A is 8 months old!!!

So, this post is a few days (ok, weeks late) but A is 8 months old. Let me tell you, her 8th month has been CRAY CRAY!  There have been so many changes, to me, she doesn't seem like a baby anymore!

Weight: 16 lbs 1 oz

Sleep: She sleeps for 9 hours the first stretch at night (so normally waking up at 4 am). I cut out her 3rd nap since it was getting shorter and shorter. That transition wasn't fun.

Talking: She is babbling like crazy and really discovering her voice. She says "mamamamama" and "bababababa". These aren't at anything specific yet but she is getting there. 

Teeth: She cut 5 teeth this past month. She cute her first on her 7 month birthday and has cut 4 since. She has 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom but you can't only really see the top one when she smiles. 

See that tooth!!!

Eating: Still eating really well. She is getting much better at using her hands and the hand-to-mouth motion. She can rock Baby Mmm-Mmms and Puffs. 

Right or Left handed: Nothing definite yet but she does tend to favor her right hand but has started to use her left more. 

Eye Color:  Still blue. They are a little hazel around the cornea but pretty blue

I love those eyes

Crawling: She is finally scooting around. She can army crawl with the best of them. Now, we just have to get her to get her legs up under her. I am crazy happy that she is finally starting to work on moving on her own. 

Mood: Since she has been cutting teeth she hasn't been the happy-go-lucky girl that she was but she shows glimmers of that coming back once her teeth feel better. She has started this high-pitched squealing when you put her down or take something away from her. I am not excited about this because it definitely shows some prissiness and stubborness. 

Nicknames: A Cakes, Baby (thanks to H),  Anns BaDans (thanks to my neice C) and now Boo

She loves Jewel the Giraffe that we got from Target. She snuggles with it and likes to rest her legs on her when she sleeps. 

It is crazy that she is 8 months old and that I have to start thinking about her first birthday soon. 

I love this little bit to pieces. 

KK

4th of July

I hope that every one had as good a 4th of July as we did. My parents were up in Atlanta with my sisters family so we got to do a holiday with just our little family.  This is the first time since we got married (more than 4 years ago) that we have had a holiday to ourselves. I love spending time with our parents but it was really nice to just relax as our little family unit. 

The day was pretty normal. We worked out, took a walk around the neighborhood as a family and then had lunch. After quiet time we took the quilt outside and just laid in the front yard under the  and relaxed and played.

After enjoying the beautiful weather for a few hours, we went next door for Happy Hour with some neighbors. It was nice to finally meet some of the neighbors and just visit with people. 

After Happy Hour we headed over to Judges house on the river to enjoy dinner, fun and fireworks. We started out taking family pictures. I hate the way I look in pictures so my favorite one from the day is this one:

(Notice that I am not wearing my 4th of July outfit.  We had some food accidents so I had to change.)

After family pictures, the guys took the kids 4-wheeling. We told H that he was going 4-wheeling and he looked at me and said "No mama, I 1-wheeling." Cracked us up. Not sure where his little head came up with 1-wheeling but that is what he was calling it. 

After 4-wheeling the guys wanted to get crazy so H & A.C. went riding in a little jeep. H had never done that so it was pretty funny to watch him jerk around and only turn left. 

After that Judge set off some smaller fireworks in their backyard. A.C. does not like loud noises so he did not enjoy it but it was all we could do to get H to stay back. 

After a delicious dinner of typical 4th of July fare (hamburgers, hot dogs, deviled eggs, watermelon, etc) we decided to set off the big fireworks and sparklers. The boys did not like the noise of the loud fireworks so they stayed inside but it was so much fun to set of the fireworks and just watch them explode. I love fireworks. There is something so thrilling about all of the hearing them go up and seeing all the colors glistening in the air. 

I love that little A.G. wanted to do sparklers in her ballerina tutu. Once that was done, it was 9 pm and time to get the kids to bed. 

It was a great and relaxing day celebrating our nation and all that we stand for. 

{This Moment}

{This moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

4th of July Outfit

4th of July is today! I am normally not one to really dress for holidays. Since growing up I never dressed up for Halloween or put on Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas themed clothes. The one holiday I will dress for is the 4th of July. Part of this is that I truly do LOVE my country and am so proud to be born here; I also just think that red, white and blue look great together. 

We don't have a crazy 4th planned. We were going to get a mountain cabin with my parents and sisters family but couldn't find one that would fit our family so JJ & I are staying here in Jacksonville. 

