Accomplishment!

We had quite a productive time this week and weekend!

We got rid of these!!

And put this away!

Max is potty trained! He did so good! It was pretty easy too. No tears at all! He can now go just like a big boy.  He did have an accident last week when he was dancing like a fool by the stage at Chuck E Cheese. (He sure can dance! Its so fun to watch!) We aren't even using pull ups! He wakes up dry during naps and during night time. Although, about half the time he still has trouble getting to the bathroom in time after he wakes up in the morning. We only had to do small rewards of candy. And he did the rest. We are so proud of him!!

And this weekend we traded these in,

for this:

TWO WHEELS! Yes, Zac can now ride a two wheeler! We are also so proud of him! We are surprised at how quick it happened. We tried a few times at the end of last summer and he wasn't quite ready. While on training wheels, we worked on learning how to use the breaks. He also rode his bike to the park occasionally.

His training wheels never got tightened fully after taking them off last summer, so this year they have been somewhat wobbly. The training wheels were falling off so we just decided to try it out. And he started balancing that first run.

Proud daddy!

Pound it!

Two wheels! He can also start and stop riding on his own, without crashing.

This is all he has to show as far as battle wounds!

We are so excited about how well the boys have done! This is going to be a GREAT summer! After Zac was potty trained he got a Cars, Mack truck. (Since the Easter Bunny got carried away and found a great deal on some toys, and then later was reminded about how Easter shouldn't be so secular . . . we had a couple fun pirate toys hanging out in the closet.) To reward Max and Zac for doing so great on their accomplishments they got a fun new pirate toy! Zac was so excited for this!

We also got an offer on our house this weekend. Things are rolling along!

Staying Busy

With all the unknown lying ahead, I am trying to stay very busy. This week has been just that!

I got a book at the library that I have really been into, but have only been able to read maybe 3 chapters this week. I hope to get to the right after this post is done!

I am also counting calories. The dieting has been difficult. Lately, with the stress, boredom, girl scout cookies, and Easter candy all over I have had NO control over what I eat and how much.  It was a huge adjustment. But I think I am much more in control and I think I've lost a couple pounds too!

Potty training Max

Doing my door frame craft

Hanging out with my Mom on Wednesday

PEIP parent council meeting

Keeping the house clean for last min showings

Continually, learning to deal with my emotions, keep my head up, and have hope and faith.

Making another craft: After going to the jewelry show I needed somewhere to put my necklaces. My friend Angie (who also went to the jewelry show), and I decided we needed something cute and sassy to hang our jewelry. We had seen some things on blogs and online. So we decided we would see how we might make some thing similar. This is what we came up with. I really love it!

(That red necklace is for you Mom! 

I keep forgetting to bring it over, 

along with those girl scout cookies!)

It was more time consuming than I expected. But it was a fun time!

Then we were all out very late Friday night with some friends.

Today, Rachel and I got together and made some more crafts! I have had this stuff for a long while now and I'm finally using it :)  Rachel made a necklace with rosettes, and I was not feeling the necklace yet, so I made a couple headbands.

This one is navy. I didn't use the flash again...oops

Ward dinner groups tonight. I sure love going to those!

Its been a crazy week, but a good one over all.

Boys

After reading some chat on facebook about missing certain windows of potty training opportunities, I decided that I had that window a couple weeks ago (even though Max is only 28 months) and hoped it was not closed yet!  This week, we (I), have been working to potty train Max, and things are going pretty well. Yesterday, he had no accidents, we weren't home all day, and were up til 1:00a playing! (I am not brave enough to do no diapers during nap or bedtime). Today he had one accident, while he was in timeout. I think we are on our way. He will occasionally tell us when he needs to go. He can hold it for awhile, so he hasn't really had much opportunity to tell me without being prompted. A few days ago, he perfected the reward system. He sneakily decided to break his #2 into 3 consecutive trips, thus getting 6 treats instead of 2! Silly boy! I didn't fall for that too hard, he only got 4 treats.

Anyway, last Saturday we were doing the naked thing after accidents in the underwear.  The boys have a friend across the fence and like to talk through a hole in the fence.


Max muscling Zac out of the way

He poked me in the eye!

Mom said we have to share

Random

A few random pics:

The boys love to play with these umbrellas!

One day after Max woke up from his nap I heard him calling from his bedroom. I went to see what was up, and this is what I saw reaching out from under the door, and he was saying, "waaaiiiitt, waaiit, mom!" He has never done this before it was pretty funny. He must have had a weird dream.

