

Micah did such a nice job at decorating one of the trees... don't you think?? (this project was way beyond my patience level... so I had to try to just have fun and let the kids do as they pleased!)

Notice in every picture Halie is undecorating the house... she didn't understand why we were putting candy on a house we couldn't eat ... She had enough candy that night to last her the whole season!Notice Ashley sneaking a lick of the frosting! We laughed all night at this picture! Great job capturing that moment Jeff!

Notice Halie sneaking more candy!

AND... FINALLY OUR GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!... Yeah... we are OFFICIALLY FESTIVE :)

Thanksgiving! (I know... I know it's almost Christmas!)

Halie... Helping Grandpa get the tarp ready to head up to the cabin!

Alot happened between this picture and making it to the cabin...

read about it on Megan and Mike's blog:

http://meganandmikejohnson.blogspot.com/
I didn't take pictures till' we made it there!

(LONG STORY!)

Yeah... the swings... and new ones too! Micah and Halie's favorite part of the cabin!

Our little Winter Wonderland ... (Let's not mention that my dad's truck wouldn't switch into 4 wheel drive... we had to turn around twice... we finally got to the cabin and left the keys in the Titan down the mountain... and then once we found hidden keys and got inside there was an electricity outage in the whole town for 3 hours)...

Who needs electricity to have fun though right?

Good thing my dad's video camera runs on batteries!...

Wouldn't want to miss a bit of the fun!

Here are my cute festive parents!... and finally... electricity and... on to our Thanksgiving Dinner... just in the nick of time!

Thanksgiving Dinner was delicious and right after we got ready for our early "Christmas Eve!"... and yes our Christmas Pajamas!

Oh... the stockings full of toys...

just what they needed... more toys...

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Micah loved every gift!

Halie mostly enjoyed ripping open the presents...

she has come a long way since her bday!

Oh her cute little feet!

The NEWEST MEMBER OF THE FAMILY! no it's not ours...

although this little dog makes me want to have a dog!

Lucee is Micah and Whitney's new dog!

Picture... Courtesy of Mike (missing in the photo)

Thanks Mike! :) (is Matt really in basketball shorts)

What a fun Thanksgiving/Christmas/Adventure!