Oh my heck....he did it!!!

I decided that Carter was showing all the signs of being ready for potty training, so I told myself yesterday, "Hey, what the heck am I waiting for, I am going to just start potty training him NOW!" So...I put him in his underoos, bought some Pull-Ups, and here we go! The amazing thing about Carter is he has amazing bladder control! He stayed dry all morning long, but the hard part was he also didn't go pee once on the potty! (I am going to have to start offering him lots of yummy drinks to push along the process!) Then he had nap time, and woke up wet, and then stayed dry for hours before he finally had an accident, which I was expecting. Once he had the accident, we hurried to the potty, he sat on it, wiped his bum, then said "Bye pee" and flushed the potty. We put on him dry under wear, and then kept "practicing" by going back to the potty as many times as we could, to help him remember the pattern of what to do when he gets the urge to go.

This morning, I was expecting he would have a poopie coming. He ALWAYS has a poopie in the morning, about the time he finishes eating breakfast. So, I kept watching for the signs, and when it seemed like he had to go, I told him, "Carter, quick, run to the potty and go poop!" So he did, and went his first poop in the potty! He was so excited and afterwards lifted his arms up above his head and said, "YESS!!" I had him give me a high five, and then we got Anna and showed her. Afterwards, Carter kept coming back into the bathroom to keep looking at his poop! He was very impressed!

Anyway, I am hoping he catches on quickly. If any of you have ideas as to how you potty trained your boys, I would LOVE to hear about them all! I am just so glad Carter is not resisting and has never felt any fear of the potty and actually enjoys sitting on the potty and going "pee"!! Potty training is definitely not my most favorite thing to do, and I actually dread it! But afterwards, it is so worth all the efforts!!! Good luck to all of you who are potty training too!!

Just a few more tid bits from our BUSY life...

Sunday evening Russ and Ben went on a bike ride with Russ's brother Rob and his three sons. They started down a steep and rocky hill, and advised those who were less experienced to maybe walk down part of the trail. Well...if you know Ben, then you can get an idea of why his face looks as it does in the picture! After the warnings, Russ sees Ben just fly down the path, and took a second path that was obviously not the best one for him to choose. Russ and Rob started yelling at Ben to slow down and brake. The rate at which Ben was going at this point was NOT good. Everyone was just waiting for him to crash and burn..... and die! Ben hit his brakes, lost control of the bike, and went flying.....literally.....then landed on his head as he skidded to a stop. His bike landed on top of a huge boulder, in which his head was only inches from hitting. Had he hit the boulder, he would be in the hospital right now with some serious injuries! Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Ben stood up, all in a daze, and said something like: "Whoa...that was a little fast." And then his knees started to shake and he burst into sobs. That kid has got some serious LUCK on his side....and I think we are banning him from the bike until he is 21!

Anna and Carter's favorite thing to do after a bath is run to daddy and have him warm them up! They LOVE it and so does Russ!

Only a few weeks ago, Carter sliced his finger open when he reached up to grab the soap and got my razor instead. I swear, no matter how high we put something, that kid still manages to get it down! I should call him "Stretch Armstrong"!! He yelped, then sat down in the bath, and I noticed the unstoppable bleeding. That's when Carter noticed it too, and became very interested! He started touching the tip of his finger, touched a lid he was playing with to see the bloody fingerprint it left, then put the finger in his mouth to see what it tasted like!!! All the while, i am trying to get his towel, bandages, and Anna out of the bath so I could inspect the damage done!! It took me a good hour to get the bleeding to slow down, then I wrapped his finger in a lot of gauze and sports tape!

He did NOT like it one bit, and kept trying to pull it off. He finally fell asleep, after trying desperately to figure out how to suck his thumb with the gigantic finger!!! Luckily, the cut wasn't near as bad as I thought it was, and it healed on its own after a few days.

Anna was giving Bubby lots of love, and spread her blanket on top of him to help him feel better. She is such a good big sister and truly loves her little brother. She keeps telling poor Ben, "Ben, Bubby MY broffer an NOT yous! Hims onwee MINE!" Just a little protective and a bit possessive, eh? She is still adjusting to Ben being a permanent part of our family, as you can see.

I LOVE this one. I came into their room one afternoon, to find both of them watching "Little Rascals" on Anna's DVD player! It was so cute to see Carter mimic Anna, and do what she was doing! We really have to be careful now what we say or do, because Carter repeats and copies everything!

