potty update

So I decided to continue with the potty training. Yesterday 6 times in the potty with one accident and today 7 times in the potty with no real accidents. Jade would be 100% potty trained if I just took her to the potty every couple of hours. Whenever I have her sit and she has to go she will. The problem that I'm having is I want her to learn to tell me the she needs to go. The book says that to train her to do this I can't take her to go potty. I have to wait until I see her start going and then run her to the potty so she can learn the feeling of needing to go. So I tried this method today. Jade is really good about starting to go just a little and then stopping it. So I really had to watch her carefully. A couple of the pees today I saw that she went a little so then I took her to the potty to finish. She still hasn't told me that she needed to go. I think that will come with a little more days of practice. I'm so shocked how well this is going though. We even went to the beach today! 30 min drive there and back with no diaper! We did take her potty chair all the way out on the sand so she could go if she needed. It was pretty funny!! I'm going to Disneyland on Wednesday so that's my goal to be done with the training. Wish us luck!

I'm a big girl now

So I had to do a quick post because I am in shock! All along I said I was going to potty train Jade when she turned 22 months because the book that I like on potty training says that's the best age. As Jade was getting closer and closer to 22 months I have been thinking that maybe I would push it back to right before she turns 2. She just seems so young. She has gone pee pee in the potty for a while now. She goes every now and then when I put her on the potty. On Sunday Jade went #2 in the potty chair for the very first time. She didn't go #2 yesterday so I knew she would have to today so all morning I reminded her to tell me if she needed to go. Well, I saw the look on her face that she needed to go and sure enough she went again on the potty and also went pee. I then decided that we better go to Target to buy some princess panties so we could have them on hand just in case. Before we left her diaper was still dry so I put her on the potty and she went again!! We got home from Target with a dry diaper so I sat on the potty and she went again!! She then ate lunch and played for awhile and before nap I had her try and again she went. I think she is telling me that she is ready. It is so crazy because the book says to start potty training at 22 months and she turned 22 months yesterday!

I know we have still a LONG road ahead of us but it has been a great start. She's taking her nap right now with a diaper on but I will probably put the panties on again when she wakes up. I'm not really sure how I'm going to go about night time and everything else, but it's been good just playing it by ear. Wish us luck! Hopefully this wasn't just a fluke!

Don't you just want to squeeze her little bum in those panties??

i am a child of god

I did bribe her to sing the song by telling her that she could watch a little of the show Bubble Guppies. That is why at the end she cheers for Bubble Guppies!

sleep over

Last night Dan attempted to have a sleepover with Jade again. The last he tried was almost a year ago and it ended pretty much the same. Jade woke up crying and Dan eventually ended up back in our bed. I don't blame her, I wouldn't want to sleep on the hard ground either!

The first attempt last year! She was so little!

Come home soon

Dan has been in Chicago for work and we miss him!!!

I

LOVE

YOU

DADDY!

Maui-Day 1 & 2

We just got home from our trip to Maui!! It was perfect! To follow up with my last post, it didn't rain at all! We did not see one drop! We were able to go with our great friends the McCooks!! I appoligize to anyone who has already read Taryn's post of our trip. Most of the pictures are the same and I might have done some copy and pasting of her posts. She just wrote it so well I though I might as well not take the time to write everything all out again. :)

Our plane arrived around noon on Tuesday and after picking up our rental car, our first stops were Kmart and Costco. We were all so hungry because they didn't feed us on the plane so our first meal in Hawaii was a good old Costco hot dog. We then hurried to check in at the Honua Kai resort on Kaanapali Beach.

We explored the resort and headed to downtown Lahaina for dinner!

The next morning we headed off on our first excursion to bike 23 miles down Mt. Haleakawa, a dormant volcano. A couple of friends had recommended doing this, and it did not disappoint. At first I could not stop screaming. It was pretty scary because you get going so fast and it's a windy two way highway with cars zooming past you. But soon enough I was loving it! All of us agree that it was one of our favorite activities of the week!
Taryn and I had brought jackets to wear, but left them in the car before our shuttle took off, thinking we wouldn't need them. After all, when we asked what we should wear, the company didn't say anything about warm clothing. Plus, no one else on our shuttle was wearing anything but short sleeves and it was already very hot when we left early in the morning. So, off we went, up and up the mountain, higher and higher. When we stepped out of the shuttle, our bodies were instantly covered with goosebumps and we couldn't stop shaking! And that's when the rest of the shuttle pulled their jackets out of their backpacks :) Lucky for us, two very nice men gave us their jackets that they didn't need and we were good to go. If I did not have that jacket I would have died. I could barley stand outside I was so cold. If I had to bike down the mountain with the wind blowing on my face it would have been miserable. I'm so grateful for the big parachute jacket!

Yes, Taryn and I are frolicking in the field. How could we not??

Haha!! This picture is so funny. It's me coming down the hill and the jacket that I was wearing would fill up with air and I would look like I had a parachute on my back!

I totally recommend this activity!! Since being home a friend of mine said she knows someone who ended up in the ER after falling on this bike ride. It was pretty dangerous but I would still do it again. After we were done, we got some lunch, rented some snorkel gear and found an awesome little beach that had plenty of fish, a couple of sea turtles, and even a shark! Dan was the only one who saw it and later found out it wasn't harmful but it was 6 feet long! I'm so glad that I didn't see it! We ended the night by getting some pizza and eating it in the hot tub back at our hotel. Such a fun day.