Max is such a character. He climbed up and was hiding in the pillows. When I walked by the room, I heard him but it took me a minute to find him.

Outside

The weather is off and on these days. It was a particularly warm afternoon, so while I laid out the boys ran around without shirts. I sure love having a fenced in backyard. The boys play so good together most of the time when they're outside.

Love these boys!!!

Pirate Island!

One day over spring break we decided to go to Pirate Island with Amanda, Chance, and Sophie. Its a pirate themed restaurant, with arcades, tickets, and prizes-the food isn't too bad either.

I told Zac to show me how excited he was, and this is what he did :)

AWESOME!

Honestly though, when you walk in the front doors of the restaurant it does feel little like waiting for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. (I don't who will be more excited to go to Disneyland someday me or Zac ;) 

All the workers dress as if they are on a pirate ship and even talk in pirate slang.  We even saw Jack Sparrow, with his trademark swagger!

Zac is saying, "Arrrr"

This gun shoot'em game is pretty fun!

Today

it snowed again . . .

So after my errands, I ran to JoAnn's and then made this to remind me it was, indeed, spring.

I was inspired by this over at Blue Cricket Design. I already had the frame and so it was quick to make.  I love how its different than a regular wreath! I have been wanting something springy to put on the door, but all the wreaths I have seen are just blah.  I'm so pleased how it turned out!  I wish I could find more picture frames like this. Has anyone seen any around?

Easter Weekend 2010

I haven't figured out that we should color eggs and perhaps even do the Easter Egg Hunt before the actual Easter weekend. It was quite and undertaking to do the whole thing this weekend with conference. And takes away from the real meaning. I am working on getting that balance with the religious holidays.

Anyway, we colored eggs Saturday morning. It was so fun this year. Max understood what was going on and was exciting about coloring eggs too. And Zac enjoyed writing his name and drawing smiley faces on his eggs.

Jon and I also took a couple eggs to decorate.

Jon's two eggs are the upper most right ones (I MEAN LEFT); they looks like dinosaur eggs he says. Mine are the rainbow striped ones.

These are my tulips! I just had to share because I loved looking at them all weekend!

Then between sessions, my family came over for lunch, and afternoon conference and we did an Easter Egg hunt.  Its so hard for me to get pictures of the boys when they find an egg-they are so fast!

It was fun to see Max be more involved and excited this year. And as always Zac was ecstatic! He was delighted and surprised with every egg he found.

As you have seen with the previous post, this green grass Spring Easter-i-ness didn't last very long!

Then that evening while the men were at the Priesthood session of conference, my mom, sisters, and me and the boys went to get our nails done and to dinner. They boys were very good! And my mom and sisters were SO SO helpful with them so I could enjoy myself too! Thanks a ton ladies! (Thanks Rach for taking the pictures.)

(PS I hate this bandana on Zac, but he wanted it on ;P I can't find the word to describe what it reminds me of)

I love this picture of Max! So funny!

It was a hectic day. Has anyone been to Wal-mart at 11:30p the night before Easter? It was crazy! It was more busy than it is during the day. When I was checking out there were 8 people in line behind me, and the same at all the other registers. I ran into my parents, a preschool friend parent, and the lady that was sitting next to me when we got our nails done. It was a weird night. When I got home Jon was sleeping on the couch after having folded all the laundry and put it away. So I prepared for the Easter Bunny to come.  And while I was doing that I realized that this year, with everything going on, we never told the boys that the Easter Bunny was going to come. I wondered if they would know who their goodies were from.

Zac didn't disappoint! He knew exactly what was going on. Although, I think Max had no idea, but then again he didn't care either.

I think the Easter Bunny did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself ;) I love those Cheetos carrots!

So with everything going on I didn't get to listen to much of conference. But with trying to get little kids to be quite it's pretty hard anyway. I did get to enjoy most of Sunday afternoon though; the boys were napping. I can't wait for the Ensign to come out so I can actually learn from the talks!

Then on Sunday evening we hosted Easter Dinner. All of Jon's family, minus the missionary, were able to be there! It was so good to see everyone all together and to visit. I am really bad at taking pictures when we are hosting dinner and I just don't really take pictures when we get together for meals anyway. I wish I had taken some. I know it will be good to see them when I look back. Especially, since its not often that we all get together. Hopefully I will remember do take some next time.