We got Anna and Carter a new bunk bed. They were VERY excited about it. Carter kept crawling on his bunk and covering up with the blankets and saying, "Nigh nigh!" They have done really well in the beds since then and even though we have nights where Carter has fallen out of bed and starts crying, Anna sleeps right through it now....and visa versa....though Anna hasn't fallen out of her bed when she starts crying in the night! It's usually because of some strange thing like her hair is in her eyes, she lost her bear, she needs her soft (silky) blanket, or like one time at 4 am she woke up crying and told me she forgot to give me a hug and a kiss. I think at times her dreams get mixed in with reality and she can't decipher the difference when she's only half awake!

Cute little guy....he now climbs up on Anna's bunk every night and tries to sleep with her! And there have been a few times where he climbed up, stood up, put his foot on the railing, and then jumped off barely in time for me to catch him! Yeah...have you ever had your heart stop for a moment??? Not so pleasant!

Anna is just my little cutie bug....learning so much, becoming a bit sassy too, but in general she is such a great girl! Her year of being three has been much nicer to us than her year of being two!!! Whew...some days I think we barely survived her "terrible twos"!!! Ha ha!

Anna loves her "Bubby" so much that when she is lovin on him, helping him, or playing with him, she bites her bottom lip as if restraining herself from squeezing so hard she pops his little head off! It is so funny to see! They are becoming such great friends and Carter already adores Anna!

Carter thinks it is so much fun to sit on Anna's lap! I often hear them giggling from the other room, and come in to find Carter on Anna's lap with the both of them laughing for no real reason except for the pure joy of finding pleasure in all the little things in life!

Anna loves to play computer games now and will ask me, "Mommy, tan I pway a puter dame? Jus doe to dot com, otay??" It is weird to think that the world she is growing up in really is so much different than the world I grew up in! One day, Russ and I just marveled at the differences in phones from when we were little up to now! If Carter saw a phone from 1983, I am sure he would barely realize what it was....after all, it couldn't fit in his pocket, play music, have pictures on the screen.....well, it didn't even have a screen! And what in world would it be doing attached to the wall, with a long swirly cord attached!

I love little feet and toes.

Especially when they belong to this little man! It will be a sad day when he grows up and has Hobbit feet just like his dad! **sigh**

And I haven't sat down for weeks...or so it feels like it!

It has been CRAZINESS since the good ol "merry month of May" began around here! Let's start with :



1. Anna started preschool! Very MERRY indeed! She started last Monday, and has LOVED every minute of it! No kidding, she actually WANTS to go, asks me everyday, every hour, every minute when she has "tool". Today, after I picked her up she excitedly asked me, "I wonner what we donna learn nex time, momma!!?" Anna goes to school and needs no pushing, shoving, convincing, tempting with special treats or prizes, she just walks right in with her teachers and does not think another thing about me until I come back! Can I just say that it is WONDERFUL! I don't feel a bit sad that she is growing up, but I feel so much happiness and excitement to watch her reach milestone after milestone, and I am just so excited for more and more to come! How FUN to be able to watch your children grow up!!! So fun!!!



2. Russ is back to school and as busy as EVER! He wakes up VERY early in the morning to do homework and is gone by 7:30, and then we usually do not see him again until dinner-time! He is working so hard and I am so proud of him and his new found commitment to his studies. Just so you all know, he has decided to do the engineering program here at BYU-I and then after he finishes that, he will decide if he wants to go on and get his masters degree. What a roller coaster ride we have been on concerning Russ and his college experience!! We have faced so many obstacles, sometimes feeling very discouraged, but the Lord has been gently guiding us and prompting us here and there and we just cannot deny that this is where we are supposed to be right now and doing what the Lord wants us to do.



3. We are the official guardians of my little brother Ben!!! That statement in and of itself has added years to my so-called actual 26 years of life I have lived! Inside, I feel like I should be 46 instead! While we were in court, the judge said some things that touched me and helped give me the strength and fortitude to go back home and try to be the "mother" that Ben needs me to be. I have struggled on and off with this new change in our lives. I still feel much resentment towards my mother because her decisions she makes are still affecting me and my life and the life of my children and husband too. To me, it feels maddening to feel like I am the mother trying to teach my "child" who happens to be my mother. But, I cannot deny that Ben has been a blessing for our family, and we will gladly keep him for as long as we can.



4. So, yes, I turned 26 years old on April 26!!! It was a weird birthday for me...it just felt weird to be 26! I had the best birthday ever!!! My sister-in-law took me out and we got pedicures and then went to lunch at Bajios, where I had the BEST chicken nachos in all of Rexburg...hmmm, with a mango salsa! I was happy to come back to find that my children missed me VERY much while I was gone! What a good feeling to be missed, especially by those you love the most! Earlier that week, Russ took me to Idaho Falls with the kids, and I got to buy myself quite a few new clothes! We had lunch there and we all had fun just being together. The week AFTER my birthday, Russ took me to Wingers, where we indulged ourselves to the max and then finished off with a big slice of their famous pie! YUM! My husband loves me! Oh....and I got a haircut, bought a new purse with the money from my mother-in-law....got these awesome white high heel shoes from my two AWESOME sister-in-laws.... Wasn't I spoiled?



