just a good day

Today was a good day.

Officer L, my sis, my nephew and I all went to see Harry Potter 7 pt.2 FINALLY. 

It was so so so good!  I absolutely loved it.  

I'm not exaggerating when I say I had goosebumps through half of it.  I laughed.  I cried.  I jumped at a scary part.  The perfect movie-going experience.

After the movie we had a slight issue with Haven's potty time, but we won't go into that.

We made some progress on our decision about where we think we'd like to move.  I'll do a little more updating on that when things become more finalized - don't want to jinx it.  Here's a hint:  I never thought this is what we would end up doing.  And it's so exciting that I can barely contain myself.

We had dinner at the good ol' Machine Shed.  That's good Iowa eating.

We then headed to Mimi's house for a little while and Haven had a ball doing our make-up.  It was slightly more fun for her, but hey, anything for my princess. ;)

You can say it:  Get. It. Girl.

the hunt

i am definitely a determined person when there is something i want or need.

let's just say i become obsessed.

right now my focus is preparing our house to sell, and also finding the perfect new home for our little not-so-little-anymore family.  we've outgrown our cute little 1450 sq. ft. cottage townhome.  we need some room to stretch our legs.  

so far we've looked at quite a few houses, ranging from:

 new construction to over 100 yrs old, 

from smallish to really big, 

from affordable to unattainable,

from in town to in the country.  

It's difficult to figure out exactly what we need.  i know we want 4 bedrooms, a finished basement, a decent sized (fenced-in if possible) backyard.  some added bonuses would be granite countertops, wood floors, a nice deck, maybe even a front porch, a laundry ROOM, and a pantry!  (starting to get old, laundry rooms and pantries totally excite me.)  

we're even beginning to consider building so we can get exactly what we want.  

so that is what has been taking up a lot of my attention, besides my beautiful little gails (gails = girls.  a haven mispronunciation that stuck).

anybody want to buy a cute little townhouse?

45 minutes

The beginning of this week marked the start of a difficult struggle.

Dum, dum, dummmmmmm.... POTTY TRAINING!

I knew that Haven needed to be potty trained, (She will be 3 in August and I refuse to have a 3-year-old in diapers or to change double diapers for much longer) but all of my attempts in the past had been completely unsuccessful.  Haven just hated using the potty.  Plain and simple.  We would say, "Haven, if you go potty we'll give you m&m's!"  And she would just say, "No.  I don't like to use the potty."  Then a few minutes later I'd find her hiding underneath our kitchen table pooping in her diaper.  What is with that?!  Why do kids want to poop in a diaper and get all messy?  Gross. Anyway...

So I asked my veteran* potty-training dad if he had any tips.  He said that what he does is sets the kitchen timer to 45 minutes.  Every 45 minutes you put the potty-trainee on the pot without fail.  Also, they have to wear big-kid undies.  No diapers. No pull-ups.  That way if they have an accident they feel the wetness or ...stickiness of the mess they made.  Every time they use the potty successfully they get a small treat, like one hershey's kiss or 10 m&m's.  I kind of combined all of those tricks with an old school one - the sticker chart.  We made a beautiful "potty chart" out of pink glittery card stock, some sticker letters, and a silver sharpie.  She gets to put a simple glittery circle sticker on the chart every time she goes #1 and an extra cool flower sticker if she goes #2.  After almost a week of filling her chart with stickers she got a big prize - we went to the zoo today!  (We were only there for 45 stinkin minutes though because we didn't know they closed at 5!!  ugh...  but we're going back tomorrow hopefully.)

this was her general attitude towards potty-training at the beginning of the week

this is her potty chart now!  success!

I have got to give my dad some props.  We started on Monday and have only had a few accidents.  They have all been very minor and most of the time they were my fault because I would forget to take her to the potty.  (hey, she's not the only one who's learning.  this is all new to me too!)  I knew we were making progress the first time she told me she had to go to the bathroom by herself.  We went in, she sat down, and she went right away.  I was so impressed!

