Potty training

Ok, here it is, a re-cap of the potty training experience with Ms Jacey. It was horrifying but I need to write it down so when she is a mom some day and comes crying to me about potty training her small children, I can let her read this and she can know there is a light at the end of the tunnel in this great circle of love.

Jacey has always been very interested in the toilet and since we have had no lock on our bathroom door she has watched the process many times and she thought she had it pretty well figured out. In September she decided she was done with diapers. She wanted to sit on the toilet all the time. Sometimes she would go, sometimes she wouldn't. Every time I changed her diaper, she would want to sit on the toilet for a little bit which was fine until we were about to move and I was trying to pack. I could get nothing done because she had to sit on the toilet every five minutes. The thing with Jacey is she has absolutely no patience and no ability to sit still for too long so she would sit on the toilet for 2 seconds and if the pee didn't come immediately then she would jump off, wait 2 minutes till she got the urge again and then want to sit on the toilet again. She would do this for hours. I couldn't keep a diaper on her because she would just take it off and it was annoying to take her to the potty every 2 minutes and put a diaper on and off but she had no control so she would pee in her underwear constantly. One time I was trying to put a diaper on her and she was throwing a fit because she wanted to sit on the toilet so I gave in and let her go sit on the toilet while I ran the diaper out to the garbage outside. By the time I got back, she had crawled up on the counter in the bathroom and pooed on the counter and then promptly tried to clean it up with a wash clothe and then decided finger painting on the wall and mirror was much more fun. Now I have heard stories like this but never dreamed how revolting it could be in real life. She made me CRAZY while I was trying to get ready to move. Oh and my other favorite is when she realized she would get one potty treat for going pee and 2 potty treats for going poo, she totally figured out how to work the system. She would squeeze out a little sheep poop every 5 minutes for 2 hours! Well that system went out the window the little turd (no pun intended). Well this went on for about 4 months. I would get so frustrated that I would tape her diaper on just so she couldnt take it off and she would still manage to wiggle out of it. She would start going and get bored and jump off the toilet before she even finished. She would poo in her diaper a little then take it off, smear it down her legs and everywhere else in the process, get on the toilet, go a little more then jump off and step in her dirty diaper on her way out and going running off to play. We seriously had a poo'y disaster everyday for months. I seriously wanted to shoot myself. I am sure there are many more stories but after 4 months of the the craziness I think she finally gained control and she has been a princess every since. She hasnt had an accident in 4 weeks. She doesnt need diapers at night. She has been perfect. I guess she finally decided she had had enough and would just cooperate. I have to say, not having to deal with diapers has been a little bit of a dream. I find it a little thrill every day. Little Jac makes me crazy for sure but she is a party and I sure love her.

rough day in the walker casa

I had some awesome "mom" moments today. I was playing baseball with Tyce today and after several of my crappy pitches he looked at me and said, "Mom, just throw it straight." Ha! I really am a retarded pitcher but he is getting really good at hitting them no matter where they are. Even right above his head.

The first thing Tyce said to Rustin when he came home today was, "Dad, Mom kicked Jacey." Awesome, right? That is NOT exactly what happened...well kinda, but not really. I was outside in the garage and Jacey was with me and she wanted my sunglasses because the sun was too bright for her apparently. I gave them to her but she kept dropping them because they are much too big for her and I didn't want them to get scratched so I took them and she promptly screamed like some one was chopping her ears off. I was on the phone so I picked her up and put her in the house and she was screaming and stomping in front of the door so I couldn't close it and didn't have a hand so I attempted to scoot her further in the house with my foot. I don't recall exactly but I am sure out of frustration I might have been a little more aggressive with the scoot then I meant to and Tyce was standing there so Jacey wrapped her arms around him and sobbed and he consoled her. I went back outside and awhile later Tyce came running out in his bare feet to tell me that I shouldn't have kicked Jacey because I am not suppose to do that. Well I couldn't really have felt any worse so I told him I was very sorry and that I didn't mean to and his face lit up and he ran back to Jacey and said "Jacey, Mom said sorry. She didnt mean to. Are you ok? Come on lets go in the living room and watch the sun set." Ok, seriously by this time I felt like the scum of the earth. I found them in the living room sharing a chair, Tyce holding Jacey's hand and watching the sun drop behind the mountains with her little tear stained face. Right when I thought I couldn't sink any lower, Tyce has to tell Rustin all about it the second he walked in the door. I cant even imagine what he must tell his primary or preschool teachers. Sigh.....well better luck tomorrow. This parenting business is for the birds.

little snowmen

I love these two kids. They are so much fun to play with.

I love how a little tunnel can keep them entertained for long periods of time.

Its fun to see them do things I use to do as a kid. Making cupcakes and cookies out of snow and eating them. Tyce would even share. What a sweetheart :)

Sure love my kids.

