Potty Training and a little bit of Walmart...

I LOATHE potty training. I knew that I would. I have been dreading this since the day that he was born. I will explain why...my little Peyton is a STRONG-WILLED child. If he doesn't want to do something, he won't...and he doesn't care about the consequences. Potty training is a daily battle with my lovely child. I do need to give him some credit, he has the #1 down great. He has had no accidents in that respect. Although, he is TERRIFIED to go #2! What is weird is that he has done it before, he should know that it is not scary. He has the hardest time pushing, he is not patient enough to wait and try to push. It is so frustrating. I have tried EVERYTHING, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement.......EVERYTHING and he refuses to do it. So....now he is so "backed up" that he is sick!

Today he just wanted to sleep in my bed because he didn't feel good. He woke up and was awake for awhile and then fell asleep again. He wanted to sit in my bed and drink chocolate milk. He told me that his tummy hurt, and it was because, " Mamau gave me Tylenol." I LOVE that Mamau is 1200 miles away and getting the blame for the tummy ache.
:)

Meanwhile, Kael was reaping all the benefits of Peyton being down and out. He got to play with all of Peyton's toys....with no Peyton towering over him with all his mean glory!

Later in the day I had to go to Walmart. I HATE Walmart, almost as much as I HATE potty training {history goes way back, my good friend hilary will appreciate this}. Well....it is a LOVE/HATE relationship really. I love it because it is so dang affordable! I HATE it because....frankly....it's gross! {you know what i mean}. Anyways, Peyton was feeling a little better so we decided to trek out and do some errands. I was over in the garden center checking out some furniture for our yard {yes yard! we leased a house...with a yard....well sort of...more on that later.} and I came across the CLEARANCE aisle. I LOVE a good deal! As I was moseying down the aisle my eye caught the BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS logo, {my heartbeat sped up}, and then I saw what was in the box {a writing desk. heart beating faster.} and then I saw the price {$48.00!!!!!} My adrenaline was pumping! I have been looking for a desk...EVERYWHERE! I wanted a writing desk SO bad! I had been searching Craigslist daily. But all I could find were expensive ones. This was too good to be true, I didn't want this desk to leave my sight! {this is the only time in my life that i get remotely competitive. i don't want anyone near MY desk}. But of course there isn't a sales associate anywhere in sight and the desk box is too heavy and too big to lift on my own and into the cart. So I had to venture away from MY desk for just a second. When I found someone, of course they directed me to someone else. When I found that person they saw me coming {maybe they saw the panicked look on my face, "gotta get that desk"} she turned around and told Larry to help me. Now Larry was a nice old man, but he was hard of hearing {it's a bad sign when the cup their ear to hear you}, it took him a few minutes to understand that I needed help getting the item over to him to pay for it. During all of this running around, Peyton informs me that he has to go to the bathroom. Of course you do! I told he would have to hold it just a minute while we paid for our desk. Of course we had to have slow Larry helping us {i feel bad for saying that, he was really nice}. I got the desk paid for and had them hold it for me so that we could run to the bathroom {and so that Bryan could come from school with the other car to take the desk home}. This is another part of potty training that I HATE worrying about. Now we have to take pit stops everywhere we go. All I can think about is that experience with the bathroom at the doctor's office....nightmare! So we made it to the bathroom despite the yells, "The pee is coming!" We get in the stall and I stick him on the toilet {all holding Kael mind you, nope...no fishing in toilets today buddy}. And Peyton forgets to point down {even though I told him to}....the joys of boys! And pees all over his pants. Of course he has a melt down because his clothes are all wet...luckily I had an extra pair of pants in the diaper bag {what? that never happens}. So I have to change Peyton's pants...this means that Kael is running freely in a Walmart bathroom...not good. A lady was in there mopping the floor and the floors were wet. I was trying to hold Kael's hand while trying to dress Peyton, but naturally Kael got away {he is freakishly strong} and....yep you guessed it...slipped and hit his head. This was another "Is this really happening to me?" moment. So I button Pey up and run to Kael. I am trying to wash Peyton's hands, all while trying to hold Kael but he got away yet again....and slipped....again! GET ME OUT OF HERE! And we did....we exited the Walmart bathroom and headed straight for the McDonald's for a Diet Coke! Thank goodness for McDonald's inside of Walmart! By the time that nightmare was over Bryan had arrived to take the desk home in his car. Yay! We can leave! Good times at Walmart!
:)

So, this is the pretty little desk in the box. May I remind you that she was $48.00 dollars!!!!!
I am pretty STOKED! Can you tell?

