I'm Not Dead!!

Really, my last post was in October. I feel like I am a really busy person, but what do I have to show for it. I told my sister (Trish) that she made me look like a failure at life because of all the things that she does. Anyway, maybe I will be able to post some pictures this week since Emma is almost a year older than the last time that I posted.

Back in September, I kinda lost my job. Our company isn't doing great because of the economy and they figured that I was the most disposable employee. If you didn't know, I handle all of the accounting for an insurance agency. Yea, that's right, I'm an accountant. I really like my job, and I really enjoy and get along with everyone that I work with. Well, after looking for a job for about a month and training my boss to do my job, he started to have second thoughts. I guess he thought that I just sit at my desk all day and blog (which I do sometimes). Anyway, they asked me to stay, but I had a hard time screaming yes because I was so mad that they thought I wasn't an asset to the company. After about a week, I went to my boss with a proposal to stay under the conditions that I would be given the opportunity to grow and they wouldn't let me go unless the company went under. So, here I am. In October, I got my insurance license so that I could help manage some of our clients accounts. I thought that I would hate it, but it's not so bad. Now that I am getting the hang of things, it's not so hard either. So, that is why I kind of fell off the planet. I have been really busy at work learning the insurance side of things, while still doing my accounting. Fun fun, but it's a job and I am thankful that I am still here and that I have a job.

Maybe I can sneak in another post before the day ends :)... Shhh, don't tell...

So High

OMG I couldn't push her high enough. She has laughing so hard - adorable!!

First Day of Preschool

Since Emma was 6 months old, she was at an in-home daycare that we absolutely loved. She was even able to be at the daycare the same time that Elle started, so they were together for a little while. Chaz and I decided that we needed to move her to a preschool because Leah (daycare provider) had mostly babies, and Emma was by far the oldest. We wanted her to be in a setting where she was around kids her own age, and there was a more structured environment.

We found a perfect preschool for Emma to go to that is right around the corner from our house. We started her the Tuesday after Labor Day. The first few weeks were really rough. She cried when we dropped her off every morning, but her teacher said that she was fine after we left. She finally started to make friends and stopped crying when we dropped her off. She constantly talks about how she loves her friends and loves her teachers. She asks me every morning if she is going to "Ms. Hinna's House" (that's her teachers name and what she calls the daycare) today. She gets pretty upset when it's the weekend, but looks forward to going during the week.

As you know, back in June we started potty training Emma. One of the stipulations of getting into her class was that she had to be potty trained. After the first month of potty training, she finally got the hang of things, and I'm so grateful that my mom talked me out of quitting.

Emma is learning so many new things at her school that completely amaze me. I think that the initial transition was a little rocky, but she is doing great now. She even has a little boyfriend named Braden. They get into trouble for kissing in the corner. I know, they are only two. I have my hands full.

First Hair Cut - September 5th

We decided the get Emma's hair cut because it was so long, and it was so hot outside. I just wanted to get a little trimmed off so the ends would be nice and neat. I thought that she would freak out, but she was so calm. I gave her a starburst, and that kept her content the whole time. I feel like the pictures make her look like we drugged her, but we didn't. We ended up getting about 2 inches cut off, and it looked so cute!! All day long she talked about how she got her hair cut, and when we were going to do it again.

Day at the Park

A day at the park. Emma loves the park so much. I almost hate it when we go because it is such a fit to get her to leave. Major bribery happens (just saying). She will go down the slide a thousand times if she had time. We found this little park tucked between a few houses just down the street that is perfect for a toddler. Also, there are hardly ever any other kids there which is awesome.

Cousin Love

Emma and Bella... In April, Chaz's sister Summer moved to Washington with her 5 kids. Emma loves her cousins so much. They were able to come to visit for about a month during the summer, and Emma had so much fun hanging out with Bella. As you can see, Blonde hair and Blue eyes comes from Chaz's side of the family.

Emma & Doug

Emma and Doug (our next door neighbor). She loves him so much. Emma always asks where Doug is when we leave the house or come home. When we go to get the mail she will run over there if their garage is open. It is really cute. We're lucky to have awesome neighbors.

July 4th 2011

For the weekend of July 4th, we went to a friends house for a barbeque. Emma had so much fun in the pool! I have to admit that because it was so hot outside, it actually was NOT refreshing to get into the pool. It felt like warm bath water. Crazy how hot the summer has been...

I know that the pictures aren't great shots of our friends backyard, but he has a backyard out of a magazine. It is amazing with the palm trees and the stone work. One day...

