SOOOOO CLOSE!

I'm just happy to announce that we are soooo darn close to having a fully potty trained boy! He did great yesterday and has been doing overall very good this past week. He did his first #2 last night in the potty and I'm hoping this is the beginning of wonderful things to come! I'll be so, so happy when I can officially say that I only have one child in diapers. I can already see the difference in my diaper pail. I've had many less runs to the garbage can outside. It's great!!! Keep it up, buddy!

Our Week...

What a week! Since last Friday, it's been quite a rollercoaster of events. On Friday, April 30th, we celebrated Parker's 3rd birthday! He's just growing up so fast. We had a fun pizza night with Jeremy's family, making our very own homemade pizzas. Jeremy was our chef and made all the dough, assembled, and cooked our pizzas. They turned out great! Parker wanted a fireman/firetruck themed party, so we went with it and had firehats and party blowers, and of course decorations. We did cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents. It was fun! THEN, on Saturday we continued the celebration by having his "friend" party. We still did the firetruck theme and had a cool firetruck cake that my mom-in-law helped me make. We had 6 little friends over and we had fun playing a game, they colored, and I let them just go crazy and play as well. I mean, they're 3, right? The kids loved the cake and everyone wanted the ladder. Silly :) Parker loved all his gifts and loved having his buddies over for awhile. SO, our weekend was full of partying (and a baptism Saturday moring). Sunday I had Sharing Time in primary, so I got to finish planning that on Saturday night. Kind of a busy day...Anyways, by monday I was sick. Literally. SOOO sick. I felt horrible. My body hurt, my throat hurt, my head hurt, everything hurt! And, to top it off Collin was sick, with a runny nose and cough and Jeremy was starting to feel it too. Luckily, Jeremy felt well enough to save the day and be home from work and let me rest! What a man! Tuesday I still felt sick, but a tiny bit better. My throat was KILLING me! That was the worst part. Well, tuesday was also our anniversary. So, for our 8 year anniversary we took the kids out for a good old Red Robin dinner. I was kind of miserable from being sick, but it was so nice to be out and get some really good food(even though I could barely swallow!) and spend time with my family. I loved it. The rest of the week consisted of me still being sick, Samantha getting sick and having a 102 degree fever, Parker getting sick with a cold, and Collin still sick with a cold, and Jeremy getting worse. I ended up at the doctor, thinking for sure I had strep but I didn't. That was good, but I hate it when you go to the doctor and you're sent home with nothing. I kinda feel dumb. Oh well. I also ended up losing my voice. Completely. I was at a whisper, which makes it so hard to get through to your kids! That lasted about 3 days. Not fun. So, now we're to yesterday...Mother's Day. I woke up still sick! Everyone was still sick, which meant no church. But, Jeremy, again saves the day and takes care of me, making me breakfast in bed. The kids got their gifts and cards and brought them to me in bed and I ate and opened my gifts. It was wonderful. After that Jeremy let me sleep in even longer while he took care of the kids. By noon though, Collin was getting worse and looking really bad. He had a 102.6 fever and looked horrible. So, I took him in to Urgent Care and got him checked out. I mean, after being sick for 10 days, you'd think he'd be getting better. It turns out he has an ear infection and sinus infection. After spending almost 4 hours at the docs and pharmacy I got home to my family to finish out my mother's day with them. We ended up taking a walk (Collin was feeling a bit more perky after meds and a nap!) along the river and eating a roast beef dinner. It was a crazy sunday, but a nice, relaxing one as well. Now it's monday night and Collin is still not doing so good. He's been on antibiotics for 24 hours now and still has a fever and looks pretty sick. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Luckily, everyone else is looking up, even me. I look forward to a more "normal" week this week. I missed so much last week, I'm feeling a little out of it! Here's a few pictures from Parker's friend birthday party!

Love My Kids...

My kids can be a handful, but I love them soooo much! They're so funny and smart and loving, and imaginative. They're awesome! I just had to give a little shout out to my amazing children. Love you!

My performer, artist, and BIG helper. She loves to pose and be "pretty". She loves flowers, dresses, make-up (which consists of chapstick and whatever is left over on my blush brush), friends, family, and her cat. She loves to bake cookies and help me with any chores around the house (except clean her own room!). She loves to learn new things. She's quite the girly girl but can also get down and dirty when she wants to. She asks me what we're going to do the next day, every night before bed. She's always ready to make plans and have fun!

