Will's 3rd Birthday

It's so hard to believe that it's been 3 years since Will made his early arrival. We were all a little scared and worried since he was born over a month before his due date on July 2, 2009, but 3 years later, you would never know that our little Will was a premie. He is so handsome and so smart and brings a smile to everybody's face. He loves music and will turn any toy he can find into a guitar or a drum. He's our little rock star and when him and Bryson get together, they always give us a little mini concert (usually with Fresh Beat Band songs).
For Will's 3rd birthday theme, Martha wanted to have an art party! She was so excited that her and Robbie had just bought a house with a huge backyard so having an art party was the perfect idea and they had the perfect space for it. She found the idea on Pinterest (which we are obsessed with). We were able to get most of the supplies from Robert's sister Lisa since she's an art teacher. She gave Martha some wood boards to hang on the fence, poster board to hang on the boards and paint. One of the parent's from Martha's class at school works at Starbucks, so she got Martha some Starbucks cups with lids to hold the paint. For party favors, Martha ordered art smocks for the kids and wrote their names on them. She also made edible paintbrushes from Rice Krispie Treats for the kids to take home. Everybody had so much fun! He got a ton of fun gifts! It was so nice to have all of our family there and a friend from school. Bryson and Will love Miss Adelyn so we were so happy that she could make it and have fun with the boys. Happy 3rd Birthday Will!

 Will's cake for our mini family celebration.

 He got embarrassed when we sang Happy Birthday to him.

 Bryson and Will putting on a concert.

 Will's "3" cupcake cake.

 Cupcake set up with edible paintbrush favors.

 All the kids painting.

 Will didn't want to blow out the candles, so everybody helped.

 Bryson chowing down.

 More art fun!

 Time for presents!

 While Will was opening his presents, Bryson got some alone time with Granny Goose!

 This really made her day because Bryson will never sit still in anybody's lap, especially for a picture.

4th of July 2012

This year we decided to stay pretty low key with our 4th of July plans. Robert and Bryson spent the morning swimming. They had so much fun. Bryson is such a water baby. I think he would live in the pool if we would let him. After they were done swimming, I met them over at Steven and Jessica's for a little 4th of July cookout. Bryson enjoyed hanging out with Coby. They always have so much fun together. Steven just got a job working at a great butcher shop so he grilled us all kinds of yummy meat (of course I only tried the hamburgers because I'm way too picky). We debated on going downtown to watch the fireworks but since we were having so much fun there, and the traffic after the fireworks is a nightmare, we decided not to go. I had to work the next day and didn't really feel like getting home super late then having to wake up early the next day. Not only that, but Bryson was so scared of the fireworks last year. I hated to drive all the way down there and him still hate it. Fox 6 does broadcast the fireworks show on t.v so we watched them there. After seeing this years show and how it was set to horrible music, I'm glad we decided to not go. It looks like it would have been a total disappointment in person because we were not impressed with them at all on the t.v. Maybe next year we will do something big for the 4th but it was nice to sleep in and get to be lazy on my off day. Here's a few pictures from our fun, low key day.

Potty Training

I will admit, I had gotten a little lazy with Bryson's potty training. He started using the potty a while ago but I hadn't been pushing it like I should have. A few weeks ago, I decided that I was going to potty train Bryson in 2 days. We have had a busy past few weeks planned with the 4th of July and Will's birthday, so I decided that last weekend we would do it. The plan was to stay home and do nothing but potty train Bryson. We would sit him every 30 minutes and only put a diaper on him for nap time and bedtime, no matter how many accidents he had. I wasn't really too sure how it would go. I was really just hoping that it would get him more interested in the potty and that I would have to put him back in a diaper on Monday and just make sure that I sat him on the potty more often then I had been. Well, he did better than I expected and I am proud to say that Bryson is completely potty trained! (except for nap and bedtime). I highly recommend potty training like this to anybody.
Here's what we did. We made sure we had nothing to do and told everybody that if they wanted to see Bryson, they would have to come to us. We bought his favorite snack (Combo's) as a reward, and M&M's as bribery to get him to sit on the potty (since I didn't think he would be too happy about sitting every 30 minutes). Right when he woke up, I sat him on the potty and let him choose out what underwear he wanted to wear. (We didn't use a little potty. For some reason he doesn't seem to fit on those very good, so we just let him straddle the big potty).  Then 30 minutes later, I sat him again. He was doing pretty good for the first few hours, then he had his first accident. Since he had an accident, I wouldn't let him choose which pair of underwear he wanted to wear and he was not happy about that. He made it until lunch without having another accident. We repeated this same thing after his nap. Once he woke from nap he had 3 accidents back to back! I was so frustrated but determined that I was not going to give up! I think he may have had a few successful trips the whole day, but nothing to get too excited about. I was not very optimistic about Sunday but I was determined I was not going to give up and that he would be potty trained by Monday.
Sunday when he woke up, I let him choose his underwear again. This time he chose his Batman underwear. I told him that if he had an accident that Batman would be sad. Not too long after I put it on him he said, "oh no! Batman is sad." He had realized he was having an accident and stopped himself. I grabbed him and let him finish in the potty. Since he had an accident, I didn't let him choose which pair of underwear he would get to wear again. Then he had 1 more accident and that was it. No more accidents. He then started grabbing himself which was his way of telling me he had to go to the potty. As soon as I saw him grab himself we would run to the potty. No more accidents!
On Monday, he stayed home with Robert and was successful again! Tuesday was his first day at school in underwear. I wasn't sure how it would go since there would be more distractions but he only had 1 accident! But it was really an accident. He told me in the gym he had to go potty and we ran as fast as we could to the potty, we just didn't make it in time. The same thing happened on Wednesday. He spent Thursday and Friday with Lisa and only had 1 accident with her which was on Thursday. But it was the same way it was at school. He just couldn't get there in time. He has now been accident free since Thursday and tells me that he has to use the potty! I'm even happy to say that he poops in the potty too! Not only that, but we went to dinner Thursday and Friday night and he told us that he had to go and he used a public potty! I am so proud of Bryson for potty training so quickly. I'm not too sure how long I will keep him in a diaper for nap and bedtime. I guess I will just play it by ear. So far he has woke up dry from nap everyday and dry every morning except for today. I highly recommend this type of potty training to anybody. Not only did it work for Bryson, but my nephew too. And just because he's so cute in underwear, here's a few pictures.

