Sweet Success!

Day 4!! It's a good day!! Just as I was about to give up on potty training for a while we make progress!! Oliver is becoming a big boy. I am soon going to leave behind the diaper days! It was a tough 3 days with him. He just didn't want to tell me he needed to go. And I was pumping him full of fluids so he would feel the need to go. I am going to have to to wash my couch cushions come spring. But today!! Oh today!! It's been a good day!! We went to Katie's school for a couple hours this morning and when we got home his diaper (cause I still put him in a diaper when I go out) was still dry. So he went pee in the potty. Then we went out again for a couple hours again and when we got home he was dry again. And again he went pee in the potty and we continued the rest of today in underwear. He has not had any accidents!! He has even told me he needed to go. I have not wasted time with him sitting pointlessly on the potty. And I'm not pumping him full of fluids either. I think that was one of the mistakes with him. He goes pee and I give him half his sippy cup with juice/water mixture. I am just so happy that we are almost done with diapers!! I guess on last small pack should get us through night time training. I'm also hoping this will end night time leaking. I'll keep you updated.

Changes

Katie and I attended new beginnings tis past week. She starts Young Women's soon. Too soon. I'm not ready for this stage of life. She thinks she is. She is just growing up too fast. In the mean time, she got a hair cut last night.

I got my hair cut earlier in the day. She has been wanting her hair cut for a while now but I wouldn't let her. I finally got fed up with my hair when a big knot formed while my hair was tied back. So I said enough with that! I couldn't very well cut my hair off and not let her. It too the boys 2 hours to even notice my hair was cut.

Both the combs in the pictures are 7 inches. Now Katie wants me to let her have bangs. I stand firm with that one.

Can I eat that?

Have I told you about one of Katie's Christmas presents? Well, it was an early one. She got an incubator. It holds 7 chicken eggs. There is an option to buy an extra tray for it to hold 12 quail size eggs. She has already hatched 3 chicks. One died pretty early on. But the 2 that lived were fun to have around. She wanted to name them after the 7 dwarfs because there were 7 eggs. We got the eggs from a friend that already has 50+ chickens. Along with some ducks, turkeys, some goats and 2 emu's. They were bantam chicken eggs and they ended up being the kind that had curly feathers. It was fun for the few weeks we had them. When we were done we took them back to the friend.

I would post earlier pictures but I don't have them on the phone I am using at the moment.

So here we are a few weeks after taking them back to the friend and its time for another round. But this time....

QUAIL EGGS!! Look at the size difference between a large store bought egg and an itty bitty tiny quail egg. I found someone on craigslist that had the quail eggs. She was really nice and I was able to pick them up the same day (today). She evn sent me pictures of quail she had hatched recently and also of some adults she has.

She had about 30 quail in a pen in her garage. I don't plan on being that extream. But I think having quail will be an awesome experience. You can eat the quail eggs like chicken eggs or eat the quail like chicken.

Katie was excited when I showed her what I got.  So I will post updates of the progress for my own records and for the fun if it. Apparently it takes 16 days for quail to hatch so I have a short bit for planning.

I am thankful

I have so much to be greatful for in my life. I have 4 awesome kids that are super smart, loving, kind to those around them, good examples to their friends. A loving husband that takes care of his family in so many ways. Parents that are there for me whenever I need them. Sisters that even though are across the country thay are my best friends. Lets not forget brothers that are there to lend an ear or a skype call when I need them. Not much more I could ask for.

Tired of dental work

Leo was fine last night thank goodness. He even went to school. Katie on the other hand had to get 2 baby teeth pulled. They were teeth with no adult teeth under them. So with her orthodontic treatment she will eventually have to wear rubberbands to puller her teeth together to close the gap. One baby tooth left but we are going to wait for the adult tooth to push it out. So she got to miss most of school today. If she wasn't doing well in school I might be worried how much she has missed just this week alone. But she stays on top of it and earns good grades.

December already?

It feels like we just got to 2015 and now we are about to leave it. I have not been such a faithful blogger these last two or three years. I am committing to blogging more. I have things going on that I would like to have somewhere as a memory. I am not so good at keeping a journal. So my blog becomes kind of like a journal to me. So here goes.

Things around here have been a bit crazy the last few months. Back up into September and I will share a little of what I did. Somehow I was talked into putting together the family fun night at our elementary school. I felt like it could be my one big contribution for the year and then not feel bad for not helping in other areas. Well, I will say the night was a success. As far as I could see everyone had fun and that's what really counts right? So it was great. We had giant games. I kid you not. When I say giant, I mean GIANT!

We also have giant Kerplunk that I apparently have never taken a picture of. So that was all fun and adventurous. So if that wasn't enough as it was, I put it together in about 3 or 4 weeks. I can't remember. A huge thanks to my Dad. It would not have been possible without his help. For those that know him know he is a great handyman. In my eyes he can do just about everything. You see that awesome connect 4 game. Yeah without his help it would not have gotten built. We also had giant checkers, giant tic-tac-toe, giant jenga (provided by someone else), along with pictionary and bingo.


October was for the most part uneventful. November did bring a different sort of fun. Leo is taking piano lessons, 2nd year. He went to a local university here one Saturday and was judged in his skills. He did wonderfully. A few days later was his recital. He did great there too. He played a simple version of the merry melodies theme song. He rocks at piano when he practices.

Along with all that it was thanksgiving. My parents were going to come but their furnace broke a few days before and after all that ordeal of getting it fixed they couldn't make it. So at last minute we had a family from church over to join us. It was fun and felt more like holidays having someone over. Otherwise I would have just been fixing dinner for my family, and I do that all the time. It just would have been a more elaborate dinner.

Now brings us to most recent. It amazes me every year how fast time goes by. As a kid it feels like forever between birthdays. I could never understand as a kid how adults could forget what their age was. If some one asked them they would say something like "wait let me think, how old am I now? Umm ## or am I ##? Oh I'm ## that's right." As kids we just didn't forget what age we were. I always knew I was 9 or 12 or 16. It was just what I was, for a whole year!!! Well, I recently did have to put a lot of thought into how old I was. I really could not remember if I was a certain age or not. Then I remembered I was in fact not the age I thought. I was a whole year older!! And with that comes my kids growing up. And growing up means new things all the time. Our newest thing?

Yup, she got braces. I can't believe she will be 12 soon. We are counting down the Sundays until she gets to young women's. I'm not so sure I am ready for that step. I am the primary chorister at church and I am worried I will cry when we sing to her one last time.

I guess that brings me to now. I have a sick son. Leo.  Kind of. He threw up once and has been sound asleep since so hopefully that was it. I don't want him to suffer through a whole night of being sick. He is already guaranteed to not go to school tomorrow. But he is sleeping on a mattress at the foot of my bed snoring away.

On a happier note. It's only December 3rd and I am done with Christmas shopping!!!

And a bit of random. We went to a jumping place the day after Thanksgiving. Kids had a blast and it was not crowded at all!

And Oliver riding on a remote control car. He really made it look like that's what it was made for. Silly boy.

I forgot another thing that happened in November. I can't believe I forgot this. Katie hatched chicks! They hatched November 6th. We have recently returned them to the person that provided us with the eggs. But here they are.

There were seven eggs. 3 hatched but one died. I think next time since we know better what we are doing we will have a higher success rate.

Happy blogging. I will be back soon. Promise.

New toys for me!

I have an awesome toy!!! It's all mine. A present from my hubby. And I just made my first "real" craft from it. Love my scroll saw!!

It is hard to put back together. But I love it! And I will be making more.