And so the potty training begins....

Today I'm attempting to start potty training Carson. He's 2 1/2 and showing signs he's ready and I'm definitely ready to stop buying diapers. I'm trying the three day method and so far it has been interesting, your whole day for three days focuses around potty training, it's quite a bit of work but I guess you have to start sometime right? It's funny the things you get excited over, when Carson went the first time today in the potty it was like getting a 100% on a really hard test. I know it's not over yet but that first step was so exciting I had to call Keith.

I'm a little nervous that this weekend's  family reunion/camping trip will ruin it all since we won't be home and we'll be in the woods. Should I bring his little toilet? haha but seriously I don't want all our hard work to go to waste. I'm hoping he'll be fully trained before our big trip to New Jersey in September.

So calling all Mom's who have potty trained, please comment below with your tips and tricks with what helped your little one to finally be potty trained. 

In other crafty news, we had a girls night two Friday's ago complete with lots of goodies and crafts. I attempted this wreath from pinterest, it was a lot more work than I thought, especially since there was no tutorial, but Keith says it's my best wreath so far, so I think I did something right.

wreath from pinterest

my wreath

Man, is it seriously August already? July flew by so fast I hardly had time to catch my breath. These past two weeks that my sister has been home from school on a break and living here with me have been so nice since Keith's been in Montana. We've gone to the pool multiple times since it's still been so hot, floated the river with friends and family, attended more birthday parties, made new pinterest recipes, and hit up Sonic for their 1/2 price shakes. Oh it's so nice to have someone to hang with. In a way I'm more excited for fall than anything because it's my favorite season, but I love the summer too and will miss the things you can only do in the summer here. And I'm excited for September to come for more than one reason...I'll keep ya posted on that.

I'm so bad about remembering to get my camera out but here are a few pics of my nieces, nephew, sister, and Carson at the pool the other week. C loves the water!

Birthdays!

July is  a huge month for birthdays. there are eight just in my family so we're celebrating a birthday at least once a week, some weeks two or three. I've always said I want a summer baby since there are so many fun things to do for birthdays, mostly involving water! Last week was full of two birthday parties, the 4th of July celebration (parade, free activities and food, bbq, fireworks, etc,), and more swimming the days that followed since the weather was so hot! I don't have any 4th pics yet (gotta see if my sis has any), but here's a few from the birthdays.

The cutest cousins at Carson's cousin Skylee's 4th birthday party.

The only two pics of Kirk's 20th I got before my camera died.

Carson and Skylee. Carson sure loved the water balloons

Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of my nephew T.J.'s death. I still can't believe it's been that long. Still feels like yesterday I got that call on a Saturday night when I had been up at college for a week. I miss him and know what a heartbreak it was for my parents, brother and sister-in-law. Today my Uncle Fred passed away of cancer. He was a young guy, four years younger than my dad and was my dad's best friend. I'm thinking of his family and my dad today as they mourn the loss of him. My sisters and I went to visit Fred last Thursday, it was sad thinking how fast the cancer took him and how precious life is.  There have been three deaths since my parents left on their mission (grandma, uncle, and aunt) and they've only been out 11 months, life truly is precious because you never know when your last day will be. Seeing Fred in his last few days really made me think about a lot of things, especially our life after this. Those little things don't matter anymore and family and the gospel become your reason for living. You kind of just think those people most especially your parents and siblings will always just be there, you don't or at least I don't really ever think about when they'll die and then when something like this happens it really makes you think this life here on earth does end.

 Keith also had a co-worker whose wife was in her early 40s and she just passed away all of the sudden a few weeks ago. We saw him last Friday when we went out to eat, it's hard sometimes because you don't know what to say but you want to help. He looked so distraught and said he had slept maybe 4 hours the whole first week. It really hits your heart when you hear of a death of someone you know. Praying for these families.

We Said Goodbye....

Yesterday we said goodbye to our first family car of 5 1/2 years (9 for Keith I believe). It was Keith's first car, my first car and our first family car. We had our first date in our little Camry, our first roadtrip together, we drove away in it after getting married, drove home from the hospital after Carson was born, and took it with us on our move to Boise. It's been everywhere with us literally-- two trips from NJ to Rexburg, to Utah and Boise countless times, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming (Teton Pass--Yikes!), and all over the crazy mountains in Montana. 238, 847 miles later she finally gave out on us, well, the transmission did and we decided it was time to buy another car. Everyone kept asking us when we were going to buy a new car and we said when our Camry dies, and stayed true to that.We sure will miss the many memories with our little cammy, I can still hear it from miles down the road (haha), for those of you that saw it drive know what I'm talking about. She sure was good to us. 

