Well that was easy....

This funny little lady........

is POTTY TRAINED!!! Woot woot! I can hardly believe it. It was seriously SO easy.  Where did this child come from? Every milestone in this girls life has been cake.. From getting rid of her bottle (all that took was putting them away and giving her a sippy) to sleeping in a big girl bed (which she STILL doesn't even get out when she wakes up or is getting put down for her nap) to now this!

I have a feeling I'm in for a naughty child next since Paislee literally has been SO SO easy.

This fabulous orange piggy bank I found at Tai Pan a few weeks ago.  Paislee fell in love with it the second she saw it.  She is always wanting to put "monies" in it.

Last Monday we decided we'd take the plunge and see if she was interested in using the big girl potty.  I have never felt rushed since she just barely turned two but I felt like she was smart enough and could grasp the concept easily.  So, first day I put her in big girl Dora panties and showed her that when big girls go potty in the big girl potty they get to put MONIES in the piggy bank! Whoa she thought that was pretty stinking cool....



Notice how much she loves that bank.....

I then showed her the "Dora potty chart" where she could put stickers on each time she went potty.  After 2 stickers, she would get a prize (a big bouncy ball) and after 5 a new book (the Dora Potty Book which I highly recommend!) and after 10 stickers, a DORA DOLL!! Yes, Paislee loves Dora...

I had to keep a close watch on her all day.  I didn't leave her side because I knew it might take a while for her to figure out the feeling you get when you need to go. I gave her lots of sippies of juice so I knew she would have a full bladder. She only had one accident all day, but it was fairly exhausting having to put her on the potty over and over again trying to catch the right time when she'd need to go.

Day 2 I went to work, and Jayson was in charge...That day, didn't go so well....haha poor Jayson was a frustrated daddy.  He just didn't have quite the touch mommy had... I got home that night and once I was home, Paislee told me she needed to go potty. This was so exciting because now we knew she had figured out when she felt like she needed to go! Since that moment she has done AMAZING.  She now tells us everytime she needs to go and will even go into the bathroom and go by herself..

I of course cried after the third or fourth day after it all sank in that my child was potty trained..Now she REALLY is a big girl.  I was dreading the whole potty training thing and I can't believe within a couple of days she was done!  For some reason she is scared of sitting on the toilet without her potty seat though.  So anywhere we go she ends up holding it forever cause she's too scared to go on the public toilets.  Any advice on what to do there would be great..... Maybe it will just take time for her to get used to it..

Some prizes I got that she would get after getting more and more stickers on her chart that I feel like REALLY helped with the whole process:

-barbies

-blow pop suckers

-mini magnidoodle

-Tarzan dvd

-books

-puzzles

-2 dollar bills for her piggy bank

Those are just some ideas of things for you mommy's out there who are thinking of taking the plunge any time soon! My biggest advice is to stick with it and bribe them with something they love (treats, toys, stickers or money for a piggy bank!) I basically had to use all four of those, but HEY it worked!

I'm so happy to have that milestone out of the way.  It was something I was NOT wanting to do because changing a diaper a few times a day isn't all that bad. It just seemed alot easier than taking the time to do it.  But I am so grateful we did because it turned out to be a VERY positive experience. Okay okay, now she is officially a toddler.  I'll let myself come to grasp with that concept now I guess......

Second Annual Witches Gathering

I was so excited for October to roll around so I could plan a fun get together with all my cute girlfriends.  Our second annual witches party was a blast!  I'm so glad everyone could make it this year (except Nicole who is on a mission in Ecuador).  Here is how the party unfolded.....

Deliciously festive food! 

Halloween Decor! 

Fun games that got us girls laughing!

The first game I thought of started when we all sat in a circle and I placed a pumpkin in the center.  Each girl was assigned an object that they had to make a spell to turn the pumpkin into that object.  Once everyone thought up their spells we took turns playing the telephone game.      

Once the spell went through everyone the last girl, in her best witches impression, had to do the spell over the pumpkin. 

After, the girl who made up the spell had to cast the real spell over the pumpkin which it was so funny to see the difference between the two spells. Whoever did the best witch impression won a WITCH deco for their house. This pumpkin.....

got turned into Justin Bieber, a love slave, youth potion, lady gaga's skeleton and many other things.  Everyone's spells were SO good, I was really quite impressed!