We lucked out because Casey & Sarahs plans also fell through so they will be in town as well. The plan is to grill out and spend the day on the river at Caseys parents house and then set off fireworks from the dock. Hopefully the weather holds out for us today. I am excited about this. I love fireworks. Probably another reason that I am cool celebrating and going all out for the 4th. 

Anyway, since the day is going to be relaxed, I am going to wear a skirt because I won't be doing anything crazy. Since we are on the river, I am going to layer the below look with the cardigan once the sun goes down. So, below is what I will be rockin today. I am very excited about relaxing and looking cute!

4th of July by kell1138 featuring v neck tops

Happy 4th of July everyone! Thank you to all the men & women who have worked and continue to work to make our Country what it is today!

KK

S'more Trifle

To say that I am obsessed with Trifles is a bit of an understatement. If I have to make a dessert or Mom makes a dessert for me for my birthday, it is going to be some sort of trifle. 

I made a cookies and cream trifle for JJ for Fathers Day.  I was on my period while JJ was home on stay-cation, so I made a dessert that we could enjoy during the week.  I love anything s'mores. Other than chocolate and mint, I think that s'mores is one of the best flavor combinations when it comes to desserts. I found this recipe on Pinterest and modified it a little to make it more to my liking. 

I am sorry that the pictures aren't that great. I didn't have much self control so I didn't take much time to stage these. 

Without further ado, there is S'more Trifle.

Ingredients:

1 Box of brownie mix (I recommend getting a fudge-y kind)

1 package of instant chocolate pudding

1 large tub of whipped cream (thawed) 

1 box of graham crackers (crushed to varying sizes)

1 large container of marshmallow fluff

If you so desire:

2 Hershey bars

bag small marshmallow

- these can be used as a topping

Directions:

1. Bake the brownies. Set to the side and let them cool. Once they are cooled, cut them into small squares. 

2. Make the chocolate pudding and let set. Once it is set, stir in the thawed whipped cream. 

3. Crush graham crackers. I used a food processor for this on pulse so that I could control the size of the crumbs. 

4. Time to start layer the trifle. Bottom layer is the brownie. Then half the container of marshmallow fluff followed by half of the graham cracker crumbs. Top that with half of the pudding/whipped cream combination.  Repeat until the bowl is full. 

5. You can top with Hershey bars and marshmallows if you desire. I thought that the dessert was decadent enough without the extra. 

Now, just spoon out and enjoy!! JJ & I feasted on this all week and it was an excellent way to end the day! I am going to make it for our 4th of July get together too. Nothing say "Yay America!" like a variation of a camping treat!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

KK

Stay-cations Rock!

I love this photo of H looking up at JJ

With JJs job, the company policy for vacation days is a use it or lose it policy. So, JJ decided to take a week off of work. Since we had a 2 year old and an 8 month old we decided to stay home and relax as a family instead of going somewhere. I have to say that it was very nice having JJ home all day long with the kids. 

Since H was potty training we pretty much stayed around the house the first few days. By Thursday we felt that H had a pretty good handle on things and could go to the Zoo without having any accidents.  It was a great day to go to the zoo. There aren't too many people there and it was overcast so it wasn't too hot. 

JJ had only been to the Zoo with us on a weekend when it is too busy for H to walk around. JJ loved watching H run around and talk about all the animals that we were seeing. 

We bought tickets to Butterfly Hollow. H has just started to show an interest in the butterflies in our yard so we thought that he would enjoy walking around and being able to get up close to all different kinds of butterflies. Also, I love butterflies so I wanted to spend some time in Butterfly Hollow.  We went at a great time! There was no once else in the exhibit so we were able to talk to the workers and get some inside info. There were even some butterflies coming out of their cocoon so we were able to witness  that. It was so fascinating that I forgot to take any pictures. 

On Friday we met up with the Casey Arnolds at the beach house.  The weather was overcast for the first half of the day but was beautiful during nap time and in the afternoon. 

The Arnold kids are incredible water babies. They love the pool and the beach. They also love JJ. He is their favorite. It is really cute to see them call out his name when we hang out with them. AC loved being thrown around in the pool by JJ.

We discovered that our kids are not water babies quite yet. H preferred to run around the splash people in the pool while A was content to sit on the side with me. 

I am using the excuse that our kids need to be water babies and get used to the water while trying to persuade JJ to let us get a pool.  So far JJ is not budging on the pool yet but I will wear him down sooner rather than later. 

So, that is our little stay-cation. It was uneventful and H did great with potty training (other than the pooping). It was great to spend time with JJ and we can't wait to do it again. 

