The Whiz Kid

We finally had a successful potty transaction today and I was so happy I nearly cried. Okay, there was one glistening tear. I just had to record that my child actually can go pee-pee in the potty. We have proof today. And I am so proud of her for finally following through and proud of myself for sticking to it. If there is anyone out there who is reading this and distressed, I feel for you, I really really do. And I am aware that the rollercoaster has not come safely into the station. There is definitely still more work. But...she did it. She peed in the potty. Who would have ever thought that those words would bring me so much joy...

Potty Training

All I have to say, after two weeks of intense potty training without a single successful pee from my two year old, is: Potty Training = My personal hell. I am not posting for advice because I have literally tried EVERYTHING there is to try and am thus giving up and letting Emma learn on her own (I have built the foundation). I am writing to share a classic Emma story that needs to be recorded for the annuls.

So, the other morning Emma woke up dry so we immediately went to the potty and sat hoping to hear the happy tinkle. We sat and we sat....and we sat. I knew that she needed to go and I wasn't giving up, but I did need to run into the other room and grab something so I left for a moment. Upon my return I look to find a soaking wet pull-up at my adorable child's feet. Turns out that she did really have to go so she waited until I left, stood up from the potty, pulled on her pull-up, peed, pulled-off her pull-up, and sat back down on the potty.

This is a perfect example of what I am dealing with here people. Laugh. I will join you in a few years when my child finally decides that she will joing the land of the big girls and "put the pee-pee in the potty."

Viva Las Vegas Part 2

Tuesday cont - Well, without the camera we arrived in Vegas. We couldn't check into the hotel until that afternoon so we went straight to the convention. I don't know how many of you have been to the Las Vegas Convention Center, but it is large. When we went to the Sema Show a few years ago we found a great parking lot on the back side of the center. We parked there again for the Builder's Show not realizing that we would have to walk a literal mile and a half to get to where we were to sign in as Attendees. We finally arrived, signed in and began our show experience. There were many classes being offered with topics related to surviving the economic downturn - and we, along with the majority of the show attendees, were very interested in attending those. Let me impart the wisdom that we were given: The economy sucks. It sucks because of builders. There will not be any change to the sucky economy in the near future. Good luck to ya.
With that "wisdom" ringing in our ears, we decided we should pursue obtaining as much free stuff from the vendors as possible since it may well be the only thing that we would walk away from the convention with. We did pretty well for ourselves. If you see us walking around in Home Depot shirts and Lowe's hats it is because the sucky economy has landed us with no income, no hope of income, and we can't afford to buy any clothes.
So - the convention wasn't that helpful - but at least we had the great deal we got on a room at the five star Mandalay Bay. We checked in, exhausted, and went up to our room on the 28th floor. With floor to ceiling windows looking straight out onto the strip it was a breathtakingly classic Las Vegas view in a great room. We were happy and went to sleep contented on our pillow-top mattress.

Wednesday - We left the hotel with cupcakes in our belly's, headed to what we thought was a free breakfast that I scored at the convention. It turns out I was wrong and all that was waiting for us was more classes with instructors waiting to dispense the doom and gloom. Oh, and they really, really wanted us to go green. Wednesday was officially "Green Day" and I swear I haven't heard the word used as often - even on St. Patrick's Day. The only Green Products that I was convinced into using were the water faucet that dispensed hot water in, like, 6 seconds and the double flush toilet - one button for number one, one button for number two. Genius.
After the convention we finally had enough energy to head out onto the strip. It was quite a walk to get to my favorite Vegas attraction, the fountains at Bellagio, but they never fail to impress. Across the street, we then went, to the Paris hotel for dinner at the Italian restaurant in the French hotel with the Spanish waitress. We had hopes of splitting a plate, but with the $8 split plate charge, we decided I would get the $8 salad so we have food for the money. We shared salad, gnocchis, and lots of free bread while we listened to our Opera Singing Waitress. There is always a surprise in Vegas. For dessert we went to the Boulangerie and ordered a French Pastry. I'm not sure if it is a french classic, the key lime tartlet, but Matt was floored with the deliciousness and it comes highly recommended next time you are at the Paris Hotel in Vegas.

