Poo-poo in the potty train

I have decided to write a little bit about my potty training experience with Nathan so far.

Potty training puts the child at your beck and call... and they figure this out pretty quickly! The problem is, that you can't not take them to the bathroom when they say they have to go. Then of course they can push out a tiny little trickle every time. So when I am feeding Caden his bottle, cereal, putting him to bed, washing dishes, doing laundry, typing emails, writing blogs, or even using the restroom myself these are the times my two year old has to go poo-poo on the potty train (cute little saying, but oh how I hate those words now). So I drop everything, and take him to the potty, just so ten minutes later he can interrupt some other important task (like trying to change a nine month olds poopy diaper while he is trying desperately to roll away, or play with his very dirty "diaper toy") to take him yet again.

So the next thing I have tried is leaving the door open, light on and step stool right there so that he can go when ever he needs to. Here is what I have found: the toilet paper is one of the best toys ever (you have all seen the picture of the baby wrapped in tissue paper), washing hands is a much messier ordeal than it should be, he yells he's done way before he is really done, if he yells he's done and he really is and I don't come immediately he scoots off the toilet (leaving fun little streaks) and runs out of the bathroom and sits on the carpet, his chair, the couch etc. before I can catch him and reiterate in my loudest, sternest voice possible that, YOU DON'T GET UP FROM THE POTTY UNTIL I COME AND HELP YOU!"

Thus my life has been the past month. I hate potty training.

Teeth!

So, I just got Cade up from his morning nap and low and behold his two bootom teeth have popped through!!! I am so excited! I tried to snap a picture, but he wouldn't sit still, so this is as close as I got.

Teething, Pottytraining and Crawling

Please don't look to closely at the very messy house!

Oh boy, have we been busy! Let's see where do I start. I suppose with the potty training.

Nathan has been showing interest for about six months now, and we started by just letting him tell us when he wanted to go, but had him still where diapers. I was hoping he would just decide he didn't want to wear diapers anymore and would potty train himself. Guess what! That doesn't work. A good friend of mine told me that once the kid is ready it is really up to the parents to get it going. So I put him underwear and set my timer and every half hour to 45 minutes I would take him. We started that about a month ago (and switched him so he would sit on the potty backwards) and he is pretty close. We still have accidents every few days, and if we are out of the house I really have to watch him. But at home he just lets me know when he needs to go. I was so excited to get Nathan potty trained, but sometimes I wish I could go back to diapers, it really is so much easier!

Scott kept trying to put Nathan down, but Nathan was clinging to his shirt and wouldn't let him!

Caden is nine months old now! I can't believe he is almost a year old. He has been able to roll both ways and get into a sitting position from his tummy. He even pulled up to his knees. He has also scooted backwards, which he hates and makes him so unhappy. Yesterday he finally took his first little "steps" forward on hands and knees. I am so excited for him to quit whining at me to get him closer to his toys, although I know I will eat those words when he starts getting into things that he isn't suppose to.

Scott is working hard. He is currently the only senior on his team (there is a manager and two seniors over 10-15 processors on each team). It has been a good opportunity for him to work overtime, it has been just a little more overtime than either of us wanted. He is working 11 hour days and we miss him a lot, but he is doing so good. There are a couple of manager positions opening up that he has a chance for, but we will see.

I have been keeping busy with the kids and the house, but I also volunteered to help with our stake musical extravaganza. I was immediately asked to be the stage manager and was put to work. I also asked another girl to be a co-stage manager with me and we found ourselves put to work building sets, finding and sewing costumes, helping out with the singing, and doing just about everything except choreography. It has been so much fun to be back in the theater scene (I did theater for about a year during and after my senior year of high school). Our performances are this Friday and Saturday and I know I will be sad when it is over, but I am sooo ready for it to be over. It is a medley of Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It will be an awesome show, if you're in town you should definitely come and see it!

This is about how we all feel since Mom has been doing this play.

Tagged

Okay, so I know I shouldn't be so excited about this, but I am. This is the first time I have been tagged. I know I've run across the ones where they say if you are reading this then you are tagged, but those don't count :)! I am not mad at anyone, just excited that my cousin Amy thought of me! So here it goes:

To complete this tag you must:
1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages)
2. Turn to page 123. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog
5. Tag 5 people

Okay, nearest book is "Twilight"(I am rereading them before a book group).
"I purposefully lumped myself in with the youngsters, trying to make it clear I preferred Jacob."
I am tagging: Kat, Jazmin, Jill, Jami and Hillery

News To ME!

