Baby, its cold outside

What are you doing today? We got hit with an ice storm and school was cancelled and we're stuck indoors. We decided to get out the train track. What did you do?

Where I've been...

Okay, so the month of January has literally flown by! We had so much going on during the holidays I just needed to get back into a routine and I did, it just didn't include regularly blogging. So what have I been up to? This!

Now let me explain what "this" is. It's a potty party parade, of course. I'm tired of having 2 dirty bums to change (I've been doing it for over 14 months) and Sam is nearly 3 so I thought I'd give it a go. I was so hopeful, but the progress is slow.

He will use a training potty and go successfully, that is when I remember to put him on it at regular intervals. (And then as a reward we proceed to throw a potty party, complete with hats and blowers and parade around the house--thus the photo after his first successful potty incident) When I put him in big boy underpants he'll wet right through them and then tell me immediately he needs to be changed, we blow through the 5 pairs I have (along with clothing constitutes a load of laundry) and then we're on to disposable pull-ups until the next day when the laundry has been completed.

This has been my life for the last 3 weeks or so....oh yeah, that and keeping Lindsey away from the training potty. She LOVES it! Loves taking the removable receptical and carrying it around the house, loves sitting on it herself or seeing which of her stuffed animals fit perfectly into the receptical. Before most of you get completely grossed out, know that I do clean and lysol the thing after every use so we're not getting germs everywhere. So we've since moved the training potty into the actual bathroom (it had to be in the kitchen the first 3-4 days) and keep the door closed.

On talking to my other experienced moms, this is normal. "Boys are different." They sure are, training KP was a totally different experience.

New Years

On New Years Eve we snuck away to College Station for a few days. We had another mini Christmas Celebration and were in awe of these gorgeous jammies that Grandma McKneely made for Sam and KP, they are really something. They both LOVE them, Sam calls them Bob the Builder jammies because they're plaid. Kaitlyn feels like a princess in hers. Lindsey got this really cute sleeper that has elf booties and a hat! I just can't get over these three!!

We had such a wonderful visit with them. We haven't been able to spend much time with them lately so it was good to go and be with them and watch them interact with our kids. Stephen's present to his parents was helping them finish trimming out the upstairs game room, this took them almost 2 days and was a lot of work, but it looks fabulous up there. I was especially impressed at their ability to trim out a window with an arch, I've never seen that done before--who knew soaked wood would bend like that?!?!

The adults stole away one evening and went to see Marley and Me--totally cute I think but I read the book so I enjoyed it more than Stephen. We went miniature golfing again and really enjoyed it. We decided we'd try bowling next time. Thanks for a great time Mom and Dad!! See you in a few weeks!!!

Trains and Croquet

Fun Family Times! A few traditions.

Whenever Lewis' are together, there must be Croquet. My dad loves it, I don't know why but he does and we've played it for as long as I can remember. Thankfully their backyard is perfect for playing and so we played. Not to boast or anything but the McKneely's represented well and WON!!! Stephen and I were a team. I was making some rolls in the kitchen and couldn't break away to be there when the game started so Stephen started off really strong and handed the mallet off with a good sized lead and I'm happy to report that I didn't screw it up and increased our lead to an easy victory. I think this slightly frustrated my father who has never grown out of his competitive streak, but there's always next year!!

The Trains at North Park. The other tradition is one of our own little family. Our good friends told us of this model train exhibit that goes on every Christmas at the North Park Mall here in Dallas. And since we knew Grant was a total TRAIN KID we decided to wait and go with them. Here are the 3 kiddos with their conductor hats on:


It was so much fun, everyone was enthralled with the trains that go through replicas of different US landmarks (Golden Gate Bridge, NYC Times square, Washington DC) not to mention some famous Dallas Landmarks too.

Then after wards we went to.....


Of course Freebirds for lunch. A Texas tradition. We had to. all in all it was a marvelous family outing.

The third thing we did, that I don't have any photos of was the Largest Synchronized Holiday Lights Display in Texas happens to be in Frisco Town Square. What was especially memorable about this was that Grant rode with us, so we've got most of the kiddos (Gracie stayed with her parents) and they thought the lights were the funniest thing they'd ever seen. They just laughed and laughed through the 5 or 6 songs that are done to lights. It was truly something to see, and we'll be back next year for sure!!

SURPRISE!!

At the beginning of December my brother Aaron called from CA and said that he'd been freed up from work and thought he and his family could fly in the day after Christmas to spend a week with us....but I couldn't tell anyone!!! Things evolved and eventually all my siblings knew what was up, but my parents had no idea---AARON TOTALLY GOT 'EM and it turned into a whirlwind 6 days with us spending a ton of time together.


