stinky diaper

This morning as the kids were watching their morning show I asked Caylin if we could take off her stinky diaper. She said no and Ivan chimes in and says, "yea I smell a yucky diaper too, CayCay please take it off."
Caylin takes it off and we head downstairs for breakfast. While we are eating Ivan says to me, "I still smell a yucky diaper!" I respond saying "Well, she doesn't have a diaper on anymore. Could you be smelling your stinky breathe?" I said this jokingly and have never said anything about stinky breathe before. Ivan proceeds to put his hands over his mouth, breathes out and smells it. Who knew a 4 year old would know to do that. He then states, "oh yea, it's my stinky breathe!" I just broke out in laughter, pretty funny kids early in the morning.

blah early pregnancy

I love being pregnant, except not right now. I feel like shit. Ever since we all got sick the day after Christmas, I have felt awful. It's definitely all day sickness, not just morning. I know that having something in your stomach is suppose to help but seriously nothing has been helping. I feel awful for the kids because I'm not playing with them the way I want to, but I don't think they are minding the extra tv time.
Hopefully I'll begin feeling better soon. I really hope I will because sucking on lemonade hard candies all day cannot be the healthiest for me or this baby!

We are Pregnant!

My blood work has all come back great. We are hoping this one sticks. We had another miscarriage in September. I am so excited to announce that Anders and I are expecting again. After just 2 months of trying it happened.
Ivan and Caylin got to tell their daddy and they seem very excited.
There will be another Weaver in the world around August 22, 2010.

Potty Trained!!

We did it! I decided that Caylin was ready. She had been telling me at stores when she had to go number 2 but would fight me tooth and nail at home.
I told her on a Monday that on friday we would be packing her diapers up and sending them to the princess's. She loved the idea. All week I had been pumping her for it. Friday came and she said she wasn't ready. Of course she would. We went to MOPS, came home and we did it. We made mailing labels put them on the diapers and set them out for the mailman. We never looked back. I would set a timer to go off every 30 minutes and we would take her to the potty. Of course I had to bribe her with candy which was either 1 M&M or 1 piece of candy corn. Friday was good only had 1 accident. Saturday was good, until dinner time. Caylin had about 4 or 5 accidents. I was ready to throw in the towel, but luckily it was bed time. Sunday we went to church and she did great. It's now wednesday and she has had 2 days with no accidents. I can finally say I'm done with diapers. It's only been 4 years that I've changed them on my kids!!!! Woo hoo! So proud of my big girl!

Potty Training

We have offically started potty training Caylin, again. The back story to this is I had Caylin pretty much potty trained but I went on a trip and when I came back she was no longer wearing underwear :(
So, 3 months have passed and I'm sick of diapers. We are doing it again and this will be it. I decided to start on a friday so I could have Anders' help over the weekend. We came home from MOPS and we "mailed" our diapers to the princesses at disney. We decorated sheets of construction paper with stickers, put them out by the mailbox and that was it. Caylin has already peed 3 times in 1.5 hours. I'm also setting the kitchen timer to go off every 30 minutes so she can hear the reminder. And it's not me the "mean mommy" making her go. So far so good. I can only pray it keeps going good from here.

Playdates

I like having and going to playdates. The kids enjoy playing with other kids as well. I know this because they don't fight. Plus it's a free way to break up the week.
I feel like in my house there is always fighting. I knew having the kids only 17 months apart would be hard. But it seems every stage of it so far has been harder and harder.
The main cause of my tiredness now is repeating myself over and over again until they decide they don't want to listen and then I have to repeat myself again after they serve their time in timeout. Ugh! Never ending.
Anyway about the playdate. We went over to a close friend of mine and the kids, Amy Norris and Quinn's house. Everyday Ivan tells me Quinn is his best buddy. These two boys just love playing together. We played with playdoh and then had lunch there and surprisingly enough I didn't get mad or have to yell at Ivan or Caylin. I really learn a lot from Amy, like keeping your cool when you are tired of being a referee mommy.
I love playdates! and love having friendships with other moms who are going through the same things as me.

Love the blackberry!

I just figured out how to blog from my phone. I'm hoping now I'll be able to document the funny little things my kids say and do during the day.Gotta love the smartphones.

Coupon deals

I love coupons. I love saving money.

