Three

I don't really know what to say other than this: "Is there any age better than three?!" Holy cow! Kelsey is hilarious and awesome and funny and kind and smart and courteous and helpful and obedient and everything else. I love having her around! She really does need to stop growing up though because its making me sad.

 

 

 

 

A quick Kelsey story or two:
The other day it was raining so we had to pick Ethan up from work. I opened the garage door and went to put Madison in her car seat. All of a sudden I hear a panicked MOM!!! I look up and Kelsey is hanging from the garage door as it is going up. She is hanging on for dear life and her legs are curled as she is processing that this wasn't necessarily a great idea.
"Kelsey. Do not let go," I call out as I grab Madison and try to run over before Kesley reaches the curve in the door which will smash her fingers if she does. I run under her and since Kelsey is probably the most obedient person I have ever met, she does exactly what I ask when I ask it. As soon as I get under her, I notice her fingers are about to get pinched as the door is bending and I yell Let go now! Kelsey lets go and comes flying off the door, sending us all to the ground.
Obviously I was mad for so many reasons and obviously I was scared for so many reason, so naturally when I got her on the ground I just started to laugh. I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. In fact I'm laughing writing this because the image was that hilarious. I laughed so hard that I started to cry and then I really couldn't express my true emotions. She thought I was happy, then sad, then mad, then happy again.
I explained it wordy but it happened in a matter of 10 seconds and the image that it left is priceless .Just imagine Kelsey hanging from your garage as its going up, with curled legs clinging to the garage like a wet cat holding onto a branch in a river.  When She looks at you, she has a look of terror/this is fun/what now all mixed into one. It was hilarious!

The other day I mentioned that Kelsey's room was a mess. Without being asked, she started cleaning up. It was so cute to watch her go from room to room putting peoples things away that happened to find their way into her room. 

We were at Sam's Club and Madison was playing with my keys. She dropped them under the cart and I just thought that I'd get them latter. Next thing I know Kelsey is stuck under the cart. She climbed under there to pick up Madison's keys for her because she knew she'd be sad without them. She started to cry because she got stuck, but it was such a cute little sacrifice in her small way.

The other morning Kelsey woke me up to go potty but in her hands she was holding her box of Legos. I asked her why she was holding her Legos and she said that she thought I might want them :) It was hilarious. I'm pretty sure she wasn't fully awake.

Halloween Party 2015

We decided to throw together a Halloween party very last minute. We were pretty burnt out from the Ward Halloween party but we made it happen none the less. I spent the day decorating, but everything else was very lack luster.

There was another ward member throwing a party that same night and so most people couldn't come but we had a fun time any ways. If we would have known we wouldn't have done a party :) Regardless it was a party. Not our best, but still fun!


The Bunns and Browns

Prince Charming rescuing Cam-e-rella

 Madison was in bed and Kelsey wasn't allowed at our party so we gave her all the treats she asked for and 2 movies. We didn't see much of Kelsey.

 The house was fun and went up really quick. Its nice when you already have all the stuff. (I love the day after holiday sales!!) I really wish that more people would have come but there's always next year

Halloween Snacks

The week of Halloween I had all these plans to do a Halloween craft every day to get Kelsey excited for trick or treating. That didn't happen, but instead I did turn lunch time and snack time into really fun "Halloween Treats" as we called them all week. I got some of these ideas on line but some just came to me. Its fun to mix things up every now and then.

 The week started off with a picnic with the girls. I can take no credit for this. Edie did everything. It was so much fun and completely Halloween themed.

 Carrot pumpkins

 Ghost Banana

 Pumpkin orange

 Candy corn

 Ritz Spiders

 Monster mouths

 Grape snake

Ghost popcorn

I know it looks like Kelsey helped with most of these, but she didn't. I'm just that talented at themed food

Madison... Just because

I just have been thinking lately how grateful I am to have my girls in my life and I just wanted to express that her. Madison just recently turned 8 months and is such a joy to the whole family. What a wonderful person. So full of personality and life.

