New Haircut!

I got a new haircut! It was getting really long, and I really needed it cut, so I asked Billy if I could maybe get it cut for my birthday. I feel bad spending money on myself, so if I need something for myself I try to wait for a special occasion. Anyway, Billy called up one of my favorite cousins and scheduled an apt w/ her to cut my hair. Kristi is so good! She did a great job, but half the fun of getting my haircut was catching up w/ Kristi.
So Billy was so sweet to set all that up for me. He also planned a really nice surprise birthday party for me. My parents watched our kids and we went out on a date (yesss!) and then we came home to a surprise birthday party. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life. It was so sweet of Billy to plan all that and do all those nice things for me, and then so sweet of my parents to come watch the kids.
Today I took the kids to the libary, and when I came home Billy had cleaned the whole house. It was spotless! He picked up every little thing on the floor, vaccumed, mopped, did the dishes, and cleaned the bathrooms. What a great husband!

My kids

Just thought I'd post some pictures of the kids from the last month or so and give a little update. So let's start w/ the youngest. Here's one of the 1st good smiling pictures of little Tessa.

and here's Tessa the day we got her ears pierced. We love the new earrings! We think she looks so pretty and girly now. She has not been bothered at all by them. The day she got them pierced it seemed quick and easy, she cryed like she does when she gets a shot, but then she calmed down. The lady that pierced her ears said she was the best baby she'd ever seen. She was amazed at how good she did.

I think Tessa might be our first thumbsucker. That girl just constantly wants to suck on something. Even right after she's been fed, and she makes it clear she doesn't want food she wants a pacifier or her hand...and now she has found her thumb. In some ways it's very cute to see her suck on her thumb and go to sleep all on her own. It's nice that she can self soothe, but it other ways we don't like it b/c a pacifier is much easier to get rid of later on than a thumb sucking habit. So we'll see if it continues...
One more thing about Tessa. She has been getting lots of floor time for awhile, and last month she started rolling over. She can roll every which way and she goes all around the floor. There's no use even putting a blanket down anymore (I still do most of the time though) b/c she just rolls right off of it. I'm proud of her b/c I think this might be a little early.

Ok, now you now Adalynn started walking almost 2 months ago now. Well, that first month was pretty rocky. She took her share of spills, and in that first month she had so many scrapes and bruises and bloody lips. I think she had 3 bloody lips in one month! It scared me so bad every time, too. When I'd see her fall and look at her and see blood in her mouth. Eww, not good. I'd worry every time that she had done worse than just a bloody lip. Anyway, here's a picture of her. Poor girl, notice the bruise on her forehead, the scrape on her chin, and her top lip is swollen. There was a little bump on the other side of her face that you can't see, too.

Thankfully now she's recovered. I took this next picture just today. I thought she looked so cute in this little jacket/shirt. I love it! And I have my sister-in-law to thank for it (it's a hand-me-down, I love hand me downs)

Adalynn is at such a fun stage! I think 18mo- 2 is one of my favorite stages! She is so cute and funny. She's saying new words all the time, and she does these funny little things that she knows will make us laugh just to see our reaction. She's a little show off sometimes. But we just love her personality. We love to see her dance and laugh and talk. Sometimes Will speakes her language and they will talk to each other back and forth just making up words and copying e/o. It is so cute.

Will is so funny. This is a picture I've been thinking about posting for awhile. I just had to laugh when he did this!

First of all, he filled his drum, the pumpkin, and a gift bag w/ a bunch of stuff then he grabbed them all plus a roll of duct tape (HAHA) and he held them all while riding his car, oh yeah, and add to that the hat and the party thing in his mouth. Oh where does he get his ideas?! It was so funny to see him carrying every possible thing he could with that thing in his mouth while driving his car.

Doesn't Will look like his Daddy here? I think it's the curly hair. So, Will doesn't normally have curly hair, but lately he's been wanting to wear this Santa hat all around the house, and when he takes it off his hair looks like that. I'm hoping that maybe someday he'll have curly hair like his Daddy. Billy's didn't get curly till he was 13.
Well, that's it for today.

Halloween

We had so much fun on Halloween this year. We brought home a pumpkin about a week ago and I made the mistake of telling Will we were going to draw a face on it. So he decided to draw it himself when we weren't looking. That's why the pumpkin has pen mark all over it. But we still made a nice looking jack o lantern (which we didn't even get a picture of it when we were done!) But Will actually tried to help after awhile, while Adalynn walked around the carport/ yard carrying her little shovel. Tessa did great in the entertainer. It was fun.
So for Halloween Will was a dinosaur, Adalynn a princess and Tessa a ladybug. I have Summer to thank for the costumes. She made the dinosaur costume for Loegan when he was little and she found the girl's costumes at good will. So we were lucky this year! We went trick or treating with Summer, Loegan and Malia. We had a great time w/ them! Malia is so sweet, she would say Happy Halloween! at every house, so Will started saying it too. Here are some pictures:

