Valentine's Day

OK, so I know it's well into April, but we're going to warp back a couple months so I can catch up on events in the Ebbert household (better a couple months late than a couple years, right?)

Valentine's Day is a bit tricky around here. I try really hard to separate Alia's birthday from our family celebration of Valentine's Day, which usually requires a bit of maneuvering. We started our day of love with some yummy, love-ly breakfast.

Berry smoothies, pancakes with white chocolate chips and warm raspberry sauce, and some yummy egg and cheese pies.

Do you feel his love?

Here are the kids' valentine's from this year

Do you have any idea how hard it was to get this picture of Lawson? Seriously, out of like 20 shots of him, this was the single one that would work. We did, however, get a really funny series of pictures, that when scrolled back and forth with the mouse through the pictures, looked like he was bonking himself on the head over and over. We were in tears watching it . . . over . . . and over.

And miss Alia:

A Tribute to Camilla Cakes

Well, you saw the birthday pictures, but what can I tell you about Camilla cakes herself?

She has been a truly amazing child. We have loved every minute of having her in our family. Even when she was getting up a few times each night at the 4-5 month stage (and even into the 7-8 month stage) Deanna didn't mind getting up to nurse her because it meant a little more time with her.

If you want to win a Nobel Prize by building a perpetual motion machine, Camilla would be the first place to start your research. The girl NEVER stops moving, and I mean never. She doesn't sit in one place and play, she flits from toy to toy, never stopping for longer than a few seconds. This obviously makes church nigh on impossible and we are eagerly awaiting the day she goes to nursery.

She is currently sleeping very well at night and is very attached to her little snuggle bunny that she sleeps with.

She loves to laugh and smile and looks cute with her two tiny little bottom row teeth poking out when she smiles. Her sister is very good at making her laugh in the car by making funny faces for her. The smiles, laughs and constant movement have earned her the nickname "Happy Tornado."

She is also in the "explore everything without any concept of breaking things" phase which has earned her the nickname "Godzilla" as she tromps around the house finding things to unintentionally break. Pretty standard toddler stuff.

She was walking by about 11 months and is 13 months today and pretty much runs as fast as she can everywhere she goes. She is pretty tough and a fall (or maybe being pushed down by helpful siblings and playmates) doesn't usually phase her. Once, we were sitting in the car waiting for an unnamed adult female in our household when she fell off her carseat and landed flat on her back on the floor of the car. That's about a 3 foot fall and she didn't even flinch. She just rolled over, pulled herself up and kept on playing. That same fall would have probably sent our older two kids into hysterics.

Camilla isn't saying any words intentionally yet and I think she may end up being like Lawson, who basically grunted until he was two and then started spouting full sentences. We understand the different tones of her grunts and cries and between the four of us, she pretty much always gets what she needs when she needs it, so there isn't much incentive for her to talk. She can wave good-bye, give a kiss and can make the sign for "more" when she's hungry or wants more food.

That is basically Camilla at a year! She's an amazing, happy little girl and we are glad to have her in our family!

Our Little Boy

Here are a couple of stories from our little boy lately.

Last week at church, Lawson learned about 1st Nephi 3:7. On the back of the paper with the scripture written on it, he got the chance to draw a picture. So, what did he draw about this spiritual lesson about obedience? Well, he draw one of his favorite stuffed animals, Pink, carrying rockets in his hands. And what did he write at the top? "Pink 3:7," which, of course, he spells "Pic." This is literally what he told me he learned about in church that day, Pink 3:7. And now that I'm looking at the picture again, I see that he even wrote "Nephi" and then scratched it out!!

We've been talking a lot about obedience with him lately. So, a few days ago in the car, he says, "Daddy, I will just start to obey you in 14 days...when I'm 7...and I get baptized." Sigh... So many things wrong with that statement...

Last night, we had some friends over (congrats Dr. Lloyd!) and he threw a mini tantrum by throwing a step stool around the living room. So, I was trying to talk to him about it, he wanted to kick instead of talk, so he ended up in his room for time out. When he came out, instead of talking about throwing the step stool, he though a visual would be more effective. So, he throws his time out timer down the stairs and stars screaming about how he just wanted to have a "demonstration" of how angry he was. I don't even remember exactly what he said other than he kept yelling "demonstration" over and over. Then he threw the step stool again to give us another demonstration of what he had done wrong!

