Potty Training Blues

So the last couple of weeks we have been making a relatively relaxed effort in potty training the twins. We decided last week that we needed to be more firm in our efforts and take this seriously. Since the twins have started preschool and it's just easier for everyone involved that they get to this point, we decided to hunker down. And hunker down we have done.

The first couple of days went pretty good. No major accidents to speak of (since we really didn't leave the house much). And of course making a HUGE production out of potty time is an added incentive for them. One day last week Lauren did decide that playing in the garage and riding her quad was more important than going to the bathroom, letting it just flow was the next best option apparently. Grayson did very well that day. I think they talked about it and decided to switch it up the next day. Lauren did fabulous and well Grayson decided to use our carpet as his own personal urination station...twice! Who needs animals when you have kids!?! ughhhh One of the biggest issues we have had is that they don't want to go #2 on the toilet. 30 seconds after a diaper is on them, they let it rip, but not on the potty. Guess they are out of their comfort zone. We decided we had to put our foot down and even if it meant holding it until they couldn't take it anymore, they weren't getting diapers on anymore and the toilet was their only option. Or I guess still peeing themselves to, but whatever. So Saturday was our big test day. We did not put a diaper on them one time and decided to head out for several hours of errands. I did bring a back up pair of everything of course. They did great for about the first 3 hours and we made sure to do many potty trips just to be sure. By the time we got to our final destination, WalMart (of all places), Grayson decided that he wanted to freshen up the ENTIRE ISLE with his fragrant urine. Lauren has just told me she had to go potty and thought I would bring Grayson along. It wasn't two seconds later he was flooding about a 2' x 2' radius of the floor. I went through every emotion in a matter of a second. Shock, anger, disbelief that it was happening and then of course laughter. What else can you do? Heath and I just stood there, mortified of course, while Grayson pee'ed EVVVVVVERYWHERE and we just had to laugh or we would cry. Lauren on the other hand was still begging for a toilet. We bolted for the van (leaving little traces of our episode along the way) where we changed Grayson and then got sissy back into the restroom for her relief. Ughhhh The entire shopping trip wasn't complete though until we had gone back to the toilet another couple times only for false alarms from either one of them. Ughhh The joys of potty training.

The rest of the evening was spent at home listening to Lauren say she had to poo but never would. 38 trips to the potty later it happened....and a lot more. I will never understand how you master the potty training process AND teach a soon to be 3 year old how to wipe themselves all at the same time. I won't elaborate but am sure the visual is there. I believe we have now passed the going #2 in the potty phase and are onto yet another area of this maintenance process. ughhhh Needless to say I am stocking up on flushable wipes. Now we are off to church. I'm scared. I sure hope they scotch guard the benches. What a weekend!

Big Day

Well Tuesday (8/27) was the first day of preschool for the twins and the day Grayson got his cast off. They were very excited to go to school and of course I was a wreck. I thought I was doing really well until I turned to walk away and headed back up the stairs from the basement where the preschool is located. Grayson never cried, although he was a little upset for a short time and of cousre Lauren could care less that we were leaving. They were very excited to wear their "packcats". Here are some pics of that morning.





After school we headed straight to the doctor where Grayson was going to get his cast off. Everyone said that kids usually freak from how loud the saw is to cut through the cast. I was very surprised as neither of the kids, especially Grayson even flinched when it was on. They made them wear headphones because of the sound. Grayson did great. After it was off we had more ex rays and found that all has healed just as it should. It took him a little while to get use to it being off and his arm was a little weak, but he was right back into the swing of things in no time. Later that evening when Heath came home, Lauren ran right up to him and said "buddy's cast is all gone" Grayson then said, "my owie all d" (all d = all done). He was the perfect patient. Now let's just hope we don't have to go through this again any time soon.

This post couldn't wait

So I have mentioned before about my sons obsession with dressing himself. Well it hasn't stopped. He wants to look like his dad so bad. We still fight daily over the long sleeve dress shirts and ties during the summer and most recently he has decided to add his sweater vests to his daily attire. Don't get me wrong, I love the sweater vests - I bought them. But the plan was maybe once a week at church. Not everyday around the house. So after his nap today, he woke up and went straight for the closet. While he already had on this shirt for the day, he felt the need to add the sweater vest, argyle socks (of which he search for over 5 min for this specific pair) and the lovely tiger crocks. I had to get this on camera and share. I think I will be switching the twins closet rods. His is currently the lowest to the ground and hers is higher up where she can't reach. We may be doing a closet over haul this week. Here's is my fashionable boy.

Summer's almost over!

