Day 25: Impromptu Family Photo Shoot

When Eric and Kelsi were here, we had them take some family pictures for us- can you believe we don't have any pictures with all four us? Crazy! We went to our favorite waterfall, but we got completely drenched and were laughing so hard the whole time... anyway, anybody have a favorite or two? Thanks!
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Day 24: Eric, Kelsi and I

We were lucky enough to have Eric & his family and Kelsi come into town for different things and their trips overlapped for a few hours so we all got to hang out for a little bit. We had a lot of fun and got some great pictures!

Day 23: Emma's Push-Ups

Day 22

Day 21- Sneak Peek

Lots of people have wanted to see what I'm doing with Emma and Maddie's room, so here is a little sneak peek after some of the painting...

Day 20

I'm in the process of re-doing the girls' room. My friend Linda Lee has helped me so much with all of it and Jared has been helping me paint, entertain the kids while I paint, move the furniture around, take light covers off, etc. Basically he is amazing. I got bored painting and wrote M + J in paint since he is so amazing. I know, cheesy, but I sure love him!

Day 19- Our sense of humor

We are VERY excited to have Jared's brother Kyle living here now. Yesterday was his first day here and Maddie was being grumpy so we doorbell ditched her on his doorstep and hid around the corner of his house. This was the note we left on her. We are mainly excited to have someone in town who gets our odd sesnse of humor. :) (Don't know why this picture is upside down)

Day 18- Thank goodness!

There is a huge fire near us and I woke up with crazy allergy issues. This saved my day!

Day 17- FREEDOM

It might seem silly, but this makes me feel free. Thank you Derek and Connie(they GAVE us both the bike and the bike/jogging stroller)!

Day 16

We had a picnic as a family and then decided to go for a walk as the sun began to set tonight. The canyon is BEAUTIFUL that time of day.

Day 15- Banana Bread

Emma made some banana bread today. I measured and handed her ingredients and she had a blast mashing bananas, pouring things in and stirring. It was actually chocolate chip banana bread and after she poured in the chocolate chips, she started stirring, so I did some dishes and turned around to see her picking the chocolate chips out of the batter, happy as can be.

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Day 13- Madelyn's Boyfriend

Yes, and we approve. How could you not? He is adorable and she doesn't stop smiling when he is in the room. Noah is so sweet and just wanted to push her in the swing and make her smile.

Confessions of a Mother

As a mother, I really don't know what I'm doing 99% of the time. I honestly just make it up. Poor Emma has been the guinea pig for so much. Most recently, our potty training attempts. I love to read parenting books, and I have read about so many potty training techniques that I like. Any of them are excellent options, but what actually happens in the heat of the moment ends up being jumbled and probably pretty confusing for the poor girl.

Today I turned away for a minute and looked back to see the telling look on Emma's face as a little trickle ran down her leg. I let out a good natured "Ah!" hoping to startle her and stop the stream until I could get to her. She looked at the puddle spreading across the floor, then looked up at me, eyes wide and repeated, "Ah!"

So now I wonder if she thinks that is the proper response to pee. Hope not!

Day 12- Potty Training 101

We have encouraged Emma to sit on the potty after drinking liquids, after meals and naps, etc. this weekend But today was the beginning of true potty training. 3 1/2 hours in and we have only had 2 accidents, and 5 successes(I was pumping fluids into her so she was going a lot). I love watching the joy and elation on her face when she goes in the potty. You would think she just finished her first marathon. I can tell this will be something we really have to stay focuesed on, but she is a smart girl, so we will get is figured out. Truthfully, so far things are going even better than I had hoped. *knock on wood* Oh, and seeing her in underwear is adorable.

Day 11- Our favorite part of the day

Every night right before bed we all sit down to read. Emma doesn't ever let us forget. I took this when she was sitting on my lap tonight. Seriously, this is the best part of my day!

Day 10- A HUGE step

I've been having Emma sit on the toilet several times a day, just to get her comfortable with it and so I would have an idea of how ready she is for potty training. Yesterday I let her pick out her own potty, and I had her sit on it once last night and once this morning. I went to the gym for a Spinning class this morning(CRAZY, by the way!) and when I got back Jared said he put her on it and she went!! So whether it was a fluke or not, we are very proud, and now I have to buckle down and actually do it. Pretty cute potty, huh? I can see why she likes it. ;)

Day 9- A Style of Her Own

Maybe it isn't really that unique... I kinda think she stole Richard Simmons' look(she has polka-dot leggings and pink bloomers over them, they are just hard to see in this picture).

Day 8

Today I had a mountain of laundry to fold and put away. Emma loves laundry day because I let her play in it before I fold it.

Day7- Our Little Terror

It is hard to believe looking at this little angelic face that she isn't always perfect... but tonight she was pretty mean to the babysitter. Seriously, the poor babysitter was on the phone with her mom and crying by the time we got home from the temple. I remember babysittees like that, and I feel for her! Hopefully she'll give this little face another chance. I promised her she isn't always like that! :)

Day 6- Puppet Show

The library here does a puppet show once a month, so we decided to go. Afterward they let some of the kids try the puppets out. Emma got pretty attached to the princess
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Day 5

Madelyn giggled for the first time yesterday! Is there any sound better than that?

Emma officially went to nursery for the first time yesterday. She was upset when Jared dropped her off, but got over it pretty fast and did really well. It was a bittersweet day for me... but seeing her light up when she saw us after church makes it all worth it. :)

Day 4

Enjoying Sunday afternoon...(but not enjoying getting his picture taken)

Day 3

We had a great Saturday as a family. We had nowhere we HAD to be, so we were kind of lazy. We went swimming, and my camera wasn't cooperating, so I didn't get any pictures taken until we were done. Emma and Maddie were both in the water for over an hour. They would have stayed longer, but Jared and I were worn out! :)

Day 2

The problem with this photo journal is that once I get the camera out, I end up with way too many pictures to choose from. But I will try to be selective. We went to the temple this morning, Emma thought it was a lot of fun. Don't you love the pigtails?

31 in 31

I have noticed that I haven't been taking as many pictures lately as I would like to. So when I saw THIS idea, I decided to hop on board. I don't have a fancy camera or super photography skills, but I'm going to post a picture every day for 31 days starting today, kind of like a photo journal. We had an amazing rainstorm today- I wish this picture did it justice. This is our street from my doorway, you can barely even see the sidewalk because of the downpour. I LOVE summer thunderstorms!!

Fitness Challenge

We recently started a fitness challenge that we are really loving and thought I thought I would share. It is great because pretty much ANYONE can do it. We have participants ranging in age from 8 to 53. We actually set up a blog for it since there are so many people participating in it. Feel free to check it out here. You can start at Week 1 or jump in with us on Week 4. Leave a comment with your e-mail if you want me to send you the spreadsheet we are using to track our scores!