It Wasn’t So Bad!

He did it! 

Isaac is potty trained. 

Wahoo!  No more diapers at our house!  It started pretty suddenly, similar to when we potty trained Grace.  I realized one morning that he had been dry for a long time so I stuck him on the potty and we just went from there.  The first day was great, the next two days weren’t so great.  He only had two accidents, but he screamed bloody murder every time we put him on the potty.  It finally clicked on the fourth day and every time he has gone since then he has said “that wasn’t bad!”.  It cracks us up.   We’re glad he’s figured it out and that we can save a little money in the diaper department.  Best of all he is so proud of himself!  Once he filled in all of his sticker chart he got to pick a prize.  He chose a Mater car and it hasn’t left his sight much since.

We aren’t quite perfect at night yet.  He’s doing ok, but hasn’t been totally consistent.  Daytime is well under control though!

Grace was a little jealous of all the attention Isaac was getting.  She kept reminding us that she “goes potty lots” and she even started giving herself stickers every time she went potty.  We had to give her praise and attention and remind her of the prize she got when she filled up her own chart.  She was also good at cheering Isaac on though, and was just as excited for him as we were.  This picture is from several months ago, on a false alarm trip to the potty for Isaac, but I love how it shows Grace encouraging her brother.  She did this several times while Isaac was actually potty training, even offering to hold his hand.

One funny story.  When Isaac had his first accident I wanted him to realize how uncomfortable it was to have wet pants.  I asked him how it felt.  Without missing a beat he looked at me and said “hot”.  I had to laugh.

Way to go Isaac!  We love you!

General Conference Weekend

We love General Conference.  We love that we get to stay cozy at home and gather around the TV to listen to the Prophet and General Authorities, to eat our traditional foods, and to feel the spirit all weekend long.  This year was no exception!  We tried a new game this year that kept Emma listening to the speakers.  We had several buckets that were full of candy and labeled with different words or topics that the speakers might talk about.  Whenever that word came up, the kids (and Lee) would get a piece of candy from that bucket.  It was fun, a little distracting at times, but a good way to keep everybody listening.  We changed the words on the buckets for each session so we were sure to cover several topics.  We even gave Grandpa Mike his very own bucket of candy corn for the Sunday sessions when they were at our house.  Your welcome Dad!

Everything else was pretty much the same as usual.  Emma love our General Conference traditions and won’t let us change much of it.  We had cinnamon rolls during the first Saturday session and broke out lots of coloring pages for Isaac and Grace (Emma may have colored a little, too).  

We had been talking General Conference up a lot to the twins and they were excited to see President Monson on the TV.  They did pretty well staying quiet and occupied during the sessions they were awake.

Of course there were a few moments of rowdiness…

Our Conference Tent turned into a Conference Box for some reason this year.  It definitely took up less space!

On Sunday my family came over and we had Conference Casserole and crepes for our brunch between sessions.  Yum!  We look forward to that brunch every six months.  They also stayed for dinner and games later that evening. 

It was nice to enjoy General Conference from the comfort of our home, but we talked quit a bit about how awesome it was to actually be at the Conference Center last  April.  We will definitely do that again someday, but we still made memories at home this weekend.   

Lee and I both had a hard time picking a favorite talk this time around.  There were so many that touched us in different ways.  Here a few highlights though:

There were so many others…I am excited to read them all and glean from them again.  What a great weekend!  Can’t wait for April…

A Fire Truck for Isaac

Isaac and Grace’s friend Seoul often goes with her dad to Lowe’s for their Build and Grow workshops.  They have been so nice to keep us up on what project was next, but for whatever reason we have always been busy on those Saturdays.  One week Seoul and her dad got an extra fire truck.  They gave that extra to Isaac knowing he would enjoy building it.  He was thrilled!  After much pestering throughout the day, I finally opened the package and let him play with the pieces.  I told him he had to wait to build it until Daddy got home, but he spent most of the afternoon trying to build it himself.  He actually did pretty good! 

