Potty Training UDATE:

So I don't recall exactly where we were at in Dylan's potty training the last time I wrote about it, but I can tell you that he's been peeing in the potty for oh I'd say at least 3-4 months. Pretty much right after we moved down here to NM and got settled into our house.
However, he would only pee in the potty if we left him completely bottomless. The minute you put a diaper, pull-up, or big boy underwear on, he'd pee in them. Because of that, we haven't really taken him out of the house with JUST his underwear on. Although, when my parents came to visit 2 weeks ago, my Dad did take him with him to the Shopette for about 20 minutes in just big boy underwear and he did just fine and then I took him to the post office and a quick (I mean one item quick) trip into the grocery store, also without an accident. That is about as far as we've been brave enough to go though.

Anyway, he's pretty much mastered the whole 'peeing in the potty as long as he's bottomless' thing and in fact, will pretty much go all on his own without any assistance. We decided about a month ago though, that he can't go through life bottomless, but we also didn't want to take any steps backwards by keeping him in a pull-up or diaper (when we're home to train him anyway), so we decided to just suck it up and let him start potty training with underwear on. We have all tile floor so it's not really a HUGE deal if he has an accident on it, but having JUST purchased all brand new furniture and an area rug, I was needless to say a little hesitant. But it needed to happen. So it did. We hadn't tried keeping him in underwear while at the house since we first started potty training, but I noticed this time around was a lot easier. I think letting him run around naked for a while and getting used to peeing in the potty first actually helped. I think we've only had one, maybe two accidents in the underwear this time around. For the most part, he will tell us when he needs to go. Even when we're out in public and he's got a pull-up on. And sometimes, it's not always the most opportune time! Like the other day when we were at Wal-Mart. Before I started shopping I decided to bribe him with some McDonald's so he would be good (don't pretend like you don't ever use bribery with your child!). I was going to just get it to-go and let him eat it while I was pushing the cart, but he wanted to sit down, so we did. JUST as I got done getting the 'spread' set up (his drink, nuggets, fries, sauce, etc.) he frantically says, "pee pee, pee pee!" So I felt his pull up to see if he had already gone and he hadn't. I don't know what I was thinking at this point, but I said, "Ok buddy, just a minute, try to hurry and eat first". Seriously? I'm potty training him and trying to teach him to tell me when he has to go and then he does and I'm selfishly (because it was all out of selfishness. I didn't want to have to pack up everything that I had just spent forever getting situated) asking him to hold it? Bad mommy! Anyway, after my common sense kicked in (or maybe it was my guilt from watching him do the potty dance) I packed everything up and rushed him down to the bathroom. I kept checking his diaper to make sure he still hadn't peed in it and then we get there and there was a line. Really??!?! I kept asking him to hold it and feeling the front of his pull-up and I'm not even kidding you, right as we got into the stall I checked it one last time as I was getting ready to take it off and he had JUST gone. I could tell because it was still warm.
I was still so proud of him for telling me and for trying to hold it. If I had just packed up when he first told me, we probably would've made it.

So back to the update. Basically, over the past few weeks when we've been home we keep him in his big boy underwear and we go out, we put him in a pull-up and either way, he's been doing so much better about telling us he needs to go instead of just peeing in either of those. Sometimes we make it, sometimes we don't....and sometimes it's just a false alarm.

Anyway, the absolute latest and greatest though, is that he's actually been going #2 in the toilet! WOOOOOOHOOOOO! You have NO idea how thoroughly impressed and excited I am! After having watched my nephew struggle so badly with it, I feared the worst. And he actually started showing some of the same signs that Brandon did (I'm happy to announce that Brandon is OFFICIALLY a big boy now and no longer needs a pull-up though!). He knew he had to go, we knew he had to go, but he wouldn't go unless you gave him a diaper or pull-up to put on. We didn't want to make him get 'backed up' or anything so after asking him a couple of times to try in the potty, we would just put one on him.
BUT, the other day Trav decided to try the strict approach and tell him he couldn't have a pull-up, positioned his step stool right in front of the toilet and said, "If you need to go poo, you can go in here". We left him alone for a little bit and then next thing we know, he's climbing up and doing his business!!! Wahoo! SUCCESS! We made such a huge deal out of it and gave him candies (which I haven't used to reward him with since he first started peeing) and he's gone in the toilet everyday since.

