The Tree House

All that Alex's mom wanted for Christmas this year was a tree house. So what does that equate to for all the sons and sons-in-law on the day after Christmas? WORK, WORK, WORK! Don't let them tell you any differently, they LOVED it! (Okay so that may be a BIT of an exaggeration....).

So while the men worked:







(Which was NEVER frustrating!!)

(Yes, I just cropped this from one of the other photos but the close-up on their faces was classic!)


The children ran,



Played in the dirt and rocks,



Said hello to ALL of grandma's snowmen,








Posed for cute photos,



And were just all around cheesers!




And if that just doesn't beat all, I didn't even get a photo of the finished project!! But, they LOVED the tree house most of all. They all had a blast climbing up and running around. GREAT WORK GUYS!!!

Potty Training

Yes, it's true. We're potty trained!!! Most of you that actually read my blog already know this (and have heard ALL about it) but for those of you that may not know, we worked hard and we're done! =) Warning, this is going to be a long--mainly words--post so you only have to read if you are REALLY interested. (It's mainly just a journal post.)

This was day one (January 6):



We (okay, I need to stop with the plural at this point), Zaylee spent all day in just her unders as we worked on the process of pottying in the toilet.

I based my training off of a book recommended by a friend: "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day." I knew of 8 success stories using this method so I figured it was going to be piece of cake! Well, let me tell you. Anyone that knows Zaylee knows that she is not textbook material. She has a definite mind of her own! When the book said to give her a treat as a reward for completing a step she had no interest. It says make sure the child drinks a lot, well, she had decided that day she was going to try a liquid fast--no interest in ANY kind of drink! And so on so forth. She just did the opposite of everything the book said she would do.

So we tried a little bit of adaptation. I kept a lot of the ideas but just altered it a bit for what I thought would work for her. The first few days were pretty challenging and I had a few doubtful people tell me just to put her back in diapers (you know who you are--shame on you! j/k) =) But I was determined that once I started, she was not under any circumstances going to ever put a diaper back on. And we didn't! It took about a week but by that point she was almost completely trained. She still did have the occasional accident but they were rare. Now she will loudly announce what she has to do and take off running. She's completely independant with it other than she can't reach to wash her own hands and she still needs the convincing of the need for wiping. She has had no accidents outside of the house (YEA!) and has even held it in the mall long enough for us to find a public toilet she could use. After falling in the toilet at church during nursery the first week we thought she would have an aversion to that but this Sunday she did great going numerous times during the meetings. (I think she finds it fun to be a big girl!)

Nighttime updates then I am done. Nights at first were pretty challenging for her and still are not competely mastered but she's doing great. I decided that I didn't want to use pull-ups either so for the first week I did a lot of washing in the mornings but now when she wakes up in the middle of the night (no she still doesn't sleep though the night!!!!!) she is dry and will go potty in the toilet when we tell her to then she will stay dry for the rest of the night after that. Now this is not an every night occasion, mind you, but it's more often now than not.

So, to conclude, it didn't take less than a day but I am still happy with a week and 1/2 - 2 weeks time frame!

**This post is completely out of order with the posts still to come, but I just had to post it now--I didn't want to wait until I was done updating the rest to get it out there!!**

Christmas Presents

You'd think that with getting a new camera for Christmas (yea!!) that I would have a ton of photos. Well, I don't. We video taped the opening of presents and then the day was just busy so not many got taken. However, I do have a few. So sit back and enjoy!

First of all, we have to start of with Grandma Gubler's Christmas tree--she's amazing. This is one of the three trees. I didn't get pictures of the others but I love them!



Of course, we have to get Alex being a great poser for my first shot with my new camera....




Zaylee was so excited about opening presents (okay so this picture is not the best image describing that but really she was!!). This is one of the presents from Grandma. When we were opening the presents that morning she was so excited! She kept telling us that "this is not yours, this is mine!" It was great! She loved it!



