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.

29.....26? whatever age?

It was Kevin's Birthday on Monday, and like every year it is right next to General Conference, which makes it hard to celebrate, but I think he is probably used to it by now. I think that Annalise was more excited that it was Kevin's Birthday than he was, and every morning that he leaves for school now she says that it is daddies birthday.

Well,despite Kevin's load of school work and General Conference, we did fit it in a dinner out. Kevin found a Mexican grocery store/restaurant that actually had some great food.

We haven't had good Mexican food in a long time, like..... since we were in Mexico, so we were looking forward to it. Philly just has nothing to offer when it comes to Mexican food, so I am glad we were able to find something here in Columbus.

Annalise is pretty good at remembering how old daddy is now, but when I ask her how old mommy is she says 26, so I just go with it. If she wants to take a couple of years off of my age I am just fine with it. For Kevin's "cake" we made a peanut butter cheesecake. He loves cheesecake, so I thought I would try something he would like, and it turned out very delicious, and very rich. Here is a video of us singing to him, I thought the candles were pretty cool because I put them in the shape of a 29 and you can kind of see it in the video.........Happy Birthday Kev, enjoy this year because.......next year is the big 30.

The eating machine

Yes I have an eating machine, and her name is Annalise. Ever since she started eating solid foods it seems like all she does is eat, but today she ate more than I have ever seen her eat before.

This morning for breakfast she ate three bowls of cereal (and I am not talking small bowls)

Then for lunch she had a slice of apple bread, a hot dog, two pieces of ham, a piece of turkey and some string cheese.....oh and blueberries, and of course her "agua".

Then a couple of hours later she was begging for a snack so Kevin made her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich which she gobbled down and asked for another, which she also scarfed and asked for more. Then she finished off the blueberries and enjoyed some juice.

An hour later Kev and I sat down for dinner, at which point she asked for "some"......"I Some" she said. So she had some pasta and more juice.......and a chocolate chip cookie!

I don't know what has come over her, but she better be going through a growth spurt, or else she has some sort of bottomless pit that we have not discovered.

Happy Birthday Anna!!

Today my little girl turned two, and she couldn't have been more excited that it was her birthday. We sang Happy Birthday at least three times this morning, by request of Annalise, and this was before we even got to church. Needless to say, she loves birthdays. But it turns out that I also love birthdays, so I made here a princess cake, (that we are actually saving for tomorrow), it turned out pretty cute.

Annalise has been talking about a birthday cake for weeks now, so I hope she is not dissapointed tomorrow when she eats it, since all it really is.....is cake.

Well enough about cake.

Annalise has grown up so fast over the last couple of years, and her independence never ceases to amaze me!

Here she is......

2 Weeks old~

6 Months~

1 Year~

18 Months~

2 Years~

Happy Birthday Annalise!

Our new house!!

So I have been meaning to put up pictures of our new place, but every time I think about I also think.....well I will wait until I am all the way unpacked, or the house is really clean. But we all know that won't happen any time soon. So here are some pictures of our new place for those of you who have been asking, sorry they are not very good pictures, but they are pictures. And there is also a little video tour if you have nothing else better to do!Enjoy!

Front Room:

Kitchen:

Back Patio:

Basement:

Here is the video. It is a little long, and Annalise is screaming in the background,.....welcome to my life!

No seven year itch....

As of yesterday Kevin and I have been married for seven years, and it has gone so fast!

(I tried to find a wedding picture but I couldn't find one....and some of you know the story behind that, so I had to settle for this pic)

We met almost 11 years ago and spent a few years as friends and the last seven as husband and wife, and I wouldn't change a thing! Annalise came a long two years ago to make our family more complete and I can't wait for more kids to fill our home with excitement (as long as they are not born as independent two year olds.)

Since we just recently moved we didn't have much time to celebrate, but we were able to spend the evening in German Village, a cute little area on the south side of columbus, where we looked through a maze of books and ate some delicious cheesecake. It is nice to just spend time with one another while Kevin has free time until school starts. Yay for anniversaries!