Our Family

Our Family
December 2013

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Emma's Poopy Party

Emma has been working on potty training for some time. We tried while I was pregnant with Aubrey and she really had no interest in actually going. She'd sit there, but nothing would happen.  Then after Aubrey was born, one day she just went on her own and she's been doing great ever since.  Well peeing in the potty, anyway...

We have to remind her to go pee pee still because she just gets busy doing toddler things and those things are more important than making it to the potty before it's too late.  And sure, there's been accidents, but that just happens.  She is in underwear most of the time when home, and I think that's really helped her.  She'll wear a pull-up if we're out of the house, just in case, unless it's a short trip out and she's gone pee just before we leave.  Diapers are only still used at night because she still tends to go more at night.   But she has been doing a wonderful job with peeing in the potty.

Pooping? Yeah, that's another story.  Back when she first started this potty training thing she pooped on the potty twice, one time all by herself and the other with me there with her.  I thought we were golden! Nope, that was it, from then on she refused to poop in the potty.  I understand it can be scary, but she had already done it before and saw it wasn't scary, in fact, it was great because the nasty stuff wasn't sitting in her pull up! Still, nothing.  She didn't care, she wasn't going.  I remember when Aiden was potty training and he was peeing in the potty a good 6 months, at least before he started going #2.  So I knew that it might take some time.  This girl still nothing...we offer things to try and bribe her, promise her the moon, and occasionally threaten her.  She doesn't care.  Oh, she'll tell you she'll do it and then you'll find her hiding somewhere, like behind the dining room table going.  Sigh...

Monday afternoon, I tried getting her to go pee after she woke up from a nap and she couldn't go.  I told her that I would help her get her pants back on after I cut Aiden's nails.  I came back in and she's sitting on the toilet and yells, "I pooped, I pooped".  Is it wrong that I didn't believe her? Sometimes she gets them mixed up.  I went over and looked and sure enough! She pooped in the potty, all by herself! Such a big girl!

I had to do the poopy dance and tell her how excited I was and that I was so, so proud of her.  She was pretty proud of herself too, as she should be!  So what do you do when she finally poops on her own after months of trying to get her go?  You have a poopy party of course!!
Seeing her present and balloon for her poopy party
 
 
Aiden thought clothes were optional for the party
You can see Aubrey was thrilled about the party
Poopy party time!  
Arguing over who's getting what piece of cake.  No they did not get a whole giant piece to themselves. :)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
She insisted she have a candle in her cake. And we had to sing.  In case you're wondering what you sing at a poopy party, it goes a little something like this:
Happy poopy party to you, happy poopy party to you, happy poopy party dear Emma, you better poop in the potty everyday from now on 
Think she's gone since then? No.  Brat.  But I'm still holding out hope and a spare piece of cake in the fridge just in case! :-)

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Fall Pictures of the Kids 2012

You may have seen yesterday that we had our family pictures taken in October.  And while they were fabulous, I still wanted more of the girls by themselves.  Aiden already had his school picture, and I'd like to update Emma's picture on the wall, but I need it to be vertical and the one that the photographer got at our family session was horizontal.  Last year I got some really great ones of the kids out in our backyard so I thought I'd take the girls out there and try to get a couple.  I even managed to get a couple good ones of Aiden as well.  Emma still doesn't quite remember how to smile...hopefully she'll remember how to without me having to get her to laugh soon.  :-)

Here's my favs:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Goodness, those are some cute kids. :-)

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Family Pictures - Fall 2012

To say I love pictures is a bit of an understatement.  I have more memory cards laying around than I can count and I'll never be able to order all of the pictures that I take.  I think we'd need another house with an extra room that I could deem my picture room...hmmm, that's not a bad idea! I don't think there's ever been a time where I can just take one picture. No, I have to keep snapping away because I might catch another great one. And? I'm not one to delete a picture. Yes, it may be a horrible, blurry shot, but I just can't bring myself to delete it.  Well, unless I look fat and hideous, and then? No problem, give me that delete button!

The problem with taking so many pictures is that I'm not in very many of them, unless it's me holding the camera facing the kids and I. But I could probably count on one hand the amount of pictures we have with Patrick and I and the kids in it.  A friend of mine, had her girls' pictures done a couple of times by a lady that lives locally and I wondered if it would be something we could afford.  We've done the Sears and Penney's portraits and at the end of the day they are an arm and a leg (because I think I need every single one of them) and the last time we tried that Emma was terrified of the lady and her camera and she was not having it. At. All.  I was looking up the lady's site again and saw a friend of mine that I went to high school with had her maternity/family pictures done and I thought they were great! I decided to contact her and we set a date.

The most stressful part for me? Figuring out outfits for everyone. What colors should we wear? How do I do Emma's hair? Will she smile for the pictures? Will Aiden behave himself? Yeah, see, I get all kinds of stressed out.  I decided we'd go with brown's since Aubrey had an adorable outfit she just had to wear and brown fits into fall.  Done. After searching online and visiting a couple stores we were set.

Overall, the pictures went great! We got some family pictures that I love and a few of the kids that are fabulous! And Emma did great! By the end she was working that camera. :-)  I was a little bummed that Aubrey wasn't interested in getting any done by herself, but that's okay, I always have my camera handy and I'll get some. :-)  We will definitely be getting them done again!

Here are some of my favorites...yes, it's a lot...would you expect anything less from me? Now to try and narrow it down to place our order...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you so much to our photographer, Rebecca Calvello!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Halloween 2012

Yes, I may be a week behind, but I'm going to post pictures anyway! :-)

As we do on every Halloween, we pack up the kids and head over to my grandmother's house so she can see the kids in their costumes and we can raid her candy. After that, we head over to my cousin's for the whole gang to trick or treat.  It's completely chaotic as we're now up to at least 8 kids in our group.  We gather together, snack on some food, dress the kids up, take no less than 1000 pictures (maybe I just take that many?), then head out for trick or treating.  Once we're back the kids run wild, eat dinner, eat way too many pieces of candy, and hang out until it's time to go home.  Unfortunately this year Halloween fell on a Wednesday, which means the fun had to be cut short because the next day was a school day.  In my opinion trick or treat should be held on the weekend, so the parents can hang out after. :-)

Here's a "few" pictures of the kids...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I love this picture...The sugar had officially kicked in :-)
 
 

 Happy Halloween!!!