Update

Scott went to Texas this week. He was supposed to be home on Tuesday night but his flight got cancelled for some reason and he wasn't back until Wednesday afternoon. It was good to have him back.

 It was 50 degrees and sunny on Monday so I took all four kids to the park for the first time. Gabby rode her bike the whole way there. She continued to ride it around and around at the park as well. It was so nice to get outside. The only bad thing was the park was ridiculously crowded because of the nice weather and it's a lot harder to keep track of a lot of little kids in a crowded park. It also wasn't super awesome when Piper threw a ridiculous tantrum when we were leaving. Love that!

A lady in our stake teaches free zumba classes on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. I went to both. It was fun. I am trying to start working out again and I really enjoy getting out of the house and its fun exercise. Scott is always a good sport to let me leave pretty much whenever so I appreciate that.

I watched a lot of the Olympics this week. We have to watch it live and we only get NBC in our bedroom so I didn't get to watch as much as I wanted to. I really enjoyed them and watched them more this time than I have probably in my whole life. My favorite was the snowboard  cross. I saw the finals and it was insane! I swear every run at least 3 people would crash and wipe out. Crazy. 4 years of work to crash and wipe out!

We had stake conference this weekend. I did not want to go to the Saturday meeting but I went and it was a really good meeting so I'm glad I went. The meeting today was really good too. Of course 2 hours trying to keep your kids quiet is not the best of times. They did pretty good except for Piper who had more than one time out in the car. Scott said she had an epic tantrum. Good times!

Kids:

Corbin: "Gabby, if you do that again you are going to uh-oh town."

Gabby: "I'm unbuckling this for a hot second."
"Valerie said "my butt is frozen"... girls don't have butts."
I told Gabby to get out of the bath, she said: "Well did you wash my hair? No one did!"
"I'm kind of allergic when wiping my bum when I go poo."
"If you don't do what I want you to do then I'm not going to do what you want me to do." Awesome!
I did something that Corbin liked and he said, "that's more like it." Gabby had never heard that expression before but she liked it and tried to use it, she said, "that's more I like it!"

Piper:
"I need to go pee! YOU HEAR ME?
"Mommy, bad guys are coming to get us!"
Our neighbor Valerie came over and she kept calling me Mitzi so Piper started calling me Mitzi. "Mitzi, get me down!" (She's very demanding, we are trying to work on her asking for things nicely).
"Mitzi, I mean mommy. Are you making dinner? Alright!"

Ryan hates tummy time. He was screaming so hard and before I could go and get him he just gave up and fell asleep.

He is so close to rolling over.

For some reason my kids can't play without totally destroying my house.

Piper went to sleep while wearing her backpack.

Gabby loves to color. She has been coloring "My little pony" pictures like crazy this week.

My little twinners.

Gabby's Birthday and Valentines Day!

It's been kind of a crazy busy week. I had Gabby's birthday on Thursday to prepare for and I was in charge of Corbin's class Valentines party. On Wednesday I tried to get everything completed for Gabby's birthday and Corbin's party. I also had to make dinner for someone in the ward that night. I ended up getting together with Anna and doing some birthday shopping with her. We went to several stores and bless her heart for being patient with my inability to make any sort of decision. I was just debating so many stupid decisions about things for Gabby's birthday and Corbin's party. I was mostly having a hard time with Gabby's birthday because I just couldn't get it together. I was going to have a rainbow party and then as time went on I just didn't have the time and didn't want to spend the money to make it happen. I decided to hang up her decorations from last year and make a pink and purple cake to match and call it a day! It was seriously stressing me out. I think she was a little sad to not have a rainbow party but hopefully she will forgive me. After our shopping we went to Chilies and had their chips and queso and their chocolate molten lava cake. My favorite. I went home and decorated the house for Gabby's birthday and finally went to bed.

