Thanksgiving Day

We spent an early Thanksgiving (spent the real one with Reub's family) at my mom's house with my brother Nathan, his wife, Meredith, and their son, Hibbin. Since we're about 2 hours away from each other, Jase and Hibbin don't get to play together very often. Really, it's too bad, bc as you can see from the video they have a BLAST together. It was the funniest thing. They played so hard for so long that they were soaked with sweat. Jase wore himself out and completely crashed in the car on the drive home! (bonus!) Glad I caught a little bit of their fun on camera. So fun to have boy cousins only 1 month apart!

Potty Training Tales

Thought I'd do a summary of what's been going on this week with Jase and the potty training. He's three now, so I'd been thinking about doing this for quite some time. I have heard a million horror stories about potty training, so I was completely dreading it and fearing the worst. Because of this fear, I had been very careful not to PUSH it with him at all over these last few months. We talk about it a lot, rented some videos from the library, show him how to do it, ask him if he wants to try, but never forced anything or made it seem like a chore.

I use the Babywise book to do sleep training when my kids are little, so I bought the follow-up to that book called Toddlerwise. There's a chapter in there on potty training. I decided to try out this author's idea instead of spending hours and hours reading other methods, etc, and wasting more time. Here's the synopsis of his do-it-in-one-day potty training:

The day before you are going to start, take child to store and let them pick out special treats/candies and some cool new undies. Jase seemed totally disinterested in choosing any of these things. So I "helped" him choose. That night, you role play with a doll on how to go to the potty. We put Jase's undies on Buzz Lightyear (hilarious) and we had Jase offer him a drink. Later we took him to the potty and I had a small container of water hidden in my hand to make the experience more realistic for him. Jase thought that was pretty cool! You also talk it up like it's the coolest thing since sliced bread, and put his treats/reward toys out where he can see them.
His overall point of potty training is that you want your child to keep their undies CLEAN (no pee) and DRY (no poop). You actually reinforce this the entire time you are training. I had never heard this before and I thought it made lots of sense and was pretty cool. So periodically throughout the training day, I would ask if Jase's undies were still clean and dry, and if he said yes, he got a treat. This seemed to work REALLY well. Then we they actually go in the potty you give them double the treats and say "Oh look, bc you went in the potty your underwear are still clean and dry! Good job!"

Anyways, there's a few more things to it but basically you get the idea. So day#1 was harder than I anticipated. You are supposed to give them sugary drinks like kool-aid so it will make your child want to drink a lot (that worked!). My first mistake was not making him go to the bathroom every half an hour. The child had so much to drink he was just peeing all over the place! Ha! But the good part about that was that he quickly learned that it felt yucky to be wet. After his afternoon nap, I started setting a timer to take him into the bathroom and let him sit on the potty. I would read stories, play games, be silly until he went! Roob and I would take turns doing this bc it started to get a bit taxing on me spending all day in the bathroom. Ugh. I'm so impatient!

Overnight he did well (we brought him straight to the bathroom as soon as he woke up) and I was so excited! I had church that afternoon and was completely nervous about taking him with it only being day #2 of training. Well he did GREAT! I took him to the bathroom 3 times which prevented any accidents. I think he had one accident that second day (it's getting hard to remember now). By day #3 he was definitely going on his own initiative for number "2." Ha ha ha. I figured bladder control would be harder to learn (it was). By day #4 or 5 he started going to the bathroom on his own for number "1." Hooray! I made sure not to go anywhere those next few days after the initial potty training day just so he'd have more of a chance to get everything down pact.

We bought a couple of bigger toys that he picked out (one of which was the weeble wobble treehouse--go figure) that we used as motivation to keep him clean and dry for an entire day. I think that was day #3. He got his toy guns that day and the next day was able to earn the big Weeble treehouse. We also had a bunch of hotwheels cars that he got along the way for staying dry...
Yesterday (day #6) I decided to head out to town to get some shopping done. Besides FREAKING OUT about him touching EVERYTHING in the public restrooms, he did GREAT! We left the house at noon and got home about 7pm. No problems! Though, we did take him to the bathroom at least 4 times :)

Anyways, I could not be any prouder of my boy!!! I am still trying to be aware of the bathroom thing, especially if he is playing or doing something really fun that he may not want to stop and go potty...but overall I have to say things went WAY better than expected and I will definitely do this same method when Ian's good and ready. Hopefully that is a long time from now ;)

Ice Skating Night!

If ya know our family, you know Reuben works allllll the time. Major bummer. Well the other night he didn't have anything to do, so we wanted to take the kids and do something fun! We went to the local ice skating rink after a family night out at our favorite pizza place that has the BEST coke (that's for YOU, dad!). Jase was pretty excited about trying on his rental skates! He surprised me by being able to walk around really good in them! We'll get to what happened on the ice in a minute...Here's a picture of Jase and his daddy. It's blurry bc there was definitely some slippage happening at the time...hahaha.
Ah...here I am with the little tootles man. Looks like he's having fun, right? Cheesy grin!