My class clown. He loves to make us laugh, especially at the dinner table. He's got quite the temper, but 2 seconds later is as loving and cuddly as can be. He's stubborn. He loves "fighting", watching Caillou, bubblegum, his Bear, games, and being outside with Dad. He's into I SPY books and loves to be sung to sleep. He's a great big brother, but quite a pesty little brother :)

My curious one. He's growing in every way, every day. He loves Mom (a little too much!) and his binky. He's a hefty boy and my arms feel it every day. His new love is his glow worm. He loves to play with anything he can get his hands on, especially the remote. He's the best baby to cuddle with. He's got a great laugh and goofy smile. He's our future quarterback...and retirement plan!

Milestones!

Collin is 12 months now and is FINALLY starting to feel like a 12 month old! In just the past few weeks he's CRAWLING, pulling himself up to everything, climbing up stairs, and letting of go things for a few seconds at a time. It's about time! He's doing great! I'm starting to be less afraid that he'll be bouncing on his bum the rest of his life :) We took him to the doctors last week for his check-up and here's what we got: Weight- 28lbs. 15 oz. Height- 31.5 inches He's slowing down in his massive weight gain. Luckily. He only gained 2 lbs since his last check-up instead of 4 or 5. He's so big! But, he's movin' and I think he won't be a giant for the rest of his life. Maybe. Go Collin!

I Love To See The Temple

For family night last week we took a trip to the temple. I think the kids have only done this once before, so we thought it would be a good time to have a lesson about temples and let them walk around. There's lots of pretty flowers and some little trails around the temple that everyone enjoyed. We took time to stop and talk about Angel Moroni and other things about the temple with them. It was great to have Samantha be so involved and know so much about temples already. She sure is growing up! Here's some pictures of our fun family night!

Our Birthday Boy!

Collin turned 1! I just can't believe how time has flown by! Well, it has, and it's been wonderful. He's been such a joy and so much fun to have around. We LOVE him SO much!!! His birthday was on Saturday (April 10th) and we celebrated by doing yard work! Just kidding :) We did lots that day, but in the evening we had Jeremy's family over and ate some dinner and had a little party. My mom-in-law helped with the cute cake, which turned out great! We ate, played, ate, opened presents, and ate some more! We had lots of good food to enjoy and I sure did enjoy it...too much! Thanks family for the gifts and fun night! Here's some pictures of Collin's 1st birthday!

Easter Weekend

We had a very relaxing, yet sickly Easter weekend. It actually started the Sunday before Easter with the traditional wearing of the Easter outfits. I figured since they were dressed up I should take some pictures and not wait for the day of. Parker was a grouch at first, as you can tell in the first pic, but warmed up a bit after awhile. Anyways, the Friday before Easter we dyed some eggs. Then, Saturday we woke up and watched a bit of conference then walked over to the park down the street and did our neighborhood Easter egg hunt. The kids had fun, but it was so wet and cold that we left right after they found their eggs and got their prizes. No playing around on the toys this year! It made me happy though that I could be there...Last year during the egg hunt I was recovering at the hospital from having Collin the night before. Jeremy left me to take them to the hunt. What a good Dad :) After the hunt we came home a chilled for pretty much the whole day. Jeremy left for the priesthood session and we went to the grocery store. Fun, huh? That night Jeremy and I were watching "Where the Wild Things Are" when I heard Parker in bed crying. I went in to find vomit all over, and I mean everywhere! Ick! So, I took care of that and Parker fell asleep on Jeremy while we finished our movie (which, I DO NOT recommend that movie AT ALL!) SO, Easter morning we had a sick child, which meant no candy for him. And, I knew he was still not feeling well because he didn't even ask. We hung out and watched more conference and took naps. That night Jeremy took Samantha over to Grandma and Grandpa Klein's house for Easter dinner. I stayed home with poor Parker who was feeling a bit better, luckily. Sam had fun with another egg hunt in G&G Klein's basement and she was kind enough to get Parker some too. It was a great Easter and we definitely emphasized the true meaning of Easter this year. That's something we're working on . The Easter Bunny brought the kids yummy candy, but also some great things to remind them of Christ and the Resurrection. What a great weekend to celebrate Easter, being able to hear our Prophet as well. I hope everyone had a wonderful day too!