Potty training

What a day!! Ugghh, I think potty training has got to be one of the worst/ hardest parts of parenting!
OK, so here's the story. Will first was interested in potty training before he turned 2, while I was pregnant with Adalynn. So we started really going at it, hoping that he'd be out of diapers before baby #2 came along. We'd go in there every 1/2- hour, we tried to stay consistent and be patient. He went a couple times but then he started becoming resistent and not wanting to go. We had heard- don't push them, b/c that'll make it worse and it'll be harder to potty train if they continue to be resistent. They might even hold it in and you got a problem. So we decided to back off. Then I read that you shouldn't really try to potty train right before a baby comes anyway b/c when a newborn baby comes into the house it can kinda throw their world off. So we decided we'd wait again for the right time. Well, right when Adalynn started growing out of the newborn stage we got pregnant with Tessa. Then I was so sick for so long, and I could barely take care of myself much less my kids- and potty training was just the farthest things on our mind. We'd still talk to him about it as much as possible though.
OK, so now we finally feel that we are both ready. I've read 2-3 books about potty training and many articles. And Will lately seems ready. He wants to be independent and big, and I know he could do it. So finally we're both ready at the same time.
So yesterday it was just me and Will. A whole day with just us. He woke up in the morning and I said "Guess what day it is? It's potty day!" And he was all excited & I had bought this doll that wets, and he thought it was so cool like it was his birthday. And I told him No more diapers! Yay! And he thought that was GREAT, he loved the idea of no more diapers. He really wants to be in underwear now. So before we started our day I took a wet diaper off of him, and put him in training pants. We were in there for almost 5 hours before he would even go! I couldn't act excited when he went or disappointed when he had an accident b/c he just didn't go at all! I think he was just holding it in. But overall that first half of the day went good, and he really was happy about everything. Then the second half of the day it started going downhill. As the day progressed he started to resist more and more, and he had 2 or 3 accidents.
This morning he started out not wanting to go on the potty, and throughout the day it did not improve. I know he knows what to do, and that he wants to be a big boy, but he didn't even want to go near the potty today. Around 3 his cousin came over and he had another accident, and Adalynn was asleep so I couldn't get to clean underwear. So I just gave in a put a diaper on. Then it was weird it was like he was happy b/c he didn't have to worry about it anymore. It seemed almost like it was a comfort to him. And I have to admit it was a relief to me to not having to worry about where he was sitting and having to watch everything he did, so that he didn't sit on the couch and have an accident or something.
So now here's my dilema- I just don't know what to do now! It seems like the more I ask him if he needs to go potty the more he resists. So do I just totally back off and let him go on his own terms? If so, that is a lot of cleanup b4 he is going to get it. It's like he wants to wear underwear but he wants it to stay the same as if he was in diapers. He's not even trying to make it to the bathroom. So do I back off or keep on going how were going? I told him no more diapers, but then I want him to be a happy kid too...
I'm just tired of going back and forth. I just want to stick with it! But I don't know what to do. Help!! Anyone have any suggestions?

Kids Say the Darndest things

Ready for more Will stories? I've just been writing down the funny things he says on a piece of paper lately so I can remember them.

So the other day I was sitting on the floor w/ Adalynn and Will came down to sit by us and he said "Is that Adalynn's (Ada- inn) leg? Is that Adainn's arm? Is that a foot? Ha ha, that was funny! Did you know what I was talking about?"

"I ate A LOT! Now I'm going to be a grown up!"

OK, I almost always have my hair up in a ponytail, but last Sunday I had it down, and Will said "Your hair's not big anymoe!"... (What?? lol)

On the way out the door to church Will was wearing this white wide brimmed hat I got for him (and the girls) at the thrift store (for a dollar) and I was telling him you can't wear that to church. I said, it's just a silly hat to wear for fun, and he said "Yeah, it's a little gay too."

Then I was in Nursery with Will (and Adalynn- her first time) and for the lesson they were explaining in very simple terms what an example was. Later on that day Adalynn was doing whatever Will did (she likes to copy him), and I told him "Adalynn likes to do what you do. You are a good example to her."
And he said, "I'm not example, I'm Will!"

Will was playing with a toy, completely on his own and he just started talking to himself. He was saying, "Those look like little and those look like big too. It's really really big."

And finally, yesterday out of nowhere he said "Remember when we bought dog food at the movie store?" (haha- we've never boughten dog food period- much less at a movie store!)

I've got the best husband!

Billy is so sweet. I can't believe how lucky I am to have him. We are so spoiled by having him home all the time (b/c he works from home) that we don't know what to do with out him. I literally get really sad when he has to go somewhere. (Plus I like his help with the kids) :)
Anyway, a couple days ago he had a meeting w/ some photographers that he wanted to go to. The next day he was going to be gone the majority of the day for a wedding, so I was kinda bumming that he was leaving, and when he left he asked if I was OK and I told him that I was sad that he had to go. (Dumb I know, Again, I'm so spoiled by having him around all the time.)
So after a pretty hectic dinner and cleanup, all the sudden I heard the doorbell ring. I went to the door, open it up and all I see is a dozen roses, a movie, and a gallon of ice cream. Isn't he the best!!!! He was around the corner trying to surprise me. I told him I LOVED the roses!, but the best part was that he came home. And he gave me the sweetest card. The best part is he came home just b/c that's where he wanted to be, and he gave me the roses b/c he loves me. As simple as that. I still can't get over how great that was and how thoughtful he is.

Yes for Marriage

Someone sent me an email yesterday with a story that really got to me.
Here is one family's story:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1815820715?bctid=1822459319