Potty Training - Take 2

Remember last year when Claire was potty training? Well it went well for a little while, then finally Luke potty trained and I got more and more prego and I just stopped working with her. Occasionally over the last year we've tried for a day or so, but after cleaning up pee a few times I just put her back in her diaper. Meggan (our nanny) has been working with her a lot the last couple of weeks so we pulled out the potty chart again last week. She gets a simple star sticker for trying and a special sticker if she goes and a princess prize.

Then something happened. On Saturday she woke up dry and I knew it was my chance so I put her on the potty.....and I kept putting her on the potty every 20 minutes for 2 hours and NOTHING happened. Then I had to go pick up Tayson from soccer so I gave up and put a diaper on Claire and we ran to the game. We were only gone for about 20 minutes total and when we got home her diaper was still dry so back on the potty and this time she went. I was so excited! She wanted to wear her panties to Luke's soccer game so I packed a big Ziploc, extra undies and pants and off we went. No accidents. Then we went to Roman's birthday party and she wore panties there too and even went potty at Jeannie's house. She made it all day without any accidents. Then on Sunday when she got up she was a little wet and very upset that she went pee in her diaper. She wouldn't wear a diaper to church (or underwear) she wore her "special church panties" as she called them (bloomers that matched her dress). We went into nursery a few times to take her to the potty but she didn't go or have an accident. Todd's grandpa came in town for the day from Idaho so we took the kids up to Salt Lake so I made her wear a diaper. A few hours into our visit I looked over and she looked like she was going so I took her to the bathroom to change her diaper and low and behold she was dry and went as soon as I put her on the potty. Yippee!

Today was a good day again. She went to Wal-Mart in her panties to pick out more princess prizes and get ice cream. I am so excited that she is really doing it. A few more days of this and I think I will only have 1 kid in diapers. First time since Luke was born minus a few short months before Sophie was born.

Some thoughts...

I had the opportunity to attend the YW General Broadcast yesterday and I felt the spirit so much. I am so grateful to have a living prophet on the earth and for the knowledge I have that he is inspired to know the things we need to know right now. President Monson said that this is the most difficult time to be alive with the trials that are our youth are facing right now. As I thought about what he said I felt so humbled by the fact that I have to raise 4 very choice spirits in such a diffiuclt world. I want more than anything for my kids to gain a strong testimony to help them get through the trials they will face. I am so grateful to know that I am a daughter of God and that he loves me and wants me to return. To know that each of my children is a child of God and that I will receive help from the Lord as I raise them. I am so excited for Conference next week so I can continue to strengthen my testimony.

A clean bill of health

Yesterday was not fun but this morning I woke up early and was at the hospital by 6:30. The best part is that I was rather quiet since I had a lot on my mind and it was early - but Todd was very chatty. He just kept talking to me about fast food and the movie "Supersize Me" I think it's the most I've ever heard him say before 10:00 am.

The procedure was quick and painless and I was on my way home within an hour with a clean bill of health. I'm so relieved to know. Now I just need to clean up my diet, add more fiber and water and get more sleep.

There I said it....

Colonoscopy....why is it such a hard word to say? Not because it's a long word but for some reason it's embarrassing to say out loud. It's embarrassing that it's something I have to have, but there is no reason to feel this way.

For the last few months I haven't felt well. I'm tired....I mean TIRED! It could be a lack of iron, or water or sleep who knows but it has been bothering me. My gut hurts a lot and I haven't been "regular". Normally this would be no cause for alarm but I have quite the history. My mom had cancer in her 30's and my aunt in her 40's and my other aunt and my grandma and my grandpa. So I'm a little paranoid.

Today all I've been able to do is drink liquids - no food, fiber, dairy, or even red food coloring. For lunch I enjoyed a nice drink with 2 pills that made me feel like I was getting the stomach flu. Of course that hit me right in the middle of a meeting that I was running .... very fun. And now tonight I have to drink this crazy drink (which is doing some major cleansing) every 10 minutes. I've never realized how fast 10 minutes passes. I'm almost done then I'll have a few more hours until I can relax and go to bed. Then no more liquids and at 6:15 tomorrow morning I'm off to the hospital.

I'm nervous about the procedure - I've only been sedated once before for my wisdom teeth. Other than that I'm pretty sure extra strength Tylenol is the strongest I've had. I've been thinking a lot about what it will mean tomorrow if they find anything. I'm healthy and young so the chance of anything really being wrong is very slim but every time I hug my kids or Todd I think to myself how much I love my family and that they are the most important things in my life. I am so grateful to be an eternal family. I got a blessing tonight which helped a lot.

