Pees are coming Mom!

That's right...Taylor is officially potty trained. We've been in the process of potty training her for a long time. She would do fine when she was at home, but when we would go out, she would almost for sure have an accident. So to avoid peeing all over Portland we decided to put her in pull-ups when we were out. Doing this seemed to just encourage her to pee her pants as she felt "protected" I guess. So I bit the bullet and started putting her in panties no matter what and just carried extra clothes everywhere. WELL...IT PAID OFF!!! She is soooooo good at going potty no matter where she is. I'm so proud of her.

To celebrate this huge event, we had a Potty Party for her at Coldstone. She loved it. Her choice of a treat...the green ice cream (mint) mixed with sprinkles (of course). Anyways, here are some pics of the momentous occasion.

GOOD JOB TAYLOR!!!

I LOVE MY GIRLS

So last time I posted I kinda whined about the girls being sick. I forgot to mention what an amazing opportunity this gave me to get to know my second child. Rilee recovered from the sickness much quicker than Taylor. So we had a couple days together to play just her and I, one on one while Taylor was napping. I discovered so many wonderful things about her. She is TOTALLY HILARIOUS! She cracks me up. Her personality is one that she is fairly quite, but given the chance and a few tickles, she completely lets loose.

I never realized that since she was born, I've just kinda been "managing" the girls. Being sure they are fed, changed, clean and rested. Trying to get through the day with a semi clean house and some what of my brain left. But this week off left me with nothing to do but focus on getting Taylor better and discovering Rilee.

I love my girls so much. They both have the strongest personalities of any kids their age that I know. They have attitudes that don't quit. When they go head to head, it's kinda funny as they just both yell and scream over the other. But they love each other just as much. Taylor is always calling Rilee "Sweetheart or Honey" and Rilee is constantly following her big sister around. Neither one will eat very good without the other. They have to both be at the table, eating the same thing at the same time. They hate to ride in the car without each other. Baths must happen at the same time or the other gets board. Taylor loves to put her play makeup on Rilee and Rilee loves for Taylor to do it.

These girls are going to be handfuls and fight like crazy, but when all is said and done I really think they are going to grow into beautiful people who have great respect for each other.

I just love my girls!

I'm so glad last week is OVER!

Well it's been a while since I've posted. You can find the reason in the pictures above. Taylor and Rilee both came down with some nasty sickness. It started Saturday night with Rilee puking, closely followed by Taylor on Sunday night. We started monday with both of them having temps at about 103.8. Rilee seemed to recover after a couple days, but Taylor's lasted until just a couple days ago. I'm not sure what it was, but the Dr. said that they had been seeing alot of this sort of thing so we just had to wait it out. So needless to say, I was about to pull my hair out with two sick kids, but we all survived.

As you can see in my slide show, Rilee is totally in love with the phone. She loves to pretend that she's talking to PAPA! The expressions on her face when she talks totally crack me up. As for the red scrape on her nose...she decided to take a bite out of the parking lot on our way out of the gym. She missed the step down and went face first. She's recovering nicely and quickly, which we are all thankful for!

So anyways, we have just been busy keeping the kids happy and healthy!

Oh and we had Jason's pinning ceremony last Tuesday. I will post pictures of that as soon as I get them!

Snow Day!!!

Bye-Bye to Jessica Anne

Miss Jessica!! We LOVE you!!

From left to right: Me, Rilee, my dad Mike, Taylor, my mom Freeda, my sister Andrea (Drea)





It came time for Jessica to head back to BYU so we had a family dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill to celebrate the fact that she was leaving...or I mean to wish well at school. She and Bryce took some great pictures while we were there, so I thought I'd share.

Dr Young

The Doctor is IN!!! Jason has officially started seeing patients in the out patient clinic (OPC) at Western States Chiropractic College (WSCC). If you have any friends or family in the Portland area, please send them his way. He's in the clinc Monday and Wednesday mornings (7:30 to 12:30) and Tuesday and Thrusday afternoons (1:00 to 6:30). The OPC phone number is: 503-255-6771. How awesome is this??? We are so proud of him and all that he has learned and accomplished. Your friends and family will be in good hands.

VITA-MIX BLENDER!!!

One of the best Christmas gifts we got this year was a Vita-Mix blender from my folks. For those of you that know what this is, you know how awesome it is. For those of you that don't, think Jamba Juice or something of that sort. It's the blenders that they use to mix up some of your favorite treats. Well so needless to say, we were pretty pumped about this. It has totally changed the way we eat. See I am one who has to have a treat every evening. It may be cookies, some cake, ice cream or a mix of all three :) Well we have begun concocting up some of our favorite treats with this blender. We all sorts of fruits and veggies. We've made several smoothies, soups and even pancake batter. It's amazing what this thing does. You put in cold stuff and it makes it colder. You put in hot stuff and it makes it hotter. WAY NEAT!!! Anyways, one of my friends suggested that I try a smoothie that her daughter loves and she loves to give to her. I call it the Green Smoothie.

So this is what it looks like (the blender that is). In the green smoothie I put: 1 pear, 1avacado, 1 apple, 8 ice cubes, 1 can pineapple, 2 cups green spinach (the leafy kind), 1 scoop soy protien powder and about 1 cup of whatever juice I have in the fridge. This makes enough for a big glass for both Jason and I and then a sippy cup for each of the girls.

The Vita-Mix does a great job of crushing everything to a pulp so there is no...pulp :)

Rilee LOVES it!

Taylor asked for more when hers was gone...so as the mother, I had to share mine :)

One of my favorite features of this Vita-Mix is that it is it's own dishwasher. I put in 5 cups of hot water and some dish soap. Turn it on high for about 2 min, rinse off the soap and air dry. THAT'S IT!!

Anyways, just thought I'd share. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. Who would have thought that kids would want to eat all these fruits and veggies...it's all in what's mixed with it right??!?!!