Update

Morgan is still doing pretty awesome with going potty in the toilet. But remember how I said I predicted that it wouldn't be a problem getting him to go number 2 in the toilet? Boy was I wrong. He just won't do it. He won't go in his underpants though, so that's good. But if we don't put a diaper on him, he'll go days without a BM.
Aaron even bought him a Hot Wheels car as motivation. It sits in it's package on the towel rack where Morgan can see it every time he's on the toilet. He really really wants to play with the car, but not enough to poop! Any tips from veteran potty trainers?
Also, Morgan doesn't say underpants, he calls them wonderpants. Which I think is about the cutest thing ever.
Oh, also, when should I stop putting him in a diaper for bed? He always wakes up dry...but what if?

Training Triumphs!

Potty training= huge SMILEY face!
It's going so well! I gave you the run down for how the day went three days ago. The next day he had two accidents, but that's all. Yesterday he woke up dry, (he sleeps in a diaper) and wore underpants when we were home and had no accidents. But we were planning a trip to Tooele. We aren't confident enough yet to be gone all day without a diaper. So a diaper was put on Morgan and we left the house around 2:00. We went to Wal-Mart at one time and I took Morgan into the bathroom to try to go, but he was too afraid of sitting on the toilet without the little insert thing, plus, the toilet flushed on it's own and that scared him. So back on went the diaper, (which was still dry.)
We didn't get home until 8:30 or so, but I just kind of ignored the diaper/potty training thing. When I finally got around to putting Morgan to bed, (at 9:30) I was expecting to find a wet diaper, but it was STILL dry! So he went potty on the toilet again. Then went to bed.
This morning his diaper was still unused and he went potty in the toilet. Oh yes, I'm feeling pretty good about this.
He hasn't had any real BM's in the toilet though. However, he doesn't seem adverse to it. He tries, and has tiny successes. So I'm not really worried. Whew!
I think we're potty trianed, folks.
This was a long process. It started back when Morgan was only 16 months old. We bought a little potty chair so Morgan could get used to it.
In October of last year I gave a little effort of teaching Morgan the potty thing. It ended up being a tradition for Morgan to sit on his potty chair after every single diaper change. It was kinda annoying after awhile, since nothing was ever produced.
And in November the tradition still went on.
In February of this year I tried to get him used to underpants.
In March Morgan went potty in his toilet a couple days in a row, and it was very encouraging! So I put him in underpants and made an effort to potty train. But I realized that those successes were a fluke, an accident, because Morgan clearly wasn't ready. That day ended in a lot of dirty pants and puddles.
Then in July I made a big ol' effort. It was hit and miss. But I think mostly miss. I tried for a couple days, but then went on a big 3 week trip to Idaho so took a long break.
It wasn't until this past week that I actually made another big effort. And jolly good, Morgan is finally potty trained! I think. I hope.

The Training Trials

Potty Training= huge frowny face.
It's hard! I've been sort of potty training for a LONG time. I decided yesterday to up my efforts. Again. We had a success and a failure. And another little success. In fact, it's a funny story:
Morgan had just kept his underpants dry for about 4 hours, but he hadn't even gone potty. But then he finally did, and in the toilet. Yay! So I thought he was good for awhile. It was probably only two minutes later that he had an accident. I stripped the wet pants and underpants from him and stuck him on the toilet. Then he announced that he was pooping. He's made this announcement before and even accompanies it with grunts and groans, but it has never come to fruition. This time there was a jelly-bean size success. He peered into the toilet and saw the little pellet and pronounced, "A pickle!"
Anyway, today he was doing really well. He pottied in the toilet once, after I provided cup after cup of apple juice. Then he had an accident. Then he had an accident/success. He started peeing in his pants but was able to stop himself and finish up in the toilet. Then he had a time where he actually told me he had to go potty BEFORE he did, and we got to the toilet in time and everything. Yay!
But the night ended badly. It was runny, extremely foul, and filled his underwear and ran down his legs. He ended up in a diaper after that.
But, tomorrow he is back in underpants. I won't take a couple months hiatus this time.

In other news, my grandpa appears to be dying. :( He's been in the hospital for far too long with far too many complications. It started with a heart attack and has moved to kidney failure, poor blood pressure, something about platelets, a lump in his gal bladder, respritory problems, leaky heart valves, and probably more. He needs heart surgery, majorly, but hasn't been stable enough to receive it. And now the doctors are saying that it's too risky NOT to have surgery, but also too risky TO have it. And that's the end. And it's sad.
He lives in Missouri so I probably won't see him till his funeral.
Thank goodness for eternal families.