Today we are on day four. And today, he went absolutely all on his own without me even having any knowledge of what he was doing. For the last couple of days what seems to work is to just kind of let him have his privacy, but we knew he was headed back there to 'take care of business', so we'd spy on him to make sure he didn't need help and/or wasn't making a terrible mess. Well today, I was out in the kitchen and he came running out to me and said, "poo poo". So I said, "Oh do you need to go, c'mon". We walked back there (and this is where you might be thinking "TMI"....or you may have thought that throughout this entire story, but then I challenge you by asking, "Why are you reading a potty training blog if it's TMI? ;) anyway, we walked back to the bathroom and there in his truck potty (which he hasn't been using except as a step stool to get onto the big potty) was his 'business'. It was gross and fascinating all at the same time. I was so overcome with joy though, that all of the grossness of it went out the window. Besides, I'm a parent and quite frankly, I've seen a lot worse!

So that's that. I just had to share because I'm such a proud mommy right now!

Taking after his Papa Honeman

This picture was taken on a completely different day, but when I was going through my phone to get the potty picture, I remembered I had it and well, I just thought it was too funny not to post! Ha ha!

I know I've been absent in posting, but I promise you that soon I will get back to it. I could sit here and list off a million excuses (some of them ligit), but the bottom line is, I just haven't taken the time to do it. Pure laziness, I know.

I will though, soon.

A Strawberry Pie Tribute

A few weeks ago I got a wild hair up my you know where and decided I wanted to attempt a strawberry pie for my dearest husband. For the most part, he (unlike me) is not a huge dessert person (other than the occasional brownie or cookie craving that lasts for the first night I make a batch, leaving me to 'force' myself to eat the rest of the batch all by myself for the next few days), but he sure loves him some fruit pies (and of course the famous oatmeal pie that Aunt Marcia makes that we completely ruined during our attempt at making it). Strawberry pie has always been one of his favorites. Grandma Tressa's strawberry pie to be more exact. He has so many fond memories of his Grandma Tress' and her baked goods. He says she could and did make just about anything from scratch and never used a recipe.....and it was good! So this was going to be my tribute to Grandma Tressa as well as a special treat to my best friend....

After I read my girlfriend Cherish's blog about the blueberry pie they had, I decided to kick my strawberry pie plan into action. I was going to wait until this weekend, but Tuesday ended up to be such a sunny day and it just seemed so perfect to have some grilled chicken, a salad and of course, strawberry pie. I didn't get the thought until nap time, which was my first mistake. I thought I had just about everything to get started on at least my crust while Dylan was napping though, but I ended up only having margarine sticks instead of butter sticks. I was a woman on a mission though and it wasn't going to deter me. Trav gets home from work around 240, so it wasn't a big deal. I ran up to the store for my few missing ingredients and then decided to run to the BX for a rolling pin. I've made one pie before and one tart before and remember thinking how nice a rolling pin would be the next time I made one or the other. While I was there, I saw a mini food processor for $20. I've always considered food processors to be just another kitchen gadget yeah, I'm sure would be nice, but not necessary. My friend Cherish and her husband on the other hand, swear by theirs. We've had this debate on a few occasions but I swore I'd never need one. Theirs I'm sure is some big fancy processor, but I saw this mini one and the price was right, so I figured I'd give it a shot and if I LOVED it, I may consider upgrading later on.

As soon as I got home, I quickly got started on the crust. I put my dry ingredients into the processor and then immediately realized that this was not going to work. It was WAY too small. I pressed on though. I mixed up the dry ingredients as best I could and then two by two I started adding my chilled butter cubes. I figured that once the butter and dry ingredients started forming together, it would shrink down but after adding about six to eight cubes I realized that it wasn't going to work like that. I even tried taking half of the mix out with the the thought that I could mix half of it up and then slowly add the rest, but I still had a ton of butter cubes to add and as much as I hated admitting it, it just wasn't gonna happen! UGH! I was so disappointed. I kind of knew when I bought it that it was a little small, but I figured I could get it to work.

After I finally threw in the towel on my processor, I decided to move on to my blender that has a pulse option on it, but after scraping all of the ingredients into it I pressed the low pulse button and....nothing! I scraped around the blender, mashed up the dough, etc. but again, nothing. It wasn't moving even a little bit. This is when things started getting frustrating. I just wanted to make a simple little pie for my husband, but absolutely nothing was going right. After snapping at my poor hubby for who knows what (I'm pretty sure I was just making things up to snap at him about because I wanted someone to feel my pain with me!), I asked him (my handyman of a husband- luckily I married a man that can just about anything that is broken) and after only looking at it for about thirty seconds he said, "It's too full and there's no liquid in it to help it move around). I didn't want to believe him. I made my tart crust in this very same blender and had no problems (the big difference is, the tart crust was a single crust AND the butter didn't need to be frozen like this recipe called for, so it created more liquid to help move my crust around). Anyway, I had decided in my mind that it was broken and he just didn't want to help me fix it because I was being such a brat by this point.
So out of total desperation I grabbed my Oster drink blender. Scraped all of the dough into it, pressed the high speed button and.....nothing! Again, wasn't budging even a little bit!

