Cute Kids

I wanted to make sure I got some pictures of Paige in September for her scrapbook so I took some today. She is getting so big. She's learning to sit at the present, so hopefully she'll master that soon. Sebastian is the sweetest brother. They play sooo well together! I really love my two children. Chris just melts over his little girl and he has so much fun with Sebastian!

Paige loves to Eat Everything!

Paige loves to eat everything! We started her on rice cereal two weeks ago and she loves sweet potatoes, juices, and applesauce. She especially loves real people things like sucking on fruit...or anything she can get her mouth on! (The pictures are with her devouring a cantelope)

70 pt. Scrabble score!

Last Sunday, Chris, Brad, and I played Scrabble. We were all at around 60 points when I was able to put down the word: Qintar. The Q (10pts) was on a triple letter score and the A set on a Double word score. So my score was ((10 x 3)+5) x 2 = 70 points. Chris and I thought that was worth blogging, =)! **All thanks to Brad for placing Nuns in just the correct postion!

Still working on the poop thing

So, as you can see, we are still working on the poop thing with Sebastian. I really don't want him to keep pooping in his underwear forever....what can I do??? Chris and I are really trying to focus on it before it becomes an even bigger problem. Right now I am just trying to reward pooping like crazy, and that's the only thing that gets rewarded. He did poop in the toilet twice today...but he also pooped in his underwear in-between.

How long did it take your kids to figure it out??? Does anything work?

"hmm...it's a grape"

Sadly, our twin neighbors (also named Chris and Elisabeth) moved to Idaho Falls the day we returned from our vacation (Aug 21st). It is a bummer to lose such a close friend, but at least I am just losing her vicinity-wise...we will still be close, I will make sure of it!

In their place we now have Shayne and Jessica Smith next door; they are just now settling in. We had them for dinner on Tuesday (sept 15th) and have just seen more of them around the complex and upstairs.

On Friday, we had the Mahelona's over for pizza and games and so the boys (Ben and Sebastian) were outside playing just on the balcony area with a gate in front of the stairs. Jessica had come outside to get cooled off but seeing Sebastian, she offered him fruit snacks. They don't have any kids so they have fun with everyone else's =). Anyway, Sebastian ended up just going inside and sitting on their couch. They asked if he wanted to watch a movie, to which he replied in the affirmative, of course! So, Sebastian watched Cars next door while we continued our evening with the Mahelona's.

After the Mahelona's left I went over to retrieve Sebastian and make sure he hadn't peed or pooped or anything. Everything seemed to be fine and I was just convincing Sebastian we were going ot need to go when Shayne got up and noticed something on the carpet. He picked it up, looked at if for a second, and said, "hmm...it's a grape." Well, it didn't look like a grape to me! I quickly pulled back on Sebastian's underwear to check my suspicians, while at the same time Shayne was starting to guess he wasn't correct...Sebastian had pooped some deer poop and it fell out of his underwear; Shayne had picked it up!!! I was a little mortified. Found another piece, flushed it, washed my hands and took Sebastian home! Sorry new neighbors!!

They are good sports, though. They were willing to watch him and Paige for real the next day (Sat morning) so that Chris and I could go to the temple together. It's going to be fun to get to know our newest neighbors. We are also getting to know the Thurman's more and that has been fun.

Dickson Family Camping Trip at Lake Pearryginn (Winthrop, WA)

We had such a great start to our summer with our first annual (or atleast biannual) Dickson family camping trip! I am so glad we were able to make it. Chris finished school on Wed, July 22 and then we left the next morning and headed to Winthrop, WA. We traveled with Tom and Sara (they came from UT) but it took us until Coer D'Alene to catch up with them. We camped Thur through Monday. The only ones not there were Angela and her family...but luckily Chris and I get to see them a ton! Here are some pics of our trip and of my family:
Brady, Emma, and Alissa

Sweet Alissa...she opened up a lot this trip

Kerry and Kay

our kids are great campers...they are so fun! So cute together, too!

On the last run of the weekend for the boat. Sebastian fell asleep after a few minutes.

We all brought our own food, but we ended up eating a lot of meals together. It was so much fun to get everyone together. We weren't complete, though, we were missing Angela and her familly

Daryl, walking with Bear

Jace, Jeremy (Kay's boyfriend), and Korbin trying some fishing

My brother Robbie...it was so fun to spend time with him and his family!

The clan at the water...

