Potty Training Update and Other Crappy Thoughts

So I've given up with the potty training- Aidan's not ready.

I felt like it was a little early but he's been peeing on the toilet for months that I thought this was my window.

It was a good introduction so we'll try again after Christmas.

The interesting thing is the reason it didn't quite work is so different than the other kids. He WANTS to do it, he CAN do it, he LIKES doing it but I can tell it's stressing him out. He's cranky and sad.

Looking back, it probably wasn't the best idea to get rid of the crib and diapers in the same week. I know, Duh! But he's so agreeable and gung ho about everything, I didn't think of it as being too hard on his little emotions.

Enough about that...

Another thought: one of my friends posted "blah, blah, blah" on her blog. That was the title and that was the body of the post- that's it. All of the comments, including mine were like, "Yep- got it, ditto, I feel the same, etc.

I thought it was just me coming off my vacation high. But others are feeling this way too. Usually I don't feel this way until after New Years so it's not a good sign that the "blahs" have already showed their ugly faces.

I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing: Prayer, scriptures, church calling, service, trying to be a patient, loving mother. I'm even having small periods of time where I feel motivated, purposeful and happy. But then the "blahs" come back.

Why? How can we help each other? What can we do?

Any suggestions?

My Punk Rocker

Alex has wanted to be a Punk Rocker for Halloween for about 6 months. About a month ago, he became nervous concerning my ability to produce a "sweet" costume. I told him to have a little faith in his old, out-of-style, mother.

Tonight was our ward's Fall Social so he got to try out his Halloween Duds. He thought I was pretty cool putting together such a great costume. I lucked out at DI yesterday when I found the leather jacket and the boots!

The magnet earrings came to me when I was trying to fall asleep last night. He loved them! The costume judges at the party loved them too because Alex was one of the costume contest winners!

On Friday for Halloween, we're going to shave the sides of his head so he'll have a mohawk. He is so excited for the "real thing".

World's Hungriest Baby

During our outings, Amberlyn and I are always pulling interesting things out of Grace's mouth. (I'm sure Amberlyn does this all day long at home... but I always find it interesting.)

Today, our outing included a quick lunch combined with a Wal-Mart trip. Being the budget-conscience mothers that we are (just recently converted, but hey, we're trying), we used a coupon to get 2 entrees for the price of one. As Amberlyn got up to go pay for our food, she gathered my cash as well as hers.

She said, "Where's the coupon?"

I replied, "I don't know. Did you give it to me?"

She said, "I set it right there on the table close to your side."

We began to pick up plates, silverware, glasses, purses, etc., when Amberlyn pulled the chewed up coupon (pictured below) out of Grace's mouth. We couldn't stop laughing!

Luckily, I had also clipped the same coupon before leaving the house just in case.

It would have been a whole lot funnier to get a picture of Grace as she was gnawing on the coupon with paper pieces amongst the drool rolling down her chin. But, I had to settle for saving the baby-muched wad of paper in my wallet until I could get home to document the damage.

Now that I soon won't have to carry a diaper bag (see earlier potty training post), maybe I'll have room for my camera. Next time, I can catch the world's hungriest baby in action!

Sixth Folder, Sixth Photo TAG

I'm so glad it wasn't a gay one of me! While I was waiting for it to load I was thinking, "Denise! Did you cheat? Watch me get a ugly picture and I'll have to post it!"

This one is of Ed during our Segway Test Drive experience. His experience was in no-way Extreme (see earlier post titled "Extreme Segway"). In fact, he didn't even try to hop off when I fell. When I asked him later about it he said, "Well, if you were going to fly off a cliff on a Segway and die, I knew I shouldn't follow. Someone around here has to act calm and responsible!"

Where's the fun in that, I ask?

So I tag Amberlyn, Amidey, Dawnyeil, Dawn, Dory, Emily, Hilary, Rindee, & Karin (everyone in my friend's section that hasn't previously been mentioned).

Instructions: Post the 6th picture in your 6th Pictures Folder on your computer. And no cheating!

A Picture Says 1000 Words

This is what Aidan thinks of potty training. "No Sweat Mom! I got it covered!"

Now if we could just get the "poo-poo training" underway... it would really help.

Any suggesetions? Never had a kid who got the #1 right and not the #2. Or if I did, I forgot.

Soccer Team Group Picture

We just got this in the mail and I wanted to post the team picture.

It will go up in Andrew's room and who knows where it will end up from there.

BTW... I'm not getting rid of my title as soon as I thought.... A.L & Alex are on the same basketball team and I'm going to give it a shot! No pun intended.

Disneyland Favorites

Our very last day we changed things up a bit since the little kids were having a hard time going from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Daniel and Ed left the hotel early with the "big" kids (Christopher, Kira, Hannah, Haylee, Alex & A.L.) arriving at Disneyland at 8 a.m. Robin and I came later with the "little" kids (Brionna, Michael, & Aidan). We met the other group at Tower of Terror at 10:15.

Around 4 p.m. we all headed back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner, the guys stayed back with the "little" kids as Robin and I headed back for a few jam-packed hours.

This schedule worked out great since with fewer people and fewer strollers, we could maneuver the crowds much easier. I couldn't figure out who was dragging who- if it was Robin and I or the kids. After Wednesday's break at the beach, both Robin and I were charged up and ready to go!