At this point I told Travis that I was just going to throw the stupid crust away and start all over again another day. I figured my crust by this point had to have been ruined with all of the mashing around it had been through, so what was the point?
He began to tell me, "Well, my Grandma Tressa made pies all the time and never had any of these fancy kitchen gadgets." I knew what he was saying was true, but for arguments sake, I chose not to believe him and said, "Well she had to have used something!"

I took about a minute to just breath and realized that I was getting extremely worked up about a pie that was just meant for me and Travis. It wasn't being entered into the National Pie Competition (if there is one?) so who was I trying to impress? This is when I realized that as long as it tasted good, who cares what it looked like. So I scraped all of the dough onto the counter and after three kitchen gadgets, high blood pressure, and a lot of griping at my very innocent husband, I finished my pie crust by hand, the way I probably should've just done from the start!

So the crust is DONE....well, sort of. It now has to chill for at least an hour, set out at room temp for ten minutes, get rolled out, placed, filled, etc....and by this time it's almost 530.
I made up my pie filling which was thankfully farely simple, ate a sandwich (Yup, a sandwich. Travis decided since I was being a little less than friendly, it was best to stay out of the kitchen, which meant he couldn't get started on seasoning and marinading the chicken......that was a whole other argument. During my fiasco, realizing that not only was my crust not going as planned, we weren't going to be having the grilled chicken salads (that I had worked up in my mind as a good summer meal to compliment our dessert) before our strawberry pie, was just one more thing to make the ol blood pressure rise! He's a smart man though and as soon as I came down from my tantrum, I realized that he did the best thing possible- stayed out of my way!

Anyway, I got the pie crust rolled out without too many hitches. The only thing that I'd say really went wrong could be blamed on my complete impatience. I didn't want to wait the ten minutes for my crust to sit out, so I started rolling out the first one and since it was still too stiff, it wasn't rolling very well. Once again I ended up asking myself, "Who am I impressing? No one." So I balled it all back up rolled it out just enough to get it thinned out a little and then just manually pressed it into my pie plate as opposed to just laying it down already rolled out.
I filled the pie and got the top crust on fairly easy and then popped it in the oven!

I could finally relax......until fifty minutes later that is. As I was finishing cleaning up my pie fiasco of a mess in the kitchen, I started smelling a very strong strawberry smell and thought, "Man, that smells so good!" but then it was immediately followed by a very strong smoke smell. Not so good! There was one side of the pie that I wasn't able to pinch together very well, so it cracked and the pie filling ran over to the bottom of the oven and created quite the mess! The entire house filled up with smoke. I'm actually quite surprised the detectors didn't go off. I opened all of the windows though and turned the fan on and just let it air out. Dylan thought it was funny. Pretty sure we're going to need to start fire safety training soon so if he's ever (God forbid) in a fire, he doesn't see the smoke and start laughing!
Anyway, the pie was pretty much done so I just took it out and turned off the oven.

And the final product?


I mean, would it win the judges over by its appearance? No, most likely not. But it tasted so good! When it was finally pulled out of the oven and cooled just enough for me to touch the side of the pie dish, I sliced myself a piece. It was still extremely hot, so the filling ran all over the place and I ended up with more of a pile of mush on my plate, but I didn't care. I wanted to see what my blood, sweat, and tears tasted like and I wasn't about to wait until the next morning to do so!

These were Trav's initial observations- it didn't have the lattice design like Grandma Tress used to do, hers was a bit more congealed, and they taste a lot better once cooled, but it was still pretty good.
He ended up bringing a piece to work for breakfast the next morning though and called me later saying, "Your strawberry pie was so GOOD!" That probably made the entire fiasco, worth it. He ended up enjoying it so much that he had a piece for dessert when he came home that night, a piece for dessert last night, and brought the final piece to work for breakfast this morning! He never, ever, eats my desserts for that many days in a row! He usually gets 'desserted out' after the first helping.

