{PoTTy TraIninG}

I know most moms dread potty training!  I actually have loved it!  I hope I don't jinx myself right now, but luckily I have had a really easy time with both Ayden and Zoey!  They were both potty trained pretty early....Zoey at about 22 months and Ayden at 2 yrs 3 months!  I am hoping that Maddix will fall somewhere in the middle!!  :)  He has done everything else completely different, so I am hoping he isn't the kid that waits til 4 to potty train!!

When we were at Target yesterday, I bought this potty chair!  HAHA!  I kind of laughed at myself because he isn't even 17 months yet!  And I don't remember having Ayden and Zoey use the potty chair this early....even if just to get used to it!  By the time we got the potty chair out for them, potty training was in full swing!

He was super excited about it, but at first he just wanted to step in it cuz he didn't know what the heck it was!

And when I finally helped him sit, I couldn't believe how cute he looked.....

And how big.....

He looks ready to me!!!  :)  And I think having 2 older siblings that go potty will definitely be a benefit!!  I hear parents say all the time that their kid just wasn't ready.....I believe that you can just make them be ready when you are!! And I think the earlier you start the better....before they realize they can control it and do what they want and when they want!  Like I said tho....I will not be surprised if Maddix is different and gives me an entirely different experience!!  

Hopefully we can keep just letting him sit and get used to the potty chair and before long (or hopefully before 2 yrs old), we will have a diaper free house!!!  :)  That is my wish!!!

And just for old times sake, I couldn't resist pulling up some old potty pics of Ayden and Zoey when they were first learning!!  :)

HAHA....she even had some crazy hair days way back then!!  :)

He took this potty business seriously!!  :)

I always love seeing them in their first pairs of big boy/big girl undies!!  :)

{VideOs oF mY haPPy BabiEs}

Unfortunately, Maddix is a biter!  It makes it really hard to play with friends cuz I am always so worried he is gonna bite and I have to watch his every move!!  He bit one of my friends little girls on the face in 2 spots when she was watching him one day!  :(  So sad!!  And I'm even sadder that my kid is "that kid" that bites!  I remember when Ayden and Zoey were little, I was always annoyed by the kids that bit!  I mean geez....can't those parents control there kids?!?!  Fast forward a few years and here I am one of those parents!!  DARN!!  :(  

Jeremiah and I remembered a video of when Ayden was barely 2 years old and he got bit in his nursery class at church.  He was telling about it and it was so cute to hear him talk about a girl that bit him on the finger.....he said she was "bad bad"!!  HA!!  So funny!  So I had to find it and I have watched it over and over just cuz it makes me smile to remember him so cute and little!!  He was getting a little excited and then just wanted to say "Cheeeeeeeeeeeze" for a while!!  :)  I miss that cute little 2 year old boy....and it makes me happy to have Maddix be a 2 year old!!  :)

  

And then I got video happy and this just made me smile too.....I can't believe how fat he was!!!  And where is his neck?!?!  HA!  :)

And then this one.....seriously.....this was the best time!!  I remember life being so hard then when I had those 2 little babies at home all day!!  Ha....what a joke.....now that I look back it doesn't seem nearly as hard as I remember!

I love having these videos.....it made my day to sit and see the happy faces on my little babies!!!  :)

{weEkenD hAps}

Why can't every week be a weekend?!?!  They are going by way too fast these days and I don't like it one bit!!  Maybe I just ready for summer.....not the heat, just the carefree days without a schedule!!  :)

Jeremiah had an overnighter campout with the scouts from church on Friday night near Mountain High.  So he decided to take Ayden with and then go snowboarding the next day!!  Ayden had a blast.....they had foil dinners, sat around the fire and then froze their tooshies off in the sub 20 degree temperatures overnight!!  Eek....that doesn't sound like camping to me....sounds like torture!!  All I have to say is that I am glad I wasn't there!!!

One of the 11 year old boys at the campout just recently went down a black diamond run with his dad, so Ayden of course had to prove he could do the same.....