On Thursday morning we woke up and had special birthday breakfast. I then cleaned my house and made a birthday cake. At 12:00 I went to go and decorate Corbin's classroom to find out that they were supposed to be having some fire inspection that day and they wouldn't let me hang up my decorations. What! I spent way too much time on those to not hang them up. I went back at 3:00 hoping they had had their inspection by then and they hadn't. Bless the principals heart because he let me hang up the decorations anyway. Bless him! I took Gabby to Walmart to pick up some jewelry for her birthday and we ended up buying her a new bike as well. I hadn't bought her a birthday present yet and I could not decide what to get her. I decided to have her go to the bike section and see if she would even be willing to ride the bike. Sure enough she did and she totally wanted one! I let her pick it out and ride it to the checkout stand. It was pretty cute! After I got back from decorating Corbin's classroom Nana and Papa had made it to the house. They came up for Gabby's birthday. Gabby rode her bike up and down our street for about an hour. She has been begging to ride again ever since. We got Little Caesars for dinner and went to play games at Chuck E Cheeses. After that we had cake and she opened presents. After the kids went to bed I got things ready for Corbin's Valentines party.

 I hope Corbin's class liked their Valentines party. After trying to run a game of conversation heart BINGO with a class full of kindergartners I have a whole new respect for Corbin's teacher. Holy cow! After we played that for a bit they ate party foods for awhile. After that we played a few rounds of a minute to win it game where the kids had to stack their conversation hearts as high as they could. I think they had the most fun with that game. After the party we came home and went with Nana and Papa to Red Robin. After lunch Papa took Piper and Ryan home and the rest of us went to the new Lego movie at The Village. It was our first time going to that movie theater and it was really fun. It's a really fancy movie theater. After the movie we went home and Nana and Papa took the three big kids swimming. Scott and I hung out with Ryan until they came back and then we went on a date. We tried to go to the Olive Garden but the wait was 2 hours. We ended up going to Walmart and buying an umbrella because it was raining and then we went and walked around The Village again. I really like it there. We checked out The Kona Grill that is a very fancy restaurant with really reasonable prices. They were of course booked all night . We ended up eating at an Italian cafe right in front of the water fountains. That was great. There was no line, the food was good, and we got to see a water show. After dinner I talked Scott into taking me to Chilies to get more chocolate molten lava cake. Ha! Love that cake!

On Saturday morning we headed over to Jeff and Janet's hotel and took the kids swimming. I refused to get in the water when I realized they had replaced their hot tub with an exercise room. What! After swimming we went to Kneaders and got a treat and said goodbye to Nana and Papa. It was fun to have them come up for a few days.

Funny Kids:
Corbin:
I was asking Corbin where something was that I can't find and he said he didn't know where it was. He then said, "If moms don't know, kids don't know." Ha!

Corbin's teacher was telling me that in December Corbin wasn't finishing his work very well but she let it slide a bit because it was close to Christmas break. In January she had a talk with Corbin and told him that if he didn't start doing his work that she would have to talk to me about it. She said that he immediately got to work! I told her to let me know if he's not doing his work because that is NOT OKAY with me. On the way home from school I had a talk with him about it to which he replied, "I think I don't know, but I think I probably got distracted." Ha! Ya think!

Gabby:
Her latest thing is saying for real. It is so funny. "Is it raining for real?" "They do have pink wands! FOR REAL!"
On her birthday, "I can count to four cause I have teeth."
"Mom, I don't know where in the devil I put it."

Piper:
"Mommy, get on my swimming soup?"
"Mommy, I take a bap." (bath)
She also says, "this is be-LICIOUS!"
"I lub it!"

Ryan:
He's still cute and chubby and likes to sing a lot. It's cute!

All the kids got on their swimming suits and asked me to blow up their water tubes. Corbin was in the shower with his. Good thing they got to go swimming a couple times this weekend with Nana and Papa.

Birthday breakfast with birthday girl.

Riding her bike to the check out stand.

She is so girly!

Corbin's classroom. I made that heart out of cardboard and grocery bags. It was kind of ghetto but the kids loved it! Ha.

As soon as she was up she put on her tiara and grabbed her princess balloon. This girly girl of mine. Love it!