As you can tell, the piggy bank from Grandma was definitely one of those presents she loved!



Almost all of the whole clan getting ready to open presents from Grandma (and Grandpa--we know Grandma did all of the work but he gets some credit, right??) and gifts from the siblings:



Okay, so this picture might have been a better description of the excitement she had opening the presents....gotta love her!!



And somewhere through it all, Zaylee found a spot that she thought was a great place to rest from all of the activities--Grandpa's belly. She sure loves her grandpa! =)

Lots to update!

Well, with it being Christmas and all I have a lot to update. I'm not going to do it all in one post though, so check back and I'll try to get up to date.


For starters:

Zaylee got to sit on Santa's lap TWICE this year. She was VERY excited about it. The first time was at our ward Christmas party. The whole time she kept talking to us all about what she was going to ask him (like where his reindeer were) and what she wanted for Christmas. She sat willingly and was perfectly content to be there but she got completely gun-shy. She didn't say a word. She stared straight ahead at some random spot on the wall and completely froze. As soon as she got off, she started telling Alex all about how she got to sit on Santa's lap and how he told her about his reindeer (I asked about them for her). She just didn't dare to say an actual word TO HIM. It was great! =) The ward took photos but I haven't gotten it yet so no photo accounts of that one.

The second time she got to sit on Santa's lap was at the La Verkin Christmas party. This time she was all prepared. We talked to her about how she actually had to SAY something to Santa in order to get it. Once again, she was completely stoked about it. She kept practing all week about how when she sat on his lap she was going to ask for a "dolly and a horse." She had it down perfect. And when the time came, she nailed it!! She sat, he asked, she told. It was great! =) The photo didn't turn out great but this is what I got:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

*Once again, photos are courtsey of Tracey! =)

A Few Quick Family Photos

So at Steph's wedding, one of our favorite family photographers, Tracey, took some pictures for us. All of you that got Christmas cards have already seen them, but I'm proud so here they are for the rest of you! (And to those of you who didn't get Christmas cards....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! WE LOVE YOU!!) =)

Lights at Temple Square

For FHE we took a trip up to Temple Square to see the lights. Zaylee loved all of the "mommies, daddy's, and babies" (translation: the nativities). We also decided to go on a tour of the conference center while we were there. It was a lot of fun! I didn't get many photos because I thought that they all looked blurred through my camera, but here are a few!

Graham Cracker Houses

For play date this month we made graham cracker houses! It was so much fun. Granted a two year old definitely finds eating the candy much more entertaining than making a house out of it!

Here's the photos from our fun morning:

Getting started....


Caught sneaking the candy!


Finally she got the hang of putting the candy on the house...


Finished project!


It was fun! Thanks Heidi!

Grandma's Caramels

Well, I did it! Tracey inspired me this year to try to make Grandma's caramels. Thanks Tracey! It was such a great experience for me. It brought back a lot of memories of Grandma and Christmas's with her. Of course, we all remember the green cup used to test when the caramels were ready, sitting around her yellow kitchen table cutting wax paper and wrapping the caramels, the fridge full of caramels after she was done, and delivering them to everyone in town. Not to mention just the overall Christmas memories of singing Christmas songs (including the Chipmunks Christmas album!), decorating her Christmas tree while she sat on the couch and instructed us on how to place the icicles just right, and even sitting by her old coal stove drying our hair after baths at her house. Ahh, so many good memories. I think I've found my new Christmas tradition. It'll be one of the best ways for me to honor and remember Grandma. Love you, Grandma! Miss you!





*Note* I even have the old yellow counter-tops to make it seem even more like the old days! =)

"I dressed myself!"

So, this wasn't the first time that she has put her own clothes on, but it was the first time that she picked out matching clothes, put them on with the tags in back, and right side out! I'm so proud! =) Granted, this was about 2 weeks ago and we have yet to see it happen again, but miracles do happen! (I did the shoes and socks...) Goodness, she's just growing up so fast!