Space Mountain was in everyone's "Top 3 Rides" and we were lucky enough to be able to ride it twice in the last hour the park was open (the big kids rode it that morning as well). In fact in the last half hour, we came off Space Mountain, snuck in Star Tours and Astro Blasters, and managed to get back in line for Space Mountain.

One of our favorite things to do was to strike a pose as the rides' camera shot a picture. We raced to the end of the exit to see our photo creativity. You knew your pose was great when before you turned the corner, you could hear the kids laughing. The very last time we rode, I told the kids to pick a pose and we would all do the same thing. They had been bugging us the whole trip to buy a picture so I told them if it turned out, I would buy one. The pics at Astro Blasters were great because you could e-mail them to yourself for FREE!

On a side note about the pictures: we were beginning to think Haylee and Kira were ghosts or vampires or something because whenever they would ride together, the picture would come up blank! We got smart and changed up the seating charts for our Space Mountain pic.

I'm curious.... what is your Family's Favorite Ride at Disneyland or California Adventure?

Not bad for our First Family Vacation!

I had just a second to post (Ed ran to the store since we came home to find out that we have absolutely no toilet paper) and wanted to say how much FUN we had on our vacation! It was a blast!

I'll write and post more pictures later after I've had time to unpack, do laundry, sleep, etc.....

Disneyland Fun!

We are on our way to Disneyland this morning! We'll stop in Vegas overnight and then drive the rest of the way tomorrow. We're are so excited! This is the logo I designed for our T-shirts. We will all wear them on our first day at Disneyland- Monday! We can't wait!

It Took Me Long Enough!

We've lived in this house for 5 years and I just finally got done decorating above my cabinets. I didn't realize when we moved into this house how many shelves there were to decorate..... I'm sure I'll want to change it in another 5 years. Isn't that how it goes?

This is my seasonal shelf- it's the one you see as you're walking into the kitchen.

So I'll change this one each season or Holiday.

South Dakota never had it so GOOD

Hannah's 5th Grade Class is focusing on learning all of the 50 States and being able to correctly identify them on a U.S. Map. As part of this State focus, they each were assigned a State.

Hannah's is South Dakota. They had several projects to choose from that they could do with their State and one of them was a 3D Map. Hannah chose to make Pumpkin Bars and decorate the top with the Capitol, landmarks, rivers, and other towns & cities. She had a lot of fun doing it and has learned an awful lot about South Dakota.

Who knew South Dakota could be so much fun?

Crazy Hair Day!

No explanation needed.....

Coach Amy + 10

This is my Fabulous 1st Grade Boys' Soccer Team! (Back row: Ammon, Carter, Trent, Jacob, Corbin, Andrew (Logan), Coach. Front row: Josh, Ethan, Hayden & Nathan)

The Rec Office called before Soccer started and said they had 2 teams from Spanish Oaks and no coaches. I honestly thought he was calling me to get names of people that could Coach. Turns out, he was asking if I would volunteer. I felt so inadequate- I really didn't know the rules or what to do- but I decided to give it a go.

It was so fun! Andrew (Logan) was so excited for me to Coach his team. We had a little bit of a rough start at practices when he would get mad and burst into tears. Of course, I couldn't ignore the other 9 boys and deal with him so I just had to let him throw his fit and ignore it. After practice, I explained to him why I couldn't drop everything and we talked about it. I think this experience helped him to deal with his coping issues. We still had a few tearful moments in a couple of games but I told him he had to sit out if he was going to cry. Aren't all parents who coach or teach harder on their own kids?

I told myself going into the season that I would remain neutral as far as the winning goes. But, most of my 10 boys were highly competitive and wanted to win. I think knowing that they cared about it and they weren't just doing this because their mom signed them up or because it's just what you do unleashed some sort of coaching monster in me because I became relentless and motivated to help them succeed. Succeeding in sports to me isn't all about winning- it's about doing your best. And if you do your best and play with your heart and still lose than it doesn't matter what the scoreboard says. We still had a few moments of distraction from praying mantises, the urge to wrestle your teammate, a big hole in the field filled with water, etc but overall we did great! We hardly ever got scored on.... mainly because as soon as the ball crossed the center line, I started yelling, "Defenders!" to wake them up. I never really noticed until the end but I was the only coach doing that.... oh well!

After the last game, they all Dog Piled Coach. During the first practice, they were all wrestling and dogpiling while I was talking. So I said, "This is soccer, not the WWF. We don't have time for dogpiles! Wait until our last game and you can dog pile all you want." Of course, their reply was, "Can we dog pile on you?"

"Sure!"

Apparently one of my players never forgets anything so he brought it up before we started our last game. Thanks Nathan!

(Special note of caution: If you ever find yourself in this situation, place the whistle in your mouth before everyone starts jumping on you and let them know when you blow the whistle it means to hop off. This way, you can signal them when you're done. You might not realize that with 10 boys on top of you, you can't move at all. This especially helps if you're claustrophobic)

We finished out the season with a Team Party at my house. It was fun to get all the boys together and let them play without anyone yelling, "Defenders!" My kids planned some fun games for them in the backyard and the family room and we ate pizza for lunch. We also had an awards ceremony. I made these fun trophies for them out of candy. This one is Andrew's and he got the "Dauntless Defender" Award.