Finger Painting Extravaganza

Tonight I let the boys do some finger painting after dinner, with some edible 'finger paints' (a.k.a. vanilla pudding with food coloring) mind you. I'm pretty sure it was a hit and they will be wanting to do it again!
It took Parker a couple minutes to get the hang of it and actually put his hands in the 'paint'. I had to push his hand in and show him how to do it and then he was all for it! He really isn't someone that likes to have dirty hands, so this was a big step for him! He refused to taste it though! lolTyler had absolutely NO problem getting dirty and playing around with all the colors!Getting a little messier...I just LOVE this picture!! It cracks me up :) I don't think he could get any messier!! hahaMmmm...Yummy!!!

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for ICE CREAM!!

We found a cute little place that makes homemade ice cream so we decided to treat ourselves to some! The boys thoroughly enjoyed theirs!!!Tyler was being goofy and was arching his back and sticking his tummy out while I was trying to take his picture...Silly kid!!This is him doing his "looking glasses" for our church primary song, Popcorn Popping. He likes to do the hand motions for this song, it's too cute!The sugar has clearly started to kick in!!

Breckenridge, CO

Today we decided to walk down the Main Street in Breckenridge and look at all shops. It's such a cute little town and even though about 1/2 the stores/restaurants were closed until November, it was still fun to walk around and see what they have. We walked through a couple kid's stores and one even had a whole section at the back of the store of toys, train set, mini trampolines & slide, coloring tables, bouncing horse and TONS more for the kids to play with. It was AWESOME and the boys never wanted to leave! There was even a minuscule little park, we're talking like one tiny slide made from a rock and a platform thing they could climb on and that's it. Parker had fun playing there for a few minutes though. That is until he noticed everybody playing in the river a short distance away. And not it is definitely not warm enough to swim in the water and it was freezing too, but of course Parker still needed to go and touch it! We also attempted to take a couple pictures, but it didn't quite turn out all that well. I guess that's how it goes when both boys are tired from not having naps and are restless.I really wish this picture had turned out, it would have been so cute! Ty was actually crying and wasn't wanting me to hold him, Parker wouldn't cooperate as usual and smile for the camera and I don't think Chris knew his brother was taking the picture because he wasn't smiling. Grrr...oh well I'm sure we'll get a really good family picture of us some day!!This would have been cuter if Tyler would have stood still for just a couple seconds more!!! lol

Potty Training Week 1

This is just a recap of Parker's 1st week of potty training, mainly for my record, but feel free to read it if you'd like! He has progressed some every single day and we are anxiously looking forward to the day when he is completely out of diapers!!!!

Monday 10/10: Today I decided I wanted to start officially potty training Parker once and for all. I made up a sticker chart for him and once he fills up a couple rows with stickers he gets part of his Thomas and Friends Train that we bought him (It has 2 parts and we decided to split it up instead of giving him the whole thing at once.) The morning didn't really go all that great. He had a few accidents before 10:30 am and it didn't really help matters having Tyler want to be right in the middle of the action. Parker did however finally went potty on his Car's potty after lunch!!!! WOOHOO :) I decided that I'm just going to focus on day training first until he gets that down and then work on night training. So for nap time I just put his diaper back on and then since we had to run some errands later that afternoon/evening I just left it on and just took him to the potty fairly often. Not too much else happened on the first day.

Tuesday 10/11: This morning he woke up around 5:45 and when I asked him if he needed to go potty he said YES!!! I was surprised he actually said that since every other time I ask him if he needs to go he says no. Anyways, so I took him to the bathroom and he actually went after about 5-10 minutes! YAY!! I thought that maybe this was a start and that it was actually starting to click...but that was the only time he actually went in the potty on the second day too :( I guess I am just going to have to be patient and it will come. It's just seems to be a lot harder than I had thought it would be. It's almost as if he doesn't really care about going in the potty or something because it doesn't really seem to phase him if he has an accident. I can't help but get a little frustrated, even though I shouldn't. I know he will get it, hopefully sooner than later though!!

Wednesday 10/12: He got up early again and I asked if he needed to go potty and he didn't really say anything this time, but went to the bathroom with me anyways. After sitting there for about 5 or 10 minutes again he didn't go. His diaper was wet when I took it off, so he must have just gone before I could get him to the bathroom. And then I stuck him in some underwear and just set the timer for ever 15 minutes and he went potty in his potty once more!!!! So far, before noon he has only had 1 accident!!!!! Even though he has only gone once every day for the last 3 days, I think it's definitely a start and as each day passes I learn a little bit more and the fact that he only had 1 accident this morning is again definitely some progress. I just need to stay strong and not give up and maybe by the end of the week he will be going more than once a day in his potty chair. One can hope right?! lol

Thursday 10/13: Today was a little bit better. He went almost the entire morning without having an accident! Overall he went 3 times in the potty and was able to finally earn part 1 of his Thomas and Friends train!!! He was so excited and he can't wait for the rest of it!

Friday 10/14: The morning was a bit of a struggle with about 2-3 accidents before lunch time. However, after his nap he was on a roll and went in the potty 3 times IN A ROW!!!! No accidents all afternoon/evening. I think we are finally starting to make some progress?! We are so proud of him!

