Not your typical Sunday. . .

Our little family with Elder Nelson.

This past Sunday, November 22, was a very cool day. My dad is the stake president of one of the stakes here in Idaho Falls, and found out a couple of months ago, that Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), would be coming for stake conference. And so, the preparations began. My parents found out that he had requested to have lunch after the conference at their house with any immediate family in the area. My mom worried about this lunch for months, hoping it would go perfect, as it's not every day you have someone like this in your home, and it did go perfectly.


Ben, Brooklyn, and I were able to go to the conference Sunday morning and listen to him speak. As well as listen to Elder Walker of the Seventy, and also my dad. When my dad started conducting the meeting, Brooklyn said, "Hey, I hear Grandpa Jake. Where is he?" She was excited to see him on the T.V. : ) It was a great meeting.


Afterwards, we had lunch with Elder Nelson, Elder Walker, my parents, Zane, and Elder Walker's grandson. It was so neat to shake hands with an apostle, and have a conversation with him. He has a piercing gaze and he keeps eye contact for a long time. He was looking me in the eyes for awhile and then kept glancing down at my stomach. : ) I told him I was due in February, and he said "That's wonderful." He was a sweet man and we are so lucky we were able to meet and spend time with him, something we will never forget.

Random thoughts . . .

So, there are three things that I wanted Brooklyn to do before the baby came:

1. Get rid of the binky. CHECK!!! It happened in August, and it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - it just threw her sleeping habits off for awhile.

2. Get her to go to sleep on her own. Meaning, she goes in her room (at a decent hour) lays down and goes to sleep by herself. Without me holding her hand, without us laying by her, etc. We are working on this one. And, hopefully, with the help of the Super Nanny's sleep separation technique, we should have this accomplished too.

3. Have her potty trained, so I don't have to worry about changing two kids' diapers. : ) I decided to bite the bullet and give this a shot too.

Well, this is going to question my sanity. It is so frustrating to give the whole speech about being a big girl, wearing big girl underwear, explaining the chart and rewards, etc. just to have three accidents in an hour, twice. Yesterday and today. Yep, I took her potty every half hour to 40 minutes, NOTHING. Then about five minutes later, she says "Oh no, Mommy!" Dun, dun, dun. Two times it happened right after I had taken her off the toilet and pulled up her underwear. We were still standing in the bathroom for crying out loud. : ) So, is it just me or is she really not ready? I was hoping to train her here in our apartment, rather than in our new house, with new floors. : ) And, I don't know if I can even deal with number 2 accidents. I found this little quiz off of the Mayo Clinic to see if your child is ready for potty training. Let's see here:

Is your child ready? Ask yourself these questions:

■Does your child seem interested in the potty chair or toilet, or in wearing underwear? Sometimes . . .

■Can your child understand and follow basic directions? Yes.

■Can your child ask simple questions? Yes.

■Does your child stay dry for periods of two hours or longer during the day? Does he or she wake from naps dry? NO!!!

■Does your child have fairly predictable bowel movements? No.

■Does your child tell you through words, facial expressions or posture when he or she needs to go? No.

■Is your child uncomfortable in wet or dirty diapers? No.

■Can your child pull down his or her pants and pull them up again? I'm sure she could if I put her in sweats. : )

If you answered mostly yes, your child may be ready for potty training. If you answered mostly no, you may want to wait awhile — especially if your child has recently or is about to face a major change, such as a move or the arrival of a new sibling. A toddler who opposes potty training today may be open to the idea in a few months.

I was reading another quiz and it asked, "Can your child sit still and focus on one thing for longer than a couple of minutes?" My answer, "I WISH!!!"

So, do I keep trying even though it is not clicking, and she obviously isn't ready? Or, do I wait until everything else calms down in our lives? Like once we get settled in our new house, once the baby comes, I could go on and on. All of you moms out there who have been through this, I would love your advice. For now, hope that I don't go crazy. : )

Halloween 2009 . . .

Brooklyn was supposed to be a cow for Halloween (courtesy of G & G Watts - thank you again) but leading up to the big day, she refused to have anything to do with the cow costume. Sad, huh? So, as we were shopping in Target, I asked her if she wanted to be Snow White, Minnie Mouse, etc. Her reply, "No, thanks Mom. I wear the cow tomorrow." So, when Halloween rolled around, I asked her if she was ready to put on her cow costume to go trick-or-treating. "Nope, tomorrow."

