Potty Training adventures

So here I am, sitting on a couch cushion outside of Valin's bedroom while he naps.  It's day one on our potty training adventure and all is going well.  I changed him into his underwear and showed him his special "McQueen"toilet that I was bragging about for a few days now.  He was way excited about it, especially when he pushed down the handle and a revving engine sounded.

The first two releases never made it to the toilet, but the next two started in the underwear but finished in the toilet! I was excited about the progress.  Then, while we were having lunch I was marching back to the table while Valin followed me and he totally made the connection between feeling the need to go and then going to the bathroom because he asked to go to the bathroom!  He only went a little bit in his underwear, which showed that he realized the need to hold it until he gets to the toilet.  I was so impressed, shocked, and so happy.  Then the next time, he was playing so, he released first in his underwear and got the rest on the toilet.  I know that it's going to be tough for Valin to make the potty connection while playing.  Valin has always been blindly focused on playing and has a hard time doing anything else.  But then he went a few times on the toilet as we got ready for his nap.  While I was in there wanting for him to go, he asked me to say "Vroom, vroom" while he pushed down the lever to sound the engine and whenever I did he would then release in his toilet.  I guess "Vroom, Vroom" are his magic peeing words.

So now I'm here, sitting at his bedroom door, listening for any movement to indicate that he needs to go to the bathroom so I can help him realized it's okay to wake up and go.  I'm a little worried because he is a pretty hard sleeper.  But I guess we'll see what happens when he gets up.

Wish us luck! and please keep us in your prayers.

I need your help to choose which one is best!

 So I need to pick one image that's the best of the family.  Which one is better:

A:

B:

C:

Family Portraits

So here are some more from our photo shoot:

Now tell me, which one is the best of Boston? This one:

or this one?

Which is the best of Patxi and me? This one:

or this one?

Family pictures!

Last Wednesday, the last day before snow fell on the Grande Ronde Valley, we decided to brave the cold weather and take family pictures.  I asked Jessica Baum to take them for us and I think they turned out so well.  We still need to decided on the ones we want to buy, but Jessica put these on Facebook and I wanted to share them because they were so great!

Happy Halloween!

I was excited for Halloween this year because my kids were getting closer to the age where it's fun for them, plus Patxi was here.  It was going to be great.  Valin decided that he wanted to be "Woody" from Toy Story (probably with a little coercion from mom because I had no idea how to make a "Lighten McQueen" costume).  So I went to D&B planning on getting a great cowboy outfit with the same colors as "Woody" and I was sadly disappointed.  So I finally bought a tan hat from D&B, a yellow plaid shirt from Bugs and Butterflies, borrowed a red bandana from my mom, and used the boots from last year -luckily they still fit.  I bought a sherif badge, by I forgot to put it on.  Other then that, everything this was pretty good, especially since he probably won't remember it.

Then, for Boston, my mom found the cutest bumble bee costume.  She looked soooo cute!  Especially since she's starting to walk now.  It's still kind of a "Frankenstein" walk, so it made everything so much cuter. 

Pictures of them together.  I couldn't get them to look at the camera at the same time, the little stinkers!

There was a chili feed and then a trunk and treat for our ward and the other ward we share the building with.  This is Boston enjoying her chili. 

   It was a pretty fun night, even though we had just started to treat Boston's ear infection and Valin had a cough.  But that didn't even seem to phase them.  Valin was such a sweet brother because at every trunk, he would make sure Boston got some candy too.  It was so cold that I had to bundle the kids up with almost anything I could find.  I think they had about three to five layers on by the end.  We also bought way too much candy and had tons left over.  I got so sick if it, because I would eat it even if I didn't want it because it was there.  So I put the candy in bags and hid them in the car so we could give them away.

And Happy Birthday to my older sister, Jen and Grandpa Lemmond!  

October at a glance

      This month started with a whole lot of stress.  Buying a new car isn’t easy.  We did a little research and then thought that we should go test drive so we could decide what we like.  The first day, we just planned on driving to the Tri-cities and finding some dealerships to test drive vans we thought were good to look at.  We could have used our time much better, even though we actually ended up test driving and placing a bid on the van we eventually got.  We even got sucked up into committing to a van we had never test drove so that they could bring it there.  We  didn’t like it that much, but kept our word and came later to test drive it and make our final decision.  That Friday we went back and decided that that van wasn’t what we wanted and kept looking.  But after that experience, we decided that we better put forth more effort and do more research.  We finally decided on what exactly we wanted, and first called around to see if the dealership had what we wanted and only then would be visit them.  So our third visit to Tri-cities went very well, we found two that we wanted and finally made a prayerful decision to get a 2007 Kia Sedona with 63k miles.  We did the bartering game and paid about what we thought we could.  As apart of the deal, they promised to fix the sticky lock on one of the sliding doors, so we paid for it and left it there so the service department could fix it.  Well, it took about a week and a half before we could take it home because the part was on back-order.  So now it’s the end of the month, and we’ve used it twice.  It’s really a great van and we hope it’ll serve our needs for a long time.   

