The Potty Party!

This first paragraph is mostly for Logan's book, so no one will probably care to read about all of his potty progress, except for maybe his grandma, so the rest can skip to the next paragraph if you want.... I have been meaning to post this for a really long time.... We have been trying potty training off and on for a REALLY LONG time and it never seemed to really click with Logan, but this time was great! We started on Feb 2 and the first day was perfect, except that Logan never actually told me he had to go and I had to take him every time. Whenever he had a perfect day, he got to choose a prize from a box of treasures (some Cars and some little dollar items...) He really liked choosing prizes when he had a good day. I think he only had one more accident on day 2 or 3 and by day 3, he started to go on his own. He had one more accident on day 4, (poop right before the Aggies game...boy was Dad bugged!) and then has been almost accident free for almost 2 months! (He had one accident when we were in Vegas playing hide and seek because he didn't want to leave his hiding spot, and a couple accidents a couple weekends ago because he was playing with his cousins and didn't want to stop. Sorry Madi!!!! We are still working on that....) I make him wear a pull-up at night because I am somewhat paranoid and too lazy to change the sheets all the time, but I think he has only had a wet pull-up once or twice, so we probably could do without them. I have been amazed how well he has done with everything and LOVE that he goes potty all by himself without me telling him. We are still working on remembering to wash hands and put pants back on before we come back out of the bathroom, but he is doing better and better!

So...the whole last year I have been trying to bribe Logan with different things to be potty trained and find his motivation. For a long time, I told him that when he was potty trained, he could have a pet fish, but my mom went and got him one for Christmas, so that plan was ruined. (Of course, my mom reminded me that we HAD been using that bribe for about a year and nothing happened, so it must not have been that enticing!) Anyway...Logan LOVES holidays and parties and is always asking when his birthday is or when the next holiday is, so I told him when he got potty trained that I would have a special "Potty Party" for him and he could pick out his very own underwear at the store.
Here is what he chose....Transformers! (Thanks Uncle Matt and Uncle Dean!) I was trying to encourage Diego or something Disney, but he was insistent on these! He has never even seen Transformers, but for some reason he thinks they are cool. He told me, "You liked them when you were a little boy" and I had to explain that I was never a little BOY and that I didn't ever like them, but daddy and some of his uncles did. He thought it was funny that these were BUMblebee ones and he went on his BUM! Silly boy!

So, after about 2 weeks of being potty trained and once I could tell that we were really not going back, I had a little potty party for Logan. He mostly just wanted some family there and cake, so I had my family come up on a Sunday afternoon (Feb 15) for dinner and our little celebration. Logan was SO excited!!! It was pretty low-key, but he thought it was so special. Here are the funny cakes I made!My plan was to make the underwear cake, and then Darren suggested a potty cake. My mom got pretty excited by that idea and added the yellow frosting (gross) and I found some tootsie rolls to complete it! I don't know if anyone ate that cake, but it was kind of funny!
Logan and his underwear cake! Doesn't he look so proud?
And the potty cake! Logan wanted to know if there would be presents at his party, and I told him no, but Grandma and Aunt Heather and Uncle Jay came through for him! Grandma got him a dinosaur shirt and Heather and Jay got him these adorable Spiderman boxer briefs! They are so cute on him and he LOVES them! This is Logan giving hugs for his gifts.Rylee got a hold of the camera and took this herself! Can't leave her out...

Ry and Daddy playing with the camera some more!
Logan and DaddyMe and my potty trained guy! Way to go Logan! We are so proud of you and Love you!!!!

I {hEarT} yOu!!!

This post is ancient but things have been a little crazy at our house lately!!! We are in the process of trying to find and buy a house and it has been a HUGE headache to find a mortgage since Darren is self-employed and doesn't have much work history! It is so annoying!!! Sill no luck.... Anyway - These are pictures from our Valentine's - It was such a fun day and the kids loved it, so I wanted to post it, even if it is a little (or a lot) old! Here are the kids showing off the Valentine's they chose at the store. Rylee's are Care Bears. I thought for sure she would choose Princesses or Elmo, but she HAD to have Care Bears! She has a very strong opinion these days! Logan chose some sports ones that were holograms that he thought were super cool.

Making our Valentines turned into a REALLY big project!!! Logan wanted to do some for his cousins, and you can't just pick and choose, so there are 15 of them, plus Grandmas and Grandpas, a few uncles and aunts and some of his friends. It was A LOT of Valentines and their attention was only good for about 5 at a time, so it felt like we were working on Valentine's for a week!!! Logan was pretty sad when we mailed them all out - He said, "No Mom! Not ALL my Valentine's!" He worked pretty hard on them and I don't think he didn't quite got the concept!

The kids had a great time coloring and stamping. At least for a little bit... Logan also signed his name on most of them and it was so cute! A little hard to read, but he is getting pretty good!
Rylee loves to use markers, but she is pretty dangerous!!!
Gotta love this concentration!!! Logan was so focused on writing his name! I wish I could get him to learn how to hold a pencil/marker....

