Last Update for the Baby Comes!

I’m determined to be caught up on blogging before little baby girl Jones comes! So, here is the last set of pictures. Next blog – you will meet our new little girl!

Kasey and I had a chance to visit the fire station with a little preschool group. Kasey LOVES fire engines, so this was quite the experience! Whenever he hears one, he rushes to the window to watch, and he’ll pretend that things are on fire and spray them off with a pretend fire hose.

He wasn’t quite sure about the firefighter after she put on her mask – she looks a little scary! But, I finally convinced him to go take a picture.

Inside the fire engine.

With the firefighters and the preschool group.

Kasey driving the fire engine!

Easter – we had such a wonderful picnic at Copperton Park, Kris’ favorite park of all time. We had hamburgers and an egg hunt, then enjoyed playing on the playground. It was such a refreshing afternoon. While there, we also celebrated Kris’ 30th birthday! He’s getting so old! :)

Kasey hunting for eggs.

Kasey with his loot. This is a horrible picture of me, by the way, so just look at Kasey. You never feel lovely 8 months pregnant. :)

Here we are decorating Easter eggs. Kris decorated Kasey’s face in tribal fashion using robin’s eggs.

Our eggs – dumptruck, airplane, train.

Kasey’s egg, decorated in dumptruck stickers.

Kasey and Molly with their big sticks. The funny thing was, I had to give them each a big stick so that they wouldn’t fight. They are so like a brother and sister sometimes.

My cousin Annie came to visit, and here’s Kasey with her cute kids Ryder and Athan.

They loved playing on the fire engine together. Kasey and Athan would take turns driving. Athan informed me that they went to the gas station and the aquarium. When Athan asked Kasey what song they should listen to, Kasey replied, “The Dinosaur Song.” It was too cute seeing them play together.

Kasey playing and singing for us on the piano. He has such a fun, little voice, and he knows so many songs. As you can see, he is getting quite the mop of hair on his head! Kris, don’t you dare turn his hair into a mullet! I’ve been loving it long!

Only a few more weeks until the baby comes! She’s due May 7th – crazy how close that is! We are so excited to meet her! It’s going to be so different having a girl around, though. I tend 2 little girls every Tuesday (Isabel and Charlotte), and I’ve been discovering that girls and boys play so differently! Here’s one example. They were all playing pirates, and Kasey was running around with a stick trying to poke the girls. He came to me, proceeded to poke me, and then said, “You are all owied!” Meanwhile, one of the girls was twirling in circles and informing me that she was a “fairy pirate.” There really is a difference between boys and girls! :) We’re excited to have one of each! It's been such a blessing to tend these 2 cute girls - Kasey LOVES going to their house!

Before the baby comes, I’ve been taking it easy. I have been tending half-days Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, plus 2 piano lessons on Thursday. For now, I’m taking a break from all of that for awhile, except the piano lessons. It’s been so nice to have more time at home – I’m so grateful to be a stay-at-home mom! We might never be rich, but I’m so grateful that I can be with Kasey and manage our house. It’s been such a blessing. I can’t imagine having to leave him all day to go to work – hopefully I’ll never have to!

Lately Kasey has been getting his 2 year molars. Last night he told me that his tooth was “wrestling with the little teeth!” That sounds like a pretty accurate description of teething, poor thing!

Otherwise, we are just getting ready for the baby, and Kris is staying busy with work, service, and family, as usual. We are so blessed!

Potty Training, Mullets, and More

My favorite way to tell what we’ve been up to is through pictures, so here you go:

Kasey snuggled up with some of his favorite things: Pooh Bear, Airplane blanket, movie. Could life get better?

Kasey and dad doing the dishes together. Kasey is actually a remarkably good helper for his age. Yes, he does play in the bubbles and always gets water everywhere in his dumping fun, but he knows how to put dishes in the water, rinse, and stack. If only he would enjoy doing dishes as much when he’s a teenager…

Dad and Kasey all set up to attack (throw balls at) their army men. They had to do something productive while mom went to bookclub.

Kasey building a really big tower!

Kasey ready to go outside, shorts and all! (By the way, those little black shorts are his favorite. He would wear those everyday if he could, and he is devastated when they are dirty, delighted when I wash them for him. He told me once that he could run fast in them! That’s probably why they’re his favorite!)

Potty training time! As you can see, I created a motivational potty treat and toys basket. It did motivate Kasey to sit on the potty when he had silly putty or bubbles to play with. And every time he pooed or peed on the potty – treat time!

We started with lots of juice and movies and sitting on the potty. As you can see, we moved the potty into our living room for ease and convenience.