Wow - I think I am more bored than you at this point. Thursday we will just do highlights - Convention. More free stuff. Matt trying to get me to try on a $2,000 Gucci dress. Me refusing and looking like a shoplifter as I ran out of the store in fear. Matt dropping a $600 Gucci shoe. Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Friday - home again, jiggity jig. Of course, this involved picking up the camera in St. George and getting more delicious cupcakes to make addicts of those we left behind. The conclusion I have come to from this trip is that I officially judge the success of a vacation by the food that I eat. This vacation has thus been given a 8.7 on the successful vacation scale because despite the bad news we were continuously fed at the convention our bellies were filled with scrumptious cuisine and that makes me happy.

A special treat:

Matt's favorite Vegas memory: Gnocchi's at the Paris hotel and indulging in the Key Lime Tartlet which he has dubbed his personal ABTS.

Viva Las Vegas

So, last week Matt and I trekked to Vegas for the annual National Associaton of Home Builders Convention. Thanks to my mom, it turned into a getaway for just Matt and I. I was excited for a little break and had all sorts of picture taking plans so that I could do an exciting and lengthy blog describing our week. A small hiccup occurred on day two, however....

Monday - at about 6:30pm we begin the drive down. We decided to break up the four hours to St. George with a short stop in Provo for dinner. My dad and brothers had taken Matt to "The Smokehouse Grill" on their "man-trip" last summer and Matt raved to me about how great the food was so I mentioned that we should eat there. We sat and our order was taken. Matt had been craving the ribs - so ribs it was. Our anticipation increased as the waitress left to place our order. Moments later she returned: "I'm sorry, I totally forgot - we are out of ribs." WHAT! So, sadly we replaced the ribs with brisket. Our pouty faces must have permeated the place because when they found out that we had driven forty-five (or so) miles just for the ribs the owner came out with an apology, peanut butter cheesecake and news that the meal was on the house. All was forgiven and I now send to you my earnest recommendation that you eat there next time you are in happy valley. You will not be disappointed - even if they are out of ribs.

We arrived safely in St. George around 11:30 that evening and scouted out the cheap hotels on the Blv. We chose the quaint Dixie Palms and settled in for some rejuvenating rest.

Tuesday Morning - When I knew that we would be staying in St. George, I immediately began craving the most delicious cupcakes I have ever had in my life from the unique bakery Sarah and I discovered last September called "Twenty-Five on Main." They also serve breakfast so Matt and I stayed and ordered. I was struck with this place from the moment I walked in. It is decorated in a modern motif with pictureless picture frames on the wall and various cukoo clocks painted in my favorite color scheme of teal and brown. The owner of the establishment served us and I raved about the cupcakes. I was also pleased with my breakfast meal - a farmhouse panino served with a breakfast salad.

I didn't know how I felt about salad for breakfast, but the food was fresh and well thought out and I left utterly pleased that the bakery that had won me over with their cupcakes now solidified my adoration by proving they can cook as well. I took a picture to remember my joy and we left to continue the drive. About fifteen minutes outside of Vegas it dawned on me that - I left my camera on the table at my favorite quaint little cafe. Thus, my dreams of a picture documentary of this vacation for the sole purpose of entertaining my faithful blog readers was thwarted and this is all I have to show for the Vegas vaca:

The picture I took right before leaving my camera in St. George:

And the picture we took when we picked the camera up in St. George:

What can I say, I am my mother's daughter.

More of the actual vacation in detail in my next post - but you may not be interested because I have no pics to show for it!

Sarah

Our Christmas

Sheesh. Don't you hate it when people wait so stinking long in between posts? I was just looking at my blog list wondering why no one has posted in forever when it dawned on me that it has been almost a month since I last posted! What a hypocrite!

So, here I am, posting about Christmas and New Years a month or so later than I should be. Sorry.

