Fa la la la la la la...

Deck the halls... er... I mean townhome... with boughs of holly... er... I guess a fake Christmas tree is more accurate in our case.... whatever... you get the point!

Last night we started the Christmas decorating process. Wyatt was so very excited to set up and decorate the Christmas tree... and Icyle was just surprised that we had a tree in our living room.

See?

We all had a lot of fun listening to Christmas music and putting up the lightes and decorations! Well, Wyatt, Chris and I had fun putting up the lights and decorations... Icyle had fun getting out all the wet wipes...

See?

It was a fun night... there is nothing better then a house all decked out for Christmas (even if the tree is tiny, fake and doesn't smell like pine and even though we are one stocking short because we still have to get one for Icyle)... it is still one of my favorite things in the whole world! 

Merry almost Christmas!

There's no stopping her now!

Icyle is officially on the move!

On Thursday, which also happened to be Thanksgiving, Icyle gave up her lazy lifestyle of sitting and army crawling, and traded it in for an exciting life full of adventure, mischief, and crawling!

And there's no stopping her now... she is enjoying her new lifestyle... and we are too!

Potty training moments...

I have finally come to terms with the fact that potty training is not a 1 day process, not a 1 week process, not even a 1 month process... well, at least not in our house it's not. But I have a small victory to share with you, one that brings me hope that potty training wont last forever, and that maybe... just maybe... someday soon I will not have to battle with Wyatt (or myself) over going to the bathroom in the toilet.

Last night, after having 0 accidents all day (a victory all in itself), Wyatt told me he wanted to wear underwear to bed. I tried to persuade him that a g diaper (cloth diaper) would be a better choice, but he insisted that he was going to wear underwear to bed.

So, instead of fighting it, I sent him to the bathroom and then put his jammies on over his underwear and prepared myself to have to wash his sheets and bedding in the morning. 

However, this morning, I was more then surprised to find that he not only was dry, but slept in till after 7am (hardly ever happens)! Win win for me! 

Now, he has been dry the last few nights, but I have still been putting him in a g diaper because I didn't think that being dry at night would last... but I think we have finally had a potty training break through... if we can be dry all day AND all night... then in my head that is a victory!

Outtakes and bloopers

This weekend we went to Houston to visit our good friends, the Andersons. Jamie, who is an awesome photographer, took our family photos while we were out there. One of those photos will be featured on our Christmas card, but I am not going to share that one with you! Instead, I will share the outtakes and bloopers with you... becuase with 2 kids, the bad, silly, and goofy pictures often outweigh the good ones.

So, here are a few of the bad, silly, and goofy pictures...

Ok... did I say few... I meant many...

6 month pictures

My beautiful little angel is 6 months old...

Awesome phones, awesome rockets, and awesome towers

This afternoon we have just been playing at home... Icyle has been practicing her crawling, which she is getting pretty good at, and she can now get into a sitting position from crawling, which she is pretty proud of herself for being able to do that... and we are too!

This afternoon Icyle was trying really hard to get my phone, so I dug this old cell phone out for her to play with... she discovered it is pretty awesome to chew on phones...

Wyatt built a tower and he discovered that is it not awesome that Icyle can move and almost knock over his tower...

So, he moved her far away from his super awesome tower (complete with stairs)...

He also has rediscovered his awesome rocket ship...

which makes a lot of noise and has to be everywhere he is

and if Icyle even looks at it he freaks out!

Now that Icyle is truely on the move,

she is enjoying exploring and getting into her big brother's things...

but at least she is really cute when she does it...

and Wyatt doesn't care too much,

as long as she doesn't touch his awesome rocket ship.

At the park...

Yesterday was such a beautiful day so after we went to the gym I took the kids to the park so Wyatt and Icyle could get some fresh air and Wyatt could get some energy out. It was a perfect day to be out... it was about 65 degrees and sunny! The kids had a great time...

Icyle enjoyed watching the kids play...

and Wyatt enjoyed running and playing with the other kids that were at the park...

Oh and I took these pictures of Icyle doing Yoga....

Potty training moment...

Sigh... sometimes I feel like Wyatt is really getting the hang of this potty training thing... I become proud and then the inevitable fall comes... like this incident that happened a few days ago...

We had been in Minnesota for 2 weeks and Wyatt had very few accidents... he had some, but not many, and most of them were small... so I was starting to think that Wyatt was getting the hang of it... he was telling me when he had to go to the bathroom, and get this, he would actually make it to the toilet and go (insert pride here)!

So, the day after we got home from Minnesota I was feeling good about potty training and I thought it would be a breeze of a day... boy oh boy was I wrong... here is the fall...

As I was doing some dishes (that had been piled up for 2 weeks by my wonderful husband while we were away) I was watching Wyatt and Icyle play on the floor in the living room... and then I saw it... Wyatt stood up, peed his pants, and then went back to playing with his sister (who, I am sure if she would have known what he just did, would not have been so thrilled to have her playmate back).

