Hopeful

So I have to post a quick update on Ashton's potty training. So as I have voiced to a few of you in person, I have been sooooooooooooooooooooo frustrated with this whole potty training thing. Ash has shown interest for the last year, but has always turned into a power struggle, so I just stopped. A week ago, I was like okay I am just going to accept that Ashton can't go to preschool because she is still going to be in diapers until she is five or older. Seriously. Ugh.

Then a few days ago, I saw my cousin Kedra's blog about how she was potty training her little girl. She had a ton of good ideas and fun things to do. So it reinvigorated my desire to start again.

So here's the update: Ashton had five accidents yesterday and four successes. She wore panties instead of pullups all day, except for when we went to the rental and the store, she wore a swim diaper (I was out of pull ups, so it made it plausible that neither Ash nor I could just fall back on them.

Nighttime: Ash wore a pull up and was dry in the morning! Then she went #1.

Daytime: Throughout the day she has only had one accident! And about five successes and it is 5:20pm. I am so elated.

Oh Heaven help that this little jaunt will continue. I need some serious prayers!!!!!!

Flush

I am such a proud mommy, I teach my girls the most elegant things to say in just the right situations and they always rise to the occasion and perform well.

Here is an example of a conversation between Ashton and I:

I am using the privy when Ashton walks in (we have no lock on the bathroom door- we like to keep things interesting when company comes to visit) and she sits on the edge of the bathtub.

Ashton: Mommy going poo poo or just trying?

Me: None of your business.

Ashton: Mommy, try harder. Try, Try, Try and Wait.

Me: Thank you for the encouragement, Ashton.

Ashton: Let me see. (Looks in toilet) Yea mommy! (Claps) Now you can have a sticker! Good Job, Yea!!!

Me: Excuse me while I go get my sticker chart. Love you.

Thankful Thursdays

I am so greatful for sunny, hot and windy weather at Bear Lake.

Supposedly this pic was taken in 1827. Hasn't changed a bit.

Mamma Mia

I love Mamma Mia. Last week my awesome (I mean she really is amazing) neighbor, Susan, invited me to a dinner and Mamma Mia party for last night. So about twelve women ranging from age 17 to 59 got together for a yummy dinner consisting of black bean chicken salad and french bread/mozzarella/basil/tomato sandwiches, and cous-cous. Then the encore of homemade cheesecake. And then I died and went to heaven. But I remembered I had to come back to see the movie, so I pulled myself out of food overdose heaven and went to the cinema.

Really, I knew the incarnation of the ABBA songs into Mamma Mia the musical, although, I had no idea what I was in for. Mamma Mia, the movie, was a total crack-up. We took up the middle section of two rows of chairs. Between our occasional singing outbursts and busting into spontaneous dance moves, we had a ball! It kept us in high spirits all the way home. It made me want to die my hair blonde and move to Greece and become a carefree hippie.

So take your girlfriends** (I can't believe that you took her hubby Lara, did he like it?) and your dancing shoes and a feather boa or two, and laugh away.

*Shout out to Stace for getting me hooked on ABBA back in the day- you still are the dancing queen in my eyes.*

**Um, the only thing is that if you are easily offended, don't go see this.

Tell-All Tuesdays

Tierra Del Fuego

I want to live in a peaceful area, away from all cares of housework(thinking this house will be easier to keep clean, less clutter, more simple), and away from living up to others expectations (the ones I imagine other people have). While staying busy doing manual labor, there is something to be said about having dirty hands, and sore muscles from labor intensive work. I would love to read and read and read sitting in a hammock until it is too dark to read.

So do you like where you live or do you have a "dream place" you would love to live? Where is it? And why?

Memories

My friend Ashlee had this on her blog, and I thought it looked fun.

So here's what you do...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.

It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. I would love to hear what you guys remember about me. I want everyone whe reads this blog to write something, so that I can write a memory of you too.
- love Kyla

Thankful Thursday

I am so thankful for my husband. Dan is so awesome and supportive. He watches the girls in the morning and sometimes at night while I go jogging. He does it willingly and happily. While I'm gone he will do the dishes and take the girls for walks. The other day he did the laundry and took the clothes off the line and folded it! That is my least favorite part. I love that he does all of these things willfully.
I am so thanful that he works so hard for us. I am thankful that he will dress the girls. And holds FHE, I would totally forget every week.
Dan, you are the best there is, love you.