Another critic I was hoping to to please by taste (not appearance!)


He's a tough one to please, so I was holding my breath.


Not sure if that's a satisfied look or a look of disgust...


There we go! There's the reaction I was hoping for! He definitely enjoyed his pie. You know when he approves of something because after he takes the first bite or two, as he's got a mouthful of whatever it is you are trying out on him, his eyes kind of light up and then he does this up and down approval head shake. It's cute.


A piece that I cut for myself for lunch the day after it was made, when it wasn't so runny! I used the filling that ran out as topping though and it was good! Last night I also made some homemade strawberry whipped topping, using whipping cream, vanilla, strawberry jam, and sugar. It called for heavy whipping cream and confectioners sugar, but I made do with what I had and although I'm sure it wasn't as thick as it would've been had I had the correct ingredients, it tasted SO good and I was sad that I didn't make it for the other two pieces I had already eaten!

Well there we go, a blog all about my strawberry pie experience! Looking back at it (after I calmed down) I laughed at myself and thought, my friends who also enjoy cooking and baking would probably also laugh hard at my disaster, so I wanted to share.

The lessons I learned from this experience are as follows;

1. Don't ever start a pie at 4:00pm at night. That is unless you are a night person and 4:00pm is your 10:00am.
2. If you are going to use a food processor for your double crusted pie, make sure it's not a mini
3. Let your crust come to room temp for the amount of time it calls for
4. Make sure all edges have been pinched together appropriately so you don't have spillage like I did
5. Just remember that you are not entering into a pie baking competition, so have fun with it and don't stress!

I will be posting a short (mostly pictures) blog about how the last few days have been for us. It's not all been about strawberry pie, I swear! I've got the exterminators coming in a little to take care of my bug problem though, so right now I need to get ready for them.

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Oh and Grandma Tressa, R.I.P. Although I know that someday will get the opportunity to see you, I truly wish with all of my heart that I could've met you during your time here on earth. You mean so much to the entire Ramey family and you sound like such a wonderful, wonderful person. Someone I probably could've learned a lot from. I love hearing stories about you. I know my pie(s) will never hail in comparison to the ones you made, but I will always try to make you proud :) Travis and I have actually decided to make baking pies a weekly occurrence once I get back from my visit to Alaska. Next up, is apple.

Love,
Travis, Cindy, & Dylan Ramey

Fun in the sun

Let me first start by talking about a little problem I've been having lately.....with bugs! They have become such a nuisance lately! I dread the day I see something bigger than the dime sized spiders, a few nasty cockroaches, teeny pincher bugs, a couple ants, and the few little beetles I have been seeing but for now, even these 'little' critters are becoming dreadful! It's like every time I turn around, I see a new little guy creeping around! I will admit, even being the biggest WUSS when it comes to bugs and especially spiders, that the ones I've been seeing aren't huge by any definition. But, I DON'T KILL BUGS....of any kind! It has taken a lot of courage for me to do so these past few days. Thankfully I have a little help. Dylan has stepped up to the plate for his momma! He's on major bug watch around this house. Daddy taught him last summer to poke at the little ants that used to roam on our sidewalk and I guess it stuck. Not even the teeniest of gnats could get past Dylan. He squats down to them, focuses real hard and says, "bug!", "bug!". Sometimes (depending on the size of the bug) we will have him step on them, but most times he just points them out to us and then once we 'take care of the problem' he says, "dead bug". It's probably the only cute thing about the bugs in the house!
Anyway, tomorrow I am putting in a work order for the exterminator and while I know it won't get rid of the problem all together, it will give me some peace of mind at least for a little while and then I will be taking a 'critter vacation' to Alaska, where the biggest critter problem I have to worry about, is mosquitos! A little 3 week break from killing spiders and cockroaches will be nice!

So last Friday it was about 85 degrees and nothing but sunshine, so Amy and I decided to lay out for a bit in her back yard. After getting hot while soaking up the rays, we decided to bust out the slip n' slide.....for US!

