Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day!  It's seriously one of my favorite holidays.  Not only do I get to express my love and appreciation to my wonderful moms, but I get to be celebrated along with them for the most rewarding, important, meaningful, and fantastic job and calling I will EVER have.  I absolutely LOVE being a Mom!  (However, I'm glad you didn't ask me the last two Tuesdays when Keira was a little terror for some reason.)  ;-)

Chris had to work at the fire department so we didn't get to celebrate, but so many other people wished me a Happy Mother's Day.  It was so nice.  Chris' friend sent me a text first thing in the morning, church and the talks at church were so wonderful, (and so was Keira!), and the moms even got roses at church.

There was one very bad part of the day.  Chris' schedule changed and I was already scheduled to work that night, and he was working too.  So for the first time ever Keira had to spend the night with someone else besides us and my sister.  Terrible timing.  :-(  She went over to our neighbors' house across the street.  They have kids that are about twelve and eight I think.  It was extremely traumatic for me.  Obviously, not for her.

But everything turned out great, she slept well, and had fun over there!  I felt sooo bad all night long.  Thank goodness she sent these pics before Keira went to sleep.  But my patients were so nice and a few that I didn't even even take care of wished me a Happy Mother's Day.

April Review

I love SPRING!  I love APRIL!!!  Here are some highlights:

I have the best brother in the entire universe.  He really is so great!  He has watched Keira a few times for us lately.  The first time he watched her, he bought this little dog for her, which she named Jason, after our black lab.  I know, very original, but she is two.  I hope she doesn't take after me.  ;-(

It doesn't always happen, but we try to get out for a picnic lunch everyday.  Notice the beautiful trees blooming in the background!  I love it!!!  Back to John, not only has he come down to my house several times to babysit, he makes me make a list of things we need done around the house.  The most wonderful thing he has done so far is build a fence for the chickens so they're not roaming our entire yard.  They still have a nice, big space, with both sun and shade, but at least they're not going to the bathroom on our patio and all over.  Thank goodness!  Picnics are much more enjoyable now!

Fun day at the zoo for my Goddaughter, Grace's 1st Birthday celebration (one of).  Notice the peacock in the background?  He was putting on quite a show for several lady peacocks.  It was funny!

Grace, Maria, Jordan, and Keira

Keira LOVED being on the carousel!  I think the last time she was on one she was barely one year old.

One of my friends from college, Brooke, had her super cute baby Julie.  She was three weeks ahead of me, and had her baby three weeks early.  Lucky!  Julie was 9 pounds, 15 ounces, so it's a good thing she was early!

After an awesome family bike ride at Bear Creek Lake Park, we went to Bandimere Speedway where John was doing motorcycle training to become a motorcycle cop.  Okay, I guess I need to brag about him one more time.  Five or six different cities in the Denver area interviewed and chose a few of their best cops to attend the training.  It was two weeks long and at the end they chose the best of them all, the Top Gun.  And guess who it was!!! JOHN!  Out of all of the men there, he did the best!  I'm soooo proud of my little brother.  Out of the three men Westminster sent, John also got hired for the motorcycle cop position.  So now he's out riding around doing traffic and loves it!  The poor guy, I embarrassed the heck out of him by showing up there to watch, but another class member I saw down at the gas station TOLD me to.  He was done and had already passed the test, but he was still embarrassed.  He reluctantly showed off some of his mad skills (not displayed unfortunately in these pictures).

Keira is sooo cute!  And this day she was especially wonderful in church so after lunch we polished her nails and toenails, complete with flower stickers.  She LOVED it!

Another wonderful family bike ride down the Bear Creek Trail!  It is sooo nice to be back on my bike, especially when the weather is as awesome as it has been!  Considering I was 35.5 weeks pregnant, I don't want to go alone (especially pulling the trailer) so I have to wait until Chris and I actually have a day off together, have time, and nice weather.  It's been so perfect because Chris has been pulling Keira in the trailer, which is quite a bit more difficult, so I can just take it easy and while he's huffing and puffing (not really) I'm barely working up a sweat.  Okay, a bit of an exaggeration.  ;-)

I know I look ridiculous, but trust me, it looks better to have a shirt that's supposed to be tight than one that's not and is.

Keira usually does super good and is sooo cute for about the first hour and fifteen minutes, and then starts getting a little bored.

A fun hiking (if you can call it that) trip at Lair O Bear.  We've decided that if we actually want to hike, or get exercise, Keira should probably be in the backpack.  She stops and looks at or picks up dirt, rocks, flowers, sticks, anything she can get her little hands on.

Trying to encourage her along.

Playing in the river at the end of the trail.

I've decided that one of the tricks to having a happy, healthy pregnancy is to exercise.  It really does make a difference.  I have more energy when I exercise, and the swelling goes down faster (my feet get swollen every week after working overnight and not getting enough sleep).  Plus, it's just WONDERFUL to be outside!

Ouray Trip

Keira and I did manage to squeeze one more quick trip in, to Ouray to visit my mom.  It was great seeing her again and was a nice, relaxed trip.  Although, I've noticed that trips really aren't as relaxed once you have kids.  You have to constantly watch them to make sure they're being good, etc. While there we went to Montrose to do a little shopping (the closest big-ish town 36 miles away).  And just kind of hung out and talked.  Keira's hightlight was going to the park.  

