"Who hears these words of mine & puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, & the winds blew & beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine & does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, & the winds blew & beat against that house, & it fell with a great crash."

Matthew 7:24-27

Monday, September 24, 2012

Norah's 18 Month Pictures

We decided to take some 18 month pictures of Norah up at the lake in Minnesota.  She wasn't really into having her picture taken, but I think we got some that turned out okay. :)  Take a look!
















Potty Training

We had kind of been putting off potty training because Kyler really was not interested at all.  You would ask him if he wanted to sit on the potty and most of the time he would tell you "no".  He has sat on the potty a few times here and there, but nothing consistent.  He would tell us when he was going potty in his diaper and after he went poop, but still didn't want to go sit on the potty.  Early in the summer, we had gone to sign Kyler up for preschool; however, he was put on the waiting list.  We hadn't heard anything all summer, so we didn't really push potty training.  Well, about the middle of August we got a call saying that Kyler made it into preschool!  Which meant we needed a quick course in potty training!  We actually had a little extra time, as we were headed back to Minnesota for the first week of preschool, so we would have a little extra time to work on it up there. :)  So, the 2nd to last week in August, we put Kyler in underwear one day and told him to let us know if he had to go potty.  I also made a sticker chart and said that every time he went potty in the potty, he could put a sticker on his chart, and when the chart was full, he got to open a train he had been wanting.  I really had no method to my "potty training", but I thought we would give this a try. :)  It started off pretty good, but once Kyler realized he could put stickers on his chart, he would go potty and then two minutes later, he would ask to go potty again, because he wanted to put a sticker on his chart.  I was a little nervous that he would keep wanting to do this and would never learn to go potty when he needed to.  So, we then decided to head outside to play, I thought this would help him keep his mind off of wanting to just put stickers on his chart. :)  We kept telling him to "tell us if you have to go potty".  I don't really think we had any accidents in the morning.  Kyler wore a diaper for his nap, and then put underwear on again when he got up.  I think we had one, maybe two accidents later in the afternoon/evening, but that was all.  We did the same thing the next day, and I believe we had a poop accident that day.  We continued for a third day, and he was really doing pretty well, having no real accidents, but constantly being reminded to "tell mommy and daddy if you have to go potty".  Then on about day 4, we headed to Minnesota, so Kyler wore a diaper in the car, simply because we were in the car for 8 hours and didn't know how it would go.  When we got to Minnesota, we continued the same method.  Kyler was in underwear, we kept reminding him to tell us if he had to go potty, (just not as often as before), and he still wore a diaper at nap and night time.  He did so well!  I think he only had 1 or 2 accidents when we were in Minnesota.  Kyler wore a diaper on the way back from Minnesota, again, just because of how long we were in the car and the fact that we'd only been doing potty training for 1-2 weeks.  After we got home, Kyler had an accident the next day, (I think just because he was so tired from traveling), went to preschool on Thursday (we came home on Tuesday), and has really only had 1 or 2 other accidents since!  (And we got back from Minnesota the Tuesday after Labor Day!)  He has been out and gone lots of different places.  We still do remind him sometimes, make him go before we leave the house, or ask if he needs to go if he hasn't gone in a LONG time, but overall, he tells us when he has to go, and is doing great!!  I really think he knew how to do it, but just needed a little practice.  It's so nice to have one kid out of diapers!  The funny thing is, since Kyler sits on the potty, Norah thinks she also needs to sit on the potty too....I think she could also be potty trained within the next few months too. :)
Sitting on the potty :)

Saturday, September 1, 2012

2012 Iowa State Fair

We headed down to Des Moines for our annual trip to the Iowa State Fair on August 16th.  The morning was cool, and was still kind of chilly when we got there, but then the sun came out and it was a perfect day to be there-not too hot and not too cold!  Ben had never been to the State Fair, so he decided to join us for the day!  Here's what we saw/did while we were there!

First stop was the birthing building.  This is always fun as you can see all of the baby animals and even some chickens and ducks being hatched!!
Ready for the day!

Checking out the baby sheep

Baby ducks

Next up was lunch!  We always eat lunch at the Iowa Pork Producers tent.  They have great sandwiches and you get a great lunch for what you pay!
Ben and Kyler eating lunch :)

Next up was the Ag building where we saw all of the different things people had grown, as well as the butter sculptures.  This year there was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gabby Douglas (from the Olympics), and of course the butter cow.
The 2012 Butter Cow

Then we went to check out the animal barns.  The kids loved seeing all the different animals, including the BIG Bull and the BIG Boar.  Kyler said his favorite animal was the horses.  We even got to watch a horse getting its "shoes" cleaned and ready for show!
The BIG Bull

One of the horses

A horse getting a bath...they were huge!

Some of the sheep :)

One of the big boars

We then went to walk through the Varied Industries Building and look at all of the booths and try to have Norah take a little nap. :)  Kyler stayed awake and was able to get a couple of tattoos. :)
Showing off his tattoos

After the Varied Industries Building, we got a phone call saying that Lauren was on her way to the fair to meet up with us for a while!!  We were so excited to see Lauren, we hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks!  After Lauren got there, we went to check out all the pictures and crafts people had made, and then we headed over to the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit.  I think this is so cool that the kids are able to see how the farm economy works, as well as participate in something at the fair.  Here are our own "little hans" at the farm. :)
Norah's ready to go!

 Planting their seeds in the ground...

Norah with her carrot she harvested :)

Kyler driving his tractor to market :)

Norah driving her tractor :)

After Little Hands on the Farm, we walked over to the main road to sit down and hang out for a minute.  Ben enjoyed some chocolate-dipped cookie dough on a stick, and Lauren had some homemade ice cream.  We then decided it was about time for dinner.  We had to have dinner at the Cattleman's Beef Quarters-another fair favorite.  (I had to have a hot beef sunday!) :)  After dinner we said good-bye to Lauren, and then headed back to the car to go home.  We forgot to get a picture of all of us at the fair, but we had a great day and can't wait to go back again next year!