Potty training woes

We have tried for many months to get Josiah potty trained and have yet to get anything to work. With the recent months happenings he seems to have regressed a bit. With my being on bed rest for 2 months and not being able to help with that matter, and he was so mixed up with where we lived. Now that my health has gotten better, and Josiah is more calm and comfortable here, I have decided to immerse ourselves back into potty training.

So today we put on underwear right away this morning and I have been taking him to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so. We have potty books and I got some potty training videos and I have been talking to him about being a big boy. If I am missing something here, please tell me. Before, when we did potty training we gave him M&M's after each potty he did in the toilet but that doesn't seem to make any difference to him. So I am not doing that today. How do I get him to tell me when he has to go though? Will that just come in time?

Potty training has to be one of the most frustrating parts of raising children. If anybody has any great ideas that worked for them, I would be up for suggestions. For now though, I just plan to keep on taking him to the bathroom and playing video's for him. We shall see how this week goes. Keep us in your prayers and thoughts this week. Thank you.
Blessing to you all.

So much to be thankful for!

As my sister has posted on her blog this week, there is so much to be thankful for this year. Our pastor at church on Sunday encouraged each person to name their blessings one by one. I don't know if I could possibly give the full list of everything that I am incredibly thankful that God has done for me but I will definitely try to hit my highlights for this year.

I want to start with what comes first to my mind, and that is this pregnancy. First of all, I am thankful to even be pregnant. I have struggled most of my adult life with infertility, so to find myself pregnant I was completely surprised and so utterly happy! I am also thankful that the Lord has placed his grace and protection over this little boy inside of me. He has healed my womb from a very scary ordeal and is continuing to grow this child to perfection.

I am also thankful that we moved to CA this year. I have met so many new friends and learned so much about what I am capable of. I went back to work for a few months this year, and even though I was away from my dearest son, I learned much about myself and in the process met a lot of wonderful people, all of which I am incredibly thankful for.

I am thankful that God provided a very nice and convenient place for us to live that was close to my sister. It provided all of our needs for many months. It was also so good that it was so close when we we had to abruptly move out and into my sister's home. Again, another blessing given to us this year, I am so very thankful that my sister's family took us into their home at such a difficult time for us. I trust that the Lord will give them many blessings for their generousity to my family.

I am also just so thankful to be a part of such a large and loving family. Not only my family but my husband's family. We have gotten only encouragement and love from both about our move away from them all, and during this pregnancy they have all been fabulous to us. My husband's sister and her husband have also just welcomed their first child into the family and we are so incredibly thankful for their blessing.

There are many more things to be thankful for this year but I think that hits my highlights. The Lord has been good to us and in return I give Him all the praise and glory for all the wonderful blessings in my life!
Much love and many blessings to you all on this fine Thanksgiving day. :-)

Praise God for his miraculous healing!

Well I have good news to report from my Dr appt Thursday. As always my Dr was very nice and very encouraging. I have never been as thankful to change Dr's as I am with this change. :-)

God has answered our prayers and is healing my womb and growing the baby nicely. Hubby and I got to see him on ultrasound again yesterday and he is more beautiful than ever! We also got to see where the placenta is located now. And praise God, it has moved AND re-attached itself! If that isn't the best news you have heard all day then, well it should be. :-) There are still a couple of questionable area's that still need to heal, but these things don't happen overnight, I guess, so I am patiently waiting for the Lord to bring this child to full development. The other thing that the Dr told us yesterday is that I will be able to go full term with this baby and there should be no reason that I cannot have him normally as well. Unless of course things happen towards the end that require a cea-section. We will just trust that the Lord is taking care of that too, and whatever happens when this baby is born is totally fine with me, as long as he is fully developed and healthy. We have now been given that re-assurance, and I could not be happier.