My friend Amy. She's special. :)


Saturday we were supposed to be taking a Ramey/Barker family trip to Ruidoso where I hear they have some cute shops, good food, and the Ruidoso Downs Race Track (where I want to check out a horse race at before the season is over), BUT our little weekend plans were quickly squashed by one little word, "Excercise" and a few other words, "Three ring standby". And then I had a few of my own choice words, but I won't post those on here since I'm trying to keep this PG :)
In all seriousness, it really did upset me being that the weekend prior he was on regular standby for his shop, which meant he had to stay within the immediate area, be on call after hours, and go into work for a few hours Saturday and Sunday morning. So we had decided that the next weekend (this past weekend) we would go to Ruidoso since he would be off of standby, but then the good folks high up the chain somewhere decided to kick off an excercise. Which put him on standby to have to go in and 'process' at any given time that they decide to call, as if he were to be deploying. They didn't even end up calling him, but he found out today he'll be getting called in to do his processing tonight......at midnight. Thank you Air Force! Oh well, such as life. We had it pretty easy up in Alaska and I was fully aware that it would all change once he got back into a CE squadron, so I can't complain. I was made aware :) And at least he's not having to constantly go TDY or be deployed....at least yet, and frankly I hope NEVER! I count my blessings for that because I do have many friends who have it a lot worse off.

Anyway, so once our Ruidoso plans got squashed, we decided to make our own fun, in the Barker's back yard! Jonathon cooked us minute steaks and potatoes, we let the kiddos play and then the boys decided to bust out some hunting gear in complete and utter excitement that turkey season was to kick off one week from then.

Sharing a snack on the Disney Princess sofa

Life can be pretty rough for Kaylee sometimes :(

The turkey blind



Dylan hesitantly touching the turkey

I'm so sure the turkeys will never spot these kiddos!


Kaylee's ready to go!


Saturday (instead of going to Ruidoso), we went over to the Barkers (again, I know! Not gonna lie, their back yard is SO NICE, so I much prefer being there on nice days, than at my own house. I always tell them we use them for their back yard....but hey, they get food out of the deal every once in a while!) and cooked them some bbq ribs, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and garlic cheesy bread. The food was awesome, but the ribs where PHENOMENAL! We knew they were going to be amazing from the moment Travis put them on the grill. The rub smelled amazing and it tasted even better!

The kids even enjoyed the food! :)


Kaylee's mohawk

After dinner, Travis and Dylan decided to play in the sprinkler for a little bit. Dylan absolutely loves being outside every chance he can. And especially loves splashing around in water

Daddy adjusting the sprinkler with his little beach bum





Sunday, the barrier crews had to go into work to do a tape change, so it was just Amy and I at church. It was okay though, I still definitely enjoyed the sermon. The guys went to shoot their bows after work in preperation for opening day of turkey season, we had leftovers for dinner and then well, that wrapped up our weekend!

Yesterday I told Amy I would go with her to look at some new vehicles (they got one by the way! A very nice GMC Yukon. Congrats once again!), but before Dylan and I met up with them, I gave him a waffle and a banana at the table for breakfast, left the room to finish getting ready, came out to check on him, and found him looking pretty comfortable....


Last night I heard a lot of chit chat going on in the bathroom and walked in on this....


And today, when Travis ran home from work really quick and I was busy talking to him, all of a sudden Dylan comes running into the room looking like this....

I don't recall that he's ever gone in and just started putting on his shoes to play dress up. Let alone his rain boots and on the correct feet! I was laughing so hard!
By the way, pardon the frequent nakedness. In past photos, this photo, and future photos. We are not trying to teach our child to run around like he is at a nudist colony, but we are potty training and he's doing GREAT, so long as he doesn't have a diaper or underwear on. If we put either one on, he just pees in them. So, hence the constant naked toddler. And the only reason he was completely naked in this picture, was because right before Travis showed up, he had just gotten out of a quick bath and I hadn't quite gotten him dressed yet.
Also don't make fun of my version of editing out the private area! I have no clue how to 'photoshop' nor do I even have that program, so this is the best I could come up with!

Anyway, after Travis left to go back to work, Dylan and I were trying to finish getting ready for our walk. I took his boots off so I could put his diaper, shorts and shirt on, walked out of his bedroom to finish getting the bag ready and then he reappeared looking like this....

It was pure ridiculousness, but I thought it was cute that he took the liberty to dress himself, so who am I to tell him he can't wear a hat too small and rain boots on a sunny and 80 degree day?

Anyway, now here it is the next morning (after I first started this blog), Dylan woke up and the first thing he did was ask for his boots. Such a silly boy!


Well, that is it for now! Hope you enjoyed.......

My sweet, sweet, boy....

