Mission: 3 day potty training!!

So I took off work on Friday so I could have 4 days with my big potty training boy.  The book that we read was called 3day potty training by laura jensen and I have friends who have done it and been very successful.  So we started Friday morning and we have been in big boy undies ever since!!  Basically the 3 day plan is to devote 3 whole days to stalking your child and reminding them every 5 seconds to tell you if they need to go potty and if you catch them in the act you rush them to the potty and remind them to keep their underwear dry.  Lots of positive reinforcement for going in the potty.  I didn't know exactly what to expect but and I had my moments of frusration and boredom stuck in the house following julian's every move for 3 whole days but I think it was a huge success.  He has been in big boy underwear for 4 whole days now and he has only had one nap where he wet the bed.  Julian is a rock star what can I say.  My friend Jen who just went through it a couple of weeks ago with her son, Cameron, was a lot of help and support.  Today we even went to mall for a couple of hours to play and eat lunch with Carol Dockery and her boys and Julian did awesome.  Home to a dry nap and then a little trip to Petsmart and all that and we are still in the same clothes we put on in the morning!  I am so proud and excited.  I am praying Julian and I continue to have a lot of support through this.  I am praying Julian does well for the babysitter and she is able to help in the process too.  I am praying he and I continue to get more confidnence and figure out how this all works. CAN YOU BELIEVE MY LITTLE GUY IS POTTY TRAINED!!?  It really feels like this time I have with my precious little boy is going by too quickly. 

Christmas 2010

I am ashamed I have as few pictures as I do for Julian's 2nd Christmas.  We had a blessed Christmas even though Julian spent most of the time sick.  My mom came to Houston on the Friday school let out so she could spend the weekend with Julian while Jerry and I finished up the last minute shopping. We had a great weekend and were packed up and ready to drive home to Knox City on Monday morning.  We had a great trip minus the part where Julian only took a 15 minute nap and the part where I got pulled over for a speeding ticket :( But we made it and we had a great week with Grandma, Mamar, Riley, Stephanie and my beautiful niece and nephew.  Julian loves to be out at Uncle Riley and Aunt Stephanie's house with all the room to run and play and all the animals.  Emmitt made the trip with us and he was a trooper.  He suprised me at how well he was potty trained and how great of a traveler he was.  Too bad he sheds so much but we love him regaurdless.  We always have our big Adams Family Christmas on Christmas Eve so we usually do our immediate Carver Family Christmas the night before.  Of course that day Riley Paige and Julian both had trips to see Dr. Duke.  Julian started getting really goopy eyes and runny nose.  His eyes never got pink so we assumed it was just a cold settling in his eye.  We got a perscription for antibiotic eye drops and went forward wtih children's motrin and the drops.  Both of which he HATED!!  Jerry got to KC that evening and we had a great time with the fam that night.  Julian had a great time opening his presents and having fun with his cousins and Buzz and Woody of course.  He is obsessed with buzz and woody I tell ya!  The next morning Julian had goopy eyes again but we made it to Rotan for Christmas Eve.  By this time eye number 1 was better and eye number 2 had gooped over but everyone still confident that it was just a cold in his eyes.  We still managed to have a great time visiting with all the family.  We were packed up and headed back to Houston about 5.  We had a great trip back home.  Emmitt was a great traveler.  Julian did great as well.  He went to sleep about 7 soemthing and was out until we got home around midnight.  At this point we were continuing to give him Motrin but he continued with the runny nose and goopy eyes and a little fever.  Christmas morning was such a memory I will never forget and I wish I had it on video.  I brought Julian downstairs and all he said when he saw what Santa had left him was NO NO NO NO NO and just cried and wanted to lay his head down.  After the next dose of Motrin set in he ventured out a little to see all his toys santa had left but he never got too excited.  We had a great day just watching basketball and having out.  The next night Julian's temp was extremely high.  One time we woke up it was 104 but we had fallen asleep through a dose of motrin so we gave him some and waited.  It had gone down after an our to 99 something and so we thought we were ok but then a couple hours later it had spiked again.  We were immediately on the road to the ER.  When were arrived the first few temps they took were 106.4!!!!  YIKES!!  Needless to say we did not have to wait and we went staight back to get a rectal temp taken.  It was 104 so the doctors weren't as freaked out but still very concerned.  After a couple hours of some test for strep and a couple doses of motrin and tylenol and a perscription from the doctor, we were on our way home to rest. After we rested and kept him drugged for a couple days :) we were back to normal.  We had a great rest of the break.  I had been planning to do the potty training that week but since the side effects of the antibiotic are not that pleasant I decided to wait on that. We had a great week just hanging out together. Sunday morning, the day before I am supposed to go back to work, I wake up and my eye is caked over!!  I immediately started to drops and never had too many of the symptoms but it did hit both eyes and it was pretty yucky.  I think our house is back to being in good health now.  We are starting our year off healthier and ready to see all the great things God has planned for us in 2011. 
Happy New Year Everyone!  

