Advent Wreath

Advent is a German holiday that I have really enjoyed. Advent is on the four Sundays before Christmas. It is where we eat yummy treats and drink hot chocolate while Christmas books are read. Also, we have several booklets of Christmas songs that my sister typed out a long time ago. This tradition meant a lot to me growing up and I have continued it every year since I moved away from home.

Darlene was my college roommate for about 2 years and has done advent with me then and continued to make it to at least one Sunday every Christmas season since. She got married this year, so I thought she would enjoy an advent wreath of her own.

Since my mom made my wreath, I was able to get her help to make Darlene's wreath. It was surprisingly easy and I think it turned out great. So, I gave the wreath to Darlene for her birthday since it was in November.

Here's a close up.

Here is a picture of my treasure advent wreath.

Babysitting and TV

I was babysitting two neighborhood boys a few weeks ago. Wesley is a year older than Hailey and Wyatt is only a couple of weeks older than Robert. It's great to have some boys over for Robert. They have a fun time playing with very little fighting. The TV was on most of the time. I just thought it was funny to see Hailey and Wesley trying to hold Wyatt and Robert on their laps. They liked it and kept coming back.
As a small side note about TV watching. I decided soon after this picture was taken, that my kids watched way too much. They fought on the couch about where to sit and Hailey didn't want to stop watching to go potty.

So, I took the TV away for a week and loved it. The kids actually played with their toys and there were less fights. The downside for me is that I couldn't get anything else done. We read books, played with blocks and colored. It's great to spend quality time with them but my house suffered and I needed to get ready for the baby and holidays. So, there hasn't been a permanent change, yet. We are back to watching at least 2 hours a day and I know with Hannah coming I'll need the TV to get some sanity. I think I will ban TV for one week per month and see how that goes. Wish me luck and patience.

35 Weeks and 2 days

This picture is how big I was at 35 weeks. I feel like I have gotten much bigger with this pregnancy than with Hailey or Robert. Weight wise I haven't gained too much more then Hailey or Robert, I just stick out more.

Baby Shower

A couple of weeks ago, Kendi, threw me a baby shower. I was completely taken back by how pretty she decorated the commons. I wish I took better pictures of it.

The first game we played was guessing how big I was around. They past a roll of ribbon around and everyone cut off a piece that they thought would fit around me perfectly. The youngest in the group, Sarah, won.
Then everyone was divided into two teams and had a race to see who could diaper, dress, swaddle, and get the baby to me the fastest.

The next game was trying to figure out what features of mine or Nathan's that I want Hannah to have. For the most part, I hope Hannah will have brown, curly hair and brown eyes just like me. However, this was my hope for Robert who is clearly blond and blue eyed. So who knows what Hannah will look like. Certainly it's not something I can predict.

The last game was making a poem of baby related words starting with the letters of Nathan's and mine name.

Then I got to open the presents.

We finished of with dipping treats in the chocolate fountain and having delicious cake. I had a lot of fun and was very touched by all the effort and work Kendi did to put it together. She defiantly went above and beyond. She even watched my kids after the baby shower so Nathan and I could go on a date.

Thanks you to everyone who came to make the party special.

Outside Fun

These pictures were taken a while ago. Our neighbor, Sarah, likes to build things. Here are my kids trying out her newest creation.

Halloween Fun

I'm just trying to check up my blog so here is how our Halloween Week went which is now three weeks late.

First, we go to the library twice a week generally. Tuesday is book babies so I'm in there with Robert and Hailey. On Thursday, Hailey gets to be in there by herself for 40 minutes. For the week of Halloween, the sweet story lady took the kids on a Halloween Parade to the different desk so they could get candy. I thought it would be a great way to introduce Robert to the concept of Trick-or-Treating.

However, leaving to go there was not easy. I had the kids ready and Hailey's hair done nicely. I wanted to just put on their costumes on at the library but Hailey looked cold and asked for Snow White. So right before, we walked out the door, I put it on her. Then I strapped her in the car and went to the other side to put Robert in. When I opened the side door, I heard Hailey cry "Accident!" At that point my patience level dropped. She had peed a lot all over her seat, shorts, and costume. So I strapped Robert in the car and ran inside to get extra panties, pants, and a little tutu so she is still dressed in something.