I know, I know...

Has it really been 4 months since my last post??? I have seriously fallen off the posting wagon, but I am really going to try to make an effort over the next few weeks to get things updated. Things have been good at our house, just busy busy with Emma and everything.

On to a new post!!!

Why Do We Have to Potty Train Kids???

A couple of weeks ago, I took Emma to gymnastics. While I was there, I overheard a mom ask her daughter if she needed to go potty. I ran over to her and said "Kelly, please tell me that Piper is not potty trained?". Yes, she was, and they did it over Memorial Day weekend. We talked a little more about Emma and Piper, and she reassured me that Emma was probably ready.

Emma would tell me after she went potty or pooped.

Emma would say "new diaper" when she was wet.

She communicates really well.

She follows instructions that are given to her.

She would have a dry diaper for long periods of time.

So, after feeling completely jealous that someone 2 months younger than Emma was potty trained, I decided that we would get Emma potty trained as well. That same weekend, we headed to Walmart to go Big Girl panty shopping. We got her tons of panties and different stuff for the big event. After looking at the calender, I realized that June 25th would be the date. The weekend of the 11th, we had Chaz's company party, and then the weekend of the 18th was Father's Day and we were planning on going out of town. So, the 11th, I take Emma to gymnastics and I was so proud to tell Piper's mom, Kelly, that we were going to shoot for the 25th and that if we didn't go to gymnastics we were at home on the potty.

Well, Chaz wasn't able to get off on the 18th to head to the lake like planned so I decided to move up our date to the 18th. So exciting. Emma is so smart, and she will get this and then it will be done.

June 18th...
Saturday morning, Emma woke up at 8:30. So immediately, we put on a pair of panties and headed for the toilet. At this point, I didn't have a floor potty for her, we had a built in child's toilet seat for her. She sat on the toilet until 9:45 and she just wouldn't go. I was okay, but a little irritated. I had given her plenty of water, snacks, and juice. I get her off the toilet, and within 5 minutes, she pees in her panties. I was still good. I told her that she needed to keep her panties dry and to pee in the potty, blah blah blah. So after about another 15 minutes, we headed back to the potty. This time, she sat for about 30 minutes and wouldn't go. After she got off, within 5 minutes she had again peed in her panties. At this point, I was starting to get really frustrated. Again she goes potty in her panties and I am done. I throw my hands in the air, and I say "fine, lets go get a diaper on". Immediately, I call my mom and start crying about how hard this is and she just doesn't get it and I can't do it and I quit. She told me that I had already spent 2 hours with her, and if I quit now I will have to redo those 2 hours all over again another day. After getting off the phone I felt a little better. Emma and I ran to Walmart to get a child's potty for the floor and a few more m&ms and headed back home. We parked the potty on the family room floor and I kept feeding her m&ms to keep her on the toilet. By noon, she had been sitting on the potty for about an hour, and then finally she just went. I cried because I was so happy that she went. I screamed and yelled about what a good job she did and that she was such a big girl. We had lots of hugs and kisses and hoorays!

After the first potty, I had higher hopes, but I knew that we were still far from perfection. About 15 minutes after going potty, I sat her back down on the potty to have lunch. She sat and sat and sat, and she finally went again. That afternoon, after nap, she had 1 more accident. Day 1 down, a lot more to go. I was extremely relieved that the day was over. I have never sat on the floor so much in my life. Hopefully, day 2 (Father's Day) will go better.

June 19th...
On Sunday morning, Emma woke up at 6:45, why? So, we put her panties on and headed out of her room for the potty. At this point, I am sure that she was thinking, "seriously we have to do this again". She wanted nothing to do with the potty, and candy at 7:00 in the morning was not what she wanted to eat. She finally went, hooray good start for day 2. I kept putting her on every 20 minutes or so and if she didn't go within a few minutes I would try again a few minutes later. She was doing really good, but every half hour she would trickle just enough to need new panties. Is this how it is going to be? Why are you in panties if you really truly can't hold your bladder? I started to get frustrated again, but not to the point of quitting. Later that morning, my mom came over again to bring Emma a few presents and encouraging words. She went through 3 panties before her nap time, but only one was a true accident, the others were just trickles. Emma went down for a nap, and even though I wanted a nap myself, I needed to get ready for Father's Day dinner. My dad was coming over, so I needed to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things and start getting dinner ready so that I wasn't overwhelmed when they got to the house. After Emma's nap, and throughout the rest of the evening, she had ZERO accidents. That is right people, ZERO. She was also going 1 1/2 hour stretches in between going to the bathroom, no trickling, my hopes were soaring. Hopefully the 20th will be good too while she is at daycare.