Last week when I got home from work one morning, about 8:30, he knew that I was hungry and wanted to eat breakfast with me I was just too tired so I decided to go to bed. Well, a few minutes later, Lawson brings up semi-frozen pancakes to my room that he had dug out of the freezer and attempted to make himself and asked me if I wanted breakfast in bed. Sometimes he can be very sweet.

Lastly, here is a picture of one of his creations where he takes some stuff he finds around the house and tapes it all together to form a plane or rocket ship!

And that's my boy!

Friday Night

So what do you do when you're husband isn't home and it's Friday night? Here's what we did:

made people chow . . .
and cuddled together on the Love Sac, munching people chow, while watching Tinkerbell
Did you have as much fun as we did?

Wa-U-Say? An update on the kiddos

Time for another Ebbert kid update! Let's go oldest to youngest.

So, Alia continues to be an amazing, wonderful little girl. She is always thinking of other and so selfless with everyone. She always lets Lawson have his way when choosing games, toys, etc. She always thinks of him and is concerned for his well being. And she has show strong maternal instincts lately, trying to play with babies and make them happy whenever they are around. One day I was doing Quicken and she was asking about money. I was telling her that there are money people around the world who don't have as much money as we do, who may not even have food. She immediately said, "Well why don't we give our money to them?"

She continues to be her mother's daugther and is extremely organized. We were getting ready to play a game today and she was setting it up while D and I made lunch. She disappeared for a few minutes and came back with papers which had our names on them along with the color of our game pieces. She carefully placed them around the board so that everyone would know where to sit and what color they were when it was time to play.

She just loves to read and can often be found reading by herself. One night while Deanna was gone I went upstairs about 30 minutes after I had put the kids to bed and Alia was there in her room reading a little Book of Mormon reader by the fading light of her window. She was so cute and who was I to tell her to stop and go to bed?

Lest you think she is perfect, let me just say she has her grumpy days. We can always tell that she is grumpy by how she reacts to her clothes. If it's a good day, she puts them on by herself and we never hear a word about it. If it's a bad day, she will complain about every little part of her clothes. They are too tight or the toe seam in her socks is bugging her or they feel just plain weird. It least we have an early warning system for a grumpy day.


Lawson is still as full of energy as ever, but in a good way. He is so creative and engaged with the world around him. He will build his Kid Connex and Magnetix into all kinds of crazy and outlandish shapes, usually involving space ships or aliens.

He can be so sweet and gentle sometimes. He will often spontaneously run up to us and give us hugs and kisses and tell us how much he loves us. He and Alia will usually take turns letting each other win at games so that every gets a chance.

He is still all boy. Today we were playing the "guess the animal" game and it was Lawson's turn. We asked the usually questions above size, fur, etc. I asked him if the animal lived in water and he said, "No! It lives in a dragon cave!" Yes, the animal was a dragon. When it was his turn again he started out by saying, "The animal lives in the same place as last time." It was a dragon again but this time he gave us a description of how it breathes fire, complete with sound effects.

Something he has loved to do lately is to ask us, "What did you say?" He will say this many times a day, either because he didn't hear, didn't understand or can't believe what we're saying is true. He says it so many times a day that he has shortened it down to save time. It now comes out as one incredibly quick, slurred, "Wa-U-Say?" It's hilarious to hear and D and I are always laughing about it.

His main issue right now is that he has an incredible stubborn streak. When he is set on something, he absolutely, positively, without a doubt will figure out a way to make it happen. He will hand on until his last breath to what he wants or wants to do. D and I often talk that if we can instill good principles in him, he will be a great person who doesn't give in to peer pressure and who can be a strong influence to those around him. Let's just hope he learns to compromise before he gets married! He certainly doesn't compromise with us!

Christmas Eve

Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve in no particular order. Well, actuallly, they do have an order, it just happens to be the order that blogger randomly assigned them. Also, keep in mind that Lawson does not have a giant booger in these pictures. A few nights before this he had fallen off his bed and scraped his nose. Sorry, but I had to explain it. Anyway, on with the show.

Here are Joseph and Mary holding baby Jesus. As you can see by this, Alia has become very maternal lately. She will take her stuffed animals and make a little bed for them, tuck them in, wrap them up, feed them a bottle and so on. She was very good and tender with her little doll pretending to be Mary.



