Little Man Jules is 3 Years Old

Today was a great day.  For the past few weeks I have been talking to Julian about his birthday and telling him that when he turns three he will get to sleep in a big boy bed and wear big boy undies.  This morning he helped me take the crib out of his room and set up the toddler bed.  Then we got out the Lightning McQueen undies and the little potty chair I had bought for him and got right down to business with potty training.  After wearing undies for only about 1/2 hour he had an accident.  We talked about how he needs to sit on his little potty if he needs to go pee.  He was great the rest of the day.  He only had one more accident, later in the evening, but other than that he loved running up to use his little potty every time he had to pee.  I loved to see how proud of himself he was.  He got so excited about wearing the undies and using the potty.

We had Becky Platt and the boys over for some pizza and cupcakes.  It was super cute to see how excited Julian was over all the attention and having friends come over just for his birthday.

I was a little worried about how bedtime would go tonight because it was the first night in a toddler bed.  To my amazement he went right to bed.  He didn't get up out of his toddler bed even one time!  I am so proud of my grown up boy...love you little man Jules:)

Our New House

I spent the last 5 days in Oregon buying a house.  I am still a little fuzzy headed from jet lag but I'm glad to be home again.  Hyrum's sister Katrina spoiled me rotten while I was in Oregon.  We ate out almost every meal, we got pedicures, she took me furniture and car shopping.  It was a great break from the kids, I'm so glad Hyrum was able to stay at home with them while I was away.

4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, big bonus room, all wood floors on the main level.  The BEST part?  The boys school is only 2 blocks away and Katrina lives only 5 blocks away:)

Happy Valentines Day

I hope you all had a love filled day.  I was once again spoiled by my husband with fabulous food and beautiful flowers.  I love you Hyrum, thank you for everything.

Every morning Hyrum gets up at 5:30 to get ready for work.  He wakes me and the boys up around 6:30 so I can get them off to the bus.  I usually pour myself a bowl of  mini wheats with some skim milk for breakfast.  This morning, as I came into the kitchen, I saw that Hyrum had left this on the counter for me.  Fresh blueberries, homemade granola and yogurt.  What a wonderful way to start the day.  (H+E stands for Hano and Elle...in case you were wondering)

I am pretty sure the boys get more candy on Valentines than they do for Halloween!  They were pretty excited after school to get home and sort through all their treats.  They were even kind enough to share a few with Julian:)

What better way to end the day than with fresh tulips and a slice of chocolate cheesecake with raspberry sauce.  Sorry ladies...Hyrum is already taken:)

February...So Far

Fasching

Once again our Stake Primary put on a Fasching party for all the kids in our Stake.  Fasching is a German holiday, sort of like Mardi Gras, where you dress in costume and play games (and drink a lot of alcohol).  We had a lot of fun with the kids (minus the alcohol, of course.)  This was my third and final Fasching party that I helped to plan.  Just one more "last time" event before we leave Germany...boo:(

We split the children into two groups.  I had the little kids upstairs and Hyrum had the older kids downstairs.  Here the children are being wrapped up as mummies for one of the games.

Mommy looking very silly and Julian pulling his best "cheeeeeese" smile.

The older kids were given a bag of icing and cereal and pretzel sticks.  Out of these items they had to construct a scene from a scripture story.  This is Townsend's "Tower of Babel"

Some kids got really creative!  This is a temple that one of the other kids constructed.

Pinewood Derby

The boys had a lot of fun with the pinewood derby again this year.  Last year Townsend's car won 3rd place overall and this year Emerson's car won 2nd place overall.  I'm so glad Emerson got a chance to win this year, it would have been kind of hard on him to see Townsend win again.  They helped pick out the design and helped sand the wood a bit but most of the credit goes to Hyrum...what a great Dad.

The three boys watching the races.  Julian loved watching the cars as they zoomed by.  I missed some of the derby and it turns out I missed a pretty exciting race between the boys' cars.  Emerson had won every race against all the other wolf scouts but then Townsend had also won against all the other cars.  So they had to run a tie breaker to see which of the cars was fastest.  The boys' cars tied two times and then on the third race Emerson's car finally won.

Townsend with his car.  He picked out that Canadian flag idea himself...kind of interesting.

Emerson with his car.  He went with just plain racing stripes.  I was so proud of both my boys!

FREEEEEEZING

The last thing that has been happening this February is that it hasn't gotten above freezing temperatures for about 2 weeks.  All of Europe has been exceptionally cold this year so far.  Not much snow but very, very cold.  We took the boys to Eschenbach to run around on the frozen lake a bit.  The ice was so thick, I really had no concerns about them falling in.

Julian loved riding around on his little "bike" out on the lake.  Once again, you get the super "cheeeeese" face in this shot.

The sun was already going down by the time we got to the lake so we didn't last long in those freezing temperatures.  The boys still had lots of fun running and sliding on the ice.