WHAT the February???

January went by SUPER fast ya'll!  It is kind of crazy.  And we are trying to start February off right!  Big things have been happening at our house this week!  Like, Lily FINALLY getting the potty training thing down!  Woohoo!  This deserves it's own paragraph.

Yes, it is true.  She has finally decided to do her business on the potty.  We have been encouraging her in many different ways over the past year to do it, but she has just never really been able to grasp it.  Finally about a week or two ago she started showing signs that she was getting advanced warning and we jumped on it.  Doing the potty treat and a bare bum all day long route.  The past few days she has been awesome and been wearing panties (unless we go out, and then a pull up it is-which she has kept dry!) all day and a diaper to bed. The potty treat has been turned into dessert after dinner if she stays dry all day (none of the rest of us eat dessert, it is just a special treat for her).  Last night we had our first accident melt down, and it was pretty much my fault.  Matt was in the shower getting ready to go to work and I was feeding Izzie her dinner, Lily said she had to go and I just sent her in to go by herself, which she is great at doing, it usually takes her a few extra seconds to figure out the pulling the pants down, but she is great.  I, however wasn't thinking about the fact that she was rushing down from the dinner table urgently and that Daddy had the shower running, which made those few extra seconds crucial.  She was standing right in front of the potty and couldn't get them down and peed everywhere and she was frustrated and horrified, just a crying mess.  I of course felt super bad, cleaned her and the bathroom up and let her have the treat anyway since she tried and was right there at the potty and had told me she needed to go, and I failed to think about what the running water would do for her bladder.  It is always sad when you see your kiddos upset and you could have prevented it!  But even that sadness is progress, a couple of weeks ago she would pee (or even poop) in the pants and think it was no big deal.  SO, we are happy.  Her finally being potty trained is a BIG deal to us.  We still probably have a week to go before she is done with pull-ups while we are out, but I got to tell ya, eliminating one child's diapers is WONDERFUL.

Izzie's big week comes in that SHE is finally starting to show interest in walking.  She has been cruising on furniture for months, but has been refusing to try and walk or to even let you hold her hands and walk her around.  If you take her hands off a piece of furniture and try to help her walk somewhere, or even help her stand up, she would just sit right down.  She has been standing up by herself, not holding on to anything for a while, but if you try to make her do it, she won't have it.  But this week she is finally wanting you to walk around with her and taking a little step or lean to get what she wants, and will let you guide her. I think within a week or two she will be walking on her own. CRAZY.

As for me, starting in Febuary (yeah, i know it's only been a couple of days) I am trying to eat better, ya know, less carbs more fruits and veggies, lean protien, no junk food.  And I am trying to work out.  Sometimes that is hard with kiddos crawling on you.  I have been trying to do it while at least one of them is asleep (they don't really do cross-over naps, much to my chagrin).  Anyway, I have forgotten how GOOD it feels to really work out.  I used to LOVE it.  But then I got so ridiculously out of shape (and I still am), that excersise became a burden rather than a natural high.  I have had a hard time with my motivation since having Lily, but I REALLY want to be healthy and in good shape.  I don't even care about the weight so much any more (though I won't complain if some of it wants to take a leave of absence...did you hear me left over 15 lbs of baby weight? you are free to go any time now).  I mostly just want to be fit again.  Be able to run a couple of miles and have it feel GOOD like it used to, instead of having to stop every half mile to try and remember how to breathe.  I just want to have that energy and stamina that comes with a more healthy lifestyle.  Today I worked out, even though I really, really didn't want to.  I have sore muscles, and Izzie was being a little needy, but I did it anyway and man it felt GOOD.  It suprised me.  The past few days it hasn't felt good, it has just been me trying to have some self discipline and making myself do it and hating it the whole time.  But today was good.  I felt a little bit of that fire come back.  HOPEFULLY it will stay.

I may end up joining a gym.  My good friend Sara is doing the $19/month Pure Fitness thing, and I was seriously considering joining until I found out that they don't include child care with their memberships, they charge 3 bucks an hour and that adds up quick if you are planning on doing an hour 3-5 days a week and have a couple kiddos.  So...sorry Sara, if I get a membership somewhere it won't be there :(  I'm too cheap.Though it would have been really nice to have a workout buddy (and someone else to be accountable to).  When we lived in Chandler we had a family membership to the YMCA, we lived RIGHT by it and Matt got a sweet discount through Chandler Regional Hosp, where he used to work.  I really liked it, so I may check out the Y over here, even though it is a little drive.  Of course, I may suprise myself and be able to do without the membership, it is just so easy to be distracted with sweet kiddos and at the gym you can stick them in child care :) Plus I love me a treadmill.

Anyway, enough with the ranting here are some pics!  Isabel is still into everything and loving to climb on everything, she won't walk but she will be a dare devil and climb?  Yeah, she is a crazy kid.

She is also SUPER into headbands, which she calls "pretty".  I am assuming that she calls them this because whenever we put one on her or lily (or a bow on) we tell them it looks pretty.  She will point and say pretty and want you to put it on her, then after you put it on she will say "pretty" and start nodding her head yes. It is pretty cute. Then she will immediatley take it off and hand it to you to start the whole process over again.  She could spend ALOT of time doing this.  So if you are around her and wearing a headband, beware!  She will take it off you and want you to play this game with her!  She is just starting to try and talk (other than mama and daddy) and she says baby, button [she is also obsessed with finding her and everyone else's button(belly button) so if you're around her, that is another thing to watch out for], bottle, birdy and pretty.  They all kind of sound alike, it takes a trained ear to tell the difference on most of them, but it is so fun to see her grow and learn, this is such a great stage.

The girls are playing ALOT more together all the time and I love to see Lily including Izzie in all her "pretend" playing.  It is alot of fun and always entertaining.

this is Lily trying to make Izzie look at the camera

Matt has another crazy week this week, only getting about 4 hours between 2 of his shifts for sleeping, plus working 3 twelves then having only one day off (which is a sunday so he has to fit in church stuff and all his homework for that week) then working another 3. I feel REALLY bad for him. He is tired, but working hard and doing great about being dedicated to his school work.  I was going to go to Thatcher for 8 days since I am pretty much not seeing him due to schoolwork, but finding subs for my calling (which I LOVE my calling btw) is a HUGE pain, really I could write a whole post based on just this, but I will spare you the details and just say that I decided to cancel.  Which is a bummer, but there is a good week in march where I can go WITH matt and stay for 4 days and not have to miss church, so I will just wait for that.

Anyway, wow.  When I started this post, I was thinking, I don't really have anything major to blog about, I'll just do a little post so I don't get behind.  Silly me.  When will I realize that I have never been short-winded and that every post will be a long one?