Getting My Crafty On

As the months have gone by since Kayla's arrival and Steve's new job, I've slowly embraced my role as stay at home mom and wife.  I've cleaned, decluttered, and reorganized our kitchen; went through all of the kids' clothes and packed up a ton, while pulling out the next size(s); and started making new recipes.  The past couple weeks brought a few new specific things that I've made.  I joined Pinterest and am loving it!  (If you want an invite, just let me know!  Either email me or leave a comment with your email address.)  I've gotten a bunch of good ideas for all sorts of things; sometimes I copy exactly what I see, sometimes it's just a jumping off point and I make my own.

I recently decided my kids needed some more responsibility.  I was getting so frustrated making them clean up or just doing it myself.  So I decided to make a chore chart and give them some ownership of the chores.  It turned out great!  I did a slightly different one for each kid.  I found the pictures on a website and designed the layout myself.  I printed them on cardstock, laminated them, then taped them to the fridge.  (I used painter's tape so it comes off easily, and taped every single edge down, so they couldn't pull them off.  Not pretty, but quite effective.)

They each have the same 4 chores: Gather Dishes, Clean My Room, Make My Bed, Clean Up Family Room.  Jilly has an additional one which is "Mom's Choice".  I made 6 slips, with a different chore on each.  I laminated these as well and put magnets on the back, so I could easily switch them.  I wanted Jilly to have more chores, as she is 2 1/2 years older than Jason, and I wanted some flexibility with her chores as well.  Plus, as we know, variety keeps kids interested. ;-)  I taped the envelope on the fridge as well, so I could keep track of the slips!  This was because within the first hour of making them, the kids had shoved at least three of them underneath the fridge.

My friend is going to make some magnets that will help with the chore charts.  She is going to make several magnets with checkmarks on them.  So when the kids finish a chore, they'll get to put a check mark in the box next to the chore.  If they get all their check marks for the day, they'll get a star (magnet) for the day.  I haven't decided if they'll get any sort of reward for a week of stars, probably not.  I think they'll just enjoy seeing the star.  So far, when we remember to use the chore chart, they get really excited about doing their chores.  Hopefully this will decrease the fighting about cleaning up, and result in a cleaner house too!

My stepdad's birthday was at the end of January and when asked what he wanted for a gift, he specified "Kid art that I can hang in my office."  Kid art?  I can sooooo do that.  Once again, I found the idea on Pinterest.  In the original post, they used the kid's name, but I switched it up.  I bought a canvas and used painter's tape to tape off the word "GRAMPA".

Next up, I had Jason finger paint over it all.  He picked out the colors and did most of the painting; I just helped fill in the gaps and make sure it was painted all the way to the edges.

Here it is all painted, just waiting to dry.

It dried really quickly and I peeled off the tape.  Here it's the finished product!  You could do so many different things with this idea.  If I was to do it again, I'd do it a little different, but I really like how it turned out.  Grampa loved it too!!!

The girls also did an art project for Grampa.  I saw this adorable idea and LOVED it.  I might do more of these and hang them in the kids' room.  SO CUTE.  You paint the child's feet (I let Jilly pick the colors for both her and Kayla) and stamp them on a canvas.  Cross the feet when you do it, so the left foot is on the right and vice versa.

Once they're stamped and dried, paint or draw a body, head and antennae and you have a gorgeous butterfly!  I added a smiley face to both of them as well.

My cousin Bailey had a birthday at the beginning of this month as well.  With my stepdad's suggestion of kid art, I decided to do something similar for Bailey.  Once again, found the idea on Pinterest.  I painted the kids' hand and stamped them on a canvas.  The prints turned out a little different than I expected, but probably because I did them in a hurry.  After the finger and foot painting, I'd put both the big kids in the bath tub.  Then I remembered I still had to have them do this!  Oops.  So, while they were in the bath, I painted their hands and stamped them.  Jilly didn't get a full, firm press, so her print is a little lighter and smaller.  In fact, this makes it look like she and Jason have the same size hands.  Not quite, hers are a little bigger, but they are close.  Jason definitely inherited his dad's wide paws.

