He's Everywhere!

I went to check on Christian yesterday in Kaitlyn's room to see what he was doing and this is what I found...
He was just hanging out under Kaitlyn's bed, not crying or anything, just rolling around under there. It's really nice because he will just crawl around and play with toys on the floor and be content. I just have to make sure there are no little toys to choke on or coins because he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. Here is a great shot of his top teeth. He has 8 teeth now with two more coming in if you can believe it. He is barely 8 months old!
By the way, thanks to everyone who had suggestions from my last post. Any advice is good and is something new to try so thank you all! Potty training is my least favorite thing about motherhood. Kaitlyn peed in the little Dora potty she has the other morning and I didn't get in there fast enough to empty it and the next thing I know I hear Christian in there tipping it over on himself. As soon as I heard that noise I thought OH CRAP because I remembered that I hadn't emptied it yet. I ran in there to find him soaked with Kaitlyn's pee from her potty and was splashing around in it. I know, so gross. I got him undressed and in the tub, and cleaned up the mess. Sorry, another post about pee, but this is my life right now and so this is what I blog about. :)

Any Suggestions?

WARNING: There is a lot of poop and pee talk in this post so if you are grossed out by that, don't read this. :) Okay, I am knee-deep into the potty training and I need some ideas here. Kaitlyn is peeing regularly in her potty but she has yet to poop in it. She gets a Starburst every time she pees in the potty and now she is going like 5 or 6 times an hour so she can have a treat. I can't believe she can pee that much! She is a peeing machine! She is constantly on a sugar high because she gets so many starbursts from peeing, but I don't want to take them away or she might stop doing it until she is fully potty-trained. She is still in pull-ups though because she doesn't always stay dry and she still needs to figure out how to poop in the potty. Joel even told her he would buy her her own Polly Pockets if she would poop in the potty and she says "okay" every time. Next thing you know, she comes up to me and says "I'm stinky". I ask her why she didn't come and tell me so we could run to the potty and she says "I don't know". So I say, next time DO NOT poop in your pull-up and we will run to the potty so you can get a Polly Pocket and she is like "Okay!" But it's just not happening. I don't remember it being this hard with my first two kids. I don't even remember how I got them to go potty, it seems like it was easy for them.
Secondly, Kinlee is doing really well in school this year, but she has a hard time with me correcting her if she reads a word wrong. One of her sight words is "this" and every time she sees it she says "said". I don't know why, maybe she is seeing the "s" at the end and starting with that. I really don't know, but she gets really angry when I tell her she is wrong. I say it nicely and tell her what the right word is, but she gets mad and yells "DON"T TELL ME" or "YES IT IS". Then she runs off mad and I have to explain that I just want her to learn the correct words so she knows what they are. Sometimes I end up getting really angry and yell at her. I know that doesn't help so give me some suggestions everyone! I know she just wants to do it right and wants to be a good student, but she HATES being wrong and then corrected.

Well, this has been a crazy week, my washer broke down and flooded the laundry room and some of it got on my carpet. I thought I caught it before it was too bad and I put towels where the carpet got a little wet to soak it up, but the carpet does not seem to be drying there very well. So, today I pulled up the carpet where it meets the tile of the laundry room and put a fan on it to dry it out better. It was starting to smell a little so I hope I haven't ruined it. Between dance carpool, Young Women, scouts, visiting teaching, working for Joel, homework, and having to clean the whole house so a realtor could come over and just "see" how much we could get for our house I am ready for a relaxing weekend. :)

Booster seats and Twister

I find humor in every day dumb things and then I blog about them... little Christian is becoming so mobile and I can't keep track of him every minute so we set up the little booster seat to strap him in at the end of the island. He looks so teeny in it and his little chin is barely above the countertop. He will suck on the counter if there is no cheerios in front of him to try and grasp. Of course Kinlee had to get in the picture as usual... Yesterday Bailey (my niece) came over with her Twister game and the kids were playing it in the kitchen. It was a CD telling them what to do and it was pretty funny to watch. Even Kaitlyn got in on the action. We love when Bailey comes over to play, she keeps the kids entertained and I can get things done. :) They were trying on Halloween costumes also but I forgot to take any pictures of that. They came up wearing a witch outfit, cowgirl, clown, and kitty cat. They were having a ball. I couldn't get the witch outfit off Kaitlyn, she loved it.

