Tis the Season.............

This year there was no hesitation, Tre' plopped himself right in Santa's lap.
Earlier this month Tre' wrote a letter to Santa letting him know what he wanted. He was told that if he wrote a letter he could take it to Yaya's and drop it in the "letters to Santa" ornament that she had. So, we did, and it magically disappeared making it to Santa's house!
The best part is, Santa wrote a letter back. I wish I would have recorded the look on his face when I showed Tre' the envelope addressed to him from Santa......... AWESOME!

He really wants a bike,tractor and a green lightning McQueen.
When we told Tre' that there are no green Lightning McQueens, he is red. His quick response was "Santa will paint it green". I hope he comes through or that Tre' forgets.

We showed up at Papa Joe's and Stacy Grandma's while Paul finished up his studies. When we arrived Papa was making sugar cookies and we all know Tre' loves to help. He jumped right in.



We are partying it up at Yaya's! Rockin around the Christmas tree and making gingerbread houses.
One of my favorite traditions that Yaya has started is to do gingerbread houses with the grandkids. I enjoy this cause all the adults get to be together while the kids decorate and eat candy to their hearts content.
This was such a fun night with the whole family. Thanks for the good times and great dance moves :)

Cookies

The new kitchen aid allows Tre' a little more freedom in the cooking world. Until you add the flour that is. :)

The FEasT.................

Here is the happy family...............
The awesome table decorations. Thanks Stacy for the glitter pumpkin.
MMMMMMMMMMMM! I don't think that we missed a thing.
Cleaning out the bird. The stuffing, the one thing I looked forward to was the one thing that did not goes as hoped. Already can't wait for next year when Wendy makes it. I know it will be all that I had HOPED for this year.
oH dAD
The master at his finest! As a young girl thinking about traditions and things I looked forward to seeing my own husband do, cutting the turkey was one of them. Why, I don't know but, here it is.......
Hope you all had as Happy a Thanksgiving as we did!

THanKsGIVINg WITH THE AceNUts-- PREPARATION

This Thanksgiving was to be spent with my mom. (we switch off every other year between my family and Paul's) There have been a lot of changes through this year for us as a family. One of those changes was my Dad getting re-married. So, with the holidays coming I wanted nothing more than to not have to split the day between Dad/Mom so in hopes of things going my way I thought I would attempt inviting them all to dinner at my place...............
Believe it or not it was a TOTAL SUCCESS!!! I could not have been happier with Thanksgiving this year.
We has quite the feast at our place and we did the turkey and homemade stuffing. Yes, homemade stuffing.
When we do Thanksgiving with Paul's family the stuffing is the one thing that I look really forward too. We always go to Brent and Wendy's the night before to help prepare and do lots of stirring to get it to it's perfection and we wanted to bring this tradition in to our own home.
I love that it making traditions of our own we LOVE traditions that come from our own families and want to incorporate those. It is a good feeling!
Thank you to our parents for these yummy and memeorable traditions to become part of our own.
This is the preparation of the turkey. Tre' helped get the turkey bag ready by shaking up the floor and putting in the celery. Dad stuffed the turkey, and I took the pictures :)

P.S. getting a turkey ready is DISGUSTING!!!!

Wants to be like Dad

Kitchen Aid=LOVE

I am so INCREDIBLY happy about this new addition to my house. When I got home I heard yelling from the kitchen "mom, mom, hurry get in here, we need your help." I said "okay, I am coming, is everything okay?" They both said "hurry, come here" when i got in there they said "hurry up and mix dinner we are hungry" ha ha ha and this is what was wrapped up waiting for me on the counter.
This was an early Christmas present for me cause we are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year. I am very excited about this but was not quite sure how I was going to pull everything off by hand, (literally) for the first time. Now, I don't have too. Paul was getting a little worried for me too. Thank goodness he was cause now I get to make Thanksgiving in my kitchen-Aid.
For the record I am not a bad cook just need a little help along the way. :)
So, so far waffles and snicker doodles have been made in my new kitchen toy with many more things to come.
I love you Paul and Tre'. Thanks a million.

