Its Potty Time!

 Its that time again . . . time to potty train!  Bree has been ready for a few months but I was very reluctant to start since we are still having so many problems with Darcy.  I just wasn't mentally ready to take it.  Then 2 weeks ago Darcy's psychologist and I thought it was time for Darcy to lose the Pull-Ups and go to undies only, and she has to clean herself up now.  We were hoping that would be the game changer and she would poop in the toilet but so far all it has accomplished is me getting very familiar with the "sanitary" setting on my washing machine.  I decided the same day we made the change with Darcy I would start training Bree too.  I didn't want to prolong the agony so I found about 3 days in a row without major committments and went for it.  The first day we had 5 accidents and then magically 2 successes that evening!  The next day was a big improvement and now, not even 2 weeks later, I would call her potty trained when it comes to pee.  She even keeps herself dry at night and during naps!  And this was all without having to bribe her with anything!  Whoopee!  Way to go Bree!  #2 hasn't happened yet on the toilet, and I am soooooo afraid I have another Darcy on my hands.  I don't know what it is with these girls and pooping on the toilet but I can't put up with it much longer.  I want to leave this dirty business behind and move on to big kids.  I am very proud of Bree's efforts and I will admit that I just LOVE her little buns in her little undies.  Too cute!

Mason Lost a Tooth!

September 22nd Mason lost his first tooth!  It had been loose for awhile and I mentioned that if he just pulled it down in the front it would probably pop out.  So he did it!  Once it was out he gave us a huge, now holey, smile.  Drew didn't manage to lose her first tooth till she was 7 so Mason is pretty proud of the fact he is only 6 AND he did it during the school year so he gets his name on the tooth board at school.  Quite the accomplishment.  He didn't freak out at the blood like Drew did and now he can't wait to lose the other 3 he swears he has loose.  I think if they were easy to pull out at any given time Mason would be walking around with a totally gummy smile.  It makes me smile when he talks and I can see the little hole in his face.  This kid is growing up!

First Day(s) of School!

Drew and Mason started 3rd and 1st grades this year!  I am excited for Drew to branch out and learn things other than how to read and how to add 2+2.  She is excited about the science her teacher promised the first day of school and also the arts and crafts, imagine that.  She has had a smile on her face when she comes home from school and there have been no emotional outbursts so far so I think this is going to be a good year for her.  Her class is 2 kids smaller than last year and she knows almost all of her classmates already so its business as usually for Miss Drewsy!

 

Mason is in school all day now.  That means he gets to take a lunch and have 2 recesses!  As for what he's learning?  Who knows!  So far he is OK with school.  He likes his teacher, knows a couple kids in his class, and is bugging me to get his lunch account set up so he can buy pizza on Wednesdays.  Gotta have priorities I guess.  All else will fall into place I'm sure.  It looks like a good year for Mason too.

 

I was hoping I could get the kids off to school and all would be well, but that isn't the case.  I am fighting with the new bus company and the school district to get our bus stop changed.  As it is now, 6 kids 8 and under got off at a major intersection and have to cross 2 lanes of traffic to get to our sidewalk.  This could all be resolved if the bus would just go counterclockwise in our neighborhood instead of clockwise.  I have been fighting with the bus company manager, the district transportation representative, and sent an email to the superintendent who promised to get back to me Friday but has yet to make contact.  Other parents have voiced their concerns too so we are hopeful we can get this changed for the safety of our kids.  It seems the bus/district people are more concerned about being right than about doing what's right.  Unfortunately this fight pretty much ruined the first week of school for me but I tried my hardest not to let it affect the kids.  But of course they heard me yelling on the phone ;)

 

 Little Miss Darcy is in preschool!  Today was her first day and she did an amazing job.  For the past 2 months Darcy has been seeing a child psychologist about her anxiety and transition issues, along with potty training issues, and I was extremely anxious as I dropped her off for school this morning.  I was prepared for a meltdown but it never came.  She was too busy with the train set to even remember to give me a hug goodbye!  Bree and I left Darcy's school sobbing, though Bree was crying about leaving the train set, not Darcy.  I think that was my toughest drop-off yet.  Darcy is one of my little girls and it was quite a blow to my emotions to leave her in the care of someone else.  She is definitely mentally ready for preschool, I just wasn't sure about emotionally but she has proven me wrong.  I explained Darcy's situation to her teacher last week at the open house and she wasn't bothered at all by the situation and I left there feeling like Darcy would be in excellent hands.  Today her teacher let me know Darcy did very well with no problems at all.  I am so proud of my sweetheart.  I would like to say that all my anxiety over her anxiety is now over but tomorrow is another day and with Darce you are never quite sure how she will react.  Hopefully she enjoys herself enough over the next couple of days that she can be comfortable with her school and teacher and I won't have to worry about her while she's gone.  Who am I kidding, of course I will worry about her but maybe just a tiny bit less. 