I even have another blog with deals of the week on it. I just had to share this photo of my last trip.

I went to Target with Caylin while Ivan was at school.

Here is what I came away with for just under $70. That's about a 60% savings.

This is mostly food for the food pantry and some toys for the Toys for Tots campaign, including the $35 Tag Junior toy. Well the diapers - they are for us, if Caylin would stop being so stubborn like her mommy I wouldn't have to buy any more of them.

Soccer Player

I love soccer! I still play soccer as much as possible. I'm on a women's league that plays once a week year round. Well since Ivan and Caylin see me play, let want to play. We have always played soccer with them. A couple months ago Anders and I noticed that Ivan always kicks the ball with his "laces." We are hopeful that he will love sports as he grows up.
Today I was playing with him again, just passing the ball around. We have always tried to teach him how to trap the ball but he never got it. Today he did!
I can't believe my 3 year old can now trap and pass a soccer ball correctly! We are so excited!

Rhubbard Pie

My mother in law introduced me to rhubbard pie. I had never heard of it before meeting Anders. Now I love it. It's probably my favorite pie.
I found some at meijer last week shopping so I decided to make a pie. My mother in law shared her recipe with me.
I was making pies last night while Anders was making dinner. All night the kids were asking, can we have pie? can we have pie now? can we please have pie?
I have never met kids that want rhubbard pie so badly!

I think it's their favorite now too!

Bowling Party

Ivan and Caylin's cousin had a birthday party at a bowling alley this past Saturday. Anders and I have wanted to take the kids bowling but just never have. They loved it! We tried teaching the two of them the "granny" style of bowling. They were doing pretty good with it but then Grandpa and Grandma Weaver, Aunt Rachel and myself started bowling. Ivan quickly changed his form and started rolling down the lane side armed. He wasn't turning back.

Too Cute!! We are going to have to keep doing this over the winter.

My Birthday

On Wednesday I celebrated my 28th birthday. Oh goodness, only 2 years until I'm 30. I'm not looking forward to that.

We'll we decided that we would just stay at home and I would cook the ribs I had thawed out earlier this week since Anders was now leaving early Thursday and not coming back until Tuesday. (Gotta love work travel) I went into the kitchen to start a veggie side and when I got there Ivan come out and says, "Mom, are you making a birthday cake?" I said, "No, I'm making a vegetable to go with dinner." Ivan shoots back, "No you have to have a birthday cake, it's your birthday!" He was so adamit about it, which was funny because he never said anything about it all day. This is also coming from a kid who never eats birthday cake when we have it around.

So I quickly put together a white cake with chocolate icing. Not my favorite but it was quick.

I have to acknowlegde my Mom for always having baking supplies in the house growing up - it has stuck with me :)

I will have to say it was pretty cool to have my 2 and 3 year old singing Happy Birthday to me. I'll always remember that - a first time for the both of them to sing it.

Now days have gone by and Caylin keeps telling me randomly, "Happy Birthday Mommy!" and then breaking out in the song. She is just too cute.

Here is the future baker in the family

There were a couple of things that were happened during dinner that were pretty funny.

I'm sure they won't come across as funny as there were to us but I still think they are with sharing.

1. Ivan and Caylin like to play that they are Mommy and Daddy. They go around all day talking about, role playing the whole nine yards. Well Ivan went to the potty and needed help. He called for Mommy to come help, Caylin went running. Ivan then says, "NO, I want my other Mommy, she has on a red shirt, black pants and a green ponytail. She's sitting at the table. Can you go get her please?" What I thought was funny was that that he describe everything I was wearing, down to the color ponytail holder that was in my hair. This kid is so observant it's scary.

2. We were just having some conservation at the table. I believe we were telling Daddy all about the playdate they had in the morning. Out of nowhere Ivan made a comment and I was like, "Oh Ivan....." He chirps in and says, "I'm funny!" He said it with his head cocked to the side and he raised the pitch on the end of the word funny. Again I think you had to hear it to laugh about it, but Anders and I were laughing so hard.

We have some great kids!!! We are so blessed to be their parents.

Applesauce

The kids and I had a playdate with Amanda and her kids, Macy, Carter and Cayden this past Tuesday. We headed out there after Ivan's preschool. Had a pinic lunch (Thanks Amanda for the food!) then went off to pick apples. Well at Apple Works you can't pick the apples, but they had a petting zoo and a playground. So off we went.