June 20th...
On a normal Monday morning, Emma is usually so tired that she sleeps in until I get her up 10minutes before we have to go. This Monday had to be a little different. I woke her up about 30 minutes before we needed to leave so that I could put her on the potty. Within 5 minutes she went potty. I'm so excited that this is working out so well!! We head to daycare, and she freaks out because she got 1/4 of the amount of juice than she normally gets, but we make it to daycare with no accidents. Once we get up to the house, I let Leah (her daycare provider) know what is going on and what I do that kind of works and so on. After I leave, I pray that she will have a good day and that she will continue to improve. At about 11, I text Leah to see how she is doing. She had one accident, and she still hadn't gone in the potty. Why are we backtracking, we have already established going in the potty? After another 2 hours, Emma still wouldn't go in the potty. At this point she was down for a nap so there was no point in worrying. I got the idea to have my friend record me giving Emma a motivating speech with lots of encouraging words. I e-mailed it to Leah, and when Emma woke up from her nap she played the video for her. She said that Emma was so excited to see me on the computer and she went pee in the potty right away. That night, when we got home, she went potty twice, and then we went out to dinner with my Mom and family. She didn't have any accidents in the restaurant (YEA)!

June 21st-today...
Each day we are getting progressively better. On Tuesday, Emma did well at daycare, and yesterday she did even better. As of 12:00 today, she hadn't had any accidents. I just keep encouraging her to use the potty and I tell her that it is time to go. Every once in a while, she will tell me that she has to go, but I am usually the one to say "it's time". I am very proud of myself for sticking to it, and I am very thankful that my mom talked me into not quitting. This has probably been one of the most stressful and most demanding things that I have had to do as a parent. In the past 5 days, I haven't been able to say "oh well, we'll try next time", I have to be extremely consistent so that she will continue to get better at keeping her panties dry all the time.

I know that we are going to have to continue to watch her closely to make sure that she isn't having accidents, but everyday that we get through is one day that I am closer to having a completely potty trained kid. I will continue to update her progress, and more pictures of her cute little tush in panties.

Big Girl Bed

If you can't understand, Emma says "One second, k". She is a funny little thing.

So, I have kind of been toying with the idea of potty training Emma. When I was getting tips and suggestions from people, one of my co-workers asked if Emma was in a toddler bed yet. I told her that she was still in a crib and we loved it because she couldn't/wouldn't get out. Anyways, so that night, I told Chaz that maybe we should convert her bed and make the potty/bed thing into a huge "BIG GIRL" thing. So, on a Wednesday night, we converted her bed. In the process, I kind of hit Chaz in the head with a two by fourish piece of wood that was on the front of Emma's bed, opps.

She absolutely loves it. She thought it was the most exciting thing ever. She kept screaming "look" over and over again. So, the first night, I kept waking up thinking that she was going to be standing at the edge of the bed, but she wasn't. In fact, she will not get out of her bed unless we open her door in the morning, or go in and get her. Hooray!!! Now, how is nap time going to go... Well, that next Saturday, she did great. She slept really well and then when she woke up she started to cry until I went in and got her out. We converted her bed two weeks ago, and she still won't get out on her own. I wonder how long this will last?

Hurricane Harbor - Company Party

Every June, Discount Tire, has a company picnic for all of the full time employees and their families. It has been at a ranch, Six Flags, a baseball stadium, and now at Hurricane Harbor. We didn't initially want to take Emma because then it would really limit what Chaz and I were able to do, but we didn't have a choice, so with us she came!!! We had a great time. The park wasn't too crowded which is always nice. Once we got Emma into the water, she didn't want to leave. She had so much fun in the water playing and splashing. Her eyes were so tired and sore from the sun that tears were streaming down her face even though she wasn't crying. We finally got her home and she was so tired that she crashed hard once she got into bed. Like I said before, she will not take naps in the car no matter how tired she is. We had a great time!

Elle N' Em

Emma looks giant... A couple of weeks ago, I had to stay home with Emma for a half day because her daycare provider was going to her son's graduation. I asked Trish if she wanted me to watch Elle for a few hours so that she could do whatever she wanted to do (sleep, read, watch tv, relax, whatever). She accepted my offer, and so Emma and I went to pick Elle up for the afternoon. As soon as we got home, Emma went down for a nap, so really I only had Elle to take care of. We snuggled and played. I will admit that she did throw a fit for a little bit, but I was more than happy to give Trish a break. Once Emma woke up from her nap, she was all up in Elle's grill. Poor little girl. Emma really knows how to smother a baby. She can't help it, she loves babies so much.

