The Hunt for a BLUE October!

We are finished two full weeks of potty training and I must say Bryce has done well.  There are many frustrating moments, but I have to remember he's only been at this 2 weeks, as opposed to 2 3/4 years of diapers!  He does really well at Jo's.  I think there he has more of a schedule and she is good about reminding him..and he listens to her...at home he gets busy, we are busy, we forget to remind him, then suddenly he's had an accident.  Pooping has been more of an issue lately.  For some reason he doesn't want to do that in the toilet.  I do remember this issue with the other two and they overcame...so we will take a breath and know it will be ok this time too!

 

Bryce had a rough week at Jo's behavior wise.  He did a lot of hitting, crying, etc.  We are working on sharing toys...he seems to think his favorites at Jo's belong to him and doesn't like others playing with them.  He's also adopted "hate" as one of his favorite words...which we are not pleased with.  We will be working on giving him other word choices when he doesn't like something.

 

Playdoh time!  Looks like Nicholas is frustrated!

Puzzles with Arthur

Sleepy boy taking a rest...

This seemed like a long week for some reason...I woke up Thursday thinking it was Friday so that whole day was a disappointment.  I guess I was ready for the weekend!  Friday I got an email that Target had their costumes 40% off for two days only so we went there to look and see if we liked any of them.  Bryce and Mason both got one...not Zane.  We spent a total of $15 for both so that was a great deal!  Zane did try on one costume!

 

HOT DOG!

Our Royals made us proud and are now playing in the wild card game Tuesday.  We have tickets to go and can't wait!  Hoping for a blue October!  It's exciting in Kansas City right now!  This hasn't happened in so long that many of the players were less than 10 years old...OR not even born the last time the Royals went to the post-season!  Wowza!

 

First time in 29 years!

Saturday night I met Mary and some of her friends at Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar, to celebrate her birthday.  It was fun!!!

 

Me with the birthday girl!

Jason, me, Mary

All the girls...Mary, Leah, Mindy, Marrissa, Raelynne, me

Big Boy Update and Jo Says NO to Cancer!

This week it has been so nice out...so we have spent a lot of time enjoying it!  The younger two boys have enjoyed their time doing this:

 

Racing down the hill.  Seriously they do this over, and over, and over, and over...

 

 

So last weekend when I posted, the bathroom training hadn't gone so well.  However, I was determined that I would NOT give up on Bryce and he would NOT go back into a diaper.  It's a good thing I stuck to my guns because the rest of the week was a whole different story!  Monday Jo sent me updates and he was going to the bathroom every hour and a half and even pooped!  With the other two that was the biggest hurdle, but he was already doing it on day 3!  Woo hoo!  The rest of the week went just as well.  He only had one "accident" at Jo's and that was because he threw a fit not wanting a pullup on at one naptime so she told him ok...but if he wet his pants he'd have to start wearing them, and he did.  Oh, I guess he had another one where he didn't get his pants down all the way and got them wet, but never did pee his pants!  I think we're going to have to make sure to remind him when he is playing and busy because he gets too busy to think about it, but he has been telling us he needs to go, making it there, he's a rockstar!  Here's Bryce telling about it:

 



Big boy!  So proud of him!

 

Here are some photo updates from Jo's house:

 



Bryce, Arthur, Nicholas

Kerrigan, Bryce, Arthur

All aboard!  Nicholas, Bryce, Kerrigan, Arthur

Outdoor fun!  Bryce, Kerrigan, Nicholas, Arthur

Today is our 12th anniversary!  It's hard to believe it's been 12 years already...and wow how much has changed since then!  Love our life!  Friday evening Jason and Mary took our kids so we could have a nice dinner.  The older two and her two went to gymnastics for a couple of hours, and Bryce went to dinner with them.  It was so nice of her to do this for us and we had a great time!

 

Date night!

Bryce eating some chips at dinner with Jason and Mary

And doing a plank!  Haha!

Saturday was supposed to be the Scout Family Campout, but due to the forecasted weather of storms, they decided to cancel the campout part of it.  They still had daytime activities, so Matt took the older two.  When I asked them what they liked the most they both said "the whole thing."  Matt got one picture of the festivities:

Scout fun!

 

While they were playing, we celebrated Bryce doing so well with bathroom training by taking him to get a toy!  He is really into the "big boy" thing.  He says "I no wear diapers ever!  I no wear pullups.  I hate pullups!  I wear unnerwears!"  This makes me so happy...I knew he was "ready" but he kept saying things like "I wear diapers.  I am the baby brother!"  He changed his tune in a matter of days!

 



I filled 2 sticker charts...one at Jo's and one at home!

This morning I went to the ovarian cancer walk in honor of Jo!  So happy to be able to celebrate her being CANCER FREE!  This year we found a walk right at Zona Rosa, much closer to home.  They were taking pictures there, but they haven't been posted yet, so I'll have to add it to next week.  While I was at the walk, the boys enjoyed a leisurely bike ride on the trail!  They reported to me that the ride didn't seem as bad as before, they weren't as tired, and Zane "killed that last hill..."  Haha!

Ridin the trail!