Time to rest, relax, or play

A very typical picture of my mom...such a water bug, well...sun, really!

Kyler, Sebastian, and Bear...Nyah, Soma, and Emma...how fun. This is what it will be like with Seven, Eliana, and Paige in a few years!

Classic Fela: Drama! =)! Isn't it the cutest picture you have ever seen though?

Seven and Paige together at last!

Chris loves his little girl! She really is a lot of fun. She did great on the trip and enjoyed everything.

Acacia and Cynnia were our camp babysitters, =)! They were always taking turns between Seven and Paige if no one else had them. I can't believe how old my nieces are getting!!!

Rob brought his newly acquired orange boat with him...we all had a blast taking rides with him and getting pulled on a tube!

This is us at the Ross Dam overlook. It was good to get out of the car for a bit on the way home and appreciate some beauty.

On the train in Newdale on the way back from Winthrop. We stopped here every year when we went as kids so I had to do it.

Plus, Sebastian LOVES trains!!

Potty Training....

***What an adventure!!!***
Beginning Date: Saturday, September 5, 2009
Why: It just seemed like Sebastian was ready. For the last two weeks of our vacation he was super weird about always having his diaper on and not even wanting to take a bath because he was just too uncomfortable without a diaper. All I could figure was that he was starting to realize how is bowels worked and was afraid to pee or poop outside of his diaper because he didn't have control yet...but he knew that something was going on. We had been back from vacation for just over 2 weeks and school was starting for BYU-I on the 10th. It was time.
What: I used the book "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day" by Azrin and Foxx and tried to follow its outline for training. Though it wasn't done in a day...it did work as I kept at it.
Biggest thing I learned: It really takes 100% attention to effectively potty train a child. I never knew how much attention I didn't give Sebastian. It is exhausting!!! But, it works.

Outline:
Sat: peed in the toilet once before his nap, otherwise, accidents all day (every 1-2 1/2 hrs). He told me every time he peed, just not before, so he recognizes "wet"
Sun: 2 1/2 hours of complete attention on Sebastian in the morning...an hour of almost accidents and he finally peed on the toilet. The rest of the day he was naked, too freaked to wear underwear because he didn't want to have an accident and he sat on the toilet probably 75% of the day (his choice)
Mon: still naked today but he started to spend less time on the toilet and had less false alarms by the evening
Tue: We got him to wear clothes!!! AND he finally went outside and we played out of the house for the first time in 3 full days (all his choice b/c he was naked and didn't want to leave the toilet). No accidents since Sun either. *He fell asleep on the toilet, we'd been waiting for that one!
Wed: First outing: we got out to Wal-Mart, he had a small accident but he also peed in the big toilet there and did fine with the loud automatic flusher.
Thur: 4 accidents: 2 pee, 2 poop. But...he also pooped in the toilet, twice! So at least that is something, every day there is something new!

(he has a cookie because he pooped!)

Fri: Trip to IF. I have to convince him to go potty to not have an accident. Otherwise he waits until its too late, like he did in Once Upon a Child Today after already having been in the bathroom with me a few minutes earlier. Stubborn child, it must be his choice! And I gave up on diapers tonight!! Every time (morning and after nap) it was such a struggle to get him back into underwear from diapers, and since he was dry for 2 days straight each time I just said "we're done with diapers!"

Sat-Wed: I gave up writing daily in his journal because he wasn't progressing noticeably anymore. No accidents if I was making sure he went potty, but if it was up to him he'd wait to long, pee a little in his pants, then pee in the toilet the rest. Still hasn't figured out pooping, either...he will sit on the toilet for 20min-an hour with nothing, then poop in his underwear a little later. He wants to poop in the toilet, and he knows it yucky to poop in his pants...but he hasn't figured it out yet.
Thur (today): I stopped trying to convice Sebastian to go to the toilet 1/2 way through Wed and he has gone on his own since then. He's been great. He peed a tiny bit this morning in his underwear but he caught himself. Last night he fell asleep on the way home from my sister Angela's at 6:30....we weren't sure if he was out for the night or not...but at 11pm he emerged, slept a little in our room and by 11:30 was awake and getting worked up about getting a door open. Finally I realized it was the bathroom he was talking about and I opened the door and got it prepared for him (seein as he was still groggy and probably had to go really badly) he went pee instantly as he sat down. Oh, and he has yet to wet the bed since I took away diapers! So he is completely pee toilet trained...pooping still has some work, but hopefully he will improve soon!!