Bye Bye Diaper Pail!

That's right - James seems to have gotten it - he wears his underwear to bed and naps even and does just fine - he is telling me when he needs to go potty and had been accident free all week!  He's even done well with going in public restrooms.  Dan and I are throwing out the stinky diaper pail!!!!  For the first time in almost 10 years, I don't have a kid in diapers.

What makes James' success with the potty even more remarkable is that he did it while managing to keep up with an incredibly busy schedule.

Monday was the usual allergy shot, laundry, groceries.  Plus Eileen had another Orthodontist appointment in the afternoon.  (By the way - I did lousy at taking pictures this week...sorry)

Tuesday, James and I went to help a Sister in our ward pack up her house to move.  Then in the evening I got to go visiting teaching!

Wednesday was late start, library, allergy shot and choir.  All the ladies at the clinic love James - as I was leaving one day - I said to one of them on the way out "Thank you much!" and James of course copied me - which was followed by a chorus of female "Awwwwww"s  He's generally so perky and happy when he's there - he's charmed them all!

Thursday morning, Dan left for Boston.  James and I went to help the same Sister with some more packing - then picked up the kids for piano lessons.

Friday, I dropped the kids off at school and then went to get my allergy shot for the day, then I headed out to the airport to pick up my Mom!  The kids were so excited to see her!  James even told us as we were walking around the grocery store "Mommy, I like Grandma!"  which made her day.

Saturday, Eileen had flute lessons and then Grandma took the kids to a movie - We all loaded up on popcorn and watched "How to Train Your Dragon 2"  The kids had a lot of fun, and mommy and Grandma didn't pull ALL their hair out.  Then in the evening, I took Eileen and Anna to the Women's General Broadcast.  It was wonderful!  We got to see friends and chat and the conference was just amazing!

Today, after church, I had Stake choir practice, which I had to leave early to go to the Chorale's performance at the Temple Worker's Devotional which was also wonderful!

Aaron wasn't feeling well today and stayed home from church with my mom and slept most of the time - he was running a fever, but hopefully he's on the mend now.  But Anna was throwing up tonight, so it's starting to look like I will have a couple kids home sick with me tomorrow....

Help!

So I bought myself a new planner - partially to help me remember what is going on for the week (there's something about writing it down with a pencil that helps me remember better than putting it in my phone) and partially to help me remember while I'm blogging, what I did.  The new planner really got put to the test this week....

Monday morning after the older kids went to school, James and I went for me to get my allergy shot done, then spent the rest of the day doing laundry, grocery shopping and making the kids do their homework, piano and reading.  Also, we are still trying to potty train.  Which meant that Monday was also full of accidents, and clothing changes and sitting in a bathroom for little to no reason....

Tuesday was much calmer... We had some friends come over and play with us while their mommy went to the temple.  The kids had lots of fun together - but they did require some attention to keep them out of trouble!  After their mom (Niki) came back and had lunch with me.  Then we had to go get the big kids from school - and the usual battle of getting stuff done set in.  Tuesday also happened to be Evie's birthday!  My little girl is already 5 years old!  She is so funny and so sassy and independent - but in some ways she is still a little girl - she still will snuggle with me and still throws massive fits over everything.  We made cupcakes for her and she got to open her presents.  She just loves them - she carries them around everywhere!  Also my Visiting Teachers came over in time for a cupcake!

Wednesday was when things really got nuts....  I dropped the kids off for late-start Wednesdays and then went to the library with James.  After that, we headed over to get my allergy shot done, then home for lunch, followed by picking up the kids for school just in time to try and get them to get their stuff done before we had to leave for Parent/Teacher conferences.  Dan and I hit 4 teachers in a little over an hour and then we went home just in time for me to leave for Choir.  The kids are doing well in school - it seems like Aaron has a bit of trouble keeping focused sometimes because he is too distracted by the girls he sits near....

Thursday I took James to a dentist appointment - he got his teeth checked and got a new tooth brush which made him very happy - he was easy going and polite, but not very helpful!  :) Then we had to get home so James' little friend Addie could get dropped off.  Then I went to the school to get the kids and they came home for Piano lessons.

Friday, James and I headed out for another Allergy shot, followed by doing some visiting teaching, then picked up Heather and headed home in time for Addie to be dropped off.  The kids ate lunch, Heather and I made more wedding plans, then I dropped her off before I picked up the kids from school.  The kids had to make a mad dash at getting homework done again before we could all head over to the yearly school carnival.  The kids had a blast and came home all sugared up and crashed hard!

Saturday was even crazier than the rest of the week.  Dan and I got up early (for us) to go to the temple, then we headed home, I dropped off the sitter, then headed to a baby shower for my friend Marie.  After the baby shower, I went home and Dan and I took apart the girls bed to sell to a nice couple who came to get it for their daughter and her kids.  Then I mowed the lawn, Dan went and got the new beds for the girls and he set those up while I got a wedding gift and then headed off to a wedding reception.  I finally got home around 8:30 - just in time to put the kids to bed and make cookies for the primary kids.  I finally got to bed around 11:30 - totally exhausted!  The best part of all about Saturday though was the fact that James went through the whole day with out having an accident!!

