Tommy's Potty Party!

About a month ago Tommy came up to me all stressed out saying "poop" & holding his bum.  I assumed that meant he wanted a diaper change, but nope... he wanted to go in the potty!  I didn't really encourage him for a couple of weeks because one day he was into it & the next wanted nothing to do with the potty.  I finally decided to start an old school potty chart & it worked like a charm. We put an ice cream cone at the bottom & told him he'd get an ice cream party when he filled up all of the stickers.  He loved it & often would get off the potty & do a little dance & say "party, party, party!"  He finally got the last sticker late last Friday night so we dropped everything to go do his "potty party"!

 The ice cream parlor wasn't too exciting...

 so we decided to go to Chuck E. Cheese for some rides to make it feel more like a party.  

He was pretty happy with his "party".

Vic was a little deflated that a full potty chart didn't mean he was 100% potty trained.  I would say he is 90%  pee trained, but it may be awhile for the other to come so we made a much bigger potty chart this time.  I still have to remind him most of the time, but occasionally he goes without any nudging so I can't wait until that is how it is 100% of the time. We are just tickled pink he is doing it earlier than we planned so hopefully we won't have 3 kids in diapers! :)

September Update

September FLEW by so here's a few pictures to try to cover it all...

I turned 29!  Tommy loves blowing out birthday candles so he was of course my little helper.  Ben's family came up to help me celebrate my birthday weekend & this picture of Kiersten is all the proof I have. I kept forgetting my camera!  We went bowling for the 1st time in quite a few years & I have definitely not improved.  We also went to the zoo, park, & played LOTS of games! :)

Tommy & Whitney love jumping in the crib together.  Here they are at Tommy's favorite friend, Andrew's house.

Silly boys

 I've tried to pull out the craft box a lot more this month & Tommy & Whitney love it.  Here they are with their sock puppets.  Tommy loved his so much he made me draw pictures of them for the fridge & they are constantly pulling them out to play with. 

 This summer was brutally hot & humid so we could never stand to be outside. Now that fall is here the kids are loving spending lots of time outside on their bikes & at the park.

 I thought Tommy loved the sand at the beach & why he was obsessed with talking about the beach, but he calls this little pool the beach so I guess sand or water makes him happy.  This is the first time we got Whitney to relax quite a bit more in the water.  She was hesitant at first but by the end she was jumping off the edge of the pool to Vic.

 Here's a fun bouncy course at the Autumn Festival. The kids could play all day on this, but we finally had to end it because Whitney needed help getting through it & it was too tiring for us oldies!

 We've taken the kids to a couple of different pumpkin patch/wagon tours.  They are really loving everything about fall!  In this picture you can see Tommy's poor nose sore.  It was so hard to look at him the first couple of days; it looked so bad!  He did it running down the driveway.  Our driveway is kind of steep so he enjoys the speed he picks up if he runs down it.  Now I cringe every time he does it!

 We also got to find out what we are having for baby #3 so check back for that!!!

Visit from Family & water play

I forgot to post that 2 days before we moved we had Victor's family in town!  His mom, dad, 2 brother's & family came to stay for a few days.  It was pure madness as goes most Sutherland visits, but packed full of FUN! :)  Here we are on a walk with most of the crew.

Later that night we finally used our fire pit for fun instead of only burning extra branches.  The kids were pretty excited to catch fireflies.

Tommy roasted his first marshmallow. (love that Grandpa is in the background!)

He didn't end up eating it as you can see he found it more fun to drag it around in the ashes.

The next day we went to the park & zoo.  The petting part is Tommy's favorite.

Here is his cousin Autumn helping brush goats.

Yep. All the people in this picture are all part of our crew!!!

I had to snap one of myself to prove that I was there!

Later everyone went up to Chicago to go to a baseball game.  I kept the 5 youngest home so we had a water party w/ icee pops, a movie outside, and nail painting. My niece told me this was the best day of her year! Haha, who knew it'd be so cheap?! :)  Here they are in our tiny kiddy pool with their "party hats" on.

I pulled our bouncer out for their baby, but Tommy & Whitney (who never even liked it much as a baby) decided that it was a great new toy.  Tommy watched an entire movie in this position!

 The kids weren't very interested in this baby slide anymore until I put a pool at the bottom & now they are nuts over it and insist it be part of their daily routine.

 Most of the time Whitney just wants to sit on the side in her favorite chair & watch.

 Whitney loves riding the train, but unfortunately for her Tommy thinks it is great to play bumper car with her & push her around. Poor girl puts up with a lot!

 The last few days Tommy has got excited to get ready for the day by himself & when he's come out of the bathroom from brushing his teeth he did his own hair as well.  Hehe, this kid cracks me up! 