We have a busy week always with lots going on. Last Tuesday evening we went to the twins preschool orientation night. They will be going on Tues and Thurs mornings to a ladies home who has done daycare out of her basement for many years. She is LDS and all or most of her other students are as well. The kids had a great time playing in her backyard and hopefully that same enthusiasm will remain tomorrow morning at 8:30am when we are dropping them off for their first day. I on the other hand will be sitting in the van around the corner, crying my eyes out like a baby! I had NO idea how emotional this whole process was going to be for me. Lauren can't wait to go to "scoo" and as much as I can't wait to have those 3 hours to myself, but I already miss them.

Wednesday night we had our annual twins club picnic which was a lot of fun. Our numbers are growing and it's always nice to meet new people who you atomically have something in common with and lots of stories to share because you have twins! Thursday I took the girls to their schools meet and greet and ice cream social. They get to meet their new teachers and unload their school supplies so they are familiar with everything on the first day of school. Afterwards we met up with Heath and his co-worker Matt and his family for a fabulous Red Robin dinner. The Morby's LOOOOOOOOVE Red Robin. Thank goodness the rest of our weekend was relatively calm. Saturday we did go to Eliza's for Cody and Alex's 4th bday party. The kids played in the park across the street and then did cupcakes and presents back at her home. The kids LOVE Cody Alex (or CogyAlex as Lauren calls them - all one word). We have even heard them name slipped into the twins evening prayers recently. Too cute!

After church Heath wanted to give all the kids fathers blessings before school started this week. He pulled out a chair and Grayson was the first to crawl up for daddy to "bess his head". Once again the tears flowed. Lauren wouldn't shut up throughout all the prayers but when it came to hers, she was a sweet as pie.

Here is a cute pic of daddy and his sweeties Sunday after church.

Here is what I found Grayson doing in the play room Sunday evening with his sisters barbies. Apparently he was looking for something and had to destroy everything in order to find it. ughhhhh The messes never end!

While Heath was mowing the lawn, Grayson decided to take a spin on his truck with his cast. I think he did pretty good, he seemed to be loving it. Although I did notice that his helmet no longer fits his melon. Check out the way it's barely resting on top of his head!


And then there's Lauren with the perfect nice snug fit, just how it should be.

So we got in the car the other day and as usual I went to start the twins movie right away. Lauren was yelping something from the back seat of which I could not make out. She was actually telling me no "moomie (= movie) I want song". Huh?? Well the girls and I love Natasha Bedingfield and her song Pocketfull of Sunshine. We have listened to it so much apparently the twins have picked up on it now and are OBSESSED with it. That's all they want to listen to in the car now, forget the movies. We even had to bring the cd into their bedroom so they could dance to it before bed Saturday night. I love this song just as much as the next person, but after 9 times in one day, it can start to get old to anyone. ughhhh I can't wait for them to start dance next week. I really think they will love it and enjoy showing off their moves - because trust me, they have some!


Punky helping mommy make waffles!!! She loooooves to help!

Here are the ceramic items the girls made after Darrian's bday party last weekend. I thought they turned out soooo cute! Each of them did their first initial and I did a trinket box thingy. I am going to add ribbon to the initials so that they can hang them on their walls. We are for sure going back!

Happy 9th Birthday Darrian

Introducing..........Darrian in the morning!!!
(This just isn't right. She will have words with me one day over this I'm sure.)

So this past Saturday, 8/16/08, we had Darrian's 9th bday party. We had planned for some outdoor activities in the backyard, but the weather had other plans. Of course the day before her party, the temp dropped about 20 degrees and the rain didn't let up for 3 days. Typical. So we had to move the party in the house and everything worked out fine. We played games, had pizza, cake and of course ended the party in proper Morby fashion and had a dance contest for the kids. After the party was over, I took Braxton, Darrian and my niece Braydee (Eliza and Olivia joined us) to a local pottery store where we were able to paint an item and they will glaze and fire if for us. We had a great time there and will be going back for sure. It is so much fun and very addicting. Here are some pics from the party (I forgot to take some at the pottery store - ughhh).

Pizza time!

Can you blow out all the candles!?!?!

I looooove gifts!

Twister anyone?

Let's get our groove on!

Ryan was the man!

So the kids made a circle for each person to dance in....we can all see who was the first one in. Go Lauren Go Lauren!

Art in the Park, Shopping & More

A couple of weeks ago (Sat. 8/9/08 to be exact) we met up with one of Heath's co-workers and his family for breakfast and then headed over to our annual Art in the Park. Eliza and her kids met us at the park and we had a great time walking around the craft tents. There was a lot of vendors to see and plenty to buy. We just walked around and admired all the things we couldn't afford and how creative some people are. We were able to go to the play ground for a while with the kids and also took a train ride around the park. The kids just love the train. It is so cute. Here are some pics from our day there.

Here is a cute pic of Eliza's kids (Cody, Alex and Olivia) along with the twins holding hands around the tree. Too cute!