Today was the primary program at church - it went really well and was really sweet!  The kids are so cute and they did such a good job - but apparently they used up all their good behavior during the program, because they were crazy for the last 2 hours of church!  And best of all, James duplicated the no accidents!  We still have to tell him to go about once every 2 hours - but once we sit him down, he goes and then he's good!

Family Fun!

We had a busy week as always.  We have been trying (and failing) to potty train James.  I've been going in for allergy shots 3 times a week.  Monday was typical laundry and grocery shopping.  

Tuesday, I had a dentist appointment in the morning, after which I dropped James off with a friend and went to the temple - it was a really nice morning, and next week I'll watch her kids so she can go!  Tuesday night, I had a concert -  I picked up Christina and we drove over to the High School where the concert was - it was a benefit concert, so we were just a small part of the whole, but it was a really neat performance and a really neat thing to be part of.  

Wednesday was our library day - James just loves going to the library with Riley and Tayanna.  It's funny because both James and Tayanna love to talk about each other and always want to see each other, but when we get them together, they rarely play together!  I didn't have choir since we had the concert the night before so I got a relaxing Wednesday evening at home.  

Thursday James and I went up to Becky's house.  Adena's first comment when we came in was "BAMES (she can't say James) I MISSED YOU!"  and gave him a big hug!  It was so cute. and they played together well so Becky and I got to have fun talking and crafting!  

Friday, I picked up Heather after the allergy shot and we chatted about food and decorations for her wedding, then I packed up the van and after I picked up the kids from school, we grabbed Dan and headed off for the ward family campout.  I felt sadly un-prepared, but next time, I'll do the planning instead of expecting Dan to do it all :)  We had a great time hanging out with friends and chatting and eating and fishing.  The kids all got to do some fishing, but didn't catch anything.  The only down side was that it got REALLY cold that night.  James couldn't manage to stay in his sleeping bag or under his blankets, so we brought him into bed with us, and he promptly passed out.  Evie had to go to the bathroom around 3am and was freezing by the time she got back, so she joined us too - it was nice and warm on our air mattress by that point, but poor Dan kept falling out of bed....  

Here's a great shot of Eileen fishing near our gorgeous camping area!

Saturday morning, we ate breakfast, then had to pack up to get home in time for Eileen's flute lessons.  We got home in time to be there for the men to come do the concrete in our back yard.  The kids all loved trying to help out - and they were very patient (helps that they are in our ward) with them.  James woke up from his nap and went straight outside and stepped in it - but the guys were still there and able to smooth his little footprints out!

Dan and I put the 3 younger kids to bed and left Eileen and Anna in charge and went out to dinner for my birthday.  It's our first time leaving them for more than just a few minutes, but it went well and they were SO excited, they practically kicked us out of the house!

Today was my 35th birthday!  Dan made me a yummy chocolate cake.  All the primary kids sung to Evie and I and I got some beautiful clothes, some fun kitchen gear, a fun game (which we all played after dinner) and some Calico Critters for my birthday, plus two sweet notes from my kiddos.  So here's a rare picture of me and my brightly glowing cake.  (James helped me blow out some candles, but other than that, I managed to get them all with one blow!)

Back to Busy

Back to school and back to a schedule also tends to mean back to busy - This week was full of our normal schedule, plus some.  

Monday was Labor day, so all the kids and Dan were home.  We had planned on hanging out with our cousins, but they had to cancel last minute because their whole family was sick :(  We missed them, but we had food and needed friends to eat it, so we called Dwayne and Nicole and had a great afternoon with them instead!  

Tuesday I spent most of my day around the house trying to get things done, I got Heather's wedding announcements done and read a LOT of books to a cute little boy who loves to sit in my lap and be read to.  Then that evening, Dan and I spent the night canning peaches.  they were ripe and ready and REALLY yummy!  We got through the 2 boxes in one night and were feeling pretty proud of ourselves - we're getting pretty efficient at it!  

Wednesday was library story time and James and Tayanna and Riley all had a great time and didn't want to leave.  Then I had choir in the evening.

Thursday, we had Addy come over to play with us in the afternoon and the kids had piano lessons.  Evie got her first piano lessons this week and she is very excited about it.  She loves to play and was excited to do her theory and everything.

Friday, Addy came over again and she and James had fun together - as long as James wasn't bossing her around too much anyway.

Saturday was rather insane, I went to go help clean the church building that we use for choir in the morning, then I got home and took Eileen to flute lessons (she's doing great and loving it!)  Then i mowed the lawn while Dan worked on the rotten fence in our back yard.  Finally, I ended the day by heading out to Coors field to the Rockies game where the Colorado Mormon Chorale was singing the National Anthem.  All went well - then I headed home, ate dinner and hung out with Dan who was about to pass out he was so tired!  (lol, well ok - I wasn't actually much better - we both got larger than normal amounts of sleep and were still tired all day today)

Today we had a great day at church, then after Dan played Risk with the kids - they all had a great time - especially Anna (who won) and Evie (who didn't actually play but decided that she won anyway)  Eileen is always a great sport and enjoyed the playing more than the winning or losing.

We talked to Grandma and Grandpa Jones and Grandpa Cox on the phone this evening.  James also insisted on having a chance to talk on the phone - he was pretty cute having a conversation with Grandpa Cox.  Here he is pausing to say cheese while talking.