We headed over to my parents' with the costume in tow, as well as her new Minnie ears as back up. Then she said she didn't want to go trick-or-treating at all. And, then she threw a little stink. Fine, she doesn't have to go. But sad. Well, Daddy worked his magic and convinced her to go trick-or-treating with him and Grandpa Jake. She did two streets of houses, and after every one, would say, "just one more house." She ended up enjoying it, and LOVED handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters who came to the door. I can always hope things go better next year right?! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

We had a fun time hanging out with my parents and Zane. We ordered Chinese food, had apple cider and donuts, and visited. What a fun holiday! Now bring on Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Ben and Little Miss Minnie Mouse. Too bad I forgot her Elmo treat pail, way to go me.

Our Pumpkins . . .

Wednesday night, we carved out our pumpkins for Brooklyn. B was not a fan of cleaning them out, and wouldn't even touch the insides. Ben worked his magic and carved Minnie Mouse, and I carved Snow White - super hard by the way. Brooklyn LOVED them when they were done, but was a little worried about them being hot (with the candles inside), and refused to have her picture taken with them. Happy Halloween everyone - now, if it would only stop snowing!!!

Sled Skin . . .

Over the past six months, Ben has started a snowmobile wrap company, called SLED SKIN. Basically, it is a way to customize the look of your snowmobile using a vinyl wrap. Ben has spent his evenings making templates, designing a website, and coming up with some very cool designs. Thanks to SLED SKIN, there are some sweet looking snowmobiles out there. Take a look at a few of them:

Ski -Doo XP - Checkered Flag w/ Flames

Arctic Cat M Series - Biohazard

Ski-Doo XP - Red Honeycomb

Ski-Doo REV - Blue Smoke

Ski-Doo XP - Blue Smoke 2.0

Check out the website: http://www.sledskin.com/. Nice work Ben!

Little Miss . . .

(Thanks Erica and Andy for the Minnie Mouse ears - she loves them!)

So, this little one - Miss B, never ceases to amaze me. She is something else, in a good way, and sometimes I wonder where she came from. : ) She is no longer taking naps, a very sad day for me, and she still won't go to sleep until about 11:00. That's right - she is going strong all day long from about 8 AM until 11 PM. Seriously, it is crazy. She is full of life and entertainment, and definitely keeps us on our toes and laughing. She will talk your ear off, and she does. She says the funniest things.

• The other day she was bowing and curtsying, and saying "Thank you, thank you." Where does she learn this stuff?


• My Dad put this baby doll backpack on his head like a hat, and Brooklyn saw him and said, "Grandpa, are you going to make pancakes?"


• Whenever we are in the car she tells us to watch out the window for McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Taco Time. : )

We love little Miss B, even though she is a handful sometimes. She has me all figured out too, if I say to her, "Do you want to go to timeout?" She will reply, "Yes" and will go and sit herself there. There goes my leverage. : ) She is a sweet girl and is going to be such a good big sister to "Snow White " (that is what she wants to name the baby). She is always rubbing my belly and talking to the baby, it is so cute. What in the world am I going to do with two little girls? I know, I am so lucky!

B also loves to talk to Grandma and Grandpa Watts on the computer. She was extra excited to see her cousin, Caroline on it one night. They were singing "The Wheels On the Bus," it was really cute.

House Update . . .

It has been awhile since we posted any updates on the house. It is crazy how fast it is coming along, and even more crazy all of the decisions that we have to make, right now. I have a hard time deciding what I want to eat and wear, let alone, the color of windows or trim I want on my house. Seriously, after this is all done, no more decisions. : )

It is moving right along though, and they are actually ahead of schedule, which is awesome. We love going over and checking on the progress each day. As of right now, we have our roof on, windows/door are in, heating/AC - check, they are running all of the electrical, and we have got to decide on a stucco/stone ASAP - so they can start on that later this week. CRAZY!!! It looks like a real house now, and as stressful as it is, it is also very exciting! We are going to have a beautiful, new house very soon!

Here it is:

The view from the road a block behind us: