Parade

On Saturday we went to the Rosemount Leprachaun Days Parade.  It was super chilly and rained off and on the whole time, but we had a blast being together as a family and doing something fun!  The kids LOVED the parade.  I couldn't help but smile the whole time at Colton's expressions.  Here are a few pics..

My favorite two kiddos all ready for the parade!

Summer

Colton

The favorite of all was the marching band!  See Colton's expression here?  That was his expression for most all of the parade!

 After the parade, a local church put on a free lunch and entertainment, including bounce houses, face painting, petting zoo, etc.  We had fun meeting up with some friends for lunch here.

Both kids, but especially Colton, loved the firetruck!

First time in the drivers' seat.  What a big boy!

I'm driving!

This was probably Summer's 5th time in a firetruck, but still exciting!

Random July Stuff

I randomly take pictures and video on my phone that don't necessarily fit in a blog post of their own  so here is catching up on some I took this month....

Colton was "too quiet" one day, so when I went to see what trouble he got into, I found him up on the rocking chair reading his Bible :-)

Gorgeous sunset last night when I went on an evening run

Summer with her two favorites..."Blankie and Dollie"...on the way home from vacation at Grandma and Grandpa T's

Colton has been communicating more lately...here is a little chat we had one day at lunch....



Summer has been enjoying trying to communicate more in a written manner.  She can (almost) write her name by herself if she really concentrates and has a few verbal cues on how to make the M's, E, and R.  She has been loving "writing" notes to people, putting them in envelopes, and putting a stamp (sticker) in the corner.  Here she wrote a note to Grandma and Grandpa K thanking them for letting us stay at their cabin for the week.  I had her read it since, well, her handwriting is not quite legible yet....



The kids love their special blankies...no one had to teach them their favorite!  Both kids were tucked in with 3-4 blankies each night and they both developed a favorite from a very young age.  I really have never blogged much about them, but I do want to remember that Summer loves her "green froggy blankie" and Colton loves his "blue monkey blankie".  Here are several clips of them with their blankies doing a blankie dance....








Here is a cute clip of the kids playing outside with Daddy after dinner.  Summer is getting better at throwing a ball, and Colton just loves anything having to do with a ball!  There is no sound because I took the video from inside where I was doing the dishes.

Tommerdahl Weekend

Uncle Jordan lives in Colorado now for work and school, but he was coming home (to MN) for a wedding this past weekend, so we all piled into Grandma and Grandpa T's trailer on Battle Lake for a great 4 days of seeing everyone, fishing, playing, talking, eating, and more!  I am so blessed to have married into such an amazing family!

Paul, Me, Javonte, Grandma, Colton, Summer, Grandpa, Auntie Sarah, Uncle Ty, Uncle Jordan, and Madison

Grandpa always captures such fun shots of the kids, so I asked him if I could, yet again, steal some of his pictures for our blog.  He graciously agreed :-)!  Thanks, Grandpa T!

Summer LOVED getting to see her Uncle Jordan

Colton's favorite of Grandma's toys was the big yellow dump truck.

The boys

Daddy and Colton walking around the campground

Playing on Grandma and Grandpa's deck

Summer is looking old!

Colton loved the slide.

Colty!

Walking to the end of the pier

Looking at the water

Auntie Sarah!!!!

My cuddle bug

Love this pic of Javonte

Playing football with Uncle Ty

What a great looking group of guys!

Grandma and Summer

My boys at the beach

Boys

Girls

Family

Riding the tricycle with Uncle Ty

Colton loves anything wheels

And loves anything with a ball

My beautiful Summer

She is getting really good at kicking and throwing

Love this family~!

Summer's Boo-Boo

Today, Summer slipped coming down the stairs and bonked her head on the corner of the coffee table that holds our TV. It was a pretty deep gash, so after texting with Paul, I decided to bring her in for either glue or stitches in the hopes that she would not have a scar on her face. 

Excuse the food on her face.  I took this picture and sent it to Paul while he was eating breakfast when we were determining if we should take her in....

Summer was SUCH a trooper!  She didn't cry the whole time at the doctor and (if you know Summer) was busy talking the whole time, telling the doctors all the things that were happening, lol!  She had such great manners too, it made me smile, despite the situation.  Colton did well too, considering it was during his naptime that we had to go in, and I couldn't exactly hold him to keep him from getting into trouble when I was holding Summer's hand while they glued her half-inch cut back together.  He listened well (for the most part) when told not to touch things, and I was amazed that the morning went as well as it did.  Thank you, Lord!

Here she is busy reading books as we waited at the doctor's office.  What a trooper

Potty Training

Of all the "mommy-ing" things there are to do, potty training has been one of the most intimidating for me.  I just haven't really known how to go about it.  There are so many methods and thoughts out there, and none of them seemed to fit my little girl.  She is so busy learning about her world and solving the world's problems ;) that she is very much NOT in touch with her body's signs and feelings.  The past couple of times when I have tried a few things we had nothing but accidents.  I just kind of hoped that maybe if I waited long enough, potty-training would "happen" on its own and that one day she would wake up and tell me she needed to go! 

Over the past year I have been watching for signs for her to be ready, and she has developed a few in the past couple months, such as being able to tell me when her diaper is wet after she has gone.  Since she is coming up on her third birthday in a few weeks, I decided it was "go-time", and we would take 3 days and completely dedicate it to potty training.  If it worked, great.  If not, we would try again later.

Last Monday was the big "first day".  When she woke up, I told her the plan and she was excited.  We would go to the store and she would get to pick out all sorts of fun drinks (to get the potty flowing!) and treats for when she went in the toilet (she picked fun marshmallows).  We also picked up the DVD Elmo's Potty Time, and she was VERY excited to watch it!

We spent the morning watching the DVD twice while she sat on the little potty and drank fun drinks. 

Both kids loved it, and Colton now says "Emo" when he sees Elmo!

Then we played "Go Fish" while she sat on her potty and drank some more :)

Colton had fun running around the living room and chasing balls and playing with the magnetic letters on the fridge....

For quiet time, I put the potty in her room with her so she could go if she needed to, and she did!  (The first day she was scared to get off the potty because she didn't want to have an accident so she played the whole time while sitting on it, poor thing!)

We had our first outing to Auntie Kristin and Uncle Eric's house for dinner while Paul played tennis with friend from college.  Summer had an accident free evening AND went in a new toilet for the first time!

Colton loved Auntie Kristin and Uncle Eric's landscaping rocks!

Picking rasberries with Uncle Eric

Colton sitting at the big table

"Uncle Eric, I went potty in the toilet!!!!!"

YAY SUMMER!

I was very proud of Summer for her persistence despite accidents, her good attitude about trying something new, and her effort.  It has now been a week since we started, and she is doing great.  As long as I remind her to go at regular intervals we can "almost" have no accidents in a day.  We spent the past 5 days at Grandma and Grandpa Tommerdahl's trailer, and she did AWESOME with only 1 or 2 accidents in a day--pretty good for being at a brand new place!  Pictures of that to come after I "steal" some from Grandpa T. :)