Here is the Ebbert and Son sheep herding company. Lawson's costume (brought to us by Grandma Fromm) is much, much better than mine which is my robe and a kitchen towel on my head. But I'm holding a nice sheep, aren't I? Lawson's costume can also double nicely for Obi-Wan.

The Wisemen.


Opening the traditional Christmas Eve PJ's.

In the PJ's.
Making the now traditional homemade Christmas Eve pizza and eating it on the Christmas blanket in the living room. Santa would sleep in that same spot later that night as he took a break from his activities.

Back to the program! Lawson as the angel Gabriel visiting Mary.

Here is Lawson pretending to be asleep while the angel visits him and tells him to marry Mary.
And everybody's favorite, daddy as the donkey with Mary and Joseph going to the inn.

BTW, Todd posted this even though it says Deanna.

Pizza Fun

We're in Utah right now and we have /will have lots of stuff to post about, but I saved these pics online to post about before I forget. The day before we left for our trip, the kids and I had a fun Medical Partners kids' activity at a great pizza place in the area called Old Chicago. It worked out great because Alia didn't have school that day. She was more than thrilled to get to come (I think she somehow thinks that she misses out on all these wonderful things everyday that we supposedly do while she is at school having a wonderful time!)

Anyway, we got to go to the pizza place and the kids got to learn how to make their own pizzas and then go back and see how they make and bake them in the restaurant.

Here we are in the first stages - spreading the sauce after forming the rim of the crust in the pan.

Next steps: cheese and toppings

lia with her little beauty

Lawson and his friend, Claire, showing off their creations.

Alia must have like it because she almost finished off her own little personal pan.
The kids really enjoyed this activity and now shout, "Hey! There's Old Chicago!" when we drive by. I think we'll be going as a family to enjoy some deep dish sometime soon.

Silly Kids and a Swingset

Our kids have said some really funny things lately, and we keep thinking we need to post them, but always forget. Here's a few that we can remember:

This part written by Todd:

At one of Lawson's birthday parties the other day, Alia was very concerned about her balloon exploding. She has also been very into spelling the last word in her sentence lately. That combined to provide us with this little gem: "Daddy, I don't want my balloon to P-O-O-P." That's definitely going to be used for blackmail later.

Lawson pretty much has a rocket with him at all times lately and they blast him wherever he wants to go, accompanied by the shooooooosh sound effect, lots of spittle and crazy contorted facial expressions. While getting him dressed this morning, I asked him to come over by me so I could put his pants on. He says, "But I don't have my rocket!" (Thinking...) "Hm, that's OK because I have rocket bums!!" So he balls up his little fists, plants one on each cheek and then uses his "rocket bums" to blast himself across the room!! It was hilarious and he didn't have any idea why I was laughing. That one's gonna come back to haunt him later too.

Alia drew a bunny today and named him "Hippy." Her grandpa would be so proud. :) I think she was going for hoppy...

All the rest of the post written by Deanna:

The kids and I were driving in the car the other day to get Todd and Alia was trying to explain to Lawson what a joke was.

Alia: "Here, Lawson, I'll tell you a joke. How do you know if a seed is a flower or a tree?"

Lawson: "uh, I don't know"

Alia: "You go to the store and pick up the packet of seeds and see what it says on the package! If it has a flower, then it is a flower seed, and if it is a tree, then it is a tree seed!"

I found this highly amusing. It was obvious that my kids had no clue what a joke was. As we picked up Todd I was trying to explain to Alia what a "real" joke was (i.e., FUNNY!). I told Todd about it and he decided to teach the kids about jokes by inducting them into the world of "knock knock" jokes. I'm not sure that was the best move (they still don't understand what a joke is...), but it has been highly entertaining to say the least. They both love to tell the knock knock jokes, but they combine some of the different ones Todd has told them (thus making no sense at all), and after the "punch line" is said, Lawson bursts into hysterical, maniacal laughter with a crazy look on his face. I was literally in tears on the way home from laughing to hard at him. We've been trying to get it on video to post because it is hilarious, but haven't succeeded yet.

Here's another quote from Lawson the other day while we were driving: "Daddy, how come you always call my mommy a smarty pants?" Their little ears certainly do pick up everything that is said!

