Potty Training... The Early Stages

Landen has started to want to "go potty" in the toilet. We have not yet successfully had that happen yet. I was about to fall over laughing tonight though when he wanted to go potty in the toilet just before he got in the tub. He is standing there buck naked on the step stool in front of the toilet looking down into the water. He stood there for a few minutes with nothing happening so I asked him to try and squeeze some pee out. He promptly bends his knees slightly, puts a hand on the outside of each thigh, grits his teeth and squeezes his thighs together as hard as he could! Nothing happened. He was trying with all of his might and no matter how hard he squished those thighs, no pee came out. He finally gave up and got in the tub. I wanted to take a picture so bad but it didn't seem too appropriate.

Prayers

I was folding laundry when Abbey and Braxton came in fighting. We starting talking about being nice because they are brother and sister. Abbey brought up that she is his ONLY sister and probably will always be the ONLY sister. And then the conversation went a little something like this:

Braxton (to me): I want you to get pregant with a girl.

Mom: It is up to Heavenly Father if he sends us a girl or not. (I am not pregnant by the way)

Braxton: I know the name of the girl that he will send us, Addie.

Mom: If you want something from Heavenly Father then you need to pray to him and ask him for it. And don't you think it would be confusing to have an Abbey and an Addie in our family?

Braxton: Heavenly Father will send us an Addie cause Parker got one (his friend from preschool... his mom had a little girl the same time I had Landen and they named her Addie). Can I go in the garden and pray?

Mom: Why do you need to go in the garden?

Braxton: Cause that is where Jesus went to pray when he needed to talk to Heavenly Father.

Mom: (How could I say no to that????) Ok Braxton. You can go in the garden and pray.

He ran out the front door and Abbey started bossing him about something to do with the prayer. I missed out on the rest of their conversation cause the door closed. Not even a minute later he came back inside full of confidence and announced to me that Heavenly Father will send us a girl! ...and her name will be Addie.

I thought that was so sweet! It is amazing what he understands, is listening to and how much faith he has in Heavenly Father! I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. :)

I had to stop doing laundry right that moment and come write that down since I for sure want to remember this little experience!

Happy Birthday Landen!

Landen doesn't like cake so we had to make a pan of brownies. He didn't want me to take his picture and each time he would look up and see me with the camera, he would cover his ears. We just laughed cause I have a few pictures with him giving me crusty looks with his hands over his ears. Not sure how that was helping him not be photographed... :)

Saturday morning, opening presents from us! He is "keeping it real" with his pirate pj's.

Landen decided to have a birthday at one of the busiest times of the summer! Between Strawberry Days (lasting a week), Father's Day, our wedding anniversary and his birthday... we have a few celebrations going on in one week. I worry that he will feel shafted or overlooked with everything else going on but he hasn't seemed to mind yet.

We celebrated Landen's birthday a day early and combined his party with a Strawberry Day's BBQ. He opened his presents from us on Saturday morning and continued the festivities again after the parade was over. He had LOTS of cousins over and it was hard to get a good picture of him since everyone else was so excited for all of his presents! We gave him a bike helmet, a camp chair and a tire swing. He didn't appreciate the tire swing at all when it was vertical so Bryce changed it to sit horizontally and now all three kids can have fun at the same time.

Landen is holding on for dear life and isn't sure why the kids think that this is so much fun.

Finally a bike helmet of his own! He can stop wearing the pink "mushroom head" helmet that he has become so attached to! Of course Bryce helped him decorate his helmet with motorbike stickers as well.

Landen loves balls and ESPECIALLY loves to throw them! WATCH OUT!

Thought that this was a cute pic with his serious face. :)

THANK YOU so much to everyone who came to his party! I just feel so grateful to be surrounded by so many people who love us so much and my kids are always so spoiled by them and their generosity! Landen loved ALL of his presents and is glad to have some more things that are "HIS."

A few things about Landen now that he is two:

*He LOVES t-ball! He drags all of the stuff out of the garage and begs you to play with him constantly!

*He can ride a 3-wheeled scooter REALLY well and a 2-wheeled one pretty darn good for a 2 year old! He has quite the athletic ability!

*He is strong willed and strong minded! It is Landen's way or a screaming fit... the neighbors must think we beat him constantly for all of the screaming they must hear!

*He has adorable blonde curly hair!

*He wakes up in a good mood about 50 % of the time... we always pray for the good 50 %.

*He loves to say prayers but you can't understand a word he says since he burys his head into his arms and mumbles most of the words anyway. But he is very excited when it is all done and he said it!

*He says "DANG IT!" when he messes up on something... loud and clear!

*He loves to hide...especially when he needs his diaper changed, it is time to get dressed, get his hair combed, etc.. He has 2 favorite hiding spots... in the corner by his crib and in his closet.

*His smile, hugs and slobbery kisses just melt my heart.

We LOVE YOU Landen!!! Happy Birthday!

Love,

your mom.

Summer Fun

I have had a blast enjoying all sorts of summer activities not having to follow a strict school schedule! The kids spent the first two weeks of summer doing swim lessons at the PG Pool, Abbey started up piano lessons and Braxton is playing it up in T-Ball! (And Landen gets dragged all over to the activities.) We have been so busy having fun that I haven't blogged for several weeks and know that I have so much to catch up on w/ our family and hopefully so much to read about everyone else's lives.