Our Christmas was good. It was different than any other since we were missing Matt's parents. We had Christmas Eve dinner at my parents and everyone got their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Gunn:

I played Santa for the Hale boys and we invited everyone over for Christmas morning at the Hale home. It was a lot of fun. Here are a couple of pictures representing the chaos and the cheer of the morning:

The presents that went over the best for the boys were a paragliding gift certificate for Spencer and a XBox 360 game for Justin. Here is Spencer opening his gift certificate. I didn't want to tip him off so I specially wrapped it in a box of baby diapers! It was pretty funny to watch him open it:Then there was the biggest and most secretive gift for the one special man in my life. I have had some difficult gift giving experiences with Matt on our past Christmases - Three years ago I got him a shaver that I was really proud of and he told me it wasn't that great of a gift because he didn't really need a shaver and last Christmas I was all excited to give him an Ipod Nano and he was like, "I totally knew that this is what you were giving me." - ANYWAY, I really wanted to do good this year so I went to extreme lengths to keep his AWESOME gift a secret and judging by his face when he opened his gift, I think I did a pretty good job. See for yourself: (working on the pictures).

Yep, that's right. I got him a Playstation 3. He's so spoiled.

It really was fantastic for me to get to finally surprise him! In my next post I will show you how we put the PS3 to good use, but for now I must conclude. Until next time....

Sarah

"The Girls"

Now that I have two, I often refer to Lucy and Emma as "The Girls." I never imagined that I would be a mom that could use the term, but now that I can, I find it addicting.

"I am going Christmas Shopping for The Girls."

"I can't because The Girls are being outrageously difficult."

"The Girls are driving me crazy."

When I talk about how much I love them, it becomes "I love My Girls."

Lately, they have been quite entertaining:

Emma

Since I have had a second child, I spend more days at home where I used to drag Emma with me everywhere. It has been interesting to see some of the things that she has done to entertain herself on these lazy days. I have been trying to incorporate her into my life of neat-freakiness:

And one day she found a drawer that she really shouldn't have been in and decided that one of mommy's slips was now her "Cinderella Dress." It was a struggle to get her to take it off before we had to go to the store (sorry, sideways. Just turn your head a little):

And now that she is old enough to understand Christmas a little better, she has really taken to Candy Canes. She found one at Deseret Book that she wouldn't detach herself from so we had to buy it and she immediately hung it on her door. Occassionally she will sleep with it. She is obsessed with the ones on the Christmas Tree, but has been a really good girl not to touch them. She loves the stocking I bought her with her initial on it. She would probably sleep with it as well, but I am a stubborn decorator and it is essential to the overall look of our Christmas decor.

She is a movie nut and would watch movies all day long if I let her. When Lucy was born, I bought her the new Tinkerbell movie and she has watched that to the point that she will quote lines from it when she isn't watching it and pretend to say the lines with the movie when she is watching it. She has learned every word to the song that plays during the credits and loves to sing it to the point that we bought it on iTunes and made her a CD so she can sing with it in the car. On occassion she has refused to exit the car if her song is on, until she has sung every word to the very end.

Though her drama quotient has increased since her little sister has come and she has suddenly become a very clingy mommy's girl, we love her and are entertained by her to no end!

Lucy

Lucy is getting bigger and bigger by the second! Her two month check-up was on Friday and she was 11 lbs. 4 oz. She is in the 75% for her height and 64% for her weight (I think - I may have that reversed). We feel a huge difference compared to her big sister who was always in the 90th or 95th. She loves to go on outings all bundled up in her carseat:

She is extremely resourceful about getting food to the point that she nearly devours her hands while she waits:

She loves sleeping with her long arms stretched out above her end (which amuses mommy to no end):

And she loved being talked to and cooed at to the point where we can get an occassional smile and sometimes a near laugh (she is best at smiling in the morning and she smiles the biggest for her Daddy):

Though she still gets us up at night and insists on sleeping in her Daddy's arms all of the time, we adore her and love watching her grow bigger everyday!

Don't you just adore "The Girls?"

Today Finally Came!

As the opening credits rolled across the screen I could not believe I was actually sitting there, watching the movie adaptation of arguably one of my top five favorite books. I don't think I have ever anticipated a movie like I did this one before and I have to say that I could not stop smiling as the closing credits ran. Yes, I am easy to please when it comes to movies because I watch them for mere entertainment and escape and try not to analyze them too much - but I was quite literally like a giddy little school girl as I left the theater and am very proud to say I am a hard core Edward fan and that I supported Robert Pattinson for the role from the start! I loved the movie and have already given Matt permission to take me to see it again any time he would like - or, if you want to go.....

Sarah