The other night Alia was trying to pray and Lawson was trying to help her out. We had just read some scriptures about Jesus and so Lawson was prompting Alia to say "and bless Jesus to get in a rocket" (as he flies his "rocket" through the air with his hands). The kid is absolutely obsessed with rockets. Every toy, no matter what it is, becomes a rocket that flies through the house. And he proably spits more saliva in a day with his very long "blast-offs" than most people produce in a week. Seriously, he looks like his face is about to combust and explode into tiny fragments as he makes his sound effects for the lift-off. He did this the entire time the Sister Missionaries were at our house the other day for dinner. He also made up some very creative space stories to tell them while they were here. He's one crazy kid!

In good news, we are SOOO happy to now have a swingset in our back yard! I found a really cheap used one on craigslist that we figured would hold us over for quite a while. And guess what? Our kids actually play in our back yard now! Hallelujah! We're all very much enjoying it.

You can also see from this picture one of our projects this week. We've been staining/treating our fence. It's going to look great when we're done, but it has definitely been more time-consuming and money-draining than originally planned. We're glad we only have to do it this one time while we live here. We're also going to do the front porch and the deck soon (hopefully).

D's Happy Place & Update

It's been a long time since I posted a D's Happy Place, so I here's a new installment. To start off, one of my favorite all-time comfort foods in the entire world: my grandma's homemade chicken noodle soup. For as far back as my memories take me, I remember getting to eat my grandma's famous homemade chicken noodle soup most times that we would go and visit her in Utah. She was an amazing cook, and this particular recipe is probably the favorite of most of my siblings as well.

The noodles HAVE to be homemade. Without that, it's really just ordinary soup, and not the special homemade kind. It's really not all that much work to made homemade noodles, in my opinion, and so worth the rewards. My kids really love to help with this process as well, as you can see here.


Beautiful. These strips of goodness make the soup taste so wonderful and I just love the look of a pile of homemade noodles.

Here's the end result. Not the best picutre, but oh well. I also have to give away another family secret here. My grandma always served her homemade chicken noodle soup over mashed potatoes. Yes, you read that right. I've never heard of that anywhere else, but that is always the way it was done in grandma's house, and I just can't bring myself to make the soup unless I'm going to make the mashed potatoes as well. It makes the soup extra creamy and yummy.

So, that's an instant happy place for me (as well as Todd & the kids!) My next happy place is air conditioning! I've mentioned before that I am a hot person. I think sometimes people don't believe me, but it is true that my normal body temperature is higher than the average joe (and I know this for a fact after spending about a year taking my basal body temperature - it was always much different from what it supposedly should have been). I have been thrilled for the last year + to have central air conditioning for the first time in our almost-9-years of marriage. I LOVE it. It makes me happy. I keep our house cooler than I even need to, just because I can. Especially since we live in places that are humid. Humidity is my anti-happy place. It's disgusting, horribly, evil and nasty. And alas, I've had to live with it for 5 years and will have to live with it for many more years. Air conditioning is my saving grace against heat and humidity.

Well, right around the time we made our move from Wisconsin here to Iowa, the air conditioning in our car wacked out on us. It would only work if we were driving 30-35 mph or above. So, essentially, it didn't work since most of my time running errands and driving where I need to go is on roads where I can't drive that fast and where I have to stop at lights all the time. And when you stop at a light, not only did the a/c not work, but it instead pumped out even hotter and more humid air than what was actually outside. It has been absolutely miserable. It has made running any errands a dreaded event. It's not a fun thing to feel miserable and to see your kids in the back seat sweating their little heads off and worrying that they're going to collapse of heat stroke because they're in a car that is 100+ degrees and full of humidity!

We've tried to hold out for the last 2 months with this because I know that air conditioning problems can cost $500-$1000 to fix and we just didn't want to put that much money into our car that we are just biding our time with until we can get a mini-van. Well, this week the radiator fan completely stopped working as well so that the car was overheating, etc. So I couldn't put it off any more. It's also difficult to take your car into a shop to get fixed when you only have 1 car, have to drop off and pick up your kid from school each day, and will have to walk to/from whichever car place you take it to. There was only 1 place in North Liberty that I could take it to and luckily they were great. So I suffered through one incredibly hot and humid day of walking to/from the car place with Lawson and walking to Alia's school and back (I definitely get very grouchy when I am hot and sweating buckets of humidity). The good news was that all the problems stemmed from the radiator fan and they were able to fix it that same day for me and a very reasonable price! If only I had know that was the problem 2 months ago, we could have saved ourselves some very uncomfortable time. Oh well, that's life right. Needless to say, we are all VERY VERY VERY happy to have our car a/c back!!!