I added Kayla's later, but she was less cooperative.  She kept balling up her fist, so I had to tickle the back of her hand to get it to unfold.  (Steve had gone to bed, so I was doing this all by myself.)  She moved her hand too, so it got a little smudged.  But still, cute.

After these dried, I added the yellow centers and stems, leaves, and grass.  Beautiful hand print flowers!  Bailey was over the moon about them and said she'd be hanging this in her office at work.  Sweet!!  :-)

All three finished canvases.  They turned out SO GREAT!  I loved them all.

I also made a meal calendar.  We ended up with an extra calendar and I decided to turn it into a meal planner.  I made little squares with meals (just entrees, really).  I, once again, printed them on cardstock and laminated them.  I hot glued magnets on the back.  I cut off this month's page from the calendar (I needed it up high enough that the kids wouldn't mess with it and thin enough that it would stay on the fridge) and stuck it on the fridge.  Each square went on a day and BAM!  Meals planned for a month.  I probably won't keep to the plan 100%, but hey, at least I have 28 meal ideas right there in front of me and can adjust it easily as needed.

For Paul and Bailey's birthday party, I was asked to make the dessert.  I love making desserts, so I was going to volunteer anyway.  I found a recipe for a Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle and I about passed out from sheer anticipation.  I checked with Paul to make sure this was something he would like (I knew Bailey would love it) and he was totally down, as long as there wasn't candy in it; that would be too much for his taste.  The recipe called for peanut butter cups, but it was easy to leave those out.  I had to buy a trifle dish, but I'm glad I did, because this turned out so awesome, I know I'll use it again over and over!  It was pretty easy to make.  First, layer of brownies.  I made my super awesome Double Chocolate Brownies, and used Dark Chocolate chips, instead of semi-sweet.  YUM.

I tried to fill in the big gaps, but there were still lots of little ones.

Next, a layer of peanut butter mousse.  This mousse was TO DIE FOR.  I am in love with it.  Peanut butter + cream cheese + powdered sugar + whipped cream = divinity.

Next was a layer of Chocolate Fudge pudding.  This was just Jello instant pudding.  It was totally fine, but I think I'd like to find a better chocolate layer option.  Maybe some homemade hot fudge?

I then added a layer of whipped cream and repeated all the layers.  The top layer of whipped cream came to the very top of the bowl.  The recipe suggested piping on the whipped cream, but I liked it better spread fairly smooth.  Not to mention it was way easier.

A view from the side.  Look at all those pretty, pretty layers!  This dessert was just as pretty as it was tasty.  It was a huge hit with everyone at the party!  And it feeds a lot of people!  I've seen a few other trifle recipes, and it's easy to see how to adapt this.  Pretty much just layer a bunch of yummy things together!  This was a big success and relatively easy to make, so I'll, for sure, be doing it again.

So there you go, the crafty projects I've been working on lately.  There are sure to be more.

Jillian's School Progress

Last week, I attended the annual meeting for Jilly's IEP. This year was slightly different than the past couple, because she will be going to Kindergarten in the fall and the IEP needed to reflect that. It was a great meeting, all of the observations by her teachers were right on track with what Steve and I have noticed about her. I feel very good about the plan for her for next year.

For the past almost two years, she has been in a self-contained preschool program at a local elementary school (though not our 'neighborhood' school), receiving help in Social/Emotional, Communication, and Gross Motor areas. To give some perspective, when Jilly started the program, at 3 years old, she was speaking in 2-3 word sentences, could not jump, and never objected to another kid stealing a toy from her or hurting her. Now, at 5 years old, Jilly has met every goal set for her and exceeded several of them. In the Social/Emotional area, she can now identify her own emotions and those of others. She's become more assertive and taking ownership of her possessions, which is leading to using words when in a conflict with another child. In Communication, Jilly has progressed amazingly. Now she is able to answer Who, What, Where, and Why questions with 100% accuracy; she understands pronouns and prepositions; colors, shapes, etc. She maintains eye contact and and greets people appropriately. Also, she can make requests, ask questions, and has a great vocabulary. Her SLP told us how when she evaluated Jilly, Jilly used pictures of people in a classroom to narrate a very detailed story, with dialogue and everything. It was fun, because the girl is always talking and telling stories like that! In Gross Motor, she can now go up stairs alternating feet and not holding a rail. She can jump forward about 12-14 inches with feet together, jump down from about 18 inches high and jump independently on a trampoline. She can walk on the balance beam with one foot in front of the other (which she demonstrates for me on the way back up the hill from the bus stop, using the curb). She is learning to catch a ball, throw it overhand, and kick. If you saw her two years ago, this progress is just astounding.