Here's a little video of Ayden riding on the rail.....ha....he is so brave....I think I would be too scared to do that!!  :)

 Zoey and I had a fun girl's night while the boys were gone!  Maddix didn't get a nap at all that day, so he went to bed for the night at 4:30 pm (and slept til 7 am the next morning)!!  Zoey and I got in our jammies at about 5:00 pm and then snuggled in my bed while we watched TV.  She had been counting down the days for at least 2 weeks until she could sleep in my bed with me!!  :)  On Saturday, we made cookies for the boys since we knew they would be hungry when they got home!!

On Sunday, we went to church and afterwards, Ayden started complaining of a stomach ache.  He's pretty dramatic 98.9% of the time, so we didn't really believe him.  He didn't want to eat dinner cuz his tummy hurt, but we made him anyway because we thought he just didn't want to eat so he could watch TV.  Well, that was a big mistake because right before he went to bed, he puked!  :(   And then again and again and again.....you get the picture, right?!?!  All I have to say is it is a good thing it was a weekend and in the evening and Jeremiah was home.  The joke around our house is that I am not a "hold your hair" type of friend if you are puking.  If you are puking, I will run....because if I don't, I will puke on you.  Jeremiah was the best and cleaned up the messes and was right there with Ayden when I couldn't be!  

Here is Ayden in between pukes sitting by the toilet on a stool in the bathroom......Jeremiah was out in the hall laying on the floor and these boys were yapping away....I think at this point, Ayden was telling Jeremiah all about some type of dinosaur that barfs and all the baby dinosaurs eat the puke.....Jeremiah nicknamed Ayden "barfasaurus" that night!!  He sure doesn't look sick here, does he??  Ever since Ayden was a baby, we have noticed that when he is sick, he gets super funny and goofy.  Jeremiah and I love talking to him when he is sick cuz he almost gets delirious and says the funniest things!!  When I put Ayden to bed, I told him no more throwing up or he was gonna be in big trouble.  He said, "It's no big deal....it's just natural....Maddix does it all the time"!!  HA!  I guess he got that right!!  :)

He finally went to bed.....puked again and woke up Maddix, so we decided to have him sleep on the floor in our room.....pretty much puked all night until 2 am!!  Poor kid!!  He felt so crummy and by about 10 pm, there was nothing left to come out....and those are always the worst pukes!  :(  But every time, I would hear him start to get restless and then start moaning, I would pop up and yell from my bed, "It's ok....you're gonna be ok" and then I would yell at Jeremiah to get down there and rub his back!!  HA.....this is just one of those areas of parenthood that I am not the best at.....so good thing I have a hubby that can take over when I am lacking!  :)

Poor sicky boy stayed home from school on Monday and Tuesday!!  :(

Maddix had his first taste of dog treats on Sunday......

I guess the first bite wasn't bad enough, so he had a 2nd.....

And then decided they were yucky......

Ayden has a little rock collection that he never lets Zoey touch.  They were bored on Sunday and decided we could be debt free if they sold the rocks!  So Ayden made up a sign....and since I wouldn't let him sell his rocks outside, Zoey bought some since she had some money saved up!  :)

If nothing else, it kept them busy for about 45 minutes!!  :)

{ProJecTs}

A couple weeks ago, I walked through my ENITRE house while my mom followed behind me with a pen and paper in hand!  I looked at every nook and cranny of every room in the house and started verbalizing the things that bug me about that room or the things I want to do or get to improve the room!  

