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Ready for church

Enough with the snow already!

This is the view out our back window this morning as a heavy snow blankets us once again. I had high hopes this week when everything began to melt that spring would soon be here, but the weather is playing tricks on me. Brad says, "What do you expect? You live in Alaska." What I expect is the weather to cooperate with me and my desire to take the kids outside to play without snow gear. Just kidding, kind of.

Potty Learning

It seems like I've been doing an inordinate amount of worrying about potty training, oh excuse me, I meant potty learning. I've read all kinds of articles, watched a program on PBS, and talked to everyone who's willing to listen. What I have not done, however, is trained my kids. I mean, learned them, or taught them, or whatever.

I've been waiting for the "perfect week" so that I could stay home and really focus on the potty. I was convinced that I was the one who was dragging my feet and that Catie, at least, was really ready.

Today's the week, or it was until I made plans to meet with a quilter tomorrow and set up a playdate for Wednesday. I decided that I didn't have to cancel my "Week of Potty Training." One day would be enough to tell me if I needed to continue. Well, one day was enough, one morning, to be exact. I asked Catie about 5 times in the course of 3 hours if she wanted to go potty and each time she said no. I even tried to get Nicky into the act, thinking that if he sat on the potty, she would too. Actually, it worked, but she only sat for 3.6 seconds and declared she was "all done." No potties. Nicky, on the other hand, had no trouble filling the potty--with the lint from between his toes. Where did he get that idea? I have no idea...

So, we'll continue our laidback potty "learning" for another couple weeks and try again.

Passing on the inheritance

One of the happiest (and sometimes saddest) parts of parenthood is the fact that our children look up to us and love to imitate what we do. I know I should cherish this as long as it lasts, but I cringed yesterday when the smoke detector went off and Catie ran to the stove, whipped a towel off the handle, and started waving it at the ceiling. I haven't burnt anything, honestly; the sensor is really sensitive...

Quote for the Day

Some family trees bear an enormous crop of nuts. --Anonymous

This quote was brought to you by my incredibly inspirational calendar.

Sorry, I can't help myself.

This commercial keeps coming on during Law and Order. It cracks us up everytime we see it. The first time, I could have sworn it was a Saturday Night Live fake commercial. Enjoy!

PS Brad is completely converted to the Dark Side. I think he might be even more obsessed with Law and Order than me at this point. Da Dum, duh, duh, du-uhm, da-dum, da dum, duh, duh, da-dum.

Snow day

Yesterday after lunch the kids weren't tired enough to put down for a nap, and it was so beautiful outside, so we decided to take them out in the backyard to play in the snow for the first time. We stayed out for about 20 minutes, then they napped all afternoon. :)Whenever the kids would throw snow in the air, we would say, "Yay, Nicky," and, "Yay, Catie," and pretty soon Nicky started yelling "Nicky!" whenever he threw snow. It was adorable.

Walking in 6 inches of snow is difficult when you're less than 3 feet tall.

I took this picture about one second before he started crying.

I You!

All of a sudden, it seems that Catie and Nick can imitate just about any word that I say. For example, they can say all their aunts and uncles names, something that seemed impossible a few months ago. With this in mind, I've been working hard to get those three sweet little words out of their mouths that I've been longing to hear... I love you. Today we came very close when Nicky said, "I you!" It was obvious from the way he said it, pointing to me, that he meant "I love you" and it warmed my heart all the same.

Completely unrelated, the sermon that I told you was awesome last week has been uploaded onto the church website. (Click here and then click on "The Journey of Jesus.") If you have some time to listen, you won't be disappointed.

Bangs

If, like me, you were shocked by how shaggy I had let Catie's hair get when you saw my last pictures, you will be relieved to know that I've trimmed her bangs. Here's the silly girl (and a picture of her brother, because I couldn't leave him out):

Recall notice

I can see it now. Recalled: Gumdrop pacifiers. Child may stick his finger into the pacifier. The suction created will make it difficult for him to take off. As a result, he will wake you up crying because his thumb and middle finger are going numb. You will curse the pacifiers until nap time when you realize, despite the early morning, they are still lifesavers. At least for the next couple months or so...

And, because my dad was disappointed in the lack of kid pictures yesterday, here's a common sight around here: stuffing breakfast in their mouths while glued to Handy Manny on TV.

My hot glue gun and me

When we moved from Colorado, Brad and I had the great idea to get rid of a lot of our furniture and replace it with good stuff when we came back from Qatar. Unfortunately, we didn't think about the fact that we would need some furniture in the meantime.

Enter the guest bedroom, priority number 999 in a list of about a thousand.

My mother-in-law made a quilt for us, but we still haven't gotten around to getting it finished. I decided to start using it anyway. I guess I better get it taken care of since she'll be here in a month! Anyway, she also gave me the leftover fabric, and I used it to extend the plain white bed skirt that I picked up for about $15 at Walmart. It still didn't look quite right, so that's where the glue gun comes in. I hot glued some grosgrain ribbon along the seam. Ta da! I think it looks cute.
See that nightstand in the corner? It has a little secret. After I covered it up and gave it the glue gun treatment, my supportive husband said, "You're right, Erica, it doesn't look like a file cabinet anymore. It looks like a file cabinet with a table cloth on it." Thanks, Brad. But, it works. Our guests need a nightstand, and I need a file cabinet. A symbiotic relationship.

I also had enough fabric for a valance, and it got the hot glue treatment too.

I know a file cabinet/nightstand isn't what we had in mind when we got rid of our old bedroom set, but couldn't stand having an unfinished room. Ironically, I'm trying to convince Brad that it would be a good idea to buy an old iron headboard and antique nightstands and paint them white. :)

What's up with us

Here's what we've been up to:

1. Yesterday we went to the Fur Rondy parade in downtown Anchorage. What's up with these crazy people? The biggest to-do of the year is in the middle of winter! Anyway, despite a late start and Catie's fit over wearing her gloves, we had a good time. The best part of the day was sharing lunch with our friends at our house. Vegetable beef soup really hit the spot after standing out in the cold.

2. We have almost definitely picked a church, the second church that we visited. I've been going to a Bible study there, and have met some of the ladies from their MOPS group, and we're going to a couples' study tonight at Brad's coworker's house. The people there have been so welcoming; we feel like we belong there. Plus, the sermon today was awesome.

3. I spent the afternoon hot gluing yards of ribbon in the guest room. I think that's a subject for another day, because I could just write paragraphs about that. And show pictures. I'll definitely come back to that.