So, it has come to my attention that people are using blogging to become famous! I mean, I know that blogging has been around for a while, but I didn't realize that mom's were starting to get into so much, and getting book deals and so on. My first find was that of "Because I Said So" the mom with the funny ebay auction (see her link on the left). Then my Uncle Jon just sent me a link to his niece's blog (His wife's siblings daughter). She is hilarious! She has a huge following, and is so funny and honest. I am addicted. Check it out!

There is also this whole world of blogging carnivals. I don't blog near enough to do it every day, but it might be fun to do every once in a while. Her carnivals are:









It is so nice to be sorta, kinda, not really related to someone so creative! Enjoy!

Happy Easter

We started out our Easter fun with a visit with the HEB Easter Bunny. Yes, Nathan was terrified of him. We eventually got Nathan to give him five.

Next we had an easter egg hunt with the once a month play group in our new ward. My friend Arianne took these pictures for me since I forgot my camera (Thanks again!). Nathan was way too busy opening and eating all the candy to look up. This is what we got when we asked him to show us the candy he got.

We spent our Saturday before Easter helping Dad rake up the leaves, and then of course we had to jump in them!

After jumping we decided we better help him clean them up. Nathan was such a big helper!



Next we spent Easter Sunday coloring eggs and finding them with my parents and brothers. Mom made a yummy egg casserole and we hid eggs for both Nathan and Jonny and David. It was a fun morning.

Nathan's favorite part was putting the funny face stickers on the eggs.

My very serious, intense little boy who won't pose for the camera when there is fun to be had!

"Where are those eggs?"

"Found one!"

"Oh, and another one!"

He continues to find eggs every day, and we have no clue where he finds them!

Happy Birthday Baby!

So, I won't dwell on it too much, but this past week was Ethan Scott Nelson's fourth birthday. It was a happy/sad/hard day. I miss my baby, but am so so so grateful for the knowledge I have that he is back with our Heavenly Father (I'm the best mom ever, I already got one to heaven!). I am so excited to raise him in the millennium and have all the joys of motherhood with none of the sorrow. I love you sweetheart and miss you every day, but I know you are doing your work, I will do mine and we'll be together again sooner than I can imagine.

These pictures are in no particular order.

Coupon Madness

So after reading my friend Julie's blog I decided I wanted to start saving on my grocery shopping. I started on phase one with getting my parents Sunday newspaper this week and clipping the coupons for stuff I will use. I started getting online and learning about fanatical coupon clippers (don't plan on getting there, ever!), and learned how to take advantage of CVS and Walgreens.

My first trip to HEB my total was around $160 with $14.60 off in coupon saving. I was so excited, my next trip wasn't near as succesful, but I didn't expect it to be. I spent close to a hundred with a savings of $4.90. Tonight I decided to try my hand at CVS and Walgreens. CVS's big savings is with the extra care bucks you can earn, and most coupon clippers say to wait until you have a store coupon and a manufacturers coupon (yes, you CAN use both) and the stuff is on sale. At CVS I saved $15.00 and got $5.98 in extra care bucks (you keep the little coupon thing that prints out after your receipt and use it just like money on your next trip). Then... I went to Walgreens, which promted this post. I paid approx. $31 dollars out of pocket and saved $29!!! And this is all stuff I will use; bounce dryer sheets, miralax prescribed for Caden, flushable wipes for Nathan's potty training, colgate toothpaste, pull-ups, baby orajel, etc. I have to admit that you do have to do a bit of stock piling when you start coupon clipping. But man, this saving stuff is addicting.

I have also been printing coupons off the internet and signing up to receive free offers. I know that means I will get tons of junk mail, but I think it is worth the extra time sifting through it to save almost 50%! By the way, have you noticed that milk is almost $4.50 a gallon??? I had no idea it was up that much (yes, I buy it every week, no, I never looked at the price). It is on sale at walgreens for $3.49 until tomorrow. Let me know if you see any good deals anywhere!

Mother of all posts

So, lots of stuff going on in my head lately, creating lots of ideas, making it very hard to find time to post. So here is what has been going on in my life. If you don't really care, feel free to skip to the pictures towards the end :).