Santa or no Santa??

Let me start by saying I BELIVE!!  :)  This week during lunch there was an ongoing debate about letting your children blieve, lying to them, never telling them about santa at all, tell them at what age, will they be betrayed, etc.....  We had a great service in church today and I guess it confirmed my positon all week.  As parents we can chose to raise our children as we want!  It's called freedom and I am thankful for that.  Weather or not your children believe in Santa or not, I believe as long as you teach your children to reflect God's love and giving spirit during this crazy Christmas season then you do what you do!!  So thanks to a great ongoing lunch debate/conversation all week, an awesome service at Grace Church today, and a great Veggietales movie about St. Nicholas last night with Julian, I am happy to say "As for me .......I BELEVE"  :)
I believe that God gave the biggest gift when baby Jesus was born.
I believe that God gave the biggest gift EVER when he GAVE his son to die on a cross for all of us to have salvation.
I believe that St. Nicholas was a more generous man than I could imagine and it is something that I admire.
I believe that any symbol that helps us to remember the importance or giving selflessly is ok in my book.
I believe that being excited about Christmas is ok as long as we remember the reason for the season. 

I pray I can help Julian grow up in a way to have the generosity of St. Nicholas..  I pray he will always allow Christmas to remind him of God's greatest gift.  I pray he is a reflection of God's love and goodness. 

Merry Christmas everyone!!  I hope you have been good this year so Santa can stop by your house.  Last year's picture:

Happy Birthday Julian!!

I can't believe our baby is 2!  Terrific 2's..  bring them on!  We had a great birthday weekend.  We celebrated his birthday on his PaPa's day (the 4th) and we made sure to kiss and send PaPa a birthday balloon.  I always wish my dad was here to meet Julian.  I know they would be a trip together. My dad would be so proud. It was all Backyardigans this year.  Julian loves loves loves him some Backyardigans.  Thanks to a Pablo pan sent from Lawrence and a lot of cake making advice from Kel, we actually ended up with a cake that actually resembled Pablo.  Of course Grandma was here to celebrate and a lot of great friends came over and joined in as well.  We had a bounce house from my school which was fabulous because we used it alllll weekend.  Julian had a great weekend.  It is just amazing that 2 years have gone by.  He is so big and becoming more and more independent everyday.  He had is 2yr check up on Tuesday the 7th and he was still well above average on all measurements.  37 inches tall, 32.7 pounds, and a big head.  Once again we were able to Praise the Lord when we were able to answer Yes with 100% certainty to all the "check-up questions.

Can he throw a ball?  We wish we could get him to stop throwing everything.  It hurts.  Especially when it's a hard sippy cup flying unexpectedly from the back seat. ha

Can he kick a ball?  uh...  check!!  too hard and again we wish he would stop kicking everything.  Especially Emmitt.  Poor Emmitt

Can he run?   uh..  faster than me..  which is very embarassing when you are at a park and you child is running away from you.  hopefully when I am fully recovered I'll be able to beat him again.

Can he jump?  haha..  yes!  off of the top of the couch..  off anything..  no fear

Does he have at least 50 words?  X1000

Does he use 2 word phrases?  Some examples:  "Come on Emmitt,"  "No one's home,"  "You push,"  "In Car,"  etc.....

We are slowly introducing small bits of milk, cheese, and egg.  Starting with things that just have a little in the ingredients.  So far we haven't seen any crazy reactions. Yay!!

