You probably haven't seen a post from me in a couple of days (since I was doing them every other day.) I kind of have what you call "writer's block." I want to write about my family and kids, I don't want to go away from the "family" values or issues or family topics.


I have come up with a couple topics to write about in case anybody else gets lost.

• Family Vacations
• A Special Family Day/outing
• Birthdays
• Anniversaries
• Something that happens out of the ordinary
• A super good day of the week
• A worst/bad day of the week
• Any kind of celebration
• Photos
• Review and write about a children's book that you read to your kids
• Write your own 2-4 page children's book (on your blog)
• Dr. Appointments (kids')
• Maybe one or two posts a month about yourself (or any subject other than your family), because you don't want get away from the "family" blog. 
• Struggles
• Triumphs
• Kids' Achievements
• Kids' Activities
• Kids' School- First day of school, last day of school, field trips, etc.
• Your family's favorite restaurant, park
• Your child's favorite activities to do in the house
• Your child's favorite activities to do outside
• Your child's favorite game
• Your child's favorite book, song
• Your child's favorite time of the day
• Have your child tell you a good day of the week and why, and write about a good or bad day a week from your child's perspective

If you have any ideas to add, please do. Thanks! I appreciate all the emails, keep them coming! 

It has been a week since I started potty training Taygen. She is doing great! In the last 7 days, she has only had 4 accidents. That is not counting naps or bedtime. At bedtime and nap, I put a diaper on her. She did wake up dry though 2 days in a row from nap time. She doesn't tell me that she has to go potty, but she waits until she is sitting on the potty before she will go. A couple times I have caught her pointing down there to let me know she had to go.

This little insert is going around Facebook. It's about a man who does not understand everything his stay-at-home-wife does during the day, so he wants to trade places with her for a day.  I wanted to share this because I am a stay-at-home mom and this is the day in the life of what I do all day, every day. Most people don't understand how difficult, rewarding and challenging it is to be a stay-at-home mom. My next post will be about the difficulties, rewards and challenges that I and the kids face staying home.

"A man was sick and tired of going to work every day while his wife stayed home. He wanted her to see what he went through so he prayed: 'Dear Lord: I go to work every day and put in 8 hours while my wife merely stays at home. I want her to know what I go through. So, please allow her body to switch with mine for a day. God, in his infinite wisdom, granted the man's wish. ...
The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as a woman... He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate... Awakened the kids, Set out their school clothes, Fed them breakfast, Packed their lunches, Drove them to school, Came home and picked up the dry cleaning, Took it to the cleaners And stopped at the bank to make a deposit, Went grocery shopping, Then drove home to put away the groceries, Paid the bills and balanced the check book. He cleaned the cat's litter box and bathed the dog... Then, it was already 1 P.M. And he hurried to make the beds, do the laundry, vacuum, Dust, and sweep and mop the kitchen floor. Ran to the school to pick up the kids and got into an argument with them on the way home.
Set out milk and cookies and got the kids organized to do their homework. Then, set up the ironing board and watched TV while he did the ironing. At 4:30 he began peeling potatoes and washing vegetables for salad, breaded the pork chops and snapped fresh beans for supper. After supper, He cleaned the kitchen, Ran the dishwasher, Folded laundry, bathed the kids, and put them to bed. At 9 P.M. He was exhausted and, though his daily chores weren't finished, he went to bed where he was expected to make love, which he managed to get through without complaint. The next morning, he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed and said: - Lord, I don't know what I was thinking. I was so wrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home all day. Please, Oh! Please, let us trade back.. Amen!"

This blog is under construction

Keira at 18 months

Taygen at 18 months

This site is under construction. Please be patient while I am redoing this site.


Thanks

Aden goes to music/art class Thursday mornings (once a week for 6 weeks). Even though he is a very good boy, I would like to get him ready for preschool by having a "class" like preschool would be for him, where he would have to listen to someone other than me and have some other kids to play with. His first class was last Thursday and he did awesome.

