Our first teenager!

This past week we became the proud parents of a teenager!  It amazes me how you can go from that little baby you wish would let you sleep to that big kid who helps watch that new baby who won't let you sleep!  Now it should be made known that some things never change. . .  babies and teenagers want to eat all the time!  The only difference is that the teenagers food costs so much more!  I remember when I thought that formula was expensive.  :)  So, here are some fun pictures of Michael from little to big!

Potty Training

One of the things I dreaded when having more children was potty training!  I had mixed experiences with my other children and dreaded the idea of it not going well.  A few months back I decided to potty train Hyrum.  His communication skills were weak, but I figured he was old enough and I had the time.  So, I read up on it, refreshed my memory and went for it.  It wasn't clicking and I remembered what would happen if it didn't click.  Now back in the day when I was younger once we decided to potty train there was no going back.  But now that I am older and a little more mature I was willing to realize that it wasn't working, and so we went back.  It was one of the best decisions of my life!  After several months his verbal skills improved, he became more aware of his bodily functions and wanted to potty train.  I am actually wondering if trying to potty train and then going back helped.  Interesting thought.  So, a few weeks back we could tell that it was time to potty train.  The problem was that I didn't have any time.  We were getting more chickens and getting ready for pigs, but he was very clear about his readiness.  He told me he wanted to wear underwear again and not wear a diaper.  He was trying to change his own diaper and even went to the bathroom at the end of a bath.  So, I decided if he wanted to do it, then he had to do because I did not have the time.  So, I gave him two days, spent them with him and low and behold he did it!  We have only had one #2 accident.  Phew!  And a handful of wet accidents usually when we had company or there was a movie playing.  It has been a couple of weeks and things are still going well.

I have learned a few lessons.

1.  Wait until your child is ready.

2.  Wait until your child wants to potty train.  Now I know diapers are expensive, but it was worth it to me!

3.  Remind gently but do not force going to the bathroom (unless you are going for a car ride, bed or other similar events).

4.  Do not reward for 'almost' doing it right.  I did that the first time and it did not work.  I believe I read it in a book, but that is a no go!  This time if he didn't do it right I told him so.  I did point out what he did right as well, but I taught him what was wrong and didn't just smooth it over.  Rewards only came for doing it all right including keeping those panties clean!

5.  Getting underwear with characters they know is helpful.  The first time we trained he only knew Nemo and not the rest, so he was mad if Nemo was wet because he had to wear others.  By the second time around he was happy to wear other characters and was careful to keep them clean.  Funny enough he wanted to change underwear often, but I told him he could only change if he went to the bathroom.  He would go to the bathroom just to change underwear.  That didn't bother me one bit.

6.  Just love them and help them be successful.  It amazes me how proud of himself he is that he can use the toilet and stay clean all day.  I love it!  There will still be minor problems when there are major distractions, but that is ok and it doesn't mean he is reverting.  Love, teach and move on.

This experience has given me hope in potty training my last one when the time comes.   And we have bonded over the experience, which I love.  Now we are enjoying our pigs, chickens and not changing extra diapers!

Pigs, pigs and more pigs!

Our farming adventures have taken on a new twist.  We decided to raise pigs this year.  We did lots of research, learned that many people we know have done this before and worked really hard.

We started by collecting lots of pallets.  

Then, we did a lot of drilling!  

Even I jumped in to help especially since the wood was quite hard.

Then, we reinforced with stakes

Even Hyrum jumped in to help!

Then, we built a shelter.  The one above was going to be the shelter, but we realized that we had to put an electrical fence there, so that wouldn't be a great place to sleep.  Putting in the electrical fencing was interesting.  I must admit that seeing it work was a very proud moment.  James and the boys did an amazing job!  We did block off the wires, so that Hyrum can't just run up and play with them.   So, the next step is the pigs, of course!  We picked them up today!  They are pretty cute.  They weren't thrilled to leave their home, but they seem much happier now that they have had time to get used to their new home.  

One of the gals seems to like to jump on the other pigs and just rest there.  It is pretty cute.  

This is all very new to us, but it seems to be going well.   It is a good thing that we have the internet and good friends.  As long as they stay in their home I think it will go pretty smoothly.  Well, and if we can keep Hyrum out.  :)  Feel free to stop by and say hi to our little piggies!

Happy Pi Day!

I am sure that most people do not celebrate Pi Day, but I just can't help myself as a super nerdy math teacher.  I threw a Pi Day party with our homeschool friends, and it went very well.  I challenged the kids to learn as many digits of pi as they could, and someone actually learned more digits than Joshua.  I was very impressed.  A few even wrote pi day poems that were quite clever.  And we ate pie, of course!

So much yummy pie!  There were some amazing treasures!

And on a surprising note the weather was perfect, so the kids got to play outside.  They even had a great snowball fight in their t-shirts.  Olaf was correct that snow in spring is the best!  Here is Hyrum enjoying the swings and slide in this beautiful weather!  I didn't want to post other people's kids.  :)

Happy Pi Day everyone!

Spring Break in Virginia

It has become a tradition to go to Virginia for Spring Break.  It is a fun tradition and a pleasant surprise that it felt like spring while there.  The best part was there there was a foot of snow, but warm weather, so the boys could play without a coat and build a snowman all at the same time!  They had a blast!

Simon didn't waste any time exploring in grandma's house.  Thankfully the fireplace screen is attached to the wall.  Phew!  

We stopped by the DC temple and visitor's center.  It is such a beautiful temple.  And it was fun to tell the boys that this is where my parents were married!

