Christmas parade

 I discovered online last night that Billings has a Christmas kickoff parade every year in downtown Billings, so we scarfed down our homemade deep dish pizza not really sure if we'd get a parking spot and headed to the parade!  We got a great spot at the YMCA parking lot and started following the crowds to the parade!  They were serving hot chocolate which we drank while we waited.  It was 59 in Billings all day so the weather was quite pleasant at the parade, too.  The kids loved it and got lots of candy.

potty training Janelle

This could be viewed as a very insignificant post to some, but to a mom whose now potty trained 3 kids, it has to be documented. lol  Really though, when I was in the first week of potty training Janelle and not having much luck, I was desperately searching for old blog posts about potty training with the other kids looking for helpful hints or just some glimmer of hope because it was not going great.

When Kandace was 20 mos she went pee on the potty and I thought for sure potty training would be a cinch with her, but I learned the hard way that just because they'll GO, doesn't mean they're ready to be potty trained.  At least that was our experience with Kandace.  She was just too young, and it took 4 months of torture until she was 100%.  I was too stubborn to put her in a pullup and definitely didn't want to put her back in a diaper because I wasn't giving up.

Well we started potty training Janelle about a month ago.  I was driving home from zoo montana to get my bountiful basket and realized we were totally out of diapers, and we'd just been to COSTCO the day before. Ugh.  So I thought "why not just potty train her now?!"  She is 29 months and had been showing lots of interest for a couple months but I was not ready to go down the potty training road again.  No way.  So I decided she was old enough did it the way I've done it with all 3, using the doll/underwear/drink that they suggest in "Pottwise" which is written by the same pediatricians who wrote "babywise."  It was all really last minute and kind of frantic since all 3 kids were home and it wasn't planned.  Michael was super helpful and Janelle was really interested, especially after the doll peed in the toilet (we put water with yellow food coloring in the potty for dramatic effect) lol.  But the book says to put a HUGE emphasis on teaching your child to not just go pee/poo but to stay dry.  You're supposed to reward them for just staying dry, which means you ask them periodically if they're dry and them reward them if they are.  Its exhausting, so I sort of did the "modified" version of the recommended procedure.  I always get my hopes up too and think they'll be getting it that same day, which the books suggests a lot of kids do if you do it right.  So of course when she peed 5 pairs of underwear that day I felt like a failure and in the next couple days we decided to go back to diapers and wait a few more months.  Well she actually started going pee and poo more often and is having less and less accidents.  It has definitely been a gradual process.  Thanksgiving day she didn't have any accidents and stayed in her "honeys" (undies) all day, even on the car ride home.  I'm knocking on wood that things continue this way and counting my blessings that its going so well, because after doing this 3 times my only advice is to stay calm, be consistent and expect lots of accidents.

Thanksgiving

My picture taking was less than par this year so I stole the bottom one from Jill's blog and the top one was taken right before we took off after a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Michael's parents' house.  Jan is a wonderful cook and we always feel so welcome and at home.  We left Billings Wednesday afternoon, got to Asays about 5, had a birthday dinner and dessert for Stan, stayed the night there, had Thanksgiving dinner with Asays and then went to say hi to my fam in the afternoon before we headed back to Billings so Michael could keep studying for some big tests coming up next week.  He gets done on Tue and I'm pumped.  We have a long list of house projects that I know I would love to do (can't speak for Michael) but we have at least a couple we want to do in December since he has that month off of school. I have so much to be thankful for.  We talked about Thanksgiving at FHE last Monday and it was one of the first times this month I really contemplated all that I'm thankful for.  Thanksgiving is awesome because it makes us reflect on everything Heavenly Father has blessed us with.  We talked about how its so easy to always want more and think we don't have everything we need/deserve but really and truly, I know I have been so blessed.  I am most grateful for my husband who is a worthy priesthood holder who honors his family and his faith and works so hard for us.  I am so proud to be his wife.  He is working so hard at school and is determined to be successful and has been so far.  I am thankful for 3 beautiful, healthy children.  They teach us so much about being patient and depending on Heavenly Father.

