Crazy Saturday and Potty Training!

NO more Sick kids!

Good news, I am happy to say that everyone in our house is healthy again and free of any illness! I have gone so paranoid about germs that I am constantly washing mine and my kids hands all day to the point that mine are dried out! I even have hand sanitizer attached to all backpacks and purses! Now I have to use soap followed by lots of lotion! It's all worth it if I don't have to deal with poor sick kids!

 Emma's Last sick day! How cute is this? I sent Emma up to her room to get a book on Friday and 5 minutes later I came to check on her and this is how I found her. She must have really been not feeling well!

Shopping ROCKS!

Emma got invited to a "boy's" birthday party and was a little uncomfortable going alone. She only wanted to drop off the gift and just say Happy Birthday. So we made our way to Jumping Jacks and got there in time for the cake. They were nice enough to give Tay a piece to share with Chasers. After Emma was there for a few minutes she didn't want to leave. Funny how that works with kids! We ended up staying for the rest of the party before going on a LONG shopping trip! and yes I was brave to go solo with 3 kids to 12 different stores on a Saturday all so that Chad could go paint-balling! Yes I do believe I deserve the awesome wife award! Ha ha ha

Taylor and Chase were being so good while I ran my errands at Costco!

 Emma thought this was cool that she could lean back like this. Of course, Emma has to goof off! Silly girl!

They wanted me to push 3 individual cars around while we were shopping! I know I multi-task a lot but that is just impossible! So, they had to walk! Interestingly, I have at least 7 strollers at home and none in my car!

I told them to pretend they had road rage! I was surprised that they knew this one so well! Uh-oh I must be a great teacher!

The kids holding hands looked so cute to me! :D

Taylor wanted her turn with the camera before we got in the car and took all our cool loot home! Can you see the exhaustion in my eyes? You should be surprised because it takes A LOT of shopping to get me this tired! I guess part of it was the disappointment that I missed Dillard's HUGE sale the weekend before! No worries though because I have it scheduled in my phone now and I vow I will NEVER be missing their sales again! Sorry does that sound a little like I need to attend shopaholics anonymous? Ha ha ha

This was one of the hoodies I got Chad. I thought it was so cool. Not only was it a Volcom hoodie, but it zipped ALL the way up!

 This pose was great!

This is part of the disaster after we finished trying on our new clothes/shoes!

FUN Dinner!

All 8 of us (Chad and I, Gary and Linda, our nephews Zack and Brenden, and friends Ken and Peggy) went out to dinner at Samarai 21 for fun on Saturday night. I swear we had the most hilarious chef! I loved it! If I was brave I would post the video of when he serenaded us ladies with his uhh beautiful oriental signing voice! I laughed so hard my stomach hurt! ha ha that night was epic!

 When we were leaving I hurried and snapped this one. Yes, That is Gary carrying a "satchel" ha ha lol I had to take this for blackmail even though he was just carrying Linda's purse for her! How funny! :)

Daddy-Son Date/Chocolate Monster

 I sent Chad and Chase out the door on a short Daddy-Son date and this is how they come back from the ice cream store! He kept saying "Rarrr Mommy I get you wif my ice cweam"! It was funny! Ohh how I love good times!

All I had to say was "BATH TIME BUDDY!"

SOCCER!

We signed both the girls up for soccer again this year because they loved it so much last year! Emma was so happy that her team was the "lavender" colored team! I asked her to smile for me and she posed like this! What a Drama Queen! 

Taylor was so excited for her first soccer game that she was begging me to miss dance class so she could go to soccer. I thought it was funny because her dance is at 3:15 and her game wasn't until 5:30! I love her enthusiasm!

New Family Schedule

I don't know what is wrong with me but I feel like if I don't schedule something then I will definitely forget to do it! So this where my laminated schedule comes into play. I use it almost like a chore chart for an adult. I look at what day it is and what needs to be done and once I accomplish all those items then I can be lazy(which some days I don't finish all the items!) If you have ever been to my house and seen my last laminated schedule you will not notice a large difference other than the types of activities and the days/times have been rearranged to fit our busier schedule. I got so sick of my old outdated schedule that I finally updated our family schedule to this cute one! I know I am crazy, but I sleep better at night knowing that I have tried my best to do everything I can to make our family happy! :D

POTTY TRAINING 101

In this course you will learn how to adequately potty train your toddler in 5 days or less...ha ha ha who am I kidding?! I am NOT an expert but maybe the things I have done you will find helpful. I have been asked by a lot of my friends what I have done to help Chase get potty trained. So here is my list of things I have used. Below I underlined and put in bold the items that are essential.