I have also been given a reprieve on my bedrest. Many of you know that I have already been up and starting to do some cooking around the house and been getting out to stores just this last weekend a little bit. Well the Dr beleives that it is ok to keep going with that routine, as long as I take it slowly. One step at a time. I don't want to go out and run around the block or something like that, but I have been given a bit more freedom. Just yesterday morning I walked the kids to the park that is 3 blocks away, but per dr's orders we took it very slow and I did great. It was nice to be outside with the kids. :-) So I shall take baby steps and hopefully get to a more active routine soon, probably just in time for the baby to come. :-) So it looks like we may have this baby around February 28th after all.
Take care and blessings to all.

Nesting... too soon?

I'm sorry I have been away for a week. My goodness, all the sudden this last week I have had this surge of energy and I have been busy. Maybe some would say busier than I should be, but I just feel like I need to hurry up and get ready for this baby. Well, and christmas too.

Last week my son and I made some cookies for my grandmother. We had a great time doing it. He is acutally a pretty good helper in the kitchen. It's actually easier for me to have him in there with me than to wonder where or what he is doing elsewhere in the house. We talk about the ingredients, and I know you all might think I'm crazy but I let him help crack eggs too. It's just fun. I try to imagine how much fun it would be too feel so helpful to my mommy if I was 3 yrs old too. That helps me put things into perpective. :-)

Anyway, after that cooking episode went so well, I decided to make dinner by myself last week as well. It was great! I truly LOVE to cook and haven't been able to for so long. I guess maybe I'm tired of sitting on my rump (which by the way seems to widening with each passing day). So I have been getting up and helping a little more in the kitchen and it has brightened my spirits immensely!

Last saturday I was feeling well enough to try to make a shopping trip. My dearest hubby drove me to the craft store. Now that's love my friends. He even walked around with me and we had our 3 yr old son with us as well. Hubby was so patient with me and helped me pick out jsut the right crafts and colors. I have picked jsut a couple of crafts that I know I can finish by christmas. Not too many like past years. :-) I am totally feeling just so home-y.

So back to my nesting. It may be a little early to be feeling like I need to have everything ready for baby. I even made a list of everything that I need to bring to the hospital with me. I have been shopping for nursing clothing online. I even decided to make a shopping trip this morning to the outlets shops with my son. We went to Carters and Motherhood Maternity and of course they put the chocolate store right beside the maternity clothes store. Mmm, somebody thought that one through. :-) I bought a few items for the baby and jammies for my son and jammies for me to wear at the hospital. You have to check out this outfit I bought to bring home my son from the hospital in. Isn't it the cutest thing ever?!


I have also picked out the bassinet that I absolutely love. I have researched them for about 2 months now, ever since we knew that the baby would be sharing a room with us. You have to check out this bassinet
Isn't that the cutest thing ever? For those that cannot click on the link, it is Winnie the Pooh, and has blue and white checked fabric, and comes with a cute Winnie the Pooh and bees mobile. This bassinet has a light on it and has many different songs that it plays and also has the vibration installed. I hope that this will fulfill all ours and baby's needs. :-)

Well I am getting long winded so I will go for now. I am looking forward to seeing my dr again tomorrow. I have many questions to ask and am waiting impatiently to hear what he thinks about my weight gain. (Eeeek, I will fill you all in on the results later) So I will write after my appt and fill you all in on, hopefully, some encouraging news regarding my placenta and it's placement. :-) Blessings to all! :-)

Exciting day

It has been an exciting morning. My sister in law called me this morning to tell me that my husband's sister is at the hospital getting ready to have her baby. You may recognize that she leaves me comments on my blog often, her name is Julia.

Her and her husband are a little older than my husband and I, and this is their first baby. They have tried for many years to have a baby, so this is a much waited for baby, and no doubt will be loved and cherished dearly!

Please pray for a safe delivery and that the baby will be healthy and everything will go as smoothly as birth can go. :-)

Unfortunately, we live in CA and they live in WA, so we will not be able to see this little one until after I have my baby, due to my own health problems. It is times like these that it is soooo hard to be so far away from family. My heart and thoughts and prayers are in WA today.