And the good news is....I'm going to have a total skinny day tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be way below my goal weight :)

Moab Half Marathon

It's done. Thank goodness.

Before the Race

Leigh Anne, Traci, Gretchen and I
on the bus getting shuttled 13.1 miles up the canyon

Leigh Anne, Gretchen, Traci and I
waiting for the race to start

We got up to the top of the canyon and waited over 2 hours before the race started. It was FREEZING cold. We walked around to keep warm, ate our banana's and protein bars, peed multiple times, stretched, tied and retied our shoes (ok only Gretchen did that) and got excited to race.

The Race

Before I knew it we were lined up with about 4000 other runners we moved to the front 1/4 of the runners to start and it only took us 2 minutes to get over the starting line after the race started. I felt good at the start and it was a lot warmer already. Within the first 2 miles I was already down to my tank top. We ran at a good pace (8:30 - 8:40 average) for the first 8 miles. Then I totally felt it hit me...I was totally bonking! I hung on for 2 1/2 more miles as best I could but by 10 1/2 miles it was all I could do to just put one foot in front of the other. I watched Traci and Gretchen get further ahead but knew at this point I just needed to run my race or I would either puke or have to walk. So I slowed it down for the last 2 miles and just kept telling myself over and over - "one step at a time" and "just put one foot in front of the other". I was sooooo happy when I saw the finish line but had absolutely nothing left to give so I just kept moving at the pace I was going. No sprinting it in for me this time.

Somehow, I made my goal of under 2 hours (1:58). I honestly thought I might pass out or puke right after I crossed the finish line I had to keep walking or I knew it would hit me. It took me about 2 hours before I felt even remotely normal again and by that time we were in the car on our way home and already talking about our next adventures.

working as hard as I could to just finish

After the Race
Don't we look happy that it's over?

and now it's time to train for Little Red Riding Hood in June.

Flashback Friday

In honor of the big race this weekend I'm flashing back to some of the races that have motivated me the most.

Pacific Crest Half-Marathon 2007

Sherry and I
Somehow I let Sherry talk me into doing this race. To date this is the furthest I've ever run (13.1 miles). The race was beautiful and fun and I felt great the entire race. When I had about 1/4 mile left I heard Sherry cheering me on and then she jumped in and helped me pick it up for my finish. I love this picture of us together. Sherry is my idol so having this picture of us together is very motivational for me. The race was in Sunriver Oregon which was so much fun. The day of the race I wanted to just lay on the couch crashed but instead Sherry made us all get on beach cruiser bikes and go to the pool, and into town and all over the place. We rode those crazy bikes everywhere. We didn't want to take the whole family so just Tayson and I went. We rode there with my mom and home with David and Kami. It was the craziest road trip. Tayson was hilarious. He wanted his pillow out of the trunk on the way home and kept telling me to climb back to get it and that he would watch for police. Then he said he was just going to look at the mountains. Until finally he fell asleep. It was such a fun trip - I want to go back and do that race again sometime - maybe next year.

Spudman 2001

Sherry, Heidi and I
This was the first competitive event I did since high school. Sherry talked Heidi and I into signing up for the race and then Heidi and I trained our hearts out. We did the race on our brand new mountain bikes (what was I thinking). When we told Brandon we were doing the race he asked what our goal was and we both said that we just didn't want to be last. He got such a kick out of that and said he was really going to laugh when we were trying to out race each other to the finish line so we wouldn't be last. We were both smack dab in the middle .... no where near last!

Now off to make more memories in Moab with my awesome workout buddies.

Driving Laws

It is now illegal in Utah to text/email while driving. I'll be honest I've been known to text, email and facebook in my car while driving. Usually when stopped at a light...but sometimes when I'm driving. I'm fine with the law and am supporting it. However, it got me thinking about everything else that I do while driving:

• putting on makeup (usually just lipstick)
• eating (ice cream cones are very dangerous)
• looking for the fallen binky/toy behind me
• trying to find Sophie's mouth and get the binky in
• handing back food or drinks to the kids
• turning around in my car to tell the kids to stop hitting each other and be nice
• leaning way back to get the DVD turned on

Maybe they should make kids illegal in the car...they seem to be a major distraction.

Weekly Updates

My goodness life has been so busy I haven't been able to blog much at all. So...here are a few updates for the week.

This morning when I got to spin to teach the stereo wouldn't turn on. After doing a little checking I found out that the circuit breaker blew - so I had no music, no fans and no microphone and a lot of people who got up at 5:30 in the morning to workout! The front desk was really no help at all. Apparently the only person who could unlock the door we needed was the maintenance man and he doesn't get to the gym until 8:00 am. NICE. Luckily, one of the other teachers was at the gym this morning and he totally took care of business so after riding our bikes in silence with no fan for 20 minutes we were back. He had to run 2 extension cords across the gym..but it worked and we still got a great workout.

