potty dance

I hate potty training. I love the end result, but I hate all the accidents and mess and everything else! I told Jovi that when she ran out of diapers THAT. WAS. IT! So, as she used a diaper I would tell her how many were left and then she would excitedly tell me that she was going to wear underpants! Well, at least she got the idea of it all. As luck (or punishment, either way you want to look at it) would have it, she ran out of diapers the day before Halloween. 

And so it began. 

Her first sticker!

I printed out a really basic potty chart and stocked up on stickers. Every six spaces I gave her some kind of reward. In the beginning I gave her a treat i.e. something from her Halloween bucket for staying dry and clean and another treat if she went pee or poo inside the potty.

I failed horribly when I potty trained Corban. There were a lot of accidents, threats, and tears. Not my best mommy moment and not a lot of fun. Potty training Jovi was a COMPLETELY different story. She would have accidents, but we're talking she would pee a drip and then stop, go to the bathroom, and pee the rest in the potty.

Six days after we started, Jovi has filled her ENTIRE chart and earned all of her prizes! She even stopped asking for treats.

back to school

I love deals! I hate paying full price for most things! What I usually do is buy things at the end of their season for next season. I was shopping and decided to check out the Back to School and End of Summer sales and scored. 

I got 6 outdoor solar lights for $1.50 each, 10 lunch box ice packs for 30¢ each, and I found 2 backpacks for 50% off! 

Jovi and Corban were so excited about their backpacks that they immediately put them on and kept them on for two full days! Corban kept asking if we could go on an adventure with no maps and no where to go. He went around the house and put most of his toys in his backpack and even wanted to sleep with it!

I bought the backpacks for Jovi's and Corban's 72 hour kits. I have gotten most of our kits put together. All I need is some odds and ends, food, and water! So, they're basically worthless until I get those last two items.

What do you put in your 72 hour kits?

zebra bday party

My little girl recently turned two. We invited a few people over where we ...

Ate some cake.

Played some games.
I was dealing with two-year-olds and 4-year-olds. I needed the games to be simple, but entertaining. I first gathered some treats and prizes and separated them into separate baskets. 

I then blew up 10 balloons with a slip of paper inside that either had a 1 or 2 on it. Each kid, and adult, had to pop the balloon with a pin or their body to get the paper out. Which ever number they got, that was the basket they got to chose from.

The second game was apparently THE HARDEST game the kids had ever played! The goal was to get the bean bag into any of the targets. Once they made it, they got to choose from the opposite basket they didn't get in the balloon game. I started out all strict and wanted the kids to stand behind a line that wasn't that far away--so I thought. I had an "ah-ha" moment and let the kids stand where ever they wanted to make the basket. The two-year-olds stood above the targets and the four-year-olds were about a foot away!

And opened presents. 
Jovi got spoiled and I'm okay with that. It's her birthday and she should get a special day were she gets treated a little different.

**I need to take pictures of people!

potty training blues

My daughter turned two this month. I don't know what it is about the magical number of two, but in my mind it means that there should be ZERO diapers in the house; like there should be a magical switch you turn on and they suddenly know and understand their bodily urges and have zero accidents. 

I got pregnant with Jovi when Corban turned two-years-old. I DID NOT want to change two diapers from two different kids and had it in my mind that he was going to get potty trained and he was going to be potty trained NOW! 

Boy, did that blow up in my face! 

I started out with the potty train in a day method and tried EVERY SINGLE METHOD after that. He barely got potty trained when he turned 4-years-old! 

I am not the most patient person. I would over-react when he had accidents, I got upset when he didn't want to sit on the potty, and would sometimes yell. Yikes. Not a very fun time for him or me. And now I get to do it all over again. *sigh*

Even though I told myself I would not push Jovi to potty train, I fantasize about not having to change any more diapers EVER AGAIN!! Isn't that a great thought? So, we're going to take it slow and wait, as patiently as we can, for Jovi to be ready to go on the potty.

