July Moments...
We drove back the same route we took to get out west. So I-80 across Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
We were driving on a Sunday, so I tried to do a little church in the van. I taught the kids a new song, "Faith." We then talked about faith. Nels and I listened to a conference talk and talked about it. It's kind of interesting that the few minutes I took time to be intentional with the kids was the most memorable time from our 40 hour round trip drive. I wish I had the energy to be more intentional.
We arrived at North Platte, NE about 8 pm and ate at Perkins again. Sofie was so happy to order her soup and rainbow pancakes.
We passed fields of windmills.
Nathan gave Noah this blue penguin stuffed animal. Noah snuggled it almost the whole drive home!
Sofie was pretty good too. All of the kids did their best. I'm very proud of them for making the most of our drive together. We arrived home about 8:30 p.m. Yay!
Back to real life. Here's pictures of the rest of July here at home.
Sweet Sofie all dressed up. She loves to pick out different outfits all day long. She thought this one was so cute and asked for a picture.
Four days after coming home, we began potty training Noah. I know, he's four and you're probably thinking "why isn't he already potty trained?" We had a rough experience potty training at age 3. It took me a year to recover before trying again. And even as I prepared for it, I was very worried we would fail again. But this time, I really tried to prepare mentally for it. I told myself, "it's ok if there's a lot of accidents. He's learning something every time he has an accident. I can clean up messes. My relationship with Noah is more important than the messes/time cleaning up/etc."
Besides mentally preparing myself, I also prepared Noah. We read different potty books and just practice sitting on the potty so he wouldn't be scared of it. I had tried putting underpants on him a few weeks earlier and he threw a huge fit! So I was pretty nervous about going cold turkey. Thankfully, the night before I showed him new Mickey Mouse underpants. He was super excited about wearing them. Yay!!
I got 3 gifts and a chart with stickers and a bowl of skittles/starbursts for him. So when he woke up, we were ready to go. He came downstairs holding the new underpants and was excited to put them on. I think that was our first miracle with potty training!
So he tried a few times, but nothing would come out. But a few minutes later he would have an accident. He had two accidents. Then one time half the pee went in the toilet and half on the floor. I was thrilled and Noah was surprised!
The first day totally revolved around Noah. I did get to make some muffins...Here's Noah holding a muffin with his Mickey Mouse underpants. Haha! His face!
Playing legos with our neighbor Jaelyn.
Kira is our early riser. I try to read scriptures in the morning in the quiet...Kira will sometimes join me and read hers with me. Favorite time.
One Sunday - me and my boys.
Silly four year olds.
One Sunday - Kira colored the handout for our lesson so nicely. About how faith grows.
Noah with his Mickey hat.
Nels did an awesome job painting the bedrooms while we were gone. He painted one room pink and the other one blue. We got Sofie a new comforter...Unicorns.
And Isak got a new comforter...dinosaurs. We ordered bunk beds. Nels built them and then realized they shipped us the wrong ladder! It was too short. So we waited a while for them to ship a new one. meanwhile the boys slept with their mattresses on the floor.
I made some pancakes with toppings for the kids one morning. Oh how they love toppings.
We went to church one Sunday. Good to go back. Good chance for the kids to practice wearing a mask.
Sunday porch photos...
Look who photo bombed our picture!!!
I found some new recipes from onelovelylife.com. This is her bruschetta chicken. So yummy!
More decorating pancakes.
Playing Hatchimal game with Sofie and Kira.
Noah loves his fire trucks.
Popsicles while potty training...so cute.
Another project Nels did was organizing the garage. He did an awesome job!!! He worked hard with a lot of house projects this month.
He did earn his first present which was a cat boy car. He was so happy. I have to say, it was hard not to give in and let him open presents or to stick to the earning stickers. Especially, at the beginning when he would beg and cry and whine to open the presents. But I'm so thankful I stuck to it and taught him how to earn something by working towards it. I'm glad I didn't give into the whining, even though it was hard!
Day 2- potty training. Noah went one time in the toilet and pooped too. He did a half pee in the toilet too. We were happy with it though. He earned some more stickers to go towards gift #2.
Day 3 - Noah wet the bed at 2 am. I changed him and the bedding. He had some accidents. I kept asking him if he needed to go potty. I know it was bugging him. So I tried to back off.
Day 5 or 6 - Noah had two huge accidents. I was so sad and frustrated. But I tried really hard to continue to be kind and patient. I'm so glad I was too. Because those two big accidents were pretty much his last ones. It must have clicked. He started to take control and figured out when he needed to go the bathroom. And the rest of the days I didn't have to ask him if he needed to go. We both trusted him to know. Yay! That was so huge for us.
He stayed dry during the day from then on. Night time potty training was going ok, but was hit or miss. But it has improved. He will usually wake up if he has to go, but the key for him was limiting liquids before bed.
I'm soooo proud of Noah for figuring this out with me. He used to say, "No more diapers for Noah!" I'm so thankful for the mindset and spiritual strength Heavenly Father blessed me with through this time too.
Here's Noah with his sticker chart. He completed it and is ready to open gift #3.
He was so happy each time he earned his gift. The gifts were PJ Mask toys. You can see them all lined up while he's eating breakfast.
And we'll move on to other things now. :)
Another costume for Sofie...
Playing Candyland with the kiddos.
Our big events...Jenny's wedding, potty training Noah and getting back to a new normal at home. Let's see what August is all about...my guess...school. We'll see.
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