I am a potty training genious!!!

Yes I am bragging a little bit.... deal with it.

Ok I'm sure you're wondering what in the world would make me make such a bold and outlandish statement. Well... I am very proud to say that I have sucessfully taught 2 children to go potty in the shockingly short amout of time of 1 1/2 days each.

I'm sure you're all wondering how I achieved this amazing feat and I certainly can't take all the credit (I'm trying hard though) I had lots of help and advice from lots of sources. I mainly talked to my husband's aunt Diane (thanks Diane) that potty trained almost all of Steven's cousins. She had alot of really good advice for me and then I got an e-book about the 3 day potty training method.

Jace and I rocked the 3 day potty training method around christmas time. All you do is pump them full of liquids and put them in underwear. (crazy I know) It took him one whole day of accidents and the morning of the 2nd day it just clicked and he was pee trained. We did so well that this week I decided it was Nellie's turn to give it a run.

We started Tuesday and things went even better than they did with Jace! She had only a few accidents the first day but its mostly where she starts in her underwear and we run to the potty and then she finishes. They actually say thats a good sign that she is them learning how to controll their bladder. She even stayed dry through nap time!! We didn't stay dry the first night but it she got it the 2nd night and I tell you my friends (beaming with pride) we haven't had an accident since.

The best part of this whole thing is...

NO MORE DIAPERS!!!! YAY!!!!!

I'm totally up for training other people's kids but its gonna cost ya... ;)

Nellie's last picture in her diaper

Diapers... you will NOT be missed

Yes its been a while...

Sorry guys I know its been a while since we've posted... Steven changed the password on his blogger account and Its taken me a while to figure this new one out. Ok so I really just wanted to share a little piece of inspiration I got the past couple weeks.

I just recently finished a great book called "how to bake a perfect life" By Barbra O'Neal, and overall I was very impressed. I've actually looked at this book several times over the last few months every time we have been at Target. I finally decided I needed to buy it and read it and I'm so glad I did. It was a great story, easy to read, and it even came with hidden treasures... recipes. The book was all about how a woman dealt with difficult times in her life by baking bread. I have been left so inspired... seeing as how this is a very difficult time in my life this was perfect book for me. Couple this great inspiration with the

great baking book for christmas, thanks Scott and Penny I think I have a great combination here. I've already made some great Whole wheat and oatmeal bread that was absolutely fantastic (especially as french toast yum!) The only thing I'm wishing now was that I had a kitchen aid to help me with my mixing. I'm hoping for one for my birthday or christmas this year (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)I think I'm definately on to something here... baking my life better...

Super Bowl

Hurray I am finally getting to use one of my christmas presents!! My wonderful husband gave me the cake ball book for christmas and I have been dying to try every single one of them out. (i need and excuse to make the Owls. they are just so friggin adorable) But I was so happy when I found the football one just in tme for our superbowl party and they turned out so cute! I'm still working on the dipping process, (I can't quite get them from the spoon onto the wax paper with out severely messing them up) so these the bottoms aren't actually covered in chocolate but I think they will still be good. I'll have my superbowl party guests take a vote. Hurray go me for being festive

New Pictures

So I got some amazing new picture frames for christmas and I was trying to find pictures to put in them but I wasn't able to find any I liked. So I looked at my children and noticed that they were both dressed and had their hair recently combed so Hello Photo Op!!! I took them out into the back yard and got some really cute shots. Yeah I was pretty excited about it too. And now all of these pictures are up on my wall in my adorable new frames. Thanks Santa

Halloween 2010

I think Halloween is always more fun when you have kids. They get so excited to dress up and candy is so much more exciting to a 2yr old than a 25yr old =) We had so much fun this year for Halloween. Jace was wolverine, Nellie was a hula girl, Steven was an Army guy and I was a circus ring leader.

We went to 2 trunk-r-treats this year and the kids had a blast at both. I think we will do the whole trick-r-treating around the neighborhood thing next year when Nellie is a little older. Jace totaly had the hang of it this year. At our trunk-r-treat he kept saying "tricky-treat mommy" and held out his bucket. He kept comming back again and again expecting me to give all the candy we brought to him. So cute.

Nellie didn't really make the rounds with Jace and daddy but she did dance for anyone that asked. It almost looked like she was actually doing the Hula. So here's a few pictures from our Halloween adventures this year.

My wolverine enjoying a quick sip before he returns to kicking butt Hula Nellie.
Nellie actually had a huge blow out in her costume. It was absolutely aweful and we ended up having to throw away her grass skirt. It got all over her white onesie so I took it off, put her coconut bikini back on and we went home naked.

Brother Halterman was making baloon hats for the kids at the party and Nellie got a heart hat. Its about as big as she is.
Spiderman JonesMaine the cookie monster

The wonder that is Nellie

I was thinking back today about how big my kids are now. I get the idea of how big they are sometimes when they purposefully and willfully do the exact opposite of what I tell them to do. But then I have to remind myself that even though they have minds of their own and have grown so much they are still just babies.

We went to a halloween party on Saturday and a woman had a 6 week old baby in the most adorable little bear costume and it made me think about how Nellie was about that age last halloween (8 weeks) I can't believe how fast the time goes by.

She was so little last halloween but now she is so big I just wanted to take the time and write down a few things about Nellie

1. She is walking all over creation now. She started walking about 2 weeks before she turned one and no one has been able to stop her since.
2. Nellie is my little scavenger she will throw food from her highchair just so she can get to it later in the day. She actually gets mad at me when I clean up under her chair. She even scavenged for food at the halloween party under the serving table. So cute.
3. Nellie loves drinks. If you have something to drink she wants it. She doesn't even really like her own sippy cups she prefers anything else.
4. She is so sneaky. If there is something she wants but knows she shouldn 't have (like your drink) she will carefully get close enough to it then grab and run. Jace is often a victim of this tactic
5. Nellie is the happiest baby you've ever seen everything makes her smile especially Jace. They play so well together now and Jace tickles her all the time which makes everyone laugh.
6.Nellie's favorite game is peek-a-boo which she will play with anyone that gives her any sort of attention.
7. Nellie loves Katy Perry. Any time a katy perry song comes on she gets so excited and dances her little heart out. We've made it a point to have family dance time now.

Nellie's Halloween Costume what an adorable hula girl

Pretty little girl

She fell asleep like this in the car I just had to take a picture

So dang happy all the time

Nellie I love you so much my sweet little angle. Just don't grow up too fast I love you just the way you are.

Nellie's one year pictures

Since I bought my camera I've been trying to get better at taking pictures but it seems that the better I get the more mobile and uncooperative my kids get. Taking pictures of someone that just learned to walk and therefore just realizing all the freedom they have is hard work. My goal was to get some one year old pictures of Nellie but that didn't really happen. She was so not having it. I tried and tried to get her to sit still for 2 seconds and even looking at me was too much to ask. By the end of it I was so frustrated I was about to cry. But I got home and was happy that I got a couple of useable cute pictures of her but still sad that it took so much work just to get those. Nellie when you look back and wonder why you don't have very many cute pictures of yourself don't blame me. I tried my best.

Jace on the other hand was slightly more cooperative and I ended up getting in a few good shots of him too. I have got to say that he is one good looking boy =)

My favorite picture so dang cute. This is the face he makes when I tell him to smile for me.