Saturday 10/15: This morning when he woke up a couple hours later than earlier this week (thankfully!) I took him to the potty and even though he had gone poo in his diaper, he was completely DRY!! I sat him on the potty and he went right away. He then went potty another 3 times in a row with out an accident! So I guess that makes it a total of 6 times in a row from yesterday evening to mid morning today. Pretty awesome :) We then spent the rest of the afternoon in Breckenridge and I think that may have set him back just a little because he didn't go the rest of the day :(

Sunday 10/16: Today was an AWESOME day to say the least!! He woke up this morning with a completely DRY and clean diaper! Yep that's right, clean and dry!! I was so proud of him! I stuck him on the potty and he went right away! When we had him go before we left for church he was a little wet and wasn't able to go. That's okay, especially knowing what I know now. We kept him in a diaper while we were at church just in case since he hadn't been telling us that he needed to go. Well, since our drive to church is 40 minutes we had him try to go potty when we got there and he didn't go. However during the middle of sacrament meeting he actually said he needed to go potty!! WOOHOO :) lol So I asked him if he really had to go and he didn't say anything but just left our row and out the chapel door...quickly I might add, so I followed him since Chris was with Tyler in the hall. And surprise!! HE ACTUALLY WENT!!! Needless to say I was probably more excited than he was because lets face it, it was the 1st time he actually said he needed to go without us asking him and then he went! Anyways, in the middle of nursery (after Sunday School for Chris and me) I went in and took Parker to try and go potty. He was still dry but didn't have to go. When church was over I picked him up from nursery and asked him if he needed to go potty and he didn't really say anything but Chris informed me that his teacher said Parker told her he needed to go right at the end of nursery. So I quickly took him and he went AGAIN!!!! I got even more excited!! He went again after lunch and this time actually went POO for the first time (this potty training round anyways. He's gone 3 times before)!

After his nap he sort of woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was a little cranky so we didn't really push the whole potty thing. He said he didn't have to go. Well during dinner he said that he needed to go, so Chris took him in and his diaper was a little wet, but that's okay, he went poo in the potty again!!! Anyways, overall it's been a GREAT day!! After 1 full week, I think we are finally starting to make some awesome progress! In no time he will be a potty trained BIG BOY :)

1st Snow!!

Yep, you better believe it!! October 6, 2011 was the very first snow of the season here in good old Alma, Colorado. It's crazy that just last week we were enjoying all the pretty fall colors on the trees and now in just a matter of days the seasons have completely changed. Looks like we don't get to enjoy fall this year, which I'm a little sad about because it's so beautiful.

Well last night and this morning it snowed a good 3-5 inches. It was so pretty outside with all the trees covered with nice white fluffy stuff!! We had decided to go in to Denver today, which is about an hour and a half from us, and go shopping and possibly try to find a fun pumpkin patch to take the kids to, if the weather was okay there. So we ventured out after Tyler's nap and just took it slowly down the mountain towards Breckenridge and Frisco, the two towns right before the freeway. It's only about 35 minutes to get there but it took us a little longer with the snow, hills and switchbacks, but we got there and grabbed some lunch to eat on the way to Denver. When we got on the freeway we were immediately slowed way down to like 4 or 5 mph and cars were slipping and sliding, we saw several people chilling on the side of the road both voluntarily and involuntarily, a few people almost collided with us and so we quickly decided that it just wasn't worth it to go to Denver today. So we just got off at the next exit, in Silverthorne, and did a little shopping there. Since our main snow/winter stuff is still in our storage unit in Idaho we didn't have anything for the boys to wear to play in the snow. We headed over to Target and took a look to see what we could find. It just so happens that we were able to get everything, boots, hats/gloves, and snow bibs for both boys and snow pants for me and an inter-tube to play with. It was fun, even though we didn't get to go to Denver. The boys are now all set for the coming winter season :)

When we got home, we got them all dressed and went outside to play for a bit...and they loved it! To see the rest of the pictures on my Facebook, click here. To see a cute video of some of the fun, click here.

The view from our house on the very 1st snow day!The lovely snow this morning after it had been snowing most of the night...Tyler wasn't too sure about the snow at first, but he warmed up to it pretty quickly.Parker's 1st Snow Angel of the season. Much improved from last year, I might add!Hard to believe that Parker wore that coat last year! hahaHe likes eating it...didn't take him long to figure that out!Right before he felt the need to throw snow at me!!And it came back to get him...hahaTickle Fight!!

Sunday Afternoon Drive

Today we decided to go for a drive in between Conference Sessions to get out of the house and enjoy God's beautiful creations! We drove up to this spot that Chris goes to to make calls up the mountain from where he makes calls. It had gorgeous views and was a fun place to see the valley below. We love it here in Colorado and just can't believe how pretty it is all around us. ENJOY!!!
Don't you just love the colors of the trees??? I'm sad because the trees are already starting to lose their leaves and will be bare in probably a week or two :(Chris' brother is living with us right now so he came with us on the drive!I couldn't get any of Parker playing where he was facing me, so this will just have to do. He sure does love to run!Just love his dimples!