Other updates. Alia finished her first week of school and loved every minute of it. Her favorite parts of the day are when they get to play outside. Lawson and I have really enjoyed our time together as well, and for most of the days after Alia got home from school, she and Lawson played wonderfully. What did they play? Princess goes to school. They get their backpacks out and the princess and prince go to school and play games and learn and all sorts of things. It's very cute and it makes my heart swell when they play well together. I have SO enjoyed not having to spend every waking moment of the day playing referee to my kids. There is so much more peace and quiet and that makes this mom happy.

Lawson spent the entire week on and off being sick. I just don't get the bug he has. He would be fine for 2 days and then throw up again. So it was very difficult to know if we should go places, play with people, etc. Just when we thought we were over everything, he would throw up in the middle of the night again. Very confusing. Because of that he and I didn't do too much in the way of fun outings, but kind of kept things low-key here at home. It's been a rough week for sleeping because of Lawson's sickness as well. Every night he would wake up many times, coming into our room. Our futon downstairs has come in even more handily than we ever imagined it would! Just ask Todd! It's a much more comfortable alternative than sleeping in bed with a kid that takes all your space.

That part of the week caught up with us and we were all tired the whole weekend. Todd was a saint and let me take naps on Saturday and Sunday (long ones! thanks honey!)

Some other great parts of the weekend. I had a meeting with the other moms that are going to be doing a preschool coop for Lawson and 3 other kids. I'm really excited to start it soon and think that Lawson will really enjoy it. All the other moms are great and I'm sure they'll learn and lot and have fun. I'm especially glad to have this coop this year since the way it stands right now, Lawson will miss the kindergarten deadline by 3 days, so he will have 3 years of preschool before starting kindergarten! We really don't want to pay for 3 years, so it will be nice to have it not cost anything this year.

We also got to go out on our first date in the date night group that we joined. We joined with 3 other families and will get to have date night every Saturday night for 3 hours. So we'll get to go out 3 of every 4 weeks. We did this in CT as well and loved it more than anything. Last year in WI, and having to dish out mega cash every time we went out really made us appreciate how great these groups are. So we are VERY excited about this and look forward to Saturday nights!

OK, I promise I'll end now and run off to get some sleep...

Life At Our House

It's been a bit since I posted pictures of the kids, so here's a few.


As for an update on what is going on around here, today we officially started "Project Prepare Alia for School". It's time to change the summer bedtime habit and get the kids going to bed much earlier so that Alia can actually get up and be ready for school without having a horribly cranky day from lack of sleep (myself included). Alia starts Kindergarten one week from today! We are all so incredibly ready, and at the same time, Todd and I are feeling a bit weirded out. It seems weird to send her to full-day Kindergarten. It seems weird that our kid will be eating lunch at school every day in the cafeteria (meaning she will be eating a lunch that I send her with...the thought of the crap that schools serve under the guise of "food" disgusts me. We'll probably let her choose one day to eat the school lunch each week, and save her arteries from clogging the rest of the days!)

I'm honestly feeling a bit like a retarded first-time mom, not having a clue how everything is going to work, feeling like I don't have all the information I need, etc. We were in WI when they had the open house/orientation for her Kindergarten, so I just feel like I missed out on something that I need to know. I'm anxious to get the first week or so out of the way and get a feel for how things are going to be so I can know what my schedule is really going to be like. So we are currently working on earlier bedtimes and a new bedtime routine for Alia where she gets her clothes for the next day ready the night before and sets them out, gets her hair stuff out and ready, and also helps get her lunch for the next day ready. This is all VERY necessary because Alia and I are both not morning people. So it is going to be hard enough to get Alia up and ready and breakfasted and out the door on time without having other things to worry about as well. Her school isn't too far from our house - 1 to 1 1/2 miles? So she doesn't qualify to take the bus (which I'm not sure I would want her to take anyway). So I will drive her for now (since it's too hot to walk 20-30 minutes each way right now). I'm hoping to be able to buy a bike for myself and one of those kiddy trailers to attach to the back for Lawson to ride in. Then we could maybe all bike to school once it is a little cooler. That would be nice to get some exercise and woudn't take too long.