Another pic with me and Jase and some random kid, heh heh. I think it took both Reuben and I about 20 minutes just to get our skates laced up. Ridiculous! I had a pair of what I thought were decent figure skates that I found at the local goodwill shop (DI) for like $1. I was feelin' pretty confident until I stepped out on the ice. I was trying to hold Jase's hand so he could get his feet underneath him and TRY to skate. OMG. Apparently I need to start working out. It was soooo hard! He looked like one of those cartoons where they body is staying in place but the feet are going a mile a minute! LOL! He was all over the place and I needed the Hulk to come and save me from this 40+ pound child flailing wildly beneath me! Reuben to the rescue!

While Reub was with Jase on a suicide mission, I decided to try out my skills and take a lap or two around the rink. Holy wobbles, batman, I was all over the place. I felt like I would roll both ankles at any second. I stopped skating and tried to tighten my skates even more. Once both feet were numb, I figured I could improve. Nope. Misery. The pain was shooting up my legs after just another lap. Argh! I finally went and asked the guy if I could try a pair of their "crappy" rental skates. After doing so, I realized my $1 special on my skates was definitely the price that equalled their worth. The rentals were 1000 times better! I was able to find my legs, not roll my ankles, and at least skate forward with a bit of speed. Wooooo! Ok, enough about me, let's get back to this cute boy below:

I'm so glad they had skates in his size (9-10 toddler). Cutest skates I've EVER seen. He got to skate around the rink (ok, not sure if skate is the correct word here, ask Reub! LOL) with dad a couple of times before the ol' dad was wore out!

Thank goodness for video games set up in the lobby. I think Jase had more fun playing those!

Oh, and yes, little Boppers was with us, too. But we did NOT take him out on the ice! We wrapped him up all nice and toasty and took turns watching him on the bleachers!
Speaking of bleachers...I forgot to mention that this was Jase's other favorite thing to do. Run up and down the aisles! If you look closely, you can see him in the middle of this picture towards the top. We were fussing at him to come back down by us! At any rate, we really did have fun and I'm so glad we got to spend a fun night out together!

Jase's 3rd Birthday

Think he had a good time? I'd say, "YES."

Still having the same "images not in order" problem. I am usually able to copy and paste them around, but for some reason it's not working. Whateva.

Ok so my baby boy just turned THREE. Yes, three. I can't believe it! He's getting so big so quickly! He loves the show Curious George, so I decided to go with that as the theme. Besides, it's kind of fitting since Jase is also very curious and gets into lots of mischief! :) I had grandious plans for this party, but I'm learning that time always gets ahead of me these days and I had to throw a lot of them out the window. However, it was still cute and Jase had lots of fun being the center of attention! My brother Nathan and his wife, Meredith, chillin' on the couch.
Jase's cousin, Emmi, loved helping him open gifts. And actually, he was okay with it. LOL.

Another gift to open!

Cousin McKayla, being silly!

I went to the library and checked out a few Curious George books to place around the house. Turned out cute. Also had to get a few balloons! And yes, we have Curious George playing on the TV, too.

Emmi playing the little horn blower thing. I'm spacing what these things are really called right now...

Here's the two cakes. I was happy with how they came out. It looks like Curious George, right??? The big one is 4 layer chocolate mousse cake, topped with whipped ganache and covered in crushed Heath bar. I do not mess around when it comes to cake! This thing is the BOMBdiggitydog of yumminess!!! I thought it would be fun to do a little banana cake just for Jase on the side.

Better view of my Curious George cake. It's so stinkin' cute! I love it!

Quick pic of one of the table spreads. The lighting is terrible but the food was actually really fun. The marshmallow pops were my favorite part. I just stuck lollipop sticks into them, rolled them in chocolate, then in different crushed candies. Stuck them in some potting foam and covered that with easter grass. Other fun foods were chocolate/banana/peanut butter shakes (forgot to defrost these so that is why the straws are not in them), chips, cut out PB&J sandwiches, and cut out tuna fish sandwiches.

Oh, here's some carrots and ranch, dipped nutter butter cookies, and the sandwiches. I wanted them to be monkey faces, but I ran out of time for that, as well.

Another photo of the birthday fun table.

All in all it was a really fun party! I felt like I took a lot of pics, but apparently, not. Good thing Reuben's brother brought his camera! I have to get a copy of his pics bc mine are surely lacking! I hardly have any of the guests in photos! Well, I am sure I'll get them eventually and can add to this post later on.

And a Happy Halloween it was!

Captain Jase Sparrow and his parrot, E-Boppers.

I don't even have the patience to rearrange these pics. Google put them in here all out of order, and when I try to copy and paste them around it's giving me trouble. ARGH! Ok so I'll try to make this make some sense. Jase's cousin had a Pirate themed birthday and he got a cute pirate patch and earring at the party. It gave me the idea to build from that and let Jase be a pirate for Halloween. Ian could be his parrot! Hardy har har. And so it was. Found this cute Jack Sparrow costume for him on ebay. I looooved the dreads/braids, but since it kept touching his cheek, Jase refused to wear them the rest of the evening. Lame. BUT he was still cute! :)

Another pic of Jasey the pirate.