:)

We decided to go over to our new house and set it up!

We "officially" have the place on the 15th of April, but our new landlord was awesome and just gave us the keys! I am so excited to be living in a house....but it will be cozy!
:)

I found this disgusting little creature in our house! I guess we will be having a visitor from the local pest control! I heard about them....but I have yet to see them....until now! It was HUGE and so GROSS! Bryan told me that it was dead. I told him it wasn't because I saw its legs moving. He told me it was a "death twitch" {he was just trying to make me feel better}. He was busy setting up the desk so I decided to take care of it before Kael decided to pick it up and eat it. As I scooped it up with a piece of paper, its legs began to "twitch" again....it was NOT a "death twitch"! I threw it out on the grass and it landed on its legs and started to crawl {i KNEW it wasn't dead!!!!}! It started to crawl toward the house! EWWW! This is where I had to get brave and smash the thing....with my new shoes! SICK! Anyways...he is dead now....and not in my house!

And SHE is finished...all put together! Isn't it pretty? That was the BEST $48.00 dollars I have EVER spent!

Needless to say that it was a very interesting day and trip to Walmart. I am so glad that we were there to get this desk!
{i know, i know. you think that i am SO lame to get this excited over a desk! but i am, i was so excited about my great deal!}

Introducing......Pig Pen.....

I would like you all to meet Pig Pen.

{we mean this as loving as possible!}

Do you see the resemblance?

He even has a cloud of dust that follows him around!
:)

It doesn't matter where this child is, or what he gets into...he ends up FILTHY! I can dress him for the day and 2 minutes later he is covered in slime. We're talking dirt around the mouth, in the eyebrows, and under the fingernails....it is everywhere!

We change his clothes 3 times a day. Some days we have multiple baths.
He is gross cute!
:)

I love it best when he has slobbery gunk all over his face and he comes up and wipes it all over my leg. Some days I have to change my outfit a few times.

Last week I came out into the living room after being gone 1 minute and Kael is covered in chocolate milk, head to toe. I looked at him and first thought, "What is all over you?" The next thought that came into my mind was, "If it is all over you, it is all over something else." I ran around panicked trying to find the mess all over the table or the floor. I was thinking, "Please let it be all over the kitchen floor and not our already spotted carpet!" Nope. My luck isn't that great. :) There was the chocolate milk sitting in a pool on top of my carpet. Great. Kael must have climbed up on top of the kitchen chair and grabbed Peyton's breakfast drink. After two resolve treatments and 4 good scrubs....the stain is STILL there! Hopefully it will come out when we get our carpets cleaned in a couple of weeks. Sigh.

Kael LOVES a good mess.

Grandma Cookie Cookies....

There is nothing on earth quite like my Grandma Norene's chocolate chip cookies....or her layered chocolate cake, chocolate and cream cheese bunt cake, hazelnut layer cake, and homemade donuts! Lets just say that my Grandma has MASTERED the desserts!
I remember when I was growing up, anytime that we stopped in at my Grandma's house she had chocolate chip cookies. It didn't matter what form they were in, whether it was dough, fresh, or frozen....they were delicious! I think that she makes two batches a week....STILL! Peyton {the little cookie monster} has loved them ever since he could smack his gums together. As soon as he could talk, he nicknamed my grandparents "Grandma and Grandpa Cookie". He knew exactly where they lived. If we were driving near their house he would say, "Hey, this is the way to Grandma Cookie's house." He loves her toy closet {especially the doll stroller :) } When she heard that my mom was coming down for Pey's birthday she KNEW that she had to send some for Peyton and Kael. As soon as my mom could put her suitcase down Peyton was asking for his surprise....and a surprise it was.....I was super excited....they are SO good!
{i had to pry the cookie tin out of Bryan's hands. he was so excited for the cookies}

Kael and Peyton picking out their cookies!

Kael enjoying his cookie while Grandma read him a story. Kael LOVES, LOVES, LOVES books! He would look at them all day if he could!

Peyton enjoying his yummy cookie! He is wearing his new favorite shirt that his friend Laird's mom sent from Utah.
{i am glad that he has a new favorite shirt, his toy story shirt was getting so faded!}

More books!

