She's a big girl now

This post is about a month late, but hey that is usually how my life goes right now so here we go. When the girls and I got back from St. George we decided that it was time to get rid of the paci for Shelby (finally! we tried when we first moved her, but we all know that would just have been evil since I was in the hospital for so long), put her in a twin size bed instead of a toddler bed (since she was to long for it), and the dreaded Potty training. Well let me just start off by saying that she is a CHAMP, because all of these things went so smooth that even I was surprised at how well she did.

With the paci's I had gotten an idea from a $1.00 kids book to "mail" the paci's to babies that need them. So that is what we did! We put all of her paci's in a huge manela envelope and wrote a letter to the babies saying that she hoped they would like them and that she was big now so she didn't need them anymore. In return the babies would send her a jump house when they knew that she was a big girl and could sleep in her big bed without paci's. This worked like a charm since she has ALWAYS wanted a jump house and we had to wait for it to be shipped anyway. It was pretty hilarious because if she was crying in bed we would just tell her that the babies wouldn't send the jump house until they knew she could sleep good. This would always shut her up no matter how worked up she was. Needless to say she is happy to have a jump house and could care less that she doesn't have any paci's anymore.

Her big girl bed was no problem at all, she loves to climb up in it and she loves having sheets with covers that she calls "her tent". Almost every night when we check on her she is completly under the covers because she likes her tent so much.

As for the potty training this was soooo much easier than I thought it was going to be. My sister Jamie sent me a method called 3 day potty training and it totally worked for Shelby. She had about 20 accidents on the first day and only 1 on the second day and none on the third. She still wets the bed about 1 time a week, but it usually is my fault because we ate dinner too late so she drank too much before bed. She loves to pick out which panties she is going to wear for the day and it is so cute to see her little bum in a swimsuit without a huge soggy diaper. I don't really have any pics of her with her panties so you will just have to know that she is potty trained and now has no more diapers. It is crazy to me how fast she is growing up, but I just love being her mom and seeing all of her changes and how proud of herself that she is. GOOD JOB SHELBY! We sure love our Big Girl!

My favorite Moments!

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the best moments in life are the unscriped and undocumented ones? About 2 weeks ago we potty trained Shelby (details to come later) and so we were stuck at home for the weekend. We had so much fun just being our little family and being home alone. I was cleaning up the house and saw this precious moment and thought to myself "this is what it is all about, this is what makes every trial, hard time, frustration, and bad day worth living." These are my favorite moments! I think sometimes I get so caught up in life that I forget to make sure that I am living. I am so grateful for such a wonderful husband and such sweet little girls, I really am blessed.

lots of traveling

Last month was a little crazy at our house because we were constatly leaving town. We first went to Idaho Falls for a weekend to spend some time with Jon's family. We had some great meals and a fun time at the Zoo (I forgot my camera, I'll have to get pics from my Father-in-law). We got to see all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and Grandpa Wirkus. This was the only pic that I was able to take. which by the way was difficult to get everyone or anyone for that matter to look at me!Jon's parents were SO nice to watch our girls on Friday night so we could have an anniversary date; we ate at Cafe Rio' and then saw the movie "Ghosts of Girlfriends past" (really cute). I also got to spend some time with Heidi as we bought our New York tickets and figured out our shows, which have changed a little from my previous post. All in all it was so much fun and the girls did great in the car minus the blow out, spilled formula, throw up, and scratched up hands at the rest area where we were trying to fix all the previously mentioned items.

The next weekend we went to Salt Lake for a wedding of a great family friends. We stopped to see some of our very best dental school buddies Brooke and Darren and it was so much fun letting the kids play and catching up on things, even though we talk all the time it was nice to see them in person. Rylee, Libby, Logan, and Shelby outside of Mimi's cafe in Salt Lake area.

This trip went even smoother and we were able to meet my parents there and stay at the same hotel which was so fun. After the wedding the girls and I hitched a ride to St. George to spend 11 days with the family and cousins. Poor Jon got very lonely and bored, but at least it was quiet...right? We had so much fun swimming every day, going to "what women want" this is a huge convention that has tons of booths set up with things that women would want (purses, bows, hats, shoes, jewlery, photography, books, diet things, etc) SO FUN!!! Shopping and crafting.

Shelby was so excited because she got to have her 1st sleepover with her cousin Kallie (Jamie's little girl) and they had a blast doing girly things. Jamie and I had a blast to because we NEVER get to just talk without interruptions anymore! Then a couple nights later we got to do it again but Matt's wife Haley and their little girl Macey got to come too so Libby had a little cousin. We crafted until who knows what time and the next day we paid for it, but I loved every second of it. p.s. thanks for teaching me how to do the watch bands "for real" this time and all the other things too. Here are some pics of all the cousin time. We also had some movie nights so Shelby and her cousins could eat popcorn and watch movies. Unfortunatley I forgot my camera both times we were with Jamie's family so they got kinda let out of the pics. SAD!!!

Cru, Shelby, and Treyson hanging out at Grandma's house the first night that we were there. They were all so excited to see each other!

Cru and Shelby eat root beer popsicles. These two are 6 days apart and are the best of friends when they see each other. ADORABLE!

Treyson, Shelby, and Cru for movie night. they are cheesin' it up for me obviouisly.

Grandpa and Shelby watching cartoons together. Since Grandpa actually had to kinda raise Shelby alone for a couple weeks these two have a very special bond with each other.

Koda and Treyson doing something that Grandma didn't want them too. climbing down the hill between the two houses.

Grandma and Shelby eating on the front porch after swimming. These two are so fun to watch.

Aunt Haley and Macey after swimming!

Macey is stoked to have her picture taken... Right?

Treyson being a big helper when the wind blew our napkins out the gate!

Here is Macey's back, Aunt Jamie, Kallie, Uncle Matt, Treyson, Kaden, and Shelby. Sorry it's the best we could do.

Me and Shelby (libby is almost always in bed when the camera comes out so in my defense she was there just sleepy.)

Cruey Louie

Kole, Treyson, Macey, Libby, Kaden, Shelby, Cru, and Kallie the only one missing is Koda because he was in Vegas with his daddy. I didn't think Jamie would like Kallie's face so I posted two pics with everyone looking cute in at least one of them.

The grandkids again!

Kole 1, Libby 9 months, and Macey 1

Shelby got really confortable in the water! this is her waiting to be taken to the shower.

While I was there one of my life long friends Paige Warthen came up to visit me! It was so nice to visit with her and we remembered at 1 am to take a pic so here we are tired, but proof we saw each other.

I braved the airplane with both girls by myself from Vegas which actaully went pretty smooth because they gave my mom security clearance to help me on the plane. Without her help I think I would have had a nervous breakdown since they make you take your kids out of strollers, carseats, etc and make you take their shoes off, fold the strollers up and put them on the belt, as well as the car seats and anything else you have (NIGHTMARE!) but with my mom it wasn't all that bad. My girls were angels on the plane, Libby slept and Shelby talked to anyone who would talk to her and got lots of treats from the flight attendants.

This was a much needed vacation, but I have to say it is good to be home!! We all missed daddy a ton.