KK

Potty Training Day 4 and Beyond

Day 4 and beyond... (whenever I think this in my head, it is said in a Buzz Lightyear voice)

JJ was home last week on a vacation so we had a nice little Stay-cation which is why I was completely absent in posting. I will go more into our stay-cation this week. H did not do well with pooping in the potty while JJ was home. I am not sure if he was just so excited to have his dad around all the time or was just too distracted but he would poop his pants like it was no ones business. 

After having to clean up poop for a few days, I decided to go back to not  wearing any underwear. My thinking is that the underwear was still some protection and he felt that he could poop in it. I knew that if he wasn't wearing any underwear, he couldn't poop on the floor.  I also decided to give him a little matchbox car every time he pooped in the potty. Between the toy incentive and not wearing any underwear, he hasn't had 1 accident. He was very upset about not getting to wear his big boy underwear at first, so I told him that as soon as he pooped in the potty he could put his underwear on.  H has rocked pooping ever since. 

One thing that has happened since he started getting a toy, is that he poops on average 4 times a day. When he was wearing a diaper he only pooped once a day but now that he gets a toy, he is going 4 times a day. It is just absolutely crazy. After the first the poop we put underwear on and he is doing good not pooping his underwear after he gets it on. 

I am going to stop giving him a toy after a week of no accidents and then we are going to start night training. That I am not looking forward to.  H does now call of his toy cars his "poop cars". It cracks me up every time. He will be playing with one of the cars and will hold it up and yell "POOP CAR!"  He is so proud of them. I can't wait until he does this in public :)

The guidelines that I used to do the potty training are from Potty Training Boot Camp. The guidelines are as follows:

Before you start- Make sure you have 3 full days that you can be home without leaving the house at all (this was the hardest part for me). If you leave, there will be an accident which is not the message you want to send to her in the beginning.

Needs:

• Training pants (soft cotton gerber ones)- lots of them J They work better than underwear since they are thicker and allow for more pee
• Potty seat that you can take anywhere you play (inside or out)
• “night night undies” (What we called them). We used the training pants with the rubber on the outside over the reg. training pants. If the thought of this is horrible to you, then use pull ups but do not call them that and ONLY use them for sleep times- remember no more diapers!
• Potty ring for travel (starting day 4)
• All she will wear for the first three days is a tshirt and training pants so its easy to pull up and down.

Day 1- As soon as she wakes up tell her that starting today there are no more diapers! Let her help you “trash” the left overs you have and tell her what a big girl she is. She needs to sens e your confidence in this decision so you cannot wavier once you start. Otherwise, the attempt will fail miserably. Tell her that everytime she goes pee or poop in the potty she will get a treat (we used m&m’s). Every 15 minutes (I used a timer) put her on the potty. Make sure the potty is right next to wherever she is playing so she doesn’t feel like she has to interrupt play time to go. Have books and toys available for her. Never ask her  if she has to go, just say, time to potty and put her on. If she goes, celebrate big and let her help you flush it down the big potty. If she doesn’t say, ok we will try next time. If she has an accident, simply say “uh oh, next time we will go in the potty”, change her and let her help you clean it up if needed.  Don’t make a big deal. In 15 minutes, do it again. (I know it seems ridiculous, but trust me it’s magical). Oh- and give her lots to drink on these days. The more she has to go, the more chances of success and she will begin to realize what it feels like right before and during. Be prepared for tiny dribbles throughout the day in the potty that will deserve celebration.

Nap- change to night night undies and tell her she will have a treat for dry undies but don’t punish for wet. Change immediately upon waking into training pants and put her on potty.

Day 2- repeat day 1 but extend to every 30 minutes.

Day 3- extend to 45 min. to an hour.

Day 4- plan a small outing. (we did publix). Put her on potty before you go. Take her to public potty as soon as you arrive, then right before you leave, take her again> (drives you crazy but it works). Then again as soon as you get home.

Day 5 and beyond- continue to be very consisten tand extending the time in between. Never ask her if she has to go- tell her and physically put her on the potty. Pretty soon she will start telling you she has to go, it’s amazing how it works.

By day 3- she should be virtually day trained for pee. Nights can take a little longer, just be patient.  Cameron took a little longer to get all his poops in the potty, but it was only a matter of  a week or two before he was accident free in that area. CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY.

Whatever you do- DO NOT GO BACK TO DIAPERS or be prepared to start all over.

Here is hoping that this works as well with A once we start potty training her!

KK