While Jillian has made super duper progress, she still has a bit farther to go. So the IEP set new goals for the next year. There are 5 listed on the IEP paperwork.

• Communication: When given structured group work and/or play activities Jillian will appropriately interact with her peers by using eye contact, asking questions/requests, and making comments improving expressive and pragmatic language from >50% of the time to 90% of the time.
• Social/Emotional/Behavioral: When given the opportunity to appropriately resolve conflict Jillian will select an appropriate strategy (claiming & defending possessions, use simple strategy, and negotiating) improving her social skills from walking away and finding something else to resolving conflicts, using her words to claim and defend her possessions, and to negotiate.
• Social/Emotional/Behavioral: When given free-choice time and it is time to clean up Jillian will respond to the request (time to clean up) improving her social skills from needing to be reminded, and helped to follow directions 50% of the time to responding appropriately (end playing and clean up independently) 90% of the time.
• Social/Emotional/Behavioral: When given unstructured, child-directed, free-choice time Jillian will establish and maintain proximity with her peers who are playing in the same area improving her social skills from solitary play 80% of the time to establishing and maintaining proximity with her peers 75% of the time.
• Social/Gross Motor: When given physical activities at recess and in the PE/motor room Jillian will increase her skills for balance activities and ball handling improving participation from needing verbal cues to participate 85% in all skills to needing no cues to participate 85-100% in all skills.

As you see, Jilly's main delay now lies in Social, not Communication. I think she will probably always be a more solitary girl; she's an introvert (she gets that from her dad). But she needs to be able to engage in conflict resolution and be able to defend herself, as well as at least be comfortable working with others and initiating that contact. Her Communication goal goes right along with her Social goals. It may seem kind of silly, or trivial, to have a goal about 'clean up time', but I will tell you this is a big struggle with Jilly. She almost never wants to clean up and often refuses to do any measure of it, even after repeated requests, demands, threats, etc, and will need someone to physically take her hand, pick up a toy, and put it in the right box. Her little brother is much better about this than she is. It goes beyond the typical willful young child resisting the end of playtime. So it was a bit of a relief for me to at least hear that it is an issue at school and something her teacher wants her to work on. Her teacher told me, she will be trying to work with Jilly one-on-one, daily, with this.

The rest of this school year will continue with her therapies the same as they have been the past two years. Most of the work is done in the classroom, with going to the motor/PE room once or twice a week. But once she starts Kindergarten, this will change a bit. Her teacher said that Jilly is definitely ready for a General Education classroom, meaning she'll no longer have to be in a separate Special Education classroom. She will be in a normal class with typical kids her own age. Academically, Jilly is soooooo ready for Kindergarten; she can read easily and is starting basic math. But she does still need some extra help. This means she'll be in the regular classroom full time, but with “pull-outs” for her therapies. The way it breaks down is Gen-Ed for about 80% of the time and the rest for her Special-Ed needs. She'll continue to have Speech & Language Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Social/Emotional/Behavioral therapy. I will register her as normal at her 'home' school next month, and then in April, her preschool teacher will get in touch with that school and hopefully we'll be able to get her teacher assigned this spring, meet them, and ease the transition into Kindergarten in the fall.

Overall, I am happy with this plan. After the Parent-Teacher Conference back in the fall, I had wondered if getting Jilly into a Special-Ed Kindergarten class would be the better choice for her. But hearing this plan, I feel like the Gen-Ed class is better. Jilly is far enough along in her progress and development, that I think being around 'typical' kids will do more to push her and encourage her, rather than making her fall behind more. I think she will thrive in the Gen-Ed setting. We have ZERO worries about her cognitively/academically, which is why I feel Gen-Ed is the best. She will get a little extra support and help with her social, language, and gross motor skills, and have lots of time to practice those skills with her peers. She is due for her next full evaluation in March 2013 (a year from now). If she continues to make progress at this rate, she might even be done with extra services and be 100% mainstream/Gen-Ed. We'll see how her progress goes over the next year. But in the meantime...

