Our homemade valentines

I am not naturally creative.  I steal other people's ideas.  Pinterest was made for me.

I found this idea on Pinterest and loved it!  It took almost no time.  We used some finger paints (in an attempt) to make hearts with thumb prints on the hands.  We made the hands and cut them out Monday, painted when Doug got home from work that night, and assembled Tuesday. We stuck some in the mail to some family and friends.  It was so fun.

Really?

While we sat eating dinner, Ethan picked up Doug's laptop and put it on his lap and began attempting to log in.  Good thing we have those passwords...

Dance Party...finally

We finally were able to celebrate Ethan and Sydney turning 3 years old over two weeks ago.  We are so happy to be healthy (and potty trained!) to celebrate.  We got Ethan and Sydney a matching lava lava and sarong in hopes that Ethan can dance in some masculine 'skirts'.  He still wants to wear Sydney's dresses to dance because they 'twirl' better.

Sydney was terrified of birthday candles.  She talked about it hours before family arrived--that she didn't want to blow out the candles.  She always covers her ears when she is afraid--of anything.  She was blowing and covering her ears but kept backing away.  She's so adorable.

Ethan blew out the candles for both of them.

They received a few fun gifts.  The Merrills made them some puzzles and games to play and Uncle Kyle and family gave us passes to Discovery Gateway.  We are so excited to take them.

I can't believe they are three and potty trained.  Something about this combination makes them seem so much older all-of-a-sudden.  Not sure how we feel about that.

Peeking inside

It is so amazing that we can 'see' our baby before she arrives.  We confirmed again today that we are having a girl and she is so active!  The ultrasound tech began being a little frustrated that she wouldn't hold still long enough for her to take measurements.  That is consistent with my experience yet again!

We also saw that she is my child--flexing for the camera.  Doug has caught me flexing in front of the mirror before...  I love muscles.

I am going to have a fetal Echocardiogram in a few weeks to make sure a little spot they see on her heart is normal.  My doctor said it's most likely nothing (like 99% chance it's nothing) but he wanted to double-check given my family history of birth defects of the heart.  I am confident everything is fine, until I let myself think about it for too long.  :-)

Potty training

It happened.  Today is the day I took on what has seemed to be impossible.  POTTY TRAINING.

My friend Shanna mentioned a book that her entire family loves for potty training and was kind enough to loan it to me along with some "potty dolls" as I call them.  They are dolls that actually are 'fed' water and 'pee' in the potty.  I read all 175+ pages in about 24 hours and ran to the store for a few supplies Monday night and decided that Tuesday was the day.  

Apron with pockets

Potty treats

A list of people who would be thrilled that they use the potty

Arrangements for Ethan to spend the morning (at least) at Tiffany's house while I worked exclusively with Sydney

Lots of exciting drinks (my kids were thrilled to have a bottomless supply of chocolate almond milk and juice boxes)

Oversized underwear (borrowed, yes I am cheap)

Sydney and I hung out in the kitchen for about 3 hours.  We didn't go into any other room.  I taught her to use the potty, empty it herself, wash her hands, and take care of any messes.  We 'practiced' as the book recommends when she had an accident (only 2 of those) and taught the doll how to the use the potty as well.  Sydney was so afraid of the potty that I sat on the ground and hugged her for about 20 minutes before she went once!  My sister posed as Minnie Mouse on the phone and my dad as Mickey Mouse so she could share the good news with her favorite celebrities.  Her face lit up when she heard Minnie's voice telling her what a great job she had done.  It was the only thing I could think of to get her over her terror after she'd first peed.

I was shocked when she went 3 times on her own and emptied the potty chair and washed her hands without ANY prompting from me all within 3 hours.  She was amazing.

Ethan came home and went straight to the kitchen while I chatted with Tiffany.  I then realized what he would be doing and laughed and said to Tiffany, "I am sure Ethan is in there drinking all of Sydney's special drinks.  Ethan would drink all of his meals if I let him.  I had to urge Sydney to take sips of drinks for those 3 hours and Ethan downed all of them in minutes while I updated Tiffany on Sydney's progress at the front door!

He instantly wanted 'in' on the action at 3 pm and was in underwear and doing great by bedtime.

I kept track of all of Sydney's potty checks, accidents, and successes.  It was SO helpful to know a history of how often she needed to go and know when to prepare for an accident.  I had to snap a photo of my chart before throwing it out because it was so important to her progress.  I love this book.

They didn't do well that night, so we are in pull-ups at night right now until I can get up the courage to try again.  They've had a few accidents here and there, but are doing really well.  I am glad I did it, but I am ready to get out of the house!

New: the blanket game

Kayla's husband, Shane, is a genius in our house.  He came up with the blanket game that we have played several times already since being home from our Colorado visit.  It's simple:

1. make a pile of pillows 

(make sure there is nothing behind the pillows that could cause injury)

2. loosely hold a blanket up in front of the pillows

3. kids run and tackle the blanket onto a pile of pillows 

(you can even encourage being creative and running in silly ways or tackling with a summersault--the possibilities are endless!)

4. prepare yourself to be tired of holding said blanket because this is fun forever

5. get ready for your kids to be tired and think you're awesome all while staying indoors!  

Score one for mom and dad!  Thanks Shane.

Going back home

Saturday came so quickly.  After working out and showering, we took a walk outside to feed the hundreds (literally) of geese and ducks in the pond across the street from Kayla's house. We wore the kids out and E&S went down for a nap while  I packed and cleaned up.  

Kayla was a fantastic host.  We had a great time.

This plane ride went well, except that we landed in fog, so it seemed that we were about to land and the pilot pulled up very suddenly and we made another run at the landing.  It made for a very long flight--especially since we couldn't listen to music, have our tray tables down etc. for about 30 minutes.  Brutal.

One highlight was that they were given security badge stickers from TSA in the Denver airport.  They LOVED those! We got to talk about eagles and watched a few videos of the bald eagle before we took off.  Denver airport was amazing!