First, let me say, I HATE HATE HATE potty chairs! It totally grosses me out at the thought of cleaning poop and pee out of a little container--I'm gagging just thinking about it--that's what a potty is for; so you don't have to touch that stuff once it comes out!! We just sat Corban on the potty and let him sit side ways while we read him stories or he watched shows on the computer. I tried sitting Jovi on our toilet, but she FREAKED!! I'm not completely heartless, so I bought her a potty seat, kind of like this one:

So now every time she gets naked to take a shower, we sit her on the potty and let her get comfortable with the whole process. And I'm trying not to get vexed, even when she pees on the floor RIGHT after I take her off the potty!

Wish me luck!

happy birthday jovi

 I went into labor with Jovi around 4 a.m. and had her around 8:30 a.m. She came out scowling and hasn't stopped. And has been full of sass and attitude ever since.

It has been a love/hate relationship between these two. At least I have proof that deep down they really love each other.

Happy Birthday Jovi!!

building blocks

A friend gave us this wagon and blocks. Jovi kind of likes them. A lot. She'll sit in the bucket and build towers around her. 

bitter gum

Little Miss Jovi is teething.

Luckily, she still eats and sleeps pretty good so everyone else is relatively happy. She is constantly drooling. She reminds me of the dog on "Turner and Hooch" (too young to remember that movie? Check it out. It's a good one.). Because she's had a constant stream of drool, her neck gets pretty caked and coated. It doesn't smell very good either. 12 down. 8 to go. *groan*

just because

I'd lay in there too if I fit.

swimming in January

Yep. One of the benefits of living in a warms state. We can go swimming in the middle of January! Be jealous. Very jealous.

la la

Jovi recently turned 18 months old. Can you believe it?! She is such a fun little girl to have in our home. She is reactive, sweet, sassy, energetic, colorful, and such a princess. And she LOVES to dance! Music doesn't even need to be playing for her to bust a move. She's starting to say a few words, but most is not distinguishable. 

merry christmas

Jovi wasn't completely wowed by Christmas this year, but Corban sure was! He loved the blocks his uncle and aunt gave him and was absolutely giddy about his Spiderman jammies matching his new Spiderman sheets! Giddy until they were put on his bed and he had to sleep in them. 

Merry Christmas!

diaper pals

Yep. We still have 2 kids in diapers. We tried again today but Corban is super okay with wearing a diaper. I think he's gonna be the only kid in high school still wearing a diaper!

How did you potty train your kids?

m.i.a.

The past 4 months have been kind of hard. I started watching my grandma again after I had Jovi. Two weeks ago, she died. She looked so at peace and better than she has in a long time. These are all my relatives at the cemetery in Richmond, Utah.

Also, me and Jovi have been having tooth pain. I had one of my molars taken out right after I had Jovi and had an implant surgically put into my jaw. It hasn't felt good since. Jovi is almost 4 months old and is teething. She sucks on her hands, doesn't eat very well, is a bit fussy, wakes up at night, has diarrhea, and has a rash on her face and bum.

Hopefully, things will settle down a bit and I'll update my blog a little better (i.e. Halloween, family pics, etc.)

family happenings

Corban LOVES pbskids.org! He would play on the computer all day long if I let him. Here he is playing Fire Boy and Water Girl. He also LOVES his USU, "football" shirt. Once he wears it one day, it is a chore trying to get it off the boy. He would wear it every day and every night. He still loves his cars and will play with them everyday all the while making a motor-boat noise as he moves the cars from one place to another.

Jovi is now 3 months old! She smiles at anyone and is SO close to belly-laughing. I almost had her full on laughing in church today. I guess just a little inappropriate. Corban loves his sister and has to be right next to her when she's on the floor or anywhere close to him. We're talking centimeters away from her. Jovi can't decide if she wants to sleep through the night yet or not. She usually will wake up once during the night, but lately has been waking up 2-3 times. Yikes. Doesn't make any of us happy at home. She did, however, sleep from 8:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. one day last week. Now, I'm hoping she'll make that a habit.