I'm so jealous - Todd went out for a bike ride today. I can't wait to get out on my bike!!! She's calling my name and so is this gorgeous spring weather we're having this week.

My half-marathon is in 4 days. I can't believe it's already here. We're trying to decide if we should try to get in to the St. George Marathon or not. I'm not sure if I can do a full marathon - training for this half has been enough work :)

Last night at FHE Todd was teaching the lesson and he asked how we start our prayers and Luke answered very quickly by saying "Dear Heavenly Father, thankyouforthisday"

Last week Todd finally put his foot down with me and we had Sophie "cry it out". I was so mad the first night I just can't stand it when my baby cries and of course I blamed poor Todd. She cried for almost 2 hours in the middle of the night - which meant I couldn't sleep at all. It's just so hard to really fall asleep when you know your baby is crying. Then the second night she only cried for a little over an hour and it got less every night. Last night she slept from 7:30 pm until 8:00 am this morning without a peep. Yahoo! Thanks to Todd for making me toughen up.

Draper Temple

Yesterday we took the kids to the Draper Temple open house. I was so excited for a wonderful family event and a chance to teach my kids about temples and feeling the spirit. The temple was gorgeous and I loved feeling the spirit there. However, here is what my kids got out of the trip.

• Every time we went into a new room or hall the boys would say "1...2...3...4" as they pointed to pictures of Christ on the walls then they were keeping track of who could find the most pictures of him.
  
• As we walked by the baptismal font Luke said "mom it's a pool. Can I get in?" So I explained that it is where we do baptisms and they both said they wanted to get baptized in the temple. So I told them we don't get baptized there unless we're doing temple work. That didn't go over very well. We'll deal with this when they get older.
• In the sealing room they were talking about eternal families and I whispered to Claire that her daddy and I got married in a room just like that and she said in a rather loud voice "mama I'm going to marry you here too"
• When we walked into the Celestial room I was asking Tayson if he could feel the spirit and that this was similar to Heaven and I over heard Luke say "Dad, look it's a big shiny rocket" about the chandelier.
  
• On the bus ride over they told us that there would be cookies at the end - so they whole time the kids kept asking if it was over yet and if we could have cookies.
• Then as we were leaving and they could see the temple from the bus Tayson said "Mom, why is Moroni holding a gun?"
  

It looks like we'll be having a few Family Home Evenings on the temple.

Just some thoughts...

My kids crack me up...here are few gems from the past few days.

Yesterday at FHE the lesson was on being a Child of God and we went around the room saying each one of their names and that they were a Child of God. When we got to Claire we said "Claire is a child of God" and she said "No I not! I Claire Bear!!!"

Today Todd overheard Luke singing...."Old MacDonald had a farm E I E I dog poop"

Last night around 2:15 am Claire came in our bedroom and Todd was being so nice and telling her I was sleeping and she said "I don't like you...only mama" then crawled into bed with me with her silky blanket, sippy cup of water and a paper plate rattle (2 paper plates with beans inside it that she made in Nursery 2 weeks ago) apparently she was sleeping with it.

Tonight at dinner Claire kept saying "Fumbs up dude" and giving me a big thumbs up. I'm not sure why but it was so funny to me. She also does this fake laugh and sounded like she was laughing and crying we couldn't tell until she finished and was smiling.

I wish I could just walk around with a video camera to capture the moments. Of course it would have to be stealth or they wouldn't act normal (if you can say they are ever normal).

Eight Months

I can't believe my baby is already 8 months old. It has gone by so fast. She is a very active baby - she cruises along everything. The last few week she hasn't been sleeping very well - usually getting up once or twice at night to eat and some nights she won't go back to sleep unless I rock her for 30-45 minutes. I'm tired...but in the morning when I see her big toothless grin I can't be mad at her. She is such a happy baby. She eats great and is always hungry. She can down size 2 baby foods no problem and follows it up by chowing on finger foods (cheerio's or fruit puffs are her favorite).

I'm at the point right now where I'm trying to figure out if I should ween her or not. She really isn't ever full by just nursing and I usually end up giving her a bottle within an hour anyways. I feed her about 3 of the 5 bottles she gets during the day. At this point with Luke and Claire I just let nature take its course and weened them - but with Tayson I really worked hard to keep nursing him until finally right before he turned a year I finally gave in and stopped. I think Sophie would be perfectly happy if I just stopped but there is such a big part of me that is forcing this since she is my last.