Precious!

Tire swing time guys!

Grayson has no concept of having a cast on. Doesn't stop him a bit.

What have I gotten myself into here mom!

So the train is made for kids, goes 1 mile and hour and is the cutest thing you've seen. I told the kids to put their hands up and they bought it. How funny!

At first Lauren was a little nervous. She needed so support from daddy and Grayson by holding their hands. Bless her heart.

Later that week Lauren got a hold of her dad's iPod. This is what I found. Had to post this pic. She is a riot!

Kohl's had their character back packs on sale for 1/2 off. Eliza told me about it so we met up to get some for the kids. I had already bought the twins backpacks for school but they loved these little smaller rolling backpacks. Of course Lauren had to have her "lella" (for Cinderella) and Grayson got "Cars". Eliza happened to have her camera in the purse for a photo op. We don't miss a thing!!

I also picked up Lauren a ner "lella" nightgown. Here she is modeling her new nighttime look...headband, slippers and all.

Buckle Fracture Anyone?

So a couple of Saturday's ago Grayson decided to try going down our basement stairs by jumping down each one rather than stepping. As a result he took his first big and I mean big fall. Head over heels, tumbled all the way down until daddy was able to grab him right before the last step. His left write was swollen for a few hours and he was holding it through the next day, but all in all, it didn't seem like it was anything to worry about since he was still going about his normal activities. By Monday the swelling was totally gone, no bruising and he was doing his daily flips and jumps off of the couch. Here he is in action Sunday night w/sissy doing his dance routine. Does he look like he's in pain here!

As the week progressed, we noticed that when we would grab his left wrist to help him out of the tub, or out of the van, etc he would freak out. It was obvious that there was still some pain in that area and it was only aggravated when touched a certain way. We monitored it through out trip and he seemed to be fine. Although I did take him in on Monday morning after we returned from Utah just to make sure there wasn't something more going on since children's bones are so soft and can take a bit more than our adult bones can.

Sure enough an ex ray showed a buckle fracture on the inside of his left wrist. It's not actually broke, but just looked like he jammed it really hard. The ex rays showed it looking like an accordion that is trying to stretch back out. Of course they would need to cast it, and didn't have that procedure available at our local office. So they put a temporary cast on until we could get the actual cast the next day.

Here he is getting ready to eat with his one hand. Poor little guy.

Showing us his arm before the new cast gets put on.

He was sooooo good throughout the entire process.

Hey everybody here is my stupid new cast I have to wear for 3 weeks.

On our way home we had to run by WalMart. He wanted to ride in the apple with worm. I thought he deserved a ride.

So while we were at the hospital, Lauren was playing with a friend at her house. She had this pink guitar that Grayson just fell in love with and wouldn't put down for a second. We took it with us for the ride in the van and bless his little heart, this is what he did the entire way there and back with his 4 little exposed fingers.

Lauren taking her turn on the guitar.

Our first bath with the cast on. Daddy put a plastic bag on to keep the water out. Grayson was very proud of daddys handy work. He even holds it up when he's in the bath so he doesn't get the bag wet. Too cute!

Trip to Utah

So it's been almost a week since we got home and I am just getting around to posting about our trip. We have had a very busy week. Our trip was nice and it was great to see family and friends. As mentioned in my birthday post, we were able to go shopping quite a bit, which made me very happy :) and I got some really cute things at my two favorite Utah stores. Later that evening we went to the Scotts home where they kindly watched our kids so we could do some more shopping (in peace) and enjoy a nice dinner for my bday. We did however get stuck in ridiculous construction traffic coming back to our hotel room that night and didn't go over a 5mpg for at least 30 min. Needless to say that made for an even longer day. Glad we didn't have to get up early the next morning. Here are some pics.

Happy Bday to me!

A family that drinks slurpees together, stays together!

Water time at the Scotts home!

It's been a long day!

So the next day was Fri. Aug. 1st and it was wedding day! We headed out to the beautiful Bountiful temple where we met up with grammie and grampie Morby and was able to watch as Heath's cousin was sealed to his new wife. It was very nice. Grayson however had other plans, which were find by me. He slept in the waiting area with grammie and sisters.

This is a cute pic of Darrian and Lauren at the temple.

Daddy and his girls at the reception.

The kids LOVE to dance!

So when it is always time to leave our hotels, Grayson HAS to do what daddy does and chip in to help. This trip was no exception. He presses ALL the elevator keys and is determined to take his own suitcase. What a big boy!

Here is Lauren reading to sister on the way home! It was a long day!

When we got home, Heath had developed a head cold and didn't feel good. He spent all day Sunday in bed and at one point sissy decided to join him for a nap. These are my new favorite pictures for the moment. It doesn't get much cuter than this!