Potty Training!!!

I can happily say that our sweet little Kylee is POTTY TRAINED!!!! I was not looking forward to doing this at all, but Kylee seemed "ready". She would ask to use the potty and sit on it for a while with out ever actually peeing. One day as she was sitting on the toilet before bath, I started the water and she started peeing in the toilet! I was excited because it was her first time. After that, she always went potty in the toilet before baths. I was nervous to start officially training her with schedules being crazy in the summer, and let's face it, I was dreading cleaning up accidents! When Jeremy and I got back from Vegas I knew I had to commit and get this thing done! I went out and bought all the princess stickers I could find and made her a potty chart. My plan was to keep Kylee outside ALL day (as much as possible). I gave her tons to drink! Apple juice, orange juice and chocolate milk. She started out fully clothed...
Then ended up in her panties. Here she is watching Beauty and the Beast. I had to take her to the bathroom every 10 minutes at first! Then I would wait an extra 5-10 minutes. It felt like we were going potty all day long! Luckily Austin took two extremely long naps (which is not like him at all!) so I had time to spend with Kylee on this.

Drinking more juice!!!

By the afternoon she was already sick of her stickers :( I needed to bribe her with something better, so I made cookies :)
When she went poo on the toilet for the first time she got a fudgecicle! Then I realized how gross that might look, so it was ottorpops from then on.

She loves wearing her princess panites!!

She did it! She actually filled up this chart the first day because we went so much. I had to make another one. The first day was hard. I think she had 5 accidents. I wanted to cry and give up. The second day was a little better. I just had to keep her motivated to go every 30 minutes. After a week she was telling me when she had to go! She even tells me at the park and the pool. I am so proud of her and thankful for how "easy" it really was. She is such a big girl now. Every time she pulls her pants down to go potty she says, "They're nice and dry mom!!!!"

7 months old

Our sweet little Austin is a few days shy of 8 months!!! That's right, this is just a recap of his 7th month of life. He is the sweetest little guy and so happy all the time. This month he finally started sleeping in his crib!!! His reflux has settled down enough that it is ok for him to sleep flat on his back. It was a few nights of crying at first but now he loves it. He loves to sleep on his tummy. He usually goes to bed around 7pm and wakes once at night to eat, then sleeps until about 6:30am. He went through a phase of waking at 5am for the day and we had to fix that right away. There was no way I could function getting up that early. He LOVES applesauce. He now has 4 teeth on the top and 3 teeth on the bottom! He has bitten me a few times on my shoulder, something Kylee never did. I started giving him rice puffs witch he loves. He has started to crawl witch means I need to be on the look out ALL the time.

He loves swinging at the park! He could sit in there forever, just like his sister.

He is still such a good traveler!! No joke, this baby can fall asleep any place, anywhere. I feel so blessed to have such an easy going baby. I usually try and stay home for his naps now that he is more on a schedule. He usually naps 9am, 1pm and 4pm. He is not a long napper :( That is why I usually just like to run errands and let him catch a nap when he feels like it. I know it's not ideal but he is a trooper and I am always home so he can take his afternoon nap in his crib.

The funniest thing happened the other day. It was in the late afternoon and Jeremy was rocking Austin while watch sports on TV. All of a sudden Austin starts rubbing his eyes. The next thing we knew.... he was out!!! What a crack up!!! Only his daddy can put him to sleep like this :)

Out cold. Thanks dad!

This picture was taken before Austin could crawl. He loved to just sit and play with his toys! As long as anyone was in the room with him he would sit there and be so happy.
Austin LOVES bath time!!! As soon as the water starts running he starts laughing and screaming! It's so nice that he can sit up now and I can bathe the kids together. It's much quicker and actually easier.

Austin loves to play on whatever toy Kylee is playing on. He will actually sit on this horse for a while. I am right next to him the entire time of course.

Austin is such a boy. He already loves to play and wrestle on the ground with daddy. I love my two sweet, smiling boys!

Rest and relaxation...

Jeremy and I were able to go on a vacation without the kids for the FIRST TIME EVER!!! At first I was feeling a little nervous and guilty, then a good friend said something I really liked, "Don't ever feel guilty for spending time with your husband. When the kids are gone it will only be you two, so love him!" After that I felt much better and was ready to have some much needed r&r time :) My mom and Dad were nice enough to watch the kids for us for three nights and four days. Jeremy had to go to Las Vegas for work, so we decided to make a quick va-ca out of it by going out early and taking some vacation time to add to the business trip. The first night we stayed at the Palazzo Resort at the Venitian. It was a BEAUTIFUL all-suite hotel! I'm pretty sure our hotel suite was bigger than our first apartment...lol.

