My two girls

We've had some nice weather recently and have gone on some walks. Zoey decided she can fit right along side of Jane in the stroller. Jane has been such a happy baby and we love to make her laugh and smile. Zoey is especially good at it.

Bear World

We had a GREAT day at Bear World on Sat. It was so nice to see that there is something to do in Idaho! haha. It was the opening weekend and we couldn't have asked for better weather. Plus, it is half off on weekends until May so that was great. I think we're going to get season passes since it was so much fun. This is how the day went....first you drive through "Bear World" and see lots of bears, dear, elk, a buffalo, wolves, moose, and other animals. You view them from your car and you are able to drive through as many times as you want. After that section they have their gift shop, petting zoo, baby bear cubs, and carnival rides. The petting zoo was awesome. They had peacocks, dear, roosters (zoey's favorite), a pig, chickens, goats, ducks, quails, and lots more. They were all just roaming free with a ton of kids running around. We all had fun and spent most of the time in there. Zoey would chase the roosters and chickens and mimicked the rooster every time it crowed. Afterwards Andrew took Zoey on some carnival rides which she loved. She even rode her first roller coaster :) Enjoy the pictures.

Here are the baby bears and boy are they CUTE! You could even pet them.

Zoey was one tired girl after a fun-filled day.

People can pay to go on these tours where they feed the bears. We got lucky enough to enter the park right behind one of the tours. We got some awesome bear action!

A bear tree

Bears right outside our door eating scraps.

This was the coolest. Right after the feeding tour vehicle left, this bear lingered. It was RIGHT outside our door and really BIG. I knocked on the door and it started starring at us. I thought it was pretty neat.

Zoey and Daddy having fun

Here's me and Jane looking at the huge moose. Andrew pet it and wanted me to too but I didn't.

I think Andrew had Zoey pet it...scary!

LOVE this picture. Zoey is just walking with the ducks...too cute!

A really ugly pig. So ugly Zoey would not touch it or go any closer. I don't blame her...when I got too close it got REALLY grumpy :)

Here's a really cute/short video of Zoey and the rooster. She really liked them especially when they cockadoodledood :) I hardly ever have the patience to post videos on here so this should be a treat for y'all

Camping

We went camping last Friday night and it was pretty fun. Yes there was snow, but it really wasn't freezing weather. We all kept warm and had a nice campfire and dinner.....except Andrew accidently packed diced jalapeños instead of diced chilies so our soup was a little hot yikes! Anyways, we ended up sleeping in the car with all the seats folded down. It worked out pretty well. The girls slept all night and I didn't :) My hips just really need some padding for me to sleep comfortably.

Best Friends

I absolutely love this picture. Jane is a great baby and really patient with Zoey and all the loves she gives her. Zoey is a great sister and loves to baby Jane and make her smile and laugh. I can tell they are going to be best friends. I have a feeling they have always been best friends :)

Snow in Idaho...hopefully the last time

Well, we had a random snow day about a week ago. It was actually nice for us because we went out and played in it without getting too cold. It was basically Zoey's first time playing in the snow and we built her a snowman. She LOVED it. She kept wanting to give it hugs and kept saying "I love you snowman". It was cute. Because it was so warm the snow melted my the end of the day and as the snowman melted Zoey was kind of sad. She kept telling me "snowman, boken....fickit fickit." Luckily she doesn't get to fixated on things and got over the melted snowman pretty quickly. It was cute to see her go and check on the snowman all day long out of our front window.