So for 3 hours a day, 3 days a week it is now just Bree and I at home.  It was very strange and will take some getting used to.  I'm sure I will eventually love it but I also miss the sound of my kids' voices, even if it is just them fighting with each other.  I'm expecting wonderful things for all of my kids this year.  What a fun stage we are in!

Road Trip 2012

 

 Road trip 2012!  Usually I am having babies in the even numbered years and road trips happen in the odd years but since our family is complete and we had a birthday celebration to attend in Redding, CA we made a road trip out of it.

First stop on our trip was Crater Lake National Park.  This trip was heavy on the National Parks.  We ended up with 5 new stamps in our park passports!   I was hoping Bree would travel a bit better than she did last year on our Yellowstone trip, and in the end I can say she was much better, but that first stop we almost turned around.  Bree and Darcy were monsters to put it mildly.  Not only did they bug us, they disrupted the ranger's speech for about 75 others.  Gee thanks girls.  They were asleep when we took the sign picture so we didn't wake them, hoping they would be happy when they woke up but no go.

You can see Darcy's sour face and Bree wouldn't even look at the camera.  I have no idea how you can be so unhappy at such a gorgeous place but leave it to my girls to find a way.  But since Paul and I are road trippers we told the kids to suck it up and we moved on!

 Lassen National Park was our next stop.  Unfortunately it was too late in the season to be seeing the best of the parks we went to this trip.  All the snow was melted and waterfalls were dry.  I'm sure Lassen would have been impressive a month before.  We barely made it in to see the park because they had a huge fire burning in the north end of the park.  A few days after we were there we heard they shut down the roads we had taken to get in at the south end.  Good thing we hit this park early in our trip.  We got to see lots of fire engines and 2 helicopters with water to dump on the fire.  The smell of the smoke made me want to hop in my engine and head to the fire lines!  I loved that job!

Our next stop was in Dayton, NV to visit Paul's brother Roland and his family.  It was tons of fun getting the little cousins together.  There are 7 of them between the ages of 2 months and 8 years.  I have great memories of playing with Utah cousins every summer and I hope my kids can say the same about their Nevada cousins.

 Roland and Star took us to Sand Harbor Beach on Lake Tahoe for the day.  Absolutely gorgeous!  We swam, or floated, for four hours in the clear water and beautiful sunshine.  What a beautiful place.

 This is Maple, Drew, and Bree out on the lake.  That giraffe floatee was the hit of the day.  It was like pulling teeth to get one kid off so the next in line could take their turn.  As you can see from the pictures, Bree pretty much monopolized it.  Her screech was louder than the others I guess.

 Darcy was in heaven.  I thought she would be fried on the back of her legs but some how we managed to avoid sunburns the entire trip.  Pretty good when you consider we in California in August and swam at two different lakes all day.

Uncle Roland and Aunt Star both took turns paddling around the lake with the kids.  They loved it there.  Darcy still talks about seeing Uncle Roland which is quite a breakthrough for her since she usually steers clear of men.  After swimming at the lake we stayed at a casino in South Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side.  We ate breakfast the next morning at McDonalds on the California side!  We had a "minor" mishap as we were packing to leave and head south to Yosemite.  Let me back up.  We have had a trailer for the past 5 years that we wore out on all our trips.  We decided to sell it before it was worthless and since we didn't want to camp this trip in the 100 degree weather.  The trailer sold and Paul decided we needed a cargo carrier on the back of our Acadia.  He bought the carrier and worked very hard making the platform that would carry it.  Well, in Tahoe, the main weld decided to give way as Paul was packing it thankfully, and the whole thing fell off the car.  He was able to find a guy in town who could weld it for us and we were back on the road after about a 2.5 hour delay.  I thought all was lost but it turned out to be a minor hitch in our giddyap!

We arrived at Yosemite from the east and drove through all the way to the other side where our hotel was for the night.  On the way we saw amazing granite formations and got to walk up some granite hills.  I think they used the same granite in the roads because they would sparkle as the sun hit them.