I am so grateful for the sacrifice they made to travel the day after Christmas. It so happened that he was here on his 2??th Birthday, and it's been a long time since I'd celebrated a birthday with my brother! It was so nice to get to know Laura a bit more (I REALLY LIKE HER!!, isn't she Gorgeous!! Aaron chose well!).
We did so many fun things together (another post) and to see Sam and Grant really hit it off. Sam is the only boy on the McKneely side of the family and so for Sam to have a cousin who's a boy is HUGE, not to mention these two are only 6 weeks apart in age. They both LOVE Bob the Builder and Trains and Cars. They'd be in different ends of the house and one would yell, "Can we fix it? and the other would answer, "Yes we can!" Grant is not just Grant at our house but he has a title, it's "My cousin", so "My cousin Grant" is famous in our house and Sam is already asking when we're going to see him again. Soon buddy, hopefully soon. Having us together made this Christmas so special for me, thanks again Aaron!

CHRISTmas Day

We had a wonderful holiday and hope ya'll did as well. We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and Lil' Bro Ben and his darling wife Summer. Had a program of sorts and then headed home for rest in our own beds. That morning we saw what Santa had brought and made cinnamon rolls and headed to Melissa to spend the day with my parents. Christmas was very simple this year, not meager by any means but we were really careful not to go hogwild and I'm proud to report that we had a budget this year and found ways to cut even still and came out about $100 under! Go us!!

In their stockings our children got Shake and Go cars, Sam got scissors and a couple matchbox cars (yellow and orange--his favorite colors) and Kaitlyn got some hair ties and 2 bottles of nail polish. Lindsey got an ultra soft Teddy Bear that she now sleeps with.

When we arrived at my parents home we got to see what Santa had put in our stockings there. This was quite the cute realization for Kaitlyn who upon seeing her stocking at her grandparents, asked if Santa was going to leave her things at both places. And because Santa knows everything he knew that she would be in two places on Christmas so of course he'll fil up both stockings. Sam got sunglasses and Kaitlyn a Hello Kitty notepad.

We had a wonderful morning, we ate our traditional breakfast of Quiche. It totally kills my husband that we get dressed and eat all before we open any presents. And we started opening around 10:00am. Here is the tree before:

Kaitlyn's favorite present was probably this hello kitty digital camera.

It's fabulous! She took pictures of anything and everything. Most of them were way too fuzzy to post but here is one of her best shots just taken by chance, we call it, LUNCH.


Sam did really well this Christmas but the "HIT" quite literally was a real tool set from Grandma and Grandpa Lewis, complete with a hammer (which by the way is now kept in the garage to protect his sisters and my walls)

A very cute thing I hope I always remember is how this was the first present he opened and he used those pliers to help everyone open their own gifts for the rest of the morning. "Oh, here, let me help you...." So funny!

Then because the cold front we'd been experiencing let up, we spent a long time outside at the park swinging and playing. Here are Mom and Lindsey just hanging out.

Toothpaste and Poop!

I know you're probably wondering what in the world those two things have in common, (other than they both belong in the bathroom) well they are substances I've had to clean out of my carpet on consecutive days.

The first was the toothpaste. Sam, having a "nap" in my bedroom, found a bag of toiletries I was going to gift in stockings for Christmas and opened 2 brand new tubes and proceeded to WIPE them on the carpet. It had gotten rather QUIET in the room, I assumed he was sleeping until I heard something and went to check.....this is what I found!


My first clue was the overwhelming minty fresh smell, he emptied the equivalent of 1/2 a tube and boy did it make a lot of suds!! I have a few things to be thankful for though, one is that he didn't get into the bottles of shampoo in the same bag (talk about bubbles!!) and the other is that it was white toothpaste and not the bright blue that can be used sometimes. But now my carpet will never have a cavity!! HA!

Then a few days later, again at nap time, Sam was in his room (we decided that sleeping in Mom and Dad's room had WAY too many TEMPTATIONS), near as I can figure out I think he wanted to use the bathroom because he wanted to do #2, (we haven't started even trying to potty train, but will probably tackle that in the upcoming weeks). He came out and in trying to find me, didn't make it and pooped in the living room--right next to the Christmas tree. He then stepped in it on his way to continue his search for me. I saw the poop on his sock, put him into the tub and cleaned him off. I went to find his diaper, it was in his bed perfectly clean. "Where's the poop Sam?" He kept saying in the play room which was where I'd been and I knew it was not there. I asked him to show me and he brought me to the spot. Sure enough. Oh geez! I couldn't believe it. But some water, Hydrogen peroxide and Oxyclean did a great job. I wonder what's next.