Training

I thought about starting an additional blog for my training progress, I was going to stock it full of pics, weight loss, length of my runs, tips for recipes and exercise. But lets be honest, I'm a little too laid back to update on any regular basis, so I am just going to put the info here to keep me motivated and so I have accountability so that I can't go back on my word to keep going.

Feel free to skip these posts.
Tip of the day: If you want to double your weight loss, keep a food journal.

Keepin it real: Breakfast: banana, milk, bowl of cereal

Snack: glass of milk and crackers

Lunch: juice, 5 mini homemade pizzas on buiscuts, hershey's chocolate bar

Dinner: don't worry, this is really where I start packing in the calories with chicken, rice, whole boxes of candy, six candy bars, huge bowl of ice cream with marshmallows and anything else sweet I can get my hands on.

Goal: to cut back on sugar intake.

Weight: About 130lbs I only weigh myself at my moms so about once a month or everyother month

Goal: Size 4 and 120lbs- the weight goals are a secondary goal

My primary goal is to run the half marathon on August 23rd then start training for the bike race next june. I need all the support I can get. And if anyone wants to train with me then come on aboard.

Check out my weekly running log on the sidebar.

10K and turning over a few new leaves

I wish that meant 10,000 dollars for me, but unfortunately for you it means something much less exciting. On the last post I mentioned that Suz and I talked, well we talked about her preparing for the Top of Utah Half Marathon (13 miles) in August. I asked her to keep talking about it in hopes that I would gain the burning desire to want to train too.
For about a week or so I continued to do my pathetic 20 minutes on the elliptical or walk/jog the 2 mile river trail. Then one day I decided to jog three miles, then Suz came up here about a week later and I asked if I could run with her in the morning, she said sure and informed me she was doing five miles. We got up at 6:30AM and an hour later I had ran 5 mi and decided to run a half marathon in August. And Suz, who said you weren't a great saleswoman?

For those of you who know me well, you know that I rise no earlier than 8am and willingly sleep in until 10am on a regular basis. And I have not really been interested in running competitively or running at all for that matter. So I have turned over two new leaves by getting up early three mornings a week and running.
On the 4th of July I ran my first 10K (6 miles) in Lewiston. Suzanne and Sariah (who runs marathons and other length races regularly) came and picked me up. We registered and ran the whole thing, we even sprinted towards the end. Sariah finished first-over 10min before us- and Suz and I finished together at one hour and six minutes (which I am proud of). My goal was to finish and get used to running in a race, with other people watching me (think phoebe and rachel on Friends when they run together in Central Park episode; if you haven't seen it then rent it, you'll laugh your head off, and you'll laugh even harder when you imagine me running like this. It's my natural stride, what can I say?)
I am so proud that I finished. Suz and I were saying that we can see how people catch the bug and have the desire to run more races. Now I know that in the next 10K I can run faster and get a better time and not die.
Here's my acceptance speech for fifth place in the 20-29 year old division: (tounge in cheek) I have Sariah to thank for setting the example, Thank you Suzanne for being an awesome running partner albeit long distance, Thank you Dan for watching the babies, and Thank you babies for preparing my mental toughness for any crazy situation that comes along, and thank you Oprah for teaching me about a positive mental outlook through the Law of Attraction.

Thank you all and see you at the Top of Utah. This year half marathon, next year 75mi Little Red bike race.

Friends, family, Summerfest, who do they think they are?

Every year in June, my hometown throws a little summer celebration, complete with carnival rides, a parade, and fireworks. I haven't been for a few years because we are usually traveling with Dan for work around this time, since we were close I decided to drive down the day before and hang out with my cool sis-in-law Suz. Ashton asks all the time to 'go to mantha's (samantha) house'. We had a lot of fun talking, eating very blue blueberries and letting the kids play. Dan drove down from the airport and met up with us. We invited Suz and Tom to the parade the following night and Tom joked, "don't I need a bishops interview to be able to go to orem?" referring to the somewhat, judgemental feel there is in Orem. I laughed and added that we might all have to get our hair streaked with blonde before we are "approved" to go. (No offense to those of you who live in Utah county, a lot of people are cool, but you know those few people who you can just tell are judgemental and not very friendly-as I've lived a few different places in the country I've noticed this stigma is pretty true)- this will be relevant in a minute.


