Cool Whip Art (December 2009)

In the middle of December I was trying to think what I could do with Trevor that would be fun. Well, in the back of my mind I remember Jeana telling me about an art project where you use cool whip to paint on a window. I had some extra cool whip and thought it would be fun.

Trevor painting with cool whip

What a work of art!

All finished! What a mess we have to clean up!
I thought this would be easy to clean up. I was wrong. It took a lot of elbow grease and hot water to get the sugar off the window. So I called Jeana to tell her that I tried the cool whip project but it was hard to clean up and why would anyone do this (unless you were planning to take 45 minutes and clean your window anyways...then it is a great idea). She said that you weren't suppose to do it on a window, but in the bathtub! Oh, my mistake, at least I have a clean window now and Trevor had a great time drawing on the window. Next time though I think I will try the bathtub.

My 28th Birthday!

I turned 28 in December! I had a great birthday. I woke up and thought it was just going to be another day, but...Nick surprised me and stayed home from work so he could watch Trevor. I had no idea that he was going to stay home. Nick got up like he does every morning and left for work. I work up a little later and he had sent me a text on my phone, it said go look at the computer. I had accidentally closed the program he had open so I had to call him and he told me how to open it. It was Nick and Trevor singing Happy Birthday to me. It was so cute I teared up. I thought so sweet thanks for making this a great day and then I got another text that said go open the front door. I thought oh he left me a present. So I went downstairs and opened the door to find my present...it was him! I screamed! It was such a fun surprise. He had gone shopping that morning and was just waiting till I woke up to come home. It was such a fun day. Jeana and Rob were coming back from Idaho on this day so they come over after they got home and we had Cafe Rio, had cake, and opened our gifts.

Here we are with our tree cake. Every year we have a tree cake and this year was no different. Thanks Nick for making them. Nick was also so sweet because he made me a sugar free jello tree cake because I couldn't have cake this year (I had gestational diabetes). Nick is so thoughtful.

Blowing out the candles with help from Trevor and Brooke.

Opening up presents.
Here are Jeana and I...28 years later. I love Jeana and I am so happy I have had the chance to share a birthday all these years! She is the best twin sister.

Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We went down to Cyndi's house. It was yummy food and great company. After dinner we were just hanging out when Trevor wanted to put the chairs in a line and sing the wheels on the bus. Nick and Cyndi did most of the singing, but it was pretty cute.


On Saturday we were able to have lunch and dinner with Nick's dad and all his brothers. Heath came for lunch and Shawn came for dinner. Trevor was able to paint with Grandpa. He had a lot of fun!

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend. I was even able to do some Black Friday shopping. I had to go by myself because Jeana was out of town so I did not get up early, but I still got most things that I wanted and not so much of the crowds. Big plus!

Trip to Idaho November 2009

The first part of November, my sister in law's mom passed away from a 18 month battle with breast cancer. She was such a amazing wife, mother and friend. Our family loved Sheryl ! Jeana and I were able to go to Idaho for the graveside service. Jeana took pictures during the service and I watched Brooke and Trevor (my dad helped me, thanks dad). Brooke and Trevor did okay...the only problem is they thought the headstones were things to climb all over, and they wanted to run around everywhere (other then that they were perfect). After the service we went over with my family; Jon, Lisa, my dad, my mom, and my grandma to my grandpa's grave (and my aunt's) to feed the squirrels and the birds.

Here we are getting ready to feed the birds and the squirrels.

Trevor getting bird seeds from Grandma Jean

Trevor and Grandma Jean throwing corn off the hillside to the squirrels.

Brooke and Trevor feeding the birds.

It was nice to go home and visit with family.

Julie...

...if you have forgotten what she looks like. This is Julie's sister Jeana (you should never give your password out to people you don't trust :)). Julie is an amazing mom, sister, and friend...however not the most consistent blogger so I thought I would help out. Julie and Jacob around 3-4 weeks (isn't she gorgeous and just look how beautiful Jacob is...he is one lucky boy and so is Trevor).

I am a big kid now...

Trevor has accomplished three great things since October...

#1: He no longer has a binky!

#2: He is potty trained!!

#3: He sleeps in a big boy bed!!!

(I didn't take any pictures in the moment so these were reenacted or from when he was little)

When I found out I was pregnant I wanted to do these three things with Trevor before the baby was born: take away the binky, potty train, and switch to a bed.
So the beginning of October we took away his binky. I had heard a couple of different ways to do this and decided to cut the binky and throw it away because it was "broken". I picked this one because, Trevor understood when something was broken that you threw it away. So each time we put Trevor to bed we would cut a slice in one binky (we had about 6 of them) so Trevor couldn't suck it anymore. He then put it in the trash and then he and Dad would take it outside to the big trash. I was so worried this was going to be so hard, but Trevor surprised me! He did great. He was sad for a couple of days after all the binkies were "broken and in the trash", but he only cried for about 5 minutes total once they were all gone...once that night for 3 minutes and for about 2 minutes at his nap the next day and that was it. He did go around for the next month or so saying "Binky broke...Dad big trash...Binky all gone!" but that was it.
So, one down and two to go...
The first part of November I decided to potty train. Just one day I decided to do it. I found some stickers and made a chart and we started. I put him in underwear from the start and we just watched movies and ate lots of junk food and pop and he would say pee pee and we would go to the bathroom and sit on the potty and read books or if it ran down his legs we would run to the potty. I made a very detailed chart that I used to chart his progress (it was the teacher coming out in me) day one he had lots of accidents, day two he had about half as many and by day three he had even less and I think he had it by day four (I will have to see if I can find my chart :))!!! I still was really nervous so we stayed home for a couple of weeks. He also used a pull up for nap and bed time (I was still cautious so he wore them for about a month). For Trevor, potty training went great...he was just ready. Brooke, his cousin, had been doing it for awhile and I think Trevor just wanted to do it as well! Now, he has to see every bathroom at every store and he uses the bathroom at church a number of times every week, and he still has his occisional accidents and we have to help him in the bathroom, but he is off to a great start.
Two down, and one to go..
So the first part of December came the big boy bed. I was so worried he would not stay in his bed and would get up every 5 minutes but it wasn't that bad. We had to take his crib down so he thought it was broken, but then he slept in his bed. He got up a couple of times at the start. And we thought wow, easy! But a few weeks in he started getting out of bed again. We tried a couple of different things leaving the door open, but if he got up we shut it (then he would cry and we would open it again), reading him stories, singing songs, leaving lights on, anything to get him to stay in bed and go to sleep, finally after a couple of weeks we worked out a system that worked for both him and us. Now he stays in bed (that is once we get him there. He is great at stalling.)

Big News...

So it has been awhile since my last post and the biggest news to report is that we welcomed a new member to our family...Jacob Henry. He weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 inches long. My sister took some amazing pictures of him and posted a preview on her photography blog. If you wanted to check them out go to jeanabirdphotography-blog.com. I hope to post more soon.