Jillian is Kindergarten bound!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!  We hope this past year has been an exciting one for you.  Here is what our little family has been up to.

Jillian is now 5 years old!  She started her final year of preschool this fall (she's been in preschool for a year and a half now) and has made some amazing progress.  Her speech and vocabulary are spectacular and it's a delight to hear all about her imagination.   She got her first haircut in January and another one in July.  She loves having "fancy hair" and is usually patient enough with me.  In July, she got to spend a few days at Lake Chelan with Granny, Grampa, Auntie Katie and Uncle Andy.  Right around her birthday in November, she started reading!  She loves to do art projects, especially with Granny, and is adept with several different mediums.  She has grown about 4 inches in the last year, but hasn't put on any weight, so she's quite the slender girl nowadays.  It's surprising to a lot of people, because she was such a chubby baby.  She really has become a beautiful girl, inside and out.

Jason turned 2 in June and is soooo very two years old.  He is crazy verbal, talking and teasing us all the time.  He really loves to be silly and tease.  He is strong, both physically and mentally.  This kid has a will of his own and makes sure everyone knows it!  He is very active, running, climbing, yelling, driving his cars all over, wrestling, and more.  He has been an adorable big brother with Kayla.  He gets very concerned about her if she's upset, wants to be with her when she wakes up and all together just loves her to pieces.  He is very much a Mama's Boy, and prefers to be with me over anyone else, but he's warmed up to others quite a bit over last year.  He even got to have a sleepover at Granny & Grampa's a couple weeks before Ducky was born; lucky dude.  We gave potty training a try in August and he wasn't completely ready for it, but he still uses the toilet a couple times a day.  We'll try again in a couple months.  He can be a handful, but he really is a tenderhearted little boy with charm to spare.

Our newest addition, Kayla, arrived in June, blazing her own trail.  She is an incredibly sweet and almost unbelievably happy baby.  If you haven't heard about her birth, you should totally read this.  You can't stop this girl!!  She has her own timetable and it doesn't matter what you want, she's doing it her way.  She has done great with nursing and actually is the first of our kids to make it to 4 months without needing to use formula.  Since we're separated so much less, she's been able to be 100% breastfed (or at least, had breast milk; she's had some in bottles when I was at work or away for the evening).  She got her first tooth at 4 1/2 months, after starting to teethe at 3 months.  At 5 1/2 months, she started army crawling!  She can get up onto her hands and knees and rock, but hasn't quite gotten it all coordinated for hands and knees crawling yet.  But she sure gets around and into everything.  She continues to defy expectation by being the first baby we've ever seen master Downward Facing Dog (yoga pose).  I don't imagine she'll be a late walker like her older siblings. ;-)  She's now 6 months old and got her first taste of food Christmas night.  The mashed bananas weren't thrilling to her, but it was fun for her to get a chance to try them.  I love waking up each morning to her smiles; her happiest time is right after she wakes up.  She is so smiley and happy; she's a joy and a light in our lives.

Steve spent the first half of the year at home with us, while going to school for his MBA, and then in July, he got a job!  He was hired by a dental supply company to do accounts receivable.  He's been there for a few months and it's going great.  Almost everything about his job is great, the hours, the location, the management and other employees.  If it just paid more, we'd be content to stay there forever.  But for right now, it's fabulous.  As of this month, he has completed 5 of 8 quarters for his MBA program.  Everything is on track from him to graduate at the end of the summer!  We're quite excited for that to happen and for us to move on to whatever is our next chapter in life.

