Woo Hoooooooo!!!!!!!

If you can't tell by that oh-so-subtle title, I'm a little excited. D'Laney seems to finally understand potty training!
Last night, Cameron saw that she was prancing around and took her to the potty, and she went! Just like that! This morning, she came and told me she needed to potty, and went again! A little later I noticed she had taken her panties off, went and checked and sure enough, she had gone completely BY HERSELF!!! And then she went again right before I put her down for a nap! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
This potty training stuff has been so stressful for me. D'Laney is really smart, at least I think so, and it made no sense to me that she would be so far behind when it came to pottying. I was told by many people that one day, she would just get it, and it'd be smooth sailing from then on. And that seems to be the case!
I'm a little anxious about going out in public now. Do I put a diaper on her for the next few days when we're away from the house? I'd sure hate to have an accident, say, at the wedding we're going to tonight. I don't think Jenny would appreciate it.
Also, I have a question for all of you moms of girls that are already in panties. Did your girls have, ahem, aiming issues? I did not think that would be a problem with girls, but in all the times that D'Laney has used the big potty, she's hit the bowl once. Is this something that will resolve itself with more practice? Do I need to take the training potty off so that she'll have a bigger target? Is all of this TMI?

4 months old!

Yesterday, Brynna Belle turned 4 months! It's unreal how fast the last 4 months have flown by.
Brynna:
~smiles constantly, especially at her big sister. The second that D'Laney walks into the room, Brynna lights up and kicks her legs.
~has found her feet, but isn't chewing on them yet. She likes to old them and rock back and forth.
~rolls from her back to her tummy, but not tummy to back yet.
~is still nursing really well, every 3 to 4 hours during the day.
~sleeps through the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (that excites me, if you can't tell) She nurses around 9 and sleeps until 7 or so, and usually goes back to sleep for another 2 to 3 hours.
~isn't going to start cereal for another 2 months.
~has started grabbing at toys that are right in front of her.
~talks a lot. We just thought she was going to be our quiet child.
~laughs a lot, but just a chuckle or two at a time.
~likes to sit up. She loves her bumpo, and likes to sit up in someone's lap. I sat her on the floor and let go of her, and she stayed upright for about 3 seconds before she started leaning forward. It won't be long and she'll be sitting up all by herself.
~tolerates tummy time sometimes. When she's in the mood for it, she kicks her legs a lot and tucks them underneath her and then kicks them out. She'll be crawling soon, too.
~is a very, very good baby. She hardly ever fusses, mostly when she's hungry and I don't feed her fast enough.

That's about it, I think. We don't go to the doctor for a few more weeks, so I'm not sure what she weighs, but I think she has slowed down a little bit in her growth.

This picture is from saturday, but it kinda sums Brynna up. She's content just to sit, with a hint of a smile.

Good Ol' Boys Like Me

Don Williams, one of my favorites!

A couple of weeks ago, the girls and I went over to Coahoma to watch my cousin Jordan play softball. I don't miss playing softball like I do basketball or cheering, but it's still fun to watch.

What Was I Thinking

Gene Watson

I hate coming up with titles, so from now on, I'm just going to name my posts whatever song is on Pandora.

My new washer and dryer!!




I love them! They even play a fun little jingle when a load is done.

lots and lots of pictures!

But not on here;) I just spend a couple of hours uploading a bunch of pictures to Facebook. You can see the Easter pictures HERE and some just some everyday sweetness of my girls HERE.
The girls are doing really well. Brynna is growing and changing every day.
She is such a happy baby and smiles constantly. She's not really laughing yet, but every now and then we get one little chuckle out of her.
She's trying to roll from her back to her tummy and gets about 3/4 of the way there. She hasn't tried rolling form tummy to back, but I'm not very good about tummy time. Just today she has started grabbing at the toys dangling from her play mat. She is really "traveling" whether she's on her back or tummy. She manages to get from one side of a big blanket to the other really quickly. It won't be long and she'll be crawling!
She sucks her thumb. It's the cutest thing, she doesn't fist her other fingers, she leaves them sprawled across her nose.
She's sleeping through the night! She has been for over a month now. She'll nurse between 9 and 10 and go to sleep. Every now and then she'll wake up again before midnight, but not very often. Then she'll sleep until at least 5, and the last few days it's been 7 or 8. I guess that means that she's ready to move to her own bedroom, guess I better get it cleaned up! Right now her crib is used as another dresser and Cameron's music stuff is all over the place in there.