While at the petting zoo Ivan got bit by the donkey. I couldn't believe it. It didn't bleed but you could see all of his teeth imprints. Poor Ivan. He handled it pretty well.

We then decided, "Ok, enough with the animals."

We headed off to the playground. There was a huge slide, a maze and some rope swings. The kids had a blast on the slide.

We then went inside the building to get some apples. I was wanting to make applesauce and apple pies. So I got a peck each of JonaMacs for the pies and Jonathons for the sauce.

I had no idea applesauce was so easy to make. And it seriously was the best applesauce I have ever had. I left the skins on for more fiber.

After $10 for the apples, 30 minutes cooking and 10 minutes pureeing we have applesauce.

I love the rose hue to it and the kids loved it too.

The trip tp orchard might have been a little traumatic, but the sauce is delicious!

Camping at Clifty Falls

Over Labor Day weekend we headed down to Clifty Falls State Park. We couldn't wait to take the kids and my parents away for the weekend. I think Anders just needed to get away as well. I was shocked that both my dad and Anders were willing to miss opening day of college football for camping.

Anders and I decided to buy a trailer to haul our and the kids bike down with us. When we went to McCormick's Creek camping for 2 days and we were stuffed in the car. We knew we needed more room especially since we were staying 3 nights and this time were really going to cook over the fire. So leading up to the trip Anders bought and put on a hitch on the Ford, bought the trailer, put the thing together and made the flooring and sides to the trailer. It was a lot of work to take it but I'm glad we have it now. I could of really hurt Anders on Friday that we left because of course the trailer was not done, so I got to pack everything while entertaining the kids. I'm so glad he took that day off to do that. (Anders never takes the day off, EVER)

We had a great time at the park. We actually ate really well.
Here was what we had. And note we made everything over the fire.

Friday night - Burgers and chips

Saturday - Bacon and eggs
Deli sandwiches (ok so no fire was used here)
Taco Soup
Cashew Curry Rice
Tried these biscuits things - didn't work out so well :)
Smores

Sunday - Eggs, Pancakes, Sausage
Ice cream (it was storming out so we made due and went into town)
Pizza Quesadillas
Individual Fruit Cobblers



We hiked on Saturday. We went to a Memorial site that the trail started out and immediately had to go down these stairs. (I'm glad we didn't have to climb up them) I"m also really grateful that a friend of mine let me borrow her hiking backpacks. If we didn't have those we wouldn't have hiked at all.

It rained some Saturday night. We didn't do a great job putting our tent up so we got some water in it. We didn't notice until the morning, so not too bad. We got breakfast made over the fire. Then we all decided we needed to shower. We took turns boys then girls. It felt so refreshing to get all the dirt off of our feet, even if it was only for 30 minutes. As soon as the girls got done it started to rain. We decided to go to Downtown Madison to get ice cream. There is a shop there that is on the 1000 things to do before you die, according to National Geographic. But of course they are closed on Sundays. We still ended up getting ice cream and the kids loved it. It's all that really matters. Oh and my kids will randomly still sing the downtown Madison song we made up while driving there! Sunday night was the worst thunderstorm I had ever heard. The lightening was the brightest we had ever seen. Anders and I actually woke up from it before the kids.

Oh and before the storm came, at about 11 at night, Caylin pukes. Totally random oh and noticed she had a high fever. I sent Anders to the store to get medicine. She was acting so weird it scared me, I know it was the fever but it still scared me. Anders was back in about an hour. As soon as Caylin got medicine in her she acted fine and went right back to sleep. Well about 5 hours later the storm really hit. Luckily we had packed everything we could into the cars. We thought we might have to go to the car due to the storm and put everything we could in Mom and Dad's car. It's a good thing we did because Ivan, Caylin and Steph slept in the very back of the ford while Anders was in the drivers seat. Steph didn't know she could lay in the positions she did that night. Steph might be ready for Circus Soleil. I've never seen Ivan so scared. I had put him in the car and then was heading back out to get Caylin. Ivan yells out, "Please don't leave me." He was also all over shaking, I've never seen or felt that. Luckily with me laying next to him he calmed down and they went back to sleep. As soon as we woke up which was 7am, because of Ivan, he is always awake within 5 minutes of 6:55am. We packed up and started back home. Since we packed everything up wet, as soon as we got home we unloaded and set everything back up, tent included to make sure it was dry before storing it. By the way out tent is huge! Not a easy job when doing it by yourself, which I was doing. So much work and all we wanted to do was rest. Plus I did laundry from the trip for 3 days. My washer and dryer didn't stop for those 3 days.