Oh Fudgecicle!

We love us some delicious frozen treats. Morgan loves them so much that he tries to eat them with his whole body.

All around his mouth, his hands, arms, shirt, legs, shorts, up on his temple...what a mess.
And he hates being sticky...

Attack!

Today Aaron saw a small jumping spider on Morgan's car seat just before loading Morgan in it. He tried to brush the spider outside, but it escaped somewhere and we couldn't find it. So into the car seat Morgan went. Then we stopped at a gas station. While Aaron was filling up the car Morgan and I were just sitting in silence. Then out of the blue I hear Morgan. "Attack! Attack! The spider, the shoe. Attack." Just rambling on with his war cry. I looked back at him, amused, and asked what he was attacking. "The spider." He informs me, as he points to the curled-up, and very dead spider at the edge of his seat, right by his feet. Yup. Morgan knows the correct way to dispatch of those furry, eight-legged creatures. However, where he learned the word "attack" and it's application is a mystery!

Proof!

Here is proof that I have the cutest kid in the world. There are lots of cuties out there, many of them belong to you, my dear friends, but they just can't all be the cutest kid.
Man, I love this boy!



Look at this sly dog! He is such a character. Makes me laugh every time I see this picture.
He did all the poses himself. He found his sunglasses and demanded that I take pictures with him wearing them. Then he hammed it up, as Morgan is want to do, and here is the product.

Morgan and Elizabeth

We spent last weekend in Ogden with some friends. Morgan loved playing with Elizabeth. They took turns pushing each other down this slide. Elizabeth's mom hates her little sunglasses, but Elizabeth loves them! I think she's cute.

Woman!

I was just putting Morgan down for a nap when he said something like, "I don't want to lay down, man." The 'man' part was a new addition to his vocabulary, used in that way. But I told him I wasn't a man, I was a woman. So after putting the blanket on him and walking out the door, Morgan said, "Come here, woman!"
I think I failed hiding my laughter, so he won't know how disrespectful a thing it is to say!

Day at the zoo

We went to the Hogle Zoo a week or two ago. Morgan enjoyed it more this year, I think. But he doesn't feel the need to sit and watch for any amount of time. He looks at the animal, then runs off to the next one. But we had fun.

I could almost be a male gorilla.

This lion drinking fountain is one of the things that I remember most about the zoo from when I was young, believe it or not. I don't know why it was so memorable.

Learning the difference between bactrian and dromedary camels. Those have the double humps, like a B, so they are bactrian.

Scary crocodile.

There were lots of baby animals, the giraffe being one of them.
The zoo has this huge elephant thing that randomly makes loud noises and sneezes and such. It is pretty loud and Morgan was wary of it, but brave enough to get his picture on it.

We also had to do the carousal.

The highlight of the trip to the zoo was probably the baby tigers. There were three of them and it was fun to watch them play. Here's a little clip Aaron got of the baby tiger playing with it's momma.

'Cause I'm a geek

How Much I have Changed in 15 Years

****15 YEARS AGO (1994)****
1) How old were you? 10
2) Who were you dating? Um... no. But the brother of my friend often tried to kiss me. Does that count? :)
3) Where did you work? In the yard. For room and board.
4) Where did you live? Bennion, Utah (Now called Taylorsville)
5) Where did you hang out? Mostly home. Otherwise my friends houses, Cynthia Johnson, Chrissy Ketchum (hi Chrissy!), or in the circle for night games.
6) Did you wear contacts and/or glasses? No
7) Who were your close friends? Chrissy, Cynthia, and my cousins.
8) How many tattoos did you have? Maybe an occasional fake one.
9) How many piercings did you have? None
10) What kind of car did you drive? Wasn't old enough to drive
11) Had you been to a real party? What exactly is a real party? I assume that birthday parties of friends didn't count?
12) Had you had your heart broken? nope
13) Were you Single/taken/Married/Divorced? Single, of course.

14) Any Kids? Just my favorite dolls: Molly and Brittany.

***10 YEARS AGO (1999)***
1) How old were you? 15
2) Who were you dating? nobody
3) Where did you work? Once again, just around the house. Oh, and I did a lot of babysitting.
4) Where did you live? Nampa, ID
5) Where did you hang out? Home and friends' houses.
6) Did you wear contacts and/or glasses? No
7) Who were your best/close friends? Laurie Rowe, Kautri Kuzmic.
8) What were you driving? My mountain bike.
9) How many tattoos did you have? None
10) How many piercings did you have? None
11) Had your heart broken? Nope.
12) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorced? Single!
13)Any Kids? Of course not.