Potty Fairy and Snow Day

Let me just say that first off Piper is totally kicking butt with potty training. She hasn't had one accident in over a week. She's totally trained baby! She even became a pro and was going poops with no drama mama. However, the potty fairy came on Friday night and took away her toilet chair and left her with a present. She was very excited about the present and was fine about  not having her chair. She has been using it to go potty great. She is scared to go poo on the big toilet. I don't blame her. It's scary! So she is holding it in right now as we speak. I'm hoping that when she gets to a desperate point that she uses the toilet and won't be so scared and after that it will be all good. I sure hope so! She loves to eat frozen blueberries and those are a pretty good source of fiber. I having been feeding her "pooberries" (as I like to refer to them) everyday. Hopefully that will help. I'll keep you posted. (Actually she already had her first successful poo on the big toilet). (I often have to take breaks while blogging and she did it). Sweet Sauce! Happy dance, happy dance!

On Monday I slipped away for about an hour in the afternoon and did a little shopping. I went to some thrift stores and saw an old gross rocking chair. I looked at it and thought just maybe I could reupholster it. This is the type of project I've wanted to try for years but I've been a little chicken and I hadn't really found the right chair. Well I thought this rocking chair had a lot of potential so I decided to buy it. I then went straight to the Home Fabrics store and found the perfect fabric. I took it home and started spray painting the wood immediately. I was still apprehensive about actually putting the fabric on. Scott found a you tube video but it had 10, 8 minute chapters. I watched quite a bit and learned a few helpful things. Then I decided to just go for it. It cut out the first square piece and within 5 minutes I had already over cut and needed to start over. I decided to just have a "make it work" moment because I knew that if I cut a new piece of fabric that I would likely mess up again real quick anyway. So I just tucked and pulled and pieced the fabric together as best I could. It was a several days project for me and I finished it up on Saturday. It's not perfect by any means and I probably didn't do it correctly but by golly I like it! It turned out better than I hoped.

On Tuesday Corbin woke up and his voice sounded terrible with a cold and so I kept him home from school. I have had a cold all week as well. On Tuesday we made Valentine sugar cookies although the kids mostly wanted to use the Christmas cookie cutters. They then spent quite a bit of time decorating them. I was impressed. They went all out. I loved it!

Friday we woke up to several inches of snow and if you can believe it they canceled school. Corbin was very excited! I woke up feeling pretty nauseous Friday morning so we had a lounge day. I am still nauseous. Corbin woke me up at 5:00 in the morning when he turned on the bathroom light and started barfing in the toilet. He threw up several times today. So I stayed home from church with all the kids. Piper threw up after she ate her dinner but seems okay now. So we've had colds and barfs over her this week. Not fun. Hopefully we will be healthier next week.

Before

After

Piper eating her "pooberries"

Kids decorating their cookies

Finished product (I forgot to take a picture when they were all laid out)

Chunky Monkey

I love this bubba. So glad he manages to stay healthy when everyone around him is sick.

Scott took the kids out on Saturday to build some snowmen. I took Ryan outside for 2 minutes for the first time. 

Sick bed cuddles

Poor buddy. He never naps so you know he's sick. He's always so happy and sweet and he's pretty much the same way sick. Sweet boy!

Potty Training is like Labor...

Potty training is like labor, you don't remember how bad it is until you are right smack in the middle of it. It's been another long week. I think by Wednesday I was very tempted to throw in the towel and be done with the whole potty training business. I can say now that I think we have made it to the light at the end of the tunnel.