D'Laney, on the other hand, has decided to quit sleeping through the night. I'm not sure when it started, but I think it was around the time that we took her paci away. She'll wake up 2 or 3 times during the night, and I'll either have to rock her back down or go lay in her bed with her. And she was still getting up around 7 in the morning. For the last week or so, she's been getting up around 5 or 6, usually as Cameron is getting ready for work, and I'll go lay in bed with her and she'll go back to sleep until 8 or later. There have been a few full nights of sleep in there, but not many.
Two has been a very difficult stage for us. D'Laney really tests her boundaries and pushes any rules we have set for her. She's stubborn, ornery, and smart, and that makes for a trying combination. I know that being consistent now will pay big dividends later, but it's exhausting! You know that ESPN commercial with Larry Fitzgerald walking around the office catching things that are falling? That's what it's like here, I follow her around catching things that she knocks off of tables, throws, spills, breaks, etc. with spankings sprinkled in where needed.
It's really not that bad. She's a very sweet, loving little girl. She never throws a fit, if she's tired and is told no, she'll cry, but she doesn't get angry. She has never once shown anger towards anyone, and we've seen no jealousy towards Brynna at all. She's smart and funny and has personality in spades. I love a girl who is confident and determined, stands up for herself and others. I think that when she is a teenager and a grown woman, these traits in D'Laney will serve her well. They're just really hard on her momma and daddy right now.
That sounded like a lot of complaining about D'Laney, didn't it? I certainly didn't mean for it to be. That kid is the coolest little girl I know.

Anyway, like I said, I put a lot of pics on facebook, and you can follow the links to see them, but here are two of my favorites:

Cameron is deaf, and cups his hand over his good ear when he's trying to listen to someone. She's like her daddy in every way!


She's concentrating so hard! D'Laney has a touch of OCD like her momma, and some things have to be just so. She really wanted to make sure her eggs turned out just how she wanted them.

BTW: I started this post about 4 hours ago. Since then, we've had three attempts at napping and one success, two snacks (not necessary for the kids;) and one baby rolling over for the first time! During one of the aforementioned nap attempts, I left Brynna on her back playing on her mat, and came back to her on her tummy, thumb in mouth, asleep. I missed it! I got D'Laney's first roll on video, and had my camera in my hand practically all morning because Brynna was so close. Oh, well!

Happy birthday to me!

I mentioned we were getting a pretty big tax return, and it just happened to come in the day after my birthday! Yay! We already knew that we were going to be getting a new washer and dryer with it, we've been shopping and debating on them for 2 years now. I didn't know that my husband had his own plans for it as well.


Happy birthday, Amy!! I've been looking at these cameras for years. He got me a great package with a couple of lenses, several extra batteries, cards, cords, and a lovely organized case to keep it all in! I've taken a few pictures with it, but I haven't had a chance to get the software loaded or even read the manual, which I'm told you really need to do with this camera.

I'm really going to hate this

I just worked out for the first time in over a year. But honestly, I haven't really done much working out at all since my freshman year at ASU. And boy, does it show! Not that I look terrible, I mean, I don't look great, but I have had two rather large babies in the last 2 1/2 years. I mean that it showed in how little I was able to do. I was winded and my muscles were burning after stretching! Over the last several years, I've been super motivated to lose weight and get in shape for about 2 days, then I'll find something to get in the way and quit. But not this time. I've said that before, but this time I mean it! (I've said that before, too.) I know what once I get to a weight that I'm comfortable with, it won't take much to maintain it, hopefully meaning I won't have to work out everyday. I'm pretty active chasing and playing with the girls, so I don't think I'll have to be a slave to the gym to stay fairly fit. I don't have to get back to my "playing weight" and I have no desire to be able to run a marathon or anything like that. I just want to be able to get off the floor without groaning and be able to wear whatever clothes I want.

Here's what I'm doing:

I bought these DVDs several years ago and have used them on and off(mostly off). There are several workouts included. I'm doing cardio mon and wed, and weights and abs tues and thurs. I did really good on these workouts for about a month, lost some weight and felt really good, but then I got pregnant with D'Laney and was so sick for the next 9 months, I could barely walk, much less work out.


For our birthdays, Cameron and I got this weight set:

It is so cool. It adjust from 5lbs all the way up to 55lbs, all in one neat little package. We both prefer old fashioned free weights to any new-fangled machinery, and this keeps us from having bar-bells all over the house.


I was able to do most of the weight and abs work this morning. I had to stop a couple of times to tend to D'Laney, and then had to stop about 5 minutes early to feed Brynna. I did all of the arm work, though, and that's one of two areas that I'm really wanting to target. The other area is my stomach. That will take a good long while, though, because it was just over three short months ago that they were being severely abused:


Yeah, they'll need a lot of work.