Our Trip to the Zoo...in January

It is hard to believe that we went to the zoo on a warm sunny day just a couple of weeks ago.  But we did...and it was great!  I had been with the boys once before but this was our first trip with Adam and it was just one of those wonderful days to spend together as a family.   Sure...it was exhausting...and the boys were pretty fussy at the end...but what a treat to take a quick road trip and explore so many different animals. 

Here are some shots from our trip...

They have a really cool playground in the zoo that looks like a giant garden...lots of vines and leaves...and of course a spider web to climb on!



We saw puffins...gators...snakes...black bears...and then found a very friendly bison (statue).



This zoo is different from the zoos we have visited in the past (Birmingham/Atlanta/DC)in that it is in the middle of nowhere. It is less than 2 hours from Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greensboro...but not in the middle of a big city. So the animals really have quite a bit of land to roam and explore.



There was a really cool dessert dome which was pretty warm...



But the gorilla exhibit was my favorite! Two babies! And they were active!



The boys got to make some zoo money...this might have been the highlight for them. :)



And we played a game of human candy land.



This is at the very end of our journey...Ben looks like he's done! (or at least done with my taking pictures!)



The zoo is so large that there are two entrances...you walk the entire length of the zoo once and then gladly catch the tram back to the beginning to get your car. I guess 2 miles or so in length?

When I got home that night I had a coupon in my inbox from Shutterfly for a free photo book. I uploaded the pictures from our day at the zoo and yesterday my "free" book showed up in the mail. (I had to pay $9.40 for shipping...but still a good deal in my opinion.) It turned out great...here are some pics of the finished product. I think the boys thought it was neat to have a real book with them in it! And the quality was great - highly recommend!

Good Thing We Didn't Blink...

...or we would have missed the 2-4 inches dusting of snow ice on Friday morning. 

But I think we made the most of it. 



Next it was mommy's turn...



They attempted to make snow angels...



Then Carter got up and said "Hey, I can't see mine." No buddy...unfortunately you can't.

Conspiring brothers don't you think...a snowball aimed at the camera mom?



And it didn't take long for a couple of our favorite neighbors to join us for some sledding fun.



It was quick...but it was fun! Fingers crossed for more!!! But I won't hold my breath.

Potty Training Pride

I am thrilled to announce that we are diaper free!  Woo hoo!  We potty trained Ben a couple of weekends ago and he has done fantastic.  I must admit...I didn't think he was ready.  But we gave it a go and he has exceeded my expectations...and then some.  We potty trained both of our boys using a 3 day method which worked great for us so I thought I would share some of our methods...feel free to skip this post if you have no interest in our Potty Party details. :)  There are many successful ways to potty train...I am just sharing what worked for us. 






For those of you that are still reading...yes, we have a Potty Party.  And I think that is one of the biggest reason of the 3 day training success.  Who doesn't love a party? And 2 year olds LOVE parties.  And cakes. And balloons.  Enough said.

So...here is what we do.  A week or so before the Potty Party weekend we start talking it up.  Develop expectations.  Explain that on a certain date we will not have any more diapers in the house.  Talk about the upcoming Potty Party where we learn how to go in the potty.  We trained Carter at 2 1/2 (30 months) and Ben at 2 years and 4 months (28 months).

With Ben...we ended up with an unopened box of diapers in the house.  So a couple of days before the Potty Party, we went to Target, returned the unopened box of diapers and purchased our Potty Party supplies?  What are our Potty Party supplies?  See below...



New big boy underpants picked out by the big boy himself...Angry Birds (what else?). Santa also put new big boy underpants in Ben's stocking...so he was excited to use those too. We also bought a bag of Lightning McQueen pull up pants...which we use for bedtime only. Balloons...Juice...Something Salty...and then Cake Mix/Icing/Candles (not pictured).