Dylan is my little rock star lately! I know, I'm probably a bit bias being his Mom and all, but he has really just taken this whole 'growing up' thing, to a whole new level!
I can proudly say he has peed in the potty at least twice every evening since he first told us he had to go 'pee pee melmo' on Tuesday. Not only that, but he can count to two all on his own, repeat the alphabet as we say it, count to ten as we do, and today as I was reading him and Kaylee a book, he was repeating every word I was reading. As I read the first few sentences like normal, he was kind of speaking in jibber but I never thought anything of it. Then all of a sudden I realized that about every third word he said was a word out of the sentences I was reading. I asked Amy if he was repeating what I was saying and she agreed that's what it sounded like, so started reading every word very slowly and he was indeed copying me word for word! My little monkey man has been making his momma so proud :)
Now, if we could just work on him not being such a bully around younger kids, we'd be good!

I don't know if it's because he was (mostly) the victim of bullying for so long, the fact that he's 'the older kid' now, if he likes Kaylee (you know, like your mom always used to say about that boy on the playground, "He only pushes you because he likes you"), or if it's just simply because he's going through 'that phase', but he has been quite the little bully lately. It's actually not really like he's running around being mean per say, but he's just been kind of rough around little kids. Not really paying attention to what he's doing and he's been trying to pull the whole "mine" thing lately. We're working on it though and I'm hoping it's 'just a phase' that will hurry up and pass! Because he really is such a sweet little boy!

Anyway, enough bragging and then ragging on my boy! On to the past few days and some pictures....

My camera battery had died right after I took these pictures so I couldn't put them on my other post, but here's Dylan opening his Easter package from Nana.

Checking out the goods...

He kept calling this a turtle, but I'm pretty sure it was an alligator buddy! Either way, he was super excited about it!

Loving his singing card that sings, "Here comes peter cotton tail, hoppin down the bunny trail..."

So yesterday Amy, the kiddos, and I hopped in the car for Las Cruces to do some shopping and returning of merchandise.

On the way there Kaylee and Dylan decided to do a little reading to pass some time ...

And then Kaylee felt her baby needed some comforting....Dylan in his "eyes" (sunglasses)

After Target, Old Navy, about five stores in the mall (to include Barnes & Noble where I picked up a copy of the new Chelsea Handler book. So excited to read it. Was going to start it tonight, but decided to do this instead.....), and lunch at Chik Fil-A (ooooo Chik Fil-A how I love thee!), the kids looked like this though.....I would have to say, they cooperated very well yesterday. I don't recall one melt down which in my opinion, means it was a great day! We let them walk around in the mall quite a bit, which I think helped them from feeling cooped up for so long.
Anyway, it was a fun day in Las Cruces. I really do love that little city. It makes me happy to know if I'm ever feeling like I need to surround myself with bigger buildings and more people, I can take a 45 minute drive and make it happen. Oh, and I decided I'm becoming more and more acclimated to this place. I checked out the forecast for Las Cruces before we left. It called for sunny, but breezy and 69. I went straight for the jeans and brought a hoodie. I told Amy that 69 and sunny in Anchorage means everyone is outside in shorts and tank tops drinking ice cold drinks!

Today I went over to Amy's for a while with the intention of laying out when we put the kiddos down for nap, but (here I go getting all wimpy on you again) it was cold! So we stayed inside and watched some good smutt tv. You know, the kind of shows you can't or don't want to watch in front of your husband because either he will make fun of you, or complain about it the whole time.

Dylan's first day of school.....haha, just kidding. It does look like one of those standards pictures your mom would always snap right before you walked out the door on your first day

Mesmerized by the 'big trucks' (aka the noisy construction workers and trucks that have been working outside of my house since we moved in)


"Kicking rocks" Hahahah! I so hope you're reading this Rachel, that one was for you!



Aww, there's my sweet boy! Giving baby Kaylee kisses! He was actually being nice for the moment and not stealing a toy from her :) Cherish, you might not want to let Autumn see this ;)


Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the new pics......it's now officially way past my bed time, so I'm going lights out!

Making Some Potty Training Progress

Been feeling a little lazy with these posts lately. I really do have a lot to talk about, but by the time we wind down from our day, I really just want to relax! I put the pictures from Easter weekend on my Facebook since there were a lot of them and since I didn't get on here to post!
Anyway, Easter weekend was great. It was my first official holiday without my family and although it was different not having them here, I still had a great time thanks to all of our new found friendships.

On Saturday our good friend Nick, who was stationed with Travis in Alaska and is now stationed down in El Paso, came up to stay the weekend. Dylan couldn't have been more excited to see him. Dylan loves Nick. And Nick loves Dylan (so much so that he just called today asking when he could take him for the weekend because he misses him! :) and he is so great with him.
Ever since Nick came up the last time and then left, Dylan has been asking for him. Especially when he sees a 'big truck' like Nick's.

