Potty Trained

Potty training has been on my mind for over a year now. I tried training William last summer before school started and I began my busy work schedule. He had exhibited those signs that everyone talks about regarding potty training readiness. He was over 2 years old too so I thought I'd read up on tactics, made a sticker chart, stocked up on juice, salty treats, candy, toys, and I even let him choose his underwear. We had many talks about his rewards and he had some success going on the potty. BUT he refused to make it a regular thing and then refused to sit on the toilet altogether. I pretty much gave up and we kept saying, "This is the last box of diapers we are buying!" but they certainly were not the last box.

Now let's fast forward to a month ago. We decided to buy a little potty instead of using that pesky child seat for the "big" toilet. By this time William abhorred that potty seat, so we knew we needed to try something different. We also bought this pterodactyl dinosaur as a final reward for potty training. It sat on our china hutch for a couple of weeks just mocking him. He wanted it so very bad.

I had planned once again to try to potty train William the moment school was out and I could give it my full attention. However, a couple of days before the last day of school Kaden told William it was time and set the seat next to my desk. I thought, why not give it a try? I still had a lot of work to do and I admit I wasn't planning on giving William my 100% attention. None of our prior tactics worked so I simply denied William the pleasure of watching dinosaur videos on my phone unless he complied with sitting on the potty. To my surprise, it worked! He had success right away and initiated sitting on the potty each time he felt the need to go. It has been about 2 weeks now and I am proud to say that my little 3-year-old is finally potty trained!! He even stays dry when we are out shopping and at church. He doesn't even mind sitting on that potty seat he disliked months ago. It was so easy this time and I didn't have to put much effort into it. We obviously have had a few accidents along the way, but they have been very few, luckily. I much rather clean up the rare mess than change a diaper.

Finally playing with his pterodactyl.

I'm a proud and happy mama and Kaden feels the same way.

We Bought a House!

What an adventure these last two months have been. The plan all along was to buy a house this year, but I wasn't anticipating buying one this soon. Kaden came home one day in February and said, "I am tired of commuting! We are going to start looking for a house now." He got the ball rolling and handled mostly all of the work involved in buying a house. Since I handle all of the finances, I was really nervous. I had planned to start looking after we paid our huge bill to the IRS (I have no idea how we owed this year), but things started to fall into place. We found a few houses we liked, but the market is not a buyers market right now. Things were literally under contract within a day of listing and there were tons of cash buyers. I wasn't in love with our house when I looked at the pictures online and Kaden didn't even want to see the house, but I said we might as well see it in person. As soon as we pulled up I got this overwhelming feeling that this was THE house. We went inside and I was super excited. Now a little over a month later we are moved in! What a blessing it has been to find something fairly quickly that doesn't require a ton of work and is perfect for us. I am loving all of the "luxuries" our apartment didn't have:

• enough hot water for us to take long showers back to back
• an air conditioner that actually cools the house down in a matter of minutes
• a washer and dryer inside
• a dishwasher
• ample walking room
• room for a dining room table
• more then one bathroom
• a fenced backyard

The list could go on and on, but these are def. my top favorites about the house.

 

The one thing that was a little different about this house was their choice of paint colors. Luckily not many of the rooms were painted by them, but the few areas that were are so not my taste. They seemed to be lazy about it too, they didn't even take off the outlet covers or bathroom hardware. Who does that? I mean, you buy a BRAND new house and you go ruin it by being lazy. It doesn't make sense to me. Okay, enough of my rant. Obviously one of my first projects in this house was painting. :) I forgot to take a before picture, so here is one from the original listing. ALL four walls in this little half bath are this very deep blue. Do you see those fish on the wall? They were held on with some adhesive, and ripped off the wall which took all of the paint with it. So I already had to repair and paint anyway. The task of painting all four of these walls back to a normal color seemed like a huge undertaking. So I decided I'd try stripes on the one wall that needed repairs in hopes that it would brighten things up a bit.

Before





After

I thought about doing stripes on more than one wall, but they were a lot of work and I'm too impatient. I'm hoping the other white decorations I add to this bathroom will help brighten it up. I don't hate the deep blue, but who wants to feel like they are in a dungeon (even if there is a window).

 

This is the only room that is pretty much finished for now. Stay tuned for more pictures.

William's ABC's

William has been singing the ABC's for a while now, but lately he has really been enjoying singing without being prompted. Although a part of me never wants William to grow up, it really just warms my heart to see him learning and growing. Now if only he was interested in learning to recognize the letters as much as he likes to sing them.

 

 

William got really silly looking at himself in the camera. He laughs everytime he watches this video AND even has it memorized to the point that he mimics the exact words and sounds he made.

 

Happy New Year

2011 wasn't the best year for us for many reasons. I was very nervous going into 2012 after such a hard 2011. We made several HUGE decisions and were very blessed this year.

January:

• Moved to Nevada (temporarily into Kaden's parent's home)
• Kaden started classes at Dixie
• Kaden went back to work at Allconnect

February:

• I was offered a full time teaching position for a virtual school.

March:

• I turned a quarter of a century.
• We finally moved all of our belongings out of our storage unit in Utah, and into our apartment. (It was crazy unpacking things we hadn't see in 2.5 years)
• We went to the beach in California

 

April:

• We went to Disneyland! It truly was the happiest place on Earth.
• William turned 2.

 

 




 
 

May:

•  William tested out his swimming skills with his new life jacket. He is quite the little fish

June:

•  Kaden graduated from Dixie State University with his Associates degree.
• I finished my first school year teaching and started enjoying the biggest perk of my profession-- summer break!

July:

• William and I traveled to Utah twice in July.
• William and I went to the Hogle Zoo and to the pool with cousins.
• William and I enjoyed the 24th of July parade as well as more cousin time.

August:

• We all traveled to Utah again for my mom's 50th birthday bash.
• I started my second year teaching for NVVA.

September:

• Football! We went to several football games and volleyball games with Kaden's parents.

October:

• Kaden made an occupation change. He was working in Utah still, and is now working in Las Vegas.
• William went fishing for the first time. (Pictures to come)

November:

• Thanksgiving with my side of the family. William loved being with cousins. Kaden loved all the food. I loved spending time with my family and helping Grandma make rolls.

December:

• Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.
• Christmas party with all of my brothers and sisters plus nieces and nephews. (Love my fam!)
• William had his first sleep over with cousins and no mama and daddy near by. Lets just say my parents didn't get much sleep. He wanted mama.
• We got to hold baby Hadley!!

2012 was very good to us and I'm hoping 2013 is even better! Whats next for us?

• Pay off my car
• Buy a house
• 5 year anniversary
• Potty training - My boy is stubborn, not sure where he gets it from ;)
• Thinking about a baby? - but probably not so don't hold your breath