Aden cutting

Aden made himself (not sure about the whole one eye thing) 

Sitting in Keira's car seat

Aden with his little guy that he made

I have been trying to potty train Taygen since she was about 16 months old off and on. She had several accidents through out the day and just wasn't ready.

I let it go for a couple months and started potty training her again just a couple days ago (18 months old, Tuesday, September 20th). I started at 9 a.m on Tuesday and she has been dry as of September 21, at 1:12 p.m.  I have her in a pull up and put her on the potty every 10-15 minutes. If she sits on the potty but doesn't go, she gets 1 m&m, if she goes potty in the potty she gets 3 m&ms.

I started on Tuesday because we were home all day and had nothing to do, so it was easier with no distractions. But when Dan got home we went out to eat at Fazoli's and shopping. I took her potty before we left and she went. I packed the potty chair in the diaper bag (just a potty chair that sits on the regular toilet), when we got to Fazolis I took her before we ate, she went on the potty! I took her potty before we left Fazolis, she went on the potty! I am so proud of her! She gets so excited when she goes potty! Keira was potty trained by 21 months and Aden was potty trained by 2.

This is only the second day, I will keep updated about once a week.

I love vacations with my family! Here are some pictures of our last family vacation at CocoKey (June 2011).  Even though it is only an hour away (in Omaha) it was a blast and I can't stress enough how important family time is when the kids are this young!

We went on family vacation Easter of this year (2011) we went to Great Wolf Lodge. We all had a blast! The last day we were there, Keira broke her arm climbing up the bunk bed ladder in the hotel room. Even though that night and the next morning was a blur for both Dan and I (mostly because Dan spent 7 hours (10p.m-5 a.m) in the hospital with Keira and I did not sleep at all worrying about her) that didn't matter because Keira turned out ok and we were all together.
This October we are going to Colorado to visit some friends and family. We have gone their about once a year for the past 3 years. I'm sure I will do a post about that and have plenty of pictures :)

I am truly blessed to have such an amazing family. 

Warning: Photo explosion! :)  Enjoy! 

Keira started school August 29th. This is the last week I have nothing to do before the week of September 12th. Then we are super busy for a couple of months....

Keira starts swimming September 12. Aden also starts swimming Sept. 12. Keira and Aden start Sunday School Sept. 11th. I start pool leagues September 13th. Dan starts pool leagues Sept. 14. Keira starts dance September 14th. Aden starts music school September 15th. Aden and Taygen also have Dr. appts in between these things.

Here's our schedule for the next couple months.

Keep in mind that Keira has school Mon., Wed., & Fri. from 12:30-3:00. It all starts September 12th....This week Sept. 12-16th will be especially busy with Aden and Taygen's well child checks. I used to do them on the same day, but I don't feel that they get enough attention when they go on the same day because they try to hurry the appt. along. I Don't mind the busy schedule! I like being busy! It feels like I am accomplishing something during the day other than laundry and cleaning.

Mondays

• School 12:30-3:00
• Aden 3 year Dr. appt. 1:15 (Sept. 12th)
• Swim- Keira & Aden 6 p.m

Tuesdays

• Nothing during day (our relaxing day!)
• Pool for me 7 p.m

Wednesdays

• Taygen 18 month Dr. appt. 9:30 (Sept. 14th)
• School 12:30-3:00
• Keira's dance 4:50-5:20
• Home by 5:30, cook supper
• Dan home by 6:30, eat, then be at pool by 7

Thursdays

• Aden's music class 10:30 a.m
• Rest of the day is relaxing! 

Fridays

• School 12:30-3:00

Taygen just had her 18 month well child check Wednesday. I can't believe she is 18 months already, where does the time go? She is getting so big, I just want her to stay little forever!

She weighs 23 pounds and is in the 61st percentile. Her height is 31 1/2" and is in the 36th percentile. Her head is 18" and is in the 50th percentile. She didn't have to have any shots today! YAY!

