Last Week

On Wednesday, the two youngest and I took a day trip to my grandparents house to pick up my mom. My parents were in town for my dad to preach in a Fall Conference (the church I grew up in). We were only able to stay for lunch (Creamy Chicken Bake), because we had to get back in time to pick up my oldest from school. It was great to see my grandparents and my dad for a little while.It was fun having my mom here; we went to lunch at "girl places" and enjoyed our shopping trips. We tried to take my middle son (to use his birthday money) to make his first Build a Bear stuffed animal. I had my camera in hand, ready to catch all the memories, but the "toddler monster" came out before we could get started. He found the dog he wanted (see below), but he did not want to go through the process to make it a stuffed animal. There is something wrong when you are forcing your child to have fun - so I decided to save this experience for another day.
My boys loved having their Mommal here. Some of you may wonder why my parents have such unique names. My first born, is also the first grandchild on my side - we tried to teach him to say Grandma and Grandpa but Mommal and Popple came out instead. My dad decided since there were no other Mommals and Popples in the world that we should keep the names; so they stuck.
My youngest nephew had his 2nd birthday party on Saturday. They had it a park and the weather was perfect. He had an Elmo party - it was so cute - Lesli did a great job on the party (as always). I can not believe he will be two this week - where does the time go?
That evening our church had a children's ministry volunteer appreciation. To say thank you, they offered us a night out and dessert on the them. We thought that was the neatest thing ever - free babysitting and a date! We ate at one of our favorite Italian restaurants and enjoyed talking and spending time together without the kids. The boys had a great time at church with pizza, movies and games. So everyone won! :o)

One more birthday - my niece turned 9 last week. She had friends over for a slumber party, we hope to get together soon so we can celebrate with her. She is becoming a beautiful young lady inside and out.

My objective for the next few days- potty training! Still no action in the potty. We are going to stay locked in our home for the rest of the week. I will hope to be able to report some progress by the end of the week. Praying for patience...