I love the superheroes there ready to assist…

Daddy FINALLY got home and after Family Home Evening they got to work.  Isaac was beside himself with excitement to be pounding the hammer to build something for himself.  He was so cute!

Grace was pretty excited about it herself and did her share of pounding. 

Emma even joined in the fun!

The final project was awesome and complete with a working and real sounding siren.  I think the rest of us were ready to throw that siren out by the end of the evening, but Isaac sure liked it! 

Thank you Seoul, Kelley & Joo Lin!  Isaac was so happy!  Maybe we will make it to an actual workshop one of these days…

Daddy-Mommy-Daughter Date

Emma worked hard on (most) of her summer goals and has been such a help lately that we thought it was time for a date night with just her.  We went to see the movie Dolphin Tale.

Emma loved the movie and Lee and I were both pleasantly surprised by how good it was.  We were happy to see a movie that was completely clean and appropriate.  Those types of movies aren’t easy to come by these days!  After the movie we went to a yogurt shop.  Yum!

It was a nice night out on the town with our favorite 11 year old!

Mommy School-The Zoo

Lately I’ve been thinking of all these fun little preschool ideas I could do with Isaac and Grace in the near future.  When Emma went back to school they peppered me every day with questions about school and when they would get to go.  I decided that I could start those preschool activities with them now and add just a little more structure to what we already do throughout the week.  So, Mommy School is now in session.  It won’t be terribly formal or academic, just fun activities around a weekly (or so) theme whenever we can fit them in.  We will learn what naturally comes up with each subject and activity.  So far it is a success!  I have willing and excited pupils and we have had fun.

Our first week centered around the zoo.  We read lots of books about the zoo and animals.  Our favorite was Zoozical by Judy Sierra.

We played lots of fun games that Isaac and Grace loved.  The games were found here.

We made handprint elephants.

We painted black stripes on white zebras and white polka dots on black paper.

We sorted gummy bears by color and then ate them.

The highlight of our zoo week was actually going to the zoo!  We picked a perfect day to enjoy the Portland Zoo, the weather was beautiful.  Kids under three are free, so I thought we better go before they cost to get in.  Isaac and Grace were so excited to go to the zoo and were so darn cute the whole time we were there.  The monkeys were a huge hit this visit.  We saw a lot of fun antics.  They also loved the penguins, they were always my favorite when I was younger.

They couldn’t wait to see the polar bears again.  Unfortunately they weren’t swimming, but they got to see one up close while he ate.

They talked a lot about seeing the elephants, but for some reason they were afraid of them and didn’t really want to see them once we got there.

They did like to feed the elephant in the statue garden, as well as play on all the other statues.

Isaac was most excited to see the giraffes.  He loves those “long necks”.

I liked watching the lions this visit.  They were sitting on top of big rocks, it reminded me of Lion King.

It was such a fun trip to the zoo and a perfect way to cap off our zoo week.

New Dishwasher

We finally found time in September to go dishwasher shopping with our garage sale money.  We picked one out and a cute guy installed it for me.

Isaac was extremely upset to see the old dishwasher go.  We’re thinking he doesn’t like change. 

I was just fine seeing the old one go.  It was a great dishwasher when it was working properly.  I was worried we wouldn’t find one that I liked as well as that Bosch, but we got a pretty nice one.

My one complaint?  After a lot of shopping and comparing we narrowed it down to two dishwashers.  They were both the same price and comparable in features and quality.  One had a handle and hidden controls, the other didn’t.  Lee left it completely up to me so I went for the looks and got the one with the handle.  I didn’t even think about how it would affect how I use the counter space above it.  I can’t get right up to the counter with the handle in the way!  Duh.  That didn’t even cross my mind, I just liked the aesthetics of the handle.  Maybe somebody else can learn from my mistake!  Oh well, it works great.  My dishes are clean and I am happy!