Scrapbooking Trip

It's that time again.... My sister and I have created a tradition where once a year we get together and do pretty much nothing but scrapbook for three or four days straight. It's also tradition that while we scrapbook, we watch an entire season of some TV show. This year we decided to catch up on "Lost" and we watched the entire 3rd season. It has been 4 years since we started doing this and we love it! It's so fun! It's a great way to catch up on our scrapbooks and watch a TV show that we haven't had time for during the year. Plus, my kids love it too, because they love to play with their Aunt Kimmy.

We also had a little Wii tournament. Caiden successfully knocked out me, Casey, and Kim in boxing...

...and Casey beat me in tennis, BUT I am improving, just not exactly winning...

One night after we put the kids to bed, my sister and I went to a late show at the movie theatre. Casey likes to give me a hard time because I always sneak in all my snacks. Drinks, candy, and popcorn all stuffed in my purse! I'm far too cheap to actually buy the food there. Rip off! I prefer to be sneaky and bring my own...

Creative Caiden

So, there were 2 funny conversations tonight between Caiden and Casey that totally cracked me up. It went something like this:

Casey: "What letter did you learn today in preschool?"

Caiden: (Holds his hand up and makes the shape of an "o")

Casey: (teasing) "Zero?"

Caiden: (very matter-of-fact) "No dad, 'zero' is not a letter. It's a number. It's the first one in the numberbet."

Casey: "The what?"

Caiden: "The numberbet."

Ha! I died laughing! If there's an alpha-bet, then there must be a number-bet too. So cute...

Then later that night Casey and I were trying to watch TV and Caiden and Paige were running around and being very loud.

Casey: "You have 2 options. Option #1: go upstairs and play. Option #2: go to bed. Which one?"

Caiden: (thoughtfully) "Um...option #3: stay down here."

Oh, that is one clever little boy.

25 Random Things About Me

Well, I too got tagged on facebook to write 25 random things about myself, (and I sure picked some random ones!). So I thought I'd post it on my blog also so my kids can know how truly unique their mom is! Ha!

1. I can type 65 words a minute.

2. I love to eat out. (Olive Garden and Outback!)

3. I don't like to cook (but I am improving).

4. I do make awesome chocolate chip cookies, however.

5. I love to hold newborn babies.

6. I once drove on a suspended drivers license for an entire year without knowing it. oops.

7. I once got 4 speeding tickets in 4 months (hence the suspended drivers license.)

8. I haven't had a speeding ticket in 7 years!! Wahoo! (I have been pulled over 4 times though.)

9. I can say the alphabet backwards.

10. I'm terrible when it comes to turning off the oven, stove, iron (basically anything that can burn my house down). Thankfully, my husband is sort of like the fire chief and is close behind to turn everything off!

11. I love bon jovi and josh groban.

12. I have a tendency to enter every contest I see and am truly convinced that I am going to win big someday.

13. I want to go on a trip around the world (still working on winning the money to fund it).

14. I love boating.

15. I always dream that I can fly. (I hear that's a hereditary thing. Thanks dad.)

16. I love going new places (I never turn down an opportunity to travel!) and trying new things.

17. I love roller coasters. The scariest I've been on so far is the Aftershock at Silverwood Theme Park. I was nearly in tears when it was over, but I would totally do it again.

18. I love to scrapbook and blog.

19. I love to read books that are a series (Harry Potter and Twilight are my favorite).

20. I'm pretty sure I had the largest pregnant belly on the face of the earth. (my family will back me up on that). (FYI: On my facebook account my family DID back me up on that. Thanks alot Kim.)

21. I am a night person and sooo not a morning person.

22. I spend almost every day in the summer at the pool with my kids.

23. I love good deals and I'm a fabulous bargain shopper!

24. I use coupons when I grocery shop.

25. I'm scared of/hate dogs and spiders.

It's a miracle!!

Well, I think I have witnessed a miracle! Paige has actually been using the potty for the past few days. I've noticed within the past week that she has been playing with her potty chair. She will go grab it and put it on the floor and sit on it while she is playing (as you've seen in past posts). Then I noticed one day while she was carrying around her purse (which is a daily thing) that it was filled with all her Dora panties. So funny! So I asked her if she wanted to wear them and she agreed. I told her she couldn't pee in them, which, of course, a few minutes later she did. I said "oh no! you peed on Dora!" She had the funniest look on her face like she really felt bad for peeing on Dora. So for the rest of that afternoon she actually sat on the potty and peed!! I had to ask her, of course, but she still did it! Miracle! Now she has decided that she would rather carry all her panties in her purse instead of wear them, but she is keeping a dry diaper for most of the day. It is so funny when she goes because she will start and then stop, and then smile really big and say "one more time!" and then she will finish. I die laughing. I'm trying to be very careful not to push her, because Paige is the type to get really angry and then take 10 steps backwards just to punish me. I definitely don't want that. I will take whatever I can get. She seems very set on keeping her panties in her purse though, so we will see where it goes from here...

