Santa's little helper

We started a new Christmas tradition in our house. Santa sent Jack a little helper elf to help keep an eye on him. Jack has named him Elf. Very original considering he is The Elf on The Shelf. The one rule is Jack isn’t allowed to touch him, or Elf will lose his magic. Every night he flies back to Santa to report on Jack’s behavior, and he’s in a new spot in the morning. Santa dropped him off at our house last night. Elf took his rightful place on the shelf. We read the story, and Jack was in amazement. He was a little nervous and just kept staring at him. When Jack woke up this morning he found Elf had taken a new spot high in the room where he can keep his eye on everything.

First Day of Preschool

Jack had his first day of preschool today. He was so excited to go. Yesterday I had to go to the school building to pay for the week, and he had a fit that he couldn’t go to preschool that day. We had an interesting morning. He woke up very argumentative. I think he woke up on the wrong side of the bed. No matter what I said up was down, and the sky was green. We managed to get ready, and I even finagled a couple of pictures out of him. Not great pictures, but we captured the moment.



I was really nervous for him, and I know that is just silly. I was just worried about how he would do, and if he might have an accident while he was there. Not only was it his first day, but today was library day and they ride a bus over to the library for story time. We got there and I just watched the other moms following along. They have to wash their hands when they first get there, and while he was standing in the line he turned around with a worried look on his face and asked, “Are you going to leave?” Uh, oh. Then he saw one of the teachers he knows from the program, and he latched onto her. I explained about it being his first day, and that he’d probably stick by her side. By the time he was drying his hands off he was giving me a kiss, and running off for circle time with no problems. What a relief that was. I am glad he doesn’t have separation anxiety.


I picked him up later that afternoon, and I did a little happy dance in my head when I saw he was in the same clothes I had dropped him off in. He was all smiles, and bouncing off the walls. I quizzed him when he got home about his day. He told me the letter of the day was letter K and what sound it makes. He told me he went to the lifrary (library) where there were lots of books. So adorable. So far day one was great. I can’t believe my little boy is old enough for preschool.

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Later that night I let Jack decorate a Christmas tree for his room. He’s the third generation to be doing this tradition. I’ve had a hard time finding a little tree that would be just right, but I spotted one at Target today. He even got a new Hallmark Thomas ornament to put on it. He loved decorating it, and kept telling everyone Merry Christmas all night. I got a few more pictures out of him, but only with the promise of a piece of Aunt Terri’s fudge.




He likes to put the same colors together


He looks pretty silly in this picture. It is a really bad picture too with flash and everything. When I look at it I can't help but laugh. I was trying to get him to look at the camera and smile. This is where the fudge bribe came in. How I ended up with a kid that hates the camera and having his picture taken I will never know.

PT and DWTS

More potty training talk, I know you are just dying to know.

This potty training stuff is for the birds. Needless to say we aren’t having much success over here. None actually. We are doing the sticker chart and the toys and the clapping and the dancing. This is getting exhausting I tell you. It isn’t making much of a difference. He’s in underwear from the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed. He has nothing but accidents if you don’t make him go use the potty. We gave it a few days of trying to let him do things on his own. Today we are trying the let him be naked, and take him to the bathroom every thirty minutes. He doesn’t seem to be able to distinct from underwear or a pull up so maybe wearing nothing will work. Pretty much we are all frustrated and over it. We talk to him and talk him, and he looks at us with a blank stare. We’ll keep chugging along, but we may have to give up and try again later.

On the down side we had the preschool orientation, and I would love for him to start. It seems like a great program. They have a really nice room, and different centers for them to learn in. They go to the library once a week, and even go on field trips. I think he would love it. They didn’t ask me if he was potty trained, and I didn’t mention anything. He could have started this week going Tuesdays and Thursdays, but they have holiday break next week so she gave us the option of starting after break. Of course I chose after break because it gave us two more weeks to try to get the potty training down.

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I am so happy with the dancing with the stars results from last night. Monday night I voted as much as I could for Kelly because I knew she was most likely to go. I couldn’t stand Joanna and Derek. I thought their dances were too nasty for what is supposed to be family programming. Derek seemed to be getting a little too full of himself. I know Kelly isn’t as good of a dancer, and in the end she doesn’t really deserve to win. This season has been pretty boring all in all. I have heard that for the first time ever their ratings are down. I hope they pick more exciting people for next season.

It's Potty Time!

We are working on potty training for Jack. We got a call from the preschool he has been on the waiting list for, and they have an open spot. We have orientation for it tomorrow. It will be Tuesdays and Thursdays I think three hours a week. The problem is Jack has to be potty trained to go there, and he really isn’t completely trained. He will go to the bathroom every time you take him, but he won’t tell you when he has to go. We have tried everything pull ups, underwear, letting him sit in his mess, letting it go so he can take the lead, and so many more things. Now, that we hope for him to start preschool we’ve really been hitting it hard. I still really don’t have hopes that he will do it in time for preschool, but we will see. Either way he’s turning three in a few weeks, and the sooner we get moving on being trained the better.