We've had this little end table in our living room and I decided to just paint it one day.  I had a little quart of paint that I got a few months ago because I had a coupon for a free quart at Dunn Edwards.  Luckily it was a small table because I confirmed that I hate sanding!  Luckily we had the electric sander, but still!!  It made me even MORE motivated to find some way to paint my kitchen cabinets WITHOUT sanding them!!  We have a TON of cabinets in our kitchen and I think that just might kill me!!  Actually, that is really what is prolonging my painting the kitchen cabinets project....I need to find that magic something that will let me paint without sanding!!  :)

Anyway, back to the table.....here is the color and when I first put it in the room, I was so bummed because I thought it totally clashed with the grayish blue walls....and it does in this picture too!!  But it really has grown on me and the more I see it there, the more I like it!!  :)

Can you see that little turquoise base on top of the piano?!?!  It is the same color as the table and I am really relying on that vase to tie in the color of the table!!  Next up in this room is to replace all the lame-o vertical blinds that have been driving me nuts since we moved in (seriously, who ever invented vertical blinds....icky) and then I will be replacing that big bulky ugly chair with a cute turquoise arm chair!!  I am hoping it is the perfect color and will tie it all together even more!!  :)

Last weekend when I was feeling so crafty, I also took care of this empty wall in the play room/loft!  I wanted to put a mix of pictures of the kids and fun quotes and sayings.  I love how it turned out and the best part was that I was able to use most of the frames that I already had!!  

On one side is a couple pics, an "I Am A Child of God" printing and in the orange frame is a printing of President Hinckley's 9 Be's that I love!!

  I got both printables from Pinterest!  The orange frame I bought at Michael's as a wood frame and painted it.  The top right printable is an "antique" print that is titled "Children Learn What They Live" and has some great words of wisdom on it.  It was something that I remember my mom having hung in her house when I was growing up and she said that her aunt passed it down to her!  I just updated the frame and viola!!  :)  

The "M" letter is something that I totally made up on accident.  I had these 12x12 frames that had some prints in that I didn't like anymore.  So I decided to put some scrapbooking paper in.....the orange one and then put a sparkly turquoise paper in front of the orange.  I was going to just hang them like that and hang the letters on the wall by themselves, but when I carried everything upstairs, I stacked the letter on top of the frame and I thought "how cute"!!  :)  So I glued the letter on the glass of the frame and there you have it!!  :)  I love how they all turned out!!

Here is a close up of the papers I used....

And a close up of the letter and how it sticks out from the frame....

The playroom couldn't be complete without something saying "You Are My Sunshine"!!  We all love this song....I sing it to the kids every night.  So I found this printable on Pinterest of the whole song and printed it at Staples!!  :)

Oh this side is a couple more pics (one of them in another orange frame that I painted), another printable from Pinterest that says, "The best thing about HOME is who I share it with" and then the other 2 letters!!  :)  I am really happy with how it turned out!!  :)

Another of the wood frames I painted orange and these cute little "faith", "hope", "love" blocks that I found at TJ Maxx!  :)

We've had a dead space above our bed and I have been looking for something to fill it with!  I got these pics printed and put them on wood to make my own "canvas" look!  I love how they turned out, but now that they are on the wall, I realize just how BIG that wall is and I wish that I doubled the size of each pic!!  Now i need to find something else to add to the collage!!  :)

I love projects like this!!  I am really really itching to get going in the kitchen!!  Can't wait for a kitchen makeover in there!!  I just need to get brave enough to paint the cabinets.....

{LiFe HaPPenS}

I suck at blogging right now.  It's really bothering me.  I'm trying to figure out what my problem is.  I can't seem to come to a conclusion.  I think it's just life.  Sometimes I feel like I'm struggling to keep my head above water without drowning.  So that's my excuse for why I completely suck at blogging lately AND taking pics with my real camera!!  I hope that one day my kids don't ask me why there were hardly any pics of them in 2013!!  :-/

So here is a recap of what we've been up to!  Thanks to Instagram I have managed to take a few pics here and there!!  :)

Maddix's hair was getting a little crazy.  He made it to 16 months before getting his 1st real haircut!  When my mom was here last week, we went to a cute little kid's haircut place.  When we walked in there were 2 boys getting their hair cut and they were screaming bloody murder!!  I was worried that would freak Maddix out since he had no idea what we were about to do!  The lady walked us over to the coolest little airplane, I plopped him in and that was it!!  He was in heaven!!!

He loves steering wheels and loves to sit in the front seat of the car and pretend he is driving, so this was perfect!!