Maui-Day 3

Early the next morning, we went on a whale watching excursion. It was funny because no one really wanted to go except for Ryan so we went for him. It was pretty fun! We saw whales immediately and got some good shots. I told Ryan that I better see some Baleen, but no luck! :) It was a little long. If it had only been one hour we would have liked it much better. This picture you can see four whales!

This is an awesome tree in Lahaina. It is one tree that covers an entire park. It is super old so we probably should not have been doing this....

or this...

or this!

After this we spent a couple of hours at a time share presentation, which we did to get discounts on our excursions. Afterward, we went to Black Rock and the boys snorkeled some more and cliff jumped. Dan ended up loosing his rented snorkel set which was a bummer. He put them on the rocks to do a back flip of the cliff and when he went to go get them again they were gone. A wave came and swept them away. We then went on a helicopter tour, I felt like I was on the Bachelor! We flew over West Maui, and crossed the ocean to another Hawaiian island, Molokai. It only has a few people living there and was truly gorgeous. The best part was flying above the largest sea cliffs in the world. Just straight up and down. Our pilot was awesome-he flew us to the very top and said, "So this is what it would feel like to jump from these cliffs" and totally nose-dived the helicopter for a second. It was so awesome!



Whenever we go on a trip with the McCooks, something always goes wrong! When we went to Vegas, I ended up in the hospital. When we went to Palm Springs, the AC went off in the house we were staying at in the dead heat of summer and Jade screamed all night long. So, we kept joking about what was going to happen this time. That night while we were out to dinner and getting ready to leave, the breaking news of the tsunami in Japan came on the TV. Immediately, we knew we might be in trouble. Knowing that we might have to evacuate that night, we decided to go get some gas in our car and already, there was a huge line!
The rest of that night was pretty crazy. We packed up some backpacks with some things to set by the door in case we needed to evacuate. You wouldn't believe the line of cars we could see from our balcony trying to get up to higher ground. Sirens were going off on the whole island, informing people to evacuate from their homes. Also, announcements were going off on our hotel intercom every hour or so. Our hotel informed us that we should stay put since they would only be moving the first and second floors up to higher ground and we were on the sixth.We watched the news for a couple of hours and they were able to predict the time that Hawaii would be affected. So, we tried to get some sleep and woke back up at about 3:00. Nothing new had really happened and we were able to sleep the rest of the night. The next morning we found that other parts of Hawaii had some damage, but our side was ok. Dan says that his favorite day of the entire trip was today because of the Tsunami warnings. It brought a entirely different excitement to the trip!

Maui-Day 4

We woke up the next morning excited to see what had happened while we were sleeping. The damage from the Tsunami moslty happened on the other side of the island but you could see how far the water had come up. We were origianlly planning on using this day as the road to Hana but because of the Tsunami we couldn't go because most of the roads were closed. We were actually relieved that we didn't go. The day before we were back and forth if we should go. I get car sick so the 6 hour winding roads didn't seem too fun for me. But the Tsunami made up our minds for us! The ocean was closed so we spent most of the day hanging out by the pool. It ended up being one of my favorite days! Our trip was packed with activities so it was nice to be able to just have a day of relaxation and fun by the pool. We loved these chairs that were in the water! This was our spot that we had all week!

Haha! Notice Ryan and Dan in line for the water slide with all of the little kids!

We had fun playing in the pool for awhile and started to get really hungry. A lot of places still weren't open by noon, so we headed out to Whaler's Village for a little shopping, then back to Lahaina for lunch and shaved ice. Taryn had done her research on shaved ice and read that Ululani's was the best. And all of the reviews were right! The best shaved ice I've ever had!

Maui -Days 5 & 6

On our last full day in Maui, we went on a snorkeling trip. The water was crystal clear and the snorkeling was great. We stopped at two places-Molokini and Turtle Town, where we did see lots of turtles. I got a little sick on the boat ride but luckily I brought along some Dramamine that helped. I'm also so glad that we could rent wet suits because it really helped when we were in the water for so long.

.

The boys loved snorkeling!! We loved it too but they really couldn't get enough. So after the snorkel trip we headed to Napili Beach so they could snorkel some more. Taryn and I were perfectly happy with just relaxing on the beach. Going on a vacation with another couple is the best! The boys never wanted to just sit and relax so they could go have adventures together while Taryn and I could lay out and read our books!

The last day was Sunday so we slept in and packed up and went to Sacrament meeting before heading to the airport. It was so weird to fly without Jade. I'm so used to flying with her so the 6 hour flight by myself was actually relaxing. Also, I finished my book right as the plane was landing. I read Hunger Games and I loved it!! Dan has actually started reading it since we've been home and is liking so far too.

When we got home Jade was already in bed but we were too excited to see her so we woke her up. She looked SO big! I swear she gained like 5 pounds while we were gone. She kept saying, "Mommy and daddy are home from Hawaii!" This was our first time leaving her and she did GREAT!!

Thank you so much Grandma Peterson and Jordan!!!!!!!!!!!

60% chance RAIN

We leave for Hawaii in 4 days!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait but I have been checking the weather and have been freaking out! Look here:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/recreation/golf/tenday/USHI0055

I have heard that I can't trust sites like this for Hawaii and that most of the time it will just rain for 20 min and then be sunny the rest of the day. But I'm still worried!!

Does anyone know more about the weather in Hawaii?? Will it really rain the whole time????

My sister Jordan is always good about taking pictures and she has captured some great ones recently. Here they are! Thanks Jordan!