"Only big girls use the potty mama"

After literally a year of trying AISLINN IS FINALLY POTTY TRAINED! (well sort of). Does it sound like I'm shouting it from the rooftops? if not, it should! I have been trying since before her 2nd birthday and the kid will be 3 in 6 weeks! Since the day Aisy was born she has does anything and everything to prove 1 thing: She is NOT her sister! Bayleigh was potty trained long before she turned 2 and Aisy could have cared less. We have tried everything aside from offering her a deed to a small country to get her interested and it didn't matter...she just wasn't having any part of it. Until about 3 weeks ago...something finally clicked and she decided she wanted to be a "big girl" We still have our bad days but for the most part she is potty trained. We take her in public, leave her places and now no longer get to "shake off" her requests to use every bathroom between our house and China. What is it with kids and their fascination with public restrooms? As an adult I will do anything possible to avoid having to use a public restroom but not my kids...they will go in every bathroom in every store, restaurant or gas station if I allow them....gross!

This is when we started potty training.

and this is when she FINISHED! (she's grown alot huh?)

So as we happily say goodbye to another chapter of parenting we can say that this experience has taught us a few things about the differences between our children. They are both wonderful and sweet little girls however are happy to make us aware of their unique way of doing things and taking on the exciting challenges of growing up.

End of another Season

We have just completed another season of soccer. It is amazing how far she has come from her first season. Bayleigh seems to finally grasp the concept. I personally think soccer is the most contradicting sport you can possibly put your kid in. We spend all day telling our kids to share and play nice and yet once they get on the field you encourage them to push, shove and steel from the opposite team. This is Bayleigh's 3rd season playing soccer and the first one where I actually feel she is a better player than she was going in. We finally decided to switch leagues this time. We went from a competitive club league to a private church league and it has made a HUGE difference. I finally feel like I have gotten my monies worth. Club leagues are all about winning. They allow the coaches to pick who they coach which in turn allows them to "stack" the teams (only pick and play the best) and im sorry but at the age of 5 no one should be playing favorites. How is my child going to learn the fundamentals of the sport if she is never allowed to play? The old league also did no trophies, awards or celebrations to end the season. There was no team camaraderie at all. The kids barely knew each others names and the parents had no reasons to  converse. So needless to say after two consecutive summer seasons there we decided to search for a new league. There are 4 different league options in our area: 1 club (BTDT), 2 park and 1 church. After reviewing the prices, schedules and a 30 min phone conversation with the director of the church league we decided to go with them and we couldn't have been happier. The price was right but on top of that they do evaluations on the kids (to prevent team stacking), they hold coaches trainings and the entire league is volunteer based. There have end of the year family events and award ceremonies not to mention they give tons to the community. Definitely a program I am happy to have my kids be apart of.

**In case you were confused by the two different uniforms Upward doesn't issue 50 different uniform colors nor do they allow the teams to pick team names....they do it all for you.... Every child is issued a double sided jersey and if you are the home team you where blue and away team wears green. They are also issued a team name. This made for a less stressful season. No fighting with my kid cause she was the red team or blue team insead of the pink team.

For fun I thought it would be cute to try to find a picture of her first soccer season: 

Its crazy how much she has grown from then huh?

All in all it was a great season...next up...Cheerleading...wish me luck!

Take Two

After reviewing the pictures we took for family pictures-take one we decided we would need to bring in an expert. A friend of mine was offering some mini sessions at a local area so we jumped on the chance to have someone else take our pictures. As many of you know trying to get Sean to take family pictures is like pulling teeth. He was actually really great though and didnt have a problem with the retake session. The girls did amazing and I have to say I am very pleased with the results. She has a gift with toddlers (just look at all the smiles on Aislinn's face)

My favorite family picture

 We even managed to get a few great Christmas card shots!

All in all it was a great shoot! We are so glad we decided to do it

Halloween Festivites

Its crazy how fast this year has gone! What is also crazy is that the last post I did before I took a 1.5 year break from this blog was Halloween 2009. The girls have changed a ton since that post. This year was great. Aislinn loved getting all the candy. Its fun when they start to enjoy the holidays. We spent so many years rushing through whatever holiday it was due to crankyness, bedtimes etc. As most of you know we are pretty strict when it comes to bedtimes so the girls were overly excited to get to stay up till 8:30! (rebels I know)

Anyway...lets start with sharing the 2 weeks of festivities prior to the actual "trick or treating" event.

1st we attended a school festival with some friends. It was fun. They had carnival type games set up for the kids and each station they were able to get candy. I don't have too many pictures from that event because this was the day we realized Aisy was coming down with a cold which inevitably started sickness 2011

Bayleigh and Miranda (this is also the only good pic I got of her in her costume)

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all 3 girls

Bayleigh playing "toilet paper toss" (yes that's a toilet they are throwing it into)

The next weekend Bay's soccer league had a Halloween themed family day. They had each team decorate a trunk for "trunk or treat". It was a really cool event. They had pony rides, bounce houses, face painting and contests and the best part was the whole event was FREE! The kiddos had a blast and scored a ton of candy!

the boys manning the trunk....hard job huh?

Aislinn LOVES horses so you can imagine how EXCITED she was to see free pony rides. She could have ridden that thing all day long. I like this picture too it reminds me of an old western.

Ride 'Em Cowboy

After all those events you would think they would have been "over" the whole Halloween thing right? ummmm NO...they were both DYING to go trick or treating. We ended up going over to a friends house so we could trick or treat with a group. Usually we just go ourselves but it was definitely way cooler to go with more people.

"the group"

in years past I could barely get her to wear her costume...this year she wont take it off..she has already worn it twice since that day

she literally RAN to all the houses for the first few blocks...needless to say by the end I was carrying her back

sisterly love

And THATS how we do Halloween! Hope everyone else had a great time.