Kindergarten!

I can't even believe that we have ourselves a KINDERGARTNER! it's been a few months now, and Parker is, for the most part, loving kindergarten! he is doing great academically, and he is trying to learn the ropes when it comes to friends, and nice friends. He goes to school all day, every other day. I thought I was going to hate this schedule, but it surprisingly hasn't been as bad as I thought. Brooklynn and Jackson have no idea what to do when parker is at school, but they love the days he is home!

we love parker's teacher Mrs. Browning. She has been great! So far our first year of public school has been relatively smooth sailing. I'm sad it's going by so fast! 

Jackson's first birthday!

Poor Jackson.... being the 3rd child can be a bit of a bummer. Parker has so much of his life documented, and Jackson, not so much! I really am bummed I haven't been keeping up with this journal! hoping to get back into it! 

So we spent 4th of July this year over in Idaho Falls and Rexburg. My entire family was there, as well as Jared's entire family. We got to celebrate Jackson's 1st birthday with both side while we were there! 

Mother's Day Surprise

Mother's day weekend we were just planning on a quiet weekend at home. Friday evening i was in the kitchen making dinner when i heard a knock at my door. completely confused about who it could be. when i opened the door, there stood my sister stacey and her wonderful friend krista! to say i was surprised would be a complete understatement. i had NO idea they were coming... i guess jared did though, little stinker! i was so happy to see them.

my kids were equally as excited to see them also, and were beyond thrilled to have them jump on the trampoline, and play tag out in the back yard. after we put the kids to bed, we came up with a menu for the weekend and headed to the grocery store to stock up on all the good stuff. when we got back home we brought the groceries inside, and there i see sitting on my living room floor are kyle and carissa! what!?!?!?! what in the world was going on??!!? i am ALWAYS the one pulling off surprises and pranks, not the other way around. but kudos to all of them for pulling all these surprises off. 

we spent the rest of the weekend playing, playing, and playing. it was so much fun. we stayed up way to late eating candy and playing games and talking and laughing. man how i wish family lived closer! at least we are close enough to make random trips to one another. 

thanks for coming!!! please come back soon!!!!!

potty training round 2

let me start by saying having two kiddos in diapers is no fun. I was so tired of changing so many diapers during the day that i decided it was time to potty train brooklynn. my first experience of potty training with parker wasn't the most fun, (is it ever fun?) and i was pretty sure we would never leave the house again in fear of him having an accident. but this time around i entered potty training with a different perspective. a we will still be able to leave our house, if accidents happen they happen, and one day she will be able to run in there and do her thing all by herself perspective. 

so day one. it was awful. awful, awful, awful, awful. way worse than parker's first day of potty training. day 2 came with the same results. awful. during those first 2 days she only peed on the potty ONE time. day 3 came around and i decided to see how the morning went. if by lunch time we were still having ZERO progress i was bagging the whole thing and putting her back in diapers. parker had preschool that day so we ran him to school and came home and sat on the potty for seriously almost 2 hours. i didn't let her off until she finally peed. after she FINALLY went, I'm not sure what exactly clicked, but something did and we ended day 3 completely accident free! whaaaat??!?! it was awesome and weird. but the following days came with the same results, accident free (in BOTH categories!) and she told me every time she had to go! (parker never did this, i always had to remind him to go.)  

and just like that, she's potty trained. I never worried about taking her out in public cause she always tells me when she needs to go, and we have conquered the public restrooms, as long as I cover the automatic flusher sensor, and she plugs her ears before we flush, ha! we still put a diaper on her at night and she has woken up dry a handful of times, but not consistent enough to keep her in underwear. but eh, I'm not worried.