Alex

Another spontaneous photo shoot with Alex. He is the sweetest boy and has a heart of gold.

Katy Trail

The weather here is insane. One day it will be 75 and the next it's 30 and if it's windy then it's really cold.  We got lucky one Saturday and had decent weathers we decided to go walk around Katy Trail.  I guess you could compare it to the Rose Bowl of Pasadena, but not quite as pretty and close to our house :)   We dusted off the double Bob and went for a 2 mile run with low tires.

We had breakfast at Company Cafe which I've heard good things about.  We ended up waiting over 45 minutes for our food and it wasn't even good, the worst.

I've been using my sweet handsome Alex to practice photography on.  

I still make him have quiet time while Cole naps so this picture is true to the story, lots of books and stuffed animals with his super hero cape.

Alex went to his very first birthday party all by himself.  There was 15 3 year olds, brave mom!!

He came home with a tool belt, mini real hammer, construction hat and cute glasses.  He loved it and can't wait for his.

I don't know if it's a boy thing or if they all just like to wrestle.  Thank goodness for Al and playing there crazy games.

Guess who likes Pho, but it's really just the noodles.  We will have to start buying both of them their own bowl soon.

Al gave Cole a haircut and I made his promise he wouldn't chop it, but pretty sure it looks like he has steps on the side of his head now.  I need to learn how to cut hair or I need to start paying for haircuts.

Christmas Card 2014

I've been trying to make a book of all our Christmas cards, but am missing a few so I'm hoping I have them all on this blog and here is this 2014!!

Santa Pictures

Last year was the first year I used fotofly for Santa pictures and I loved them so we went again while we were in Utah.  You can't beat $35 and Al got to be Santa this year!!

Potty Training Cole

One of Cole and Alex's favorite things to do is to blow on AL's tie and then he shrivels it up in his hand.  They blow on it again and it pops up, they love it!!

I decided to do the 3 day potty training method while Al was working from home.  I stocked up on drinks, snacks, and raided the $1 bins at Target for potty prizes.  I printed out a potty chart that looked like a train track and he got to put a sticker on it every time he went to the bathroom.  Day 1 Alex was at school which I think made it easier because on Day 2 he was the audience and would watch and cheer on Cole which I think made it worse.  

I gave him a ton of drinks that morning, put on a movie of his choice and sat there with him to watch his every move.   He had 4 pee accidents and then started going in the toilet!!   He wanted to sit there every 5 minutes for a sticker and treat.  He still had 3 other accidents including #2, the worst.  Night time training is even more frustrating.   I couldn't get him to go before bed and he ended up peeing the bed and just sleeping in it.  

Day 2 was so rough.  He had a ton of accidents and one of them was him laying on the floor crying and then he just peed everywhere. That also happened in his highchair.  He woke up a ton that night crying and finally went once, stressful.  

On Day 3 I was ready to be done.  He had 1 accident in his high chair and I caught him pooping twice.   It's definitely a hard thing for everyone involved.  I questioned whether he was ready for it since he would say he would have to go and then nothing would happen and then 5 minutes later he would pee his pants.   Day 4 he didn't have any accidents!!  We went to the store and lunch.  He peed when we got home and then went to the park and Target.  When he has to go he starts dancing around and this happened at least 2-3 times at the park so I put him on the toilet and nothing.   He finally ended up going in the Target parking lot luckily when we were done :)

Every nap time was successful with no bed wetting.

It's almost been 2 weeks and it's still a learning process for all of us.  About 2 days ago he finally started going if I put him on the toilet before bed or if we go anywhere, thank goodness!!  I also resorted to pull ups a few nights ago and we have all been sleeping better.   He pees 3-4 times a night so I just don't think his bladder is ready for it.  We are still working on poop and I've been scrubbing poopy underwear for days which is way worse than diapers.   It took Alex months to learn how to poop in the toilet and he would always hide somewhere and do it.  Oh the joys of potty training and sorry if you're reading this post.  I'm trying to remember the details so when I have to potty train #3 I can remember that every kid is different and it's never easy :)

On Day 1 of potty training Al decided he wanted to go to the National Championship Game which he also went to last year at the Rose Bowl.   He said he didn't think he would get in, but we know that's not true.  Not only did he get in, but he got an amazing seat, lucky him and lucky me cleaning up poop and pee.

Potty training fun, longest 3 days.  I'm not sure I will be able to do the 3 day method when we have 3 kids.

Cheers to saving money on diapers!

Random

Cole loves choo choo trains so much I decided to finally take them on the train ride at the mall.  They were the only ones on it and singing along to the song.

Giving Cole a piggy back ride before bath time.

This picture makes me laugh....he's always doing goofy stuff like this.

We drove to Dallas and went to the Perot museum and hung out in the kids area all morning.   We need to go more often so we can get good use out of our annual pass.

After the museum we stopped at Chuys and stuffed ourselves with chips and Diet Coke.  It happened to be Elvis day and they were giving away his favorite snack/dessert away, twinkies. The manager was dressed up as of Elvis so we made to sure to take a picture.

Alex was in desperate need of a haircut so I had the bright idea to do it in the bathtub, but Al told me it was the worst idea and then it clogged our drain :)    His hair is also cut weird in a bunch of spots.  Should I blame that on the bathtub?  Looks like we will be paying for the next one or I need to start watching Youtube videos on how to cut hair.

We usually go to dinner on the weekends and we happened to find an amazing sushi restaurant in Plano that everyone else also knew about.  We ended up sitting at the bar and over ordered because their rolls were at least double the size of a normal roll.  It was a painful dinner and we won't be sitting at the sushi bar again, haha.

I got a new lens baby lens for my camera and took the boys outside to snap some pictures.  It was so  cold this week so pics only lasted for a few minutes.

Medieval TImes

Medieval Times was always on my to do list in California so I was happy to find out there is one in Dallas.  They had a Groupon that I bought a few weeks ago so that justified the price a little bit more.  Alex rarely takes naps anymore and then if we go somewhere later that afternoon he will almost always fall asleep in the car and then he's so ornery when you wake him up.

We debated taking the boys since it's a 2 hour dinner and I only bought 2 tickets so they would have to sit on our laps.  I knew they would have fun so we ended up taking them and you can tell how excited they are in this picture :)

Once you get in it's a tourist trap, photo opps everywhere, bar drinks, and tons of souvenirs.  They saw all the kids with light up swords so $26 later they each had one too.

Waiting for team yellow to be called in to the arena.

Dinner was interesting.  They don't give you any utensils and only 2 refills of either coke, ice tea or water.  Dinner was tomato soup, bread, roasted chicken, potato, and a rib.  I've never seen either of them eat so much food, random.  I guarantee if I brought a roasted chicken home from Costco they wouldn't touch it, so maybe I need to dim the lights and throw away our utensils.

Cole was really into it

We've been teaching Alex about selfies.

It was a fun night and I don't think we will be going back for a long time or at least until our kids are older and will remember it :)