Saturday night we had a bbq here at our house and had just a few people over. It was nice. We had way too much food as usual and I think Trav was a little disappointed that he was on standby and couldn't enjoy a beer or two on such a warm day, but all in all it was still a pretty great time for all of the adults and kids.

Sunday morning we went to church with the Barker's and then had an Easter day bbq at their house. They invited a bunch of people from the guys' shop. The weather was amazing, the company was great, and we had a good time! Jonathon got a Slip N' Slide for the kiddos and while they were napping, a few of the adults even induldged! It made for good times! We stayed for several hours and during those several hours (about 5 to be more exact), I decided it would be a good idea to sit in the sun and work on my 'color'. I call it color because it's not quite tan, but once I get it going, it's not all burnt either. Anyway, it turned out to be not such a good idea! The right side of my body was ridiculously lobsterized by the time we left. Thanks to Travis and our awesome aloe plant though, the burn went away after the first night!

After the bbq we came home and let Dylan open his Easter basket. We ended up doing things a little backwards this year due to some well, mostly poor planning on our part, He's only two though, so I'm pretty sure he didn't even notice the difference! The boys were left in charge of his Easter basket and the final result was a turtle kite (have I mentioned the strength of these spring winds, good choice I say!), a semi truck, and a small monster truck from Daddy (he's been obsessed with "big trucks" lately so that was the theme). Uncle Nick picked out a big 'big truck' that had a 4-wheeler and a little man on the back. That present definitely trumped all three of the presents Daddy picked out!
After the Easter basket reveal, we took him outside to dye some eggs and then go on an egg hunt with them. He had SO much fun with that! He loved everything about dying the eggs and the egg hunt even more! Trav asked him if he wanted to do it again and he got the biggest smile on his face, so we did!
After all of that, Nick and Dylan played in the sprinkler for a while and then unfortunately we had to say our goodbyes to Uncle Nick.

That was our weekend. It was busy and fun all at the same time. Needless to say, we all slept really good Sunday night!

Yesterday, Amy, Hollie, all the kiddos, and I went on a walk to eat some lunch and on the way home, Dylan and I stopped to pick up his Easter package from Nana & Papa.
Dylan scored some new clothes, a couple candies, an EXTREMELY soft bunny that looks like a dog, a little car with a bunny in it, and a card that plays music (by far I think his favorite thing out of the whole box!). Travis and I scored some GIRL SCOUT cookies!!!! and a dark chocolate bunny! Thanks mom and dad, the package was so nice to get! :)

Yesterday evening we had a very exciting event take place. Dylan asked to go "Pee pee on Melmo" and then.......HE DID!!!! Melmo is Elmo by the way and what he meant was to go pee in the potty, while sitting on the Elmo toilet insert that we got him. Oh my gosh let me tell you, he had a BLAST watching his pee flow out! He wasn't just letting it flow and I'm not sure if that was because he was unsure of it all, or if he was just having too much fun 'playing', but he would pee a little and we'd all laugh and then we'd tell him 'good job!' and then he'd pee a little more, etc. He took a little while to get it all out and then finally said, "done!". So we washed his hands and gave him two M&M's as a reward (I decided that rewarding him would be my new tactic if and when he ever went pee in the potty again!). Either that was a good motivation for him, or he just didn't get it all out the first time, but either way about ten minutes later he asked to go pee pee again and once again, sat on the potty and peed!

This morning when he woke up, I kept his diaper off for a while and he tried so hard to go in the potty. I knew he had to go and at one point he even said, "Mommy, pee pee, Melmo" so we went in and he sat down, pushed so hard to get it out, but nothing was coming. I finally ended up putting a diaper on him since we had company coming over for lunch and he ended up filling up his diaper. I knew he had to go.

After we got home from eating dinner tonight, Trav stripped his diaper off of him and low and behold, he ran to Trav and said, "Daddy, pee pee Melmo!" (I ran to the BX to return something and missed this part), so he took him in there and he said he let it all flow out this time! Trav said when he got finished he washed up his hands and then gave him his two treats and Dylan counted, "One, two"! Oh my boy, I'm so proud! I was so happy to hear Travis tell me this, but almost didn't believe him about the counting. About 20 or so minutes after I got home he asked to go again, so we took him and in there and once again, he went! I really think we may be making progress on this! I'm not pushing it too hard, but I'm going to make sure I keep pursuing it and not get lazy like I was probably doing before.

