Zach & Ben come to the farm

We got to play with Zach & Ben last weekend! They got to ride with Michael in the big truck when he was hauling silage to and from the silage pit, pick apples from the apple tree, help Jacob pick tomatoes from the garden, beat me in Sorry and ask lots of questions!! (its good preparation for when Stetson gets to that age). I think everyone had a good time. :)
I love how Stetson is just like totally oblivious to the camera in this picture

Ben (keepin it cool) & Zach

enjoying the scenery

I think that in the journey of life, too often we get too absorbed in the destination and forget to take a break and enjoy the "scenery" if you will. I've been looking back at old posts and realized for one, that Stetson has made huge strides with potty training, (even though he's not 100% there) and I'm grateful for it! Secondly, I will be the first to admit that being a stay at home mom hasn't always been easy for me, but this last week I have been truly grateful that Michael supports us enough that I can stay home. I watch other moms who work full-time, come home and try to squeeze everything in and it looks so hard!!! I'm grateful for this pace of life I have. Today and yesterday I was so lucky to be able to do some canning/freezing with Michael's 93 year old Grandma, Mildred. She is awesome. She never slows down, she's sharp as a pin and still offers so much to her family. I really enjoyed being out and spending time with her and learning new things--things I couldn't do if I was working outside the home. And just because, I want to share this awesome quote I found on my friend Jamie's blog (thanks Jamie).

Life isn't always easy. At some point in our journey we may feel much as the pioneers did as they crossed Iowa--up to our knees in mud, forced to bury some of our dreams along the way. We all face rocky ridges, with the wind in our face and winter coming on too soon. Sometimes it seems as though there is no end to the dust that stings our eyes and clouds our vision. Sharp edges of despair and discouragement just out of the terrian to slow our passage...

Occassionally we reach the top of one summit in life, as the pioneers did, only to see more mountain peaks ahead, higher and more challenging than the one we jave just traversed. Tapping unseen reservoirs of faith and endurance, we, as did our forebears inch ever forward toward that day when our voices can join with those of all pioneers who have endured in faith, singing "All is well! All is well!"

Crazy coupon lady

(Don't worry dad, one of the V8 splash is for you)

Well I definitely haven't earned the "crazy coupon lady" title, but I am getting better and wanted to document this because I think it will be fun to look back and see how things change over time--prices, brand labels, etc. The retail value of all this is $118.47 and I paid $64.27. I am definitely still an amatuer coupon shopper, but I'm getting better! Thanks Rachel for teaching me the ropes. Remember that shopping game show where they have to get all these specific items, and there's like bonus prizes on the back of some, and they're racing against other people to get the most stuff?? Maybe it was called Shop 'til you drop? I feel like I'm on that show. Its sort of fun, but the most fun is when you're checking out, your items have been scanned and the checker lady scans all your coupons and your total amount just keeps getting lower and lower and lower with every beep....love it!

My potty wise book suggests that if your child isn't pooping on the potty yet that you take them to the toy store, let them pick out a toy, let them hold it, then put it back on the shelf and explain that once they go poop on the potty 3 days in a row, they can go back to the store and get the toy. Well Stetson didn't go with me, but at Wal-mart today I bought him a pack of fun Dora books that play music and all that jazz, and I showed it to him when I got home and he wants it SOOOOO bad, so I told him after he goes poop on the potty 3 days in a row he can have it. I showed him on the calendar what 3 days looks like (still not sure if he gets that part) and he immediately went and sat on the potty. He didn't go, but he has a great incentive to. I'm just so anxious to be done with this. He is 100% pee trained (during the day at least) and I just thought the poop part would follow immediately after he figured out the pee but not so much.