Joe hasn't quite made it to mid-term exams yet and is ready for the semester to be over. Me too. He complains that both Corban and I are uber-hyper and clingy when he's home that it kind of bugs him. Well, he's not home a lot. So when he is home we have to make up for lost time! He is also still working at Smith's Marketplace Pharmacy and loves it! I have to admit that the people who work there are pretty cool peeps.

I chopped my hair. I got 8 inches cut off and I love it! It literally takes 2 minutes to do my hair. And that's including using my straight iron. I'm also getting an implant for one of my molars. I got my tooth pulled in July and the post put in a couple of weeks ago. Boy, does my jaw hurt! I now have about 3 months of recovery time and then the implant can be put on. The only positive thing out of this is that it has been an INCREDIBLE weight loss plan! Ten more pounds and I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight.

about 2 months old

This was her first smile. She's starting to coo a little. She'll smile really big, but doesn't laugh. She's only waking up once during the night. She gets her first shots on Friday.

jovi's blessing

We blessed Jovi while we were in Green River, WY over Labor Day weekend. Most of Joe's family was there and my parent's drove from Logan to be apart of the blessing. Jovi is 7 weeks. My mom made her blessing dress, which I thought was going to be too big, but it was just the right size.

The grandparents.

The flower was made by a co-worker of Joe's. I made the bracelet from beads from both of my grandma's necklaces.
Joe and I were both afraid of how Jovi was going to act during the blessing. I fed her right before the meeting. When I handed her off for Joe to give the blessing, she let out one loud squawk and quieted down. Joe forgot to do a few thing in the blessing, but it was wonderful and he did a good job. Joe walked to the front with Jovi when I started to cry. Remember how she was only 7 weeks old? Yep. My pregnancy hormones were still flying.

guess who's ...

six weeks already?

3 weeks old

My sleep deprived self is having a hard time recalling fun, interesting facts about this sweet girl. She is 3 weeks old. She is starting to focus on us and follow us around with her eyes. She sneezes in bouts of 3 or 4, never just one. She is a gagger. If she doesn't like something in her mouth she will make a face and gag until that thing is out. She wakes up every 3 hours so I get about a 1.5-2 hour nap every 3 hours during the night. She's gained 2 pounds more than her birth weight. She seems to be just as mellow as her brother was when he was a baby.

Corban loves Jovi; maybe a little too much. He helps me pat her back to burp her. He wants to constantly touch her. If she cries, he'll grab a binkie and put it in her mouth. He will scream at her, sometimes, if she cries too loud. He thinks that she has to fly when she's in her swing. He says her name so clearly and so sweetly.

welcome

labor story

Welcome Jovi Grace Beck! She wasn't due for another 5 days, but I guess she wanted to make her grand appearance on July 19, 2011 instead.

I woke up around 4 o'clock with some pretty intense contractions. I then woke Joe up at 4:30 and wanted to labor at home as long as possible. I guess I had labored awhile while I slept because my contractions were coming fast and hard! We got our bags pack, loaded Corban into the car, and left our house around 5 o'clock. I had a couple contractions while in the car and Corban had woken up by then. He was nice enough to help me through a couple contractions by helping me breathe!

They got my epidural in just in the nick of time. That and ice chips (not only ice chips, but the fun ice) saved me!

Joe was a great labor coach this time. I don't think I would have handled the contractions have as well as I did had he not been there to help me calm down.

He even pointed out funny things on the bed in between contractions!

Jovi Grace Beck was born at 8:34 a.m. on July 19, 2011. She weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. I literally pushed 4 times and she was out! Joe and the nurses joked that with a labor that easy I should have 50 kids. Um. No. Jovi had quite a bit of meconium in the placenta with her, so they whisked her to the warming table right away to suction her out. She was covered in her green mess. Her hair and fingernails were green making her look like a little witch! She also had the cord wrapped around her body a couple of times so Joe didn't get to cut it this time around. She was a little blue when she came out but perked right up after a few minutes on oxygen.

We're so happy that everything turned out well and that we have a new addition to our family. Even Corban thinks she's pretty cute. Hopefully that won't change.