Happy Mother's Day to all you mama's out there!!! I feel pretty blessed to be called Mom by these two cute little kiddos!!! We had a great day around the house just hanging out as a family! Couldn't have asked for anything more!
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
A Quick Getaway!
Thanks to Deal Garden we purchased an amazing package at our favorite hotel in Des Moines, Ramada Inn. This hotel has an indoor waterpark that we tried out for the 1st time last summer. They have a little kid area with 4 slides our big kids can do on their own with a fun pirate ship, 2 big slides they can enjoy with an adult a normal pool and a hot tub.
Our deal included a poolside room, pizza and pop for dinner and breakfast for 4 up to $10 each. All of this is for the price we paid for just the room last summer! If this deal goes out again we will be jumping on it!!! The best part was we went with the Hofferts!
We went 2 weeks ago after work on a Monday. We headed straight to the hotel, enjoyed the pool, cleaned up, had our dinner then had popcorn and M&M's (AJ and Madi's fav) and cuddled up to watch Fox and the Hound. AJ and Madi were so cute!!! They cuddled the whole movie. By that point my camera died but it was the cutest thing ever!!!! Finally, after all 4 kids were sleeping the parents snuck out and we actually got to hang out together without kids!!! In the morning we had breakfast, went swimming again then checked out picked up some lunch, had a picnic at the zoo then headed in to see the animals! It was a perfect trip!!!
Here are some pictures of our trip!
Our deal included a poolside room, pizza and pop for dinner and breakfast for 4 up to $10 each. All of this is for the price we paid for just the room last summer! If this deal goes out again we will be jumping on it!!! The best part was we went with the Hofferts!
We went 2 weeks ago after work on a Monday. We headed straight to the hotel, enjoyed the pool, cleaned up, had our dinner then had popcorn and M&M's (AJ and Madi's fav) and cuddled up to watch Fox and the Hound. AJ and Madi were so cute!!! They cuddled the whole movie. By that point my camera died but it was the cutest thing ever!!!! Finally, after all 4 kids were sleeping the parents snuck out and we actually got to hang out together without kids!!! In the morning we had breakfast, went swimming again then checked out picked up some lunch, had a picnic at the zoo then headed in to see the animals! It was a perfect trip!!!
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| Excited to go to the WATERPARK!!! |
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| Ahnie's mode of transportation |
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| TT loved it!!!! |
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| Here come the alligators |
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| Brett and AJ going down the big slide |
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| Can you find them? |
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| All 4 kids getting cleaned up |
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| Popcorn |
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| Madi reading to AJ...so sweet! |
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| movie time! |
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| Zoo Time!!! |
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| Lets go! |
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| Nemo! |
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| the pirate ship |
Thursday, May 3, 2012
My Goal Setting Little Man!!!
I love continuing to learn more and more about my children's personalities everyday! Thanks to a little insperation from pinterest and my creativity I have come to the conclusion that AJ is a boy who loves to work towards a goal!
If you have followed my blog in the past 4 months you would know that we have been working on potty training. I did a 3 day potty training over Christmas break and I would say it went pretty good and for the most part he was potty train when it had to go with going pee. Pooping was a whole different story. We could not find anything that was working and I think he even started to get scared to go on the potty. I was beyond frusterated and it seemed like nothing I said or did worked...
My friend showed me this race car incentive chart thing on pinterest where when they did something they weren't suppsed to they had to take a pit stop and then could enter the race later. I thought about this for a long time, trying to determine how I could make something like it for AJ. While, his love for hockey started and this is all we talked about, played, watched etc. He even played hockey with peas and carrots. I decided to make my own incentive chart based around hockey. It had a place with velco on the ice and one in the penalty box. Then it had a score board with 10 pucks that he could color in every time he "scored a goal" (go poopy on the potty) And yes we do refer to it as scoring a goal and making shots on goal. :) What ever works right?! When ever he has an accident then he has to move the hockey player to the penalty box. When you are in the penalty box you can't play hockey so this means anything hockey goes up... Wow did that work! And when he colored in all 10 pucks he got a brand new hockey set!! He was so excited about the hockey set! When ever anyone came over we would have to get out the box and show them! I will say 10 goals was a lot and a big goal to reach and everytime we colored on in we did have a little melt down because we had not reached our goal yet... BUT then we DID!!! Wow that was a GREAT day!!! AND we were done having accidents almost completely! We took our hockey sticks everywhere with us! And he knew if he had an accident they would go away... So for 2 weeks we were almost completely accident free! It was amazing!!!
Then we went to Des Moines over night and the bathroom was always too far away and that really messed us up...shoot! So we are back to the chart. I really wanted to make sure I was not buying him something every time and making sure I wasn't bribing him but really talking about setting a goal and how we are going to make good choices to reach that goal. After being a teacher I have seen far too often children that won't do anything unless they get something in return. So I want to be intentional about how we afirm our children and give rewards. I dont' want it to be for everything...
So, AJ and I talked yesterday about how we really need to work on going potty in the potty everyday! And how we can't keep having accidents. Then we talked about how that is our goal so we are going to start using our hockey chart again. I asked him what he thought would be a fun thing to do when we reached our 10 hockey pucks. He has loved watching soccer games and seeing the girls practice when we drive on University. So I asked him if he wanted to go to a real soccer field and play a family soccer game when he reached his goal. He got very excited and with in minutes pooped on the potty! Then again in the morning!
