A New Post

Once again it's time for an update! There haven't been a whole lot of new and exciting happenings since I last wrote but I will tell you the little bit that has been going on. To start off, around two weeks ago we had Rose weighed and at the time she was 9 lbs. 4 oz. so she's doing great! She loves to eat. As a matter of fact, lately I can't seem to get her to fill up, or if I do, then she's hungry again in an hour and a half! (I think I should just have a feeding tube installed. Thoughts?) She is also starting to give a few hints of a smile here and there and it is very cute! I love babies! She is so cute when she is awake because she is very alert. Her eyes will open as wide as possible (especially when she's in a dark room) and she'll just look around. She also loves to be spoken to. As long as you talk to her, she will settle right down and just stare at you and listen, and sometimes she'll give you a little smile. She is a very precious, and special little girl.

So that's what's up with Rose. Now for Brian. A couple of weeks ago we decided to attempt potty training with Brian. Why haven't we started before now you ask? Well, I wanted to give him more time and wait until he was really ready. I thought that time was two weeks ago. We tried for one day. I got out his "big boy underwear," showed him his little seat that would sit on the toilet, watched a couple of potty videos for kids that I found on YouTube, and explained how going to the potty worked and did my best to explain to him what to do if he felt he needed to go. But alas! He didn't make it to the toilet on time once that day. He wouldn't tell us if he needed to go or not.  I'm not sure if he even knew when he needed to go. I suspect not. I just don't think it was totally clicking with him. So we decided to wait for a month or so and maybe try again then. And this next time, I'm going to try to be a little more prepared.  I want to use sticker charts, little pieces of candy for mini rewards, and a toy that he will pick out as a big reward. So hopefully the second time will work better. Other than that, not a whole lot is new with Brian.

Alli's turn. Since Rose was born, things have been a little hectic. Who am I kidding? Things have been a lot hectic! I am currently trying to get our lives back in at least a little order, but up until this point there has been a lot of TV watching for Brian and Alli, which included several of the educational kid's shows on PBS. The four main shows they watch is Dinosaur Train (very cute show by the way), Super Why, Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. All of these shows are educational and two of them teach letters and numbers. Between watching these shows and just listening to me teach Brian during his schooling time, Alli has learned to count to ten (almost-she gets a little tongue tied when she hits 7, but then keeps going afterward) and has also learned several of the letters in the alphabet. It's always fun when she's in the room and hears you counting because she will join in with you; and sometimes I'll sing the Alphabet Song with her and if I say a certain letter, she will sing the next letter that comes after it. So that is very fun and exciting. Something that is not so fun but still exciting is that she has another tooth coming in. It is her bottom left molar. After this one finishes breaking through, she will have all four of her back molars, making that a total of ten teeth for her. But the process in getting her teeth is not fun. The last couple of days she has been so ornery! She is either getting into EVERYTHING when she's not mad, or else she's crying and screaming and throwing tantrums. I'll be glad when this is over. :-)  

On a separate note, I'm hoping I'll be able to potty train Alli pretty soon. Right now she'll tell me when she's poopy and often times she'll tell me even before she's gone. I was pretty impressed and so I'm going to give her a little more time but I'm hoping that it won't be too much longer until the potty training process starts with her. We'll see.

So that's all the kids. As far as Luke is concerned, he went to the dentist the other day. They found a small cavity, so that will be taken care of on the 20th of this month and then they will be removing his one wisdom tooth on the 24th. He's really not looking forward to that. I can't say that I blame him. On a happier subject, Luke got a phone call from someone who works with an insurance company called New York Life. They did a phone interview right there with him on the spot and they want to do a face-to-face interview tomorrow morning at ten. It would be amazing if he got the job because it is a well-paid salary plus commission, as well as good benefits. So wish us luck with that! I hope all goes well. We would LOVE for him to get a good job!

And last but not least,......................me. Not much going on here. I'm a list kind of girl, so I have been making lists and schedules. I made a chore chart, a schedule/list of things I want to do with the kids each day, and a Family Summer Bucket List (I got the bucket list idea off of Pinterest).

Here is our Family Summer Bucket List (that will probably carry on through the fall):

Family Summer Bucket List

Go to the zoo

Fly a kite

Go to the Brukner Nature Center (available here in Ohio)

Go to the lake house (a couple in our ward owns a lake house and offered to let us stay there for a few days)

Go camping

Go to the Wright Airforce Museum

Go to the aquarium

Have a water balloon fight

Do a treasure hunt with the kids

Go on a picnic

Teach the kids baseball and/or soccer

Go on a hike

Make cards for family members

Make and decorate sugar cookies

Play dress up

Make homemade play-do: sculpt and bake figurines

Go to the fair

Play frisbee

Have an ice cream party with lots of toppings to decorate with

Go to the beach

Do a family car wash

Go to Kirtland

Camp out in the backyard

Make homemade ice cream in a baggie

Go on a walk and feed the ducks

And that is what I have so far. Any other suggestions would be welcomed!

Last week several of the Relief Society ladies threw a baby shower for me. It was fun getting to know them a little better. I was given several diapers and wipes, an outfit for Rose, a little "mommy time" kit that has lotion, makeup and pedicure supplies in it, and also a double seater stroller! I really like it. It's by Graco and has 12 different seating positions. It's really nice!

Here are some other pictures from the last couple of days:

Alli loves to help take care of Rose. She's always talking about "the baby" and whenever I pull out a bottle she comes over to help feed her. But seeing as how she likes to walk away with the bottle, I have to remind her to keep the bottle in Rose's mouth. :-)

This is a cool "tower" Brian built with Daddy's legos!

And another one.

Yesterday was Deb's birthday so the kids had cake after their snack this morning. This is Brian's cake face. He's a fairly clean cake eater. Waste not, want not!

And here is Alli's cake face. Not so clean. :-)



And here are a couple of videos of Alli. One is the long awaited one of her walking and the other is just of her being cute.