I have never been very good about reading my scriptures, praying, etc. We had a speaker about a month ago that said he wouldn't read anything else until he read his scriptures. I decided to apply that to my life but include all forms of media (tv, internet, books, magazine's, etc.). It's been going great! I'm almost to Alma! I do read the ensign or the Teachings of Joseph Smith instead some days. So, then I started getting all these epiphanies (my new favorite word). I didn't get the connection until my good friend Emilysa actually mentioned, "Have you been reading your scriptures?" when I was explaining my latest epiphany. Here are the major ones, I'm sure you will read it, and say but I already knew that, well I am hard headed and needed to hear it about a million times before it finally sunk in (or start reading my scriptures to clear my mind).

E1: I have been a less than adequate house wife. Now, I am not saying mom, but house wife. It hit me when a week went by and Scott had not one minute (literally) to himself because he was working, going to school, taking care of the kids when he got home and then catching up on the housework that I hadn't gotten to. I felt so horrible after I realized that I have been so selfish the last five and a half years, taking so much time to do stuff for me instead of taking care of the house. Now both Scott and I know that I can't do everything by myself, but I can sure as heck make sure the dishes and laundry are done!

Unfortunately with this epiphany I have found myself swamped with stuff to accomplish and haven't had any time to blog. I am now trying to search for a balance between house work and my own stuff, the kids, etc. Anyone know the secret?

E2: My mom has always saved good Oprah shows that she thinks I would be interested in. Lately there has been quite a few so I started recording them and just watching the interesting ones. Well, I watched the one about, "The Secret," a couple weeks ago and was blown away. Oprah had three ladies on, one who wrote a book about healing your life, written about 30 years ago. Another lady talking about lists, and then the last talking about the secret.

The first lady talked about how you have to forgive yourself and others and learn to love yourself before you can begin to heal your life. She suggests waking up and looking in the mirror and telling yourself that you love you. She says eventually you will start to believe it.

List lady says that you have to get past the shallow self to the core self and figure out what you really want from life and then make a list or a bulletin board with pictures on it. Keep the list in a spot where you can see it every day, but don't dwell on it. Write it down and then let it go. My mom and I were talking about it and she says that the idea of lists have been around forever. She told me that when I was 3 years old she made a list and stuck it in her planner. It had five or six things on it including more time with Christi (me), and a better income. She found the list a year and a half later after marrying my dad, James, and realized that every single thing she had on the list she had gotten. The thing you have to remember about lists is that you can't grasp after the things you want, write it down and let it go.

The last lady talked about the secret to life and the Universe's law of attraction. Basically positive attracts positive. My mom has always told me (and I always thought it was a bit cooky) never to say I am broke, just temporarily out of cash, because the universe would hear me and make it true. Well, I totally believe it now. It basically all came down to, you have to be happy with where you are and you can get to where you want to be. And then it was so crazy how a lot of this follows the gospel (forgiveness, be happy, etc).

I know I will always been on meds for depression (my mom has tried using these theories as well as eating right and exercising to go off before, and it just doesn't work with our family), but I can make my life better still with these ideas. I admit I haven't been doing good with telling myself I love myself, but I am doing my best to be positive. And guess what, my life has been so good lately. I have been so happy, even when I've been sad (okay, so I know that doesn't really make sense). Ethan's birthday was on the 4th of this month, and while I was really sad I was okay being sad. I knew that I was allowed to be sad, so it didn't send me into a spiraling depression.

So, on to the pictures. Scott has decided that we have to get outside every weekend, so we have been going hiking. Here are some of the pictures from our romps.

I asked Nathan to get a toy for Caden, and this is what I found.

Boys and their boo-boos.

Update

Here is an update an our little family. Caden is sitting up on his own! He still falls over quite a bit, but will sit up for a few minutes on his own. He loves his big brother and gave him his first kisses the other day. I tried to get it on camera, but I was too slow.

Nathan is so much fun. I love to hear him tell stories about how his day was to Scott. He doesn't always get everything correct, but he is so excited that we are paying attention just to him that he just rambles on and on.

Scott is working a ton. It has started to pick up in the mortgage department so he has been going in early and working late. We don't see him on Mondays or Tuesdays because he goes straight to school after work and doesn't get home until after 10pm. I am doing my best to make sure he gets some free time to himself, but it doesn't always happen.

We bought a new car! I am finally free! Last weekend we bought our first van, a Dodge Grand Caravan. So I am getting out a lot more. At the same time I am getting a lot more done around the house because I don't feel like I can leave unless it is clean. I am also looking forward to getting to the gym more now. I have a feeling my weeks are going to become a lot busier now, I am so excited! I'll try to get some pictures of our new fancy van later.