Baby Recognition Sunday

Sweet boy, you got recognized at church on Sunday, January, 16, 2011.  It was such a special day, because this was also coming off of the week of snow, so it was nice to get out as a family and enjoy it.  Sadly, I don't have any pictures because I left the camera in the car and we were running late.  A staff member did take a big group shot, so I plan to see if I can get a copy for your records.  You were given the sweetest little Bible and you jibber jabbered the whole time we were standing up front.  Dr. Higgins had a pretty moving sermon that day about Are You My Brother's Keeper.  You're far too young to understand all of it, and there's no need to publish it on here, but I will tell you, Mommy really needed to hear that sermon.  At one point I wanted to stand up and shout, "Amen!"  And I was moved to tears at one point.  Dr. Jim was so proud of all you babies that were born in 2011 and I have a mighty big feeling that all of you are going to move mountains.  Nolan, you came into this world very quickly, and just as quick as you came, you stole your Mommy and Daddy's hearts that much faster.  We're so proud of you and love you.

January 16, 2011

Potty Talk 101

 During "The Snow Storm" I took it upon myself to attempt to potty train you.  You've had panties since this summer and have sat on the potty a number of times, but that was really it.  Everyone had been telling me that once we started, you would take to it right away.  I of course, was a nervous mom who had no idea how I was going to do it, but it's not an option to have you in diapers until your 50!  Looking back, we all learned a few things throughout the whole process.

1.  You chose your reward, stickers for pee-pee, stamps for poopies.  Yes, I just said poopies.
2.  You quickly learned to stamp all over your little body. Thank God for the winter, because I'm pretty sure DFACS would have been called.
3.  Doing the potty dance all around the house is perfectly normal nowadays. 
4.  It's not uncommon to hear, "My poopy crashed!"  or  "My poopy plopped!". 
5.  Now when we're out in public restrooms, strangers will often hear you shout, "I'm so proud of you Mommy!"  When I go potty.  No shame.
6.   This whole public restroom thing was freaking me out a bit, you can't even reach the potty yourself and the germs makes my skin crawl.  I found the neatest little potty seat that fits on big seats, folds up, and fits in the diaper bag!  Score!!

Needless to say, you're rocking this potty thing!  We're now longer offering rewards and you don't even notice it.  You always tell us when you have to go and you can hold it!  Amazing.  You're not wearing panties to bed just yet, but you do when you take your naps.

I had this posted saved because I needed to post some pictures with it.  It's now been a full month that you've been wearing panties and there's no looking back on diapers!  Just this week (Feb. 14th) you started waking up during your nap to tell me that you have to go potty.  The catch, you wear a diaper for naps and bed time and still wake up to go potty.  Then, you lay back down and fall back asleep!  Amazing, baby girl!  You've learned to "hold it" because you really enjoy saying that you have to go right after we get you all buckled in to your car seat and down the road from a bathroom.  Just last weekend, you said you had to go as we were getting on to 75, and you held it all the way to Gramma's in Flowery Branch!  I think we all kind of forgot you had to go, because I would never make you wait that long, but you did it.  And you've collected quite the panty collection.  So far you have Dora, Tinker Bell, and a pack of very brightly colored Levi's.    You're growing up way too fast and we only have one more thing to take care of until you're officially a big girl and that's getting rid of the dreaded paci.

Snow Fun 2011

On a Sunday night in early January we were blessed with some amazing snow.  It was funny because I'm kind of a nut about snow.  I absolutely hate the cold, but love it if there is snow.  All the news stations were reporting that there would some accumulation and boy were they right!  Daddy and I put you two to bed and sat down to watch a movie.  At 9 p.m., I opened the front door to see snow falling and falling fast!  It was starting to dust the grass and walkway but that was it.  At 9:45 p.m. I peeked again, and man o man, there was snow everywhere!  I wanted so badly to wake you two up, but knew that wasn't the right thing to do.  I lay giddy in bed all night long dreaming about all the fun we were to have.  Monday morning rolled around, and Mack you were so surprised to see all the snow!  We were the only ones on our street out in it and we even bundled you (Nolan) up for the fun.  I normally am not a huge fan of our driveway, it slopes up, but it made for so much fun in the snow.  Daddy packed down what was on the driveway, and we took out every possible makeshift sled we could think of.  This consisted of us using a Rubbermaid lid, a baby float, baby pool, a cooler lid, and said cooler.   We discovered that the cooler, lid, and baby pool worked best.  After a few hours of playing, we were all pretty cold so we headed inside for some much needed french toast and "The Wizard".  We all took a nap and were back at it for another round of snow fun.  Daddy wound up being out of work for 2 days, which is never fun on the paycheck, however, we LOVED spending some very much needed family time doing a whole lot of nothing.  Basically, the whole northern part of the state shut down for a week because of the snow, but it didn't bother us one bit.  And during this time, you baby Mack, became potty trained!

Our humble home covered in snow.

 Daddy was having way too much fun with you.

 You and our neighbor, Hunter testing out the baby pool.

 You ate and ate and ate so much snow/ice that day.

 Now testing out the cooler.  You LOVED it.

 And the baby float...

 Crazy Stetson would catch snowballs that Daddy threw to him.  Nick was the smartest out of all of us, and hung out inside.

 Making yummy french toast with Daddy.

 We spent a lot of time playing dress up.  Here you are as Cowgirl Mack.

 Love you.

 Elefun is only fun when you wear nets on your head too!

 Paging Dr. Mackenzie, Paging Dr. Mackenzie.

 And you, Mister, learning how to prop yourself up to start crawling.