Thanks for the pics, dad

I know you were hoping for more poems, but here's some aweseome pics instead. My dad took most of these with his business camera. I LOVE them and it makes me want to save up for a nice one some day. The pic of my dad rocking Kandace is precious. He loves rocking babies to sleep so much he called me the next day just to thank me for letting him rock her because he loved it! We had a porch swing at her old house in Santa Rosa and he said he spent countless hours rocking all of us to sleep out there. Its important to stop and smell the roses sometimes. :-)

I LOVE these boys so much!

its your lucky day

because i'm going to give you a little sneak peak on my poetry skills...don't laugh...its called:


Once upon a time a little boy pooped his pants…

Not once, not twice but thrice, my friends
So she wiped and wiped, ‘til all the wipes were gone
And went along singing a happy song
‘til only minutes later, another surprise came along…
So to the tub she went, keeping her cool all the while…
She was no stranger to poop, just ask her friend Lyle (I don’t know a Lyle, it’s the only word that fit)
When suddenly, what floated up??
Code brown again? Could it be true?I read all the books, I tried every trick,
Is it ever ever going to finally click?
Haven’t I paid my dues, done my time??
Will I be done with this while still in my prime??

a little late

Kandace turned 7 mos on the 10th, and I haven't posted about it yet. She truly is our little angel. Some fun things about Kandace at 7 mos:

*She is really getting around!! Not crawling, just twisting and turning enough to get in the direction she wants to go in.

*She sleeps from 8:30 pm 'til around 7 am. She hasn't gotten up in the middle of the night since she was 2 mos.

*She's down to 2 naps now--one in the morning from 9 'til about 11 and one in the afternoon from about 1 'til 3ish.

*She LOVES her brother and is easily entertained by him.

*She's sort of shy. When a stranger smiles/talks to her, she ducks her head and leans into mom until she feels more comfortable.

*She's our little angel and we love her!

In other new... I had Stetson all dressed up cute so I could do some pics of him but of course my camera died. :( There is much to post about Stetson too--that will be in our next post. He's got the whole "peeing" thing down, the poop is another story. I think we're going to work on some huge reward system as soon as we can get to a store with TOYS!

homemade apple juice and labor day picnic

On Saturday we made homemade apple juice!! This is actually the 2nd time we did it, but this time I got to watch more closely what was going on since last time I was in with the babies. Stan & Jan have an apple juice maker that Stan's parents bought in the '70s when they had a really good year for apples. Its awesome!! Its really fascinating to watch how it all works and of coures its delicious. Today (Labor day) we went to sheep mtn and had a little bbq with the Asay's. There's some cool rock formations up there and I've always been curious what was "lurking" behind the fields. :) Stetson is progressing with the potty training!! His success began when he peed outside on the grass, and that's still his place of choice when he pees. He's starting to tell us before he has to go, which is also very exciting. He's struggling with the poop thing but we're further along than I expected. I hope it continues to go well. Michael has been a big help with the whole thing and takes him out whenever Stetson needs to go.

Step class

Come to my step class!! Here's some info:

September 8th (Tuesday)
7:30-8:30 PM
Lovell High School
It will either be in the raquet ball courts upstairs or in the lobby
You can sign up that night

If I actually ironed...

This is how I would be doing it today. I am giving potty training my ALL today and tomorrow at least and its sucking the life out of me. My friend sent me a book called Potty Wise. Its written by the same authors as Baby Wise. Their method was derived in the '70's by 2 psycholgists trying to teach bowel elimination to handicapped adults, and its been carried over into modern methods and its supposed to be really successful, except of course with me. :) We're (Stetson and I) supposed to stick some undies on a teddy bear, give it a sip of water, check to see if he's dry (which he will be obviously), reward him if he is, play with him a minute, then have him sit on the potty. They have dolls that actually pee in the potty, but ours doesn't so at this point I sneak a couple ounces of water in the potty when Steston's not looking, make a "ssssss" sound, take the teddy off the potty and then we excitedly congratulate the teddy for going and give him a prize...after a few minutes I do the same with Stetson. I'm supposed to repeat this whole process multiple times every day. Yeah, I know.

Stetson LOVES role playing with teddy, he thinks its great fun. His fave part is running to the potty to dump teddy's "pee" in the toilet then flushing it. The only thing is, Stetson isn't going in the potty...yet. He'll sit there a long time, but as soon as I get him off, he goes. It's making me crazy!! I know its only the first day, but the book made it sound like they'll catch on really fast, and Stetson isn't so far. I didn't think it would be so exhausting, but it is. Doing the whole role play with teddy with a fake smile on my face, taking the soiled undies off Stetson, wiping the pooh off his bum (over and over again)...its a little frustrating. I think potty training is the true test of a mother's patience. I'm trying really hard, though!