Potty Training

DAY 5: Well, on Day 5 we hit a hiccup. It was not a successful day at all. I made Gracie sit on the potty this morning and wouldn't you know that as soon as I said she could get up, she pooped in her diaper. So, after shopping all morning, I made her sit on it this afternoon and same thing. I'm hoping that this is only a minor setback and we can get back on track. We'll see.

DAY 4: Once again, I would classify today as a success. Gracie did both jobs on the potty again and was proud of herself. I'm just wondering, though, how long will it be until she starts telling me that she has to go rather than me making her sit on the potty. I haven't been through this with a girl before but I can tell you that she is already starting off to be easier than Kanin.

DAY 3 UPDATE: SUCESSS! Gracie pooped on the potty again today and although I am really excited, I don't think that she would do it on her own. I pretty much make her sit on the potty (while watching cartoons) until something comes out. I don't know if this is the best way or not but it seems to be working somewhat.

DAY 3: Well, I didn't think that Day 3 was going to start off very well. Gracie was kind of reverting into babyhood last night (see other post) and I told myself that I wasn't going to push her today. I did get her up and had her sit on the potty but no luck. Oh, well, I said and we just went on our way. We were at the mall this morning so I didn't even bother trying to take her to a public restroom so, of course, she went in her diaper-A LOT. When we got home she sat on the potty while watching Tinkerbell but, again, nothing. She just now woke up from her nap and she is sitting back on the potty but we'll see what happens.

DAY 2: The first thing I did when Gracie woke up this morning was put her on the potty. I gave her cup of milk and had her drink and then told her she needed to go potty so we could take Bubba to school. Currently, she has been sitting on the potty for about 45 minutes. She started off in the bathroom but after so long I needed to come back in the family room with Caleb so . . . I brought the potty into the family room and she is watching cartoons while sitting on it. If it works, I'm all for it.

DAY 2 UPDATE: SUCCESS . . . another poo-poo and pee-pee on the potty!

DAY 1: Day 1 of potty training was exciting and productive. I really didn't think that I would get anywhere but after sitting there for about 20 minutes Gracie pooped in the potty! I was so excited because that is usually the hard one to accomplish. Later on, she peed in the potty, too. I kept telling her that she was my "potty buddy" and every time that I needed to go I would tell her that I needed my potty buddy. After she did her business, we wa

ved good-bye to it and flushed it down the toilet--hey, if it works, I'm all for it. Then, we GOT to use toilet paper AND wash our hands--LOL.

Christmas Decorations are Up!!

We spent all day Saturday and most of the morning Sunday putting up Christmas decorations on the house. Scott says that he will never do it again. He was really scared when he got up on top of the house so he moved around to the front and climbed up and down the ladder for over 4 1/2 hours. I want to get some more snowflake lights but other than that, I think it looks pretty good for our first time.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving started early for me as my mom and I got up around 5 to start all of the cooking. The turkey had to be rubbed and popped in. I wanted to start the roast. We made the pasta salad and deviled eggs early and then had a break for a bit to straighten up the house.

I was really excited about the Macy's Day Parade coming on this year because I thought Kanin would think it was really cool to see all of the big balloons and bands.

Since the cooking was well underway, I took the opportunity to take some pictures of my babies.

The family all showed up around noon. Mom, Dad, Debbie, David, Alissa, Kurt, Sarah, Ben, Marissa, Alison & Aidan were all over for a feast and I mean FEAST! Jeff, Dayna and Kelsey showed up later for some dessert.

After a long day of family, football and feasting, we ended the night with a new family tradition of reading Elf On the Shelf. our elf's name is Chuckie and he shows up on Thanksgiving night.

Trials of a Thanksgiving Turkey and Stuffing, Part II

Well, I completely changed my plan on the turkey. I had it out in the garage in the freezer and I moved it down to the refrigerator part on Monday morning to thaw out. Well, Tuesday night I said something to Scott about the turkey and he said that it was still frozen. I was freaking out so I brought inside to the refrigerator, put it out on the counter for a few hours in a pand, put it back in the fridge and finally, put it in a cold bath. It finally unthawed but I didn't not get to do the Alton Brown's brine as I did last year.

So, I thought since I skipped his step, I would just combine Bobby Flay and Paula Deen's recipes and just kind of came up with my own. I put all of Bobby's herbs into a butter, lathered up my bird and put it breast side down on 400 degrees for 30 minutes and then I turned it down to 325 for the rest of the time. The skin came out crispy on the bottom half. I popped it in the oven right around 7am and by 10am the little thermometer said the turkey was done--we had another 2 hours to go!! So, my mom and I flipped the bird over and let the breast sit down in all of the juices and turned the temp down to 275 for the next 2 hours. I have to admit that that turkey was some of the most juciest and tenderest turkeys I ever had. The meat, literally, was falling off the bone. When we tried to move the turkey from the roasting pan to the platter, the 2 leg bones just pulled apart from the body.

Finally, after Scott and Debbie carved the turkey, I poured Paula Deen's cranberry glaze over it. It was really, really good.

More on the rest of Thanksgiving in another post.

Well, they are called "stockings", right?

Gracie is having a great time with these new "socks" she found.

Blog Questions

For those of you that have been doing this a bit, could you help me out?

I don't like how my paragraphs are so far apart from each other. Can I change that?

How do you put a picture up in the topic?

How do you change the size of pictures?

Sprouting Up Trees

Well, it is that time of year again. My favorite time . . . putting up Christmas decorations. Everyone who knows me knows how obsessed I am with Christmas trees. I love all Christmas tree: big ones, little ones, red, blue, black , white (you get the picture). I used to have a Christmas tree for every room but now that we bought the bigger house I am going to have to buy more trees.

Each of my trees have a certain theme. The one in the family room is gold, silver and white with angels all over it. I call it my angel tree. A lot of the ornaments are from Scott's mom so I thought it fitting that her ornaments should be on the angel tree. My obsession with trees is obvious if you take a close look at this one. Although it is a beautiful tree, it is too tall for my house so the top branches have never been on it! It is kind of just cut off at the top. I couldn't resist buying it, though, because it was normally $250 and I snagged it for a cool $28 after Christmas. Every year I say that I need to buy an angel for the top of the tree and then I forget.

I also have a red and white candy tree. I put red lights on this one and all of the ornaments are candy related.

There is the small tree with pink lights and victorian ornaments such as shoes, flowing dresses and intimate beads. I have a Scooby Doo tree and a sports tree, too.

In a couple of years I would like to do an old-fashioned Christmas tree where we string popcorn and find pone cones to paint. I think with that tree I will add all of the kids' homemade ornaments that I'm sure will surface over the next few years.

I put the family room tree up this past Friday and I've attached a couple of pics. I will add pictures of the others as they slowly find their way around the house.