Lilly Girl - Almost 8 months

Here are some pictures I took of Lillian this weekend. In these pictures she is about a 10 days shy of being 8 months old :-(

 Handmade necklace a friend of mine made  her that says "Lilly"

 This sweater is also a handmade gift. My SIL had it made for her!

 LOL! I totally caught her in the midst of falling over!

 She LOVES this monkey! It was a gift from my sister in AZ.

Yes, Monkey. I promise to keep your secrets :-)

Y3W

Brock has started showing signs that he's ready. We're taking this VERY slow because I do not want to rush this for various reasons. He's only 3 weeks shy of being 2 years old, so this is pretty early. In the last 2 days, he's peed on the toilette twice! Yeah I know, no big deal but it is!

He's been grabbing himself and I've noticed that its when his diaper is wet. If I can catch it fast enough, I ask him if he has to pee and take him to the bathroom. But more often than not, I'm too late! But I think he's grabbing himself because he is feeling the sensation of being wet or feeling himself actually peeing. Either way, way to go big boy!! He was treated with a handful of M&M's each time :-) LOL!

Pee-Pee on the Potty!!

HE DID IT!!!!! For the last few days, Brock has been grabbing himself. I didn't catch on until the other day that maybe he's starting to feel the wet sensation or is more aware that he is peeing.  I haven't been able to catch him and run with him to the bathroom... until tonight! Spike and I were sitting in the living room talking and Brock stood by the end of the couch and grabbed his crotch. Spike and I asked him if he had to go potty. He didn't really respond, but I made a huge deal about it, grabbed him and ran with him to the bathroom. Within 3 seconds of sitting on the toilette he PEED!!!! OMG! How exciting!!! Mid-flow I accidentally screamed and told Spike to come to the bathroom! Brock finished peeing and the 3 of us celebrated like monkey's in the bathroom! High-fiveing and everything!! Brock even got a handful of m&m's that he got to eat sitting right there on his throne! LOL! Can't believe it! So its on like Donkey-Kong! Potty-training here we come :-) I'm excited and scared all at the same time!! Maybe tomorrow I will go buy him a little potty that we can take with us places while we work on it!

PS: Our little man will be 2 in only 3 short weeks!!

Feed Simply

This is what I learned this evening after MANY meals that have gone uneaten by our little toddler. We've been giving him Pediasure every now and then since he's hardly eating these days.  Tonight for dinner, I made a chicken stir-fry with green pepper, edemame, onions, and shredded carrots with white rice. I put everything on a plate (minus the pepper and onions) for Brock. He took one or two bites then shoved his plate off of his tray :-( So we took his plate away. About 20 minutes later he started saying "yummy," which he says whenever he is hungry. So I asked him if he wanted beans (meaning the edemame) and he didn't really respond. I asked if he wanted chicken and he tried to say chicken. Then I was like, want "pollo?" That is the Spanish word for chicken. He said yes, so I brought his plate back with ONLY little pieces of chicken. Guess what!? He ate every single piece :-)

So this will be my game plan during meals: one thing on the plate until he asks for something else!

The other day A friend of mine started filling up an ice cube tray with foods/snacks her son likes to eat. She leaves the tray out on a surface he can reach at his level so he can munch all day. I tried this and Brock literally took the tray from the tv stand, put it on the floor and used it as a track for his cars! LOL. Silly boy.

Houseboat 2010!!

Here are some pictures of our annual trip to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky. This year we switched marinas and started at Burnside Marina. The only downfall is that we had to drive around on the lake forever looking for a cove to dock in for the night. This year we had a stinky boat too :-( Something was wrong with our septic tank and it smelled like we were riding in a porta-potty! We had maintenance come out two different times but the could never fix it. Apparently their "fix" was literally pouring an entire bottle of Pinesol into the tank. Eww...

 Captain in training:

Breakfast... 10am

Malibu & Jammies!

Anyway, as always we had an awesome time playing Quelf (best family board game EVER!)!!

We also had a major prank in the works for months leading up to this trip. My poor mother-in-law is soooo incredibly gullible. About a week or two before we left I called her and told her that Spike had bought some really neat magic tricks and that the kids were really going to like them. He's always been into magic and illusions so this was nothing out of the ordinary. Well when I tell her this, she was like, "Oh YAY! I LOVE it when he does magic!" So that same night, he went to her house to poke around an old storage locker that had some of his old tricks in it. Once we're on the houseboat, Spike starts showing some of the kids and a few other adults some of the tricks individually. He decided to do the prank on Pam the last night we were there. It consisted of a bowl of water and a broom...

So I go out onto the deck where she was sitting and started sweeping the rocks off the floor (I had to get a broom out there somehow!). We chatted for a little bit and were slowly joined by the rest of the family. Then Spike came out with the bowl of water. She started saying "what are you doing!? I'm not going to get wet am I!? Its way to cold!!" Of course he told her "well that's all up to you! Now stand up and come help me with this." She was reluctant to but finally gave-in. He held the bowl up to the ceiling, then put the broomstick underneath it to hold it in place. He told her that the water in the bowl would disappear but she had to hold the broomstick up. She didn't want to, but again she gave-in. As soon as she put her hands on the broomstick, we all left her on the front deck alone! We were all watching from inside the boat and laughing hysterically! She was pretty smart about the whole thing and almost walked away dry! But... she didn't.

What a great weekend!

Here's how Brock summed it up:

Olivia - update

Just a quick update on my friend's daughter, Olivia.  She has had an amazing recovery and was discharged from the hospital exactly one week after her open-heart surgery!! She's lost some muscle tone in her legs and is working on building the muscles so she can walk independently.

My friend is such a strong woman. I felt like I was going to die watching Lillian get sick in the hospital when she had pneumonia. That was soooo hard. I couldn't even imagine what my girlfriend went through or has gone through this whole time with Olivia. I just know that the good Lord has been right by their side!!

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for her!!

Y3W

I'm a little late, but its been a crazy week! I'll have a few separate posts, but here is part of my week in 3 words: