Success!

So Madelyn and I are certainly NOT on the same time table. I have wanted for several months to be diaper free! In fact my big push was after Christmas thinking we could go to Disneyland, Potty trained. Obviously that didn't happen! 

So 4 days before we had to ride in the car for 8 hours to my youngest brothers wedding in Utah. Madelyn decides she wants to be BIG, and wear underwear! (GREAT TIMING) I thought about discouraging it, but then figured it wouldn't last, since we have been down this rode a time or two already this year. Well Guess what she is potty trained! 

I was totally shocked that she did it! In the 4 days before we left she had 1 accident. I did however convince her (not really sure how still) to wear pull ups in the car and at the wedding. 

It is so funny though she doesn't say I need to go potty she simply exclaims " I am PEEING"! Not exactly what you want to hear in the middle of the isle in TARGET! We'll be working on that.....

St. Patrick's day surprises

So I am not always on the ball when it comes to holidays. In fact I guess I kind of thought that St. Patrick's day was one we wore green and let go. Well a sneaky "last minute" Leprechaun  made it to our house. He left lucky charms, turned our milk green and left little tiny shamrocks that I will forever be cleaning up!! ( darn leprechaun) Madelyn was a bit disturbed that the milk was green and kept saying eww eww double eww!! I have no idea where she got this, but it is quite funny to hear her say it. Needless to say she was pretty glad when we finished the green milk and had white milk again!! For some reason I am not able to download my pictures. I will try adding them later.

It is great to be 8

Kaitlyn turned eight this weekend. We had such a fun weekend. She has been waiting and waiting to get her ears pierced the rule at the Yates house is when you turn 8. That was exciting for her. (I really didn't think she was going to go through with it, but she did great! Not a single tear.)

Grandma and Grandpa Turner came to visit for her baptism. She was baptised on her birthday which is funny because she has always talked about it being that way. The odds of it being able to happen though are few and far between. It just so happened that her birthday was on a Sunday this year. She asked a friend to sing a song with her "I come to the water" by Janice Kapp Perry. They did a beautiful job.

She is growing up so fast. I love her so much! It has been fun to watch her understanding, and testimony grow these past few weeks as she has prepared for her baptism.

I also had Joe's family send letters to her with there testimony's since they were unable to attend. What a special book that is turning out to be. She absolutely loves it.

Family Vacation

Joe has been wanting to go to the "Happiest Place on Earth" (AKA: Disneyland) for a long time. Some friends of ours gave us a heads up about airline tickets out of Billings to Las Vegas for $29.00 each way! We then rented a car in Vegas and drove the rest of the way. (about 4 hours)

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Every day we were there it rained. These were no little showers either. One might think this would ruin your trip..... Not us we sported our rain coats everywhere! The rain did make the lines very short. We literally walked onto any ride we wanted. The longest we waited was to see the princesses. (a MUST with 3 little girls) about 25 minutes. The water rides were great because we were already soaked.!The kids feet looked like little raisins at night when we went back to our hotel!! There was only one day that it was cool enough that we were a bit miserable. Nothing a little hot cocoa couldn't fix!

I think Joe and I are a little more use to rain than we are COLD!! We thought it was funny that every morning we would get up and look outside. The sun would be shining. We would go eat breakfast and just as we were ready to walk to Disney the showers began!

We were also there for my 30th birthday!(I am officially a BIG girl now.) I think I took on Sophie Shipp's attitude of "Disneyland is nothing." When all she wanted, was to swim in the hotel pool!! I remember long lines and TONS of people at Disneyland, and I wasn't crazy about the thought of going. But it turned out really great. Disneyland is running a promotion this year you can get in free on your birthday. We already had park hopper tickets so they gave us the equivalent of a ticket($69.00) to spend in the park!! The only catch was you couldn't spend it on food. We (I better say I) got suckered into listening to this time share sales pitch, for an additional $100.00 to spend at Disney. We stuck to our guns and declined the time share and left with $100.00 to spend. (Not sure I would recommend this to anyone.) It took a bit longer than they said but we did miss the big rain storm of the day. We actually made it back almost dry that night! We ended the day with Fantasmic and fire works.

We spent the majority of our time at Disneyland. We did make it to sea world one day. I think we all agree that was the grumpy day! The 3rd day Madelyn was exhausted! We actually left at noon and drove until she fell asleep. We ate lunch next to the ocean and let her get a little nap. Then we went back. Ahhhhh life was a lot better after her nap!! We fed and pet dolphins, caught a few of the shows, and touched some sting rays.

Our highlights

Kaitlyn and Jenna loved the Star wars ride! (the boy cousins introduced them this summer to star wars. They totally love it and so does their DAD. Finally something semi masculine they can do together!)

The highschool musical parade1 we had front row seats!

Madelyn loved Toy story, the shooting one!

Joe and I went on the tower of terror! A total bust in my book! I hate those rides that drop you over and over again!!

I Loved seeing the girls see the princesses, and the fairies. Tink was so cute she had a jacket on so she didn't catch the "fairly flu".

The girls getting there hair done. This is ALL Jenna wanted to do. We kept putting it off because of the rain. We finally gave in the last night. Once Jenna got hers done, ALL the girls wanted it done. The lady was so nice she stayed late to do it.

