The Spirit of Christ

As the holiday season is quickly coming upon us I am becoming more frantic getting my house cleaned, presents purchase, and bags packed. I have created a long to-do list that I have emailed to myself, so I can be ready to fly out on Wednesday and enjoy my time with my family friends. I have been preparing for traveling and social time with my family,however, this year I have been trying to refocus my Christmas on Christ.

As many of you have experienced before, being a poor student around Christmas time can be a struggle. Even though I generally make homemade gifts, they still cost money and this is something we don't have this year.So I have been thinking long and hard about the gifts for family and friends. I haven't come to a conclusion for all of my gifts this year, but as I was pondering why I am going to all of this trouble I couldn't help think of why I am celebrating Christmas.

For those of you who know my family, we have had one tradition that has held out strong over the years.......Christmas caroling. Yes, if you know the Stott Family you know we like to sing, and I looked forward to it every year growing up. It may not be much, a couple of traditional Christmas songs,........ and probably "Santa Your'e Too Fat"  (a family favorite), with a warm ball of caramel corn;  But it was a good reminder to me to take the time to focus on Christ, and take the time to love others as He has done for us.

So this Christmas season I hope we can all remember why we celebrate Christmas, and bring the Spirit of Christ into our homes.

This video inspired me to remember what Christmas is all about......enjoy!:

It's a ........

Still going to be a surprise. However we had our ultrasound yesterday and it was so good to see my baby. I really wanted to bring Annalise to the ultrasound so she could see "baby Oscar",  I know she would have loved it, but the hospital is not allowing any children under the age of 16 to visit because of flu season. I was sad, but it was Annalise's nap time anyway, so it worked out just fine. I am to lazy to decide which pictures to show you, so I just made a video describing all the pictures.  I hope you can see them okay!



We had the ultrasound tech write down the sex of the baby and put it in an envelope for us, so we will open it on Christmas and let you all know!!

The adventures of potty training part II

So I thought it would be a good idea to give an update on our potty training adventure. First off, thank you all for your suggestions (and sympathy.) I tried the sticker chart, which worked well for about three days, but then Annalise decided that she didn't like me telling her when to go potty.......she is way too independent to have any one telling her what to do. So at that point I had enough of our two heads butting together and decided to take a little break. I put her back in diapers for two weeks, and in the meantime got her a little princess potty throne, and some children's books about the potty from the library.

We borrowed "Everybody Poops", and "A Potty For Me" which Annalise loved. I ran out of diapers last week and decided there is no time like now! So we tried our "big kid underwear" again, and apparently it worked. The first day she had two accidents, a few days later she had one accident on Thanksgiving (but it was kind of hectic and she didn't know where to find me before it was too late.) Now she is sleeping and running around diaper free.
It is funny the little things you get excited about, but the second day she came to me and told me that she needed to pee, it was the happiest moment of my day. Now she is a pro.....and I don't have to buy diapers anymore (well at least for another 4 months or so.)

Speaking of more diapers, my ultrasound is coming up on the 10th! And.....I finally convinced Kevin to let me find out if we are having another little girl, or a whole new world of boy. The deal is, we are going to ask the tech to write down the sex for us, and we are going to put it in an envelope and open it on Christmas. What a great Christmas present!! (So hopefully we can tell if it is a boy or girl in the ultrasound.) It is amazing how fast the first half of pregnancy has gone, but that is easy to say now that I am out of my first trimester and feeling human again.

Well, while I am rambling on I might as well tell you how close Kevin is to the end of his first quarter of school at OSU. All he has left are finals, and then I get my husband back on Wednesday......Yay! Then he is heading to Nicaragua next Saturday to party (well work) for a week with some of his peers from school.

Sorry for no pictures, but we are getting a new camera soon and then I can finally fit my camera in my purse! TTFN

Annalise and her new friends

I know I have been really bad about posting lately......but I am so stinkin tired I am just glad Annalise is alive by the end of each day. (I also posted about Halloween below if you would like to see it.)

I have really been enjoying my days at home with Annalise. She is so darn cute now that she talks so much, and shares her opinion every second of the day. She has also made some good friends with our neighbors here, and she especially talks about her friend Seth all day long.

I have been meaning to write down all the cute things she say's all the time, but I still haven't gotten around to it. I especially love when she says words backwards, (which she does often.)

For example-

Mommy: How are you today Anna?
Annalise: I am doog, not bad.

Mommy: What song do you want to sing?
Annalise: I Am a Dog (I Am a Child of God)

Mommy: What are  you doing Annalise?
Annalise: I am upisdown.

I love watching her learn.....and she teaches ME new things everyday. She also enjoys sitting with daddy on Saturdays to watch football, and she now is becoming more of a Buckeye fan than a Hokie fan (don't tell daddy.)

Here is Annalise singing, which she loves to do all the time now:

A ladybugs Halloween.....finally

Halloween was nearly a month ago and I am finally getting around to posting pictures. Sorry for all of those people who have been sitting on the edge of their chairs waiting for the latest Lawrence Fam update.

Here in Columbus they do trick-or-treating a little different. There is a beggars night for all the the different neighborhoods instead of going on Halloween. Ours was the Thursday before Halloween, which worked out great since our ward trunk or treat was on Halloween. (I don't have very many pictures because our good camera (with a flash) no longer works.)

That night for trick-or-treating we just went around our complex and knocked on doors with some of our neighbors, which was perfect......just enough time for Annalise to get enough treats, and just in time for Kevin to get back for the Virginia Tech game.

We also had some fun carving our pumpkin that week and making cookies.

I don't have any pictures of Kev and I, but for our ward party Kevin wore his Phillies shirt and I wore a shirt that said Future Phillies Fan, with a little arrow pointing to my tummy. Not quite everyone knew I was pregnant yet, so it was fun. Unfortunately that did not bring enough luck to the Phillies this year to clench the series,.......but there is always next year!

The adventures of potty training

For about a month now Annalise has been potty training, and who knew it  takes so long to get a child to want to pee in a toilet?

She was very excited when we first started, she got some new princess underwear with Ariel on it, and all the other lovely princess'. She was trying really hard to do well, and she even started telling me when she needed to go.

And then it all went downhill...

• She stopped telling me when/if she needed to go
• When I ask her to go she says "no" most of the time, and I have to beg her to go, and usually by the time I get her to come to the bathroom she pees in her pants
• She seems to stay drier when she has her pull ups on vs. underwear
• After she does go potty there is no way she wants to put her clothes back on.....because she loves "nakey time" (as she calls it)

The best was when we went to the pumpkin patch and she was sitting on my shoulders and, yes.....she peed all over me (my hair, jacket, shirt, and anything else that gravity could handle.) So needless to say potty training has been an adventure. We started off by giving her a single treat every time she went successfully in the potty. We slowly phased the treats out, but apparently I did it too quickly. I don't know. So today I have started a sticker chart, and I think she is taking to it quite well, but only time will tell.

Oscar....

Yes it is true, Annalise is going to be a big sister!! We are all very excited, .......and I am very exhausted. Today I had my 12 week appointment, and all is going well. I had an early ultrasound 4 weeks ago, and after measuring the baby the doctor took over two weeks off of my due date, so as of now we are due May 5 .......a Cinco De Mayo baby.

Here is my baby bump:

Annalise enjoyed going to the appointment today and she wanted to do a video of herself, so I asked her some questions about today, she says the baby is a boy......but only time will tell, and in fact we haven't decided if we are going to find out or not. We shall see.

Annalise also named the baby oscar, which I think is so funny, she also likes to read and sing to the baby. I think this is going to be a long six months for Annalise as she waits for her sibling to come.