Ryan and Natalie's Shower

This Saturday I helped host a bridal shower for Kyle's cousin Ryan's fiancee, Natalie.

 

Her colors are chocolate brown and a blush pink.

 

This was the entry

Cute personalized M&Ms

 

The good table with sandwiches, veggies tray, fruit tray, our favorite fiesta dip, chips, and sausage bites.  It was all delicious. And I absolutely love the flowers!!

 

The drink area (horrible lighting) with pink lemonade, sweet tea, and water.

 

The dessert table with cupcakes, wedding cookies, pecan tarts, mini cheesecakes, mixed nuts, and yummy punch.  I don't know about you but I LOVE punch!

 

 

Here is a close up of the cupcakes with the adorable toppers made by my friend Emily.  I think they turned out perfect. Thanks again Emily! Emily does a great job so if you need invites, toppers, birthday banners, or whatever let me know and I will give you her contact info.

Some of the guests.

Casen was a trooper and did great.

Natalie looked cute in an outfit that matched her wedding colors.

One of the guests brought a cute cake made out of kitchen towels and utensils.  So cute!

 

Cooper came by at the end of the shower and got to meet one of the flower girls. He was very shy but liked reading books with Mimi.

Ryan's grandmother (on the right) made this gorgeous quilt for them. It is turned out amazing! She is very talented.

Weekend recap

Friday Casen and I spent the day running errands and hanging out at Mimi and Grandpa's house.

 

I went by the Carter's store because I had a coupon.  They had all of their summer stuff on clearance plus an additional 25% off.  I got all of the goodies below for $58.  They added up to $240 bucks retail!!  Plus I have $20 in Carter's cash to use also!

 

I love the matching crab pinch me pajamas for the boys next summer.  Plus I got Cooper the shark ones to match the ones I already got Casen.  I also got more underwear for Cooper, my favorite sun suits in size 6 months because I have a growing boy on my hands, plus some camo pants for this fall and two shirts and a pair of shorts for next year! I am still so excited with all of my finds.  I am fighting the urge to do more shopping!

 

 

That evening we went to Shady Oak BBQ for dinner. I have said many times that I love their jalapeno ranch dressing so a salad sounded perfect to me. And of course they have great sweet tea and bread!

 

Cooper kept himself preoccupied by playing with the sugar packets.

 

And Casen did this the entire time (I think he looks like a Johnson in this picture)

 

The next morning Cooper was up at 6:15 so once we fully woke up and got dressed we ran to get donuts while Casen and Kyle slept in a little.

 

I let him pick out his own donut and he wanted this one with 'pinkles'

 

 

He loved it! And ended up eating an entire second chocolate donut!

 

Casen and I spent the rest of the day at Mimi's house for Natalie's bridal shower.  The shower was great and I will share more about it later this week.

 

Cooper and Kyle hung out together and bought Cooper a new train because he went an entire day with no accidents (still working on the pooping in the potty). They joined us later in the afternoon where we all hung out.  Cooper made sure his Grandpa gave him a ride on the four-wheeler.

 

 

 

Casen was so good at the shower but he was happy to get home and resting that evening.

 

Sunday we went to Ennis for the day.  My mom met us at church and then afterwards we met my dad for lunch (he went to the early mass).  After lunch we went to my aunt's house and got to meet Matthew James, my cousin Trey's new baby. He is only one month younger than Casen.

 

Cooper was feeling antsy so he decided to go with my Grandad on a four wheeler ride. Cooper loved it and I think my Grandad enjoyed it too.

 

After visiting with my mom's side of the family we headed over to my Granny and Papa's to hang out.

 

Here is a picture of Casen with Papa. Please excuse the orange coloring in the picture.

 

Cooper was so excited to play with a puzzle that he was too distracted for a picture.

 

Cooper had a lot of fun showing Papa the puzzles. He kept asking where Papa was later and said 'I want to go play with Papa.'

 

Later that evening we went back to my parents house so the boys could spend more time with my dad.  Cooper ended up taking a nap while my dad was holding him.  When he woke up he was upset and disoriented.  The minute my dad offered to take him to see the cows his face lit up and he said 'yeah!' My mom ended up going with Casen also to go see the cows.

 

I don't know if you can tell, but Cooper loves the men in his life.  Don't get me wrong, he loves the women too, but he really has a special way of bonding with the various men.  I think he has them all wrapped around his finger.

 

We didn't get home until 8:30 that night, but it was completely worth it. Making memories of my boys with family means so much to me. 

Casen

I know I have a lot of pictures of Casen but that is because I am home with him right now and Cooper is at day-care.

I can't believe this cutie is 8 weeks old and I am 2/3 of the way through my maternity leave.

 

Love this silly one with his tongue out!

 

I wrote this last week and never posted it.

Maternity Pictures

I am finally getting around to sharing the maternity pictures we took back in April, I think.

 

These were taken by Tiffani Siebert and I love them!

 

 

It was cool that day and very windy which made Cooper squint.  He was being shy and not his normal smiley self.

 

Love this one despite my fat pregnant face.

 

Tiffani also took Casen's newborn pictures which I will share as soon as I get the birth announcements done and sent out....yes, I am way behind!