Happy Halloween

Every year we head over to Aunt Sara and Ucke Larry's house to Halloween with out cousins and YaYa and Papa.
This is always a lot of fun for all. Sara always has a delicious spread for us to eat. Always something to warm the belly followed by some delicious desserts, Yes, desserts there is never just one casue she is so creative. Halloween is her favorite holiday so the decorations and food are always GREAT, very festive!
This year as I am sure the rest of you got a bit of this as well we got rained on. A LOT! Tre' thought it was a lot of fun to go but only to about 5 houses and then said "I am ready to go back to Sara's" and that was all for Tre' he was more interested in playing with his cousins.
Also for Halloween we started a little early and headed over to Papa and Grandma's for a Halloween dinner and trick or treat bag making. This was a lot of fun s well. Once we stuffed ourselves and got in our costumes we did some trunk or treating. I don't have pictures of this event though.
I hope you enjoy your halloween as nuch as we did.

ROCK N' ROLL

I have been doing a little decorating as well, check it out. Not so bad for a rookie.....

A new garage means we have a ScOOp!

We are FINALLY getting a garage and while we celebrate the hole in the ground Tre' celebrates for the machine that did all the work.

Oh HOW I LoVE HAllOWEen..........

THE HOUSE IS ALL DECORATED FOR hAlloWeEn! A big THANK YOU to Sara for getting us all to Gardner Village on Staurday to see the witches.

hAlloWeEn is my favorite holiday but I was having a hard time getting in th groove before Saturday. I know Saturday was only the 2nd but my place is usually decorated the last week in September.

It was so nice to spend the morning with family, good company and GREAT Food. We love you Kneaders.

A day off, a picnic anda date with Brad Paisely

Today Tre' and I bonded....... these days that i do not have to be to work are the days that I soak up because there is nothing else to do except for love on my bug.

The highlight of his day I believe, cause he is still talking about it, was our picnic. We made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with chips and grapes. The grilled ham and cheese was a new one for him but he snarfed it! Good choice I think :)
As we headed outside with our blanket he did not want it on the lawn he wanted it right on the sidewalk outside our apartment door. It worked out great and ended up being a great place to play cars and do a little ring around the rosies.

Our feast

There is a new gelatto shop next to the hair cut shop so, we stopped in for ice cream and coloring. Thanks to the dude who turned the mess above into a clean slate so Tre' could have at it.

I have been waiting for this date for over 2 years. Everytime Paul and I try to go to his show Paul ends up having business and so I just let it go by the wayside. Well, this year I just had to go. I really wanted to see him and so glad that I did thanks to Paul. The night before he left for business he got 2 tickets for me so that I could take my twinner. I was so happy! Thanks love!

If only we could have been close enough to really see him smile........

Thanks twinner for the great night out and the conversation. This was a GREAT GNO!

I know a little scary but I was beyond excited at this moment in time.

CHILDHOOD FOOD....

What is that one food that you make or would like to be able to make that reminds you of your childhood?
Mine is, rice pudding. I have wanted to make this recipe for a very long time and finally on a day off last week took the time to do so and it was PERFECT! Just the memory I was looking for.
This memory brings me to my Dad standing at the stove in his apron mixing all the ingredients, that seemed to be so precise.
Have you ever watched the movie Ratioulle? Rotioulle the mouse always had so much passion when cooking, making every pinch, every cup, every, everything so perfect. This for some reason is the way I always picture my Dad making rice pudding. It always seemed he made it with such a passion and I believe that cause it was always PREFECT!
When it was done, he would scoop us a hot bowl with a little bit of canned milk over the top. (When Dad wasn't looking we would try our hardest to sneak the canned milk cause he was always very stingy with how much he would let us have, the thing is it always added that extra bit of perfectness.)
I was delighted when finishing this recipe to taste it and have it taste just the way I remembered. Thanks Dad for the good memories that homemade rice pudding brings to me.

What Tre' is up too..........

I was on the phone with my sister last night and she was letting me know that she was feeling out of touch with her neices and nephew lately (she lives in the beautiful Hawaii, so she is a little ways away) and wanted to know what they were up too?
It got me thinking that I do post on here fun things that we do and give little blurbs here and there but I never post what exactly Tre' is up to and what he is doing so, here I go: (If for no one else, this one is for you sis)

Tre' is now 2 1/2 and quite the handful. Let's not saY handful let's say he is TOTAL BOY and that will sum him right up.
His is way in to "scoops" trucks and tractors. He LOVES to take them in the dirt and build along with his shovel and rake. I don't know what I am going to do with him when the weather changes and I have tO put his shovel and rake away for winter. What a sad day at our place that will be.
(As I am writing this I am thinking that I need to take pictures of these things tha he does as well. I will work on that and then add those pictures to this post.)
Okay, back to Tre'........
He just got potty trained as you can see in the posts below and that is still going really really well. I am so proud of him. A few times he has asked for his diapers but, as quick as he has asked for them he gives me a sad face and says " but the garbage man came and took them away" Smart boy! :)
Now that he is potty trained all he wants to do is run around naked and show everyone his weeney. Yeah yeah I know....... it is a new and exciting thing for him so we are hoping that he will grow out of that at some point. The other day he was sitting on the floor and was farmilarizing himself with himself if that is an okay way to put things and said "Dad, look at my big weeney" ha ha ha we lost it!!!!! SO funny.
He does pre-school with YaYa 1 day a week and LOVES it, so much that if YaYa missses a week he gets so sad and whiney. I don't like the whining but I love that he looks forward to learning with her so much. He is very lucky to get to be with YaYa as much as he is. He is learning his numbers and alphabet, loves to sing the alphabet song and even make up his own songs. When he makes up his own songs it throws me off when he asks me to sing them cause obviousally I don't know that words. When this happens he will give me a tune and whatever I make up sounds good to him. Thank goodness :) They do lots of arts and crafts which makes him happy cause that means he get to make a mess.
He got a 3 wheeler Batman bike for Christmas last year and is finally tall enough to reach the pedals. He is riding that thing all over the place. As he rides he coaches himself thorugh it saying "pedal,pedal, pedal" it is very cute!
Wow, he is doing a lot of things these days. I am sure there is more and as I think of it I will be sure to let you know. Love you SIS.

Mascot Bowl....... Who's your favorite mascot?

BUMBLE IS OURS......

The conversation here goes: "Ref, you gotta check these kids gift certificates, there is no way they are in junior high." (Bumble was a little upset that they were running all over him) ha ha

Thank you everyone for coming out to support Paul and the cause. This place was packed and I think that Christmas shopping for a few families is going to put BIG smiles on a few faces.

Thank you Brent for coming and taking these great pictures. I will be sure to add these to the Bumble scrapbook.

Family picture

POttY TrAinINg Day 3

There is not much to say for today other than Tre' is a ROCK STAR!!!!!
We took a drive up to Park City today to hang out and NO ACCIDENTS! NOT ONE! He told us every time that he needed to go. SIMPLY AMAZING.
I have to give a shout out to Paul. What a stud he has been through this whole process. Very supportive and a huge help! I love you and am glad that we make a great team. I am sure we will have a few mishaps along the way but, I know we will be there with each other no matter the time of night or how ever big the mess. :)
This was a great experience. I am really bummed to be headed back to work tomorrow after a long weekend with Tre'. We really bonded over this whole experience and I wish that at this moment, time would stop and I could be with him always.
So, the diary of Tre''s potty training has come to an end. Thanks to all who followed. The picture below sums up just the way we feel after this great accomplishment............

EXHAUSTED!

