Potty Training the Twins

Oh, potty training. Ooooooooh potty training. I geared up for quite a while for this and was ready to jump right in with both feet! I read "Oh Crap! Potty Training", which helped a ton...but I will still blown away at how difficult it was. Looking back, I put too much pressure on them and was so anxious myself, which they totally caught onto. In the future, I need to put a lot more fun into it. You live and you learn and I'm thankful for these sweet guinea pigs that were so patient with me.

We started September 13 and after a few weeks, they had it down pretty darn well. I'm so proud of them and loved seeing them reach another milestone. They're such big ladies.

After a couple of weeks, Olivia stopped having accidents and has had maybe one or two since. With Kate, it took a bit longer for her and I've had to watch her a lot more, but right now they're both to a point where I don't have to worry about it. They wear a pull-up at nighttime, but wake up dry 99% of the time. We'll say hello to toddler beds and bye to pull-ups in the next month. Hooray!

^my favorite part of potty training was the cute nakey bums

^having FHE while Kate was on they potty...so glamorous

Warm Winter

These pictures are from the very end of November and that just blows my mind! We've had a abnormally warm winter (not complaining one bit) and took advantage of it with lots of time out in the backyard. Love these little loves.

 ^one of my favorite pictures of the twins to date

Lights On

We had our annual Lights On evening with the Simons last weekend where you go to everyone's homes and see everyone's Christmas trees, eat yummy food, and read a book or do an activity. It's pretty amazing that we all live close enough to do this kind of thing, we're really blessed.

We started out at the Pickles house where we took photo prop pics and had some cookies:

Then we headed to our home for homemade pretzel bites and candy cane ornament making:

Then it was onto Wilson & Kenzie's for toothpick hors d'oeuvres and a reading of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas":

We ended the night at G&G's house where we sang Jingle Bells with some fun shakers, and watched the train go around and around. The kids LOVE the train and it always make a stop for m&ms!

Todd's Homecoming

HE'S HOME!!! Todd came home from the Wellington New Zealand mission on Friday, November 17 around 6:30 pm. Oh my heck we were so thrilled to see him. Seriously nothing better than those moments when you see them for the first time and get to hug them. I could just stay in the airport all day watching missionaries reunite with their families. Everything was perfect in our little family's world.

And I love these first embraces, especially mom and son:

Thanksgiving Festivities 2017

We sure had an eventful Thanksgiving week this year with TWO Thanksgiving dinners. Such a win! On Wednesday we made peach pies with Grandma Bean and then had a movie night with the Simons:

Thanksgiving Day and Grandma Bowen's birthday fell on the same day this year, so we spent Thursday with the Bowen family down in Orem. We sang happy birthday to Grandma and it was great to catch up with family that we only see a couple times every year. I especially loved talking with Melissa Walton about how she's homeschooled her kiddos.

Mom came over Friday morning to help me make her cinnamon knot buns to take to the Simons Thanksgiving later that day. She was such a gem and I love this memory with her.

Friday after naps we met up with the Simons for a yummy dinner. I remember there being so much variety (I need to remember to snap a picture next time!!) and, as my Grandma Bean would say, we were sufficiently suffonsified. We gathered together after dinner and had written down why we were thankful for each member of the family...the kids wrote for the other kids and the adults for the other adults. Then G&G had each child come up while they read what the other kids had said about that child, and the spouses read what others had said about them. It was the cutest thing to watch the child stand on the mantel and just beam while G&G read what others loved about them. And then we clapped and gave a big group hug after each child.