Potty training

We are in the potty training process.

 

Cooper started going on the potty back in January when he moved rooms at day-care.  He wasn't consistent about going, but they were trying to familiarize him with the potty and the idea.

 

We would put him on the potty before bath (he rarely would go) and in the mornings when he would get up.  He did great at going when we put him on but life got busy (I was always running late in the mornings) so we weren't consistent.

 

Back in June Cooper started going on the potty more times than he went in his diaper while at day-care.  I knew this meant that he was probably ready but with Casen's arrival and our busy lives we decided to wait until after his birthday to try the potty training.

 

Then after his party we had two busy weekends where we couldn't do it....basically that is a list of all of my excuses.

 

 

So last Friday my mom was at our house to help me out and we started potty training. I decided to use my sister Melisa's idea of one M&M if you try, 3 if you pee pee, and 5 if you poop.  He loved getting to pick his M&Ms and did go pee on the potty but he also had quite a few accidents (usually just enough to dribble and make a little mess not a full release of his bladder). By the evening we had the timer going off every 18 minutes and he would go.  If I asked him to go he would say no, but if the timer went off it was no big deal.

 

I could tell that he was figuring out the process because he would say 'I feel it coming' and would look down in the potty. Sure enough he would pee. Or if I asked him if there was more he would wait and sometimes go more or other times say 'no, all done.' 

 

Saturday he went potty 3 times in the potty before we had to switch him to a diaper so we could all get ready and get out of the house for a while.  When we got home he went potty but we put him back in a diaper because it was nap time.  As he laid there for nap he said 'mommy, potty' and we ran to the potty.  Sure enough he went!

 

So this is where we cheated.  After nap I kept him in a diaper but continued the timer and going to the potty.  This way if he had an accident I didn't have to clean up our carpet and mess with wet underwear, but he was still going and working on the process.  He did great! 

 

Sunday we had another busy day with church so we continued the process in a diaper.  We went to my in-laws and even there he would go on the potty.  It is likely if we had him in underwear he would have dribbled in them, but overall he kept the diaper dry and did well.

 

Monday I sent him to day-care in a diaper for the car ride, but sent him 7 pairs of underwear (growing up in a house full of girls I keep calling them panties and have to correct myself) and several pairs of shorts since he wouldn't be running around in just underwear like we do at home.

 

I got a report at 2:00 from Mrs. Jamie that he had only had one accident all day and that was because they were outside.  They were taking him once an hour.  I am not sure why he was dribbling in his underwear like he did at home, but I am glad.

 

Unfortunately at 2:00 Mrs. Jamie leaves for the day and it went downhill fast.  He went through 4 pairs of underwear in an hour and a half so they switched him to a diaper for the rest of the day. I joked with Mrs. Jamie that she isn't allowed to leave until Cooper leaves from now on.

 

We continued to cheat with the diaper last night because we were out of clean underwear, but tonight he will go back in underwear and see how things go.

 

I really hope today goes well and that he keeps doing better.  He really seems to be getting it but the next step will be him learning to tell us when he needs to go potty instead of when the timer goes off.  I am so proud of our big boy.

 

I love seeing him in underwear, but man I am going to miss that cute boy walking around in a diaper.  This sentiment won't last long when he is potty trained and I am no longer changing or buying diapers for him!

 

So now I need some advice.  Please give me your tips for taking little boys to the bathroom in public places.  How did you handle them sitting on the potty, putting their hands on everything, etc?  It grosses me out. Also, any tips or suggestions for getting him to poop on the potty? We haven't been able to catch him in time to go.  It is probably just watching him closely and getting lucky, but I thought I would ask.  I appreciate any potty training advice. No use reinventing the wheel.

 

Weekend 7/21-22

Last Saturday Casen and I went shopping with the Allen outlet mall with Kyle's mom, aunt, and cousin.  I found some cute things for myself and the boys.  Casen did so good all day and his stroller came in so handy for our bags.  Here he is pooped out on the way home.

Cooper and MacKenzie went to south Texas with my parents on Saturday and stayed the night.

Within 15 minutes down the road Cooper decided it was nap time.

And Mac watched a movie.

 

After nap they played with stickers.

Then they relaxed at the hotel.

 

And kept Grandaddy from taking a nap.

They also got to go swim in the pool for a bit, went to dinner, and then relaxed before bedtime.

They played Happy Birthday with the votives again.

The next morning they enjoyed the continental breakfast.  I was told Cooper had two bowls of cereal.

 

Then they went to mass with the youth group and after that enjoyed hot dogs and chips for lunch.

After lunch they went to the water park and played for a couple of hours.  Cooper was hesitant at first but ended up having a great time.  We didn't get any pictures of this because my parents had their hands full with the two kiddos. 

The kids were pooped out after a fun time in the water.

 

They stopped for an icee on the way home as a treat.

 

 

Cooper had a wonderful weekend and didn't want to come home.  I love that my parents took him on a mini vacation.

 

Kyle and I enjoyed the weekend soaking up time with this sweet little guy and watching a lot of episodes of Hell on Wheels.