I was holding Elle, and Emma said "no, I sit". So, I put Elle on the pillow to hold Emma for a little bit, and as soon as I laid Elle down, she said "no, I lay down". They were so cute together, and Emma loves her cousin so much. Can't wait till Elle is a little older so that Emma doesn't accidentally hurt her.

I loved watching Elle, and I would do it again in a heart beat. As Trish will tell you, I am the baby hoarder. If Elle and I are in the same room together, she HAS to be in my arms. I can't help it, I want to eat her!!!

June - Virtual Quilting Bee

These are the fabrics that I decided to use for my quilt. Not sure what will happen with the quilt when I am done, but I love all the different patterns. So, for my month, I decided that I wanted to do a disappearing nine patch, or some variation of squares and rectangles.

Here is my first ever disappearing nine patch. I love this pattern; it is quick and easy. There are so many different ways that you can arrange the fabrics that none of my squares will look identical.

This is my random non disappearing nine patch square. I know, my pictures of the squares are horrible (iphone). I will take more later.

So, I mailed out all of my fabric to each of the other 11 members. I know that in the end, the squares will all looking amazing. I can't wait to see what they all look like. I will post more about it once I receive more squares back.

Virtual Quilting Bee

A few months ago, my cousin Elise asked me if I would be interested in joining a virtual quilting bee. My initial reaction was, "Umm, I better not because I am bound to let someone down". After talking to Trish about it, we decided that if we did it together, we would be able to hold each other accountable. So, at the beginning of April, I received my first package of fabric along with instructions. She wanted a block that used the flying geese pattern. I decided to use the pattern and create my own block to send back to her. This is what I came up with. It is a little bit plain, but for my first attempt I think I did pretty good.

The next month, May, was wonky stars. I thought that this was 100 times easier than the flying geese. I thought that they were fun and easy. This is what I came up with. The first one was pretty simple, and then the second one I added a border around the middle block. I was more proud of myself this month than last.

June is my month...scary!!!

**Sorry about the horrible pictures, but it is the best that my damn iphone will do.

Splash Park

Emma and Daddy playing in the water

Emma getting splashed

We got invited by one of Emma's friends from gymnastics to go to this park close by our house. The park has a concreted area that has tons of fountains that shoot water in all different directions. At first, Emma was a little hesitant, but once she finally got wet, she loved it. When it was finally time to leave, Emma threw the biggest fit ever. She was having so much fun. I'm sure that we will be going back very soon.

Something Borrowed & Something Blue

Something Borrowed, by Emily Griffin, is the story of two best friends, Darcy and Rachel. Darcy has always been the beautiful, popular girl, while Rachel is more down to earth and under the radar. After a night of drinking at Rachel's 30th birthday party, Dex (Darcy's fiancee) and Rachel end up sleeping together. This book is from Rachel's perspective.

I read this book with my friend Angela, and I just loved it. I felt like I could relate to the characters, and really grew to love/hate them. It was hilarious, sad, frustrating... I think that it pretty much hit every emotion out there.

Super light reading!

5 out of 5!






Something Blue, by Emily Giffin, the sequel to Something Borrowed, but it is in the perspective of Darcy. I'm not going to go into detail because then it will give away the ending of the first book.

These books were both amazing, and super quick reading.

5 out of 5!

Angela and I went and saw Something Borrowed, and it follows the book pretty closely and was freaking hilarious. If you don't get a chance to read the books, definitely watch the movie.

Water For Elephants

Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen, is about a man named Jacob who jumps a traveling circus train that is headed across the country. I am just going to leave it at that because I don't really feel like looking up what the back of the book says.

Anyway, MUST READ, NOW. I love this book, and I have actually read it twice now. I read it about 3 years ago, but when I found out they were making a movie, I needed to reread. I still haven't seen the movie, but I will eventually.

Oh, and I cried!

5 out of 5!

Memorial Day 2011 - 5

Our last day, we headed back down to the beach to get a picture of us in front of the ocean. Emma stood on the compacted sand for about 1 minute before she lost it and wanted to be held. Baby steps!

Memorial Day 2011 - 4

Just some cute photos that I got of Emma on the trip.