Potty Trained? Wilderness Trained.

Athena potty trained early in life. It was wonderful. However, she still has accidents. She was doing fabulous for a while! Then she stopped caring. She decided she cared more about playing than stopping to use the restroom. So we went back to a potty chart with a prize if she does well. She still for some reason wets her underwear. She just doesn't like to take time out to use the restroom.

To make matters worse...we taught her to potty outdoors while hiking. At first she hated that! But once she learned she won't stop. I mean..she goes outside to play and will take off her pants to pee in the yard or at the playground.

Lately she has been getting undressed outside for different reason. Maybe she doesnt like the feel of her wet swimsuit when she is playing in the pool.
I thought it would get better now that the pool is put away for the year. She will stop undressing outdoors now.
Nope. Yesterday she undressed and pooped in the yard. She stepped in it then came inside the house to show me. Great...now I can't allow her to play outside unsupervised any more. And she had just recently learned to stay at the house so I could let her play without my watchful eye for little bits at a time. She use to run away to play with friends or look for dogs.
But no...I have to stay outside and watch her ...still!

Ty Turns 6

Tiberias turned 6 on Friday.  

 Ty was in anticipation all week. We did a lot of fun things before his birthday actually arrived. Here are pics of us enjoying Storybook Island...

On Friday we had a family fun filled day. 

Sterling was at work in the morning so we started without him.

We used the ice cream decorations I had made for Enrichment night that week. Decorated the kitchen for fun.

We had a sheet tent up in our living room that the kids had spent the night underneath the night prior. We left it up for playing in all day Friday too.

It turned out to be a very rainy birthday! It rained hard all morning. For lunch we went to Mcdonald's to play. It rained the whole time we were there. But we had a great time playing and eating.

I was not planning on making a birthday cake. I thought we would simply get ice cream while at Mcondalds. However, a day or two before his birthday we went to Sam's Club and Ty looked at the cakes for fun. He saw one he fell in love with. I tell you...it was one ugly cake! It looked like a five year old had decorated it. But he said "I wish I could have that cake for my birthday!" It was $20. So I said "Alright, I will make that cake for your birthday." And I did. A smaller version of it...since we didn't need a whole big cake.

 We already had an Angry Bird candle so we threw that on top. The candle has a bite out of the side. You can't see it well in these photos but Athena thought it looked yummy one day.

 We waited until daddy was home with us to eat the birthday cake and sing the birthday song.

After cake we went to the mall where Tiberias did Jump 4 Joy (trampoline). Luke did it for his birthday and so Ty did it for his own birthday. We played in the play area a little bit too. 

We went home and made homemade pizza. We watched the cartoon Atlantis. The kids have never seen it before (because we have too many movies for them to see them all). They didn't want to watch it, a "new to them" movie, but they loved it...especially the birthday boy. 

 Today before church photos...

Tutu, Power Rangers and Outdoor Fun

I made Athena a tutu skirt for church.

 Playing Power Rangers with the kids

 Storybook Island

 Sheridan Lake

 The downtown park

Baptism Trip

Friday Ster had to go to work but he was told he would be relieved early so he could hit the road. We were all so very excited to start our road trip to Grandpa and Grandma's house.
I took the kids that morning to a store and when we came home again they didn't want to get out of the car. Tiberias said "I will wait here until we go to Grandma's house." lol

But we still had to clean the house (just a little messy because I had done most of the cleaning the day previous). My plan was to go bike riding to get some exercise and get the kids' energy out before a 10 hour drive. Then we would pack up the food and load the truck and Ster would come home around 12:30 to help. Eat lunch at home then hit the road. But Ster was relieved a few hours early and we were just starting our bike ride when he left work and texted me the update. So we took only a short bike ride. We found a yard sale in our neighborhood and ended up buying M&M plastic displays (jukebox dancing and American motorcycle).
Then we went home and tried to get things done quickly so we could hit the road early. We skipped lunch at home and picked up Wendy's on the way out. We were on the road about noon, I think.

