Crayon Roll

I love this blog called Elle Belle.  It's written by a mom who likes to sew.  She has some great little tutorials that are just perfect for a wanna be sewer like myself.  I saw a tutorial on making these little crayon rolls several months ago, but just not got around to trying it.

It was fun and pretty easy.  I made two...mostly because I learned from my mistakes on my first one and I wanted to try again.

We are giving this to my nephew Seth via Grammy who'll be going for a visit soon.  Don't worry Susannah...I made you some leg warmers too:-)

Nathan and his daddy

I had something else planned to write about tonight, but something to sweet to pass up just happened. I LOVE watching my children enjoy time with their daddy. I Love it, I Love it, I Love it! This video is a minute long and it has some good Nathan laughs in it.

Potty Training

I have now potty trained 2 children.  I have several friends getting ready to start potty training adventures, and I will have to potty train one more time...so this post is for you (and me).  I know there are lots of different ways, theories, and ages to potty train.  Here is what I did....

With Nicole, we potty trained her the week before her 2nd birthday.  Why?  I remember the moment that I changed Hannah's diaper (she was like 2 weeks old) and then I changed Nicole's diaper....she was almost 2 and I thought...this little girl is far to big to be in diapers!!!  I decided I was going to train her two weeks later.  I think it was because Memorial Day weekend was coming, so I knew I would have Jeremy's help for a longer period of time.

The day we started, she never wore a diaper again.  She just wore undies around and I set a timer.  Every 20 minutes or so, we would get all excited, run to the potty and let her try to go.  If she went, we had a party (and a cookie) if not, knew we would try again later.  There were a few accidents here and there, but within a couple of days she was able to feel the moment she needed to go.  She needed reminding sometimes (and still does sometimes...I'll see her start the "potty dance" and so I'll send her to the potty).  She did wear a pull up at nap time and bed time.  She was dry about half the time but after several nights of changing wet sheets and mornings discovering she had slept in wet sheets for who knows how long, I decided it was better for her to be in pull-ups than sleep in urine.  She stopped using pull ups at naps on her own about 6 months later....and it's been about 9 months since she's stopped wearing a pull-up at night too. She prompted that by telling us she didn't want to anymore. (once you start to tackle all night, you really need to stop giving your child something to drink at least an hour and half before bed time)

My feeling is....once you take them out of diapers, don't put them back in except at naps and night time.  This includes Pull-ups during the day.  They quickly learn they can pee in a Pull-up and it won't make a mess...but, if they pee in their undies, they get all wet and they don't like that.  So...even when we went to the store, even in the car....they wore undies...even at the very beginning.  I think this helps them train MUCH faster...at least in my experience.

Now, Hannah was in cloth diapers for most of her diapering time, so I think this helped her train faster...and prompted me to push a bit earlier.  Plus, her changing table is in the bathroom, so...since she was about 8 months old, I would put her on the potty several times a day and she would go.  Then, when she outgrew the cloth diapers I knew the time would come quickly because I didn't want to be buying diapers for her.  So...Hannah was already going potty every once in a while. Then, in January, our family started our fight with a month of sickness.  Once I realized we were pretty much stuck at the house for a while, I thought I'd give it a shot.  I had a lot more accidents with Hannah, but really....it was usually just pee which is so easy to clean up on wood floors.  No biggie, you know?  The worst accident was when she wet her undies (twice!!!!) at a play date at my friend Jennifer's house (Sorry Jen!!!).  But, come to think of it...that was the last time she's had an accident. Anyway...I'm rambling.

Hannah had a few more accidents than Nicole but she quickly learned.  She was also 3 months younger than Nicole was when I trained her.  Hannah is dry about 50% of the time at night and naps.  I'll let her guide me, hopefully like Nicole did, on when it's time to get rid of them.  This might be TMI...(like the rest of the post hasn't been, haha), but Hannah had a little diarrhea a few days ago.  I was worried she wouldn't make it to the bathroom...but each time she did!  I was surprised and felt like potty training was a complete success!