These are the potty inducing techniques I use, Juice and Instant Breakfast for drinks, and animal crackers and goldfish to snack on. I used more of the goldfish because they would make him thirsty more and then would lead to more...you guessed it...peeing!

 The underwear is important! I have about 10 pairs just in case and he loves that we call him a big boy when he gets ready now!

This is the timer that I use. I needed one because I would get distracted and not remember how long it's been and it helps Chase because when he hears it go off he knows to run to the potty. I set it for every 15 minutes and if he has an accident I decrease the time to 10 minutes. Because it was the first day we went almost every 5 minutes for the first hour. It seemed like we basically stayed in the bathroom the whole hour! After that I increased his time in between.

These are the treats he gets when he attempts to go potty even if nothing comes out.

These hotwheels are his reward every time he poops on the potty.

The books are essential to keeping him entertained while he sits on the potty for 2 minutes each time.

Here is his potty and book basket. This is in his bathroom(AKA the guest bathroom) because it is closest to his room.

This potty is so fun because when he pees it plays a song. You can see the red sensor that is inside the potty. He loves it! The only problem is, when you throw your toys in there the song plays too. Yuck... thanks Chase!

I quarantined him to only hard wood areas so I shut the doors to mine and Taylor's bedroom and kept him in the living room/kitchen. I did this so that if he had an accident it wouldn't be hard to clean up. This technique helped because I was able to keep a really close eye on him to watch for any clues that he needed to go potty.

Here he is with his favorite truck!

He got cold running around in just his underwear so we put on a shirt. If you look really close you can see the treat he got for going pee...It's a Samoa (Girl Scout Cookie) and they are his favorite! He loves to go pee on his potty now. I am glad I found something that gives him enough incentive to go potty. Hopefully he won't get sick of them or I might be in trouble! Ha ha ha!

Pull-ups are a must for nap time or car rides. Chase loves these because they of course are themed around cars! Pay no attention to the sparkly pink and green cars he is playing with...looks like Taylor forgot to put away her polly pocket cars so Chase snatched them!

Chad's trip to Mexico and last week

Sorry this post is a little long and has a few fragments that should have gone on older posts. Hopefully you can make sense of it all. I just found these pictures on one of my sd cards that I thought I had already uploaded.

Hunting in Mexico/Mermaids/George Strait

Chad went with his Dad and brother, Jon to Mexico for a hunting trip during the first part of February. Each year he goes on a hunting trip with them and they have a blast! Call me crazy, but when I want to go on a trip I go to the beach and get a tan. They shoot hundreds of bullets each day and by the time he gets home his shoulder is completely bruised. When they go, they hunt doves and in Mexico it really helps with the huge infestation of doves there by hunting and eliminating them. Plus, they donate the birds as food to the homeless there so they aren't wasted. These are a few of the pictures he took while he was in Mexico.

 This was what company they did their hunting trip through in case I had to get a hold of him while he was gone

 This is where they went out each morning to go hunt.

 Each person had there own "bird boy" that would gather the fallen birds and would have loaded guns ready once you run out of ammo. This is how many Chad would shoot each day!

 Last year Chad's hunting friend, Larry Jex, passed away so they hung this in the tree in his honor.

 This is one of the many reasons I am grateful to live in America!

 I can't imagine buying my food here!

 While Chad was gone my friend Kally and I got dressed up and went out to dinner and drove around in Chad's Corvette! It was a way fun Girl's Night out!

 Kally was mad I made her get dressed up, but we both needed a fun night!

 The kids were actually really good for me while Chad was gone!

 We decided to meet Chad in Vegas when his plane landed so we went to Johnny Rockets and had lunch while we waited for him.

 Of course we had to have their chocolate milkshakes! We had them in the Bahamas and decided we needed them in Vegas too! They were so yummmmy!

 The kids were screaming when they saw Chad walk up to us and they just took off running to him!