whats happenin

 Last week Stetson's school had a "family fun night" at the reef. Part of the proceeds go to the PTA to help raise money for new playground equipment.  The bottom pic is Janelle and Carly.  Carly's is a 6th grader at Stetson's school and her dad is our bishop and she babysits for us sometimes.  She has 3 older sisters and they are the greatest.  I also visit teach her mom.  After swimming at the reef, me Shannon went to see the Hunger games movie at 11:30pm.  I know, I'm such a party animal.  It was such a good movie, I wish I'd read the 2nd book so I could have understood better what was going on, but still such a good movie (and I wish we'd gone to the 8pm showing)

I've been scraping popcorn ceiling off of Janelle's room.  Its not as bad as I thought but still a lot of work.  I got a blister on my hand from scraping.  Janelle's room is done now onto the master bedroom and hallway.  I would love to re-texture and paint all these rooms once we get the popcorn scraped off.  Projects are fun.  And stressful.  I hope I don't get cancer from asbestos.

Stetson cracks me up.  He was busy writing away the other night and then gave me this card that says the following: Hey mom it alredy bin Janery Febery March Apir May June July Agest Sectember October.  Now it is November so it is close to crismise and thanksgiving. Happy Holadays!!!!!!!!!!!  At the bottom he included a pic of the family, you can tell which kid is which because they have the first letter of their name on their shirt.  I'm looking quite large as well.  Hmmm...Stetson says we're in a parade and thats why it says "POP" above Michael (the balloon went pop).  He thinks Christmas is spelled crimise.  Have to work on his spelling I guess.  On the back he put a pic of some pilgrims and Indians having dinner together.  You can tell the Indian (hopefully male Indian) is topless because Stetson made a huge bellybutton.  He is such a jokester and so fun.  His teacher recently sent me an email telling me how much she enjoys having him in class and that he's such a good kid.  I think so too.
Michael and I got to go to the temple finally tonight.  We hadn't been for about a month with temple cleanings.  When we got home I found about an inch long piece of Kandace's hair in the garbage can upstairs.  Not cool.  I think that wraps up this post. :)

haircut

 I met this great girl at bootcamp, Andrea who cuts hair and today we decided to take Kandace in.  I love how it turned out.  She seems so grown up.

Halloween 2013

 This year Stetson discovered the wonderful world of smurfs when I checked out a smurf DVD from the library a while back.  Michael might not ever forgive me. ha.  Stetson has since been reading smurf books and talking lots about smurfs until I decided to use getting smurf books/dvds as an incentive for his good behavior chart.  He has earned all his stickers and can now get more smurf books and dvds from the library and the fun will begin again.  So a couple months ago I ordered Stetson a smurf costume on ebay.  It was a little snug but he still thought he was pretty awesome. Kandace.  Oh Kandace.  We love her.  She wanted to be a different thing every day and was actually a pretty ballerina for her preschool party and we almost convinced her to be a pirate princess for halloween and wear the same pirate costume Stetson wore but she decided on Cinderella.  Janelle has been under the weather all week but she sure perked up for the candy.  She was our spider and was adorable.  I was a doctor or something like that.  We had a ward trunk or treat at 5:30 and after that Michael took the kids to a couple places at our complex and then to a few houses over by the elementary.  Janelle and I stayed home and got ready for bed.

 You can kinda see the spider web in the back that I made out of garbage bags courtesy of pinterest.  They were way cute to hang up in our house and thought it'd be cool to hang up in the van but the tape didn't stick

 Thats a big nose

 Stetson & Kandace loved handing out candy to the trunk or treaters.  Janelle loved eating the candy.

nursery rhymes

Yesterday Stetson had a 1st grade production where each 1st grader got to choose and recite a nursery rhyme.  Stetson did diddle diddle dumpling and wore his PJs.  He did AWESOME and I got a video of the first part and then it quit recording. :( The 2nd pic is Stetson with his good friend Landon who we carpool with.

first snow

Our beautiful fall weather quickly turned to winter wonderland..like always.  It actually wasn't too bad today though.  The snow has mostly melted and maybe it will last.  I love the seasons so much but every time it snows and I have to haul my kids all through town with all their snow gear in tow, I wonder why I'm not on northern Cal. :(