This is both of us. I'd like to call my costume "what-I-found-in-my-closet-Pirate." It's classic.

He's so silly!!!!

We first went to the local library to check out their Halloween party. It was cute, but in my opinion they either needed to have more game options so the lines for the kids would be shorter---OR give the kids less "turns to try" when it was their turn to play. I ran out of patience quickly. But Jase had fun. So that's good.

Here's a pic of Jase, Ian, and the dad trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. This house always has a cool spook "alley" you can walk through.

It went from moderately raining to POURING raining while we were out. Blech! Because of the rain/weather, I did not get as many pictures as I had hoped. Trying to manage an umbrella, baby and toddler plus a camera is near impossible. Thank goodness Roob was with us. This is a pic of Jase and I riding in the back of the Explorer with the hatch open! Roob drove us house to house and we would jump in and out. Lots of Jase's candy got wet, so I finally dumped it into the car to keep what we could dry. You think I would have thought of this sooner. Actually, it was Roob's idea.

Jase being silly in the back of the car. He's so funny! He was really having the TIME of his life, despite the rain. Of course, rain is FUN to kids. Not so fun for moms. And all I could think was "I knew I should have sprayed these suede boots with the waterproofing spray." Maybe next time.

After trick or treating, we stopped at the local restaurant to get some BBQ. Ian was just chillin' on the floor in his car seat and parrot attire. And yes, it's a pink binky. I forgot to switch it out for green before we left the house. Oops. The restaurant had free popcorn and hot chocolate. That was cool!

This was when we first arrived at the library. Yes, out of order.

Ian getting ready for the library party. A few people mistook him for a jester or clown. I don't think they realized he had a parrot beak on his head. Oh well. Small misunderstanding. :)

Jase waiting while we strapped Ian into the stroller...

After years of waiting, Jase finally had his turn to play the golf game.

All in all it REALLY was a FUN night. It made both Roob and I sooo happy to see Jase having so much fun! Made it all worth it. Wonder what Jase will want to be next year???

Nathan & Meredith's Wedding

So Nathan (my bro) and Meredith got hitched! Hooray! I'm so happy for them both! Their son is only one month older than Jase (FUN) and baby #2 is on the way! Congrats y'all! Everything about this wedding was so "them;" I loved it. I'll have to post a few pics of the details so you get to see how cute it was. And get this--it was my mom's neighbor's backyard!!!!! He has the coolest backyard I've ever seen! I'll say that much! I grabbed a quick photo-op with the groom!
How cute is this?? There were quite a few outbuildings, etc, with pictures strung on them. Look how cute the fabric is on that bench! And the little mason jars everywhere with tea lights in them! Darling! I am in love!

This is Hibbin, their 3 yr old boy (my first nephew). Can we say, "adorable?" Yes, very much so. He is showing me the beignets he's about to eat (New Orleans style fried donuts). That was part of their New Orleans/nature-ish theme. I think I have a pic of them being made later on in the post...

This was taken toward the end of the night. Just feeding each other the cake. They were both so nice about it. The cakes were traditional New Orleans cakes called "dorberge." It's yellow sponge cake cut into lots of thin layers, then filled in between with chocolate custard. Tasty! They were able to have a NOLA (new orleans, louisiana) bakery ship 'em up here frozen. Cool.

Ah, yes. Here it is. How cute is this? The servers were all dressed with black aprons. Cooking hot beignets fresh to order!

Saying the vows...and yes, that is MY son throwing rocks into the pond during the thing. I was so embarrassed. It was kind of funny, though. Of course I did make him stop! (after I snapped a picture, LOL)

Jase would not leave this table of "owl" cookies alone! Oh my goodness. And the blackberries. He was too funny "stealing" blackberries during the entire reception.

Gotta get a pic of Reub with the Jasemeister. Eating owl cookies. Shocker.

This little area behind where Jase is standing is what they used for a "photobooth." Such a cute idea! They had a photographer stationed back there who took quirky pics of all of the wedding guests. We won't discuss my family's photobooth picture, because it was THAT bad. I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes when I first saw it. I was in the WORST mood bc I was so frazzled chasing after Jase and having him not listen to a thing I said. I made a poor effort to be funny, and my face is just absolutely hideous. It is THAT bad. On second thought, maybe I should post the picture so all of you could have a real good laugh. I'll think about it. :) Ah-hem.

Well here we are. Pictured left to right: Nathan, me, Michael. The siblings.

Another detail. The drink table. They got these "Blood Orange" drinks from Costco that were out of this world. In fact, note to self: go to Costco and see if they have any.
Jase waiting for his drink :) And a side note--I bet I know someone who would like this fabric--Sharstin? Hee hee.

More cute things. Jars hanging from trees with birdseed and tea lights. Love.

Another picture of the owl table and cute owl cookies.

You can better see the dorberge cakes here. I love how they are displayed on this old, wooden crate.