We had a good road trip. The kids did very well. We saw a wildfire as soon as we entered Wyoming. It was neat to see and we were passing it as people were getting ready to probably block off the highway and use the highway as a block to stop the fire from spreading to the other side.


We arrived in Provo before midnight. The kids didn't fall asleep until like 11pm in the car. Then went straight to bed after saying hellos to Hannah and Grandma.

Athena remembered the house even though she was just waking up. She was happy to see Grandma but ready for bed and she pointed the way to where she knows she will be sleeping.

This morning was nice and relaxing. The kids were so excited to play and rest at Grandma's house.
We did make the kids go with us and Hannah and Grandma to the Distribution Center to buy Luke's baptism birthday present. He picked out his own set of scriptures (in brown) and inscribed his name on them. He even picked out a carrying case. The Distribution Center use to be the cheapest priced place to purchase church materials and nice scriptures etc. But the prices have gone up! We spent $75 on Luke for the scriptures and carrier.

(Preying Mantis at the neighborhood park)

The kids had pizza on the brain so their daddy was extra kind and picked up a cheap Little Ceasar's $5 pizza while he was out...for their lunch.

As the day went on we were able to hang out with Trevor and Simone, baby Chloe, Maria and Matt, Nicole then Aubrianne and Travis with baby Maddi. So fun!
We went to the park on the next street for dinner. The Free Masons were having a family dinner for all their members and their families.

I was happily surprised to run into my cousin Felicia and her husband Cody Webb there. They beat us to the event. I keep forgetting that Cody is a Mason and so Matt and Maria and friends with Fe and Cody.

We were able to chat and catch up. A lot of fun!

We had a barbecue dinner. The kids played. I played yard games with the Roundy family. The party included candy raining from the sky! They shot it out of a canon for the kids.

Then we all (Roundys) came to Denise's house to hang out.

My kids' new bed time is 9pm. An hour later than previously. I am hoping this will help them sleep in by the time the Roundy reunion starts so my kids won't be waking their cousins early morning hours.

9 Years of Marital Bliss

Yesterday was mine and Sterling's 9th wedding anniversary. Since he is home mornings this week we went on a morning date. I scheduled for all of our three children to play at friends' houses that morning and afternoon.

We started our date at Flags and Wheels. We played a round of laser tag...just us two. I had played the game only once before and it was just as fun this time with only the two of us as it was the first time with a whole group of my female friends.

I annihilated my husband that round. I did have an advantage...knowing the course. Whereas he hadn't been there before so he didn't know how big the room was, where the walls and deadends were at.

We moved on to something I have never done before...go cart racing. Ster did it once before...in Turkey. He was on a TDY (Military work trip) with a friend (Todd Mangle) at that time. It's been a few years.

I may not have driven very fast compared to Sterling but I had a blast. It was amazing fun!

From there we went downtown to our favorite place to eat...Tally's Silver Spoon. They are a small breakfast and lunch place. Amazing food!
We had a delicious lunch together. I had expected him to ask the question(s) I had come so use to hearing on our big dates..."Is there anything I have done that has bothered you?" or "Is there any thing you would like me to do better at?"
We would make sure there was no tension or bad feelings. Fix things and make them right.

I guess we've gotten past that because there hasn't been much I could complain about the last year or so.

We got so full at our delicious lunch that we had no room for dessert. So we walked around a little bit downtown looking at the shops and statues. Enjoying the beautiful day.
We walked into an adorable little candy shop where everything was way too high priced but it was very cute.

We decided to pick up our kids a little early (an hour early) which is typical when we go out on dates.
Ster had to work that afternoon and evening but we would have Culver's ice cream that night.
Ster ended up getting off work early enough that he bought an ice cream for the kids to share as well...to help us celebrate.

We are so happy together. We love our life! We love our marriage. We love our family. We love our home.