The next afternoon I was able to go to lunch at Guru's in Provo with my friends, Ashlee, Lara, Emily, Stacey, and Mandy. It was so fun -as it always is with these girls- to talk and laugh and share horror stories about childbirth, hope we didn't freakout ninemonthpregnant Mandy. It really is energizing to connect with close friends and have a few hour break from the kiddies.

Next, Dan, me, ashton, adrienne, and my nephew AJ went to the parade. We were meeting up with Tom and Suz who were putting blankets down for us. Dan went ahead with Adrienne to meet them while I talked with some friends I had run into. When I called Dan to find where they were, the parade had started with the police and fire engines letting their sirens blare as loud as possible. It was too loud to hear dan's directions so as I was about to get off I hear someone screaming into the phone, I was wondering what was going on, I heard dan say, "things are getting crazy around here. I got off the phone and just walked down a little ways; when I found everyone, things seemed a little tense, I just brushed it off and we all happily watched the parade. Afterwards I ran into a few more childhood friends, all of whom were nice, then Ashton and Adrienne rode two rides but it was too busy to do more, then we met up with Kristen and Grayson, to drop off AJ and watch the fireworks. Then to top it all off we went to Artic Circle for icecream-which was yummy btw. While we were there Dan told us what happened at the parade. He found Tom and Suz and sat down on the blanket, on the street, and this lady came up behind him before the parade started and said, can you sit somewhere else, my kids can't see. Note: he was there before them, he was sitting below them because they were on the sidewalk standing up, its not like the only view they had was the back of dan's head, then when the parade did start and we were on the phone, he was holding adrienne his legs, on the ground and looking away from the parade looking for me, when this military guy walks up to Dan and gets right in his face and yells at him to stand up for the flag and that he is going to continue yelling until Dan gets up and salutes the flag! WTFreak? Um, last time I checked, this is America and we have our freedom to choose if we salute the flag or not. This is not Stahlin's reign were we are killed if we don't salute, or Heil Hitler, this is A-M-E-R-I-C-A where freedom rings. Now, to clarify, Dan was not being disrespectful, he just plain wasn't watching the parade, and didn't see the flag. Dan is totally respectful. That was really uncalled for, who do these people think they are trying to control someone else at a parade, sheesh? Seriously, if you can't see, then turn your head about three centimeters to the right, it is pretty easy to look over someones head to look up at the huge floats and firetrucks and be able to see, and if you see someone talking on the phone and holding a baby while the flag is coming by, don't assume anything, because you know assumming makes and a#s out of u and me. What if Dan was paralyzed, or blind, or a Jehova's Witness (they don't salute the flag), or not even American?

That definitely was two strikes for Orem city. So at least the negative experience was sandwiched between three good experiences. Its kind of like eating a BLT where the bread, bacon, and tomato are good, but the lettuce is moldy and slimy. Tear the lettuce off and you still have an okay sandwich. lol.

Sorry Orem Summerfest, next year we might have to skip you, but we'll still come down and hang out with the fun people we know are nice.

Y is for Yeeesssss!

Doesn't it look like she is making a Y?

Y is for two great things: 1) Adrienne can walk now and 2) Ashton says yeess.

Adrienne started walking about a month ago and I love how cute she is wobbling around picking up things and trying to keep up with her big sister. It cracks me up that babies are so little when they start walking, she looks like a little doll (dan says she walks like frankenstein). The other thing that is so cute is Adrienne says about eight words now: thank you (said in the cutest baby singsong voice), mama, dada, ducky(how do you spell that anyway? duckie?), hi, doggy(it truly sounds different enough from the other D sounds that I accept them all as individual words, and she says them in context), and that. I love that she is starting to develop so quick.

Another thing I am excited about is Ashton says yes now instead of ya. It is cute because she elongates the es part and she looks so cute when she says it. I stopped counting Ashtons words about six months ago, because I really feel she is developing rapidly from the time she was two. So I am so grateful that she is jumping from one level to another. (For those of you who don't know, Ash has been in speech therapy for over a year and has graduated out of the program, so we are trying to get her into another preschool that is language-based to help with her Articulation.)

On an unrelated note, I just developed some cute pictures of Adrienne playing catch in our backyard during one of our impromtu smores/hotdog roast. About once a week our firepit becomes the gathering place for our neighbors to socialize. It usually starts with my friend Shelly and her fam coming over, then the next door neighbors, then the neighbors across the street, and three doors down, and the neighbors out exercising also stop by for a treat. A couple of times it has turned into an all out block party.