Vocabulary/Words~ EVERYTHING!! Yes, including..."no", "why", "mine!" Hmmm, wonder where she gets that from? :) She will repeat anything you say to her.

Favorite food~ Peanut butter sandwiches, ravioli, mac n cheese, and meatballs.

Favorite things to do~ She loves puppies. She loves to get her toy stuffed puppies and lay them down on the floor and cover them up and tell them "nigh night." She loves to give kisses and hugs, she loves to hold her babies, give them "muahs" and hug them tight. She loves to play "woah" with daddy. Daddy holds her hands and she leans back and says "woah", "again?" She just loves to play with Keira and Aden. She will walk up to them and say "tickle tickle" and try to tickle them, but of course they run away and she loves that because she just runs after them laughing. A new thing that she started to do... she has a favorite blanky (one of Keira's baby blankies), she will bring me the blanky and say up. I pick her up with the blanky and she says sit. So, we go sit on the couch and she just wants to cuddle with the blanky.

Aden turned 3 September 9th. He had his well child check on Monday. His weight is 27 pounds and is in the 11th percentile.  His height is 35 3/4" and is in the 12th percentile. His blood pressure is normal.

Aden is fully potty trained and has been for about a year, but when he has to go potty, he can't hold it. When he drinks a lot or swims and swallows a lot of water he has to go pee 10 times in 2 minutes, literally (and he goes every time). The doctor was concerned and wanted to do some tests. First, she pricked his finger and did a diabetes test. The first time it came back abnormal. She brought in a new machine and did it again, this time it came back normal. Then, she thought he might have something wrong with his kidneys or bladder, so she wanted to do a urine test. Of course, Aden couldn't go potty (but really?, who goes potty on command?). So, she sent a cup home with me ( I was going to return it on Wednesday when Taygen had her appt.).

 Aden had to go pee when we got home, so I went ahead and took the sample back to the Dr.'s right away (same day). I waited out in the waiting room, she called me back and said his glucose was fine, but they were worried about some blood that they found in his urine sample (not a red tint or anything, I had no clue there was any blood in there). The nurse was going to talk to his pediatrician and they would call me back. By this time, I was freaking out! It could just be an infection or something minor, but as a concerned mom, you tend to think the worst anytime you hear the word blood. They finally (what seemed like forever) called me back, the Dr. said she wasn't worried because it was very little blood, but next time he has blood in his urine he is to go to the ER. I said ok, but actually, I was thinking, how will I know that there is blood in his urine when I didn't see any in the first place?

He's doing pretty good. He starts music school on Thursday, so I'm sure I will do another post about that :).  He has grown up so much in the last couple of months. Being a stay at home mom you hear everything that your kids do, fight, argue, yell, so on, (when they are at a daycare you don't get to hear any of that during the day), that used to be constant with Aden because he didn't understand how to wait, so he wanted everything right then and when Keira didn't give it to him he got upset and started yelling at her which in turn made Keria yell at him. Anyway, he has grown up so much and has learned to take turns, share, and that he can't always have his way. They have stopped fighting and yelling at each other, which makes my life a lot easier.

This is another one of my favorite stories of an unexpected family time that I just loved.

It was a Saturday. We went out to eat supper and shopping as a family. While we were in the store, it started pouring (came out of no where), lightning and thunder. The lights flickered in the store, but never went out. Paid for our stuff and just waited around until the rain was light enough to be able to walk to the truck.

We were on our way home at this time, we got onto our road and noticed all our neighbors sitting/standing outside. One of the neighbors had their door open and I could see it was dark and they had candles lit, right then I knew the power was out. Dan hit the garage door button, just out of habit, of course, it didn't work. I realized that I DO NOT have a house key on my truck key ring. I do however, have the screen door key on it, which did not get us anywhere, by the way!