 They latched on and gave him a big hug and didn't want to let go!

 For only being gone a week, he was really missed!

 We decided to stay at the Silverton Hotel because they have "real Mermaids" there!

 Their huge aquarium was just fascinating!

 Oh, we also brought our good friend/babysitter Nicole with us on the trip.

 She has been on a lot of our family trips and she makes it so much easier to enjoy them when she comes with!

 We showed up just in time to watch the diver feed the fish in the aquarium. The stingrays came right to our kids and you could see them so well!

 The kids kept putting their hands up as they would come by them.

 I had a hard time getting them to turn around and smile for me because they were so enthralled with the feeding frenzy!

 Emma wanted a picture of every fish in there, and the kids kept pointing and laughing. It was quite entertaining for everyone!

 It was time for Chad and I to get ready for the George Strait/Reba concert that night so we left after this. Unfortunately, the kids went to the Mermaid show while Chad and I were gone so we don't have pictures of the kids at the Mermaid show. They said it was awesome though.

 This is Leanne Womack and she was the opening act for the concert and she did a great job!

 I couldn't decide if this shot or the one above was better because our seats had a good view of her on stage and her on the screen so I took pictures of both.

 Next, Reba came out. She was very entertaining and energetic!

 Again, here is the stage shot.

 Chad and I at Intermission.

 Gary and Linda were sitting right next to us enjoying the show too!

 Then finally, George came out! He was so relaxing and fun to listen to!

 Chad and I got up and danced where there was some room for a few songs and it was so much fun! People saw us dancing and started to dance too, it was cute!

 Chad and Gary leaving the concert at the end.

 Linda and I walking out to the car.

 When we got home the next day chad had these cool wood sculptures from Mexico that he brought back to the girls.

 Emma got a horse and Taylor got a swordfish!

 They were playing with them that whole day and they really liked them.

On a side note...

 Ha ha this is Chad's Birthday dinner picture that I forgot to post. I took it at Claim Jumper, and while we ate, guests were arriving at our house for Chad's surprise party. I was so nervous that he would figure it out, but he was totally shocked to see so many people at our house.

This is the completed 30 days of birthday wall. It was so fun to do each day and Chad really liked it! He wanted me to do a 365 days of birthday instead! ha ha :D

Camping in February?

 Who would ever want to go camping during the winter while the weather forecast calls for rain? People that just got a camper that are too stubborn to wait until it warms up, like us! Since it sleeps 11, we had our friends Kally and Joel and their 3 kids come as well! This is us filling up with gas before we took off on Friday night. OUCH, gas has gotten expensive!

 Once we found a spot we set up a campfire and roasted hot dogs and giant campfire marshmallows!

 It started to get cold so we went into the camper and watched Megamind. Kally and I went shopping Friday morning before we left and picked up Megamind because it was just released and she hadn't ever seen it! "Holo"...that movie is soooo funny!

 It was such a good movie that since it was raining that next morning, we played an encore of Megamind again!

 Taylor and Julia are so cute! Chad made fun of me for doing all the girls hair. He said that when your camping you shouldn't have to do their hair, but they just look so much more adorable when it's done!

Chad and Joel kicking back and watching the movie.

 Chad and I after breakfast.

 Because it was raining, we decided to pack up and head home to go see Gnomeo and Juliette instead.

 Chad got a new 2011 Duramax and he was in 7th heaven driving in it. He would say "look at what this button does...listen to how tough it sounds...this truck is so cool". He was so funny to listen to him, and I'm glad he's so happy!

Thursday Friend Day

 Emma used to be able to only have friends over on Fridays because she was busy with all her other activities throughout the week. We decided to change it to Thursdays because on Fridays most of her friends were busy with family events. This week we took Bree'L to Jumpin' Jacks and Taylor(aka Cabriotti) brought her buddy Payten too. Chase and I just did our own thing running around following those kids! After we were done jumping we had pizza and headed home! 

Sick Kids :(

If you look carefully you can see which 2 kids are the sick ones. Those poor girls are so sick today! Taylor has a double ear infection and Emma has a cold virus! It makes me feel so bad for them seeing them so uncomfortable! Chase on the other-hand has been such a ham and has been "helping" take care of his sisters! The doctor said they should be better by Friday. We sure hope so!