Peyton opening his presents!

Peyton opening Kael's presents. He is a little dominant still. :)

New books to read...YAY!

Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa. That was so sweet of you to send those to the boys! We love you {and your cookies} :) ! We miss you!

It's My 'Birtday'.....

It's My Birtday!

Peyton told everyone on Saturday that, "It's my 'birtday'!" What was so funny is that he would emphasize the 'birt'. He is funny.

He had his first friend birthday party. He wanted to invite his Joy School friends and some of his nursery friends.

He wanted it to be a Batman birthday party. So we got him blue and black balloons. {i know that this may look like an 'over the hill' party, but i assure you it is not}. We also made him a birthday banner that says, "Happy Birthday Pey!"
{contrary to popular belief, we did not get him a bird for his birthday. i am not that crazy. i have seen those things poop....all over walls. the birdcage is simply part of the decor. my brothers think it is stupid. but what do they know?}

:)

Family birthday photo....this one turned out half-way decent....it's a birthday miracle!

Grandma came down for the party. She was a LIFESAVER!

We played with some stickers and colored some superheros. Then the kids got their superhero capes! My mom made the Batman capes....they turned out so great! Thank goodness for grandma!

The superhero's flying around. Peyton's cute little friend Avery was the only little girl....she was a good sport!

Superhero games! We tossed balls and threw frisbees!

And his birthday wouldn't be complete without him pitching a fit....right? :)

His Batman birthday cake. He was so worried about putting Batman's feet in the frosting. He didn't want Batman to be sticky! This time he chose not to eat the candle! :)

He loves the "Happy Birthday" song!

And the presents!

Thank you to all his cute friends who came {Carson, Avery, Broc, Ethan, and Landon}!
I am sad that I didn't get a picture of all of them together!

Later, he got the presents from Mom and Dad.
He was so excited about his Spiderman bag!

All he asked for was the "squishy alien from Toy Story".
That was easy. {this kid has SO many toys!}

He loves to kick around balls, so we got him a soccer ball!

Happy Birthday Peyton!

I am so glad that my mom came down! I would have been in trouble without her! Thank you so much mom, for making those adorable capes! They LOVED them...and so does Kael! :)

New Tricks.....

Kael is a crafty little bugger. A couple of weeks ago, I literally turned my back for 10 seconds and I turned around and he was sitting on the table smiling at me.

Today, he was trying to crawl up on the dishwasher door while I was doing the dishes. I removed him about 4 times. I thought that he had finally toddled off and I turned around and I found him on his tiny chair trying to reach the M & M's. Peyton soon saw what he was doing and said, "Oh, I already know how to get M & M's. I can get them Kael."
{This picture is so bad, I know. My cell phone camera isn't the greatest!}

Kael's new tricks + Peyton's sneaky, crafty tricks = Crazy Mamma!

Oh...and please pray for me, we are heading to the doctor tomorrow for Peyton's checkup.
Another math equation for you....{it's your lucky night} :)

8:50 appointment{on the other side of Irving}
+ 95 degree Doctor's office {no lie}
+ my two boys
_______________________________
traffic crazed, SWEATY, exhausted Mamma!

:)

Innocent.....

They look so sweet and innocent don't they? Take a field trip through my day....you WILL change your mind! :)

Kael turned 1 and decided that he should be big. He should do everything that his older brother does including walk down a slide, jump off the bed, play the guitar,...oh and eat pizza. He felt so left out sitting in the cart while we got to sit and enjoy the delectable cheap Sam's Club concession food. I sat him down next to me and the first thing he did was take Peyton's slice of pizza and stated going to town! Kael didn't realize he was taking his life in his hands. I was just waiting for Peyton to figure it out and turn around and clock him. This would then send Kael flying backwards, hitting his head on the concrete and we'd be lucky to get out of there without stitches. Luckily this didn't happen. Somehow his attention got diverted by the fact that he, "wanted a hot dog! Not PIZZA!" {seriously? you just cried all the way through Sam's Club telling me that you are hungry and, "I want pizza!" then, in the line I MADE sure that you wanted pizza instead of a hot dog. even letting you pick the kind of pizza you want. seriously?} What 3 year old changes their mind? ;)