On the morning of the Potty Party we start inhaling juice and salty things! We typically don't drink a lot of juice in our house so the boys gulp it down whenever it magically appears. Lots of juice in your tummy means lots of tee tee practice. We started on a Friday morning...here is Ben at breakfast:



For the first couple of hours I use a timer and we go to the potty every 10/15/20 minutes with the intervals getting longer as the morning progresses. After a couple of hours I turn it over to Ben and tell him to let me know when he needs to go tee tee. We had one accident that first morning...but we also went tee tee in the potty 10 times! You know how I know? Every time he went tee tee in the potty he got to pick out a balloon to blow up! Here he is with his balloon loot.



We had a couple of other tee tee accidents the next couple of days but with each accident there was less tee tee in his pants and he was able to get most of the tee tee in the potty. By Monday we were accident free and have been since.

There is one other reward that we did that has continued...a sticker poster! We have a Potty Train poster in our downstairs bathroom and a Potty Tree poster in our upstairs bathroom. We keep a few random sticker sheets nearby and every time he goes potty he gets to put a sticker on the poster. He loves it. It's the little things.

There is one other key to our potty training success and I give Carter all the credit for this one! A couple of days before the actual Potty Party, Ben was trying to go tee tee on the potty but was resisting it. At some point in the attempt he started resisting mommy instead of the potty. So I had to stick with it. I tried for a while and then turned it over to Adam. I decided to bring in his sippy cup to help him just calm down and not think about it and Carter decided to bring in Hippo our puppet wash cloth. Adam started to personify Hippo and encourage Ben and that is all it took. Ben had a new best friend and potty coach. Hippo has been there every step of the way since. Thank you Carter for trying to cheer up your brother and magically creating the perfect encouragement tool for Ben's potty training success! What a sweet brother.

Here is Hippo giving Ben a kiss...and you can see the Potty Train poster in the background.



To reward the poo poo in the potty we make a "poo poo cake". I know it sounds kind of gross...but the idea of it really works for us. Ben picked out a strawberry cake mix and a blue vanilla icing with sprinkles. He helped me make the cake. He was excited about it. Now the trick...he only gets to eat it after he goes poo poo in the potty. And for a week he gets a piece of cake whenever he does you know what. We even add a candle and sing. Too much? Maybe. But it works...and it gives them good candle blowing practice too which I think it appropriate at this age.



That pretty much sums up our methods...it works for us...two times now...so I hope it might help some of you that still have little ones to potty train.

And speaking of two times...I don't think I ever blogged about Carter's Potty Party so here are some pictures of his big weekend...

One of his sticker posters...



Picking out a balloon...



Blowing it up is half the fun!



And here he is with his balloon loot...



And here is what Ben was up to during Carter's potty party...



I promise this will be the end of my potty references on the blog!

Christmas Morning

Surprisingly...our boys went right to bed on Christmas Eve and slept until 7:30 the next morning!  Merry Christmas to mom and dad, right?  But once they were up the fun began! 

Here they are at the top of the stairs ready to see if Santa found our new house...



And he found us!



Santa had a REALLY hard time finding Carter a green lightsaber...so he got red instead.  Carter was a little bummed. Santa felt very bad. Mental note to not let the lists be as specific in future years.

They enjoyed opening their stockings...



And Carter eventually warmed up to the red lightsaber...



Ben checking out his finger puppets...



Then Carter got to work on his first real lego set...a small Lightning McQuen car. He loved it!



We all enjoyed playing with the indoor lightsabers...



Then it was time to open all of the gifts from our incredibly generous family!

Ben got a chainsaw and Carter got a logging truck and they immediately started working together. Love it!



Thanks to some really silly Hedbanz games played with our cousins this present was a huge hit...can you see the excitement all over his face?



The rest of our day was pretty low-key...lots of game playing...and baking.  Perfect.
Thankful for a fun-filled Christmas with all of my boys!

Look Out Neighborhood!

Christmas Eve

We did all of our holiday traveling over Thanksgiving which meant we had a nice and relaxing Christmas at home. Here is a quick rundown of our Christmas Eve. To our family...we really missed being with you...so I tried to take lots of pics to make you feel like you were with us instead!

