{a twEntY dOllAr fix}

Yesterday, the kids got picked up by their Grandma & Grandpa who were taking them to lunch and a movie! That meant that Jeremiah and I had the house to ourselves, for about 4 hours to..............PAINT!!! When we moved into this house almost a year ago, we had no idea how long we would be here....we figured just one year! There are definitely some pluses to renting, but one of the HUGE negatives for me is having to deal with the "style" of the owner and NOT being able to change it! For us, this meant some paint colors in the kitchen and master bedroom that are not my favorite (I HATE YELLOW)!!! And also some really ugly red and white window valances. And some VERY VERY WHITE walls in most of the downstairs. To me, the only thing worse than yellow walls is WHITE walls!! I am not a fan at all! I love color. I love to paint. I love to have different rooms different colors. I love to use colors that are far from white. And I love to get creative and paint different walls different colors in the same room! I think my love for color and painting came when we bought our very first house just after we were married and we had an interior decorator come in and tell us what colors to use and what walls to paint which colors. It was a lot of fun and I loved the outcome!! I tried to copy some of those techniques in our house in Utah and was sad to be renting here. But since we decided that we would be here for at least one year, I couldn't take the white walls any longer and asked the landlord if we could paint! Yay!! I am so happy to have the white walls GONE forever!! This was a pretty mild paint job for us because we just used one color, but I love it! Our house looks so much more cozy and cute! Everything hanging on the walls looks so much better and all the furniture looks better!! Now if I could just get some extra money to buy a new rug to replace our little leopard one that I used for my preschool class in Utah!! I think we are tired of feeling like we live in the jungle! =)

The kids were so excited to go out in the rain! It had been pouring all morning and they couldn't wait to use their new umbrellas!! Well, as soon as it was time for them to leave, the sun came up....but they still used their umbrellas!!

Jeremiah getting crazy...standing on the banister to paint the tall walls! I thought he was going to fall and break his neck!! He didn't break his neck, but he did fall a couple times!

When the kids came back home, Ayden was loving sitting on the ladder (with his buddies, Alvin, Simon and Theodore) watching us finish our work!

Ayden and Daddy taking a break! I'm so glad we had the kids out of the house for most of the day because painting with kids around is no fun!!

The finished product (except for the 2nd window valance I need to get and put on the right side)....

It's amazing what a $20 can of paint and a couple hours of work can do for a room!! =)

{on TOP of SPAGHETTI}

I think it's safe to say that my kid's favorite food is for sure SPAGHETTI and MEATBALLS!! That was evident tonight when we had a dinner that wasn't spent putting kids in time out for fighting with each other, for throwing food, for dumping their food out, or for throwing a tantrum!! We had a very pleasant dinner....we almost couldn't even get a prayer in first before the kids were literally DIVING into their bowls! And yes, I know they aren't dressed, but I think you can see why we strip them down for spaghetti dinner and carry them straight to the bath afterwards!! And they also don't think that utensils are useful with spaghetti....they would rather use their hands and slurp the noodles up. I know one of these days, we will need to teach some manners to these monkeys, but for now we just laugh and enjoy a peaceful meal as the only screaming we heard was "MORE MEATBALLS PLEASE"!!!!

{sMitH fAmiLy PicTurEs}

At the end of December, we were able to take a family picture of the Smith side of the family. They turned out really cute and now I am excited to get some family pics of my side of the family because I love having updated family pictures hanging on my walls! It's to bad that if a stranger came into our house, they would have no idea that Zoe even existed!! All of my picture frames hanging on the walls and in frames throughout the house are of our family "pre-Zoe"! Poor girl!! I really need to get some prints done....especially since we get professional pictures taken ALL THE TIME!!! =)

The whole gang.....it's amazing that everyone is looking at the camera AND has their eyes open!!

The kids with Grandma and Grandpa Smith....

All the siblings and their spouses....

Cute Zoe....I love this smile!! =)



My favorite pictures are candid shots and I love that these show just exactly why a photographer needs to take about 200 pictures of our family just to get ONE good one!! The kids are ALWAYS on the run and it's almost impossible to get them to sit still....especially at the same time!



Pulling us in completely OPPOSITE directions....



All of that...just to get one halfway decent photo of our family!!



And a couple of just the two of these....I love these lately! I love family pics too, but it's nice to get some of just the two of us!!