The other big thing that happened this month was smashing my pinky finger on my left hand in the car door.  We had just arrived at Walmart and I got Boston out of her car seat.  I was holding her in my right arm and I guess I was a little slow at moving my hand away in time.  At first I only realized that something happened because my hand was stuck as I turned to walk away.  Then I felt it!  I had to put Boston down so I could open the door and release my finger.  It felt like I had ice crawling from my finger tip up my arm and then my fingernail turned purple.  There was a few times were I felt like I was going to faint, however there was nothing to do but get what I needed at the store and then go home.  It took about a good week before it stopped hurting and now I’m just waiting for the nail to fall off.  

Yesterday Boston woke up from her nap with a fever and a nasty cough.   Today I took her to the hospital when her fever continued and found that she had ear infections in both her ears.  It was a little bit of a shock because she didn’t have a runny nose or pulled on her ears.  Valin never pulled his ears either, but I was banking on some sort of the outward signs.  I’m glad I took her in when I did.  Luckily the hospital gave us some antibiotics so that we didn’t have to wait until the pharmacies opened on Monday.  I hope she gets better soon.

Since we have wood floors in our house, we lined the path we walk on with every extra rug we had so that Boston would have a better walking surface.   She really took to walking this month.  She even stands for all of her bath because she’s seen the advantage of being able to walk around and discover things around her.  She’s still a little shaky on her feet, but she is a walker now.  This month she also started to do this thing where she verbally enjoys her meals.  I have to admit, I love to hear her loudly say, “Mmmm!” as she eats the food I’ve prepared and put so much effort into.     

Valin seem to have turned into a parrot this month.  I often here him say things he’s heard us say or heard from a movie.  One time, as Patxi was getting ready to leave for school, Patxi told Valin after he ask where he was, “I’m in the bed room.”  Valin says, “I’m in the bedroom?” Patxi says, “No, daddy’s in the bedroom and Valin’s at the table.”  Valin replies, “No I’m daddy.” Patxi said, “are you named daddy? Is your name Patxi?”  Valin said, “yes.” We all laugh and Patxi says,  “Oh, you’re name is Patxi and not Valin?” and Valin replies, “Of course, silly daddy, I’m Patxi!” It was quite cute.  Then at dinner the other day he randomly says, “Are you my conscious?” It took me a little while to realize that he was quoting from the movie “Finding Nemo.” It’s interesting what things kids remember.

He can sing all the words to “I am a child of God,” “Popcorn Popping,” and “Steppin’ time” from “Mary Poppins.”  He loves to act like animals and reminds us how a lion sounds and eats.  The other night before bed he and Patxi were pretending that they were cats and so I wasn’t surprise that he was still pretending when it came time to say his prayers.  We were kneeling down and amongst his moewing, I asked him to start saying his prayers.  He said, “mom, I’m a cat!” and I said, “Not right now, sweetie, it’s time for prayer.”  So then I ask, as I do every time I help him say his prayers, “How do we start?”  And then Valin said, “Meow, meow, meow meow” in the same tone of voice as his usual prayers. “No, Valin, say ‘Dear Heavenly Father.’”  He replies, “Meow meow meow meow.”  Which I’m sure is cat language for “Dear Heavenly Father.” After suppressing a laugh, I told him to be a boy and said his prayers.  Then today while I was trying to get Valin to finish his lunch, he grabs my smashed finger.  I told him to be careful because I had an “owey.” He looked at my finger and asked if I wanted him to kiss it better.  After he did, he then got a sad look on his face and started to pat my face and ask if I feeling better.  When I realized that he was doing what I’ve done for him when he get “owies,” I smiled. I have such a sweet boy. 

Here's a few pictures from this month:

He is such a handsome boy!

He went a little wild with the stickers Grandma Wheeler gave him.  He put them all on one side of his face, even covering his eye.  Silly boy!

Boston woke up with crazy bed head!

We tried spaghetti squash for the first time.

And we loved it!

Wahoo!