If you're reading this and are currently going through (or are about to start) this challenging process, just remember that your child has to be ready to potty-train.  I wanted to potty train a long time ago and Haven simply wasn't ready.  My words of advice:  don't start until they're ready.  It's a waste of time.  And also, potty-training takes dedication.  You have to be willing to stop what you're doing, whatever it may be, and take your little one to the bathroom.  It can be a little aggravating if you're in the middle of cooking, reading, watching tv, cleaning, or in my case breastfeeding.  But it's so worth it once they catch on.  

Soo, hip hip hooray for potty-training, and hip hip hooray for a daughter who is finally ready!

Thank the Lord above!

*my dad is on kid #4.  He knows his stuff.

balance

sometimes i wonder how is it possible to balance everything i am and everything i want to be.

i'm a mother of two.

i'm a Christian.
i'm a cop's wife.
i'm a cosmetologist.
i'm a wannabe hippie.

i'm creative, but would love to be more creative.

i'm a movie lover.

i'm a book lover.

i'm a writer.

i'm a gossip/fashion mag enthusiast.

i'm a twihard and an h.po nerd.

i'm a housewife, still learning the art.

i'm currently trying to sell my house.

i'm a dreamer.

i'm a procrastinator.

i'm a runner  jogger that hates running.

i'm a cheerleader/dancer at heart.

i'm a shopper.

i'm a foodie.

i'd love to be a labor & delivery nurse someday.

i'm aspiring to be a good cook.

i'm passionate.

i'm a first-born with all of the traits. most of which i don't like about myself.

i love to travel.

i wish i lived somewhere warmer, at least in the winter.

i love my family.

i want a big family, 3-5 kids. that's me dreaming again.

i want a tummy tuck after all said kids.

i want to eat what i want.  i HATE dieting.

someday i want a dog. someday.

and i am much, much more.

i really just want to be the best me that i can be.  i want to raise my children and be a good wife, but it doesn't hurt to aspire and to want to grow and learn.  

i like being me, and i plan on getting better at it.

catch up

wowee.  it has been busy around here lately.  

it's been all i can do to post a picture on here lately, sorry about that guys.

let me catch you up.

a couple weeks ago my hubby and i were kind of thrown into a house hunt.  his childhood home came up for sale and we were pulled into wanting it.  it obviously wasn't the perfect timing so we backed off.  

but in the meantime we found a different beautiful house with over double the square footage of our current house, but much more affordable and realistic.  it is really close to our families and will take luke less time to get to work.  in looking at all of these houses we realized how terribly we have grown out of our little 1400 sq ft townhome.  while it is the absolute perfect, cute little starter home, that's just it - it's a starter home.  we are now a family of four and our stuff has taken over our little house.  it being a townhouse we don't have much of a yard and also no basement.  my girls need space to roam free!  so we put an offer on this other house and hopefully we can work things out.

we've also put our townhouse up for sale.  we decided to get it out there and see what happens.   townhouses are a notoriously harder sell.  i am just hoping the right buyer comes along. so operation de-clutter and clean has been commencing.  luke bought six huge rubbermaid containers just to throw our excess junk in.  

haven LOVES to help clean.  i mean seriously, she would windex and sweep my whole house if i let her. (that may sound good, but at this point she makes more of a mess than she actually cleans.  hopefully her love for cleaning continues into her teen years...)

our realtor told us there are two keys to showing a house: 

 create space and clean windows.  

so that's exactly what we're trying to do.  

already haven's toy pit in our living room has gone from three overflowing toy bins to everything fitting nicely into her toy chest.  yay!  i am going to tackle her room next.  it's amazing how many toys one girl can accumulate in her less than three years she's been on this earth.

all of that is great, but there is much bigger news i have to share.  

my little sis had her baby!!  i am an aunt x3 now.

Carter Richard was born July 1st @ 2:51 a.m.

7lbs. 13.8oz. 19 inches

he is so sweet and i am so happy for chelsea and jack.  

they're a cute little family.

oh, and here's parker doing what she does best.

she is just the sweetest, happiest baby i've ever met.

i feel pretty lucky.