Now I've heard from many many friends that boys are harder to train than girls...so, I'm bracing myself for Nathan.  First of all....I'm not sure if I train him to pee sitting down or standing up.  I guess I have some time to figure that one out.  I'm a little nervous about all things "boy related" if you know what I mean....I just don't know how it goes.  I'll have to learn each day I suppose:-)

So....my potty training advice....
1. Pick a day to start wearing undies only!
2. Don't ever put a diaper or pull up on during the day... except at naps and bedtime
3. Set an alarm and go every 20-30 minutes the first few days (dedication ladies!  It's all about the potty the first few days)
4. Reward with a small cookie, sticker or treat every time then wean them from that once their potty habits are established
5. Be prepared for accidents.  It'll happen, but they'll learn from it...I promise!
6. Have lots of undies on hand
7. Be prepared to visit bathrooms everywhere!  Nicole would say potty just to go visit a new bathroom.  Hannah says potty just so she can wash her hands somewhere new.  But, at least they have a chance to go in the bathroom one more time.
8.   Oh....one more thing.  I bought undies with characters on them (Dora...who my kids DO NOT watch, but they are amused by her picture...whatever! haha), and Elmo.  And I would say, "Don't pee on Dora" or "Don't pee pee on Elmo".  Both girls would get a little upset if they had an accident because the "Pee peed on Dora" or whoever they were wearing.  For some reason...this worked! haha

I hope this advice helps...and I hope I can remember it one more time!  I'm definitely not an expert at potty training...just sharing what worked with my two so far.

Have you done or are you doing anything different for potty training?

The Wedding...From Nicole's Perspective

Occasionally throughout the weekend, Nicole got ahold of our camera.  So I thought it would be fun to post some of her pictures.  This is The Wedding Weekend, from Nicole's perspective.  Enjoy the v.i.e.w

 

 Our Table

  

 Uncle Wayne and Aunt Cheryl

  

 The Groom's cake

  

 Grandpa listening to  Justin

  

 This is the waiter putting our orders in and getting our drinks.  There were a few in there, they saw the flash and started looked around, and then saw Nicole standing there taking pictures.  It was funny.

AND....I just noticed the picture hanging on the wall...HAHA

  

 A jar of dressing?

  

 MEEEEEEE

  

 Our table again

  

 Papa and Yaya

  

  

 A random flower centerpiece in the clubhouse

  

  

 The budding photographer

  

  

Rehersal Dinner

Last Friday was the rehersal for Justin and Erica's wedding.  The dinner was held at Bucca Di Beppo and it was yummy and fun.  Here are some pictures from the evening.

 

 Nicole and her Great-Grandpa

  

 Rehersal

  

 Rehersal

  

 Uncle Justin and Nicole

  

 I have NO IDEA what these guys were laughing about, but the whole table was hysterical.

  

  

 Justin's Groom's Cake.

Go Buckeyes!

The Wedding

Yesterday, 2/27, Justin and Erica got married. It has been a fun couple days. I will do a separate post on the rehearsal dinner but for now especially for those of you who were unable to come, here are some photos and a video from the wedding.  I know my dad has some great pictures too...so when I get those, I'll post some more.

It rained for several hours before the ceremony, but about an hour before the ceremony was suppose to start, it stopped raining, the sun came out and it was beautiful. Justin and Erica got married outside in a beautiful walkway/ portico. Pastor Forrest from our church officiated. Nicole was a flower girl and had been looking forward to this day for weeks!!! She did a wonderful job.

 

Getting ready to walk down the aisle

  

Beautiful in the sunset

 

Nicole loved every moment of being a flower girl

  

Erica getting all dolled up.  She was beautiful! I started crying when I saw her.  

  

The guys....hanging out before the walk down the aisle.

 

Justin's first glimpse of Erica

Justin and Erica did a unity sand ceremony. Pastor Forrest poured a foundation colored sand into a vase. This represented that their marriage would be based upon the strong foundation of Jesus Christ. Then, Justin and Erica each poured in their own color of sand, representing their two different families. They topped the jar off with pouring each of their colors in at the same time representing their families being joined together.

 Sand Ceremony

At the very end of the ceremony Erica's mom had worked out a surprise for her. She had butterflies to be released as a symbol of their new life, and as a remembrance of Rick, Erica's father who passed away last May.

 

Here are some random pictures...

 

Isn't Hannah precious in this purple hat?

  

My friend Kirsten made Nathan his tuxedo onsie.  I LOVE it!

  

Nicole with the bridesmaids and ring bearer

  

Nicole and Logan, the ring bearer (Nicole sat down next to him and said, "Do you think I'm pretty?)

 Hannah enjoying the ceremony

The reception was lots of fun with great food. Nicole and Hannah danced the night away. Literally. Those two girls were unstoppable. They dance ALL NIGHT LONG! As you will see in the video. Nicole had a blast dancing with her daddy and Hannah would dance with anyone who would pick her up and twirl her around.

 

Mom, Dad and Nicole being introduced at the reception.

  

Justin and Erica's table

  

Their first dance

  

 Hannah having a great time with her daddy
 

 

 Our Family

Our family has a tradition of doing a sort of fundraiser for the newly weds. For Justin's wedding we put together a video of him dancing as a kid and including a video that came out on the internet his senior year of him dancing like a popular singer, Usher. Most of us had no idea he could dance like that, and until last night, most of us had never seen him do it in real life. So...we asked people to donate a few bucks to Justin and Erica and Justin would dance for the money. You HAVE to skip forward on the video to check it out. It's pretty much amazing I think anyway.