So, I, being the calm and patient mommy that I am, said, "Wyatt, sweetie, did you go the bathroom in your pants? Oh, honey, lets get some new underwear..." oh wait... no that wasn't me... that would be some other mommy. If I remember correctly what actually came out of my mouth was some kind of growl and I yelled, "WYATT MOSES!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? YOU JUST PEED IN YOUR PANTS! WHY DID YOU DO THAT! GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW AND TAKE YOUR WET CLOTHES OFF!!!!" and I am pretty sure another growl came out as I went in search of clean underwear (which was still packed away from our trip).

Meanwhile, while I was in search of clean underwear, bottomless Wyatt went down stairs to play...

I found clean underwear and called for Wyatt to come upstairs and put it on. I tried to pull myself together and as I was putting on his underwear I asked him, "Wyatt, why didn't you tell mommy that you had to go potty and go in the toilet?" He said, "I went in my pants on purpose mommy." "ON PURPOSE?!?!" (more growling) "Yah... I did it on purpose." So, he got in trouble for going to the bathroom in his pants on purpose.

About an hour later Wyatt went back downstairs to play while I started dinner... he started screaming "Poopoo! Poopoo!" So, I ran down the stairs thinking he had to go to the bathroom. Nope, I was wrong. Apparently, while he had been down stairs bottomless, he had taken the opportunity to go poop on the floor... and had obviously forgotten that he had pooped on the floor because he had stepped in it!

This time there was no amount of clam or patience in my body... I was mad... no other emotion... just mad.
Can't remember what I said... but I remember yelling and growling and completely losing it. I cleaned up Wyatt's foot and the mess on the floor and put Wyatt in timeout... after he got a spanking... because he knows better then to poop on the floor.

After I cleaned up the mess, I went up to Wyatt, who was in timeout on the stairs and said (ok, I was still mad, so I more like yelled it) "Wyatt, why on earth did you poop on the floor in the basement???" He said, "I did it on purpose." So, I got even more upset and said, "WYATT! You did it on purpose!?!? You wanted to poop on the floor?!?! Why would you do that?!?!" He then said sadly, with tears in his eyes and his hands raised in question, "I did it on purpose mommy, I didn't mean to do it... I just did it on purpose."

And then I realized it. This poor child was getting his words mixed up... he had done it on accident. I was still upset, but I did feel a little bad about getting mad at him for doing it on purpose when really he did it on accident... so it was not our best potty training day... infact, it was one of the worst we have had so far.

So, that was the fall that came after the pride that is now gone. Sigh... potty training.

Baby bedhead

I woke Icyle up one morning and this is what she looked like... poor girl was still so tired and she had major bedhead! She is so blond so it is hard to see... but look closely and you can see her hair sticking up all over!

She was still in a happy mood even though she looked like she could have slept for another few hours.

Minnesota trip highlights

The kids and I went to Minnesota to visit family and friends October 28 - November 11. We had such a fun time visiting with, catching up with, and playing with my family and friends... here are some of the highlights from the trip... get ready because you are about to be hit with a ton of pictures!

The kids at
Lego Land
in the Mall
Of America

We ate pumpkin pancakes

on Reformation Day

Icyle was a bumblebee and Wyatt was a monkey

Icyle got into the Vikings game... she waved her touch down towel

PURPLE PRIDE!

Icyle got to experience her first trip to Old Spaghetti Factory

And Wyatt painted with Papa

We went to visit my Uncle Mark, Aunt Sherrin, and cousins Chelsa, Haleigh and Isaac

on their farm... Wyatt got to ride and drive (well, pretend to) the tractor

Wyatt and Emmett had such a great time running around and exploring the farm!

Icyle ate a few leaves and enjoyed the grass

I love these pictures... in the first one she is going for her paci!

With the help of my amazingly talented cousin Chelsa and Aunt Sherrin, we were able to make the girls homemade dolls... what a fun memory... and what a fun toy for the girls!

Total highlight from the farm is the Adobe Pizza made in their homemade Adobe oven... yummy!!!

The boys all ready for church on Sunday Morning...

All the cousins together...

Our trip home... me, mom and Icyle were smashed in the back seat...

while grandma and Wyatt had lots of room... but it was a fun trip!

Here we are with Boo and Enoch... they came to play a few times... we love them!!!

Here I am being creepy loving on Cara's baby bump

We had a wonderful time at the park... the kids played and Alyssa and I got to talk and have fun too... it ended up being an adventurous potty training day as well because they had removed the biffs so the boys learned the art of peeing on the wall... I believe it was Cullen (the little boy Alyssa was babysitting) who said "YES! I peed on that bug!" ....Nice...

We visited my grandma Lou (my dad's mom)

And beautiful little Eisley turned 1 the day before we left to come home to Texas...

It was so fun... the kids played, ate cake, and helped Eisley open her presents...

and got read to by Gramma...

and Icyle played under chairs...

It was a wonderful trip full of wonderful memories! Can't wait till the next trip!