To say Madison is a moms girl is an understatement. She LOVES me. It feels really funny to type that, but if you know her you know what I mean. When she sees me, she literally gasps and tries to claw her way to me. We have tried to get it on film but have failed every time. Madison wants me to hold her All.Day.LONG!!! I can not tell you how many dinners I have made with her screaming at my feet because she wants me to hold her that badly.

The other day during witching hour (3-6) Madison was just screaming. I try to hold her as much as I can, but I also have Kelsey and I had to make dinner. The tension was rising as was the volume of her screaming and I was not handling it well. With dinner half made, I had the distinct prompting to pick up my baby. Everything else can wait. Ethan got home to a half made dinner, a bombshell of a house, but the Spirit was there and everyone was calm. It was a great lesson for me.
I don't know why Madison wants to be held all the time, but she loves it so much.

Madison's love for water has only increased and now she tries to put her face in the water. We watch her like a hawk, but inevitably her face ends up in the water. We grab her all nervous like, but when we look at her face she is just smiling. It is the weirdest and scariest thing.

Madison loves babies. She is always trying to steal Kelsey's babies. It is so cute.

Madison loves to touch and hold things especially grapes, apples, and rocks. When we are outside she has to have her binky in her mouth other wise we find rocks in her mouth. She loves rocks!

She sleeps awesome, eats pretty much anything mushy, and loves to follow everyone around. She spends all day just crawling around, chewing cords, knocking over stuff,  pulling stuff of the fridge and walls, and getting into everything. She is so awesome! I love having Madison around.

Ward Halloween Party

Ethan and I were in charge of the ward Halloween party this year. With the help of an amazing committee, who really did more work than me, we were able to pull this thing off with out a hitch. 

It was awesome and for once in my life I actually had fun at a party that I hosted. You know how it goes.. party anxiety. I think because I personally did so little, I didn't have as much invested, so I was able to have fun in the end. 

Life lesson don't work as hard and you have more fun. 

We spent a lot of time organizing the games and food the day before. Here is the family shopping trip to Sam's Club. 

I love this group of pictures. I am always asking Ethan to take picture with me in them (I'm always behind the camera) and so recently he started going crazy. He think he is hilarious and takes like 14 pictures of the same thing. Even while people are moving out of the picture he keeps snappin'. This perfectly represents what I mean. These pictures crack me up! 

Say cheese

Thats enough Ethan

Ethan!

I spent the morning filling balloons at Walmart. That deserves a blog post in itself but for the sake of my fingers lets just say I got the Walmart love and charm that we all know so well.  I was directed to 4 different people before the right place and ended up tying and stringing the balloons all by myself. Once the two workers filling the balloons with helium, watched me tie and string balloons with my teeth due to a lack of hands, I think they felt bad that I was paying them to watch me fill balloons and they started helping me string them. Whatever,. It got done and in the end I ended up inviting them to the party and talking about the church so it was a good experience after all. When I left we even used first names. We are pretty tight. 

 

We got to the church at 3:30 and with the help of my amazing committee we were ready by 5 for people to come. 

Here's what we did (in case I have to do this again)

~ Hot dogs in the bun in foil so that people just had to grab a hot dog once in line

~ Pitchers of soda on the tables

~ A section for tables a section for games

     Games included

          ~ Pumpkin corn hole

          ~ Pin the Boo on the Ghost

          ~ cup cake walk

          ~ Pumpkin bowling with 2 liter cans

          ~ Face painting

          ~ Go fish

          ~ Guess the candy

          ~ "Hayride" Cardon Jones made a train that you attach to a golf cart. Literally one of the coolest things I have ever seen. 

~Each station had supplies and directions and who to contact for help in a bag waiting for the youth

~ Ethan MCed the event 

The ward provided chips and hot dogs and everyone else brought a side. There weren't very many sides but honestly, I didn't even care. That was up to them and if they didn't provide there were plenty of hot dogs and chips.

For dessert we had candy as the center piece and a cupcake walk for the kids. Again, if people wanted more than that, there was a Sonic down the street :)

 

 

We were so excited because the Randells came to the party. Any time with Jordyn and Kathryn is a good time.

