Potty Training 101

Hannah on her little potty- Yay Hannah!



Brent as the pope at his birthday party.



Hannah on Liam's froggy potty with everybody cheering her on. Go Hannah!!



It is that time again...potty training time. I really dread potty training and am so glad when it is completed. Hannah is 2 1/2 and (in my opinion) should be ready to be potty trained. She has all the control needed to be successful, she just needs to make up her mind to do it. She has a stubborn streak (I don't know who she got that from...wink wink) and if she doesn't want to do something, she won't. Hannah's cousin Liam has been potty trained for a couple weeks and is doing great so now its Hannah's turn. I got out the little potty and my sister-in-law gave us a potty chart and some stickers. We get really excited when she uses the potty. The other night we went to my brother's house for his birthday (Happy Birthday Brent!) and Hannah went in the bathroom to use Liam's froggy potty. All the kids ran in to watch her go and cheer her on. It was very cute and Hannah loved the attention. Wouldn't it be great if we all had that kind of peer support in each of our endeavors! We should all clap and cheer for each other when we try something new. Hey-if anyone has any great potty training ideas, feel free to send them my way!

My nike mini

So, I finally posted my little mini as you can see. Obviously I haven't had my nike sensor for very long and I'm not much of a runner as you can see by my times. But I enjoy walking and am hoping to get faster. My sister Beckie wants me and my mom to do a 5K this summer. That is fine but I don't want to be dead last. I need to find one they call a 5K walk/run. That way I can do some of both. Now, for all you runners out there, I know you are thinking "5K is nothing! What a wimp!" and you would be right but remember I'm a beginner and it should only get better for me. Anyway, having the nike mini is just a fun way for me to see my progress. Makes me feel better!

Valentine's Day

The roses Blaine gave me.


Ryan...2 1/2 months old!



Garrett and Hannah checking out their valentine's candy I left for them.

I had to work this Valentine's Day but it was still great, just the same. I left boxes of candy for the kids to find when they got up. Work was busy, as always, but I managed to get off pretty much on time. I came home to a clean house, dinner on the table and gorgeous roses in the center of the table. He wrote me the sweetest love note too!! We ate (he made baked potatoes and pork medallions...one of my new favorite meals) and then I changed and we went to the ward adult Valentine's party. They took pictures and had a dance. It was very fun. Something that I thought was funny, though was at the refreshment table, they had lots of little goodies set out. On either end was a dish of Dove chocolates. So, I picked one up as we were strolling onto the dance floor. The chocolate was good but it tasted like coffee. Hmmm...interesting at an LDS event to have coffee flavored candy. Oh well, it was good anyway. So we stopped to talk to some friends and I looked at the wrapper on the candy. It was tiramisu flavor. Ok, I love tiramisu...thus the coffee flavor. They had another dish with chocolates from Dove...bananas foster flavor. Yummy! It tasted great but cracked me up because bananas foster is made with rum. The two flavors they picked were funny to me because of the type of party we were at...church!

Making Bread

So, for anyone who doesn't know, Blaine and I love to cook. It is our favorite hobby. We like trying out new recipes or perfecting a restaurant recipe at home. I like to bake but haven't had much luck in the past with yeast breads. A few weeks ago my mom went to a demonstration at the church. They were demonstrating bread. The lady made 4 loaves of bread in 1 hour, start to finish. The breaded is kneaded by a mixer (like Bosch or KitchenAid) and raises for 25 min. and then bakes for 25 min. This sounded like a great idea to me. I love homemade bread! The bread contains liquid soy lecithin, which, I'm not exactly sure what that is but I've heard of it before. So, today I made some bread. I made white bread today and it turned out beautifully. The other day I made 100% whole wheat bread and it turned out great too. My mother-in-law was here and tried some and said she thought it was the best whole wheat bread she had ever had. (I consider that a huge compliment since she makes bread like every week.) So, I am excited about this bread recipe, mostly because of my track record of having trouble with the yeast breads. This one seems fool proof...although, I only make 1/2 a batch because my KitchenAid mixer can't handle the whole batch. I think it hates me with 1/2 batch. It really works hard to get the dough kneaded. I hope it doesn't burn out the motor cuz I really like making (and eating) this bread. I took a picture of my gorgeous bread for all to see but for some reason they wouldn't upload to blogger. Oh well, you'll just have to take my word for it...they turned out pefect!

Leaves and Flowers

One of our goals this year is to RETURN to healthier eating habits. Luckily my kids are still young and are not totally set in their eating habits. We used to eat cauliflower instead of potatoes most of the time. I started making it again and it is a big hit. Garrett asks for it every night and Hannah will eat fruit and vegis over almost anything else. So, the other night, Garrett tells me he likes spinach. Really? Ok, great. He asks if we can make him some and I told him there was some baby spinach in the fridge and it is meant to be eaten raw, not cooked. He is trying so hard to be big and try new things (to build his muscles, he says). So he pulls out the bag of spinach and looks at it and says "is it these leaves?" I tell him yes and tell him to try it. Hannah starts crying and says "I don't want to eat leaves!" I told her she didn't have to eat leaves and to finish her cauliflower. She tells me ok and she will eat the "flower". So, I guess that is healthy eating, right? Leaves and flowers? Gotta get the roughage in somehow, eh?