Very exciting news!

So, Dylan's been sitting on the big boy potty for awhile at school now, but never actually going potty. We started encouraging him to sit on the big boy potty at home as well. (M&M's are my form of encouragement!) Tonight he sat on the big boy potty and actually went potty! Right after bath he looked at me and said "Pee Pee, Pee Pee." So, we sat down, and he was so excited that he actually went pee! When he stood up to show me, it looked like he spit in the potty, it was so little. I said "Let's sit down and pee again!" to which he responded "Okay!" We did this a few times which showed me he has great bladder control. The last time he got up though, he was still peeing, and he was very embarrassed. I concentrated on rewarding him for going to the potty and he quickly forgot the embarrassing part. I know we have a long road ahead of us, but it's exciting that the journey has finally begun!

Welcome Eveylyn Rose!

Dylan has another new cousin! Heidi, Jon & Olivia welcomed the newest member of their family yesterday, a little girl named Evelyn Rose. She was 8 lbs 11 oz, and everyone is doing very well. We were so excited to meet her! I was nervous about how Dylan would react when I was holding the baby, but he did very well! He came right over to sit by me and touch the baby, very gently of course. He's going to be a great big brother!

Here's a picture of mom and baby. Evelyn had her eyes open, so I didn't want to use a flash. Look at all the dark hair!

The Zoo

Yesterday Mama joined Dylan and I for a fun trip to the zoo! I was looking forward to having a day out of the house, and was very grateful Kathy came along to help me chase and carry Dylan around. Here they are in front of the elephants.Here Mama is teaching Dylan about the elephants trunk and how they raise them up high.

Every other time we've been to the zoo, Dylan was very interested in the train, but did not want to ride it. This time, as soon as he heard the train he started saying "Ride Choo Choo!" He was very patient as we waiting in line for our turn, and then even more patient when we sat on the choo choo for about 30 minutes before it even started. Apparently the train in front of us was stuck on the hill, so we had to wait for them to get unstuck. He was so happy when the train finally started! Here's a picture of Mama and Dylan riding the train...he refused to look at the camera!

Here's some animal pics. I thought the monkey in the tree was kind of funny. Mama and Dylan are looking at a Rhino, but it's far away, so you can't see it very well. I was excited to see the seals. I feel like they are not out every time we are there.

Goofy Dylan!

I wish I could say that we have started getting all the baby stuff out in preparation for the new baby, but the truth is, we haven't quite put it way from the move yet. Here's Dylan testing out his old car seat.

Just for fun, I pulled a picture from when he was itty bitty in his car seat. This picture was taken in March of 2007, so he was a month or so years old. It doesn't even look like him!

Sometimes, when we're getting ready for bath time, we have to be creative in helping Dylan get excited. He usually enjoys actually being in the bath, but apparently also enjoys throwing a fit to get undressed in order to take a bath. Today we decided to see if Buddy would fit in Dylan's shirt. It worked, and it fit! Poor Buddy. Here's my naked monkey giving Buddy a hug.

Here's Dylan saying cheese with Buddy. We could say that we were dressing Buddy up in his Cardinal red...that sounds much better than we were bribing our child to get undressed for bath time!

Congrats Craig and Stephanie!

Saturday night we went to help Craig and Stephanie celebrate their wedding! It was a great night, and was great catching up with everyone! Congrats Craig & Stephanie!
I had to throw this picture in as well. It is of their first dance. I don't know if you can really tell here, but they are both smiling ear to ear. They are just so incredibly happy, and I'm happy for them!

Welcome Henry Reed!

Congrats to my good friends Shawna & Brian Reed for welcoming their adorable little baby boy, Henry into the world Saturday afternoon! He is perfect!

Pool Time

Now that we're finally starting to feel better, we decided to check out the subdivision pool. Scott stayed home painting, lucky him, so Heidi and Olivia joined us. It was kind of a gloomy day, so there was only one other family at the pool other than us. It was basically as if we had it to ourselves! Olivia LOVED the pool. She is definitely a water baby! Dylan, on the other hand, took a little while to warm up to it. Even then, he wouldn't go past a certain point unless I was right next to him (most likely holding him). Here's Heidi directing Olivia to safer, more shallow waters. Seriously, Livvy was not scared. I'm surprised Heidi didn't go into labor with all that running after Livvy she did! (She's due to have that baby any day now!)

Here's Dylan splashing the water. See the line where the two cements meet? He wouldn't go past that point. That was okay with me!

He enjoyed throwing his toys (in the dark cement area only) and then walking through the water to go get them and bring them back to me.

5th of July

Mama & Papa stopped by on the way home from the lake. Dylan was excited to show them some fireworks. Here he is doing a sparkler and stomping on some poppers!

Happy 4th of July (a little late!)

Since we were still recovering from our summer colds, we had a pretty low key 4th of July this year. We stayed at home to get some rest. I had some 4th of July stickers that I thought Dylan would want to play with. All he wanted to do with them was put them on mommy, so here I am looking very festive.

After dinner, we headed outside to do a few fireworks that we thought Dylan could participate in, like snakes and poppers. Here he is watching the snakes grow from a safe distance! He thought they were pretty neat.

Here he is throwing some poppers down on the ground. He quickly learned that it was much easier for him to toss them on the ground, then run and stomp on them!

We braved some sparklers as well. Here's a quick video of Dylan doing his very first sparkler!

Dylan loves to help clean up!

While we were outside a few of our neighbors mentioned that they do a big firework show at the clubhouse. We headed that way to see what it was about. It was probably one of the better firework shows I've seen in a few years. Apparently all the neighbors make donations for the show. One of our neighbors is a pyrotechnic so he is in charge of buying all the fireworks and setting them off. The show lasted about an hour. It was fabulous! Dylan fell asleep at the beginning of the show. It always amazes me that he can sleep through all that noise. Look how sweaty he is too, it was so hot and humid outside that night. I closed my eyes in between fireworks, while they were waiting for the smoke to settle a little bit. Let's face it, both our bed times are before the show even started!

Welcome Emily & Drew Williams!

Congratulations to Eric & Julie! They welcomed their twins, Drew and Emily into the world early this morning. Babies and Mom are doing great. I will post some pics as soon as I can...but I'm not taking this nasty cold around those precious babies, so it might be awhile! Congrats again to the new family!

What a Whirlwind!

It has been a crazy time for us. Here we are doing a final toast to our old house and all the great memories we made there. I thought I was going to cry, but I think I was too stressed about the time...we were already there 15 minutes later than we were supposed to be!

And here we are toasting all the new memories to be made at the new house. It was an extremely hot day when we moved in, but we survived! The guys were all troopers and had the truck unpacked for us that night! Thanks to everyone that helped us!
Here's Dylan sleeping on the floor b/c the beds weren't put together yet. I think this was Friday, the day after we moved in. I was originally glad that he took such a long nap that day b/c I was able to get so much work done. I should have guessed though, that he was getting sick. He woke up with a fever on Saturday, which remained for 6 days! The doctor said it was just a fever virus, which was good, but slightly annoying. I was relieved to hear that nothing else was wrong with him (I was concerned about his ears.) but annoyed b/c the fever was just high enough that we couldn't take him to school. I ended up missing 2 days of work, and Scott missed one day. Then, on top of the fever virus, Dylan caught a nasty cold, which he generously shared with Scott and I. It's a miserable cold too...not much work is getting done around the house. I'm actually looking forward to getting out tomorrow and going to work for a change of scenery!