{a liTTle crAck}

Last night, we went to Golden Spoon for family night, some tasty frozen yogurt and a little bit of crack! Poor little Zoe just couldn't keep her pants up! Now that she doesn't have a bulky diaper to hold her pants up, we have been seeing a lot of little crack! Guess she is just going to take after her Daddy!!

{a lOvE hAtE RelAtioNsHip}

Blah.....potty training!! Blah, blah, blah!!! That is pretty much how I feel right now!!

I have always heard friends say that potty training is the most awful thing about parenting....the thing we all dread, but have to go through. I never understood this....Ayden was the most simple child to potty train! He was relatively young (a couple months after he turned 2) and was easy. He was trained after 3 days and loved the idea of being a big boy and going potty in the big boy potty!

Zoe.....is driving me NUTS!! I am starting to see what all my friends have been talking about!! Right now I have a love hate relationship with potty training. Potty Training, I LOVE you because you are going to save me about $60 a month on diapers and you are going to save me from having to wipe big kid poop from a little tooshie that is smashed in a stinky diaper! Potty Training, I HATE you because you don't happen EXACTLY how I want you to happen and you are taking WAY too long for my taste!!

In a nutshell, Zoe is doing very well....in the sense that she has not worn a diaper for 9 days (except for bedtime & naptime) and that she IS capable of going in the potty and has had VERY FEW accidents! She is not doing very well in the sense that she does NOT tell us when she has to go and she is VERY particular about when she sits down on the potty!! I realized over the weekend that I needed to stop asking her 100 times a day if she needed to go potty. She was sick of it. She didn't want to hear it. She didn't want me to sit her on the potty. She didn't want to talk about it. She was ready to give up. I was ready to give up.

And then it dawned on me to try a new technique. We were sitting in the family room on Sunday night....Ayden ran to the bathroom to go potty! When he came back, we started having a potty party for Ayden....cheering him on, high fiving him and I ran to get him an M&M. He thought this was great....he loved the attention! And SO DID SHE!! Zoe, being the "I want to do and want to have EVERYTHING that big brother has", wanted an M&M too!! "Oh Zoe, Ayden got an M&M because he went potty", we told her!! And sure enough, she ran to her potty and said, "I go potty TOO!!!!" Of course you will, Miss Copycat!! And guess what??? She can now go ON DEMAND.....whenever Ayden goes and we praise him!! Poor Ayden is being treated like a baby again when I say to him, "Ayden, make sure you tell Mommy when you have to go potty" or " Ayden, time to go potty!" Poor kid plays right along with it since he knows that he is being a big helper with Zoe! He runs into the bathroom and comes out with his mouth open, waiting for the green M&M's!! And then, little Miss Zoe Grace follows him. She has done this for 2 days now and is doing great! But she STILL will NOT tell us when she has to go!! Ugh!! Potty training, I hate you....and I am sure I will for a few more weeks!! And then I will LOVE you again and will be happy to have a diaper free house because we have been changing diapers here for almost 4 years!!

Anyway, I just wanted to write all this down so I can remember it in case there are every any other Smith kids in this household! It's amazing how quickly we forget things like this that are not written down! I realized that when Jeremiah reminded me (as I was ranting and raving about what a GREAT potty trainer Ayden was) that Ayden had LOTS of accidents, which included him peeing on our carpets, our TV, our entertainment centers, our bed!! Oh.....I guess I forgot all of that!! So maybe Zoe isn't doing all that bad after all!! Regardless, potty training, please please hurry up and let's get this finished!!

{OUr BiG bEAr OvErnightEr}

Last week, the kids and I went up to our cabin in Big Bear for an over-nighter with my mom, my sister in law, Cara, and her boys. It was a fun little getaway for us girls, but we all agreed and thought over and over...."what were we thinking coming here with no men"!!! There was a TON of snow....at least a couple feet that we had to walk through to get to and from the front door!

The kids had a blast playing in the snow, sledding, making snowmen, throwing snowballs at each other.....for about 20 minutes at a time and then would have to run into the cabin to warm up!

A trip to Big Bear wouldn't be complete without having dinner at our FAVORITE and the BESTEST pizza place in Cali, Paoli's!!

We were snowed OUT of the little cabin (where me, Jeremiah and the kids normally sleep).....