She loved feeding the fish.

She definitely takes after her daddy with her rock climbing skills!

Keira is a good little traveler.  She did soooo good both on the way there and back.  It's about a six hour drive now-a-days since we actually have to stop to eat and go potty.  And Keira did just great both there and back, despite not taking a nap.  We pretty much talked to each other and sang together most of the way out there.  I never imagined I'd be able to carry on conversations with my two and a half year old.  Well, to be honest, a lot of the conversation is "WHY/" this and why that!  She is very inquisitive.

My Little Helper

After all of my traveling in March, by April I was ready to get ready for the baby!  Keira came 16 days early, and as always, I had seriously procrastinated everything and was not ready for her at all.  After she arrived home I was still going through baby clothes and getting things set up.  Well not this time!

My cutie and I (and Flopsy who seems to be Keira's favorite stuffed animal) sanding the walls.

Helping me spackle.

And the most fun... helping me paint!  She was quite the painter and loved it!

The somewhat finished project.  When I first saw the paint I thought it would too dark and too purple.  But I think it turned out very well!

Yes, I do feel guilty.  I bought the new baby bedding that Keira would love, and I never even painted her room.  Oh well, hoepfully she'll catch on.  :o)

May 14th update:  I am ready to go!  I pretty much have everything I need (well not really need, want!) and everything is neatly put away.  I even have most everything out to pack our bags.  I just need to hang some  decorations up and we'll be set!  I am SO excited!!!  And so is Keira!

Easter 2012

Easter is such a wonderful holiday.  I try to make it fun but also want Keira to know the REASON we celebrate it, and I think this year she somewhat caught on.  Well, at least she somewhat memorized that Jesus died and was resurrected.

On Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt with several families from church.  It was really great, although next time I think we'll leave a little more time from when the big kids get to go after the candy so the little ones have a little more of a chance.

And our own hunt on Easter morning.

Laurie and her (now fiance) Cesar came over for Easter dinner that evening.  It was fun.

Potty Training Round 2

March 31, 2012

I chose one of the worst weekends ever for potty training, the weekend of General Conference.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it's an amazing Saturday and Sunday full of four hours each of watching broadcasts of our Prophet, apostles, and other leaders of our church speaking, leading, and guiding us.  It's absolutely wonderful!

Day 1:

0915 Wet picking up some fruit

1000 Attempted unsuccessfully

1115 Unsuccessful

1130 Wet in room

1300 Wet in living room

1445 Wet and dirty in bed

1515 Wet downstairs

1600 Wet downstairs

1602 Unsuccessful

1730 Wet outside

1800 Wet outside

1930 Dirty in dining room

As you can see, she had 10 accidents and didn't make it into the toilet once.  I was a little discouraged because of my miserable experience over six months ago, but I tried to keep a positive attitude.

Day 2:

0820 Woke up in wet Pull-ups

0840 Unsuccessful

0920 Unsuccessful

1005 Unsuccessful

1125 Unsuccessful

1140 Unsuccessful but she stayed on until....

1210 She peed in the potty!!!!!!  :o)

1245 Unsuccessful BM

1400 Unsuccessful

1700 She went in the potty!!!!

1830 She pooped in the potty!!!

1930 She peed in the potty!!!

2100 Unsuccessful

So she had four successes and NO accidents!  It was absolutely wonderful!  And it gave me the courage, dedication, and mindset to continue with the potty training!

This girl's got good tastes!  Dove chocolate was her reward initially just for trying to go potty.

The following days were not bad at all.  She would sometimes have no accidents and sometimes have one.  She would occasionally wake up dry in the morning, and sometimes wet.  But within a week, she pretty much wasn't having any accidents (excpept the very occasional.)  I think I just had to wait until she was ready.  It was sooooo much better this time!  It was almost easy.  It was around Easter, and she apparently loves Dove chocolate just like her Daddy and I, so we used that as a little reward.  The first time she went on the potty I gave her a little My Little Pony.  And then each time she even tried to go on the potty I'd give her a piece of chocolate, and I think I was giving her two if she actually went, along with tons of praise of course.  I think during the first week when she made it an entire day without having an accident I would also have a little toy or coloring book or something for her.  And I must say, it was actually quite fun.  She was so good and cute and loved all of the praise she was getting.  I think she also really enjoyed getting so much attention and she was super good and didn't throw any tantrums.  It was also kind of nice watching General Conference where we had to stay in one spot for a long time.

Update:  May 10, 2012

Keira has been doing amazing with her potty training!  She almost never has accidents and when she does it's almost always right in front of the toilet as she's pulling down her pants and getting ready to go.  She often states when she has to go "I have to go really bad!"  She's such a cutie!  She almost always wakes up dry also, which I didn't even imagine would happen so soon.  I can't remember the last time she wet the bed and in the past couple of weeks she's woken up twice and came to get me so she could go to the bathroom.  She still likes to have someone in there with her and gets excited and wants us to get excited almost everytime she goes.  It's pretty cute.  However, last week when my brother was watching her she woke up and went into the bathroom all by herself and was even wiping when he went in to see what she was doing.  So she CAN do it all by herself.  But at this point, I don't mind.  She's also not very good at wiping when she has a BM, so I definitely like to help her out.  Potty training has been so great and easy this time!  She just had to learn how to start the stream I think.