My baby's all grown up and savin' China!

Kade has been potty training for 2 weeks and is doing so well! He has only had a couple accidents and really loves being a big boy. We have done a lot of "motivating" a.k.a. bribery to get him excited about the process. His favorite reward is riding the trains at the mall and Freestone Park. It has been so fun to reward him for his success.

The big boy bed is set up and he is loving that as well. I can't believe how fast I went from having two babies to two toddlers! I love it! Each new stage is exciting with new things to teach to them and watch them grow. There really is nothing better than being a mom. It brings me so much joy.

Ellie May is just the funniest little girl and makes me laugh daily. Her personality is so different from Kade's but they compliment each other nicely. I never thought I wanted to have a girl, but now I can't imagine life without her. She makes me very happy.

We have been counting down the days to when the Utah cousins come visit us! We are so excited! I marked it on the calendar and Kade loves to count how many days until they come. It will be such a fun week with them here!

Halloween is next Monday and it will be a lot of fun this year. The kids are old enough to be excited about it and we are doing a family party with all the cousins at Katie's house and trick-or-treating together! Ellie is going to be a ballerina and Kade will be whatever Stacie has at her house that her boys are not using this year :) She has 5 boys, thus a lot of costumes from over the years. She's nice enough to let me borrow one each year! Camille is going to be a "chic geek." We both came up with the idea. She was struggling to find a modest costume this year and happened to be browsing the Claire's website. She found some glasses that looked cute but geeky at the same time and we decided to complete the outfit with colorful socks, suspenders, and a tie. The outfit is actually really cute, even though it is the makings of a "geek." That's how we came up with the name "chic geek." She's really excited about it and I'm glad she found a modest costume that she feels good about.

Yay cousins! Get here soon!

Big Boy!

Kade is successfully in a big boy bed....well, a mattress on the floor anyway until the big boy bed is assembled! Yay! He's really getting into being a "big boy" and all that goes along with that. We started talking about how big boys don't wear diapers, they go potty on the toilet. He has avoided the toilet like the plague in the past but now is all about sitting on it because he's a big boy. Oh yeah! Hopefully he'll be out of diapers soon!


Ellie absolutely loves shoes and getting her hair done. What a cute little girl! She will bring her shoes to me and say "on" or bring me the comb and say "hair!" It's adorable. She says "dah" for yes and just shakes her head for no. It's pretty cute when I am listing things to eat and I get to something she wants she'll enthusiastically say "Dah!"


The kids both love going for walks and to the park now that it is getting cooler. We'll go for runs in the jogging stroller and point out everything we see. The latest that I taught them today is about red and green lights at the intersections. Red means stop and green means go. Kade waits for it to turn green then says "GO mommy!"


Kade loves everything trains and so we got him a train table that has tracks you can build yourself and about 10 trains. He basically drives the trains around and around the tracks all day. He loves it so much. Ellie plays with him, too but hasn't quite figured out how to keep them on the tracks. She is into climbing on everything now and is really starting the phase of wanting what she wants when she wants it. I have had to practice a lot of patience and bribery to get her into her high chair and car seat :)


Camille is loving cheerleading and I have been able to see her do her half time shows a couple of times. She is a flyer and really enjoys all the stunts they do in cheer. She just started softball for young women and plays first base. Her leaders said they can't believe she's never played before! She is just a natural at any sport she tries :) So far, 7th grade is good!