....so we were all confined to sleeping in the main cabin.....2 Mommy's, a Grammy, and 5 kids.....in two bedrooms! It was nice and cozy!!

Ayden loves it when he gets around his cousins! He has been begging us to see them lately! So he had a blast!!

But he stayed up WAY TOO LATE and then when we went to breakfast the next morning, he fell asleep in his chair!!



Zoe and Crew hanging out, reading a book together....



Crew got to go out and play in the snow, but Zoe's mean Mommy kept her inside....close to the potty!! She didn't mind though....typical girl, just wanted to stay inside, keep warm and watch all the boys out the window!

{whErE's wAldO?}

Are my kids the only ones that do this at Old Navy?? I swear as soon as we walk in the door, they run to the mannequin display and get into character!! They love to stand next to the mannequins, strike a pose, hold their hands, ride on the dog's back!! It cracks me up every time. I am sure the Old Navy employees curse me when I leave....they probably aren't happy about me letting my kids climb all over their displays!

{pOttY trAiniNg dAy tWo}

I can't believe that we survived day one yesterday....and now I really can't believe that there was a day 2 to Zoe's potty training!! I am quite amazed! I always thought she would be an easy potty trainer since she has an older brother and wants to copy EVERYTHING he does, but I never thought she would be potty trained at 22 months!! Oh, funny story about her copying everything Ayden does......today, she she said she had to go potty and so she pulled down her undies and walked up to her little potty. Instead of turning around and SITTING on it, she faced it, stayed standing, leaned in a little bit and said, "pssssssst"!! Luckily she didn't really go! I started cracking up and then she knew she was funny and kept doing it! I had to explain to her that girls don't go potty like that, only boys!! Poor thing....just wanted to copy her brother!!

She did so great again today though! I had to (or GOT to) go to work today (if there is ever a good time to have to go to work, it is during potty training week)!! =) So my mom was the lucky one on potty training duty today and Zoe did so great!! No diapers all day and she only had 1 tiny, tiny accident tonight when I stepped into the kitchen for 5 minutes to finsh dinner. She told me she had to go, but she couldn't get her shoes off fast enough (for some reason, she had to take her shoes off to go)! She is doing so great though and today was even going to sit on the potty all by herself when she had to go!! And she even had to go out of the house today 3 times and wore undies in the car and stayed dry! I am so excited!! We aren't trying to do naps and nighttime diaperless, but I am fine with that for now!! If we can just get the day thing down, then I will be happy!

Good job Zoe!! We're so proud of you!! Here is to another great day tomorrow!! =)

{oNe dAy dOwN}

This morning when I woke up, I decided to not put a diaper on Zoe and bring her little potty downstairs to see what happened! And so it started....at 8 am! I followed that little girl and her naked tooshie all day long!! I remember thinking at 9:30 am that if we could just make it to 11 am without a diaper, that it would have been a successful day! I'm so excited to say that we made it ALL day without a diaper!! Poor Ayden has been sick with a fever and sore throat, but it actually worked out good today since we just sat around waiting for Zoe to go potty!!

She did SO good!! And I discovered that the magic trick with her is PINK M&M's!! It works like a charm! She didn't wear a diaper all day long and by the end of the day, she was doing so much better and telling me on her own that she had to go potty!

It was a long day, an exhausting day, but a VERY rewarding day! It was the most unproductive and the most productive day at the same time! Yes, I do realize it is ONE day only, but I never thought we would have even made it even one day at her age...she seems so young to me!

And what is it about a diaper-less bum that is so cute!?!?!!? I love it! And I hope that tomorrow is an even better day!! Is it possible that diapers are a thing of the past in this household?? Wow! That would be AMAZING!!!

{hAppY vAlEntinE's dAy}

Happy Valentine's Day!!



This picture makes it look like these 2 love to hug each other, but Ayden was really choking her to death and she was screaming bloody murder!!



We had a really fun family day today, even though Zoe didn't get a nap and Ayden has been sick! We went to church and then had to get outside to enjoy the gorgeous 80 degree weather today, so we took a walk to the park. We weren't there for long though because Ayden just wanted to go home and lay down...poor guy! When we got home, we made breakfast for dinner....heart shaped blueberry pancakes with whipped cream, heart shaped eggs, bacon, hash browns and orange juice!! Zoe had a lot of fun helping with dinner.....mostly just with the whipped cream.....she learned this trick from her Auntie Cara!! =)





Mmmmm....it was tasty!! Breakfast for dinner is our favorite! And it was so fun making heart shaped eggs and pancakes!