Monday was a long day. Piper needed to poop and hadn't done so in the toilet yet. She was holding it in and had been for days. My other kids never did this. They would just poop in their underwear until they figured it out. I would totally prefer that to holding it in. My nephew held it in and it was horrible. He was in pain for days and he would scream throughout the day in pain. My sister-in-law started putting mucelax in his food and drink and he hated the taste so he wasn't eating, drinking, or pooping. Stress! So I was worried that Piper was going to be the same way. She had lots of false starts and went through at least 7 pairs of underwear that day. By about 7:00 that night I had had it and I left her in the bathroom to scream and hopefully poo, which she did on the ground! That was great, seriously I would rather have  her poo anywhere rather than her holding it in forever. She wasn't done yet and got a partial poo out in the bath. Afterwards she screamed like crazy because she was terrified of it! Tuesday she held it all day. Wednesday I was so tired of the whole business. I wanted to quit but my pride wouldn't let me. Ha. At her naptime I went and got a bunch of fiber friendly foods. I even bought bubble bath. I was happy for her to poo in the bath rather than hold it in. Well of course right after I spent $30 she went poop in the toilet for the first time. She did it again later that day. I was sitting on the floor helping her power through her poo while nursing Ryan. Seriously motherhood is not for the weak! This is hard business. Wednesday was a tiring day and I decided I wanted to go out. I looked in the cheap theaters and was surprised that there were actually 3 movies I wanted to see. I texted my sister in law to see if she wanted to go with me. We went to The Book Thief. I loved every minute. I was so happy to get away from all that potty training business. I loved the book and I loved the movie. I don't recommend either if you don't like things that are sad by the way. But I loved it and I want to watch it again.

Piper still holds it in as long as possible and probably tells me she needs to poop about 5 times to every 1 time she actually does something. So it's still a long tiring process. As far as her potty is concerned she was having about an accident a day. I'm getting pretty tired of that so I've kind of started making her pee now and then. She hasn't had an accident in 2 days. She has also pooped in the toilet every time since her first time on Wednesday. She wakes up dry every morning as long as she doesn't have anything to drink a couple of hours before bed and if she pees before bed. She stays dry during her nap. When I was tired and discouraged earlier in the week I was reading potty training stuff online and I got more discouraged! Ha. They were talking about potty training taking 6 months and kids not pooping on the toilet for years! So I am very happy that she seems to be pretty much trained! It will still be awhile until I'm not nervous she's going to have an accident and until she's more comfortable going number 2 on the toilet. Anyway sorry for all the gory details!

On Friday I had to help with a funeral. I am the compassionate service coordinator and we had to get enough food for 100 people. It was the funeral of a less active sister's dad and they were doing the funeral at another church so I had to arrange for all the of the food to be delivered to a few of our houses and we had to drive all the food over. Our relief society president decided that from now on we were only going to help for funerals at our building. That was a little crazy. The man was cremated so we've known about it for a month. I'm happy that I don't have to worry about that anymore. Scott went on an elder's quorum retreat Friday night. They stayed in a cabin and the next day they went snowmobiling. I went over to a friend's house in the ward and since we were husband less we got pizza and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I was so nervous Piper was going to have an accident on my friends 5 day old carpet! Luckily she was actually a very good sport that night and went to the bathroom when I asked her to several times just to be extra safe.

Scott really wanted to have super bowl treats so I went to the store last night. It was crazy crowded! Everyone was there getting super bowl treats and plus it was the first of the month which I try to always avoid shopping on. People get their food stamps on the first of the month and it's always crazy busy, so it was doubly busy. We don't give a flip about the super bowl, we just wanted an excuse to pig out on all kinds of unhealthy snack food. So we busted out the snack food and decided to watch Fiddler on the Roof instead. I would rather watch that for sure. It was fun. The kids had a great time snacking and dancing to the songs. Well this was a long one!

Corbin playing with his dominoes in the bath and he thought I would want a picture. Of course!

Whenever we go anywhere Gabby has to take a ton of stuff with her. No joke taking Corbin to school takes 5 minutes total and she loads up. You can't see that she also has a jar filled with 10 rings in this picture. Oh Gabby!

The girls dressed up to go to the indoor park.

Don't mind my reflection in the glass but this is Corbin's school Kindergarten picture. I think it is precious!!!

Dress Up!

Piper probably asked to go to Nana and Papa's house everyday. It's so funny. I get her dressed and fix her hair everyday and yet every time I do it she seems to think it means we are going to Nana and Papa's house. It's funny! I don't blame her it is fun at Nana and Papa's house.

Gabby quote in this costume: "I'm super good guy Gabby and I'm going to kill Piper!" Oh man it's funny and not so funny. Ha.

Our Super bowl snacks for Fiddler on the Roof.

Cute bubba. He's still a cute chubby bubba.