So at bedtime we've been trying to count with Dylan a little each night and/or recite the alphabet. He can pretty much copy every number and letter we say clear as day now, but tonight we were really trying to work on getting HIM to recite the numbers on his own (especially since I wasn't believing that he counted the m&m's on his own!). It took a while (mostly because he is two and has the attention span of a gnat) to get him to focus and count, but he did! He only got to two on his own, but one of the times he ALMOST had three until he lost focus. He has so much fun when we do that with him though and especially when he gets praised for all the correct stuff he does. He claps for himself now when he finishes and laughs. It's way too cute for words really. I wish I could've captured tonight on video.
I walked out of his room tonight with a very warm heart, a smile, and a big 'thank you' to God for letting me be his mommy. He is my little monkey man and without him, I honestly don't know where I'd be. And even though he is growing up right before our eyes, he is still my little baby boy!

Tomorrow Amy and I are going in to Las Cruces for the morning. I've got some returns to make and she's got some bathing suit shopping to do for her cruise that is coming up. I'm going to pick her up bright and early, get us some iced coffees and hit the road! Should be a fun day and I just hope the kiddos will cooperate!

My camera battery died shortly after all the Easter events, but it's been charging all day today, so I will make sure to get some pics tomorrow for the next post!

Happy Birthday!!!

Dylan and I have been hanging out with Travis' BBF's (Best Boyfriend Forever) wife and daughter, Amy and Kaylee quite a bit these past few days. Sweet little Kaylee isn't really on a schedule and also wasn't napping too consistantly. So after talking to Amy about Dylan's schedule and how good it is for them (and US!) to have structure and routine, etc., Amy enlisted my help in getting Kaylee on a good schedule, including being able to take a good long nap in the middle of the day (she was just nodding off in 15-20 minute intervals on her mom or on car rides, etc.) Now, I'm no 'Supernanny' and I will be the first to admit that, but thanks to advice and help from my good friend Cherish, I'd like to think Dylan has a pretty good routine and sleep schedule down pat. BUT, before he got on that schedule, I remember feeling completely clueless as to where to even begin. What I ended up doing was mimicing Cherish and her daughter Autumn's schedule daily, until Dylan was doing the same routine. So, I suggested the same for Amy and Kaylee. Because Kaylee likes to nod off during stroller walks and car rides though, we've been staying pretty close to home. Going on wagon walks around the block to the playground, playing in the backyard, etc.


Oh by the way, on Sunday after trying to attend service (that was cancelled due to a close call with an electrical fire), we went to grab a bite to eat. We got caught up in conversation and didn't realize the reason Dylan was being so quiet.....

Yeah, that would be ranch all over his church clothes!

Dylan kicking his feet up and eating dinner at the purple princess table

Kaylee 'running'

I don't know why, I just love this picture

And this one

Dylan giving Kaylee hugs

Love this picture of Kaylee!

So today was/is a very special day. It's two of the most wonderful men I knows birthday. My big brother, Sean and my amazing husband, Travis. Yep, they share the same birthday! I knew it was meant to be :) They are exactly one year apart. Travis turned 28 and my brother turned 29.....meaning next year is the big 3-0 broham!

Anyway, if you know my husband, you know that he is a big kid in a man's body. When it comes to anything involving gifting for him, he lights up like a Christmas tree. And because of his overwhelming excitement, he was able to guilt me into letting him open his presents a day early!

Dylan was his present! Just kidding, it's the camo gear and turkey decoys!Trying to get Dylan to give the turkey kisses

And then his ACTUAL birthday came (today) so we had.....

CAKE! That Dylan worked really hard on, give the kid a break, he's only two! We had a delicious dinner too. His choice; steak, fried potatoes, beans, pasta salad, and cheesy garlic bread. We had Miss Kaylee (and mom and dad) overJonathon (Travis' BBF) and KayleeAfter dinner, we walked across the street to the park to let the kids play and then went home for cake. Overall, I think it was a pretty good birthday for Travis. I still don't think any birthday can top the one that him, Dylan and my parents put together for my 27th (nice, mellow, low key night at home with a fabulous dinner and cake!), but Travis said he had a good night, so that's all that matters! :) Happy Birthday Travis!!!!!

(Sporting all of his new stuff- he's been getting really into turkey hunting these days, so Dylan got him all decked out and ready to go!)