A great mommy moment

Today I was touched by my cute little girl Zoey. She is quite the talker as some of you know. She is also a very smart and good girl. We have been doing potty training for one week now and she's doing great. It's been at least two days since her last accident and I'm so proud of her. Many times during the training I would ask Zoey "Are you wet" and she would check and say "nope". Today she kept checking her underwear without me asking and responding "nope" to herself. It was really cute. So after a few of these cute moments I was just too proud of her so I went to get her a treat for doing such a great job. Instead of giving her just one single fruit snack I gave her the remainder of the bag (about 5). She got so excited and explained to me "adabada....two! adabada...two!" which translates to "oh my goodness mommy I can't believe I got two!" Now Zoey will say just about anything you ask her to. She says "day-doo" (thank you) occasionally without being told but this time she looks at me and says "day-doo mommy, day-doo mommy!" It was so great to hear those words. I almost started crying :) Those moments are the best. I love being a mommy :)

A job well done!

This week I gave myself a job well done :) I feel like I accomplished a few more things than I normally do during a weeks time.....I'm not saying I got like a TON of major projects done, just saying I showed some improvement. Here are the things I DID get done....

-I potty trained Zoey....that by itself is a big deal for me.

-I started Jane on a better schedule. She was doing GREAT without one, but I felt bad that she was just kind of getting whatever whenever (attention, food, playtime, bathtime, etc.). She has been starting to sleep 9 hours a night and I want it to stay that way!

-I FINALLY organized our bedroom. We moved in the end of Feb. so it's high time that got done.It felt GREAT to get that done and makes the room seem so much bigger.

-I also organized Zoey's room as much as I can right now.

-I washed the bathrugs.....this may seem easy but I've been putting it off for like two years haha. I would just resort to running the vacuum over them but now that they are washed they seem brand new.

That's all the big stuff. Unfortunately while I was doing all of this, the kitchen got somewhat neglected :( I have been so good at keeping up on the dishes and just keeping the kitchen tidy. The one thing I can't stand is a dirty kitchen, it makes me feel like my house is filthy, so it was hard having it untidy this week. Hopefully now that those rooms are organized I can keep up with the whole house (small apartment that is :) If anyone has any good tips on keeping a clean home let me know! I need some good organizing strategies. For example, what's your process for organizing your kids clothes/storing ones that are too small?

I could use the help :)

Potty Training so far...

Well, so far so good....I finally feel like I don't have to always worry about accidents (knock on wood). We started on Friday and had one accident on the bathroom floor that day. Saturday was good but I think there were two accidents (all followed by a distressed Zoey notifying me of them). Saturday I also went out and bought potty training underwear (the thick kind that absorbs more). Those have been great. She's had a couple accidents since, but luckily only a little bit of pee. She catches herself and holds the rest for the potty luckily. At night and when we go out I put a diaper on her. I was worried about this because I've been told to stick strictly to the house when potty training otherwise you'll delay the process. However, Saturday she went with me to the store, Sunday we went to church, yesterday we went out to dinner at a restaurant, and today to the store again. Every time we've come home to a completely dry diaper....yes! At the restaurant last night she even went potty twice while we were there, both times telling me. I've been using lots of reminders which have helped but I'm feeling like she has finally established bladder control and doesn't need my reminders as much. I've also noticed that at night she stays much more dry, sometimes completely dry. So.....I feel BLESSED to have such a good potty trainer. She basically trained herself. For months now she has been telling me she wants to go potty or is going potty. I would take her a few times but was scared to actually "start" training because of all the horror stories and I just felt too lazy :( honestly. But, now that I've started there's no going back and it's been much better than I thought. What a great little girl we have. Let's hope Jane's the same way :)

If anyone's wondering how I starting training well....I didn't do much so I really don't have much advise to offer but here's what I did do.

-For a few weeks now we've been explaining to Zoey that we go potty in the toilet and take her if she lets us know.

-I put underwear on her and explained that she could not go potty in her underwear. Not quite sure if she understood everything I was saying but I hope so :)

-I gave her a treat every time she had a successful "potty"

-I gave lots of reminders, every ten minutes or so the first couple days. Now, I only give one if I feel it's been awhile. She is mostly doing it on her own now.

-Lots of praise of course

-We had a potty chart until Zoey took all the stickers off, but she liked it while it lasted.