On the potty training front, we are very happy with Lawson's progress. The first week was rough, but the last 4-5 days have actually been really good - almost no accidents in that time! He definitely always knows when he has to go, and has gotten really good at holding it until he can get to the toilet. And he has also gotten REALLY good at coming and telling us when he needs to go instead of us having to ask him every 2 minutes. That's a huge relief. I would say he doesn't have "accidents" at all. He has "purposes". The only time he doesn't go in the toilet is when he gets upset at us or is mad that he didn't get his way...then he stands there and exerts his will by peeing or pooping in his pants right in front of you. The kid had serious control issues. But, like I said, that hasn't happened for multiple days now. Let's all cross our fingers that it stays that way. He has definitely enjoyed earning some rewards at the end of the day when he makes it all day without any problems. We still put him in a pull-up at night to sleep in, but even there he has improved a lot. He used to soak through a diaper at night and leak onto his bed. The last couple nights he has been waking up with not a whole lot in there and he goes to the bathroom first thing when he gets up. So he's obviously learning somewhat how to hold it during the night as well.

We're not out of the woods yet, but we've definitely made a lot of progress and are hopeful that he is almost there. And just for the record, I have to say that I think boy underwear is WAY cooler than girl underwear! I'd take the cool spiderman ones with a nice big waistband over the little silly, frilly princess ones anyday! Just thought you'd like to know.

Todd and I both officially have callings in the ward now. I was called as the....wait, just take a guess. All you'll need is one guess and if you have paid attention to the callings that I have had for the last decade, you'll have no problem. Yeah, that's right, primary pianist...AGAIN! In every single ward Todd and I have been in I have been called into primary as soon as we get there and I have been the pianist in pretty much every single one of those wards as well. I said yes to the calling and then cried the whole way home. I won't go into my feelings about it here. Suffice it to say, I have done my murmuring and moping, gotten most of my frustrations out, and am now ready to just do the calling. I'm definitely hoping that it isn't a super long-term calling because I am very, very tired of primary. But I will do it the best that I can. Yesterday was my first day being in there. The sustaining pedal doens't work on the piano so it sounds clunky and I have to hold the keys down like an organ. Not fun. Not pretty. I'm definitely going to have to ask for it to be fixed...not sure why it hasn't already been. And then there were these HUGE crickets climbing on the walls back in my corner by the piano. So I spent the first hour trying to keep track of where they all were and hoping they weren't going to climb all over me while I was playing. Hopefully this won't be a weekly occurance!

Todd was called as the Sunday School president, which he is very happy with. He's happy to not have a calling that requires endless hours (since he doesn't have a ton of hours to give in the first place right now), and he absolutely loves teaching Sunday School. So he will be very happy any time he gets to sub for people. Oh, something else interesting that happened at church yesterday was that they reorganized the entire presidencies of the RS, YW, Primary, Sunday School, and Bishopric (though the new Bishop kept the same counselors). Wow! It was a lot of changes for one day and I'm sure it will be a couple weeks before things are up and running totally smoothly again.

Next week Todd and I will be singing in Sacrament Meeting as well. Things have been pretty busy most of the time. We generally have people over 1-2 times a week for dinner (families from the ward & missionaries), we have multiple playgroups each week, we go to the library for storytime, lots of errands to run, lots of cleaning and cooking, etc. I never half of what I'd like to done. Oh well.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

Quick Update

Woohoo! We just put Lawson to bed and he officially was 100% today - no accidents, and he even took a nap with his underwear on and stayed dry! We're very happy with this. still no #2. I told Todd we need to start mixing laxatives in with his milk so he'll go! :-)

And Heidi, Todd and I discovered a specialty chocolate store tonight...majorly high quality chocolate, and the first thought I had was, "Heidi would love this!" So if/when you come out here we'll be stopping there for you to try!

And Tammy, yes it was Stringtown. I was thrilled to find out I can buy 25 or 50 lb. bags (or any size) of the whole white wheat. It's a great place. I think I'll be heading there quite often.

