Independence!

This post is very appropriately titled: Independence. It was the 4th of July recently and also Little D's independence from diapers, yay! I started potty training on June 30 and took couple days off work so I could really be there to help our little Buddy. Now, two weeks later, he is doing pretty good. He still has an accident every few days when he get too busy playing, but that's to be expected. He is doing great and I'm proud of him!

For the 4th, Jake's brother and his family came to visit. We had lots of fun catching up with them. We lit some fireworks and had a BBQ.

 This was a couple days into training. He looks mad, but he's really not. He wanted to see the picture on my phone.

 Chels driving the power wheels at Grandpa's house.

 Buddy was scared of the fireworks of course!

Chels' hair, I was pretty proud of myself!



Update: Summer 2012

I LOVE reading back through my blog from the years, so I don't know why I have been so bad at posting things lately. I guess it's just like loving your scrapbooks but never making the time to update them! Anyways, here I am to update a year later from my last post, oops! So starting with last year, here we go:

 My absolute favorite picture I have caught of my kids together so far. I love it!

 Chelsea started Kindergarten at the Irving Kindergarten Center in August 2011. She loved it so much!

Dean turned 2 on August 28, 2011. He enjoyed opening presents and digging into his cakes that each grandma made him. For his party we had a fun day of play at the Wapello School with his cousins. He had a dual birthday party with his cousin Landon, who's birthday is the day before his.

 Chelsea turned 6 on September 17, 2011. She went to school and had a little party. Then we went to the pool for her actual party and had cake and ice cream at Grandma Evans' house afterwards. Pretty sure that is exactly what we did the year before but that is what she loves!

 For Halloween 2011 Chels was a unicorn and a witch. This is her unicorn costume which she of course picked out herself. She is obsessed with unicorns and ponies and pegasuses. 

 I sort of dropped the ball when it came to Dean's costume. We were going to use the fisherman costume from the year before but at the last minute I decided to get him something unique. So, I found this pumpkin costume on ultra-clearance for about $5. He was our little "plumpkin"!

 Jacob and I went to another Boise State game in December 2011. I can't remember who they played but it was their Senior Day again and their last home game. It was cold again too but at least it wasn't snowing like the year before, and we were better prepared this time! It was so much fun to get away for a weekend alone!

 For Christmas we spent lots of time with family and ate lots of food. But, that's what the Holidays are all about right? Chelsea got a Go-Go puppy which they are playing with here. Dean got a lump of coal :( But it was chocolate so he didn't care!

 The kids in their Sunday Christmas clothes they got. Dean looks thrilled!

 In March 2012 Chelsea and I went to see Disney on Ice: Toy Story. It was really awesome and I hope to go again someday. Not to mention the weather was so nice down in Salt Lake while it was still freezing in Idaho, so that was very nice!

 We took the kids fishing one cold March day and even though they froze, they had a blast. Only one fish was caught all day, by mom.

 Buddy doing his fishing.

 This was Easter 2012. Dean is in a stage where he doesn't want his picture taken so he runs away and won't hold still. At least they were dressed cute!

 Chelsea did dance with Downtown Dance Studio this year and her recital was in May. She did so good on her dance! Mom was so proud she even teared up (silly I know). She just looked so cute and grown up!

Chelsea also did summer tennis in June 2012. It was only a month long, but it was 4 days a week so it seemed to go on and on. But she had lots of fun and so did Mom and Dean because we would walk around the block with a friend during the hour. She might have some tennis talent in her, time will tell!

In other news, I am still working part-time at Keybank and Jake is still in school. He is projected to graduate in December 2012 and we are hoping and praying everything works out that way. Our plans after that are to hopefully find a job for him somewhere. He has also looked into joining the Air Force again as an officer and we will find out news about that in November or December, soooo, we will see!

Dean is potty training right now and he's actually not doing too bad. We still need to get the #2 in the potty but as for #1 he is doing great. He is sleeping through the night and nap times and staying dry though so that is wonderful news! Hopefully it will all come together soon!

Now let's see if I can start doing better at updating sooner.

Bad Blogger!!!