Kasey actually picked up the concept fairly fast; however, it still feels like we are potty training months later. I assumed that after about a week, Kasey would be able to tell me every time he needed to go on the potty. I realized that he would still need lots of reminders; kids get distracted and forget. So now, we just have gotten into the habit of going about every hour to avoid accidents. He’s doing better on making it to the potty to poop, too. But the hard part of potty training is done, and before the baby, too! Hurray! Only one kid in a diaper! Here are a few funny potty training moments:

• Kasey has learned that when you pee you “relax” and when you poo you say, “rrrr!”
• I told Kasey: “When you pee in the potty you get a treat. When you pee in your pants, you don’t get a treat.” Then just to review, I said, “What happens when you pee on the potty?” Kasey: “I get a treat!” Me: “What happens when you pee in your pants?” Kasey: “Mommy gets mad.” :)
• Me: “I’ve got to go to the bathroom. I feel the poops coming.” Kasey: “Can I feel?”
• Kasey looked in the potty, and he was so excited he made a baby poo and a daddy poo! He wanted to make a mommy poo too, but he just couldn’t do it! :)
• While putting on his Thomas underwear: “We don’t want to poop on Thomas. That makes him feel bad!” Thomas isn’t the only one who feels bad when Kasey poops in his underwear!
• Kasey had some friends over, and we were all playing upstairs in the attic. I had already brought Kasey’s potty upstairs because I knew he needed to go poo, but then I went to get some wipes to be prepared. As I was coming back up the stairs, I hear, “Mom, I have poo on my toe!” This sounds pretty funny in retrospect, but I thought, “Oh, great!” But, the good news is that he did go on the potty! It just somehow ended up on his foot…and the carpet….
• Another time I put him down for a nap. He was playing in his room for a long time, happy, but not sleeping. I went to check on him, and I found that Kasey had tried to change his poopy diaper all by himself. Mr. Independent. I didn’t know whether to be mad that he made a mess and didn’t come get me, or glad that he tried to take care of it on his own. What I found was a big spot of poo smeared into the carpet next to his poopy diaper, and then a pile of wipes on the opposite side of the room by his diaper drawer. He had put his pants back on and everything. Thank goodness my mom gave me a carpet cleaner for Christmas!

We had a delightful visit to Hurricane. Kris and Kasey decided to go hiking in my backyard. Yes, this is what I grew up with – my backyard backed up against a mountain. It made for some fun adventures. It’s hard to see, but Kris and Kasey are on the big black rock on top of the hill, right in the middle of the picture.

While visiting, we decided to go to the St. George Parade of Homes. Here’s a picture that we took while touring. We saw some stunningly beautiful homes and enjoyed dreaming of someday. Plus, Kasey peed on me. We had such a nice time. (To clarify, I was holding Kasey and we were rushing to find a bathroom. In his defense, he did tell me he needed to go. Unfortunately, the nearest bathroom was at the bottom of a hill.)

Lately, whenever I go to check on Kasey after he’s fallen asleep, I’m always greeted with some sort of surprise, it seems. Here are a few things I’ve found:

Kasey moved all of his pillows and blankets to the corner of his room near his Christmas tree and fell asleep.

Kasey tucked in with Tigger.

Wearing his favorite Spiderman hat.

Buried under stuffed animals – can you find him?

Holding his toy saw.

Inside his pillow case.

With a monster truck.

With a book.

And another book.

Okay, so maybe that seemed a bit tedious, but I thought it was a funny series of pictures. Here’s another series, this time with Kasey and Molly. For all the work and grief Molly causes me, this is why I’m glad we have her around: Kasey loves her. He crawls all over her, wrestles with her, plays with her face, and steals Molly’s toys so she chases him. There are moments when Molly pesters him, but I know Kasey loves having her around. It’s really like a brother sister relationship.

Kasey loves to bring his blankets and lay by Molly on her bed.

Molly giving Kasey kisses.

So, are you still wondering why I put mullets in the title? I have kept you in suspense. To sum up, I’ll just copy what I posted on facebook: “I’m feeling a little bit violated and betrayed right now. I have been tricked into doing something that I deem to be both socially and morally reprehensible, and by none other than my very own husband. It started out so innocent – “I just need a little trim.” Then, “A little more off the sides…now a little more off the top…but keep it long in the back…” You can see how this turned out, right? Really, Kris, a mullet again!!!?.”

Sigh. What I’m worried about now is that Kris is going to try and cut Kasey’s hair into a mullet – yikes! Worse yet – I’m afraid I’m going to be beguiled into cutting Kasey’s hair into a mullet because I’m going to be so afraid of how Kris is going to cut it! Double Yikes! I’ll have to keep you posted on our mullet battle. Until next time…