AJ has always been a determined little boy! I remember saying that when he was learning how to stand and now again with potty training. It is a great strength to have and I love that I have figured that out about his personality. Setting goals is a great skill to learn and I am so excited that we are having these converstations already at 2 1/2! I can't wait to see how these goals change through the years!!!
If you have followed my blog in the past 4 months you would know that we have been working on potty training. I did a 3 day potty training over Christmas break and I would say it went pretty good and for the most part he was potty train when it had to go with going pee. Pooping was a whole different story. We could not find anything that was working and I think he even started to get scared to go on the potty. I was beyond frusterated and it seemed like nothing I said or did worked...
My friend showed me this race car incentive chart thing on pinterest where when they did something they weren't suppsed to they had to take a pit stop and then could enter the race later. I thought about this for a long time, trying to determine how I could make something like it for AJ. While, his love for hockey started and this is all we talked about, played, watched etc. He even played hockey with peas and carrots. I decided to make my own incentive chart based around hockey. It had a place with velco on the ice and one in the penalty box. Then it had a score board with 10 pucks that he could color in every time he "scored a goal" (go poopy on the potty) And yes we do refer to it as scoring a goal and making shots on goal. :) What ever works right?! When ever he has an accident then he has to move the hockey player to the penalty box. When you are in the penalty box you can't play hockey so this means anything hockey goes up... Wow did that work! And when he colored in all 10 pucks he got a brand new hockey set!! He was so excited about the hockey set! When ever anyone came over we would have to get out the box and show them! I will say 10 goals was a lot and a big goal to reach and everytime we colored on in we did have a little melt down because we had not reached our goal yet... BUT then we DID!!! Wow that was a GREAT day!!! AND we were done having accidents almost completely! We took our hockey sticks everywhere with us! And he knew if he had an accident they would go away... So for 2 weeks we were almost completely accident free! It was amazing!!! Then we went to Des Moines over night and the bathroom was always too far away and that really messed us up...shoot! So we are back to the chart. I really wanted to make sure I was not buying him something every time and making sure I wasn't bribing him but really talking about setting a goal and how we are going to make good choices to reach that goal. After being a teacher I have seen far too often children that won't do anything unless they get something in return. So I want to be intentional about how we afirm our children and give rewards. I dont' want it to be for everything...
So, AJ and I talked yesterday about how we really need to work on going potty in the potty everyday! And how we can't keep having accidents. Then we talked about how that is our goal so we are going to start using our hockey chart again. I asked him what he thought would be a fun thing to do when we reached our 10 hockey pucks. He has loved watching soccer games and seeing the girls practice when we drive on University. So I asked him if he wanted to go to a real soccer field and play a family soccer game when he reached his goal. He got very excited and with in minutes pooped on the potty! Then again in the morning! 
AJ has always been a determined little boy! I remember saying that when he was learning how to stand and now again with potty training. It is a great strength to have and I love that I have figured that out about his personality. Setting goals is a great skill to learn and I am so excited that we are having these converstations already at 2 1/2! I can't wait to see how these goals change through the years!!!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Time Out
AJ has been pushing the boundries a little lately and when we correct him he gets very upset. So needless to say we have been 'perfecting' (yeah right...) our time outs. This happened the other day and I don't want to forget it...
AJ asked me if the dog needed to go potty. We were getting ready to go somewhere and I was in a hurry so I said no. When I turned around again I saw the back door wide open and Jacoby running around out back and my van door open. (AJ loves to climb in the van and hide in the back...). I went out and got the dog in and got AJ out of the van. I told him he needed a time out because he is not supposed to be in the van or outside with out an adult. So I brought him in and put him in a timeout. While in his time out I had to put him back on it a few times and next thing I knew he was walking around with his stool on his bottom saying "Mommy, I still on my stool." I was so mad but could not stop laughing... I hate when that happens!! What a stinker...
When this happens I quickly try to think...Did this ever happen to my parents?!? I always remember them having discipline down...Maybe it was because I was #4 or else I just didn't notice...
AJ asked me if the dog needed to go potty. We were getting ready to go somewhere and I was in a hurry so I said no. When I turned around again I saw the back door wide open and Jacoby running around out back and my van door open. (AJ loves to climb in the van and hide in the back...). I went out and got the dog in and got AJ out of the van. I told him he needed a time out because he is not supposed to be in the van or outside with out an adult. So I brought him in and put him in a timeout. While in his time out I had to put him back on it a few times and next thing I knew he was walking around with his stool on his bottom saying "Mommy, I still on my stool." I was so mad but could not stop laughing... I hate when that happens!! What a stinker...
When this happens I quickly try to think...Did this ever happen to my parents?!? I always remember them having discipline down...Maybe it was because I was #4 or else I just didn't notice...
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Hockey in Heaven?!
Today AJ and I were talking and he asked if it was still Easter time. This lead into a funny conversation...it went like this:
Me: Well, we just celebrated it on Sunday.
What did Jesus do for us on Easter?
AJ: He played Soccer and 'esball' (baseball) and Hockey!
Yeah, him plays hockey 'ight' (right) now, up in the sky!
Brett and AJ like to check each other into the "boards" and have hockey fights!
Me: Do you think Jesus checks guys into the boards or has hockey fights?
AJ: Umm no!
:)
Me: Well, we just celebrated it on Sunday.
What did Jesus do for us on Easter?
AJ: He played Soccer and 'esball' (baseball) and Hockey!
Yeah, him plays hockey 'ight' (right) now, up in the sky!
Brett and AJ like to check each other into the "boards" and have hockey fights!
Me: Do you think Jesus checks guys into the boards or has hockey fights?
AJ: Umm no!
:)
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