That's about it. I think once they have actually demonstrated that they are capable of going in the toilet/potty reminders are the most important thing. Eventually they associate going potty with the toilet and walah...you're on your way :)

Another tip one of my teachers at BYU told me....She had everyone in the family getting treats if the child went potty not just the child. She said this was a much bigger deal for them because little children are so eager to please. We did do this with Zoey and I could tell she liked it. When we went to get her treats she would immediately say "mommy, teeet, daddy, teet" She almost didn't even care about her treat. So, I think that helps too and my teacher said that was the key to training all of her kids. So, there's my bit on potty training. I'm so glad we are almost there but I have a feeling I'm not quite done yet :)

Vote for Jane!

Please go vote for Jane for Baby Idol. She's a cutie :) She's #680 but don't try and view the photo in their gallery or you will have to click through all 680 to get to her pic. Just click "vote now" and follow the prompts. The picture I entered is the one above. Thanks so much! I think the winner gets a free years supply of diapers plus a dream nursery and some other things. I would LOVE that :)

http://www.971zht.com/pages/babyidol10/

Today was a Great Day

Today was a great day for a few different reasons.

#1: I had a great/intense workout

#2: We started potty training today and Zoey did GREAT! Only one accident and luckily it was on the bathroom floor. I hope I can keep it up.

#3: Jane was so happy and just super cute.

#4: We had a delicious lunch; a creamy sun dried tomato pasta with cajun chicken

#5: I set up play stations for both girls in the front room and they played happily for over an hour.

#6: Andrew finished his semester at BYU-I and now has a week and a half break! I think I'm more excited than he is.

#7: We went to Artic Circle and let Zoey play in the play area and she had so much fun.

Here are a couple pictures to document our happy day.

During play time Zoey was playing with dolls...feeding them/putting them to sleep. Occasionally she would join Jane and pretend Jane was one of her baby dolls...trying to feed her, etc. The picture above is of Jane hanging out with Zoey's babydolls that she placed there. I thought it was cute that Zoey was trying to play with her little sister eventhough she doesn't do much yet.

The playstations

Can she get any cuter! I just wanna squeeze those cheekies!

We love our Nancy Jane

lots of easter pictures

Me and the girls on Easter. I really needed some make-up oh well.

Easter outfits

Cute little Nancy Jane

I love when they curl up like this

Look mom chocolate!

Carefully peeling off the wrapper

Zoey with cousins Austin and Luke. If/when I have boys I HOPE they look like this. They are the cutest little boys.

Zoey and Austin, they look like brother and sister :)

Showing me her loot

This basket is heavy!

Wait a minute, how did all my eggs fall out?

My pretty baby

On the hunt

The line of cousins ready to pounce. Before Papa organized them into a line, there was a huge mob by the door. Someone accidentally opened the door and they started shoving their way to get out. I had to scramble to get Zoey before she got trampled. I now understand mob mentality. whew, good thing papa stepped in.

These girls love to take care of Zoey.

We woke up to a good couple inches of snow easter morning. This is what was left after it melted. Luckily is was pretty nice by the time the egg hunt came around.

Jane and Daddy on the piano. I have a picture of Zoey and Andrew the same way around the same age. I'll have to post them together sometime.

More of Zoey's fan club. She loves her cousins.

Zoey and Jane. Zoey's stuffing her mouth with cookies that were in her easter basket.

Beautiful Bella in her Easter outfit

I love these gorgeous eyes!

I love how Jane is starring at Zoey admiringly :)

Zoey loved all of her "teets"

Cutest little girl ever!

Zoey is helping Jane open her basket. Jane got a cute little bear toy and a baby photo album

Some of the pretty easter eggs we colored

I'm sure Zoey is about to say "messy". She hates being messy. and look at her adorable cousin Austin! I love his eyes.

Dying easter eggs

more cousins dying eggs

Playing soccer. Zoey looks so little!

A yummy treat from the Maceys easter hunt

A group of cousins with the easter bunny

Savannah, Katie, and Hailey. Cute girls!