Sledding

This is from a few weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting it. Casey and I took the kids sledding with Papa Gubler and Keenen....

I think Papa got a good work out between Caiden and Paige always wanting to go with him...

Me and Paigey cruising down the hill. She actually really liked it. (To bad my camera sucks and the pictures aren't so clear...one day I'll get a new one.)

Caiden and Keenen flying!! At first Caiden was scared to go by himself, so he would only go with me or Casey or Papa. Meanwhile, Keenen was flying and spinning and all kinds of craziness. So Casey got ready to go down with Caiden and "accidentally" let go to early and Caiden went down by himself. When he realized he was still in one piece at the bottom, the fear was gone and he went solo from that point on. (Although, I am pretty grateful that he's pretty cautious kid...it may be a blessing in years to come...)

Does this count?

So does this count as sitting on the potty? I walked in the room to find Paige watching TV while sitting on her Dora potty seat. Seriously, what prompted her little mind to think "I'm gonna go get my potty chair and sit on it and watch TV"?

I have been telling myself that I would start trying to potty train her after the holidays. Well, now the holidays are over and I've not done a thing. I completely DREAD potty training and she gets very upset just talking about it. For Christmas, my mom bought her a "Elmo Potty Time" DVD and even though she absolutely LOVES Elmo, she will have NOTHING to do with that DVD. I try to get her to watch it and she refuses. Well, at least the potty chair is getting some use....

Christmas 2008

Christmas was spent this year at my parents house in Pagosa Springs, CO. Their house is almost all complete now and it is soooo nice. My mom and dad have worked so hard and have done such an awesome job. It is especially nice to have our own rooms when we stay there and my kids love every bit of it. (In fact, Caiden hides from us every time it is time to go back home). They got a TON of snow while we were there. It dumped almost everyday. It was very pretty. We definitely felt like we were in a winter wonderland....

The first morning we woke up to a herd of elk surrounding the house. (I technically did not see them because I was still asleep, even though my dad tried to wake me. So whoever took pictures with my camera, thanks!)


Caiden and Paige had a lot of fun playing with their cousins....

Caiden LOVED hanging out with his cousin Tanner. He definitely was his little tag along all week long. (Let's just say it's a good thing Tanner is so nice and patient. Caiden never gets tired of playing). They had fun eating ice cicles and playing in the snow....but it was pretty deep.

Casey even got to ride a little bit on Rodney's snowmobiles. The snow was so deep that he kept getting stuck....

All the kids (and me and Jessica) made gingerbread houses. Paige especially loved the finished product. I often found her next to the houses trying to break all the candy off and eat it.

On Christmas Eve, everyone helped make cookies for Santa....YUM!

....and carrots for the reindeers....

Then, as tradition goes, we all got together and read "The Night Before Christmas" (original version) and Kim read "The CAJUN Night Before Christmas" too. And Grandpa read to the kids the story of the birth of Jesus from the Bible....

It is also tradition that everyone open one present on Christmas Eve (which is always pajamas) and if we're all together that year then we get matching pajamas (well, just the girls). If you haven't notice, our traditions are serious business!

Instead of pajamas for the guys, they got T-shirts....Papa looks like he's been drinking some spiked egg nog....

Merry Christmas!

One of Caiden's favorite gifts - the Black Spiderman costume. I think I've mentioned before how Caiden loves to pretend he is superhero of some sort. At the moment, it's spiderman. Now he can be the red and the black one....

Paige got a purse with pretend make-up that she loves. She is always trying to get into my make-up. If she only knows that some day she will hate having to put in on everyday...

My sister and I made a scrapbook of the construction of my parents home. We secretly stole all their pictures and had some of our own. This is a major accomplishment for my dad. He has always dreamed of building his DREAM home and he did it! Literally, he and my mom nearly built this home by themselves. It is amazing! We felt after years of dreaming about it and then making it a reality, it needed to be documented...

Santa was good to Paige and Caiden this year!

Then we got back to Washington and had Christmas all over again with Grandma and Grandpa Gubler....Grandma Gubler was very excited to give Paige her first doll house and it was a big hit. She loves it! Caiden and Paige are lucky to have such good grandparents.....

Family Pictures

In an attempt to get a cute family picture to send out with my Christmas cards, I asked my friend Jami if she would take some pictures of us with her fancy camera. (Thanks Jami!) Here are some of them.....