No Go!

Since when is potty training this hard? Okay I will have to admit that I put Elyse in Montessori school during the hard part. I only had to introduce her to it. They taught her the rest. I suppose that I need to take it a little more slowly with Madyson and spend some time just introducing it to her. Maybe she will catch on in her own time instead of me pushing for it to get done in a week. Better luck next time, right?

Potty Training Day 1

Potty Training Day 1

Today I started potty training Madyson. I am pretty sure that she is ready, but now I am rethinking. I am having a hard time with her staying seated on the toilet even with candy as an incentive. She has had two accidents already and has peed in the toilet once. I think that I am going to take a break for the rest of the day and try again tomorrow. Hopefully I will have some progress to report tomorrow. In the meantime, look at how cute she was sitting on the toilet with her book.


On a more exciting note... I lost 3.6 pounds last week. For a total of 6 pounds now lost. I had issues about a month ago where I was gaining weight. I am working out and lifting weights and I think that had something to do with my weight gain. Now I am losing again. Hopefully by the time I go to Houston for Time Out For Women I will have lost 15 pounds. At least that is my goal.

Pay it Forward

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch though...

You must post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in. Fun, huh? Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift! For those who "win" my hand made gift...
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be (I don't yet either).
5- You are not allowed to judge me for my lack of "hand made" skills ;). Post wisely!

What the...

We went from having only 1 offer (for sale) on the house in the past 2 1/2 months since it has been on the market to having 3 offers in one day! How does one decide which to choose? Actually all the 3 unfortunately are for lease. Which is okay I guess. I am hesitant because we are somewhat far away and after this year we might even be further. I think we have made our decision with the help of Clay's awesome brother who happens to be our real estate agent. We are totally deferring everything to him. The lady that he thinks we should choose wants to lease the house for 18 months which hopefully will get us out of the housing market lull by then. Anyway... someone should be in our house by next week! Thank you Heavenly Father for answering our prayers. He sure does answer in His own time though. :)

It's here... Finally!

It's official... My diploma from the University of North Texas has FINALLY arrived! I thought for sure it would get lost in the mail because of our move, but nope! The nice mailman brought it to my door and put it in my husband's hands. This accomplishment means the world to me... So YES I am proud! I also received my Texas State Teaching Certificate as well. So now I am officially a certified teacher that is currently taking on the job as a Stay At Home Mom. While I miss the classroom I love being at home!
I have been doing preschool with Elyse and I seem to be using some of what I have learned the last few years. I am going to be posting some of the things that I am doing with her when I get some time. But what I am doing with her is nothing new... teachers are really good at stealing or borrowing whichever you want to call it. So I must say thanks to Bethann for the WONDERFUL lesson plans that she has put on her blog. They have sparked some creativity in me while borrowing some ideas from her. I am also going to be posting books that the girls and I have read together. What I love to do with books is read them and come up with a literacy lesson for the book. So that is what you will see with most of my ideas for preschool.

Sooo... Embarrassed

I am so embarrassed. Since it was such a gorgeous day outside I decided to take the girls to the park. Our ward has play group on Wednesday mornings at the park when it is nice. So we get there and Elyse has found some of her friends from Church and is playing with them. Mady was following her around so I thought it was nice that I had some time to chat with the other ladies. As we are talking I glance over at the sand where they are playing a few time and notice that they are playing really well together, including Mady as well!!! That is a plus! The next time I turned around I saw Elyse with her pants around her ankles peeing on the sand! I could not believe what I was seeing. I started running and telling her NO!!!! Looking back I shouldn't have drawn attention to it than nobody else would have seen. I was so mad! Not at Elyse, but at Clay for teaching her to do that. I will admit that the one time he let her do it it was an EMERGENCY! She peed all over her pants so needless to say our trip to the park was short lived. Aughhhh!!! I called Clay as we were leaving and told him that he needed to have a talk with her. Poor guy heard it from me. I still can't believe that she did that! She really does know better. I told her that she should have come to me to tell me she needed to go potty. There were port-a-potties not even 20 feet away. I guess she didn't want to go in there. Who can blame her I guess? But peeing in public! She usually just asks if she can go in the grass and we tell her no, but I have never had her just drop her drawers and go. Anyway... sorry for the venting. If any of you have some embarrassing story about your kids that will help me feel better I would love to hear them!

A weeks worth!

This week has sure been a busy week. The girls and I were in Mckinney late last week visiting my Mom and Dad. We had such a good time. I realized that I miss living in the city, but do not miss the traffic and how long it takes to get anywhere! Last Friday my mom and I took the girls and their cousin Tyler to a bounce house. We had so much fun! Even my mom and I went on the slides! I would show you a picture of my mom going down, but I know that she would be mortified!

Madson loved the bounce slides! She climbed up the tallest one all by herself. It took a little coaxing from us to get her to come down. We had so much fun and the kids to a GREAT nap when we got back to the house!
Sorry for the picture being sideways. This week was my turn to teach Joy School. I felt so busy all week because I spent a lot of time preparing and getting ready. On Tuesday we had a field trip to go on a nature walk. We took the kids to the park and walked around and then had parents come and meet us for lunch. They all seemed to really have a lot of fun! On Thursday was our Valentine party. In advance I had the kids make handprints on some paper. We put together this Valentine for their Moms and Dads.
We wrapped it and they had something for their parents to open. The only problem was I let them write their names on it and some of them pushed down a little too hard (like my daughter) and their names went through to their paper. Oh well, you live and learn. The kids also had a great time passing out their Valentines to their preschool friends. It was so fun! I actually had an enjoyable time having it at my house. I have been thinking about teaching preschool, but will probably wait until Madyson is ready to start. We will be in a different area and hopefully will be there a little longer.
And then of course... Happy Valentine's Day! Clay brought this home for me two days ago! It is so gorgeous! I had a smile on my face all day on Friday! I am glad that he gave them to me early! Tonight we are doing our traditional night in. He is currently making our favorite dinner of Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp. We put the girls to bed early and eat a somewhat late dinner. It is something that we have done since we have been married because when we were first married we didn't have time to go out to eat and then a year later we didn't have a babysitter. So it is a tradition that I think we both enjoy!

Oh yeah... I took on a babysitting job. I pick up some kids from school and take them to my house for two hours until their dad comes to get them. For a hundred dollars a week it actually is quite good. The girls LOVE it! And I do too because I am not having to entertain my little ones!

Getting Together

I really had good intentions of wanting to see all of my girlfriends while I was in D-Town, but I don't think it is going to work this time while I am here. I am really disappointed, but I could not find a time that would work for everyone so I decided that I will go back tomorrow morning to go home and prepare my talk for Sunday and my Primary lesson. I am really sorry to those of you who commented and wanted to get together with me. If you commented hopefully I will also give those of you a call sometime today to let you know in case you don't constantly look at my blog. :)

Thanks Anna! Elyse will be so excited to come and spend some time with Alex!!!

I am really excited to be going back to Dallas this week! I wanted to stay through Sunday, but I forgot that Clay and I are giving talks on Sunday. I guess this would be a good way to get out of it. No I better do it since I already committed. We haven't given a talk in church since we went through the temple 4 years ago. It's amazing at what moving into a small ward does to you. Now we are looking at at least once a year.