My Little Family is Growing Up

We have had a lot of exciting and new things happening in our family lately. Everyone is doing something new. I wrote about Jacob and his new bike riding skills in my last post. He continues to improve, not that he has been able to practice much lately with the spring blizzards we have been having this week. He has had fun playing in the snow though, winter is his favorite season.

Nathan is now potty trained, thanks to the "Potty Fairy". She has worked magic in our house. I was getting very frustrated with potty training before she stared to come. In fact, the day she arrived at our house I had decided I was done trying and had put Nathan back into a diaper. That morning Nathan peed on me, and then 30 min later peed on the couch. I was so mad! After I cooled off I remembered someone telling me about the potty fairy. I told Nathan that I had a friend named the Potty Fairy who might be able to help him learn to use the potty. With him next to me I called her (Randy) and asked her if she could come and leave a prize for Nathan when he uses the potty. She agreed to help. We have only had 3 accidents since then, it has been about 10 days. I don't know why, but a prize means a lot more when it comes from a magical, invisible, sneaky fairy than from me. The other thing I did was put the ball in his court. I stopped telling him when he had to go and let him tell me. To remind him I ask him if his pants are dry, and tell him to remember to keep his pants dry. I never ask if he has to go potty. My only problem now is how to stop using the potty fairy. I guess we will have to make another phone call.

Adam is getting so big. He took his first steps on Sunday afternoon while we were over at Grandma's house. It was very exciting. Randy and I have been working with him every evening since then, trying to get him to walk between us, but the most he has done is about four steps. Then last night Randy and the boys were playing on the floor and I was reading. All of the sudden here comes Adam walking into the middle of the room. I don't know if he walked all the way from where the furniture was, or if he stood up in the middle of the room and started walking, but either way it was amazing. I took this video right after that. Isn't he cute?


As for my exciting new thing, I have finally joined the ranks of minivan driving moms. I know that a lot of you, my friends, have done this already, but, I held out for as long as I could. Now I can't really remember why I didn't want a minivan, I just didn't. I like my car and I wasn't ready to give it up. But it has been a pain getting three kids in and out of the cramped back seat of my Saturn. I was still carrying Adam around in his infant carrier just because it was a lot easier to get that in and out than to stretch and buckle him in the middle. But, he is going to need to switch to a bigger car seat soon and I was worried about how one would fit, so we started shopping for a van. I was set on getting a Toyota Sienna, but to fit into our price range we were going to have to get one that was older (2004-2006) with about 60,000 miles. Then we discovered Kia. For the same price that we wanted to pay for that Sienna, we got a 2008 Kia Sedona with 15,000 miles. And, it has a better safety rating, a better engine, and a better warranty than Toyota or Honda. I LOVE it! I don't know why I waited to long to get one. It is so spacious, it drives awesome, I love being up higher, I couldn't be happier with it. We just got it last Friday and have been having a lot of fun with it. Now I am looking for excuses to go run errands.

My pretty new minivan

My kids in the new van, we have so much room now.

Jacob Rides a Bike

The last fall I threw Jacob's bike over our back fence (it's a long story) and broke one of the training wheels. Luckily that was right before the weather turned too cold to play outside and we haven't had to worry about it until now. But, the weather has been really nice the last few days and he has wanted to ride his bike so we decided to see if he could ride without training wheels. I told him that 5 years old is a good time to learn. Wouldn't you know it, he picked it up right away. I was so impressed. After a few tires he was doing it. That is so like him, he is a very quick learner. He is especially proud of the fact that he can ride a bike without training wheels and his best friend and cousin Isaac can't. They are in constant competition. I am sure by this weekend Isaac will have caught up, if he hasn't already.

A Happier Note

My little Nathan is so sweet. The other day (before it snowed again) Randy took the older boys to the park. Nathan slid down the slide into a puddle of icy water. Randy took him to the car and took off his pants. Then Randy took off his jacket and wrapped it around Nathan to keep him warm. Nathan said, "I am so glad I have a dad to keep me warm." The next morning I was helping Nathan use the potty. I put the little potty seat down over the toilet for him. He said, "I am so glad I have a mom to put the little seat down for me." Don't you love it. I think this is better than "I love you." This is his way of saying, "Mom, Dad, I just want you know that I appreciate the little things you do for me." He is so cute.

An update on Adam. After a solid week of being sick he is finally starting to turn the corner. He did not throw up today, and he even ate a little, and played a little. Hopefully we will be back to normal in the next few days. So far it hasn't spread to anyone else, thank goodness.

What is sadder than a sick baby?

