My Birthday

Last week we celebrated my birthday. Alan made it so special; I felt like I got three birthdays three days in a row! I spent part of my actual b-day with my parents, who stayed for our pizza dinner that night (yay for no cooking!) Then the next day Alan and I ate at Tucanos (if you are not a member of their birthday club, then you should be!), and Alan gave me a few gifts that I had asked for for our kitchen. Then the NEXT day Alan made me a delicious breakfast of butterscotch overnight rolls, and then we celebrated with my side of the family. Sometimes it is so wonderful to get exactly what you asked for for your birthday! My siblings and Alan gave me an under-the-cabinet CD player for our kitchen (which I have used EVERY SINGLE DAY since we put it together--thanks, everyone!), and my parents gave me a new bedspread for our bed that I had picked out previously. Our old bedspread (which we have had our whole marriage) was literally falling apart, as the stitching had come completely undone.

Our old bedspread. I loved this one, but it really needed to be replaced. I have a fond memory of this bedspread: when Alan and I had only been married a week and a half, we bought our brand new bed and planned to assemble it together. However, Alan surprised me by assembling it all by himself and putting on our new sheets and bedspread while I was at my college classes. I will never forget my delight at this wonderful surprise.

My new bedspread, with new sheets underneath! So exciting!

Thank you to all my friends and family members who sent me good birthday wishes! It was fun to get emails and phone calls and even cards in the mail from some unexpected people!

Maggie and her Grandpas

I think the grandmas are going to start getting jealous, because I seem to post a lot of grandpa pictures, but these two were so adorable that I just had to share!





"There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Night-time potty training

When I started potty training Jared about 5 months ago, I was advised by several friends to ditch the diapers entirely during naptime (which I have done) and also during nighttime (which I have not). Jared rarely takes naps anymore, but when he does, I have found that if I let him wake up on his own then he will wet the bed. However, if I wake him up first, then we can make it to the potty in time.

I recently talked with two different friends that have 3-year-old boys who are potty trained at night. One friend says her boy just gets up by himself to go if he needs to; the other friend wakes up her boy once around 11:00 pm to go so that he can make it through the rest of the night.

So, a few days ago I decided to try underwear at night with Jared. I limit his drinks after dinner, make him go right before bed, and then wake him up around 11:00 to go again. We put a night light in his bathroom and talked about how he needs to get up first thing in the morning when he wakes up. We have now had four unsuccessful nights. He sleeps right through it, and wet pj's don't seem to bother him. I'm sick of doing laundry. I'm wondering whether I should stick with it for a while longer or if I should just go back to diapers. I've been reading online that boys often take longer to potty train at night, but I really don't want to have one of those boys that wears Pull-Ups at night until he's 7 or 8. Any advice?

Summer

We recently welcomed a new niece into our family! Isn't she beautiful? (Thanks to my SIL for letting me "borrow" the picture!)

Adorable Videos

Lately Jared has been enjoying reading stories to Margaret. Here is a video of Jared reading "Wee Willie Winkie" to her. I love his cute little inflections in his cute little voice!



Here is a video of Maggie's Grandma Stout getting some belly laughs out of her. This was one of her first times laughing! I love it!

Maggie's Baby Blessing

My friend Sherrie made the blocks that say "baby M," and Alan gave me the Willow Tree figure for Mother's Day

A couple of weeks ago we had Maggie's baby blessing at our Sacrament Meeting. It was so neat to have our families attend for this special occasion.

The cute Maggie in her blessing dress

This gorgeous dress was crocheted by my friend Jennie. She was the one who taught me to crochet several years ago.

These booties were crocheted by my mom's grandma. My mom wore them on her blessing day, I wore them on my blessing day, Jared wore them on his blessing day, and now Maggie wore them on her blessing day!

Here is a picture of ME on my blessing day with my oldest brother Mike! Notice the booties...

Maggie wasn't cooperating for pictures at this point...

Family picture. Nice face, Buddy.

I LOVE my kids!!

A pick-me-up

I don't usually watch videos that people post on their blogs because I feel like I don't have time, but this one is well worth watching! Thanks, Mom, for sending this.

P.S. I'm pretty sure Alan's cousin Esther is on this movie, about a minute and45 seconds into it. Is that you, Esther?