Not gonna lie I was pretty sad when we came home from bowling and saw she was gone :(

Our little Toyota Camry LE

Some month in 2004- May 25th, 2013--We love you CAMMY!!!

Fathers

This post is a little late but better late than never right? This one's for you Keith, I just wanna say Happy Father's Day to you and to all fathers. I think of my own father and everything that I have learned from him, a couple things stand out especially, my financial brain comes from him, I love everything to do with budgeting and saving money and being frugal. My dad also taught me the importance of the gospel and having a testimony. He has been such a great role model of one who has supported his family, he came from a background where he had barely anything, raised a family of 15 on a teacher's salary and has ALWAYS provided and given his family what they needed. I'm so grateful for his example and what he has taught me about being a parent.

Keith....oh Keith. What can I say, Keith is truly the epitome of a good father. Carson and I are so lucky that he is all ours. There have been several people--family, friends, ward members etc...that have commented on what a great guy Keith is, and any of you that know him know what I'm talking about. I sure love him and am so grateful each day for the person he is. Love you forever and always babe.

Here's a few of my favorite pictures of Keith & Carson, looking at them on Father's Day just makes me realize how special these two boys are.

Carson's Favorite

Carson's favorite song is "Gone Gone Gone," by Phillip Phillips. I would always listen to it in the car or on YouTube and then Carson started requesting, "Gone, Gone, Gone, Mommy." It was so cute. He always asks to listen to it on the radio and I have to explain that we have to wait for it it come on, or he asks to watch the music video if I'm on the computer. I showed him Phillips other song "Home" and I think that one might be his new favorite, although he calls it "Home, Home, Home," instead of just Home. haha What a funny guy. He even made my brother's fiance Holly play it over and over on her ipod in the car, right when the song would end he would say "Home, Home, Home" really loud over and over again till we played it again. Oh it's so cute to see him so fascinated by a song.

32

Keith turned 32 yesterday! We celebrated early on Saturday by having a picnic at the park as a family and letting the little man run around in the water, after a little bit we took Carson to my sister's house (I was so glad he fell asleep for her on the way over), then headed out to Mickey Ray's BBQ for dinner. We got the large meat platter and shared it since it also came with three sides, it was plenty of meat and we had a lot left over for lunch the next day. I had never heard of Mickey Ray's, I guess some guy from Arkansas (shout out to Ruby!) moved here and has lived here for about 12 years and started the Mickey Ray's in Eagle about 4 years ago and then the one in Boise that we went to just opened up. We both loved it and were super stuffed. I loved that they served the drinks in Mason Jars, really made you feel like you were in the South

Half the platter eaten...it looks gross in the pic but it was good I promise!

Right after dinner heading up to Crouch

Afterwards we headed up to Crouch, ID which is in the mountains where we saw Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at an outdoor theater. Keith absolutely loved it, he had never been to Starlight Mountain Theater before, I've been a few times but it's been several years. It was a hilarious show and we decided we need to go back to see Oklahoma in a few weeks. 

source: google.com

Waiting for the show to start---second row/center seats--doesn't get better than that, well maybe, since the tickets were free.

Sunday morning Carson was sick so I stayed home with him and decorated the house. When Keith came home we had our leftovers from Mickey Ray's and skyped his family in NJ for awhile. My sister Nikki and her family came over for dinner....chilli dogs (Keith's request), salad, chips, and soda. Afterwards we had Winco's yummy brownies and ice cream sandwiches and Keith opened presents---new fishing waders, 6-pack of root beer (his fav), and some cash. He said his favorite part though was the homemade card from Carson and I. I even got Carson to say "Happy Birthday Daddy" all on his own, I think it's things like that, that mean the most when you're a parent.  Afterwards we lounged, talked and the kids played. It was a great two days.  Happy 32nd Babe!

This morning (the day after) Carson saw all the decorations still up and he said, "Birthday Daddy," and I said "Yeah, did Daddy have a birthday?" and he yells "Daddy!" and looks around for him. I had to explain that he was at work. It was so cute he remembered and understands birthdays now.

Keith's homemade card with Carson's footprint. 

Fishing Waders!

Say Whaaatttt??

So my youngest sibling Kirk (a.k.a SMACKUS) got engaged over the weekend! I can't believe Smack is engaged! To me he will always be cute lil' Kirk. He's 19 soon to be 20 which is exactly when I got engaged too! I'm so happy for him and Holly, he seriously couldn't have picked a better girl for him. Holly fits so well into the family and knew all 15 names before she even met anyone. She's such a sweet girl and I'm so excited for them to start this new chapter in their lives!