Passenger

Jo...cancer free for 2 years!

Our group of walkers

The other part of our group of walkers

All from my school:  Katy, me, LuAnn, Tara

Around noon Craig and Keeta came to see us.  They brought us 20 pumpkins...there were actually 59 that she picked from the garden that were good, and around 20 more she threw away.  Who knew!!!  So we are all set on pumpkins, and will be giving our neighbors some as well!  They took us out for our anniversary dinner and later we had "Frog Spit" (Yogurtini) for a treat. 

Happy Anniversary honey!  So lucky to have you as an amazing husband, father, and friend!  Love you to the moon and back!  :)

Big Boy Training 101

In going through pictures on my phone, I found this one that I think I forgot to post a couple of weeks ago.  One evening the scouts had a meeting for new recruits, and Zane and Matt went as a resource for them.  Matt said it was pretty cool seeing the older scouts, such as Zane, helping the new scouts know the rules of the game, being in charge, etc.  So proud of our scout!

 

Also found these that Matt sent me when we were home for Grandma Beggs' funeral.  The boys went fishing while there and Bryce liked picking up the worms!

 

Bryce had fun at Jo's.  His buddy Harper turned one so they got to celebrate his big day.  We got Harper a drum set because what one year old doesn't need a drum set!?!

 



Bryce, Arthur and Jo

The kids having some coloring time!

Mason's homework this week was to make a book box that he could keep at home to put books in.  He sat down one night this week and was really into it!  We took this picture when he THOUGHT he was done, but after this he found stickers and decorated it even more.  Part of the assignment was to either bring it to school or take a photo and send it to the teacher.  He did NOT want to take it in, so we sent the picture to her.

Ready to read!

When the weather turned cool this week, I wasn't prepared with the boys' clothes.  That morning I realized both Zane and Mason only had one pair of pants that fit them!  AAH!  So I had to go out that night to find some other clothes they could wear.  Nothing like last minute!  While I was out and about Matt sent me this photo...saying Bryce got real quiet and he found him in our bathroom like this:

 



Brown sugar anyone???  Just like his brother Mason!

And yesterday when I was out running errands Matt sent me this photo.  Zane has been spending a lot of time this weekend finding youtube videos of shark drawings and drawing them as well.  He has such amazing talent!

Shark Attack!

This weekend we started big boy (bathroom - I highly dislike the "p" word) training with Bryce.  He's been aware of the bathroom for awhile...so we thought it was time.  Let's say he's been a little different thus far than the other two.  I distinctly remember that Zane had 4 accidents the first morning we tried, and after that stayed dry for almost a week.  Yesterday was our first day with this and I think we went through 11 pairs of underwear and did not go in the bathroom once the entire day.  As I type it is 3:00 on Sunday and we again have YET to go in the toilet!  So very frustrating!  However...I am determined to stay strong and stick with it so as to not confuse him.  I know he can do it!  I will give him credit.  We take him into the bathroom about every 30 minutes and he TRIES...but for some reason about 5-10 minutes after that, almost like clockwork, he has an accident.  Hoping the next few days are smoother!

Welcome Fall!

This week at Jo's was pretty quiet...sweet little Harper had that virus they have been talking about on the news so he was out, Nicholas was out with a fever, so for a couple days there were only three kids.  Friday it was Bryce's turn to be gone.  Matt dropped him off and had only been at work for a few minutes when Jo called saying he was complaining of his stomach hurting and had a fever.  So Matt got him and took him home.  He said he was pretty good all day, wouldn't eat, and just seemed like he didn't feel great.  When I got home felt hot and later on his temperature got up to 102, so we gave him some more ibuprofen.  He slept well that night and the rest of this weekend he has been fine.  Thankfully it was short lived!

 

Fire fighter Bryce!

Avery and Bryce hanging out with Jo

Bryce and Arthur putting together a puzzle.

Saturday the boys were working outside on the yard and decided we should go get some lunch.  We were going to go to Joe's Pizza, but decided on Fritz's.  Bryce had so much fun watching for the trains and just wanted them to go constantly.  He kept saying "where they go?" if there wasn't one delivering food!

 

My biggest engineer!

Bryce wanted a picture...Mason was against the idea...

Bryce couldn't wait to get into this train!

We found some lego people!



CHEESE

Hey man!



Today after church we decided it was a beautiful day for the apple orchard!

 



Ready for some apple picking!

TRACTORS!

Riding the trikes!

Can I catch a ride?  (He didn't end up riding)

A tad sunny...

Like father, like son!

Heading out to find some apples!

There are some!

I want this one!

 

Look what I got!

Get another one!

After picking, Bryce just wanted to see the chickens!  They didn't want to see him!

My buddies!



Photo taking didn't last long...hay was more fun...



 

After leaving the apple orchard we decided to visit Red Barn Farm.  Bryce was excited to see animals!  We saw chickens, turkeys, donkeys, horses, goats, geese, went on a hayride, and Matt and Zane went in the corn maze.

 

We started our morning with nothing on the agenda, and ended up finding plenty to do!  What a perfect way to start the week!  This is my absolute favorite time of year!