It was still light at this time, about 8:30 p.m, we realized we were locked out of the house and there was no way we were getting in, so we let the kids get out of the truck and just run around and play. It started getting darker and started sprinkling a little bit, so we loaded the kids back up into the truck. We didn't know what else to do so we just drove around the neighborhood looking at the damage the storm had done about an hour ago.

One of our neighbors had said that there was a power line down by Harley Davidson shop, so with Dan being a Mechanical Engineer and dealing with power lines we had to go look at it.  The kids were great, it was almost 10 by this time. We stopped at a gas station, got the kids a snack and some strawberry milk and just had a little snack picnic in the car. We drove around some more.

Got back to the house about 11:00 or so and just sat in the drive way and talked with the kids and had a blast. There was nothing we could do, so we just enjoyed the time we had as a family. Dan decided to go around back and look at our basement window, this time is was about 11:30, I looked down the street and the street lights were coming on one by one, finally, the neighbor's porch lights came on and we were in the garage. Later, I found out that he was about to come get Keira or I to climb through the window because he had it opened.

I know being stuck in an SUV with 4 other people (3 kids and your spouse) doesn't sound like much fun to some of you, but it is those times that you want to make the most of. The kids are more likely to remember that kind of adventure or family bonding time than doing something super expensive.

It's always nice to have a day planned out, but it's even better to have an unexpected day out with the family! This Saturday was the air show with the Blue Angels at the airport. We live by the airport, so we just sat in our drive way (or in the neighbors drive way) and watched. The show started at 11 a.m. Dan let me sleep in until 11, I got up, got the kids dressed, and we all went outside to watch. We took a couple of our deck chairs and brought the kids' rocking chairs outside for them to sit. It was a great day! It was so nice outside! The kids played with their chalk, bubbles, and rode their bikes around the drive way and inside the garage. We are a close neighborhood and everybody knows everybody, Keira is pretty good friends with one of our neighbor boys, so Keira and Aden went over to play. I stayed around the house because Taygen was napping at that time. When Taygen woke up we went over their and chatted for a bit while we watched the show. Keira's friend had a couple Nerf guns that they played with. The kids have never played with guns, not even squirt guns, fake guns, any kind of toy guns. No, my kids are not deprived, I just want them to be innocent as long as they can be ;).

The moral of the story is...I am not an outside person (bugs and dirty) but I was outside for 6 hours today and had a blast with my family!!

Here are some pictures of the kids eating outside and playing with the neighbors.

The kids riding their bikes. Keira is pushing Aden on her bike. He has a 3 wheeler but I guess Keira's is more fun.

Some pictures of the airshow

We are going to build house in the next 2-3 years. We have been looking at land in the Fallbrook area or The Bridges in Denton. Dan wants to build in The Bridges because they are Green and they use Geothermal.

Here are some of examples of the houses in The Bridges that we were looking at if we were going to just buy a house...
The Bridges houses...

WoodsBros.com

Fallbrook house...
We actually looked at a different house in Fallbrook, it was lovely but we did not like the basement. I think 2 of the rooms (I can't remember if it was 2 or 3) were in the basement. The basement actually had a kid slide built in, with a little hole in the wall for the kids to climb onto the slide. The basement was all brick, it felt like a dungeon down there, just creepy and cold.

Woodsbros.com

Aden turned 3 September 9th. He is such a big boy and amazes me more and more everyday. I thought it would be a problem with having 2 girls and a boy, but Aden plays with Keira and Taygen pretty good. There are times when he just wants to be alone to play with his trucks, cars, or the iPad :) He always tells Keira that she is his best friend and that he loves her.

Aden doesn't seem like he is only 3. He is so much more mature than other 3 year old boys. Aden loves to golf, just hit balls around in general :)

For Aden's birthday, Daddy and grandpa took him golfing at Highlands Golf Course.

Pictures....

My little golfer

Using his own golf clubs

Driving the golf cart