As if it wasn't enough to be able to "drive", he also got a sucker!!  This was his first sucker.....not because I didn't want him to have suckers before this, but mostly because I didn't want to deal with the sticky mess!  But he knew just what to do and didn't make a mess at all!!  :)

And then after he was all done, for being such a good, big boy, he got a "boon" (balloon)!!!  He is obsessed with balloons lately!!  We were at Michael's the other day and the lady in front of me had huge plastic eggs in her cart and Maddix kept calling them "boons"!!!

All done!!  What a fun place!!  I definitely want to go back there again!!  :)

A couple days ago, I was listing off some things I needed at the grocery store.  This is always where I write my list, so Zoey asked if she could.  Jeremiah helped her spell oranges, but that is all!!  She's getting so big, I cannot believe it!!!

eggs

AJ (apple juice)

OJ (orange juice)

oranges

bananas

apples

milk

The kids had a blast with Valentine's this year!  They got a ton of sugar....blah!!  I have heard a bunch of people say "what happened to just regular valentine's cards......when did Valentine's Day become the new Halloween?!?!"  So true!!  That's ok though....I don't have anything against some good sugary treats here and there (ok, let's be honest.....all the time)!!  :)

While the big kids were at school on Valentine's Day, Maddix and I met my parents for lunch at Mimi's.  For some reason, Maddix always needs to poop when he's sitting in a high chair...at a restaurant!!  Grandpa couldn't stop laughing at the crazy faces Maddix was making.....

Maddix is a major climber now!  And when you have a major climber, you have a major faller!!  He has bonked his head more times than I can count!!  :-/

One day, I found him up on the kitchen table with a box of Fruit Loops...just enjoying a little morning snack!!  I am not sure which of the 3 kids snuck this garbage cereal into my cart, but it surely wasn't me!!!  

Mission Accomplished....he got some out of the box to enjoy!!  :)

Caught these two getting along really well one day....I love it when this happens!!

Ayden started baseball.  I think I am kind of excited to see him play baseball this year....but now that I think of it, I am always excited at the BEGINNING of a new season!!!  HA!  He is on the Yankee's this year!!  :) Going to practice at 6:30 pm during the week is soooooo cold!!!!

Jeremiah took last Friday off of work and it was soooo great to have him home!!  I'm trying to convince him to work from home some days and take more days off here and there!!  Ayden loved having Daddy walk him to school!!  Zoey loved having Daddy drive her to school!  And Maddix loved having Daddy all to himself while the big kids were at school!!  And Mommy loved having another set of hands around to entertain the above mentioned 3 so that I could get some things done!!

After we picked Ayden and Zoey up from school, we went to Islands for a late lunch/early dinner!

I love that is always sitting like such a little lady!!

The weather was so nice that everyone wanted to play outside in their shorts!!

Maddix wants to be just like big brother on his penny board!!  :)

Remember I said he was a climber??  Well, last week I put Maddix down for a nap and I was upstairs picking stuff up when about 20 minutes later, I could hear a very faint knocking on the door coming from the INSIDE of Maddix's room!  I opened the door and sure enough....he was standing right there with his blankie in hand and binky in his mouth.  He figured out how to push the side down and lift his leg up to climb over!!!  Crazy boy!!  I thought our lives were over, but luckily Jeremiah rigged it up so that he can't push the sides down and we were able to lower the mattress a little too!!  :)  Sorry buddy, but you are stuck in crib jail for a few more months!  :)

I must have been hungry when I went grocery shopping last because I bought pop tarts and I never buy those!  The kids had them for breakfast the other day, but we had to "healthy" them up with a banana and a cup of milk....they made smiley faces with their breakfast.....

He is seriously the best helper ever sometimes!  Lately, he has been excited about carrying groceries in for me.....ALL of the groceries!!  I don't know how he does it and he's probably gonna break an arm one of these times!!  He has 4 bags on one arm and 2 bags on the other WITH a gallon of milk!!!  Crazy boy!!