Good Morning Birthday Girl!

My sweet baby girl is 4!! We were in Fort Smith the morning of her birthday. It is a family tradition that the birthday boy or girl gets pancakes in bed with a candle. We decided to save MaMa and PaPa a sheet changing on their bed and had the kids eat in the kitchen :)

Anniston was sleeping in my parents' bed, and as soon as she woke up she stood straight up in their bed, and told my Mom "MaMa I am taller now that I'm 4, and my panties don't fit anymore"--and apparently she was very serious when she said it. I just thought that was hilarious. She is so funny!

Opening her gift from Jerry and I.
It was an American Girl doll. She was SOOOOOO excited! She got Kit Kitteredge, a historical doll. She is very sweet with the doll, and is very protective of her when it comes to a wild, little brother!!

Getting Kit dressed in her "fancy hat".

Happy Birthday Anniston! We're so glad you love your American Girl doll, and Mommy can't wait to take you to the American Girl store in Chicago this fall. We are going to have so much fun eating brunch with Kit (and MaMa, MeMaMa, and Aunt Courtney), having a photo shoot with Kit, and shopping for matching clothes for you and Kit!!

Big Boy Underwear

Treyson has been going tee-tee and boo-boo on the big boy potty for awhile. He's not very good about telling us when, but we're hoping that is going to be changing very soon. We are going to dive into full time potty training starting Monday! We will lose diapers during the days, but stick with them at night for awhile.

So, why wait until this Monday? Answer : MRS. AMBER!! She is our babysitter. She is amazing. And she is an awesome potty trainer! She was amazing with Anniston, and I know will be amazing with Treyson. She's been keeping kids forever, and definitely has more experience than me!

I took the kids to Target on Friday to get T some big boy underwear and some cotton shorts that can go up/down easily. He chose Thomas the Tank Engine (other options were Diego and Mickey Mouse). He was so excited to try them on Friday night for Dadoo! His little booty looked so cute!

Here's a video of him being silly with Anniston is his underwear! Are kids entertaining or what!?

They're Comin'!!

Warning: don't watch this if you don't think a little boy trying to go "boo-boo" on the potty is funny!

To Great Grandma's House We Go!

The kids and I recently went with my dad on the 10 hour drive to Iowa to see my Grandmother. She has moved into an assisted living home since I was last there. She saw Anniston when she was 18 months old, and had never met Treyson. It was so important to me for her to meet the kids! This November she will turn 95! Isn't that amazing!!??

The kids did so great in the car. Seriously, I think that Anniston would forget how to talk if we would let her watch movies all the time in the car. She loves Disney movies, and we only hear from her if she needs to go potty, she's thirsty, or she's laughing. Treyson did pretty good considering he only likes Barney, and we can't watch Barney all day long. We'd rotate with Anniston's movies: 1 Disney, 1 barney, 1 disney, etc. It seemed to work well.

Treyson managed to get attacked by an ear infection while we were there. I knew that he wasn't himself. He wouldn't eat well, and would get irritable at the table. And then Saturday night came....the night he woke up every 45 minutes....we've never, ever had to get up every hour with either of our kids. We happened to breed the kind that come home from the hospital sleeping 5-7 hours at day 2. So I was a zombie on Sunday. My dad had a childhood friend that was a physician. He called him up, explained that we thought T had an ear infection. He called in a Rx, we picked it up, and then the physician showed up at my Aunt and Uncles house an hour later---SERIOUSLY! I thought that house calls only happened in like 1950?? It was amazing, and SO nice of him to do that. He did a full exam in the living room. I'm still amazed thinking about it. Indeed Treyson had a double ear infection. Poor guy! Everybody commented on how they didn't think he was crabby. But Treyson is always full of energy and the "class clown" type of personality, and I knew he was "off". (he's all better now--Thank you Dr. Sands!)

This was a pic from our last evening to spend with Great Grandma. Every time we saw her she was so happy!

PaPa with the kids watching a couple fish in the stream for trout. We visited the fish hatchery. The kids LOVED feeding the trout!