{biG giRl pOttY...fOr dOrA}

Yesterday, Zoe told us that she had to go poopy so Jeremiah told her to go on the big girl potty! We took off her diaper and we waited and waited.....Jeremiah, Ayden and I sat around her cheering her on....we told her if she even went pee pee in the toilet that we would go to Target and she could pick out a new princess. She was excited, but not excited enough.....or we weren't patient enough....nothing happened!!!

She took a nap, we went to Target for something else and she found a Dora phone that she wanted really bad! But we told her she had to find a toy for $2 and we took the $10 phone away. She literally laid down on the Target floor.....screamed......squirmed and wiggled......cried.....and therew a major tantrum! As we were walking out of the store and Zoe was still crying about the Dora phone, Jeremiah told her that if she went potty, she could get the Dora phone.

Fast forward to last night....Zoe and I were upstairs while Jeremiah and Ayden were watching a movie. Zoe told me she wanted to go on the potty so she could get her Dora phone. The diaper came off.....I gave her a big cup of water with a straw......we read 5 books.....we played doctor with her doctor set.....she loved to give me shots and then medicine to fix it......we sat.....and sat.....and sat!!!



I was running out of things to do to keep her there, so I gave in and got her binky to keep her sitting there! If I asked her if she had to go potty, she would get mad at me and want to stand up, so I had to try to get her to go in other ways! I told her to toot....thinking that would make her push!! =) She tooted about 25 times last night!! And she laughed every time! She was proud of her toots!! But FINALLY, after 53 (yes FIFTY THREE) minutes, she DID IT!!! She went potty for the first time in her big girl potty!! It scared her at first I think because she stopped in the middle and stood up, looking scared like she had done something wrong! I started jumping up and down and yelling for Daddy and Ayden to come upstairs and we had a big, huge, potty party! It was almost 7:30 pm, past her bedtime, but she wanted to go to Target right then and get her Dora phone. We had to tell her that Target was closed and that we would go tomorrow (oops......we meant Monday)!! =)

She was so happy and proud of herself.....(I sware that I do this girl's hair every day, but it only lasts for about 20 minutes.....and ends up a little fro)!!!

Hopefully she will remember how to do it and be able to go again....even if we do wait til she is closer to two!! I know it's probably still too early to potty train, but I just can't wait!! =)

{prEschOOl vAlenTinEs pArtY}}

This is the plate that was awaiting the 12 preschoolers in Ayden's class when they came in from recess on Thursday for their Valentine's Party! If you ask me, it looks like a tasty plate of hyperactivity!!! No wonder they do these parties at the very end of the day so they can send all the hyper kids home to their parents!! Yay for SUGAR!!!

Ayden really enjoyed his tasty plate....

And Zoe enjoyed some too!! When she sits down in these little chairs at Ayden's school, she always looks like such a BIG girl to me!! She looks like a little 4 year old girl here!

{wE hAvE a 40 InchEr}

On Monday we were able to go to Disneyland for the first time since before Christmas! It was fun to be back and I have decided that February is my favorite month to go to Disneyland.....no lines, no heat, no crowds!! It was perfect!

We were able to meet Ayden's birthmom, Crystal, there and her friend, Tabitha.

We had a lot of fun and Ayden actually got to go on some BIG kid rides!! When Crystal and Tabitha wanted to take Ayden into Star Wars, we found out that he IS actually big enough to go on the rides that have a height requirement! Yep....he has officially passed the 40 inches mark! Maybe he passed it a while ago, but when I take the kids by myself, we don't even try to go on the big kid rides because of Zoe!

Here's Ayden waiting to go on Big Thunder Mountain....

Ayden's favorite by far was Big Thunder Mountain!! Here is a picture that you can barely see, but he is in the front row in between Crystal and Tabitha!

Zoe didn't mind at all that she couldn't go on the big kid rides! She enjoyed people watching and posing for pictures for Mommy!!

After a few hours at Disneyland, we met up with Jeremiah after work for dinner! It was a fun day!