Strawberry Days was a blast! We pretty much had at least one activity to do every day for it and enjoyed each moment. We started off w/ the free family swim night at the pool on Monday, free concert and free strawberries 'n cream on Tuesday, children's parade and carnival on Wednesday night, a day to ourselves on Thursday night (I had other obligations), Huck Finn Days on Friday morning w/ a fun afternoon at the pool with all of the cousins and then the big parade and a party/bbq at our house afterwards on Saturday! The kids had a blast dancing all around during the entire concert and eating as many strawberries as they could handle. It was funny cause at one point Bryce was flipping Abbey around dancing and knocked her tooth right out of her mouth! (It REALLY needed to come out!) We braved the rain for the children's parade and decided to leave the camera at home during the carnival and just enjoy watching the kids have fun (instead of stressing about taking good pictures). At Huck Finn Days there were so many activities going on and the kids had a blast doing each one. They had face painting, pony rides, inflatable slides and bounce houses, pet shows, bubble gum blowing contests, fishing ponds, donut walks and more. I think that their favorite though was trying to catch fish in the pond that they made. No luck for us but their cousin, Tyson, let them hold a few that he caught. Here are a few pictures:

Braxton had a spiderman done first and then wanted a mustache painted on later. It was a hoot!

Abbey w/ her strawberry-- this is before she realized that they didn't put little black seeds on it... she wasn't happy when she saw it in the picture.

Landen loves balls so we figured a baseball would be appropriate for him.

Ila sitting so still while a flower is painted on her other cheek.

Landen, Braxton, Porter and Brayden (Porter's neighbor friend) sitting around having a good chat after trying to catch fish.

Poter & Ila enjoying Tyson's fish.

Braxton loving his turn to hold the poor little fish!

Ila just couldn't get enough of holding the fish! She LOVED it!

This picture cracks me up to see Karen in the background while Ila is holding the fish. I don't think that Karen thought that Ila would actually like it and she is shocked!

My nephew, Tyson, holding one of his two fish that he caught.

Landen finally got brave and went into the ice cold water for a try at a fish.

Bryce trying to help Abbey get a fish.

My neice, Ila, and my brother, Dave, having some fun!

Landen LOVED to jump in the muddy water and watch it splash!

Bryce helping out the boys... Braxton & Landen.

Freshly painted faces: Back row- Mikayla , Abbey, Whitney, Kristie, Braxton. Front: Ila & Landen.

There is so much more to post but it will have to wait for another night. Hopefully that will be soon!

He Did It!

Braxton finally earned Splinter! The Easter Bunny gave Braxton and Landen each a Ninja Turtle in their Easter baskets. They loved them and it made Braxton want the rest of the collection. He had a hard time saving money cause he would lose it, Abbey would con it out of him (give him a penny for his quarter... little stinker) or spend it on gum/treats. Since his system wasn't working I made him a chart w/ boxes on it for every 25 cents till he reached the $8.50 mark. Anyway- Braxton had to do extra chores (after his regular chores were done) to earn a box marked off... and it wasn't easy. Unloading the dishwasher was worth 2 boxes, cleaning the toilet (inside and out) was one box, etc... Somedays he would knock out several boxes and other days he had no interest. It has been a long road for this kid but it was SOOO much fun to see him be so excited today when he could mark off the last boxes!!! He sat and colored in his boxes for about 3 minutes to get them nice and dark so we could all see that he was finished (and he didn't want Splinter down from the top of the freezer till he finished coloring).

Braxton- we are so proud of you for sticking to it! WAY TO GO!!!!

Inspiration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhLlnq5yY7k

I saw this link on my friend Angi's blog a while back and it totally inspired me and gave me a greater sense of self worth thinking about the talents that Heavenly Father has created me with. I tend to down play anything that I feel might be a strength or talent but after watching this I know I shouldn't be embarrassed about talents I am blessed with. It also gave me inspiration and validation on things that I like to do and "create."

Now- here is an assignment for all of YOU... all of you! Bloggers or not. Please comment and share at least one thing that you have created. Help inspire each of us with the talents you have been given!

I will start:

*I am blessed with the talent to organize things and create order from clutter
*I like to create beauty outside with flowers, plants, etc... Still working on this one but at the moment my plants are still alive!
*I do like to do artwork. I really enjoyed doings grayscale pictures w/ pencil and hope to one day have time to work on that again.
*I love to create "treats" (cookies, brownies, cakes, all sorts of tasty things to eat). When I mean "create" though- I follow somebody's recipe... but to me it is still a creation! :)

PLEASE share some of your talents! It will make my day!!!

Videos of Landen

Bryce has taken a few radom videos of the kids on his phone. Here are two of them that he took recently of Landen:



Landen getting in bed all by himself.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmxDEY5PHM4





The other day Landen thought that he would be tricky and get off my bed by sliding down the end and through the bars of the footboard. He is a skinny kid but I don't think that he thought about how his head was going to fit and got stuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh5jWCFjddw&NR=1