***5 YEARS AGO (2004)***
1) How old were you? 20
2) Who were you dating? Yup!
3) Where did you work? Mancino's, Community Partnerships, and Seminis. (A cornfield.)
4) Where did you live? Nampa, with my parents, then Rexburg for school.
5) Where did you hang out? Home, Aaron's house, wherever the cool single adults were hanging out...that was probably the most fun year ever.
6) Did you wear contacts and/or glasses? Not yet.
7) Who were your best/close friends? Aaron, Chanel, and my roomies Carrie, Cassie and Janalee.
8) What were you driving? Didn't have a car. Drove my dad's old S-10 stick-shift pick-up! Or the unreliable Buick.
9) How many tattoos did you have? None
10) How many piercings did you have? None, thanks.
11) Had your heart broken? I got one that year.
12) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorced? Single, at first, then dating, then engaged.
13)Any Kids? No ma'am.

****NOW 2009*****
1) How old are you? 25
2) Who are you dating?Um, I'm married.
3) Where do you work? At home.
4) Where do you live? Duway, UT.
5) Where do you hang out? Hang out? Don't do that anymore. I stay home mostly. But it's not hanging out.
7) Who are your best/close friends? Aaron, and family.
8) What do you drive? Dodge Durango or our little Hyundai.
9) How many tattoos do you have? none
10) How many piercings do you have? Still none. Ask in five years and I'm sure you'll get the same answer.
11) Had your heart broken? Yes indeed!
12) Are you single / taken ? Married.
13) Any kids? Yep! My precious Morgan.

Now. I tag Shelly, Alisha, and Bobbi, because I think they may not be annoyed with a tag. But if you are, just ignore it! :)

Good Bye, Summer

So, summer is pretty much gone. :( As a little adeiu, here is a summer video.

The Dugway swimming pool is right across the street from us. We took advantage of it a few times over the summer, and Morgan LOVED it. After a little getting used to it, he was fearless of the water. With a life jacket, that is. He did his own thing too, and would get frustrated if Aaron or I interfered. (Like, tried to play with him.)

Here's our fearless aquanaut.

Jason's Mission Call

When I was in Idaho for three weeks, fortune smiled upon me. The day before I headed home, my younger brothers' mission call came, and I was able to be there when he opened it.
He was in quite a hurry to open it.

He left work early and expected everyone else to drop everything right then, otherwise he wouldn't wait for them. Since hardly anyone was home, (we didn't expect Jason to be home from work yet) everyone rushed home. Dad had to come all the way from the far end of Boise. Most of us got there within 3 minutes of each other. Dad walked in the door, rushed to his video camera, and arrived in the living room just in time to turn it on, pretty much.

Where's the salt?

Yesterday we were in the car and out of the blue, Morgan said, "excuse me." Aaron excused him, then Morgan said, "Excuse me in the mouth!" I guess he burped.

I don't know where he got it, but Morgan often says, "Mommy, you a princess." He's so sweet.

For whatever reason, we often have a hard time locating the salt immediately. It doesn't always get put back in the cupboard where it belongs and we have to search a bit to find it. Usually it is on the table or the counter. Sometimes I find it in the living room. (Aaron!) But the other day I couldn't find it anywhere. I knew it had been by the couch the night before after Aaron had him a little snack, but it wasn't there anymore. So I called Aaron while he was at work to ask him if he knew where it was. I heard Morgan mentioning the fridge while I spoke, but pretty much ignored him. When Aaron had no helpful hints, I turned to Morgan and said, "Where could the salt be?" I didn't expect him to know. But then he said, "Put it in the fridge." I told him he was silly, that salt doesn't go in the fridge, and opened it to show him. But instead I found the salt! Apparently Morgan had been a very helpful boy and put it away when he found it out. And he even remembered! That wasn't the last time I found it in there either.

Fish Springs

Last weekend we drove to a place sort of near by called Fish Springs. Aaron heard about a man who lived out there and had a bull frog ranch with the purpose of supplying the restaurants in Utah with frog legs. However, he learned that there wasn't much of a demand for frog legs in Utah, so he split, leaving the bull frogs behind. So we were hoping to spot some bull frogs. We also just wanted to see the springs.
It was a long drive out on the dirt road, and on the way we came to a pony express historical site. So we stopped and wandered around and chased a few tiny lizards.
The monument.