Here are some things I will miss when she stops nursing:

• Her funny laugh cry she does when she knows it's coming or I switch sides. She is so excited.
• Knowing I'm giving her the healthiest thing I can do for her.
• Burning an extra 500 calories a day.
• When her little hand tickles my back and I'm not expecting it.
• The way she always pushes at my boobs like a puppy to get the milk to come out faster.
• When she growls while eating.
  
• The sweet looks she gives me.

And of course some things I won't miss:

• Being the only one who can get up to feed her in the night (early morning)
• Pumping at work
• Wearing nursing bras
  

The Screw

This morning I got in my car after our run (it was the last one in our training .... 10 miles!) and I had a v-mail from Todd. This is what it said...

"Hey Kath, call me when you get this or come home fast Claire put something up her nose and I think I need to take her to the doctor so come home fast."

I wasn't sure at this point if I should laugh or be worried so I called then hurried home. Claire spilt all of Todd's computer screws and somehow one ended up lodged way up her right nostril. My mom and dad got to our house just a few minutes after I did and my mom suggested we try to "blow it out" first. You can tell she had 10 kids...and that Danny loved to put things up noses (and not always his own!) So we plugged the other nostril opened her mouth and I blew in it as hard as I could (similar to CPR) - nothing but snot came out both times we tried. My parents took Tayson to soccer and they took Luke too so we could take a quick trip to the InstaCare with the girls.

2 hours (oh how I hate the Insta Care on a Saturday) after we got there we finally got in to see the doc and she couldn't find the screw in Claire's nose. Todd looked through the fancy light contraption and didn't see it anymore either. So off they went to get x-rays. Another half hour past and then we found out the screw was gone....just gone. It wasn't in her nose or anywhere in the 3 x-rays she got. We asked Claire if she knew where the screw was but she didn't...so it's just missing and we have no idea how it came out. But we both saw it up her nose so we know it was there. What a long day.



A few side notes:

1. When the doctor asked Claire what her name was she said "Claire Bear". She honestly thinks that's her full name and it is HILARIOUS to me.
2. The doctor told us that if she is "one of those kids" who likes to put stuff up her nose a few tips. One was the blow trick and the other was that sometimes kids will put stuff like paper up their nose and it will start to get all nasty and smell. So she said if our kids ever just really smell bad and a bath doesn't help that we should get their nose checked for foreign objects. Funny but good stuff to know.
   

Flashback Friday - The College Days

Tonight I get to go to dinner with KJ so I thought I would dedicate a flashback to her and the good times we had back in the 90's.....has it really been that long?

This was one of the many road trips we took during the BYU days. We drove down to Cali to Amy's house in Hacienda Heights. There are so many things about that trip that are hilarious and so many things that we have all chosen to forget (like playing board games....that didn't go so well).

Amy, Kati and I
How sweet are those outfits? Overalls, plaid and jean shirts....we rock!

Kati and I
We were completely soaked from the Jurassic Park ride

Matt, Kati, Mike, Me, Scott, Ryan and Amy
For some reason we felt the need to try on hats and take a picture

Oh the good days of college.

Signs of Spring

I love spring in Utah...it likes to trick you by coming and going for a while but it's always such a nice relief to know that the long, cold winter is over.

Here are a few signs I've seen in the past few days telling me it's spring:

• Tulip's are breaking the ground ready to show their beautiful faces
• My mom finally cut her rose bushes all the way back
  
• Goggle sunburns (you know the ones you get from spring skiing)
• Blue, blue, blue skies
• Kids bikes and razors laying around in yards
• Kids jumping on trampolines
  
• Muddy shoes
• 66 degree's on my car temperature gauge
• Forecast of snow for the weekend (it wouldn't be Spring without snow)
  

Hooray for spring!

Picture Tag

I got tagged by Jackee a few weeks ago...and I'm finally getting around to it.

Rules:
1. Go to the Document/My Pictures site on your computer.
2. Go to your sixth file.
3. Go to your sixth picture.
4. Blog about it.
5. Tag six people.


This is Tayson's first Christmas sitting by his stocking. He still has that little white puppy dog, Sophie wore those jammies this past Christmas, the black and white brochure in front of him was something for Todd and I from his mom. We all went to a dinner/theater and saw Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Which was a blast! We have read that book so many times, until just recently when Claire got all crazy on it and pulled off the text on the pages (I thought those books were child proof until Claire came along). The little STINKER!

Sophie looks so much like Tayson - except that he was a lot bigger than she is.

As for tagging people - I know most of you have already done this but if you haven't I tag you! It's fun to walk down memory lane.