I start undressing her in the car and then Hailey said she needed to pee more. I knew she didn't but still took Robert out of the car and carried my naked bum girl in the house. She sits for a little bit and tells me she's all done and didn't pee. I quickly got her dressed again and put everyone in the car, again. Luckily, I'm in the practice now to leave the house a half hour before so we weren't late.

The kids greatly enjoyed story time and the parade while I tried to hide the fact that I was completely out of patience.



Hailey went to story time on Thursday with Luc (he didn't have school so I had him all day). This time it went a lot better and both Hailey and Luc put on their costumes at the library.

On Friday, the ward held their trunk-or-treat, followed by dinner and a carnival. Since it was cold outside, the trunk-or-treat got moved inside. So I was lined up in the hall to pass out the candy as Nathan took the kids around. Thankfully, a husband in the ward got his wife and me soft chair to sit in.

The kids had fun with daddy and got a lot of goodies.

The Chilly dinner was great. Hailey and Robert just ran around the gym, playing games. Robert liked the fishing one the best and just stood by it most of the time.

Finally, it's really Halloween Night. Nathan took the kids around the complex while I passed the candy out. Not a whole lot of people came by so we still had a lot of left over candy.

This is the best picture we were able to get of Robert in his Scarecrow outfit. He looked so cute but was constantly on the move. He figured out this whole candy thing and was excited.

To end our Halloween night, we went over to Chloe and Luc's house to have pumpkin pie.

This is the most we have done for Halloween so far. There were so many places we could have gone to.

Potty Update

Today's been a long busy day for me with a lot of errands, a late lunch, late quiet time, and a fun but late night at a church dance.

However, Hailey had a great day.

We have been potty training for over a month now and she has only had three dry days. For some strange reason, all three days were Sundays. Also I only remember her pooping in the potty twice which means a lot of laundry for me since those kind of accidents generally happen during quiet time in her bed.

Lately, Hailey has been holding it all morning which is frustrating for me because I hold off my plans until she pees in the potty. Today started off like that. She peed once before breakfast and won't go again. Since I wanted to run errands, I decided to go along with it and just stop at every potty we see. But she did not go the whole time.

I'm driving back home around 1:00pm and smell something funny, so I asked Hailey and she said she pooped in her panties. But when we got home, she was dry as can be (however, sleeping Robert needed a change).

So we had lunch and I'm low on patience and very anxious about Hailey having an accident. And still she won't go in the potty; she tries and sits there but no success. I leave my fate in her hands and continue with our routine of one hour quiet time. About a half hour into it, she opens the door. I shout up my usually questions: "Did you pooped?" "No." "Did you pee?" "No." "Sit on the potty and keep the door closed."

A couple of minutes later, she opens the door and shouts "I peed!" "Where?" was my immediate response. "In the potty!" (We keep her little potty in her room for this reason.) This was great to hear and I ran up stairs to help her finish the process (wipe, flush, wash hands). Since "she listened to her body", Hailey got two fruit snacks (we run out of fruit snacks downstairs and am trying to wean her off needing a treat). So after big congrats, I send her back to her room to finish her quiet time.

A couple of minutes later, she opens her door. I shout up my usually questions: "Did you pooped?" "No." "Did you pee?" "No." "Sit on the potty and keep the door closed." So she closed the door.

A couple of minutes later, she opens her door again. I shout up my usually questions: "Did you pooped?" "No." "Did you pee?" "No." "Sit on the potty and keep the door closed." So she closed the door.

A couple of minutes later, she opens the door and shouts "I pooped!" "Where?" was my immediate response. "In the potty!" And that was the greatest moment I had that day! So we finished the process and she asked to two pieces of fruit snacks which I gladly gave and sent her back to bed to finish quiet time.

When Nathan heard this, he told Hailey he will take her out to ice cream tomorrow. (we are trying to have them have daddy daughter time)

Ending the story here would still make it a great day but I still have good news.

Hailey had an accident free day!!!

In Joy School** we are talking about goals and she just finished her first goal of making her bed, so we set another goal of having dry days. We are back to the sticker chart method.

Sadly, I know that I might not get another day like this for a month or two but still it's good to remember the accomplishments on the way.

**Side note: I do Joy School with just Hailey after quiet time. To find out about what we are doing go to HaileySchool.blogspot.com