A baby who is so sick he has to go to the hospital to be re-hydrated. A baby who is so dehydrated he has to get an IV in his head! That was my my baby yesterday. Adam has been throwing up and having blowout diapers since Wednesday. We had been trying to keep him hydrated but he was just so listliss and he hadn't had a wet diaper in over 24 hours, so after consulting with our regular doctor we decided we should take him to get IV fluids. I had two choices, the IHC KidsCare clinic that is just down the street and has a copay of $25, or Primary Childrens Hospital ER which is almost an hour away and has a copay of $125. I called KidsCare and they told me they could give him an IV there. So I chose the easier and much more affordable choice. Well, after an hour and a half and three unsucessful tries at starting an IV in my poor baby we ended up going to Primary Childrens after all. I was frustrated, but I don't blame the nurse for not being able to start an IV in a dehydrated infant. I know I couldn't do it. I just wish I would have thought of that before going there in the first place. The good thing about going there first was that the doctor called the hospital and told them we were coming. So I didn't have to wait to see an ER doctor before they started the IV. Within 45 min we had an IV started, in his head :(, fluid running, labs drawn, and were settled in the waiting room. We waited for a long time. This was my first ER visit, and probably not my last with three boys. I was hopeing to see something interesting sitting in an ER waiting room for so long, but unfortunatly all I saw were a couple of cuts and a bunch of other sick kids. We were probably the most interesting, we sure got some looks. Can I just say that I love Primary Childrens Hospital. The staff was all so nice, they took such good care of us. We did have to wait a long time, but that is to be expected. This was my favorite hospital to work at when I was in nursing school. There is just something special about it. I really wanted to work there when I graduated, and even got a job offer there, but it is such a long drive I decided to take a different job. Can I also say that as much as I love Primary Childrens, I am really glad they are building an extention at the site of our new hospital here in Riverton. Maybe we will never have to drive that far again. So, eight hours, 5 IV sticks, 300 ml of normal saline, completely normal lab results, orange scented adhesive remover in his hair, one sore bum, and $150 later I finally got home with my baby. He was such a good sport through the whole thing. He is still not feeling well, but doing better. No lost fluid either way all day!

First Signs of Spring

Yeah, Daffodils!

I always love seeing my Daffodils come out, it means that spring is just around the corner.

Saving Money at the Grocery Store

Last summer I was looking for a way to same money at the grocery store and I found a great website called pinchingyourpennies.com. Basically, they make lists of what is on sale at the grocery store and match the sale item with current coupons. They also list good internet sales. Now all of the grocery lists are another web site called grocerysmarts.com. (I think they only do grocery lists for Utah and Idaho). Thanks to Grocery Smarts I had my best shopping trip ever. Yesterday I went to Albertson's and I got:

• a pork roast
• 1 package of cheese singles
• 2 loaves of Grandma Sycamore's bread (the best ever)
• 4 cans of Progresso Soup
• 2 cans of olives
• 1 can of Pilsberry cresent rolls
• 1 can of Betty Crocker frosting
• 2 Betty Crocker cake mixes
• 2 Betty Crocker Delux Brownie mixes
• 4 Warm Delights
• 2 cans of Albacore Tuna
• 2 boxes of Chex Mix bars
• 1 box of Nature Valley granola bars
• 2 boxes of fruit snacks
• 1 Macaroni Grill Meal Kit
• 1 box of gallon size freezer bags

My Grand Total: $27.94 (okay, I actually paid $47.94, but I got $20 coupon to use next time)
That is almost a 70%savings. I was so excited I wanted to share it with you. I don't always save this much, I wish I did, but it sure is fun when I do. I encourage all of you who are in Utah to go and check out grocerysmarts.com. And, to those of you not in Utah, sorry.

Craft Challenged

I realized yesterday morning that Jacob needed some valentines to take to his preschool party today. I didn’t want to buy a box of lame grocery store valentines when he only needed two, so I decided we would make some. Besides, I like homemade crafty things, they are free, which is my main reason for making stuff myself, and it is a fun activity to do with the kids. So I found a cute and seemingly easy idea on familyfun.com. The idea was to use a heart shaped carrot stamp (just like a potato stamp, but made with a carrot) to make a caterpillar using acrylic paint. Someone left a comment on the site saying their three year old really liked this project. I thought if a three year old could do it then for sure my kids could do it, I mean, how hard can stamping be? I realized as we set about stamping with our heart shaped carrots that I thought wrong. First of all, what was I thinking using acrylic paint, I already know Jacob can’t be trusted with acrylic paint. He has ruined one too many t-shirts and a pair of pants by wiping paint off his fingers onto his cloths. I gave him a paper towel and kept reminding him not to wipe his hands on his cloths. I think we avoided paint stains this time. We did, however, get paint all over the kitchen counter. Nathan didn’t get the whole stamping concept, he just wanted to smear paint on his cards with his carrot. He also didn’t get the whole stamp in a chain to make a caterpillar concept, some of his finished product have random blotches of paint. Unfortunately the heart stamps I spent a whole 5 minutes making didn’t look like hearts when my kids stamped them on their paper (I tried it and it worked, so it was their technique, not my homemade stamps). And to top it all off, Jacob got tired of the project after three cards, so I am sorry to any cousins who didn’t get a valentine from us this year. This isn’t the first time I have overestimated my kids ability to do a craft project, and I am sure it won’t be the last. I wonder if we did more projects if they would get better, of if they really are just craft challenged.

With the finished product, they turned out cute in the end. I guess we will do it again.