Oh! We are beginning the stages of Potty Training.  Julian will tell us "Poop" or "Pee Pee."  They are used interchangably.  He will go anytime you put him on the potty.  He is obsessed wtih flushing so whatever he has to do to get to flush he'll do it. lol.  So I am thinking we are really going to try over Christmas break to get this Potty training thing happening. 

We are so Thankful for being blessed with such a healthy happy baby boy.  We are so proud to be his parents.  I tell him everyday that God made him to do great things..  God made him to change the world..  He can do anything..  I can't wait to see what God has in store for him. 

Happy Birthday My Love!! 

God is so cool!

This Thanksgiving God answered a big prayer!  Jerry got to hang out with his oldest son and Julian got to meet his big brother, Jerrious.  I have talked about Jerrious with Julian and shown him pictures since Julian was born.  So it was super cute when Julian repeated his name and it sounded a lot more like "juice" than Jerrious but it's so cute the way Julian says his name.  Jerrious was 11 when I first met Jerry and it has never been a question how much Jerry adores that child.  Circumstances were not like Jerry would have wanted at all but when Jerry even mentions his name you can see how proud he is to be his father.  So this has been a huge prayer of mine for 5 years now.  I always prayed that Jerrious was healthy, safe, happy and successful and that God would give him an open heart so someday he can reconnect and get to know and love this great man that I get to everyday.  Jerry has seen Jerrious a few time for a very short time in the past 5 years but a few weeks ago God really began answering prayers when Jerry received a call from Jerrious' dad.  Since then Jerry and Jerrious have been texting and talking and Jerrious wanted to come meet his other side of the family.  Jerrious came over Thanksgiving night with his mom and his dad.  It was super emotional for me.. I just kept saying to myself  "thank you Jesus!"   I definitely played it cool because how dorky would it have looked if I would have come out crying.  LOL. I could tell Jerry was so excited for the opportunity to hang out with him obviously.  The next day we even got to go over to their house and visit for a couple of hours.  The verse I quoted on the title of my blog, "God can do anything, far more than you could ever ask or imagine."  It is so true.  I mean my prayer has been that they could just get back in contact and communicate. But not only did that happen a few weeks ago but God made it possible for Jerry to get to spend several hours with Jerrious.  Julian and I even got to meet him.  So I would say that is far more than I asked for or even imagined.  I am so thankful we got to see that Jerrious is happy, safe, successful and all of the things we pray for daily.  I pray the same prayer still.  I pray God  continues to give Jerrious and his family a open heart and open mind and that Jerry and Jerrious can build a relationship.  I pray that Jerrious is happy, healthy, safe and super successful in everything he does.  Thank you Jesus for the opportunity to begin getting to know this wonderful 15 year old.   We are already looking forward to the next time.

Trip to Mandy's (a little late)

We had a great trip to Mandy's in October.  We went last October also so maybe we can make it an annual thing.  Julian did great on the trip. It was my first time meeting Miss Whitley and she's as precious as I imagined from pictures.  So cute!  Brett is such a big boy.  He definitely was Julian's boss for the weekend.  Mandy wasn't a fan, but I enjoyed the help. :) haha  I'm glad we got to enjoy some time with the Shows!! 

 matching PJ's  --  they can kill us when they get older :) 

 two little monkeys jumping on the bed

 with Mandy's mom (Nelda)

 Ready for the zoo!!

 Two little monkeys swinging from a rope

 I don't think Julian saw an animal while we were there..  He only saw the WATER!!!

Tired little boy

At the Pumpkin Patch in China Spring. 

Happy Halloween!

Julian and I had a great Halloween together. I have all these fun "family tradition" plans in my head which Union Pacific Railroad seems to try its best to destroy.  I will not let them beat me!!!  :)  So our jack-o-lantern was carved by me myself and I while Julian was sleeping and Jerry left for work. It worked out fine and I just pray better for better luck next year.  Julian was supposed to be Pablo from Backyardigans but he wouldn't keep his "head" on so he just looked pretty silly but still the cutest thing ever.  We were the first trick-or-treaters out so we just made the loop around the neighborhood and stoped at 4 or 5 houses that were pretty festive.  Julian is so painfully shy.  He doesn't do great being friendly "if you will."  :)  We had fun and got home in time to light our Jack-o-lantern, turn on the "spooky" espisode of backyardigans, and pass out candy.  Happy Halloween 2010.