Always Learning...

Part of being a mom is that I'm always learning. I take bits and pieces of what I hear and read and apply them to my style of parenting. Sometimes they work and other times they don't.

I got a bunch of advice awhile on potty training and I read about a million different websites as well. I was at a complete loss. I felt like we had tried EVERYTHING to get Jayden to go on the potty and he wasn't into it at all! Then one day Jordan comes home from work and says, "Let's go to Wal-Mart and buy Jayden some Curious George underwear." I protested because he already has 3 pairs of Diego undies that never get used. However, the next visit to Wal-Mart we bought Jayden some cool "Cars" undies and Gabriella some cute little princess panties. That night Jayden wanted to wear his new big boy undies so we told him he need to go pee on the potty. And would you believe it, he actually did it. Then the next morning he did it again. I didn't try super hard Sunday-Wednesday to get him to go on the potty because we had a lot going on, but ever since Thursday he has gone pee and poo in the potty EVERY SINGLE time!!! NO MORE DIAPERS!!! (although we are using pull-ups as his "just in case" while he's sleeping or when we're out in public, but he hasn't gone in them once!)

Remember those bits and pieces of advice I mentioned? Last Summer I had a friend tell me, "You can either spend 6 months potty training, or do it in a weekend when the kid is ready." It's totally true! Gabriella has been going pee and poo on the potty for a few weeks now, but we would spend the next few months working with her to try and get her completely potty trained. So I think we'll wait and hopefully when she's closer to 2 she'll be absolutely ready.

It was my goal to have both the kids potty trained by this Summer so that we wouldn't have 3 kids in diapers. At this point, I'm just glad to have one out of diapers!!!

Switching gears a little bit....

I recently came across a blog from a woman in the UK. It's called The Imagination Tree. She has SO many great activities for toddlers! This past week, since it was super rainy, we tried making our own paint and I let the kids do whatever they wanted with it.

It was fun to see them be creative. One of things she talks about in her blog is how parents are always trying to keep their kids from making messes and so when they get the chance to do arts and crafts they're afraid to because they don't want to get dirty. Then they aren't able to be creative either.

Another thing I've taken from her blog is the 5-a-day books. You choose the same 5 books to read to your kids every day for a week. There are tons of benefits to doing this. I'd encourage you to read about it here.

We've started doing it this week with these books:

Encouragement For Parents

Happy belated Mother's day to all you moms and soon to be moms.

I was very blessed to not only spend my day with my children and my husband, but also with my mom, my mother in law and my mom's mother-in-law. We all went out to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant and it was perfect. Jordan bought me two new plants and I love them!

Today during my quiet time with Jesus I was reading 2 Corinthians 1. This chapter blessed me so much, I wanted to share it with you. There are several parts that really stuck out to me.

The first thing that stuck out was in verse 3-4 when Paul says, "God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. ⁴ He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us." Not only does God comfort us when we need it, but He does it so that we can be a comfort to others when they are going through the same thing.

The second thing is in verses 8-11 Paul is telling the Corinthians how they were being persecuted in Asia, "In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. ¹⁰ And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us." I like this because they went beyond just praying a prayer of faith, they put their confidence in God that He WOULD rescue them. It wasn't a prayer of, "God if you wouldn't mind helping us out here.. maybe if you have the time.. DON'T YOU SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING TO US!!! HELLO!!!!!!!" They were fully confident that HE WOULD help them. And we can have that same confidence.

Now the third and final thing is what really blessed me as a mom. I think it was God's Mother's day gift to me. :)

Verses 17-20 "Do you think I am like people of the world who say “Yes” when they really mean “No”? ¹⁸As surely as God is faithful, my word to you does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” ¹⁹ For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” He is the one whom Silas,^[f] Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says. ²⁰ For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory."

As a parent I've always thought it was important that my "no" is no and my "yes" is yes. But I never realized that when I do this, I'm actually showing my kids the CHARACTER of God. This is such a big responsibility we as parents carry. It's one thing to talk to your kids about the character of God and it's another thing to live it out. It's much easier just to tell them... I want to keep this in my mind every time I want to give in and let me kids have their way or to not follow through with discipline.

I hope this blessed you in some way!

My Little Nikon

I carry my little Nikon Coolpix camera with me at all times because I want to capture the moments of my kids growing up... however, I tend to forget that I actually have it. I realized on Friday I haven't uploaded the pictures off my camera since before Christmas. So here is a little preview of what I found.

Jayden eating Cold Stone for his 2nd birthday

Random cute picture

Gabriella looking adorable

Me and Gabri at church

At the petting zoo for Christmas

This is when I decided I love llamas.. and doesn't it look like this guy is smiling?!

Then Friday after my 28 week OB appointment Jordan met me and the kids at my mom's house and told me he was taking us somewhere. So we hopped in the car and drove 45 minutes to Evergreen, CO to try and find a dresser at Habitat For Humanity... Now you might be thinking.. why would you drive 45 minutes to a thrift store when there are probably 100 of them within 20 minutes for your house. The answer: because my husband planned it. :)

We didn't find a dresser, but we made memories, and that's the important part!!!

I also found a few videos of Gabriella's first steps.. and another hilarious one of Jayden running into a wall. I might have to post those in another blog!

hair crisis!!!

I'm in the middle of a hair crisis... It's actually not that bad...

I've been trying to grow my hair out since last Fall. The last time my hair was longer than my shoulders I was 11 years old. So I thought maybe now is the time to grow it out. I've been really into using the curling iron on my hair and trying new styles.. but every time I see someone with short hair I'm tempted to cut mine all off again!