Justin, enjoying himself

The video is pretty long. I wanted to include all the footage I could for those of you who couldn't come down but wanted to see what was going on. If you get board watching my adorable little girls dance, then you can fast forward the clip to these highlights:-)

0:00     Ceremony (Nicole being a bridesmaid, the wedding vows and the butterfly release)
3:38     Dancing at the reception (you have to at least watch a little bit it was a blast)
9:21    Cutting of the cake
9:44     Mother/Groom Dance
11:08    Usher (Justin Dancing...a MUST...do NOT skip this part)
15:20     Other fun dances at the end of the night.



It was a beautiful wedding and a memorable day. Justin and Erica will be living in Ohio. We will miss them very much here in Florida. We wish them a very happy and long lived marriage.

T minus 2 hours and counting....

Can you hear the wedding bells?

Here comes the bride....all dressed in white...

No? You can't hear them?   How about...

We're going to the chapel and we're, gonna get married...

No?  You can't hear that one either?  Hmmmm

Maybe it's all the yucky, cold rain!

Either way, my  little brother is going to make one of the biggest promises of his life in just 2 hours!  We are excited, it should be fun.

What's that?  You want to know what I'm doing right now?  Sitting at the computer, feeding Nathan, in my jeans and a t-shirt.  The girls are both asleep, Nate is still in his jammies.  Jeremy is at the clubhouse setting up a projector.

What's that?   You want to know what I should be doing.  I should be moments from walking out of the house with a fully dressed little bridesmaid, clothes put together for her little sister and an adorable little man in a onsie tuxedo.  Oh yeah, I should have some make up on, a nicer outfit than jeans and my hair done too.  Hmmmm....30 minutes and we're suppose to be there.  You think we'll make it?

Yeah, I'm not so sure either.  But until Nate finishes eating, I'm stuck right here.

I'll post pictures soon.......

Puzzles, Painting and Pictures

This morning, after breakfast, I asked Nicole if she wanted to go to Target or to stay home and learn about the states.  She said stay home and learn about the states...I wanted Target because I heard there were some great sales.  Oh well...she won!

I have not been prepared much since Nathan was born with purposeful learning experiences.  I'm working on getting back to that.  But, yesterday I was talking to Nicole about India and she said, "oh, like the state"(Indiana). Hmmm...last time we talked about the state Indiana was a few months before Nate was born.  She has a great memory....even if she had the country of India and the state of Indiana confused. 

So, my goal is to teach her the location of all the states.  It won't mean much to her now, but it'll be good to know later....and I think she can learn it now.  We have a great puzzle of the united states, where every state is a piece (except all those tiny New England states, they have 3 or 4 on one piece for those).

Nicole is the puzzle QUEEN!  She LOVES them and is very very good at them. 

 

 

Hannah even tried to get in on the action, although she doesn't have the puzzle skill that Nicole has, which I think shows me that they will be very different learners.

Her completed puzzle....I did not help her except with verbal promptings, and I was using words like north, south, east and west.  She had a picture to look at, but that was it.  We've put this puzzle together a lot before, but as a team.  This time she did it alone.

Oh...this is for My Family!  When Nicole put in Michigan she said, "Mommy, we don't like that state!"  Woohoo...got a buckeye here.  She's a smart girl:-)

Then, the kids wanted to paint.  I usually like to paint outside with the kiddie pool available.  That way they can paint and play in the water.  The mess stays outside, and they are pretty clean when we decide to come in.  But...it's in the 60s today, to cold for the pool, I think.

In the middle of painting, Gramps came over to drop something off.  Nicole had to show him where a few of the states are.

Finally, we have a few random pictures from the last couple of days.

 

Just a great picture of Hannah I thought.  I think Nicole might have taken this one.

 

Daddy and Nate Dawg (but Jeremy spells it dogg like snoop dogg I guess???)

 

Hahaha....loving big sister, and thrilled little brother!  This picture cracks me up....I can imagine this face in 10 years when I kiss Nathan goodbye "MOM....your embarrassing me!"

 

Nicole took this one of Nathan and I.  You know...we bought her a camera for Christmas, but she still just wants to use ours. I'm not sure what to do about that....

Tomorrow is Justin and Erica's wedding rehearsal.  We are very excited.  I can not wait to show you pictures of Nicole in her flower girl dress...Hannah in her precious purple knit hat and Nathan in his adorable "tuxedo" my friend Kirsten made.  Oh year...and Jeremy in a real tux and me in a brand spanking new outfit.