What a Week!

This week has been full of visitors, failures, and victories. Piper's potty training ended up being a big fat fail. I'm sure that's no surprise for most of you. She's young! I really thought she seemed ready and she was also very encouraging at moments of her potty training. I still swear by the potty training method I use. I just really disagree with the author about a couple of things. She swears that 22 months is the ideal age to potty train and that if a child is 22 months they can in fact be potty trained. Well I tried it with both of my girls and followed the program to a T and it was a big fat fail. I've had great success with that method with Corbin and Gabby at around 2 1/2. Failing with Piper wasn't nearly as devastating as it was with Gabby the first time. I will say that it was completely exhausting and I was so happy to put a diaper back on the Pipes on Thursday. I'm not going to rehash what I've done so many times with potty training but will link to potty training Gabby at 22 months. It's basically the same thing.The main difference is that Piper did show some encouraging steps along the way and Gabby did not. Luckily it was a positive experience for all my kids even though it sucked my week and my life away a little bit. They were more than happy to have snacks, treats, juice, and rewards. Not only that but we watched a lot of TV last week and as much as I hate to admit it things were much happier and calmer around here because of it. Oh well.

On Monday night Nicole and Rustin stayed at our house on their way home from the Oregon Coast. It was so fun to have them here. They took Scott and Corbin and Gabby to Chuck E Cheese. I stayed home with the potty training girl. After that they made us shakes and we just chatted the night away. It was so fun to talk with them. I surrendered at around 1:00 a.m. and they talked until almost 2:00. After breakfast they headed home. I hope they come and see us again!

On Tuesday we bought a van. I can't believe it. I've been searching and waiting for months. Scott checked it out on Saturday and took it to the mechanic as well. We just had to wait until his online bank could transfer the funds to his Zions Bank so we could pay the guy in cash. I asked my visiting teacher to come over during Piper's nap and we went and bought the van. The guy we bought the van from buys Honda Odysseys from people when their transmission goes out and he fixes it and then resales it. Well it must have been a desperate time for him because when we got the paper work from him we saw that he spent over $2,000 fixing the transmission and he sold it to us to $3,000. Who knows how much he bought it for and if he even made a profit. When we got home I decided to start searching craigslist for a small car to possibly buy so Scott can drive something with better gas mileage. You wouldn't believe the scraps of metal people are trying to sell and for the cost. It just confirmed to us even more what an amazing van we got for an even more amazing price. It's the blessings of tithing I'm telling you!

On Wednesday night Kelsey and Justin came and stayed at our house on their way home from Seattle. I couldn't do much as I was still potty training Piper and you can pretty much do nothing during that process. They had the misfortune of eating a potty training casserole I made on Saturday. After Piper went to bed we escaped and filled up on some Taco Bell and Sonic shakes (thank goodness! Ha). We had a fun time visiting with them as well.

On Friday night we went to Sizzlers as a whole family. We had 5 coupons. I did the summer reading program though the library and we got 3 free kids meals from that. Scott then had two coupons for steak and salad bar. We ordered 2 of those and I don't like steak so Scott got 2 steaks and I got the salad bar. It was yummy and mostly fun. Piper can be a beast at times although the beast was mostly contained.

Piper sucking down her first juice day one of Potty Training.

 

Corbin and Gabby holding a bunch of cash for our van!

Corbin got Scott to take him on the roof again and have a Popsicle. 

To say that my girls are a little clingy to me is a bit of an understatement. Gabby crashed on my big belly this afternoon.

Here she is!

My kids love Uncle Rustin.

Cute Aunt Colie.