Lobby of the Palazzo....

Living area of the suite...

Above: Our view of the strip. It looked cooler at night but my camera didn't do it justice.

Below: Our huge bathroom with a tv. Oh how I would love to get ready in here every morning.

I had to hop in the jetted tub that I could actually fit in!!

After checking in we headed down to a joint called I LOVE burgers. We ate lunch and watched the US women's world cup game!

This was my bbq bacon cheese burger with an onion ring. I think I finished all but one bite :) Jeremy had ground buffalo sirloin. Sidenote: There will be a lot of pictures of the food we ate on this trip. That was a highlight for me :) That, and the fact that I had several days to just lounge, relax by the pool, read a book, and hang out with my husband!

Inside the Canal shoppes

The 7 pools were AMAZING!!! My favorite part was that there were lounge chairs in the pool! You could get sun and stay cool. We could use the 7 pools at Palazzo or use the Venetian pools that were connected to the Palazzo. Love the man in the speedo in this pic...or as Jeremy calls them "Euro-mansuits"

Our hotel.

We were so excited to find out there was a Serendipity 3 on the strip because we were never able to visit the one in New York City. We tried the famous frozen hot chocolate and it definitely exceeded our expectations.

A little piece of heaven...

The last two nights we stayed at the Planet Hollywood Westgate Towers hotel. It was also pretty cool, it had a younger, hipper style and the pool was elevated right next to the strip and had a DJ playing music the whole time, but after staying at the Palazzo nothing can compare its equal.

For lunch we ate at The Earl of Sandwich. It was amazing!!! Best sandwiches we have ever had!

We stopped in to see the Sugar Factory. I wanted to get Kylee a giant sucker so bad, but Jeremy reminded me about the dental bill that would come of it years later so no luck.
Jeremy heard about an awesome NY style pizza parlor hidden in the Cosmo hotel. There is no address, it's just by word of mouth. It was the closest thing to true NY style pizza I have ever had!


Our last night we ate at China Poblana, a Chinese/ Mexican restaurant. It was my favorite by far!!! I got a carnitas taco and homemade corn tortillas with guac. It was amazing!!!! I know, I get excited about food way too much.


Our last night we stopped by Serendipity 3 again and spilt this amazing red velvet cake, hot fudge sundae! We could barley eat half of it, it was so huge! I think I gained 5 lbs this trip, but that's what vacations are for, right?
The day Jeremy had to work I was able to sleep in, read my book, go to the pool, and the best part, taking a 2 1/2 hr uninterrupted nap!!!
But the best part was coming home to these sweet faces!!! We missed the kids but it was nice to spend time with Jeremy and get re-charged! Thanks so much Mom and Dad!!!

June....

We wished Austin a happy 6 month birthday on June 6th! He is such a sweet boy and is so easy going. He is a great traveler. He only cries when he is hungry, stinky or sleepy. He still has really bad acid reflux. He spits up ALL day long! Just hang out with me and you will see. But he isn't in pain anymore and that is the important thing. He is on two different medicines right now that he takes two and three times a day. The doctor says that he will grow out of it by the time he starts walking. I hope that is the case. He now loves to sit up on his own. He also loves his baby Einstein bouncer. He loves when Kylee is anywhere near him. He eats every 3 hours because he can only keep down small amounts at a time. He goes to bed around 7pm and sleeps until 7:30am, getting up once or twice to eat. We started giving him baby food! He LOVES bananas, peaches and apple sauce. He will eat veggies but you can tell he likes fruit better. He still sleeps in his bouncy seat because of his acid reflux. This month it will be our goal to try and get him in a crib. He is saying ba ba ba, da da da and a lot of other cute baby noises. He is the sweetest little boy and we love him so much!!! Here are his stats:

Head circumference: 17.9 in (90%)

Weight: 17.9 lb (50%)

Length: 27 in (75%)

Kylee graduated from her first year at Kinder-gym. It's a program through Fullerton College and they teach the kids songs and work on skills like jumping, balance beams, somersaults, rolling, and right and left. Kylee loved class because her cousin Travis was in it with her. At first she was very shy but she really warmed up and enjoyed it.

This was our afternoon spent on the 91 fwy. They SHUT IT DOWN and we were stuck for hours!!! Luckily I had a bag packed with snacks, water, formula and diapers.

Lastly, my cousin McKenna graduated from Moorpark High!!! I took Austin with me and he was so good. He slept through the whole thing, screaming and all. We love you Kenna and are so proud of you and will miss you when you go to BYU!!