 Like I said, we exited the park to the west that night and the road was a nightmare!  Never enter or exit on the west side!  There are no amenities at either western entrance for almost 2 hours.  We know, we took both trying to find the best route.  They were both awful and we were lucky we didn't have the trailer behind us.  It seems like such a famous place would have better accessibility.  We finally left the park the next day to the south which was probably the best road, though it put us much farther south than we wanted to be.  But it was worth it.

 This is El Capitan.  Standing at the bottom of it gave me the shivers and brought tears to my eyes.  I'm not sure why.  Its very imposing and just amazing.  We have been blessed as a family to see many of the beautiful sights in our country and they are just awe inspiring.

 The kids, on the other hand, were much happier looking at the ducks floating under the bridge.

 Yosemite Valley.  Amazing, beautiful, gorgeous place!

 We are at Glacier Point here, with Half Dome in the background and the valley down below Paul.  That was a beautiful view of the whole place.

 I think the kids liked Yosemite, though they didn't appreciate it as much as Yellowstone last year.  That park is more interactive and fun for kids with all the animals and the sulfur pools and geysers.  Paul and I would both rank Yosemite as one of our top 5 parks though, along with Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, and I say Bryce Canyon.

Here is Mason being dwarfed my a giant Sequoia at the Mariposa Grove in the south end of the park.  These trees were huge!  I think they left an impression on the kids.

 San Fransisco was the next stop on our list.  I had been there twice before but never explored it like we did this time.  We stayed in Oakland so we got to cross the bay bridge a couple times,along with the Golden Gate bridge which you can see in the background of this picture.  We also saw the Oakland Temple where Paul's parents were married, and I made Paul drive around the University of California campus in Berkley.  We ate lunch at Crissy Beach and were able to watch the preliminaries of the America's Cup sailing race with Alcatraz in the background.  That was fun!  Well, for everyone but Darcy.  She had a seagull swipe her first sandwich and then a friendly dog grabbed her second!  Darcy will always remember San Francisco I guess.  We also drove down Lombard Street and up some very steep hills that we tried not to stop on or you might not get going up again.  We spent a little time on Pier 39 but were in a rush to get to AT&T Ballpark to catch the Braves /Giants game.  I was soooo excited when we decided to take the trip to realize the Braves would be in town the same time we were.  It was a really nice park and I think most of us had fun, no meltdowns by little girls anyway, but the Braves managed to lose.  Oh well, I had a good time anyway.

In-N-Out Burger.  My brother in law swears by it so we went there.  Twice.  The first time only Paul ate there and just got a regular burger.  The second time I was brave enough to try and we did some research into the secret world of In-N-Out and Paul ordered a 3x3 Animal style.  Look it up, its legit!  It was an OK hamburger but not good enough for me to vacation in Redding for (that's the location of the farthest north store).

The last stop on the trip was Redding for my Mother-In-Law's 70th birthday celebration at Whiskeytown Lake, near where she grew up.  It was hot!  And smokey from the near by wildfires, but we had a good time.  We swam, ate good food and good birthday cake, and visited with lots and lots of family we don't see very often.  Even Aunt Merrie and Sharron made it out from Michigan for the party!

 Darcy can be uninhibited at times I guess.  We hitched a ride on the boat Drew is sitting on in the next picture to a small island on the lake where some of the little bodies stripped naked to swim since their moms had already changed them into dry clothes for the evening.  Silly moms!  We're at a lake!  We had our own private nude beach!

We had an awesome trip this summer.  It was different, staying in hotels every night.  It was probably tough on the kids staying somewhere new each night instead of having the old familiar trailer to play and sleep in, but I did appreciate a clean room and the ability to shower every day!  Our trip next summer will take place during Paul's work sabbatical which gives us the option of being on the road for 2 months straight!  We are in the early stages of planning and I am already getting so excited!  Tune in next year at this time to see how that trip went!

5kFoamFest

 5kFoamFest was a blast!  I saw an advertisement in the local paper for it and knew I had to sign up.  The only problem was my racing partner was going to be out of town the weekend of the race.  I signed up anyway and had to do some heavy recruiting to find people to race with me.  Finally I convinced my sister Candace and my bro-in-law Shane (Samantha's husband) to join me.  Here we are looking clean and happy before the race began.