Aimee has been busy, wearing many different hats over the year.  For the first few months, I worked 20-40 hours a week, while gestating Ducky.  This pregnancy was the hardest, physically, because there was a lot of pain in my right hip, which affected pretty much everything.  But luckily, it resolved once the baby was born.  If you ask what the highlight of the year was, I will say, without hesitation, that it was catching my own baby.  It was the single coolest experience of my life.  Now that Steve is working full time, I am finally getting to be a full time stay-at-home mom.  For a couple months, I worked on Saturdays, but was furloughed for the winter, so I'm not working at all currently.  It's been actually really really nice to get to spend the time with the kids.  It's been both an adjustment to three kids and an adjustment to being home full time.  For our whole marriage, excepting maternity leaves, I've worked at least part time (evenings and Saturdays).  But now that I'm home full time, I've become a much better housekeeper. ;-)  I am still cake decorating when I get time, and have branched out into sewing and other crafts as well.

February saw our family head to Texas for Steve's sister's wedding.  We got to spend 6 days with our Texas family, which was wonderful.  Some of them had not met Jason yet, and we had been missing them all.  Erin & Charles were a gorgeous couple, and instead of having bridesmaids & groomsmen, they had all their nieces and nephews be their 'attendants'.  The five little girls got to wear beautiful formal red dresses and the five little boys wore tuxedos.  It was even cuter than it sounds.

This year has been one of big changes for our family.  We've grown to a family of 5, Steve got a new job and I am staying at home now, and all the kids are learning and growing each day.  It's amazing how one more kid really changes the family dynamic.  We are very blessed to have such a wonderful family and life, with so many lovely friends & family.  We love you all and wish you a most Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years.

October so far

Since I am not very good at detailing our adventure very often, I'm just going to do a big blast of photos and the stories with them.

Steve was cuddling the big kids on the couch one night and it was so cute I had to take a picture.  But I had to add Kayla in the mix too.  Awww, my family is so adorable. 

Kayla has been getting so strong and wanting to play and jump lately, that I pulled out the ExerSaucer to give her a test run.  She's still a little too small and wobbly, but she gets the idea of it.  We all look forward to when she gets big enough to play in here more.

I made homemade, totally from scratch Chicken Soup a couple weeks ago.  I made the broth then the soup.  It was a ton of work, I had never cut up a whole chicken before and it was really hard!  But it was soooooo tasty.  I'll probably do it again, just with better planning. :-)

As I've said before, Jason just adores his little sister.  One morning, the big kids were up with me while Kayla was still asleep in my bed.  After a bit, she woke up and started fussing.  Jason heard her, jumped up and said "I go see Kayla!" and ran off to my room.  I followed him a minute later and found him, having climbed up, entertaining his baby sister with his "babies". 

She loves him just as much and was happy and smiling at him.  When I came in, he laid down with her and told me "I take a nap with Kayla."  So I got a picture of that too.  :-)

 My three cuties, all playing together on the floor.

In the middle of the month, my college best friend, Racine came up from Utah.  We hadn't seen each other in 5 1/2 years!  Since before I got pregnant with Jilly!  She flew in Friday morning, the kids and I picked her up, then we spent the day with our friend Val and her son Harry.  That night Racine went back down to Seattle to meet up with her husband, who had taken the train up from Portland where he'd been all week.  I had to work Saturday, so we couldn't see them then, but I was determined to get more time with Racine and get to meet her husband.  So Sunday morning, we were heathens and went down to Pike Place Market with them.  My kids loved walking with Racine & Tony.  Jilly went back and forth between them, and Jason wanted to hold Racine's hand.  If she wasn't available, then he'd hold Daddy's hand, but no one else, and Racine was by far his favorite.  I can't blame them for wanting to be seen with our own "Turkish Delight".  ;-) 

Racine pointed out this pig, which I don't remember seeing before, so I had to get a picture of it.  Even though our time was short with Racine & Tony, it was super awesome seeing them!  We determined not to let another 5 1/2 years go by before we see each other again.

It's been getting colder and wetter lately and the other day, it was really gross when it was time to take Jilly to the bus.  I needed to keep Kayla warm and dry, but my coats aren't big enough to fit around both of us (when she's in the wrap).  So I pulled out Jilly's "bunny suit" and put it on Kayla.  Kayla was much happier than Jilly ever was in it.  It's super soft and fuzzy and keeps my little one safe from the elements.  She's about to get too tall for it (it's a 0-3 mos, so no wonder), so I bought a new pram for her to wear.  Gotta keep my Ducky warm this winter!