After getting some advice from friends we are using a sticker chart, and taking Jack to the bathroom as often as possible. Jack loves stickers, and I thought this might be some motivation for him rather than the few pieces of candy he was getting before. It was crazy when I typed in potty charts the first one to come up was a chart with a train and tracks on it with little places to put star stickers. I had just bought star stickers at Wal-Mart earlier in the day so it was perfect. I printed it out and taped it on the wall in the kitchen. We are also asking him if he has to go a few times an hour since he’s still not willing to tell us. When he fills up his chart he gets to pick a toy from the treasure chest that Zach built for him at work. We have a new dollar store close by so we just grabbed some cheap trinkets for him to choose from. So far he has loved putting the stickers on his chart, and he got his first toy today. We had three accidents yesterday, but none so far today. If we can just get him to tell us when he has to go we may be golden.

Jack had his three year check up today. He weighs 30 lbs and is 25% for weight, and he was 37 ½ inches. The doctor said he’s really healthy. The doctor had several glowing compliments on his behavior and his ability to follow direction. He said he seems very mature for his age, and thinks it will just get better if he’s able to start preschool. That had me beaming of course. We talked about the potty training. I told him how he’s never minded being in soiled things even in his diapers as a baby, and he agreed that usually makes things harder. He said his middle child was the same way, and it really just took a few weeks of buckling down and making it happen. He said from what he saw Jack seems very ready, and while he was saying this Jack stood there nodding his head in agreement. Cracked us up. Jack knew he had to get a shot today, and he was very matter of fact about it. He sat there and told us he had to get poke and then a Band-Aid. He cried of course, but the sucker made things all better.





Filled out his chart, and he picked a monster truck for his toy.

Marine Corps Ball 2009

We had the Marine Corps Ball last night, and we had a really great time. All the money and preparation that goes into it was a little stressful, but in the end it was a great night. Of course my little digital camera had to die the night before so I didn’t have a camera to take with me to the ceremony. I bought a little disposable camera, and I felt pretty old school whipping that thing out. I still have to finish the roll before I get them developed.


The ball was at a casino about 45 minutes north of here. Zach and I got ready early, and took a few pictures with Jackson. Jack was asking me if I was a princess. He’s not used to seeing mommy so dressed up. We got our pictures done when we got there to get it out of the way. We grabbed some drinks from the bar, and waited for the ceremony to start. The other people at our table were very nice. Zach said he made sure we were at that table because we were less likely to sit with people that would end up drunk and making a scene. That was good because nothing like a drunk Marine making a scene. We were served salad, dinner, and dessert. We were served both steak and chicken, and Zach and I couldn’t believe how good it was. After dinner was dancing, and I was determined not to leave without dancing. Despite Zach’s worrying about his lack of dancing skills we managed to cut a rug to several songs. We got some very pretty tall etched beer glasses. We managed to nab two more of them before we left. People were snatching center pieces left and right. We got a few of the flags that were on our table. We both agreed it was a great time, but we are glad it is over until next year.

Halloween 2009

November is NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month for the rest of you. You are supposed to blog everyday for the month of November. I had a bit of a set back at the beginning of the month with my computer being down, but I hope to blog the rest of the month, and maybe even catch up on the days I missed. What better way to help me catch up on my posting.


I think my catch up posts are going to be pretty random and not in any particular order. We had a wonderful Halloween this year. Jack wanted to be a pumpkin, but I couldn’t find any pumpkin costumes. The only one I could find online was sold out everywhere. I tried to give him a few other choices, but he really couldn’t settle on anything. In the end we picked up a cute pirate costume at party city. It seemed to be a big hit. He got several compliments on how cute he looked in it. Zach and I were hoping to dress up to, but time just got away from us and we never got costumes. I don’t know about you, but the month of October flew by so fast for us. We carved our pumpkins the night before Halloween. Jack refused to touch any of the guts. A far cry from the pumpkin gut fight we ended up having last year. We went trick-or-treating at the mall early in the evening, and he soon got the hang of running up to people for the candy. He was busy running ahead of us through our neighborhoods. He loved getting the candy, and seeing all the different costumes. We only had a few houses in the area that were a bit too scary for him to walk up to the door. He trekked through the neighborhood for such a long time before finally pooping out, and he had to be carried home by Dad. We had a great time. He is such a little candy monster though. He wanted candy every minute for a solid week after that. He woke up asking for it for breakfast. We had to stash the candy and bring out the healthy stuff to put a stop to it. We can’t wait for next year!

2007 Charlie Brown 11 months old



2008 Tigger 23 months old


2009 Pirate

I'm Baaack!

I guess it is time to come out of my hiding place. Except it wasn’t really hiding, but more like a really long vacation. The truth is I just haven’t been able to find the time to get any posts written or pictures posted. It became one of those things that the more time I took away from it the easier it was to put it on the back burner. Now, where to begin? So much has happened. I’m hoping to catch up with some pictures and maybe some snippets of stories that have gone on around here. I can’t promise anything though because I am currently taking 1,511 pictures off of my memory card. That is how many pictures I have taken since I haven’t really been blogging, and that isn’t even with me picking up the camera everyday like I should be. It is hard to find a place to start. Right now I am thinking about my baby turning 3 in less than three weeks. It is hard to imagine he’s going to be three. He’s turning into such a little man. He is so smart and funny. I’ll be dedicating a post just to Jack and what he’s been up to soon. I was hoping to include a few pictures, but the uploading is pretty slow. I am going to head to bed, and hope they are all uploaded by the morning.


I do ask you to please pray for the Owens family. This is a blog that Zach and I have been following. The Owens just lost their three year old little boy to mitochondrial disease. The past few days the pictures and posts have been heart wrenching to read. This is something neither Zach nor I could imagine having to go through, and it has truly touched our hearts. Pray that this family will be able to find strength and peace.