February: Potty Training & more

Back in February we decided we needed to get this kid potty trained before the new baby came in May.  I was dreading this time and the first few days were NOT fun.  We hung out in the kitchen a lot so we had to figure out different ways to entertain ourselves like playing in the kitchen sink, we also played cars on the kitchen floor and worked on the alphabet and more.  

 Maybe it's better that I'm blogging about this later so I don't remember all the horrible details, but I guess I don't remember the good ones either.  I think the hardest part about it was doing this while being about 6+ months pregnant and having to clean out yucky underwear!  He soon caught on, but I think it probably took a good 2-3 weeks before he really had it down.  Even now today he still has accidents every so often.  He doesn't like to be told when to go and he goes very last minute and has to RUN to the toilet.

 Paxton took A LOT of baths in the kitchen sink.  Rem and I had decided we wanted to re-tile the upstairs shower/bath which he started demolishing in January.  Between work and school he didn't have much time to work on it and it took forever to get it back.  It sure was a pain to have to make sure all the dishes were done and the sink was cleaned out before I could bath him.  Although he sure loved it!  I guess it was nice that I didn't have to lean over a bathtub.

            Here is his first potty chart.                          We had to turn on movies for him while he went #2
                                                                              because he never wanted to sit there long enough to go.

His first prize for completing his chart.                          Potty training with his cousin is so much more fun.

And then we had to do a second potty chart because things were not going so well.  And he finally finished it and got another prize!  I'm so glad it's over with even though I still have to deal with it every so often.

 One day while Paxton was eating breakfast, he dropped ONE cheerio on the floor and naturally Lilo (the dog) ate it.  Paxton freaked out and threw his spoon on the floor and as I tried to explain to him that that's what a dog does and we like her to clean up the floor for us and I can get you as many more cheerio's as you'd like... he took his hand and slammed it on his bowl making his cheerios and milk go everywhere!  This picture does not do the mess justice.  Can we say tantrum?!  He then ran to his room and slammed his door. Can we say teenager?!

The other picture... Paxton I liked to go swimming quite often at Dimple Dell.  He loves the shallow end where he can touch and loved to play pretend.  He's not so fond of the deep end, he will not let go of me as much as I reassure him that his life jacket will hold him up, he doesn't trust it.  Maybe one day, but I don't want to force him in fear of him never wanting to go swimming again.

Valentines Day

Paxton wanted all his animals to watch him eat breakfast.

 Rem had to go to work, so Paxton and I got to hang out.  We got to planning Valentines Day for dad since he also had class that night (which he ended up skipping).  I made the effort of making one of his favorite dinner... chicken rolls and drove to his work so we could have dinner with him.  Which afterwards we went out for crepes and frozen yogurt.

We use to take turns planning Valentines Day, but now we decided to spend it together as a family on the holiday (since it's hard to find a sitter) and then Rem can take me out on the weekend on a date.

Paxton and Rem made me a nice card, got me my favorite candy and picked out some pretty flowers.  Paxton picked out the colored ones and Rem the white ones.  What a great couple days we had!

Sleepy boy.  Love how he puts his arms behind his head.           Loving my sweet niece, little Lucy!   

Playing with one of his best buddies, cousin Maya.  They play so well together and I think part of it is because they both watch Dora and Diego and they love to play pretend.  They are so cute together!

I had these two sleepy heads in the car.  Getting ready to have two kids myself!

Argh!

I'm so behind with blogging, but better late than never.

I can't believe I have a three year old!  Rem and I just celebrated 8 years of marriage and it's so crazy to look back and remember all the years of infertility and how hard it was going through it all and then to look at our life now and to be so happy!  We have the cutest 3 year old ever that is so social and says and does the funniest things and we are so blessed and excited to add another boy to the family in about 6 weeks, I can't believe it!

We had such a fun time celebrating Paxton's birthday.  On the Friday before his birthday we had a party with my side of the family... a Pirate Party!  He was so excited for it and we'd talk about it every day leading up to it.

We invited some of my cousins and their kids so Paxton could have some buddies at his party.  And thanks to Aunt Jamie for taking all the great pictures!

We had pizza and lots of other yummy "pirate" food (thanks to Pinterest for some great ideas).

Rem dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow (Paxton called him Captain Hook) and took the kids on a treasure hunt.  He did such an awesome job talking in a pirate voice and had the kids attention the whole time.  They had a blast and found their treasure box in the microwave.