a happy time

Lately, I have honestly felt as happy as I have ever been. I feel such a deep gratitude for all that I have. We are in such a perfect phase of life and I know life has its high's and low's and I just want to write this down so that I can cherish and remember the good times whenever it gets rough again. Tyce and Jacey have seriously been a pure delight lately. Jacey doesnt wear diapers anymore which is such a beautiful thing. They both can get there shoes on and walk out and get in the car. I dont have to have a diaper bag or load my purse with stuff before I leave the house bc they dont need anything. I love that it is not a big deal to leave them with someone. They just play so they are not hard and I really don't worry when we leave them with people. They walk right in and play and they are happy to see me when I get back. They have been getting along so well. They play together and they have not been causing me hardly any trouble lately and I have been reveling in this bliss. Usually when Rustin comes home from work, I am a bear because its just a long day of craziness and frustration but lately I feel just as pleasant in the evening as I am in the morning because the kids have been so great. They are so funny and I love being with them and playing with them. I could just eat them up, they have been so cute and say the funniest things. They tell me they love me all the time. I seriously love my kids. I feel so deeply grateful. Jacey told me she couldnt eat her beans at dinner because they were sleeping. Tyce said he loves me out of the whole earth. We played baseball in the house today and it was very funny. I would pitch, Tyce would hit the ball and Jacey would run and get it for us. It worked great. We had family home evening and concluded with ice cream. I love listening to their little prayers before they go to bed. They are such good kids and I feel so privileged to have them.

not to forget

I wanted to write this down before I forget. I went to throw some ads away and tyce asked if he could have them so I gave them to him and he started looking through them. I asked what he was doing and he said, he has to practice being a grown up. It made me laugh.

There were two other things Tyce said today I wanted to write down before I forgot but I have already forgotten - blast.

Today was lovely. We got up and had french toast for breakfas and got ready. I took Tyce to preschool and me and Jacey went to Seagull Book where I bought a beautiful picture for my kitchen. I love love it and am excited to start collecting things to decorate my house. It will be slow going but its still kind of fun. Jacey was being so dang cute today. I just wanted to eat her up. I love spending one on one time with her when Tyce goes to preschool because she is so much fun. I cant get enough of her. I love listening to her sing in the car while we drive and love listening to her pretend and talk. She has the cutest little voice. I love that she cant say her v's. She always pronounces them as b's and tells me she will "neber neber eber eber do it again" and I think its so cute. She calls bows, bones which cracks me up. She gives the tightest squeezes around my neck and plasters my face with her little kisses. She always holds my face and says "I lub you". If I get hurt, she always looks so concerned and "oh I sowy (sorry)" and kisses whatever hurts. She is a little sassy pants but she can be so sweet at times. Anyhow, we picked up Tyce and went to my friend Katie Jane's house for lunch. She picked up Indian food for us which was to die for. It was so great to sit and chat with her. We came home and went out to shovel our driveway which is 14  miles long. People drive past and look at me like I am insane for doing it all by hand but a snow-blower did not make it on the priority list this winter. While we were gone this weekend somebody snow-blowed our drive-way for us which was so so nice. I wish we knew who did it. On Monday when I was out shoveling, some nice man on a tractor stopped and offered to scrape the drive way for me. It was so nice of him because it literally takes me 2 hours. After that, me and kids played in the snow. It was so fun. We dug snow caves and tunnels and sledded on a tiny little hill. It was so fun to frolic in the snow with them. We came in and had pancakes and bacon for dinner. It was an over-all great day with my cute kids. Just perfect :)

Aggie Basketball

Rustin got tickets to the Aggie game the other day. It was so fun to go. 

We went with a couple of our friends. Great game, great company.

a ray of sunshine...

My dearest friend in all the world stopped by this morning for a few minutes on her way home - Cali is such a ray of sunshine in my life. She walked in and looked at me and asked if I had a hang over. It made me laugh. She knew we had been up late driving home in a blizzard and snowy and icy roads. She knew I had been up late cleaning up throw up out of our car. She knew Rustin hasnt been able to sleep either because he cant breath. I love that she can relay all of that in one sentence because she has felt that kind of "hang over" before too. 

She asked if she could take a picture out my back door. This is the picture she took. She said something like, 'Look what you get to wake up to every morning?' and showed me the picture. I was so grateful she saw something so beautiful and captured it for me because I certainly didnt notice the view outside. It had been an off morning. But this picture really made me think of how grateful I am for everything I have and especially for my wonderful friend. She is one of my favorite blessings in my life. 

Last night we came home and roads were awful  It usually takes us 2 hours and 45 minutes to get home and it took over 4 hours last night. We saw so many cars slide off the road. Tyce's asthma flared up and he was coughing his head off. He kind of got into a fit of coughing til he started throwing up. It scared him which makes him even more worked up which makes him cough more and throw up more and we couldnt get him to calm down. It was so sad.  But we did finally make it home and got everything cleaned up and I am so grateful to have made it safely.

It has been kind of a wild week. I was suppose to go to Layton on Friday to join my sisters for lunch and shopping as we had planned to have a sweet 16 date for my niece Kristen who turned 16 and we wanted to take her out. But Thursday night our car died so I didnt have a vehicle. The day before that we almost died of carbon monoxide and now need to reconstruct our water heater, the garage door broke the day before that, Rustin was in a car accident (which he wasnt hurt thank goodness) and he also has bronchitis. We did go visit our families in Sanpete this weekend though which was nice. Rustin went ice fishing with his Dad and I visited with my family and Rustin's family. My parents took my siblings and their spouses out to dinner Saturday night which was really fun to get together like that.

Sorry, I feel like I am just rambling but by way of a journal entry this is the happenings. It seems like lately I have heard about so many tragedies lately. A young father dying, leaving his 3 children and wife, a 6 year old dying in a sledding accident, another man dying, leaving his wife who is pregnant with twins and they were just building a home, people having all sorts of horrible cancer's.... I have heard of lots of these kinds of things and I am just so grateful that my problems are small, just water heaters, vehicles, bronchitis, garage doors. I am so grateful for my little troubles and for all the blessings I see everyday.