 Now when I say "race" I use that term lightly.  For some reason the organizers didn't have a very good flow set up so we kept getting stuck behind people on obstacles, waiting to take our turn.  It was nice to get a breather but it messed up any sort of rhythm.  And I don't think it was even timed, the whole point of this adventure was to have fun and get messy!  Here we are "racing" up the hill at the end of the race.  There was a bottleneck at the final obstacle so we didn't even attempt running it.  Well, we did, we just didn't get very far running ;)  Mason joined me at the very end.  I'm not sure he is very impressed with my crazy races.  He always just looks at me kind of funny, like I have lost my mind or something.

 Climbing the cargo net.  Its fine till you get to the top and have to get yourself over to the other side while looking 20 feet straight down.  Mission accomplished though.

 We thought we were such a mess here, before the last obstacle.  Ha!  Actually, we were a mess.  This was the result of taking an 80 foot slip-n-slide covered in foam face first.  With a big huge mud pit at the bottom.  That was hilariously fun.  I swear we were going about 60 mph!  I got my hand slipped under a cut in the plastic and some how my arm was pulled back out without breaking in half as I'm racing down the hill.  I have a HUGE ugly bruise on my left arm.  I seriously don't know how I didn't end up breaking it. 

 The final obstacle, a foam covered bouncy slide.  I got up from this and couldn't see a darn thing.  The guy with the towel kept telling my "I'm right in front of you." but I couldn't find him!  I must have looked like a real idiot!  Well, yah, just look at me.  Who in their right mind pays money to do this?!

Here we are in all our glory.  What a mess.  It was tons of fun though.  I would do it again if they could guarantee a better flow of the race.  I had so much fun racing with my family this time.  Maybe next year I will sign up early enough so Drew and Mason can compete in the 1 mile kids' race.  My racing for this summer is over now.  Jodi and I decided to skip the Warrior Dash since we already conquered that course last year ;)

Party Time!

 The beginning of July is party time for our family.  We usually have a big 4th of July party and then my birthday is on the 6th.  Darcy's is two days later on the 8th so we hae an excuse to party for about a week straight!  This year was no exception, except for spending the 4th at home, but we still partied for it!  On my birthday we went to my parents house, swam at the outdoor swimming park, Paul and I actually went to dinner - just the two of us - while the kids ate tacos at Aunt Sammy's house, and then we all had a slumber party at her house with Darcy's favorite cousin Ruqayyah!  It was quite a busy day!  And of course we had lots and lots of my favorite dessert, Angel Delight!

 Saturday morning we made it over to grandpa's for his famous pancakes!  YUUUMMM!  Just look at all those happy faces!

 We stayed at my parents' and played in the water and had a bar-b-que.  Mason was loving playing with his BOY cousins!  He is rarely in the company of so many guys to play with.

 Sunday was Darcy's birthday!  Happy birthday Miss 4 year old!  She talked about having a horsey cake since she turned 3 so I put together a horse head with cupcakes.  She wanted a pink horse so she got a pink horse!  She was a happy girl!  She did very well being the center of attention.  I wasn't sure how it would go but it was surprisingly smooth.  Her cousins were there to help her celebrate so that made it all the better!

Grandma and Grandpa found her a pink horse to go along with the gifts from us which were a pink body pillow (all the rage at our house right now), a Cat in the Hat board game, a "Brave" doll which looks just like Darce, and some nail polish and chapsticks to keep her looking gorgeous!  She had a great day with all her family around loving her.  What a special girl my Darcy is!  Some of her favorites right now are:

Color - red and yellow
Food - little noodles (Kraft mac and cheese)
Animal - horse
TV Show - Blue's Clues
Thing to do - play on the trampoline

Happy birthday to my sweet, sweet Darcy!

4th of July

 We love 4th of July!  Well, most of us do.  Mason goes crazy for it but Drew doesn't appreciate it all that much.  Sparklers are fine, the loud fireworks aren't.  I thinks she would be fine skipping the holiday all together.  Mason on the other hand went crazy all day waiting for the fire works.  We only did a few in our street but they were fun.  For the past few years we have been at my parents' for a huge family bash but since the 4th was on a Wednesday this year we spent a "quiet" holiday at home.

 Bree was fearless with the fire.  We will have to keep our eyes on this girl as she gets older and bolder!

 I think Mason had fun ;)

 Darcy was brave enough to hold two at once!

Waiting for dad to start the show!