Mother's Day and Father's Day

Mother's Day and Father's Day were both pretty low key this year. For Mother's Day, Robert and Bryson made me a beautiful wreath that I had been eying on Pinterest. I never knew that Robert could be so crafty. We also bought ourselves a new t.v that doubled as a birthday present for Robert. The Buck Creek Festival in Helena always falls on Mother's Day weekend so we headed there Saturday afternoon. They have a ton of food, a lot of neat vendors, live music on the stage and rubber duck race from the waterfall! They started the duck race a little early and there were a ton of people there so we couldn't really see anything but we had a good time anyway. After the Buck Creek Festival, we headed to Lloyd's for dinner with Robert's family then a nice relaxing night at home. On Mother's Day, we were lazy in the morning. I woke up to a wonderful breakfast and was able to enjoy a nice lazy day. We headed to my parents house for dinner with my family. Bryson made the cutest terra cotta pots for my mom and Robert's mom and cute canvas painting for my aunt; all compliments of Pinterest. Here's a few pictures from Mother's Day weekend. (I don't have a picture of the new t.v yet).

 Bryson waiting for the duck race to start.

 Watching the duck race with daddy.

 Bryson was obsessed with the giant rubber duck.

 My mom's gifts from Bryson and Will (I didn't get a picture of my aunt's canvas but it's just like Will's)

 My beautiful wreath!

Bryson's terra cotta pot he made for my mom. 

Father's Day was also pretty low key. We gave Robert his Father's Day gifts that Bryson made him at school on Saturday to start off the weekend. He made him two cards and a cute DAD canvas that I found off of Pinterest. On Sunday, he got his big gift. I bought Robert a Cam Newton Panther's jersey for his birthday so I wanted to get him tickets to one of their games in Charlotte. Tickets went on sale on June 2 through Ticketmaster and it was so hard to get them. I checked the cheapest ones right when they went on sale and 20 minutes later, they were sold out. I kept checking all the other prices and they were sold out too. After about an hour, some seats finally popped up! I went ahead and bought them even though I wasn't too crazy about the seats because I was so worried that they would all be sold out if I didn't get them.  We ended up with ok seats. I'm not too thrilled with them but they were selling out so quick, that I just had to take what I could get. I picked the Panther's vs. the Giants game on September 20. It's a Thursday night game so the tickets and the trip are doubling for an anniversary gift for us too. I am so excited! I have never been to an NFL game before and since Cam Newton has been playing for the Panther's, Robert has said that he wanted to go watch him play in Charlotte. He has his jersey, now I have to find me something to wear to the game too! I thought it would be so cute to dress Bryson up in the jersey holding the tickets, take a picture and then frame the picture and see if Robert noticed the tickets. I had the hardest time getting Bryson to take a good picture and of course I'm an idiot and put the tickets on the back of the frame so Robert saw the tickets before he saw the picture. Oh well, he was still excited. 

Robert wanted to spend the whole day with Bryson so they left bright and early to go hiking at the Preserve with his friends and their kids. Well they decided that they all wanted to go swimming instead so they spent the morning with Steven, Coby and Jeffrey and Chris and his boys. After swimming, and while Bryson was napping, Robert grilled out some amazing sausage that he bought as a gift to himself from the butcher shop that Steven works at. It was amazing and definitely a lot better than what you buy in the store. For dinner, we went right down the street to Golden Rule with my family to celebrate. Bryson made my dad a PAPA canvas just like the one he made at school for Robert. It turned out great! Here are a few pictures from Father's Day weekend. 

 Bryson with the tickets.

 Thank you Pinterest!

 Making Papa's gift.

 Robert with his friends and their kids.

 After dinner at Golden Rule.

Bryson wanted to make a mean face.