SHE FINALLY DID IT!!!!!

After months and months of struggle, Lydia finally went "pee pee in the potty"!!! Oh my goodness, I never thought the day would happen. But, alas, today has been the day!!! Now granted, today is the first day so I know there will probably be some set backs but at least I know that it can be done. After she went once, she went two times after that within ten minutes (I think she was scared to let it all out at first). So I just said to her, "Relax and let it all out". And she did. Then 20 minutes later I had to go to the bathroom so Lydia walked into the bathroom and said, "Mama, just let it ALL out!" It was hilarious.

Lydia has been trying to potty train since about April (off and on) and she always says that she's scared of the potty so that's what's been prohibiting her from actually doing the deed. Well, today she overcame that fear and I am so proud of her. A couple of months ago I put her on the potty for 45 minutes and we sang and read books...nothing!!!! As soon as I got her off the toilet, she peed all over the floor. So frustrating and that's why we took a break.

She was running around naked today watching tv so I thought I'd put the little potty in their with her and I said go potty if you feel like you have to. About 3 hours later I saw her sitting on it off and on then suddenly she said she went. Her face looked proud so I knew something was different.

After she went for the first time today, she exclaimed, "It's not scary!!!". What a proud moment. You could just see the glow in her face and we just screamed, laughed and danced together in the living room for 5 minutes, literally. It was perfect!
Then I told her we could go get an ice cream cone and I let her choose what she wanted to wear (she had been running around the house naked for 4 hours prior to her "achievement"...oh yeah, she sure knows how to hold it, sometimes in the past she'd hold it for 6 hours, crazy!). She chose her cupcake shirt and heels, she wanted on lipstick and mascara (I obliged) then off we went to the Mav for an ice cream cone. She was thrilled.

My only question for you people out there who have potty trained a child: What now? Do I just go cold turkey and do no more diapers? Or should I have my security blanket and put her in a pull up when we're out for a long time? See, the only problem is, is that she's still scared of the big potty so she's using a little potty that we borrowed. So if we're out for a while, I know there will be an accident because she won't go on the big potty yet! Oh the joys of motherhood :)

P.S. During the writing of this post Lydia has gone two more times (yeah, she pees a lot...she's a drinker), once on the floor (whoops) and once in the potty where right after she peed she yelled,

"Hey mom, I just let it all out"!!!

Oh how I love that child!

Lydia's 3 Year Old Pictures

Every year I get Lydia's pictures taken professionally and lucky me I have an amazing photog friend who does an incredible job making my daughter look beautiful. I love all the shots and backrounds; I'm just sad that I couldn't get Lydia to use her natural smile very often. A lot of it is a weird, forced "say cheese"smile but there are still a ton of cute ones. Thanks Lynette so much. You are the best!

Here are a few of my favorites!

P.S. The sweater Lydia is wearing is one that I bought for Lydia while I was in Ireland a couple of months ago. It's 90% real Irish sheep wool and 10% Alpaca. I love it and I'm so glad she looks adorable in it. It was on sale in one of the Irish shops we went into so I got it for a pretty good deal...until I got home and saw in my bank account the conversion from euros to american dollars...still not too bad though for an irish wool sweater :)

Halloween Activities!!!!!

In our family, Halloween is a big deal. We love it...the decorating of the house, dressing up our daughter in the cutest costumes and of course all the candy.
Well, the Wednesday before Halloween this is what I woke up to...
I couldn't believe it. I hate cold weather. But Lydia and Larry went outside to enjoy it, although Lydia only lasted for 35 minutes.

Then on Thursday at Lydia's dance class Miss Mo had the girls' dress up in their costumes. My mom actually made Lydia's costume this year and it wasn't quite done so I had her be a KU cheerleader. My Auntie Becky got Lydia this costume last year and it still fit her. Aren't these girls' just precious?!

This is kind of a random picture that Jake took a couple of days ago that I thought was funny. Larry's favorite spot is the couch (laying up on top of it). He fell off and landed like this and just stayed there for a few minutes. I love how Gangsta my dog is! But how could you not be with a name like "Larry"?!!!!

Then Thursday night we had our friends over for our annual pumpkin carving.

Here are all the finished products. It's amazing how many pumpkins we have for just two families :)

Here we are with our pumpkins.

Jake's is the UofU player with the helmet on his head (shocker), mine is the alien and Lydia's is the cute pumpkin face.

Jake was so proud of his idea...

Then on Halloween our sweet, little Lydia dressed up as a renaissance princess. When I was little (in KS) we always went to the renaissance festival and my mom bought me one of these hats so I thought it would be great if I got Lydia one. So last year I went with my family to the ren fest and I found one for her that was just like the one I had when I was little.

I found lots of princess dresses but nothing that was more like the reniassance times. So, my mom offered to make her costume with this cute pattern that I found. It fit her pretty good for being made over 1000 miles away :) Thank you so much mom. We love it and Lydia loved the big bell sleeves. So cute. My mom also got her the cutest wand that I forget to get in this picture!

Halloween night we went the Watts' home for a yummy dinner then off to go trick or treating. Look how cute these kids are.

The Johnsen fam. Jake left about 45 minutes after the start of our candy collecting for the black out game at the U (hence the reason he looks like he does)!

We had a great Halloween and really enjoyed ourselves. Thanks for the good times friends'!!!!