Maddie + freetime = this.

A Littlest Pet Shop beach party in my bathroom sink.

This little piggy looks like she is having a good time.

And when Jared has some free time, he makes good treats like these delicious little cream puffs.

i've been a little preocupied.

So, if you've been wondering where I've been the last few days, I've been a little preoccupied. Actually, my internet was down for about 3 days, which made me find other things to do in my spare time.

I'm still potty-training Kate, and we've now learned that she won't go on normal toilets. So, I'm thinking I'll have to invest in a portable potty seat. Gross, I know, but this one looks just like her pottyseat at home, but it folds for "easy transportation".

We'll see, I can see germs written all over it.



I've also started a little fascination with this cute little pink contraption. Maddie got it for her birthday, and I would have never thought the Littlest Pet Shop game we bought with it could be so fun! Really, it's kindof addicting. Anything to take my mind off the fact that we had a taste of spring, which has been replaced with more snow, helps my sanity.

And last of all, I have been doing laundry, laundry, and more laundry. I'm taking it slow, just a ridiculous four loads a day, and it keeps coming.

green.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

spring.

So normally when you think about spring, you think about all the fun surprises it brings: spring showers, new flowers, new smells, etc. Well around our house our thoughts turn to how will our grass look this year, do you think the voles came back, etc. Well this year the voles did come back, in full force. I think all the voles in Rexburg have decided to call our lawn home for the winter. What is a vole you say? Well I'm glad you asked, because I have pictures.

This is a picture I got off the internet. I don't have any of my own, I've only seen them alive, and then dead in our window wells and it's hard to get a picture of them. They are like a round little mouse with no tail and a shorter nose.

When the snow starts to melt we see a lot of these perfect little holes, and sadly we know they will lead to a perfect little grass hut.

Here is their little hut, I'm amazed that it stayed together under all the snow we got this year. I have now counted 5 of these around our yard. I'm sure I will see more of them as the snow continues melting.

And here are their trails. They chew the grass down to the roots, so when all this dries out, and we rake up the dead grass, we have lovely lines around our yard until the new grass has a chance to grow. It's a sad process each spring. By the end of the summer our yard is back to normal, only to go through this torture each winter. Needless to say we don't have to spend any money on power raking, these lovely little creatures do it for us!

I've researched ways to get rid of voles, but all that I've seen involve poisons that can then kill larger animals/birds/neighbor's cat that eat the voles. So, I haven't tried any of them. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

I'm just hoping all the tulip bulbs I planted in the fall weren't used as vole food storage all winter.

prayer works.

So, in reference to my previous post, prayer really does work. Having enough time to post twice today is proof, but if it's not enough for you, here is more proof:
-we all had a clean green shirt to wear today (except Colin, he had one with green writing but chose not to wear it)
-I reallized before noon and before her St. Patty's party that I forgot to send Maddie's 25 green treats to school.
-I found 25 green fish from the near-empty Goldfish Colors box and promptly threw them in a baggie.
-Since my jeans were still in the dryer, I quickly searched through the pre-pregnancy jeans to see if any fit. The first pair I tried actually went on! (this is the truly miraculous part)
-I quickly put Kate's hair in a braid and Gavin in the car seat and took the treats to school. On the way there Gavin actually quit crying (he's been at it all morning)
-On the way home Gavin and Kate fell asleep, and I have had time to eat a greasy McChicken sandwich, and provide you with this lovely post.

Yes, miracles do happen.

P.S. this is just light hearted humor, I truly know that actual miracles do still take place on earth, and no I don't really consider which jeans I am able to fit in one of them. I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who does care about each of us, and I hope that you have seen evidence of his love in your life today.

prayer.

So I've been thinking a lot about prayer since Sunday. Our home teachers came to visit and their message was about having meaningful prayer. I've been thinking about it ever since. Here's a couple versions of our kind of meaningful prayer.

Last Night:
We had family prayer. This is one thing we're actually kind of consistent with. We usually gather on someone's bed-ours, the kids, or in Gavin's room while I'm getting him ready for bed. Well last night Jared pipes up and says,"You know I read somewhere that we should really kneel, so let's try that tonight."
I respond: "o.k., where did you read that?"
Jared: "I don't know, let's just kneel"
Me(now giggling): "o.k."
So we all kneel, except Jared is taller than the rest of us. I look at him, and he's not really kneeling. Of course this needs to be pointed out.
Me: "Why aren't you kneeling?"
Jared: "I can't"
All of us now giggling: "what, you can't kneel?"
Jared: "no, I'm not that flexible"
He trys to kneel all the way, totally unsuccessful, and now we're are all rolling in laughter at his attempt, which causes me to flatulate. Totally embarrassed now, we are all really laughing, and can't catch our breath.
Finally we settle down, I pray, and we send the kids to bed. I don't know if it was meaningful, but the moment and time we spent with the kids was memorable. I think that's important too.