I love it, there is no preparation involved and very very little clean up, and lots of people. Just the kind of party a slacker like me loves. I'll have to take more pics next time. So if anyone is ever in the neighborhood, just stop on by and we'll light up the fire and throw some shrimp on the barbie..

Cali

HEAVEN, I mean San Diego, California

How much can you love one place? Bermuda, bahama's, come on pretty mama, key largo, montigo, baby why don't we go.........to SanDiego. I have been to many tropical places thanks to a wonderful thing called cruises, but I am still intoxicated with stories and pictures of living on the beach in SanDiego (thank you mom, grandma and grandpa-who was an incredible beach photographer). Therefore, SanDiego ranks as my number one place to live and die.

Due to this infatuation with said place, in late may amid many rainy days and cleaning the pool at the rental, I was daydreaming about being in California; laying on the beach, sunkissing my shoulders, peaceful waves crashing against the rocks, drowning my cares, then washing them out to sea, tan skin, sunbleached hair, smiling faces, sunsets, yummy food, incredible places to visit, peace,...........Oh sorry, I drifted off for a while; so I called my best friend/sister and made my dream a reality.

Nothing could stop me, not even June gloom (as refered to by Californian's who are not accustomed to cloudyness), or taking four kids, or taking a minivan, or a twelve hour drive.

Chaos aside, Kristen and I drove to Riverside and stayed with her inlaws for the first and last night. I think the kids would have been happy staying there the whole time, between the undersea themed guest room, amazingly fun backyard, and the toys, oh the toys, and a very sweet host and hostess, we all had a great time.

But I was determined to make it to the beach, so the first day we just played at the park next to the beach, it was a little cloudy. We went to Balboa park, the kids loved the trolley ride, the water fountains, green house, pools full of lily pads and huge goldfish, and the huge mosaic statue of a lizard that they could climb on and under. The next day we went to Seaport Village, we shopped and Kristen ate fish tacos, I got some cute shell jewelry to make me happy back in Hot-tah. Then we went to park with the old white rollercoaster, where the kids went on rides and then went to heaven (oops, I mean the beach). The following day we went to the LaJolla aquarium and then to LaJolla coves to watch the seals swimming around. Then we played at the beach all day. I didn't want to leave. Ashton is going to be a surfer, she was playing in the strong current the whole time. In contrast, Adrienne, would not let any sand touch her.......at all, that made it a little tricky when I was trying to change her diaper and she was wriggling around and getting sand where the sun don't shine. She was so funny.

AJ and Anson loved to build sandcastles and jump the waves. AJ was a great helper and a champ, on the way home he played with a construction set the WHOLE WAY.

As soon as we got back, I started looking at houses in SanDiego on realtor.com. Seriously, I could be dirt poor living in a very dinky house as long as its withing walking distance to the beach, I would be stupidhappy. I am happy now. Happy now that its summer.

Carnival

Back in May, Suzanne and her kids came up to work at the rental, so we decided to reward ourselves with a trip to the Carnival. My little daredevil (aka Ashton) wanted to ride on everything a bunch of times. Her and the other kids on the clown drop charmed the attendee to let them stay on for a long time. Ashton thought it was the coolest thing. She was a little hesitant on the big blow up slide at first, but once she got going she just went around and around. Samantha wanted to go backwards, which was really cute. Seth took a little time to warm up to the whole carnival idea, (because he's more um, cautious; no, smarter) but once he felt everything out for a while he really had a good time. The obstacle course was exciting, not really much of a race, but I was impressed that ash could climb through it all by herself (walked with her, but didn't help her).

The kids enjoyed the bouncy area with the smaller slide the most. I was trying really hard to get Adrienne to walk while we were waiting. The high school worker boys were very impressed and cheered for her to take her first step. She was basking in the attention. I was like, "Adrienne, its okay to go for the older guys, but fourteen years? That's really reinforcing the expression robbing the cradle." Haha.....Anyway...I think everyone had blast.

Also that weekend, my sweet sweet mom and sister came to watch the kids while I worked. It was miraculously warm that weekend so what better to do than jump on the trampoline? Grandma said not to post pics of her on the trampoline but I did it anyway, because what other grandma is going to really play with the kids and have as much fun as they are having?

Thanks for the fun weekend. Love you all. Wish we all lived next door to each other. A girl can dream can't she?