Darren got me some beautiful roses for Valentine's Day, but I forgot to take a picture. They were some of the best ones I ever had. We celebrated our Valentine's a day early and went to dinner Friday night. The kids were pretty sick, so we couldn't do a babysitting exchange like we hoped, and ended up taking the kids to my parent's house so we could go to Outback. My parents were great to watch the kids and we had a DELICIOUS dinner! The wait was close to 2 HOURS but we were able to sneak into a table close to the bar, so we didn't have to wait that long. It was great to have a date night....They don't happen enough at our house!!!

We spent Valentine's Day as a family and did some fun things. I like to make big deals of holidays and Logan LOVES it! (I did forget about St Patrick's Day and I still am feeling guilty about it!) Logan was saying "Happy Valentine's Day" and giving loves weeks after Valentine's was over and is always asking what holiday comes next and what we are going to do for it. He is getting to be such a fun age for stuff like this. Here is how we spent our day!

My funny little Valentines! I LOVE these 3 so much!!!! What a great Valentine gift!!! Darren had a church basketball game that morning and while he was gone, the kids and I made his cards. They were SO excited to give them to Daddy!Rylee ended up with more stamps on her face than on the Valentine she made.... She did get really good at putting the little foam heart stickers on her Valentine all by herself (she even peeled the backing off by herself) and had them all over because she loved them so much!Logan stamped his face too!Darren made us all a fabulous breakfast! Pink heart-shaped pancakes and strawberries! The kids love their special pancakes and have such a good daddy to do stuff like this for them!Mmmm...Pancakes!

After breakfast, I gave the kids each a little Valentine's basket of surprises! It was mostly all stuff from the $1 section at Target, but the kids loved it! Logan's stuff was mostly Toy Story and Wall-E, so he was pretty excited! They also each got a new book.

Logan and his Valentine Basket

Logan reading his Smash-Crash bookLogan was excited about his Toy Story markers, too.Rylee and her basketRylee got some Monsters, Inc art stuff and some fun Valentine jewelry and bows! Rylee pulling a funny face...or coughing... I'm not too sure....

HUGS!!! Aren't they cute???My Valentine boy!!! Logan is such a great little boy and gives the best hugs and kisses! He is so sweet and Loves to cuddle and can always make us laugh! He is a great little Valentine!Rylee in her Valentine attire! She loved her fun new accessories and is such the cheeser! Rylee is such the GIRL and loves all that kind of stuff! She is our little busy body and loves to be doing anything and into everything! She makes our life so fun - She is starting to talk and tell stories and we love her fun personality!!!Rylee posed for more pictures than Logan did.... I think he has lost his patience with my camera obsession lately!I love these 2 cute kiddies!!!Laughing at Daddy! He can always get a smile for the camera!!!Me and the little Loves of my life! Darren and I didn't end up with any pictures of the two of us.... I will have to remember to do better next year!We decided to have some festive food for dinner, too. We got this heart shaped pizza at Papa Murphy's and the kids thought it was so great!
After dinner, we had a little Movie night all together and watched Madagascar 2! All together, it was a great Valentine's Day and we all had a good time spending it with each other and sharing the LOVE!!!!

The Mothering Instinct

I love my little Rylee and what a sweet little "Mommy" she is to all her babies! I know I have posted about her mothering abilities before, but since she got all her new baby gear for Christmas, she is even more into being a little mommy! She now has a bed for her babies, a swing and highchair, 2 strollers, some diaper bags and baby accessories, like bottles, blankies, burp rags, diapers, baby food, toys and lots more! She is constantly toting her babies around with one of her diaper bags slung over her shoulder and spends lots of time feeding them, changing their diapers, (she told Darren that she needed to change his diaper yesterday because he was "stinky") putting them down for naps ("Shhhh! Baby sleeping!") taking them for walks or to the store "to buy food", wrapping them in blankets, burping them .... it goes on and on! She talks to her babies so cute and says the funniest things to them - like "Ohhhh...sweet baby!" as she pats its head, or "Ew...Baby is stinky! Gross!" I LOVE it! It is hilarious to me that no one has ever really showed her how to do these things, besides me doing it to her, and she still knows exactly what to do! Rylee and her baby "Rella" (Cinderella)
Feeding her baby a bottle just like a pro! I thought this was the cutest thing ever!Now some juice!Here is dinner one night where Rylee insisted that "Rella" have dinner with us and made us set up her high chair next to her chair. She fed her little things throughout our dinner. It was so funny!I have no idea why but Rylee decided she needed her napkin on her head.

Movie Night

For some reason, these pictures got deleted from my last post when I was finishing it, and since I was done editing, I didn't want to go back and add them, so here is just a little more! At the end of January, we had a family movie night! We do these every once in awhile, but we tried to make this one really fun for the kids! We all got in PJs and got out pillows and blankets and made popcorn with a special surprise (m&ms). The kids thought it was great! I think we are going to try and start doing it every month. We watched the Sword in the Stone and had a great time!

I thought the kids looked so cute in their PJs with their blankies and stuffed animals! I love this one of them being silly together - they are the best of friends...most of the time!Big cheeses!Enjoying their popcorn snack!Some MORE silly faces!!! These seems to show up every time I take pictures!