On a side note, Josiah had his first dentist appointment yesterday and all went well. He was an angel. I wondered what happened to my son and what was possessing my son to be so cooperative. I secretly wished he was like this all the time for me. :-) hehehe But I am glad everything went as well as it did and I was very proud of him for being such a big boy. 3 yr olds are amazing and surprising creatures. :-)

Many blessings to all today!

*********************UPDATE*******************************

Vivian Elsie was born on November 9, 2006.
She weighed 6lbs 11oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.
She is perfect and very healthy and mom is doing good as well.

We celebrate the birth of our neice and extend our well wishes to the new family!

Wonderfully normal

We had a nice weekend. We spent saturday doing some cleaning and laundry. In the afternoon Josiah got a haircut, then we took him to the park to play. The kids all watched the movie "The Wild" that night. It was a really nice day... I guess the first really normal day we have had as a family in a very long time. It was wonderfully normal and marvelously relaxing. We did a lot more realxing on Sunday. We went to church for the first time in about a month and a half and stayed afterwards for the Annual Turkey dinner, which was fabulous. Then came home and while Josiah took a nap, us adults watched a movie. After that we did a lot more relaxing and goofing off, then had some dinner. After the kids went to bed last night, hubby and I watched another movie. It was another really nice day. I guess our weekend is just best described as wonderfully normal! You have no idea how great normal sounds till you've had our last month and a half. :-)

My sister and I are starting to plan thanksgiving dinner this week. It will just be our 2 families for that holiday this year. We did have much different plans for that weekend, like a wonderful week long trip to Oregon, but with my health that way it is, that was cut out, and we are all staying home this year. My folks are coming for christmas and that will be a blessing to see some family for that holiday.

I will leave you all with a family picture taken yesterday before church. This may be one of the last pictures you see of the 3 of us, in the coming months our family will look a bit bigger. :-)
Blessings to all!

Halloween day

Please forgive me for not writing before day about our Halloween activities, but I have literally been exhausted. All of the activity of that day has really worn me out, either that or growing this baby this week is absolutely exhausting. I feel like I could sleep all day! And that is pretty unusual for me. Well this isn't a complaint fest... on with the day. :-)

Please step into our Halloween...

Our day started with yummy orange pancakes. The kids said they couldn't even tell they were orange... guess I should have added more food coloring. Then for snack time, Josiah and I assembled the spiders and vampire blood. He was supposed to keep it a secret from the other children but honestly, what 3 yr old do you know that doesn't broadcast everything that is told to him. So proceeded to run through the house saying "spiders, spiders, eat spiders."

For lunch my sister and I assembled our mummies in coffins. Really they were jsut hot dogs wrapped in biscuits, but what kids doesn't love those, so of course those went over wildly. We rounded the meal with mac-n-cheese becuase it's orange and it was an easy add-in. And the children had orange colored sprite, which again I could have added more food coloring, becuase Justin thought it was red or something.

For snack we consumed "rotten apples" in the afternoon. Then for dinner my sister made some really cute meatballs with sliced olives on top, to look like eyeballs. So we ate "worms and eyeballs" for dinner. Acutally spaghetti and meatballs, and it tasted fabulous! We also made "vampire repellant", garlic bread of course. And Brain Cell Delight. It was actually blue Jello with a mixture of cottage cheese and blueberries and food coloring to make the mix look gray. It was actually quite tasty. It all went over really well. The children scarfed through dinner becuase they were so excited about going trick-or-treating though. I wish that I had a picture of dinner to show you, but I don't have one on my camera. Maybe my sister will post one.

After dinner the children went out with the dad's (Jonny and Dave) around the neighborhood to do the duty. They were gone for quite a while, and while they were out my sister and I took turns answering the door the some 200+ kids that we had come trick-or-treating to our home. The kids had a super day and fun was had by all!

Cool dude! My little hippy!