We got to have dinner with a dear friend of mine from high school and college.  It was a lot of fun!  

And our kids had a lot of fun together, but taking a picture of 8 kids is just not easy.  This is the best we got!  

Then, we went into DC.  The kids chose to go to the zoo, but I just had to drive through downtown.  The monuments and White House are always fun to see.

Hyrum loved the zoo, and I loved his monkey backpack that I could hang onto.  It was nice not having to worry about losing him.  And he LOVED the monkey!  

The fake animals were just as fun as the real ones!

Grandma had great toys that the little ones loved.  Hyrum and Simon are adorable together as long as Hyrum is soft with him.  

It was fun to get away and take a break.  And it is always fun to see grandma and grandpa.  Simon wasn't as cooperative for grandma, but he did let her hold him on the last day and when mom and dad were nowhere to be seen.  Hopefully he will be more amenable next time when he is a little older.  It was a great trip!  

Car Shopping

Just over 6 years ago I shopped around for the perfect family vehicle.  It took me almost a year, but I researched, test drove and narrowed my search until we purchased our lovely Saturn Outlook.  It fit my family, my husband, tons of stuff, and I loved it!  I still love it, but as we discussed going to Utah for Christmas the greatest concern was comfort.  I don't think that a car ride should feel like you are sleeping in your bed at home, but for those of you who haven't noticed, my children are getting tall fast.  Michael is already 5'11" at the ripe old age of 12.  Yes, 12!  I fear he will be 6 feet tall before his 13th birthday, which still blows my mind.

Michael is running out of leg room!

So, we talked about getting a bigger car.  But what is bigger than our current 8 passenger outlook?  A Suburban?  Expedition?  So, we test drove some.  Now, I just have to tell you that this was harder to do than before because now we live in the middle of nowhere and finding vehicles to test were few and far between.  We even borrowed vehicles from friends to check out to save in driving time.  We found a brand new Expedition to sit in just to get a feel for it and compared it to a Suburban that our friends own but to be honest I wasn't impressed by the leg room, but it was better than our current car.  But what we learned quickly is that they are built higher and don't have as much head room in the front passenger seat.  James couldn't sit up straight in either of them.  And the car seat didn't fit behind the drivers seat!  I was baffled and didn't know what to do?!?  What car will seat a minimum of 7, give leg room for multiple 6'+ children and be tall enough for my husband up front???  I even had a dealer at a loss and I've never seen that before.  ;)

Well, James and I were out doing grocery shopping when I got the idea to try a minivan.  Let's be clear here, I had no intention of ever owning a minivan again, so even trying to sit in a minivan was a big step for me.  Six years when we last owned a minivan they were known for their poor quality, fast depreciation, etc.  Now in my defense I was looking at used minivans 6 years ago and I have since learned that around that time their quality was improving.  So, we drove past a Toyota dealership in town, and I saw that they had a few Sienna's, so I pulled in and asked James to see how they fit.  I am pretty sure that by the end of this experience he was tired of sitting in the front seat of many mini-vans, so we could see how comfortable they were.  I was amazed by the room.  Now, it wasn't as roomy in the front seat as my Outlook (I really had found the perfect car), but the leg room in the back was amazing and the front seat was roomier than the Suburban.  And the storage they created in the back for the seats to fold into was incredible.  So, we looked at the Sienna, Odyssey, and Grand Caravan and the Sienna was the winner.  I even dragged all my kids out to the dealership to see how they fit.  They enjoyed it much more than James did.  :)  As a matter of fact I learned a lot about the can in the 5 minutes that they played in it.  And yes, it felt like playing!

Much more leg room for Michael and the car seat fit.

We ended up driving to Peoria and then to Quincy to see if the '07 was as big as the '09.  It was an adventure, but we learned that even though Toyota insists that nothing changed in these models that the front seat got a little bigger each year.  So, we shopped around, decided what we had to have and what we could compromise on.  I learned that I could not find an 8 passenger Sienna with a DVD player within 300 miles.  I even checked in Utah since we were planning to be there soon.  I also learned that when they put leather seats in the car, the front seat got a little more cramped.  You can blame it on the electronics or anything else, but the end result was that I needed a van without leather which pretty much took the Odyssey out of the game because the only way to get a DVD player was to get leather.  I was very saddened by this news as I have always been a Honda fan.  :)  After researching, driving, testing, etc, we actually ended up with a 'new' minivan that was for sale right here in Galesburg.  The chances were small, but it was nice to buy local, get it checked out by our own mechanics and stop driving for hours at a time to find a new car.  It didn't have 8 seats, but we thought the boys would like the DVD player and it would make our car drives much more peaceful.  And no matter what people say, that 8th seat is a fake seat, but I can imagine it would come in handy, so maybe one day I'll have it all.  :)

After our first drive after owning the van the boys let me take their picture.  They weren't thrilled, but here you go.

Michael admits that the front seat is not the best, but it isn't bad and he fits really well in the back seat!

Jacob loves sitting in the back.  They love that the rear seat reclines which will come in handy when they try to sleep on our long drives. 

Hyrum is still in the back, but I find it easier to get to him with the rolling middle seats when I need to help do that (which isn't often).  

We sold our car to our friends for high trade in value, so it was a great deal for us and a great deal for them.  Bye-bye to my baby.  

Hello to our new car!  It is nice driving a more car-like vehicle again, and the savings in fuel will be fabulous! 

We are all glad it is over, and I am happy to no longer be researching, testing, etc.  It was crazy, but we got a good car and look forward to more comfortable car rides!