My favorites on Friday

 We're free!!

No accidents for 4 days- I think she has the hang of it. She has been amazing about it and is so excited every time she goes on that toilet. I am just so glad to have it over with and that is went a lot smoother than I thought it would. This little one always surprises me.

And even though I won't miss changing diapers, I will miss seeing a little diapered bum.

Monday Madness ( or just random stuff)

I finally bit the bullet and started the potty training process with Emery. She has been totally uninterested and with her tendency to be super stubborn, I was worried how it would go. But she is doing really well. She even made it through church yesterday. It was all about the right motivation. When we went to the store last week I let her pick her own potty treats and put them in a jar. It was little Hershey bars that did it. I will be so excited to get this done, I while I hate seeing her getting big, I won't miss diapers. 

I decided to do something different with my hair last week. However, I am terrible at taking pictures of myself so this is not such a great look at it. It's just shorter, well by quite a bit, and slightly a-line. It's taken some getting used too. I can't decide if I love it or not, Hailey tells me everyday she doesn't like it so that might be tainting my opinion a little.

We are still playing baseball on Thursday nights. It is kind of a busy day. Brendan and Hailey stay after school for a reading club and then we usually make a quick change in the car and head straight to baseball. It's not serious, but the kids have a lot of fun.

 Brendan is quite funny to watch. He always does things his own way, but he likes to have home runs. For him that just means he hits the ball and just keeps running. Even if he was technically out or if the next person is up to bat. He just plays by his own rules.

I am kind of in love with lanterns. I have always like them. I have had my eye on some at Target. They finally went on clearance, but I still wasn't sure if I should get them, but on a trip there with Corey, he said to thrown them in. They have found a happy home here in the family room.

 One for the picture shelves, along with that little turquoise thingy that was also on clearance. And one red one for the turquoise table. (never mind the crooked lamp shade. I have given up on that poor thing, my kids knock it off the table at least once a week. I will eventually get a new lamp when they can stop knocking it over).

My favorites on Friday

Some of the books I have read recently

Heaven is here- I already read her blog, but the book was so good. Such an amazing story of overcoming tragedy and amazing strength.

Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt.- this was our latest book club read. I really enjoyed it and it had some fun characters.

The Midwife- a memoir of a young midwife in England during the 1950's. There were a couple of parts I could have lived without, but I really enjoyed reading this one as well. It was very interesting and I had a hard time putting it down.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn- one of my favorites so far. It's a classic, but I had never heard of it. I loved, loved it.

I also love the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. I am anxiously waiting for the next book in May. But I recently read the two from the Infernal Devices series based on the Mortal Instruments series. These were really, really good. I may have even liked them better than the mortal instruments series.

Have you read anything good recently?

Birthday events

 We started Hailey's birthday celebrations on Friday by taking cookies to her school. She was so excited about it. I love her for this, she gets so excited about everything and is so easy to please. She has just been on cloud 9 and has had a permanent smile all weekend. 

Saturday, Corey and I, took her out to eat and then we went and picked out a new dress for her to wear to church on her birthday. She was telling everyone at the restaurant that it was her birthday, but when they brought her dessert and sang to her she couldn't figure out how they knew. She was just so surprised.

She really wanted a pet, but I told her that was kinda out of the question so she better think of something else. I think she still held out hope, but seemed to be happy with gifts anyway.  She got a fun little RV for her dollhouse and it's been a huge hit.  She also wanted art supplies. So she got those and a new box of crayons. I don't know if it gets much better than a brand new box of sharp crayons?!!

 We ended the day with her requests of strawberry cake and neapolitan ice cream.

My favorites on Friday

My favorite almost 6 year old.

Seems crazy that she could be that old already, but it's happening this weekend whether I like it or not. She is so excited to be 6 and she is convinced she will look so much older. I hope not, but we will try to have fun celebrating anyway. 

Spring Break review

First off, we survived. It actually ended up going a lot more smoothly than I planned. We were able to do what the kids wanted and had a good week. The weather was great so we did a lot of bike riding. Brendan even mastered riding without his training wheels... finally. Carter and I made it to the mall. He convinced me to buy a hot pink t-shirt and cologne for him. We even made a couple of icee runs. All and all it was good week and I might even go as far to say that I was sad to have it come to an end. 

Here are some pictures from some of the other stuff we did.

 I bought brand new playdough and it was a huge hit. I hate the mess, but it's amazing how that stuff can keep them entertained. 

This was the kids first experience at a drive inn. They LOVED it. Hailey even said, "this is the best night ever!" It was fun. Emery did take a tumble right when we first got there and ended up with a mouthful of gravel and a bloody nose, but after she was consoled and cleaned up she slept for most of the movie, making it more enjoyable for the rest of us. Unfortunately the outdoor movie experience didn't hold her attention for any longer than it does at home so it was much better with her sleeping.

The picnic was kid heaven. Running, climbing, throwing rocks into the stream, it just doesn't get any better than that.( Brendan even caught another toad. I tried and tried to convince him that it was better to leave him in his natural habitat, but he wanted it as a pet so bad. We made a little bucket home for him, but B.T. Jr #3, passed away yesterday. He now is buried in the backyard ) After we were totally worn out, we went into St. George and visited my Grandma Pierson and then made our way home. Another great day.

Of course, on Easter Sunday, the Easter bunny found his way to our house.  We hunted a few eggs and then got all dressed up for church. We were running late after all the hunting so I only got a couple of the shots of the girls enjoying their ringpops after church. We enjoyed a delicious dinner together and ate too much candy.

 

I am counting the week as a success, and I feel more confident about tackling the break again next year.

My favorites on Friday

My favorite little bunny wishes you a....

hope your weekend is great!!

The break

This week is spring break. To be honest, I don't really look forward to it. It's the busy season for Corey so he can't take any time to go and do stuff. I could go and take the kids somewhere by myself, but our spring break is later than everywhere else so we can't really even plan to meet up with family. So I kinda dread it every year. I always struggle coming up with stuff to do that I can do with all of them and where it won't be a mad house with every other spring breaker doing the same thing.

We did start off fairly well this year though. Carter said it felt like his break started early because he had a field trip all day Friday to the Springs Preserve. ( I am not sure if I share that feeling. I went with him and spending the whole day with middle schoolers, hiking all over the place, was quite an exhausting experience.) However my sister and her family did come back from their vacation and spent one more night with us. It was great to have a little more time with them.  She and I (and Kayden) even went to see "The Hunger Games", which was good. Even though I was totally worn out from the field trip, it was totally worth it.  We also enjoyed conference and went out for ice cream cones on Saturday night.  We went with friends for lunch today. Carter even had a late night with friends tonight too.  So it was a pretty good start. 

At dinner tonight, I asked each of the kids what they wanted to do this week. Kayden doesn't know. Carter, besides hanging out with his friends,  wants me take him to the mall, just he and I. I am still wondering about that one. Not that I ever mind a trip to the mall, but it just seems like a strange request from an 11 year old boy. Brendan wants to go see "The Lorax" and Hailey wants to ride her bike around the neighborhood. (We accomplished that one tonight ). Emery is just up for all of it, she loves having the kids home.

I figure I will enjoy the week a little better with a plan of action and I think the above requests are pretty doable. So maybe I will enjoy the break this year. If nothing else, sleeping in is always a good thing!!