Cribs, Potties & Rolling!

The lack of a post last week was the result of just too much going on, but now that our lives has quieted down a bit we're going to be back to normal! There are some new dedication pictures that have been added to last week's post. We'll try and add pictures to both posts as we have time to cull through them all (there were close to 2,000 pictures (the beauty of digital!), so it is taking a while to go through!

First off, last Sunday show Karis' brother Kent and his family flying back to Canada. We ended the week with going to Animal Kingdom on Friday and the beach on Sabbath. Both days the weather was perfect, we really couldn't have asked for better temperatures! We don't go to the beach very often, but thought that it would be a fitting way to finish our visit with the Canadian relatives as they had never been to the Atlantic Ocean before. We really were in for a treat - we saw star fish (ones that were still alive!), and dolphins playing in the water! How fun! The kids had SO MUCH fun playing in the sand - and the sky/sun setting was so beautiful - it was such a reminder of the beauty of God's creation to be sure. Zachary really had a great time with his cousins, after the initial "mine, mine, mine" phase - he started to relax a bit and enjoyed playing and following them around. We're hoping that they loved Florida (at least Florida in the winter) and will be sure to come back to visit again!

Various pictures of Kaleb (yes, we had him completely covered to prevent burns on his fair skin - between the swim shirt, trunks and hat - the rest of him was covered with the SPF50 sunscreen!), Zachary, Emily, Connor & Kaylie enjoying the sun & surf.

Gramzie left on Thursday, so now our house is back to only a house of 4! It is always sad when everyone leaves, but we're looking forward to another visit from Connie and Dennis when they come down to celebrate the boys' birthdays in April.

Monday, February 9th saw the final accomplishment of a major milestone in this house that Amy has been anxiously awaiting - Kaleb has mastered rolling over both ways! He did it in his crib, so of course no-one was there to witness the big event! He now finds it "no big deal!"

Zachary then decided that his brother shouldn't be the only one who came up with a new trick, so he decided to show his parents that he could now crawl out of his crib unassisted. It was bound to happen at some point, so we've enjoyed the long track record that we've had of the peace of knowing that when we put him to bed, we would control when he got out! :) We're fortunate so far in that he does not get out until after he's slept, so at least we aren't having the fight trying to get him to bed.

The BIGGEST news is that we're now potty-training in earnest! We were waiting for everyone to leave (apparently major life changes can set you back in potty-training, so we decided not to attempt it until after the relatives left). Friday was our first day, and he did really well - first day was a charm - no accidents but it was only in the afternoon so we're clear that we're on a long journey and that there will in fact be accidents. We did lots of clapping and celebrating for our big boy! Sabbath, we had a couple of accidents, but only one situation in which he stood in the middle of the room and just peed to his heart's delight - so not bad. We went to church, where Amy was very anxious that he would pee on the pew, but instead, Kaleb took us unawares to claim that prize by having a diaper failure all of Kelli on her lovely Sabbath skirt! Oh well, all you can do is shake your head at that point!

Lastly - Happy Belated Valentines! Take a moment today to do something nice for your loved ones!

Photo 1: "Hoppy Valentine" to you from Zachary

Photo 2: "Toadally Lovable" - (I guess we had a frog Valentine's theme this year!)

Phrase of the Week: "You look nice Daddy" - this was so precious - Karis walked in wearing a collared shirt, and Zachary very seriously told him that he looked nice!