Potty Training, Canning & Organizing

Well, I finally ran out of excuses and decided that it was time to potty train Lawson. Mind you, we had originally talked about Todd potty training Lawson back over Christmas break...we obviously had a ton of other things come up. But now that the move is over and we're looming closer to his third birthday (which is my limit when it comes to being potty trained), I decided kind of spur-of-the-moment this week to go ahead with it. We started Tuesday evening. He has done pretty darn good, all things considered. And Todd, being the amazing husband/father that he is, took a day off work yesterday to help with the process. I think he only had 2 accidents yesterday (one because he was upset), and we even went out and ran some errands and he told us when he needed to go and he went in the public restrooms. So we were very happy about that. He's 100% so far today, and hopefully that will continue. We just need to keep working with him to make sure he tells us every time he needs to go (though he's really doing quite well at that) and not just when we remind him. We also need to work on #2. I think he pretty much held it all day yesterday and waited until he had a pull-up on for bed, and then came to me at 11:30 p.m. to change his poopy diaper. Probably more info that you wanted...

Anyway, things are off and running on that front and hopefully we'll have this all behind us fairly soon. It's hard to get back in the mode of carrying around extra clothes and underwear when you haven't had a baby for so long. Have I mentioned yet that I HATE potty training? It's quite the opposite of my happy place. Even under the best circumstances I'd rather be doing almost anything else in the world. Hence, why understanding hubby took a day off to help out - he loves me that much.

In other news, I've been being domestic the last couple days and made a big batch of homemade salsa and some more freezer jam. I posted the salsa recipe on the Foodees blog HERE. Be sure to check it out because it is Todd's favorite salsa in the entire world. We're already down a jar in less than 1 1/2 days. He made eggs the next morning just to have something to pour the salsa on. Definitely Todd's happy place!

And yesterday, I went with a friend to Kalona, IA about 25-30 minutes away from us to an Amish grocery store to buy a ton of frozen raspberries so I could make jam. Raspberry is my favorite of all freezer jams and it had been several months since we had it, so it was a NEED by this point. I made a batch last night before bed (in less than 10 minutes) and need to go and buy some more Splenda before I make some more today. I totally loved the Amish store. It's the biggest one I've been to and they have everything you can imagine in the way of grains, pastas, etc. They even had lemon baking chips - totally dying to try them now since I'd never seen them before. Of course, I forgot my checkbook, so I couldn't get hardly anything aside from the raspberries, so I want to take Todd back there tomorrow. It's really fun to just browse all the gazillian bags of cool things they have.

Our task for the weekend is to get some more organizing finalized in the house. Once we finish all of this I promise we will take some pictures of all the rooms and get them posted. Unfortunately, we have hardly any decor for many of the rooms right now. I have a lot of projects on my list!! It just keeps getting longer and longer.

Meet Dobby

Well, this is Dobby (or so we think - his name was Carson when we adopted him, and we think we will most likely call him Dobby - if I could just get him to perform house elf tasks, that would be great!)
Cats have mighty good reflexes. I tried taking this picture several times and every single time his eyes closed from the flash before the camera could expose. That's fast!

Dobby is about a year old and is a bullseye DLH. He has such a sweet personality and is absolutely in heaven at our house. He definitely didn't like the ride home in the car, but adjusted super quick once we got him home and he had a look around. I don't think he has stopped purring yet! As I type this, he's rubbing his head on my hands trying to get me to pet him instead of typing. He doesn't scare easily and is very tolerant of the kids, which is dang good because they haven't given him a moment of peace since we brought him home yesterday afternoon. Especially little miss Alia. She has been wanting a cat for a very long time and has taken it upon herself to be Dobby's shadow and always trying to make sure that he has enough food, water, toys, etc. She just couldn't get herself to fall asleep last night and was up super late because she just kept wanting Dobby to come and sleep wit her on her bed.

This afternoon, Dobby was in my closet in the laundry basket while I was down trying to get Lawson to fall asleep for a nap. I came up later to find this:

Alia just wanted to watch over the kitty, so she brought her pillow and stuff in and fell asleep right on the floor of our closet! I thought it was so cute!

You can see here how patient he is with the kids - Alia's putting a plastic necklace on him for goodness sake!
Isn't he cute?
The kids are learning how to play with Dobby and find it extremely entertaining. I can tell that we're going to have lots of fun.

Todd really likes him as well. And as for myself, I just love animals - and especially cats. They're very therapeutic for me. Unfortunately, I'm experiencing some allergies, which is strange since I've lived with cats my whole life. I'm hoping my body will adjust and that I won't have them for too long. It's worth it though. We love our kitty and are so happy that we can provide a good home for him.