Jilly and I went to get her Halloween costume.  She has been asking to be a ballerina, so we got her a leotard and tights.  It was more than I would typically spend on a costume, but I know she'll get lots of use out of it.  I bought a slightly bigger size than she likely needs so that it would last a long time.  Hopefully we'll be able to get her into a dance class in the next while.  When we got home, she wanted to try it on, so I let her and put her hair up in a bun.  She danced for us as soon as she got it put on.

Jason was playing in his room and pulled on his Cookie Monster hat.  It was hilarious because he had it pulled down over his face entirely.  Hehehehe.

We went to a party at Juliet's house the other night.  Her husband Kelly just built a new music studio in their basement.  At the party, a bunch of his musician friends were down there with him, jamming.  Jilly was draw like a magnet to them.  She found the ukulele and loved it.  When it was time to go, she freaked out and sobbed for like 20+ minutes (even after we got home) because she refused to believe that she had her own ukulele at home.  Nothing would soothe her until I finally dug it out of the closet and showed it to her.  At the party,  she danced and sang and played every instrument she could get her hands on.  That's my musical girl.  :-)

One day the kids and I had the car and while we were waiting for Steve to come out of work, I nursed Kayla.  Once she finished, she played on my lap for a bit.  Looks like she's ready to drive!  ;-)

Jilly had a great time showing off her mad dance skills.  Jason wanted in on the action too. 

 

Jason showing off his ever expanding verbal skills.

Jilly jamming out at the party.

Kayla's Blessing

We had Kayla's blessing day picked out for a couple months before she was born.  The first Fast Sunday after her due date was 4th of July weekend and we knew she'd be here by then, for sure!  I found out my friend Janell and her family were going to be in Washington that weekend as well and it made for the perfect time to meet up.  I was even able to convince another friend of ours to come up and visit from Oregon.  The plans were in the works well before Kayla herself arrived.  It ended up surprising us all that she was only 2 weeks (well, 13 days) old when she was blessed, but she was still older than my sister who was 6 days old when she was blessed!

Kayla wore the same dress that me, my sister and Jilly wore for our blessings.  My mom made it when she was pregnant with me and it is gorgeous.  Because we waited until (chubby) Jilly was 2 1/2 months old to bless her, the dress didn't really fit and we could only do up the top button in the back.  She had a big open square of her back hanging out.  We figured Kayla being so little would fit perfectly in it.  I hadn't changed her into the dress until we got to church because it's too fluffy for the car seat (and I wanted to minimize her chances of blowing out all over it too).  We got to church right before Sacrament Meeting started, later than I had planned, so I was sitting there trying to get her in it, but it wasn't working right.  I couldn't get the back snapped up, other than the top snap, just like Jilly.  It was so weird, because it seemed like there was enough fabric, but one of the under layers was too tight.  My mom took her out to the Mother's Room to try and fix it, but time ran out and she came back so the baby would be there for her blessing. ;-)  So Kayla was also blessed with her dress open in the back.  Cracked me up.  (When we got home, I took the dress off of her to figure it out and realized on the the under layers had gotten pulled inside another layer and that's why it couldn't snap up.)

That morning, my friends had come over to my house to meet up before church.  It was so fun to see them!  Because we were all having such a fun time chatting, I lost track of time and we made it out the door just in the time to get to church right before the meeting started.  I had wanted to be there early, but oh well.  Janell, her husband Ira, and her two little boys, Anthony and Drew were staying with family in Poulsbo and came over on the ferry that morning.  Cammie and her husband Ethan decided to turn it into a long weekend vacation.  My cousins Bailey and Elise drove up from Seattle for the blessing and my mom and step-dad Paul came too.  It was awesome having so many people there, because they love Kayla and us.  It was also way fun because during the meeting itself, my kids got to sit with everyone else and I got to pay attention!  Kayla was held by Bailey and Granny, Jason and Jilly went back and forth between Granny, Grampa, Daddy and Bailey and Elise.  It was kind of weird to sit all by myself, but definitely nice.  :-)  After the meeting, we decided to head back to my house to hang out and eat and visit, since Janell, Cammie and I only had that day to spend together.  