Last weekend, we got to have little Hunter stay with us overnight. He is Bailey's younger brother and I am not exaggerating when I say he is HILARIOUS. He is a crack up at all times. When he left he said, "Don't worry, I'll come back and sleep over again Jill." He and Kaity were dancing out in the garage together. There wasn't any music playing but they were dancing like it was 1999. You can see some of their awesome moves here below...

Anyway, we really enjoyed having him. They jumped on the tramp, rode the 4-wheeler, watched movies, played "Dolly pockets" as Hunter calls them. All the kids had a great time playing with him. Leigh Anne, send him over anytime. :)

A Day to Remember

I was reading my brother's blog today and decided to post what I remember about that day on 9/11/01. I was living in this old house (we called it the "pink house") because we were in the middle of building a new house (as usual) and I was still sleeping and my friend Kim called me and woke me up and told me to turn on the TV. I turned it on just in time to see the 2nd tower get hit by the 2nd airplane and watched the horrific events all morning until I went to work at RC Willey. I went to work that afternoon and the store decided to close early because of what had happened that day. I remember Dylan was only 2 years old and as I watched TV he kept asking me "Why are you crying mommy?" I couldn't really explain what was happening to a 2-year old but I think he knew something bad had happened. Anyway, on a day like today I think it is appropriate to list a few of the things I am grateful for:

• I am especially grateful for my husband and children, they are absolutely my joy in life. I love to see my kids' sweet little faces when they wake up each morning and I love to hear their laughter. I couldn't have asked for sweeter, more loving children. My husband is the hardest working man I know and even though I wish he would be home a little more, I know he is doing it for us. I love him very much and I know he loves us too.


• I am grateful for all my family, my parents, siblings, in-laws, etc. I don't know what I would do without my parents... they still take care of me. My siblings are the most wonderful people I know; it makes me think that I must be the black sheep of the family when I think of their great examples and how good they are. My in-law family members are also wonderful to me, I couldn't have married into a better family.


• I'm grateful that I get to live in this great country and have the freedoms that I have.


• I'm grateful for a warm home and food and clothing.


• I'm grateful for the 4 seasons, just when you start getting sick of one season, another one is upon us. :)
• I'm grateful for the good friends I have, many of which I have because of working at RC Willey (something good DID come out of me working there).


• I am grateful for my membership in Jesus Christ's church and His love for me. I am not very good at expressing my feelings about the gospel, but I am very thankful that we have Jesus' restored church on the earth and a living prophet that leads us.

Anyway, I may have forgotten a few things, but I just felt like today is a day to remember those things that are important in life.

Joel's shop coming along

So hopefully Joel's shop will be done by the end of this month. They are in the painting stage right now. We went out to visit Joel there the other day since we don't get to see him a lot during daylight hours. :) We will have him back soon though. Here is the front of the building...(Joel is sanding the timbers getting them ready to stain)
This is a shot of the office/reception area... You can see they are still in the process of painting

This is the showroom area...
This is where the door shop is going to be... it is a huge area behind the offices and showroom...
Since I work for Joel a few hours a week I told him I needed my own private office with a play area for the kids. I don't think it's going to happen. :( Anyway, when it's finished I will post better pictures of everything.

Don't Judge Me

Do you ever have those days where you just feel like a bad person because of the little things you do or don't do? I have a few vices about myself I am going to list and get off my chest, here goes:

I let Kaitlyn watch Dora for hours in the morning so I can get things done around the house.

I swear under my breath at other drivers when I am in the car (because I am a PERFECT driver).

I don't like to go to ward functions because I feel inferior to all the other beautiful and talented women in our ward.

I watch two soaps every day that I am addicted to. Thanks to DVR though I can watch them in half the time so it's really not THAT bad, right? And, I watch them after the kids have all gone to bed.

I hate cooking. My grandma was an amazing cook and my mom is an amazing cook, but somehow I did not get that gene. I would rather go the easiest and quickest route possible for making dinner.

I wonder at what point I became the Wicked Witch of the West when I am yelling at my kids. It falls on deaf ears anyway. I do pray for patience every day, and believe me I get lots of opportunities to try and GAIN more patience.

I never register to vote because I don't want to get called for jury duty. I know, it's bad. Don't e-mail me and tell how important it is to vote. I get it.

I'm glad school has started because it is so much easier with two kids than four. Is that wrong?

I never exercise and I keep thinking that one of these days I will because I need to and I haven't lost the baby weight from Christian quite yet. I have a hard time getting motivated because I don't really enjoy exercising. Maybe I just haven't found the right thing for me.

Okay, I feel a little better now. Hopefully you all don't think less of me now, and I could have listed a few more things, but that would have been too much information. :)