Getting ready to roll some hot dogs. Thanks Subway for teaching me how to roll things really fast. I literally got complimented on my sandwich rolling skills.

All the Cinderellas on the committee!

And then of course there was Trunk or Treat.

We were all cleaned up and home by 8 pm. It was such a fun night and lots of people came. All in all I am really glad that I got to help run it, but I can honestly say I'm glad its over.

Potty Trained

While we were in Utah, Julie was working with Harper to use the potty. One time when Harper needed to go potty, she let Kelsey tag along. While they were in there Julie introduced, "the diaper song" otherwise known as "today I took my diapers off." Its a classic from the 80's and apparently the trigger that Kelsey needed. I guess all the talk about sticky tape and pricky pins that the video sings about really inspired her to give up her diapers.

When we got home from Utah, Kelsey brought me her diapers and said she wanted to use underwear. We haven't looked back.
I didn't really know what to do. There has been many times when Kelsey has asked to wear underwear but never has she asked to stop wearing diapers. See the difference? So, like all the other times I ran with it but wasn't very hopeful. I told Kelsey to gather all her diapers and throw them away. She did without even blinking.

On Thursday October 15th, Kelsey wore underwear all day, but like every other time, she wouldn't actually go.  Once again, I spent the day begging her to go potty, pumping her with fluids, and hoping that eventually she would either go all over the floor or in the potty. She didn't have an accident but she wouldn't go either. That night around 8 pm (yes 14 hours of holding it!!!), Ethan was reading to Kelsey on the potty and she went! I don't know if she got distracted or what but it happened and I'll take it. After that, she wanted to go. I didn't even have to ask her, she just went.
The few days after that I was a little hesitant but after that initial time, she started getting really excited to go. She even was so bold to tell me when she needed to go.
The other took a few more days and a lot of Miralax but eventually that happened too.

It has been roughly 10 days now and she hasn't had a single accident. She has gone at church, at stores, at people's houses, and wakes up every morning dry. Everyone told me that once it clicks it clicks but my goodness were they right!!! She just gets it and loves it. I still bring a change of clothes with me but I'm not really nervous. She LOVES to go potty. She tells me every time she goes.
" Mom, I just love to go potty. It feels so good." "Mom, I love to wear underwear and being a big girl. Its just the best." "Mom, its so fun to use the potty because diapers are gross." What feels like an eternity has finally ended and I think I can finally join the potty trained club.

Whats funny too was that this time around, she didn't need prizes. We gave them to her to reinforce that this was awesome, but she was perfectly fine to go without them. She really was just ready this time. 

As we are still working with her there have been so quirks that we have had to deal with but are willing to do them:
Always telling her that we are proud of her (the first time she asked if we were proud of her and so we say that every time now)
Helping her get totally naked so she can go
Sitting with her while she goes (the record is sitting on the bathroom floor for 28 minutes)
Singing the diaper song or a made up song called the Kelsey song over and over
and occasionally giving her marshmallows after she goes.

Like I said though, all these things are just small prices to pay for the reward of wearing diapers. I literally would do anything to get her out of diapers so I'm totally fine with sitting on the bathroom floor.

We recently had a really funny experience. While we were in Marshall's, she decided that she needed to go and it was going to be a longer trip. After about 15 minutes of just standing there holding Madison and Kelsey's dress I decided to go stand out side the stall (which she thought was SO cool) I thought I had tethered her dress so that it wouldn't get in the way, but I soon learned that I had done a terrible job when I heard Kelsey mutter "Oh no." I went in the stall and found her dress sitting in the toilet. Luckily we were done shopping, so I tried to jimmy rig a blanket around Kelsey so that we could walk out of the store. I wasn't too successful and ultimately Kelsey was sitting in the cart in her underwear. She literally thought it was the coolest experience of her life. Oh to have the confidence of toddlers!! 

Kelsey we are so proud of you and love you! What a big girl you are and what a big accomplishment. I know this is the first of many to come!

These are the things we let her pick out just to make sure she knew how proud of her we were. She didn't need them, but we wanted to make sure we understand how serious we were about this.