We, of course, had to take pictures to commemorate the day.  We'd forgotten our camera before church, so we just took them at home.  

Kayla and Mama on the balcony.  Such a pretty girl. 

Mama and her sweet girls.  (Jilly wasn't that in to pictures, she wanted to play with the boys.)

Our cute little family of 5.  It is crazy how much more difficult it gets to take pictures with each kid you have!  To get all of us looking even remotely towards the camera seems like an impossible feat.

Cammie, Janell, and me (and Kayla, gotta love a yawning baby).  Such awesome friends!  I love you guys!

 I wish I had gotten some pictures with the kids playing or the husbands, but I didn't.  Janell and Cammie put together an awesome meal, Cafe Rio pork with yummy rice (was it the cilantro lime rice?).  They made the meal and cleaned it up!  These are good friends to have come visit you.  ;-)  We got to spend so much time talking and enjoying each other.  The kids got along really well, Janell's boys are about the same ages as my kids.  The husbands had a ton of fun talking and goofing around too.  Janell & her guys had to leave to catch the ferry back, but Cammie and Ethan stayed later.  It was awesome.

It was a wonderful day to share with our friends and family.  Steve gave Kayla a beautiful blessing.  We felt so honored that so many people wanted to be there with us and celebrate our sweet Ducky.  :-)

Adventures in Potty Training

Jason's potty training....

Jason is proving to be quite a bit different from Jilly in so many ways.  One of the most surprising is that he has been asking to go potty since before Kayla was born.  We decided after she was born and he turned two, we'd give him a shot at potty training.  My philosophy was if he caught on and trained, then WAHOO!  Only one kid in diapers!  But if he didn't, then no biggie, I wasn't planning on potty training until 3 anyway.  So I waited until we had a week without anything going on and decided we'd go with the naked method.  It was what worked with Jilly, so I thought it'd be a good way to go.

Monday morning, we got up and took off his diaper, not replacing it with anything else.  Throughout the day, I set an alarm for every 30 minutes and took him to the frog potty each time it went off.  There were a few successes which were awesome, but there were puddles to clean up too.  Over the next couple days, he would go when I took him, even pooped once, but there were a lot of messes to clean up.  It didn't seem to be getting much better.  So after Thursday, I decided to be done.  He wasn't progressing enough, so I decided to save us both the hassle and stress.  We'll wait until he's a little older.  For now, he's in Pull-Ups and almost every time we change it, we take him to the potty and 95% of the time, he pees in the potty (even though he still pees & poops in the Pull-Up).

I'm glad we tried it.  It gave me more insight to where he is at developmentally and what his capabilities and limitations are.  He's growing and talking SO MUCH these days (new sentences every day), it can be easy to overestimate him.  All that said, I don't think it will be long until he's ready and I think once he is, it will be an easy process.  I think it really helped (same thing with his speech) that he's grown up watching us really coach and teach Jilly; he's soaked up a lot of those lessons.  He's such a cute little boy.

First Day of School!

Jilly started her final year of preschool this week.  She goes 5 days a week now, still afternoons.  The bus picks up her about 12:30pm and drops her off about 4:00pm.  The first day of school was supposed to be a hot day, so I had to pick out a different outfit than originally planned.  

She was SO excited to wear her new light up Skechers shoes.  They are pretty awesome.

Waiting for the bus!  It was extra special because Daddy came home on his lunch break to see her get on the bus (and drive us down the hill, so I didn't have to walk down with all the kids the first day).

Here's the bus!  She's such a pro, she knows just what to do.

Jason was all excited and wanted special hair too.  So I gave him his "spike".

She has the same pick-up driver as last year.  Marcy watched me last spring as I got bigger and bigger and kept waiting for the baby to arrive, but of course Kayla didn't come until after school ended.  She was excited to meet Kayla, even offered to hold her while I buckled Jilly in.  :-)

All buckled in and on her way!

Here's to a great school year!  :-D