Going Cold Turkey

So this week I decided to bite the bullet and actually put a serious effort into potty training Tirzah. I mean, I have so much free time on my hands, I could use a little excitement in my life. 3 kids just isn't cutting it.

So most of this week we haven't really gone anywhere. Just been hanging out here, playing in the yard, and running back and forth to the bathroom. Not sure how most people do potty training, but I do what I call the insanity method, where you just go cold turkey on the diapers. She's not allowed to wear diapers again and she knows it, not even at night. I did this with Merrick and he was good to go in about 3 days, he never wore another diaper and has had maybe 3 accidents at night total. But I'm not even gonna admit how many times I've looked longingly at the diapers in the closet.

So far she has had a little bit harder time than Merrick, but I've heard girls have a harder time potty training. She is making progress though, and was accident free last night and most of today. She has managed to pee on me more times than I'd like to admit, though. Always on my feet too. Awesome. While watching American Idol the other night, someone mentioned having an alter ego, and I found myself angrily wondering what they needed an alter ego for. They weren't even getting peed on all day.

I know it'll be worth it since I'm not paying for diapering two butts...one is plenty, and J has a few more years in diapers before I'll be doing this again thank goodness. But for now, duty calls...if anyone needs me I'll be running back and forth between the bathroom for the next few days.

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The last shot is for Give Me Your Best Shot, This or That, and Show Off.

Happy Hunger Games

I am constantly reading. I read probably for nearly an hour every day. (As a mom of 3 action-packed children, you  may wonder what hours of the night I manage to do this reading.) Answer: I read on the treadmill while I run. Yes, reading while running is something you have to get used to, but it is possible, and it gets me through all the long miles I log on the dreadmill. It's even easier now that I have the Kindle my husband's parents gave me for Christmas...I love that thing.

I recently blazed through all 3 of the Hunger Games books. They were easy reads and kept me really interested, so I was thrilled when I saw they were making a movie. I didn't think I was going to be able to go (can you say ka-ching? Movies are so expensive) but an extremely thoughtful individual saw me whining about it and gave my hubby some money and told him to take me on a date! :)

I really enjoyed the movie, and so did Billy. I thought it was a better book-to-movie than Twilight, which has always been a bit cheesy (even though I love it) and I'm hoping they'll put the other two books on the big screen, too. (Anyone know if that's in the works?) As always...book > movie, but I thought it was really well done. If you saw the movie and/or read the books what did you think?

The first shot is for Tones on Tuesday, Communal Global, Sweet Shot, and Happiness Project, 

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Wedding Season

When you are growing up, you always think of time in semesters. As you get older and out of school it's kind of all one big blur. But lately, and the more client work and weddings I've been doing, I've started to think of it as "wedding season" and the off season.

My sisters and I do a lot of work together, especially weddings, and we started off the "season" with a bridal session for a sweet girl we've had the opportunity to grow up with, and watch her grow into a beautiful bride. She was definitely glowing, and it was not a hard job to capture all that "I'm getting married!" excitement.

It was a pleasure to work with her and her family, as always. I did a family session for them back in the fall, and they are so awesome to work with. She and her new husband have been married for 2 weeks as of yesterday, and I hope that these two weeks are just the beginning of a fantastic life together.

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Jericho's First Vlog

I don't usually do video posts, maybe because I am very bad at reading/watching video posts myself, but I decided this was an irresistibly cute way to kick off the weekend. J-Hawk has started jabbering more and more, including jabbering sessions at 4 am. I don't usually video those, since 1) it's an unapproved time for jabbering, and 2) it's too dark and I'm barely conscious.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think this translated to: "I love my mommy; she is the most awesome." That's what I thought he said anyway. (I could be wrong, but I'm the mom and I'm rarely wrong. One of the perks of being a mom.) Hope everyone has a happy Friday!

Happy

Happy first day of Spring! We thoroughly enjoyed the first day of Spring over here. Billy was off from work and it was warm and sunny, so we went to a local park and walked around looking at flowers, and periodically me and the kids ran around scared of bees. I have no idea where they get their fear of bugs from.

The kiddos think all "parks" have playgrounds (and while there is a playground at this park, we went to a different section of it) so when we just wandered around and played in the grass and looked at the gardens I think they decided they'd been gypped. They kept saying, "where is the park?" I felt kind of bad for them, but then I felt kind of bad for myself because they started fighting. ;)

They did end up having fun, minus a major spider incident and several hundred Tizzy tripping over her own feet incidents. She is not exactly the most graceful girl I've ever met, but she is a tough cookie. I also have no idea where she gets this from, either. We finished it all off with Sonic, which we totally justified since we walked/pushed/pulled/dragged 3 kiddos all over the park. I'm thinking running from bees alone burned off those tots. ;)

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