I was hoping to make this awesome Pirate hat cake for Paxton.  It was my first attempt to doing something other than in a 9x13 pan or cupcakes and I failed.  Although I do have to say I think it had a lot to do with having to use an egg substitute and not having any eggs in the cake (yes he is allergic).  So Paxton got a pile of cake and frosting that I put some chocolate gold coins in and his three candles and called it his buried treasure cake ;)  At least it still tasted delicious!

Even little Lucy dressed up for the party :)  And Paxton pointed out that "she doesn't have any teeth"!

We had such a great time celebrating this little boy.  It is so fun having a kid and watching them grow up and having a blast!  He for sure got spoiled and got a new basketball hoop from Grandpa & Grandma.  But I think his favorite toy was a pirate telescope that Rem and I got him.  (At least that day it was his favorite).  We had so much fun and are so grateful to everyone who came!

There is more to come on this THREE year old soon.  (I just have to figure out how to edit a video).

Christmas and more...

So my laptop died (possibly still fixable) and so I don't have my pictures.  Thank goodness, I have already scrapbooked them.  So to catch up on my blog, here is Christmas...  (from my sisters blog)

The Soderberg Party (my mom's side)

The Moss Christmas Eve Party (my dad's side)

Christmas Morning (at my parent's house)

And I did happen to get one video loaded of Paxton waking up thinking Santa was at our house...

It was so much fun celebrating Christmas with a kid, it brings the magic back!


Then to celebrate the New Year we went to Jamie and Dan's for a Nacho Libre Party with my cousins.  It was so cute to see the kids dressed up!

I started doing these 'chore cards' with Paxton to help him become a little more independent before this baby comes.  He gets stickers for things like, getting un-dressed/dressed, picking up toys, clearing his dishes and anything else I ask him to help with.  It was cute the other day he wanted a sticker and I told him he had to do a chore to get one and all by himself he got the idea, "how about I go clean up my toys".  He is doing so with this, it is so fun seeing him learn to do new things and earn his sucker when he gets a card all filled up!  

January 20

I'm an aunt again!  My sister Jamie just had her first baby, a little girl named Lucy.  She is so precious and I hate that they live 45 minutes away.  I'm pretty sure I could be over there everyday holding her if it weren't for the drive.  This makes me more and more excited to have our little one in May.

When we went to visit them in the hospital, Paxton seemed so excited to see baby Lucy and then we got there and he wanted nothing to do with her.  He didn't want to hold her or get his picture with her, we had to force him as you can see.  But a few days later we went to see her at home and he loved baby Lucy, he held her and even gave her kisses.

I had so much fun helping Jamie out with Lucy's newborn pictures.  We just did them at her house.  I just love holding this little girl, she is so sweet!

Gingerbread House Contest

Another fun year of making gingerbread houses with family and friends!

Dan and Jamie won first place with Shreks House.

 



Ben and Erika got second with Hobbit Ville.

 

We won third with Wreck it Ralph.

We were so excited to have Trev and Sandee and baby Jake here this year all the way from Texas.  They did an awesome Mator from Cars.

 

And our first timers to the party, Brian and Britnie.  They did a great job and made the Coliseum.

 

Our usual judges (our next door neighbors) were out of town this year.  So we called some other neighbors and they felt privileged to come over and judge.  I guess the word has gotten out about our party and our awesome and creative gingerbread houses!  We love this tradition!  Although I feel a little bad about getting a babysitter for Paxton while we play.  I think we will just have to do gingerbread houses the next day with the kids with all the leftover candy. 

Thanks for coming everyone, it was a lot of fun!

Dickens Festival

Back in December we went to the Dickens Festival with my family to go see Santa.  Rem and were so excited because we were announcing to my family the gender of our baby.

 

I was only 17 weeks pregnant and wasn't going to find out the gender until 20 weeks, but I have a friend that does ultrasounds and she was so awesome to do an early one for us!

This was the perfect plan to have Santa help us tell our news.  Rem and I split off from the family and said we were going to check out how long the line was for Santa while they continued looking around and shopping.  We gave the candy canes to Santa and my family had no idea what was coming.

We had our picture taken with Santa and then the lady said Santa you have something special for these people in your bag.  My family looked so confused and didn't really catch on at first when all that was pulled out of the bag was candy canes.  But then they noticed the ultrasound picture tied to the blue candy canes.  "It's a boy!"  They were so excited and surprised, it was awesome!  It worked out perfect!

Baby boy is due on May 15!  We couldn't be more excited and Paxton is so excited to be a big brother!

Then on Sunday we went to the Sorenson's home for Sunday dinner.  We brought cupcakes for dessert that said "SORENSON BABY?"  They had to bite into them to find out what we were having.  They were excited to find out!