We made reindeer pancakes for breakfast...



Then we made chocolate covered pretzel sticks for Santa...



I had some really good testers...



And decorators...



We opened a couple of presents early...the boys were pumped.



Busy Busy Airport Game (HIGHLY recommend!) and a 100 piece puzzle for Carter - he rocked it!



That afternoon we went to a very family friendly Christmas Eve service. They even handed out bells for the kids to ring during the hymns.

And when we got home from the service we did our family Christmas. Carter got a new bike! Ben got Carter's old bike! (I figure this is the last year we can get away with that...but he was very excited!)



We had just enough daylight left to give them a quick run around the block...



This was a sweet present from Carter to Ben. He basically cut up a piece of wrapping paper into squares so Ben could glue and paste them onto something. Totally his idea. Totally into the Christmas spirit. Love it!



Carter also gave Daddy a new UNC mug and was very proud for Adam to open it. What a sweet heart!



Next up...Christmas morning!!!

Christmas with Gram

We enjoyed a fun Christmas filled visit from Gram just before Christmas.  We headed to the Santa Train as soon as she got into town and it was boys' bedtimes by the time we got home...which meant lots of presents were anxiously ready to be opened the next morning.

Here we are enjoying some of our new gifts...



C got a new leap pad game...B enjoyed all of the tissue paper...I opened some shoes that mom bought for me the last time she was here (and I had totally forgotten...must be getting old!)...Adam obviously took most of the pictures...and Gram was excited about a giftcard to Amazon colored by Carter.

Want to see something else Gram was excited about?



We wrapped up the boys' toy snake. Gram squealed. It was pretty funny.

Mom also got the boys headlights for exploring. And I just happened to get one for Adam too. We are stocking up on camping supplies for future trips. So Adam got to open a present early so all boys could sport their new gear.



That night we enjoyed a nice dinner and I used my new set of napkin rings made from my grandmother's jewelry.



We used candles and even polished the silver. As soon as we sat down to the table, Ben started singing Happy Birthday (because of the candles) so we sang to baby Jesus.



The next night Gram kept the boys so Adam and I could go on a Christmas date.



Gram headed home to be with her 99 year old dad on Christmas Eve. We were sad to see her go but sure did enjoy her visit!

a few more Christmas crafts...

My Christmas craft box overflowed a little bit this year...but I think we put a lot of the supplies to good use. Here is a Christmas tree we made using the boys' hands. I really liked the way this one turned out and was looking forward to framing it. Unfortunately, we made it the day my mom was coming to town and Carter really wanted to wrap it up for Gram as a present. Couldn't say no to his Christmas spirit so we might have to make another one next year.



The boys always giggle uncontrollably when I trace their hands so I always enjoy these projects. I used Ben's smaller hands on the top 2 rows and Carter's bigger hands on the bottom 2 rows. Then the boys helped me glue them down and add the 'ornaments'.

The boys also got to decorate gingerbread houses compliments of Mimi. Carter was very particular and methodical in his candy placement...took his time and planned out each side.



Ben stuck with it for about half the time of Carter and wanted to eat more than decorate. :)



Overall I think both houses turned out great. We decorated the houses the morning we went to see Santa...very festive.

And here is one more craft that was tougher to execute than I had planned...a Carter and Ben snow globe!



I found these plastic snow globes at Michaels and decided to give it a shot. I ordered some small pictures of the boys...cut them out and covered them with clear packing tape on both sides for protection...glued the pictures and some plastic tree garland to the base of the snow globe...then filled with glitter, water, and glycerin. The boys had a blast shaking themselves and watching the glitter sprinkle down. Surprisingly, the tape has protected the pictures just fine. However, the red glitter (Carter's choice) has tinted the water just a bit. And one of our trees came loose. So definitely room for improvement if we try these again!

And here is one final shot of our living room decorated for the holidays...always LOVE the Christmas card display!



I am sure you are tired of Christmas posts....but I just have a few more left...promise!