Hello?? Hello??

Hello? Hello? Does anyone out there in blogger world still look at this? I don't blame you if you don't. It has been forever since I posted. Yes, we are all still alive and no we didn't go on any fun vacations. We have just been busy with normal life. There was Easter, Tim turned 30!!!, Tim's parents came home from their mission in South Africa, fun visit from Anna, Drew and Aunt Leslie, Kellie, Tyler and Carissa graduated from BYU, Jace started soccer, Tim and I took a mini-vacation for his birthday...and on and on. This week though, we will be at home a lot. It is potty training week around here, and if you have ever been through it you will know why we won't venture out much. And if you haven't, you can still imagine why. It is messy and there will be lots of laundry going on. Braxton is not excited to be the center of this fun week. He tells me often how much he loves his diapers and that he never wants to wear underwear. On Saturday we did a trial run for part of the day and went through about 5 pairs. I think he thought they were like less absorbent diapers. Sunday was really busy and we weren't home so we didn't do anything. This morning I got up made a potty sticker chart, got out the Twinkies as an immediate reward and broke the news to him that there will be no more diapers in his life. He didn't take it well and ran around naked for about an hour before he would let me put his underwear on. That was at about 9 am and so far (please don't let this jinx me) no accidents today. He went all by himself in the potty once and I cheered and yelled and was so excited for him that I am pretty sure it scared him, but he was happy to put his sticker on his chart and get a Twinkie. Jace came up to me about 10 minutes after that and said "mommy, I went in the potty too, can I have a Twinkie?" Umm, no. It doesn't count if you have been wearing underwear for 3 years. So, wish us luck, and not too many messes.

Here are the boys after doing Easter eggs. They had a lot of fun and colored their little fingers as much as the eggs.

Jace wanted to take some picture the other day. Unfortunately we were the only models available for him. Ashlyn wasn't excited to have 100 pictures taken of her. I have one of my good friends to thank for inspiring me to post again. Did you know that there is a program that formats all your posts and pictures so you can publish them as a book? My friend did it and it turned out so good. This made me excited for two reasons, 1-now my blog really can count as my journal (it seems more official in book form) and since the last time I wrote in my actual journal Braxton was a baby, and the time before that Jace was 6 weeks old, this was really good news. 2- Now my kids will have some kind of scrapbook to look at and our pictures will be organized in some sort of fashion. Also good news for me because I have never made a scrapbook page in my life. Ever. I was always reluctant to make one page because who has a one-paged scrapbook or even a 5 page one, and I was afraid I would never make enough to actually fill a book. So, I plan on posting much more often now. I know you can barely contain your excitement.

Here are our attempts at Easter photos. We waited until after church which was one problem, and the other problem was my kids just didn't want to sit still to have their pictures taken. This was our first one. They ran away as I was about to take it.

Take 2. Jace was watching some kids across the street hide Easter eggs. Much more fun than looking at the camera.

This one I bribed them with treats to sit up and look at the camera. Unfortunately they were looking into the sun...and that is as good was we got. So yeah, if there is anyone out there who wants to come and take photos of my kids on all major holidays, let me know. I know it doesn't get much better than this, but maybe we could try.

Tim is 30!!! I am officially married to an old man. (Just kidding, I am just glad he got there before I did). He had a great birthday (his words, not mine) and we celebrated for about a week. Thank you to everyone who came on his b-day to celebrate with us and a big thank you to Elyse and Andrew who stayed with our kids overnight so we could go on our mini vacation. I can't believe he was 21 when we started dating...it doesn't seem like that long ago, but it was. He is a great husband and father and everything else and we are so lucky to have him. Ashlyn agrees, and she was excited to help him open his presents.

Blowing out 30 candles with a little help...

And you know you are getting old when you choke on the smoke from your own b-day candles!

This Saturday my little Brax turns 3!! (See, he needs to be potty trained) So far he wants to go to Mexico, buy a rocket, and get a turtle on his birthday. We will see if we can convince him to want to do anything that is actually possible. Depending on how our potty training week goes though, I may be ready to give in to all his demands by the end of the week if he will just stay clean... We'll let you know how it goes.