This morning:
I've been thinking about last night and all the fun we had, and this morning the fun is all gone. I'm totally grouchy, almost depressed. I have the mess from Maddie's party to clean up, and my jeans aren't clean because I neglected the laundry yesterday. Gavin spent 2o minutes crying himself to sleep, and then only spent 10 minutes asleep, and I'm really on the verge of tears. At least I've had a shower, right?
So as I'm trying to calm myself and get ready, I look at the bathroom counter and there lies an old relief society manual with a picture of Jesus and the title is "Come Unto Me". I lose it. Tears flowing now with the realization that I just need to kneel. So I do, and nothing miraculous happened, just a simple prayer, that helped me calm down, put things into perspective, and focus on the important things in life. Well, maybe that much for me is miraculous.

So I guess the point of my post is pray, enough said.

ptp.

That's right, it's about time to reveal our potty training progress. I thought we were doing really well, until I reallized Kate has not yet pooped on the toilet. No, she has not gone a whole week without pooping, she's just chosen to do it in her panties. So, if you have any suggestions for this part of potty training, I'm all ears.

if I had a blog back then...

I would have blogged about this...

Jared graduated from ISU. I love that we're all happy, and Colin is hungry.

Grandpa Wheeler babysat Colin and put his diaper on backwards.

Too funny, we all had a laugh about that one.

Colin's first trip to Disneyland. They are both so handsome!

And Maddie's first Christmas. She was such a sweet baby.

we're on our way.

So, I have been doing my exercise video lately (posted previously), not everyday like I would have hoped, but enough to lose 3 pounds! I've really only done the video 7 times. The reason being that in the last 3 weeks, my entire family has gone through some weird flu bug, and everyone but Jared has had a cold. Kate and Gavin are both on antibiotics for ear infections. So, now that life is getting back to our kind of normal, I decided to start exercising again. But I would say between watching what I eat, and doing this video, it seems to be working. Yay!

My kids have even taken to it. Maddie loves it, and Kate has been joining in too.

Kate's version of a jumping jack.

Kate's dumbells. A booger blaster, and a block. She's sure to create some pipes with these.

So in Jillian Michael's own words, we're well on our way to being "shredded".

6 months.

My cute little man is now 6 months old! The time has flown by. I miss the little wrinkly newborn, but I'm also having fun with all his new surprises.

Here are a few:

-constant drool due to teething.

-constant grouchiness due to teething.

-orange spit-up thanks to carrots

-orange poop thanks to carrots.

-bouncing on his hands and knees, no crawling, just testing the waters.

-rolling over and over again.

-no sitting, he's too busy to try that yet.

-lots of babbling which usually has a little drool accompanying it.

-clothes in fun colors, we're getting past the baby blues, although they are still a favorite.

-lots of smiles and now giggling.

He's too much fun, and I can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring.

quick post.

So, as I'm checking email and all of your lovely blogs, I have come to a scary realization. Kate has just fallen asleep on my bed. I know, I know, what's so scary about that? Well, just this morning I decided no more diapers, which means she has just fallen asleep on my bed, in little flowered Hanes, and I'm quite sure I'll have a little surprise when she wakes up.

All morning she has been wearing panties, and sitting on a towel in front of the t.v. This sounds pretty lazy of me, but I really don't want to be cleaning couches, or carpet, etc. so I have confined her to the beach towel. She hasn't just watched t.v., we've put together puzzles, played with Gavin, and now she is taking a nap. It's really not so different from any other morning, she's just half dressed.

My plan is to have her wear panties today, have a few accidents, and hopefully she'll get the feel of things. Then tomorrow, I'm going to set the timer and take her to the toilet every 20 minutes. I'm hoping I'll get an idea of her "schedule", and then lengthen the time from 20 to 30 to 40 minutes in the next few days. The key word in all of this is hope. I really haven't got a clue what I'm doing. I can't remember training Colin or Maddie. They must not have been too difficult or I've conveniently forgotten that time in our lives.

Anyhow, I'll keep you posted on the Potty Training Progress. I'll call it PTP Wednesdays.

We'll see. Wish us luck!

and the answer is...

Cars! In Kate's words, "Yah, you wight!" We haven't watched that one in a while, but I was thinking about it on that truly crazy day. The best was Meredith commenting on her family's flatulence. I love it! And Kim, Nemo was a close second, I forgot there is a Flo in that movie too. I guess I was unknowingly being tricky.

Well, Jared is back, and although he looks a little funny with sunglass rings around his eyes, and a sore sunburned nose/face, I'm so thankful to have him back! He got up with Gavin last night, and let me sleep a little. He also rubbed Vicks vapo-rub all over Kate (I can't stand the stuff). Then this morning, he got the kids ready for school and let me sleep in. The theme here is "let my wife sleep, so she'll let me take vacations". It works well in our family.

While Jared was gone, I had a nice visit with my parents, and my mom's friend Lori. She came to visit her daughter at BYU-I. While they were here, Lori cut Gavin's hair. He looks super handsome.

Gavin sat pretty still, it helped that he had just had a bath. He looked like he might doze off a few times, he was that comfortable.

Here he is post hair cut. No more wings!

And here's Kate with her best bud Gruffy. He was the best dog, she fed him Kix, laid by him, and followed him all over the house.

Thanks mom and dad. The kids and I enjoyed having you here. Let me rephrase that, I really really enjoyed having you here! And thanks for the cute cut Lori!