My new best friend....

I LOVE THIS STUFF!! When Joe bought the office the ladies that clean used pledge on everything. The vinyl chairs, sinks, counters everything!! It really is awesome, it polishes sinks great and keeps water spots off. It also protects vinyl and counter tops from scratches etc. My TRUE love came when we bought our house. We have clear glass shower doors in the master bathroom. ( NOT my Favorite!) It WAS beautiful when we moved in. I have no idea what the lady cleaned with. After a week my shower looked awful. I was so sad. I have tried everything rain-X, Vinegar, tilex, the list goes on. I have even resealed the tile! We try to squeegee the water off each time but it still just looked bad. Well a week ago I scrubbed the daylights out of my shower. I used a magic eraser on the glass doors to remove the water spots and then I used pledge. I sprayed it on and wiped it off. Every time I shower I squeegee the water off and spray a thin layer of pledge,most of the time I don't even wipe it off! Behold NATURAL BEAUTY!! I love it.

What's Your Favorite Cleaning Product???

December Already???

I have really been bad at keeping up with this lately. With all the Christmas commotion I just haven't found the time to add to this. Here is a quick run down of what we have been up to.

I guess I will start with Thanksgiving: During the Thanksgiving break we tackled yet another painting project. We decided since Joe's office would be closed for a few days we would paint 4 rooms. However it turned out to be a little bigger project than we had anticipated. We ate drank and slept paint for 5 days straight. We peeled wallpaper and washed walls and then painted our little hearts out. The kids were so good they made tents played games watched movies with popcorn and just hung out in the lobby while we painted. All in all I think we may have chosen a color that is a little too dark. We will see after Christmas. They are putting in some different flooring. I am hoping that will lighten it up a bit. ( I don't have a before picture but think floor to ceiling 80's wall paper and you will have a good idea of what it was before.)

We shared Thanksgiving dinner with a family from our Church. We had all the usual yummy holiday food. Complete with the fabulous turkey that Joe cooks every year. And we had a large variety of yummy pies. And to think I wonder where those extra pounds I am adding to myself come from during this time of year! We have a lot to be thankful for this year. It was nice to spend a day and reflect on the many blessing we have received this year.

We put together a work Christmas dinner. Which turned out well. We served a nice dinner for Joe's employee's. I bit off a bit more than I could chew with sick kids, and lots of holiday things to attend. I was so grateful to have my friend Lori help me out. She made the rolls and some fabulous Christmas cookies for me as well as letting me borrow all of her bowls and platters etc. She also had the cutest idea for a hot cocoa bar for dessert. It turned out really fun with ALL of the fun things you can add to hot cocoa. We found a very tasty homemade cocoa recipe online that was so yummy!

I have to say I think my blood got nice and thin in Kentucky. It has been in the negative numbers for over a week and is going to continue. Brrrrrr, I thought for sure at -20 the kids would not have school. ( Not the case! We got spoiled in Kentucky. At the thought of snow they would cancel. Needless to say the girls were quite disappointed they had to go. I felt bad about sending them on the cold bus, so I took them to school. I don't think I will make that mistake again. It is darn cold out!! Plus they huddle on the bus right???? Due to this awesome weather we now have a permanent pet rabbit in the HOUSE! We felt so sorry for her outside plus we couldn't keep her water from freezing! She thinks she has won the lottery and the kids actually do interact with her a lot more.

I had a bit of a run in with the garage door! It hasn't been working properly and we had already had one ordered. ( apparently a week too late!) It didn't go up all the way but it did go above the back window. I no longer have this piece on the back of my van! Maybe SANTA can bring me this for Christmas!

So in review of what I have written it doesn't sound like I have been all that busy. But somehow my time gets whittled away. We are officially done Christmas shopping. ( It is a good thing too, since Christmas is only 4 days away!) We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of SANTA. The girls ask daily (almost hourly) if they can open just ONE present. We are also excited to go home and visit family. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough that we can do that.

Well with my recent "Lack of Blogging" I highly doubt there will be another update before Christmas!
I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Random Mommy Moments

In lou of the up coming election Kaitlyn has been hearing the voting chatter from school and such. She came home and said " Mom if Obama wins he is going to MAKE us go to school at night AND on Saturdays!"
I haven't heard that one yet!

Today I was at shop-ko and I lost Madelyn, or at least I thought I had. My cart was piled high with paper towel diapers and T.P. And I had my phone glued to my ear. I was frantically calling her name and searching clothing racks, looking everywhere EXCEPT for the front of the cart where she was hanging on obediently wondering what the fuss was all about.

Jenna has been extremely caught up in a small discovery she found today. "MOM I have a space between my teeth!" Mom:" We all have space between are teeth. Jenna:" But I have NEVER had space between my teeth before......"

I sure love these little munchkins!!

I had just finished telling my Visiting teachers how good Madelyn was. That she doesn't really destroy things like my others did. I came down stairs to see SOFA ART!! Yup with a pen! I think while the words were coming from my mouth she was happily scribbling all over my couch!! ( Thankfully it is brown and most of it has come out.....or at least it blends in with the dirty spots!)