What a naughty blogger I've been. It's been clear since Halloween when I posted last, the shame! To be honest I sort of forgot about my blog, and blogging altogether. So I finally had a day off today and was looking at everybody else's blog posts from the last few months and thought to myself "I should catch up!" This is my catchup attempt! I am going to try to do better!

After surgery, with her red sore eyes.

Chels had strabismus correction surgery on her eyes on July 22, 2011. She did so good and was a trooper throughout the whole thing. She did lots better then Mom did!!!

Chels got her face painted at Pride Days.

D in a bouncy house at the Blackfoot Pride Days.

Ross Park with Leah and her kids.

Chelsea's second pair of glasses after she saw a pediatric opthamologist.

Ross Park with my friend Bobi and her kids.

Happy 4th of July!!!! 2011

Ross Park with cousins.

First time at the circus. What a fun night!

First swim lessons for Chels. She passed level one and loved it!

Baby Animal Days at the Fairgrounds 2011.

Easter 2011. Cute matching outfits.

A fun day trip to Salt Lake with Leah.

Chelsea's first fish!!!! With the help of Papa.

Getting so big!

Chels got her first pair of glasses in February of 2011.

My gals from Germany came to visit in the last month of December. SO FUN! I miss them tons.

Christmas 2010. Chels and Dean hugging it out.

Boise State game in December with our friends Luke and Leah.

Happy Halloween!!!

Wow, this year is flying right by. It's sort of like I blinked and all of the sudden it was the holidays, crazy.
Chels picked out a costume at a second hand store clear back in August and I told her that if I bought it for her she had to be that for Halloween. I never thought she would really make it the months until Halloween but she did. She was so excited to be a butterfly! Jake wanted Little D to be a fisherman so we kind of used the money we saved with Chels' second hand costume to buy Little D a fisherman costume. Then he got sick. He had a sour tummy for about 10 days and was really dehydrated and loosing weight so we just put him in his costume for Grandma's houses and he'll probably wear it again next year.
Our cute fisherman. He would not keep the hat on or hold the fishing pole. We'll try again when he's 2!

Chels as a beautiful butterfly.

Jake took the kids to a pumpkin patch while I was working one day so we didn't get any pictures of that. But, I did break out the camera for the carving. Once again Jacob out did us all and turned out something professional looking. Chels drew a face on a pumpkin and I carved it for her. My pumpkin was a flower but I didn't even take a picture of it...it was bad!

Little D with his green pumpkin. Actually I think it was a squash.

Doing the cleaning. Chels tried hard but she was so slow that we ended up finishing it for her.

Pink Poodle in Paris Party!

Chels turned 5 on Sept. 17...I can't believe it! I know everyone says that when their child turns a year older but 5 seems like such a big girl! Whenever anyone asks me how old she is (I had someone ask me if she's 3 on Tuesday, haha) and I say 5 they always ask me "Why isn't she in Kindergarten?" since I usually get asked this when we're out and about in the middle of the day. Well she's not in kindergarten because here in Idaho the cutoff date is Aug. 31 and her birthday is Sept. 17. So next year she'll be an old kindergartener, but someone has to be the old kid in the class right? So we are just enjoying our time together right now. I try to do something fun with her on my days off and she has been doing kindergarten workbooks I bought so she will be all ready when the school year rolls around again. I just can't believe I have to send her off into the big world that soon, it makes me very sad. I'd rather just keep her with me!
Anyways, for her Pink Poodle in Paris Party (she picked the theme herself) we went swimming with all the cousins and then had pizza and cake at Grandma Evans' house. It was lots of fun and she already can't wait her 6th birthday party.
This picture is unrelated but I still threw it in there. She hates these things and doesn't let me put them in very often.

This was my little 5 year old on her actual birthday. She got a Zooble that morning before we headed out and she loves that little thing. I have to admit, it is pretty cute.

In her dress that Grandma Davies got her on the day of her party.

Opening presents after swimming. She got lots of fun toys. This is the supermarket that her friend Annika from CA had. She has wanted it forever!

Blowing out candles. I have better pictures of the cake and some of swimming on my mom's camera. I'll have to get them and make another post. I tried really hard with the cake but the poodle and the Eifel Tower were falling off. Oops!