Treyson tossing some food to the fishies!

Anniston with the "Tiger Woods" focus face on....

PaPa and Great Uncle Lee showing the kids the trout in the tanks:

The soybeans that are planted at Grandma's land....you can see the barn in the distance.

These are my children of the corn--haha!

PaPa with the kiddos! He was in heaven driving around his old stomping grounds and explaining everything to me and the kids. I love listening to him talk about growing up out here, and I hope that after hearing it repeated times (like every time we go to Iowa), I'll remember it always! :)

Isn't this view beautiful?

Grandma with her 3 sons. . . you can't tell they're brothers, huh? haha They are standing in front of some of the 360 acres of land that she owns. Corn is growing behind them. She also has some soybeans growing on her acreage.

Treyson thought he was SO hilarious getting under Great Grandma's covers and thinking he was going "night night". My Grandmother was just giggling over him.

This was taken Friday afternoon. This was about 5 minutes after Treyson met Great Grandma for the first time. He's definitely not my bashful one!!

I have such great memories from this trip, and I'm so thankful for my Grandmother's health and happiness at almost 95!

Big Boy!

Guess which boy in this house needs a treat jar for going tee-tee in the potty?It's been loaded with Gummy Bears for round 1!!

Yay Treyson! We are so proud of you!

We are in the early phases of this potty training. Right now, Treyson is going a few times per day at the babysitters, and usually once in the evenings. After the kids' traveling is over in July, we'll lose the diapers during the daytime and go shopping for some big boy underwear! It's so sad to think that we should be doing this with our baby!!

Happy 4th of July!

We went to Lake Ouachita for the 4th of July weekend. The weather was BE-A-UTIFUL!! Scott and Courtney were in town from Houston. We get to see them twice a year, so it was so wonderful getting to hang out with them the whole weekend. We arrived at the lake early Friday evening, and it was as though Treyson had an instant bond to his Uncle Scott. Scott picked him up and Treyson laid on his shoulder just giving him "luvins" for a good 30 minutes---it was precious!

So the way I load my pictures now doesn't let me shuffle them, so these are going to be crazy out of order. Sorry!

Treyson was pooped on the ride in....fell fast asleep in MaMa's arms:

After I got Treyson out of his life jacket, I laid him on the seat to change his diaper, and he was a limp noodle. Anniston walked over to him and just loved on him and whispered sweet things to him--Precious!Anniston and Treyson swimming with Scott and Courtney:

Cheesin' it up for the camera! Another one of Treyson's "moments" with Uncle Scott. Seriously, it was so adorable.

Watching the 4th of July 4 wheeler parade!

There goes Anniston and Treyson with Nanny and PawPaw R!!!

Nanny and Paw Paw R came to pick up the kiddos and take them to the 4 wheeler parade. The kids were SO EXCITED! They love PawPaw R's "truck".

FYI:Treyson's not constipated here....just very serious when it comes to riding 4 wheelers....real men don't smile while driving those :)

Anniston jumping off the back of PaPa's boat:
(Treyson does this too, but the picture of him doing so had a pic of me in a swimsuit....so you'll just have to imagine what T looked like jumping!)

Anniston "surfing" on MaMa and PaPa's raft

Anniston was the designated "flag holder"

Anniston and MaMa

We hope you had a great 4th of July. We sure did. It's always so nice being able to relax and enjoy our families (Jerry's and mine) while riding in a boat/floating on a raft/hanging out at the house. We are so blessed!

Will is 1!!

We went to St. Louis for our nephew Will's 1st birthday party. It was "Cookie Monster" themed, and was super cute! Their decorations put any party I've ever done to shame--so cute!

Here's Kinley and my kiddos with 1 of the pinatas: Some little buddy likes chocolate cake!!

"Would you people hurry up and bring me my cake?"

Will taking his turn at the pinata (with Mommy's help)

Tracey, Kinley, Will, and Big Bird. (Will was not a big fan of either Big Bird or Cookie Monster)

Happy Birthday Will! We love you, and are so glad we got to be there to celebrate with you!