*A special thanks to Jan....she has not forgotten my birthday since I was a beehive of hers in Young Womens! And people wonder how I grew up not having a mother.....it's because I DID have a mother....actually quite a few mothers.....and Jan was one of them. Thanks "mom" you really are the best!



4a-I also share the same birthday with my niece Rylei, and she had a party in Idaho Falls at a pizza place, where I got myself along with Anna and Carter, COMPLETELY LOST! Honestly, I will get lost on a full blown blazed trail....serious....I will! So, along with my party, we went to Rylei's....where we arrived hours late, but still had fun, made it back to Rexburg, where then I had to help Anna and Carter get over a spring cold with the nebulizer and a lot of albuteral!



5. We have had some frequent visitors lately....the missionaries! Ben told Russ a few weeks back that he really wanted to be baptized. We have talked to him since, about this decision, not wanting him to be baptized just because we are, or because he thinks we want him to. We REALLY wanted it to be solely HIS decision. He has been praying every night, and he told us he feels really good about it, and that he knows the Lord wants him to be baptized. It has been fun to have the missionaries in our home. They are awesome, and we are excited to see Ben start to grow spiritually and show his faith. He will be a strength to all of those around him.



So....Ben is very busy! He comes home from school, does ALL of his homework, reads for at least 15 minutes, then we have to study and talk about the lessons he is learning from the missionaries, Ben is ALWAYS wanting to help cook this or do that, and is good at being a little stinker in between as well! There are times when I feel like Anna listens better than Ben does, and he is already pulling the gripes like, "Well, I wish I was back in Twin because my MOM wouldn't ground me like that." and "Sure...just make my life miserable" when he finds out that we really DO follow through with what we say we are going to do if he disobeys or misbehaves! A few weeks ago, Ben threatened two girls at school, and told them he was going to bring a knife to school and stab them with it. The girls told their parents, and the parents called the principle. He called me. I never imagined I would have to deal with things like this, and then Russ and I trying to figure out how to best handle the situation. Ben is still paying the consequences for that decision he made at school, and for the sake of all of us, I truly hope he has learned his lesson and does not repeat it again! Thanks to Rob and Suzie Owens...you guys have been such a great help to us already. I have appreciated so much, Rob, your knowledge, guidance, and advice.



6. Mother's Day and Russ's Birthday: all on the same day, May 10!!! We had fun sharing the day together, and I was more than happy to spend a great portion of Mother's Day baking banana cream pies and lemon sour cream pies for Russ! He has gone through some huge transformations this past year and I have to say that I married to best man ever. He has sacrificed so much for me, made such huge efforts to support me and help me, and for that I am eternally grateful. We have gone through a lot together, and have fought some hard battles, at times with each other, and many times with our own selves. I don't think that many can really understand or truly appreciate the experiences Russ and I have had together, but we are so thankful to those who have remained supportive in words, thoughts and deeds. Thank you for your prayers, hope, faith, and guidance. We have many faults, and sometimes it is easier to see someones weaknesses than to see them for their strengths. We are so blessed to have family who have lifted us up instead of bringing us down.



7. We live blocks away from the temple. I get to see it almost daily, and no matter how many times I drive by, I am amazed by its beauty. Having a temple nearby just adds another measure of peace to my life that I have not felt before. I am trying to go as often as I can, and have felt a sustaining power of greater strength and faith given to me when I go.



"I love to see the temple, I'll go inside someday, I'll covenant with my Father, I'll promise to obey. For the temple is a holy place where we are sealed together, As a child of God, I've learned this truth, A family is forever." Never has this song meant more to me than it does now.



8. Being the primary secretary, Sundays are quite busy, but I have found a wonderful added pleasure from being a part of the primary presidency. We try to meet weekly, and as busy as our lives already seem to be, we manage to meet nonetheless, and come out of our meetings so glad we were there. The women I work with are so great, and I feel a close kinship to them. They are all older than me and most of their children are quite older than mine, but we have developed a friendship that has been so rewarding to me.



9. Gotta love all of those late night trips to the grocery store, after the kids are in bed, to get this and that and an indulgence here and there of chocolate or a bag of licorice or cookies I just couldn't resist!



10. And you would think that I could find the time to start training for the Teton Dam race I am planning on running in as well as the Pocatello Marathon race that comes later too, but darn-it, I just can't figure out why I am too tired to get out of bed in the morning to go running!!!



Maybe if I wouldn't stay up so late at night blogging, hmmmm???