Happy Birthday Pop Pop

Pop Pop's (my dad) birthday was last week.  He and Grandma were able to come celebrate at our house    last weekend.  We spent afternoon just hanging out and the kids of course enjoyed playing and showing off all of their toys. 

We took the kids out the night before to pick out party supplies for the birthday.  It was no surprise that they picked out Mickey and Minnie decorations.  

balloons were the biggest hit...and a week later, they still are. 

preparing the mexican fiesta...guess you're getting a little house tour too.  It's pretty rough and undecorated still.  Give us time ;)

Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies.  One of Pop Pop's favorites. 

a super exciting blow!

after dinner, Mike and I cleaned up and the grandparents did the bath/bed routine.  i hardly have take pics of these routines anymore.  It was nice to get some of Grandma's pics. Look here to see how much they've grown in the past year!

nite nite book time....it's also nice to have some bedtime routine pics.  thanks grandma!

exercising

the kids are supposed to be doing what Daddy does.  Nora is always a bit "confused" during this portion

giving love

look how happy this little boy is!

We had a great time.  Thanks for sharing your birthday with us, Pop Pop!

Little Successes

Here's a pic of our first Potty Chart completed.  They get a sticker everytime they go *in the potty* when they get to end they get a cupcake.  After a few weeks of this we'll move on to getting stickers when they tell us they need to go...not just because they went. But that's for later...for now they're doing pretty good and they were VERY excited about the cupcake.  We're actually working on our 3rd chart now...and they KNOW the cupcake is coming and tell us about it each time they get a sticker.  My Sweet Tooths!

Twins Room in Progress

It's probably no surprise we decided to do the kids room in a North Shore/Hawaii theme.  It's really coming out quite nicely and we're much farther along than these pics even suggest, but i'll give you a little sneak peak and then a final look when we're done--which shouldn't be long now.  Just gotta get some pictures printed out and waiting on some fabric to come in the mail so we can make a bench and a "hair pretty" display.  

The painting process... i wasn't too conservative when picking out this color...obviously.  The kids stayed with my dad and stepmom one night so we could get it done without them around and having to breathe the fumes in their sleep.  When they got back the next day I wondered if they would even notice, but much to my surprise Holden announced "It's GREEN!!!!" and then continued to announce it for the next few weeks.  I'd call that a success. 

a little bedding...Gotta love Target and TJ Maxx

Daddy found this awesome picture his last month in Hawaii and shipped it to us.  The kids really like turtles...and tell us about this one in their room daily. 

after paining...but before Ikea. 

and oh yeah...we graduated to big kid beds.  Nora took in stride (but then she is a bit more accepting of change and she can be quite the rule follower), Holden is testing his boundaries from time to time, but with some consistent discipline (and a gate at the bedroom door...just in case) it's going well. I'd like to get to a point where we can trust them to get up and play in the morning...but a few different incidents including wipes, baby powder, tylenol (hence the gate) and up playing at 5 am has told me we aren't quite ready for that step, so until then, they are expected to stay in their beds until Mommy or Daddy comes to get them--and 90% of the time, they are doing just that.  Not too bad, i'd say. 

check back in a few weeks for the final pics :)

Potty Time

Last week marked our first week of "for real potty training".  We definitely could have done this sooner, but just as you need to wait for kids to be ready, parents gotta be ready too.  EVERYONE has to be on board for this ride...i mean really-it's a full-time job, haha.  

This is the kids on Tuesday morning.  We put them in their undies, showed them Elmo's Potty Time and got started.  

1 hour later....

 (sorry Nora if you are 16, reading this and mortified....but.....it happened :)

Nora said she had to go potty, i said okay, wasn't really paying attention (obviously) and then noticed the smell of poop--to which i immediately turned around to celebrate the monumentous occasion of  "first poop in potty".  instead i found this....a trail of poop on the floor.  

and really that's how it's been for days.  a blur of both accidents and potty successes.  neither really tell us they have to "go" so we take potty breaks every 15-30 mins.  Yep that's right.  15 MINUTES.  Our Norabird's bladder is comparable to a small dog's apparently.  She also pees twice as many times a day as Holden.  a girl thing?  Anyway, it's obvious we have a long road ahead of us, but at least we're moving in the right direction.  I would REALLY like to have them out of diapers by the time #3 comes along.  

Here's a few happy shots, but don't be fooled--there have been some tears as well--especially when Potty Time interfere's with outside fun or watching Mickey Mouse!

Potty Time while watching Tv. 

Happy Day Daddy!

I tried to teach Holden to say Happy Father's Day, but it usually just ended up Happy Day!  with an occasionally "daddy" on the end.  i actually love it.  He walked around all day saying "Happy Day".  How could anyone not have a good day hearing that???

This weekend was Daddy's weekend.  He requested to just spend time together doing things around the  house.  That we can do!  Saturday the kids played on the porch (better than i think i've ever seen the two of them play), i sat in the chair, taking pictures and laughing, and Daddy put our porch together.   

 just fyi: Holden is not in timeout...he's being silly and hiding from the camera

 daddy gets in on the love

 The kids and Mike also planted some vegetables and herbs in pots.  Although we would really like to have a garden, with everything going on this month and still trying to get settled, it just wasn't possible to get it done in time, so we we settled for a few of our favorites in pots on the porch with a promise to do more next year ;)

 Then on Sunday we did our usual church/nap routine and then went to a new Bible Study group that night, but we also took a little time to celebrate Daddy--both with a yummy steak/ribs lunch at Texas Roadhouse and with some cards and gifts later in the day. 

 taking presents to Daddy

notice Holden had the "heavier haul" 

 finally making it to the door

  

 silly time with daddy