The old, reconstructed, post.

When we finally arrived at Fish Springs we stopped at a little picnic area and had lunch. There were some pretty cool trees there. They looked like mutant aspens or something. So we had a bit of fun climbing around in them.

Well, most of us had fun most of the time. :)

We went to a little pond thing and fed the tiny fishies.

Then we got back in the car and drove around all the ponds, that are apparently fed by a saline spring. We saw some cool birds, like Blue Herons, Pelicans, and other long legged, wading, birds that I don't remember the name of.

While driving down a dirt road, Aaron suddenly slammed the breaks and skidded to a halt, jumped out of the car and dashed after some unseen prey. Well, unseen to me. But, knowing Aaron like I do, I also dashed out of the car, camera in hand and took a some pictures of Aaron bouncing around in the dirt and scrub.

Then I saw the frog.

Then I helped Aaron catch the frog.

Then we showed Morgan.

Then we released the frog and went on our way. On the way home we stopped at some Geode beds. I don't know if we were expecting to find geodes just lying all over the ground or what, but the hot desert that we found was rather disappointing. There were lots of holes dug into the grounds, and some stones that had circular impressions in them, indicating that other stones had been removed from them, but we left with nothing more than we arrived with. Except for, perhaps, a layer of dirt.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Aaron's birthday was about a week ago. He turned 31! I made his dinner of choice - roast and potatoes - and then we had presents. Yay presents!

A hoody.

His favorite present has to be this Ps3 game, Little Big Planet. We've played it a little bit almost everyday since he got it, and it is seriously fun. That was from me and my parents.

Later on, we had cake and ice cream. Now. I know that I am no cake decorator. I have no talent in that area, like many of you readers do. Plus, his cake was German Chocolate. The frosting for that isn't exactly easy to make look smooth. So, knowing my lack of ability in cake decorating, I embraced my lack-of-talent and made a masterpiece of a different sort. I bought those little sugar letters to spell out Happy Birthday Aaron. But I had so many left! I couldn't just NOT use them! So I used them all. I made as many words as I could and decorated the perimeter. Morgan stuck on the extra numbers and letters that were unusable in the word department. Then we had our finished product. I must say, I am very pleased with it's outcome. :)

The number 1 candle was left over from Morgan's first birthday. I bought the three for Aaron's birthday, and because I can use it for Morgan's third b-day in just a couple of months.

Right. Aaron blew out all the candles with one breath. So impressive.

When we started decorating the cake, Morgan started getting very excited. I told him it was his Daddy's birthday and he really seemed to understand and kept talking about it happily. When Aaron got home from work, Morgan ran from the kitchen to the front door and exclaimed, "Daddy's Happy Birthday!" Or something akin to that.

Morgan enjoying the birthday dinner and fantasizing about cake and ice cream.

Lesson Learned

Our last day of camping, Shelly said the blessing for breakfast. In it, she asked that we would have safety on our drive home.
Later that day we got everything packed up into the three different cars, including children. When my dad was satisfied that everything was ready to go and was ready for a trip departure prayer he noted that kids were already buckled in to different cars. So, since Shelly had already asked for a blessing of safety, it was rationalized that we would be fine.
On the way down the mountain, driving along the narrow, windy, dirt, road that followed the reservoir, (mountain on one side, small cliff and water on the other) we were safe. Even when a truck came careening irresponsibly around a corner, pretty much driving all three of our cars into the mountain, we were safe.
But then, when we were on a straight highway, the Expedition, which was carrying the huge ATV trailer, mysteriously got a flat tire. No nails or punctures or anything were found.

Poor Tire

Go, Jason! Go!

Two cars of our caravan stopped to fix the tire, but Chris and his family went on ahead.
After getting the tire changed and filled with air, we went on our way, but stopped at a gas station a little further on to check on a strange sound. Everything checked out, so off we went. But Jason, who drove my Dad's little Kia, which has never had problems before, couldn't start the car. He had to push start it. It worked, thankfully.

Pretty soon we got a call from Chris. He was at the Boise Stage stop with a flat tire of his own!

Normally when we go on trips where we drive for a long time we have a prayer just as we are leaving. We always ask for blessings of safety and that the cars will work well and have no problems or incidents. This time we didn't have that prayer and we can clearly see the repercussions! We actually finally did have a prayer for that purpose AFTER all these things occurred, and we got home without further problem.
But we WERE blessed with safety, so, yay!