My hair is super thick and it also has a perm in it... that's now grown out about 4 inches. So when it gets longer it's a lot more work to take care of and it's super heavy. With baby #3 due in 3 months, I'm wondering if I'm still going to want to try to have long hair??

One of my favorite shows is Dancing With The Stars. This season Mark Ballas' partner is Chelsea Kane and she has the CUTEST hair cut!!!! Every Monday night I'm tempted to go chop my hair off to look exactly like hers!! (which isn't too different from how I typically have my hair when it's short.)

With Summer just around the corner, as well as a new baby, I'm thinking I might as well just cut it all off!

Side note, I sort of feel like the chubbier my face gets (because when I'm pregnant that always happens to me) if my hair is longer it makes my face look fatter, and if it's shorter and cut more in an a-line it looks thiner.

It's official I give up trying to have long hair...!

Curious George Birthday Party

I've officially decided that Jayden's 3rd birthday is going to be a Curious George party. Since the newest Wertzy is going to be born one month prior to his birthday, I doubt I'll really be up for planning a party during that month, so I'm starting now. :)

I am not a party planner at all. I've always wanted my kids' birthday parties to have a full out theme, but I'm not good at planning ahead. So this should be good for everyone.

I follow a blog called See Kate Sew, and a while back she posted this blog that has a tutorial on how to make a yellow hat, like the "man with the yellow hat" wears on Curious George. So I think I'm going to try to make the hat for the party.

While searching online for Curious George birthday decor I read that PBS.com has free stuff on their site, so I went on over and couldn't believe how much stuff you can print off for free for a birthday party!

I'm also going to be on the look out for CHEAP Curious George books (a. for the party b. because Jayden loves the show and I know he'd love the books)... so if you happen to know where I could find some, let me know. I'm going to be checking the local thrift stores first.

I'm getting really excited about this party and it's still 4 months away! Hopefully I can finish all the planning before I go into labor! :)

Banana Pudding

Today is my sweet husband's 24th birthday! He was born in Quito, Equador while his parents were missionaries to Central America. After living for 12 years in Guatemala City, Guatemala, God brought Jordan right to Broomfield, Colorado and placed us in the same school. It wasn't until we were 14 that we met and fell in love. (true story).

Anyways, I've been trying to decide all week what kind of cake I was going to make to celebrate his birthday. Jordan doesn't really have a super favorite cake, so I've been stumped. I still hadn't made Jordan a cake when he came home from work, so I had planned to take the kids to the store and get stuff to make chocolate cupcakes while Jordan was at band practice for our church. Then right before we left, it occurred to me... Jordan's favorite dessert that I make is a recipe we found online for Golden Corral's Banana Pudding. It's quite disgusting how much of it he can actually eat in one sitting, but he loves it.

I say all that to share the recipe with you. :)

Golden Corral’s Banana Pudding

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 cup cold water (or milk)

1 (4 oz) size package instant vanilla pudding

2 cups Cool Whip

A box vanilla wafers

3 bananas, sliced

Mix sweetened condensed milk with water or milk. Add pudding mix and beat well. Chill in refrigerator for 5 minutes. Fold in thawed Cool Whip. Spoon 1 cup of pudding in bottom of serving dish. Top with 1/3 of each of the bananas, wafers and pudding. Repeat layering twice, ending with pudding. Top with vanilla wafers. Chill thoroughly and keep refrigerated.

Happy Birthday, Jordan!!

Jordan and I after we graduated Broomfield High School

(it was 40 degrees and pouring rain and our ceremony was outside.. which is why we are soaking wet)

June 4, 2005

My Kitchenaid

So for a long time now I've been wanting a kitchenaid mixer... (really who doesn't want one?!)

Well this year with our tax refund Jordan said he really wanted to get me one. He was searching on Craigslist constantly trying to find the best kitchenaid mixer for me. The thing I love about my husband is that when he buys something he does his research about that item. He wants to make sure he's getting the best for his money. I really appreciate that about him. Anyways, he found one at a pawn shop and surprised me by taking me to the pawn shop to look at it. I ended up saying I didn't want that one because it was the professional grade mixer and I honestly didn't think I needed something that heavy duty. So it was back to Craigslist for another month or so. One Sunday afternoon while the kids and I were napping Jordan was secretly downstairs calling around and found me a mixer.

Not only is it a kitchenaid mixer, but it came with 2 attachment pieces: a food grinder and a shredder and slicer. The woman who owned it before me was very organized and had the receipt stapled to the owner's manual with the receipts of the attachments, which are in the original boxes.

Since becoming a stay at home mom I've really started learning how to bake and I've fallen in love! If I ever went back to work I would want to work at a bakery... not decorating, just baking. So I've really enjoyed using my stand mixer to bake. I've also found several other uses for my mixer such as: making pizza dough, shredding cheese, mashing potatoes and shredding carrots.

Side story: for my 23rd birthday I made a carrot cake from scratch and grated an entire bag of baby carrots by hand. It took me about an hour to do and my hand was very sore by the end of the hour. I made that carrot cake again probably about 3 or 4 times last year and each time had to grate the baby carrots by hand. Right after getting this mixer I made the same carrot cake but used my slicer/shredder and it took me a matter of minutes and it was completely painless. I'm telling you, this thing is Ah-mazing!

While we were still looking for mixers on craigslist I was beginning to wonder if I would really use a stand mixer THAT much... because they're not cheap and I didn't want to be wasting our money on something that sounds like a good idea. So I've been pleasantly surprised how often I really do find uses for it!