He tried to kife my hot dog until he saw the relish on it, then he went for Bryan's. :)
He took one bite of Bryan's hot dog and said, "Oh. I hate mustard, here Dad. Where's my pizza?" {whatever.} By this time I had carefully taken it out of Kael's little hands and put it in front of Peyton. He never knew it was gone. {you can thank me later Kael} :)

I loved this sweet innocent picture of them coloring on the chalkboard together. Peyton was so impressed by chalk. "Where did you get this, Mom? This is cool." I was so thrilled that he was sharing with his brother and that his brother was actually coloring with the chalk, not eating it. Oh wait, he did eat the chalk. :) After taking the chalk out of Kael's mouth and distracting him with something else, I decided to finish up the laundry while they were playing so nicely together. I was impressed that they were getting along, no crying yet from Kael....good sign. As I was thinking, "Maybe we are making progress here. Maybe I will realize that having two little boys two years apart isn't that bad." I turned on the drier to "fluff" my towels {mainly for procrastination reasons} :) and what do I hear.....the loud tumble of foreign objects in my drier. I quickly opened it up to find a matchbox car. Hmmm that could not be making all of that noise, there has got to be more. As I continued to dig through my clean laundry I also found a bouncy ball, a Buzz Lightyear toy, and a Zhu Zhu pet....yes...a Zhu Zhu pet. Seriously? I had to laugh inside. They probably thought that it was so funny loading up the drier with all of those toys. I turned the drier on to continue the "fluffing" procrastination process and I heard a banging noise again as the drier turned round and round. I reached into find....a sippy cup full of chocolate milk. I was not laughing inside anymore. It got all over my clean clothes. Ugh. Confession....I am not a huge fan of laundry {mostly because i forget that i have put something in the washer and it sits all day and then i remember and have to rewash it, this cycle tends to repeat itself several times} :) I am REALLY not a fan of doing laundry multiple times. I am going to have to start putting a rubber band on my bi-fold door.....until the little squirt figures out how to open it!

So yes....I say, they may look innocent and sweet.....but they are wild and crazy!

{even though i had to rewash the towels {3 times}, i still love them like crazy!}


sidenote: I hate daylight savings. the end. {as i write this at 12:3o in the morning} :)

Party Time Skype Style.....

Like I have said in previous posts, Mamau {aka Bryan's mom} came to visit for Kael's birthday.
{there is 12 days between the boys birthdays, so she could only come for 1}. So we partied as much as we could with 3 adults. I would have invited friends over but I think that our apartment was still infested with germs! Besides, we wanted our families back home to get in on all of the fun, so we had dual-skyping going on.

Kael made best-friends with Mamau, so he was not happy being in his high chair.

Nor was he happy about the hat we put on his head.

We didn't buy a huge cake because there was only 3 of us. We bought a "Happy Birthday" cupcake just for Kael!

What would a birthday be without BIG balloons!? The "1" for Kael {obviously} and the "Iron Man" balloon was for Peyton.

Our party with both computers Skyping.

We were having Skype drama {one would work and the other would disconnect. this little game went on for a while.} Kael was not happy about being in his high chair so I had to keep feeding him M & M's {mother of the year award, anybody? oh come on, you have done things like this to keep your kid from throwing a fit...right? right?} We finally got the party going!

Peyton LOVED having the computers singing to him!

He also LOVED blowing out the candles!

What he didn't love was taking a bite out of the candle. I guess he thought it was part of the cake. I looked down to watch him take a bite right out of it. I said, "Peyton! You can't eat the candle!" Which was immediately followed by crumbled candle pieces coming out of a 3 year old's mouth. Great.

After getting the waxxy taste out of his mouth, he tried for a piece of cake!

Kael wasn't as thrilled as Peyton
{1. he was DONE being in his high chair, and 2. he was DONE being in his high chair}

But as soon has he realized that he could eat the cupcake, he was fine.

Yum.

Yum.

Yummy!

Not so yummy.
Kael threw up what he ate. {sorry for the picture}. :)
I was just shocked that it was on his high chair tray and not the floor.
{that's just how it goes around here}
He threw up again in the bathtub, how lucky were we tonight?
That would not have been fun scrubbing blue throw up out of the carpet.

This little beauty was in "standby mode". I seriously have to use this baby daily! Is anyone else like that? I swear, all I ever do is vacuum!

Happy Birthday to Peyton and Kael!
We LOVE you!