 And here is his hairstyle the next day. (He just found a big flower & shoved it under a headband!)

 Whitney has decided she loves to wear sunglasses inside or outside.

 For playgroup I organized a group to go to our local water park. 

 Whitney isn't a big fan of water so this was her favorite spot. (snacking of course)

 Tommy on the other hand thought he was in Disneyland & cried when we had to leave after a full half day.

 The next day Vic had a business meeting by a fun little lake town so we tagged along.

I thought I'd get a cute picture with Vic & the kids because the sunset was so pretty, but of course Tommy was more interested in dumping sand on everyone. 

 This isn't the best picture, but it's the only one of me on the trip!

 Vic hasn't aged a bit in the last 6 years!

 The kids LOVED chasing the ducks around.

 I love walking pictures as this is our everyday view of each other all the time.

 The kids played until we couldn't see anymore.  They loved playing in the sand. I think this was their first encounter with it.

 The next day while Vic was in meetings I played with the kids in the hotel pool. Whitney only wanted to touch her feet in it once so that made it easy to swim with both of them.  I think Tommy will be easy to teach to swim as he naturally kicks his arms & legs if I hold his belly.

 We ended our trip with a Mexican lunch party. We planned on heading back to the lake, but I wore the kids out too much at the pool that morning so they fell asleep right away. 

May & June Update

This spring has just flown by! 

(which I'm glad for because I LOVE summer)

Kmart is the nations biggest contributor to March of Dimes so even though it rained & rained the morning of the march Vic proudly dragged us & his employees out to walk.  Our bike stroller has a rain guard so we took that, but then couldn't find the front wheel attachment so Vic had to pull them & got the arm workout of a lifetime! ...and I am completely out of shape.  I thought this was a nice little 2 mile walk, but it was FIVE miles!!! I was pooped by the end so now I'm trying to get myself back in gear.

Here's our little munchkins getting a zillion free snacks from the vendors.  All the other walkers kept commenting how jealous they were of these two all snuggled & warm in there w/ their treats.

We had the most beautiful white flowers growing by our driveway so I tried to get a picture of Whitney in front of them, but she just kept running away too quick!

Fact, this is my usual sight of my 2 kiddos. They are such wild little runners!

 For Mother's Day weekend we went to St.Louis to see Ben's fancy new house.  It was really amazing w/ a great backyard & view (our favorite). 

 I have been trying to get into a good routine with the kids which includes going to a park almost every day so we have LOTS of park pictures of these two playing together.

 I got Whitney ready for church a few weeks ago & she looked like such an angelic princess that I HAD to take a picture!  I only wish I'd taken one that showed off how stinkin' cute she was.  It was fun to have her in her cousin Kara's blessing dress & her Aunt Katie's wedding accessories. (hair bow & waste pin)

 For Father's day weekend we moved to a new house.  Pictures to come once I can see past the boxes!!! 

 Last night I did a presentation on the history & uses of lemons.  At first I wondered how I was going to talk 20 minutes on that subject, but I actually had a lot of fun with it as I did beauty treatment demos, cleaning tips, & making these beautiful little garnishes.

 Lately Tommy has been hamming it up for the camera every time I take out the camera and usually I delete it, but this kid just cracks me up with his ultra cheesy grin so I thought I'd post the one I took last night.

As for life in general it has been pretty stressful & exhausting around here trying to move by myself, fill in last minute for different dental offices, & have Vic work a million hours.  Hopefully once I get all the boxes unpacked, the garage cleaned out, & decorations in place I can stop worrying about working so much & enjoy summer!  (...and by then Vic's store's inventory, holidays, & corporate visits should be done with.)  I figure 3 more weeks of work & then our summer party will begin with our mini vacation to St.Louis!!

April Updates

April was a crazy busy month so get ready to READ (I posted 4 in a row)!

To start the month off Whitney finally began to really cruise around on her feet & with that she is obsessed with dancing!  She can hear the slightest beat & make moves to it :)

 This tree is to the side of our house & for 2 days it bloomed the most beautiful magnolias & smelled like heaven.  I thought it would be in bloom longer or I totally would have had a picnic under it.

 My current calling is playgroup so I organized an Easter egg hunt.  Tommy is still the same as last year... just wants to find one egg, open it, & eat it before moving on... which didn't work so well with 20 eager kids running around scooping up all the eggs!

 For Easter we went to St.Louis to be with my brother Ben's family (see our Easter update).  When we came back Victor's sister came from Virginia with 2 of her kids to stay their spring break with us.

 Then 2 days later my mom flew in & I threw her a surprise birthday party.  Her favorite color is yellow so I flooded the kitchen with the bright cheery color.

 I practiced Whitney's birthday cake on her!  Tommy was pretty excited to eat cake!