 

This game turned out to be HILARIOUS and super fun! Sam won for her fabulous witch impression.  She was scary good at it......

The next game I made was a paper everyone had to fill out to determine who was the "real witch" in the room.  Everyone had to use their witches intuition to fill in the blanks how they thought I filled them in.  Whoever got the most right was OBVIOUSLY a real witch and won a witchy deco...

The third game we played pictionary which was way fun as well! 

After the games were over we all went back to the kitchen to devulge for a second time on the yummy food and chat. 

Man I love these girls! I am so grateful I still have such a close relationship with each one of them.  Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a fun night! Thank you Angie for being our little photographer of the night and taking such fun pictures! Can't wait for next year!

Fun with the ol hubs!

I love spending time with the hubs.  Although I love all the fun things we do as a family, I look forward to date nights BIG TIME.  It's just a time for us to have fun and hang out and be us, not mommy and daddy.  Our most recent date night we decided to go to a haunted house. THE CASTLE OF CHAOS! I think I laughed the entire night...

Jayson and I are what some would call "big kids" (we've been caught doorbell ditching, driving slow down the road while Jayson holds on to the window riding a surf skateboard and plenty other childish things).  So, we felt pretty comfortable being surrounded by hormonal teenagers and younger kids running around.  That's more our style anyway... I couldn't help but giggle at how we stuck out of the crowd.  It was SO FUN! This was actually our first time going to a haunted house together. I will be honest, we were both actually pretty scared... Half way through the first haunted house I noticed Jayson was pushing me to go first....haha it was HILARIOUS.

They had this random photo area set up.... I have no idea what Hula people had to do with anything at the haunted house....

It was incredibly fun and such a fun memory.  We had dinner at Bella's which was so yummy and we got to have my great sister in law as our waitress :) Couldn't have asked for a better date night!

The day before we went on a "family date". That morning we went to the zoo (scroll down to see the post) and that night we went to the Woodscross vs. Bountiful football game.  Jayson and his mission president have stayed very good friends since the mission.  Him and his sweet wife have invited us to go to their son's football games.  He is a senior at Woodscross and is AMAZING!

We love spending time with the Castillo's.  I'm so grateful to have them apart of our lives and grateful Jayson has been able to spend good quality time with his mission president since the mission. They are an amazing family!

Paislee had a good time and was great throughout the entire game.  By the end she was pretty worn out though.... 

Overall it was a great weekend if I do say so myself.  Loved getting to spend so much time with Jayson and my little Paiser Ann!

The Zoo!

Spending the day at the Zoo with some of our best friends made for a fun start to our weekend on Friday morning.  We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.  The sun was shining, it wasn't hot and it wasn't cold.  It wasn't crowded one bit which was fabulous! I have never seen SO many active animals at the zoo.  Usually they just sit and look depressed, but we got to see basically EVERYTHING and they were all playing and active.  They must have enjoyed the weather as much as we did!

Paislee was scared of this elephant thing that made creepy noises... She now does a pretty dang good impression..You gotta hear it! 

We took the kiddos on the merry go round.  There was hardly anyone there so we had pick of whatever animal we wanted! Of course, Paislee picked the peacock that didn't even move.  The other ones were "too scary" to ride.  

We went on the merry go round later and Jayson was determined to get her to ride an animal! She was NOT about to get on that scary gorilla!

After a few spins she warmed up to the idea and had a fun time! 

We are so thankful to have some of our very best friends around to do fun things with.  I am especially thankful we all got pregnant within a couple months of each other so we have these 3 kiddos to get along and play with.

Aaron and Erica, they are due with their second first of April :)

Dave and Beth and their cute kids!

Glad we were able to sneak in a trip to the Zoo before this wonderful weather sneaks away...

It's Pumpkin time!

I'll let the pictures do ALL the talking...

I'm so grateful to have such amazing parents who have made such fun family traditions that we do every year.  These two people spoil us kids SO much! I won't even begin to talk about how much they spoil the grand kids... I sure lucked out getting sent to this family... Love you and thanks for yet another fabulous pumpkin patch experience!