January 2022

Aquarium

Sandee invited us to join them at the aquarium.  It's so much more fun going with cousins and we hadn't been in a while.  It was fun taking Harper around and watching her enjoy all the fish.  She really liked the penguins!

Our neighbor was getting rid of this huge panda bear and knew Graham loved pandas so she asked if he wanted it.  I made him get rid of two other big (not as big) stuffed animals before I'd let him have this one.  He loves it so much!  Now he has someone to sleep in his other bunk bed ;)

Potty Training

We started potty training Harper this month which is always something I dread to do, but she was almost 3 years old and it was time.  The first day we went through 20+ pairs of underwear and I wondered if she was every going to understand it, it was a hard day.  The second day about 10 pairs of underwear which was better, but still a hard day.  The third day was only 4 pairs of underwear and after that she seemed to have it down(at least the pee pee part), I was so proud of her!  Going poop in the potty has been a lot harder for her to do.  She's done it a couple of times, but most of them end up in her underwear which is so frustrating.  She soon had it down though after about a month, it just clicked for her one day.  About a week into potty training Harper learned the word "privacy" and now almost every time she goes to the bathroom she wants everyone out "privacy" she says.  Yet she doesn't know how to give me privacy when I ask for it.

She loved putting stickers on her chart and earning little toys when she got to the star.  She filled up about 5 charts or so before we took them down and just had her earn a gummy bear every time she went potty, which she called "teddy bears", so cute.  We sure love her and are so proud of her for doing so well!

Ice Skating

We put Graham in ice skating classes to get him ready to sign up for some hockey lessons.  Harper had fun coming to the rink and watching him skate.  Graham was always one of the best in his class, I wondered if he really needed the lessons.  I guess he did learn a few new things like how to skate backwards.

Girls outing

We first went to Wheeler farm with Erika and Joelle.  The girls had fun picking up hay off the ground and feeding it to the horses.  After we were done there we went to Gardner Village for lunch and a little shopping to buy Harper so new bedding for her soon to be big girl bed.  She was excited that we picked out something pink, her favorite color.

Paxton got ordained

Paxton is officially in Young Mens even though he's not quite 12 years old.  We set a date with the bishop and invited my parents to join in watching him be ordained to the office of a deacon.  It was a special day for him and he's excited but a little nervous to pass the sacrament.  He sure is growing up fast!

His dad teaching him to tie a tie.

He did a great job passing the sacrament for the first time.  I loved watching him do so and Harper got a little vocal about wanting "Pattin's bread".  We had a different young man pass the bread to us, but they made sure Paxton got our row when passing the water.  Silly girl, she sure does love her big brother!

Date Night

Rem and I finally went on a date night, we aren't very good about going out and we should be because we have a built in babysitter now.  We went downtown to the Van Gogh experience.  It was pretty cool to see all his art and read about his life.  Afterwards we went out to dinner at R & R bbq, it was delicious.

Every grandchild and great grandchild loves to hide in this end table of Rems grandma's.  Harper loved it too!