POttY TrAinINg Day 2

I could not be happier with the way this whole potty training experience is coming right along. Tre' is a ROCK STAR no doubt! I think he was ready to be "big" like his other cousins who have been so patient with all the watching Tre' has been doing while they show how "big" they are going potty.
This morning he woke up dry, and a few minutes let us know that it was time to go potty.(Loving that and hoping for the same results for tomorrow morning as well.)
We had one accident this morning while Paul was at church and that was because we were playing outside. I had not gone over still needing to be aware when it's time to go potty even when we are playing. Once we went over that, he was money. No more accidents for the rest of the day!
I am very persistent with my "Remember to tell mommy when you need to go potty" and I think that has made the biggest difference. It's is becoming ingrained in my sweet boys head.
We went to family dinner tonight. I was a bit nervous for a few reasons, one, he had not been in anything but underwear and a t-shirt for the past 2 days. I was feeling afraid that I was not going to know if he had an accident because of the extra layer but once I reminded myself that i would see a wet spot, perhaps disgust on Tre''s face or, if it was enough, the same puddle that would have showed up even with just the underwear on, I was ready. I am glad that I walked myself through the little things that were not going to be a big deal because he wanted nothing more than to get away from me and the house.
Second was, the fear of him getting to caught up in playing. That was nothing. I still followed him everywhere and reminded him to tell me when he need to go.
AHHHHH, I know there are going to be some kind of struggles and accidents in the future but I could not have asked for him to be more successful. He really is a BOG BOY and I am so proud of him.
Tomorrow is our last day of official training so I''' be back tomorrow. :)




Thanks Auntie Sara for being so excited to hear Tre''s news when he called this morning. Also, thank you to all of our family who is being so supportive through all of this. We love the praise and love that you show him. it means A LOT to Paul and I as well as Tre'. This is sicha big step in Tre''s life and I am happy that I get to be the teacher and have so much help and love from all of you.

POttY TrAinINg Day 1

You read it right. The time has come for us to embark on a new yet very exhausting adventure with Tre'.......POTTY TRAINING!
I have decided that through this adventure I want to blog about it for future and to take pictures for the memories and stories that go with them. So for the next 3 days I will be giving an end of the day report. Please feel free to join us or by pass. But here it is................
A few months ago some good friends of our introduced us to The Queen of Potty Training. (If you interested in this please let me know I will forward you the PDF) This woman has decided that as an on looker she did not understand why potty training was taking so many mothers so long. So after a lot more on looking and the decision she made of what she was NOT going to do she started the experiment on her own and after 3 days, WAH LA, potty training for her kids was done. Friends and family started wondering how she was doing this so quickly so over the years and as a surprise from her husband, she wrote the book and he got it published. As far as I understand it has worked for millions and here is my hope that it works for us.

This morning we got up had breakfast, drank our juice and headed straight for the diapers. Loaded all the remaining diapers into a garbage sac and out the door Tre' and I went. Tre' helped me carry the sac to the garbage and in they went. (mind you I read this book a few times in advance and he was prepared for this, this was not a all a sudden thing)
After we came back in the house we took off his last diaper and on went the "big boy" underwear. He thought this was great! Even though he was a little leary, he went along with it.
After an hour and 30 minutes we successfully had our first poop in the big boy potty and within the next hour 3 other little terds followed. :) Oh yeah, I am feeling good but not trying to get to out of control with excitement cause I don't want to jinx anything.
The pee portion of this is a work in progress. We had 2 pee accidents today but, it's all good. Tomorrow is another day and I am in this tell we get it together.
He loves the toys that he has received for the poop in the potty and the candy that he has received for get squirts if pee in the potty. hey, every bit counts :)
The highlight of the day for him so far was calling YaYa to tell about his proud pooping moment. The picture is below.
Bedtime on the other hand was a little rough. He did ask for his diapers back, I reminded him that we did not have anymore, that they were in the garbage. He remember that and sobered up pretty quick. We did go back and forth for about 15 minutes from bed to the potty. I think he was testing me. But sure enough he is asleep in his bed with his big boy underwear on. Who knows what is in store for the night but I have clean sheets and big boy underwear just in case.

Tre''s new big boy underwear along with toys, treats and a Lightning McQueen potty seat.... $94

The first of big boy underwear on for longer than expected......... AWESOME!

The reward for his first poop in the big boy potty.............

The look on his face when he told YaYa he went poop in the big boy potty....... Priceless!