I really love camping. I love that we are away from electronics and kids just play. Ivan learned how to throw a frisbee on this trip (Thanks Grandma), Caylin and Ivan threw rocks, and we taught them cornhole. Stuff we would get to eventually but not while we are doing our endless project to-do list. Plus I think my kids loved hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Paris for 3 days. They only were in tears for 2-3 hours and asking everyday to go to Grandma's house.

Here are some pics from the trip:

Tunnel Falls after the storm Throwing rocks - The simple things

Making Smores


Our Caterpillar friend. Both kids liked him a lot! He had some crazy antennas.

We ended the trip on the tire swing! They would stay hours on this thing.

And Yes we got Grandma to get on too! The kids thought it was the greatest thing that we got on it with them. You never grow too old for tire swings. (by the way Grandpa so so nervous during all this - he kept thinking Caylin was going to fall off)

Can't wait until the next camping trip. Hopefully one more before the season ends.

Indians Game

I finally talked Anders in going to an Indians game. It really wasn't hard to talking him into it was just figuring out when to go.

We went on a Monday night - dollar menu night :)
The kids absolutely loved it!

Caylin learned how to roll down a hill.

Great times!!! We probably only watched 1 inning total. But I do know we won!

back to this thing

Well I have done a terrible job keeping up with this blog. I finally am having a little more time to do this and I'm going to try my hardest to do it.

Here's our update:

Ivan:
Ivan is now three and a half years old. I can't believe it. It has really gone by fast. I am loving his personality that is coming out. He's a joker. He loves to make anyone laugh especially Caylin and his mommy. Ivan is an awesome driver. He loves his powerwheel car and his bike. We had to replace his tire on his bike because he has ridden it so much he popped a hole in it.

Everyday mealtime we pray. Our prayer goes something like this;
Caylin: "God is good and we thank him for our food" Ivan: "Bless this food to nourish our bodies so we can do his good deeds. Thank you for Amy who lets up go to her house, thank you for Quinn and Tyler that we go to his house, thank you for Grandma and Grandpa Paris for letting us go to their house, thank you for Grandma and Grandpa Weaver for coming to our house, and thank you for go camping" Caylin: "I'm thankful for hot dog, daddy coming home, and Rachel coming home."

Every mealtime this is what I hear. I love it. By the way Amy is Quinn and Tyler's mommy but Ivan has to thank them twice.

Also every night we ask the kids what their favorite part of the day was, Ivan's answer is always, "Camping" and Caylin's is usually what Ivan has said or "when Daddy came home."

FYI - we have only gone camping once. But I'm pretty sure the kids loved it!

Caylin is now a little over 2 years old now. She is my talker. She just picks everything up and talks away. She has a hard time of listening though. She's also my more physical child. If she is not getting her way she is the one to pinch, hit or bite. We are working on this but I think she is just trying to keep up with Ivan and gets frustrated.
Caylin has such of way of just being plain cute. She has these facial expressions that I've never seen on a two year old. Anders and I will have our hands full as she grows up!

Games they play:
Ivan and Caylin have some pretty big imaginations. The game they are always palying now is Daddy and baby. Of course Ivan is the dad and Caylin is his baby. Caylin walks around looking for her "daddy." If I tell her where Anders is she emphatically says, "NO, my other daddy!"
During the day one of them is a dinosaur and the other one is chasing them.

They make up words now and just repeat them and laugh at each other.

I'm so blessed that they really enjoy each others company. They play all day together and if they aren't playing, they are fighting.

Ivan still plays with his trains everyday. Caylin torments him and takes the trains of the track and runs. She is such an instigator.

Caylin LOVES her baby dolls. She usually has one with her at all times. She feeds them, burps them, swaddles them, and hushes them to sleep. Then Ivan will come by and take it. Paying her back for taking his trains. :)

Well there is our update. I'm hoping to use this as a way to capture the little things that do. More to come later!!!!!