Tragedy in our Community

There was a shooting in the church less than  a mile down the street from our church this morning.  The pator was shot and killed.  Please pray for our neighboring church and the family of the pastor who was shot this morning.  Pastor Fred was a mentor to Keith and we appreciate your prayers for his family, the church family, and the community.  You can read more about what happened here. 

Thank you!

Smoochy, Smoochy!

Sweeties Make Something Sweet

Aren't they adorable?   The guys made a strawberry cake for Valentine's Day. They were so proud!

Brian is 5!

 

Brian is such a joy and blessing to our family. He always adds laughter wherever he goes.  Happy 5th birthday, Brian!  We love you so much! 

   

                                                                                                                                                                                                    I made these capes as a take-home gift in place of goodie bags.  The kids painted the emblem on at the party.  (For more cheap batman party ideas, see our post on Learning Continually.)

Joshua, Brian, Lucas, and ????

We just found out that we are expecting our fourth child on September 29!  We are all very excited around here.  The boys have tried to help us come up with some names for the baby.  These are the top three choices: John, Cookie (short for Cookie, Cookie, I Want a Cookie) and King of the Kepleys.  We really have a lot to work with here:)  I've started a poll.  Let us know what you think we should name the baby.

SNOW!!!!

We got about 6 inches of snow and finally got to play and sled in the snow.

Lucas HATED falling down in the snow...he could NOT get back up!

  Joshua sledding :)

  Brian sledding :)

Lucas sledding :)

It's Potty Time!!!

A lot  of people keep asking me how we go about  toilet training.  I  am in no way an expert, but will try to explain what works for us.  We used elimination communication (EC) with our oldest and our youngest.  They were fairly easy to figure out when they would need to go to the restroom.  We started out using EC when they were about three months old they did wear diapers.  We just removed the diapers to hold them over the potty.  We were not strict EC-ers but we did it when it was convenient for us.  Our middle child had retention issues and was not so easily timed, so we did not use EC. 

(Here is a link to an EC site that talks more about it.)

 

By the time of our children stayed dry through naps (around 18 months), they were very familiar with the potty already. I made sure that my schedule was open for an entire week prior to beginning formal potty training.  I  told them that they would not be wearing diapers anymore now that they're big kids and that they should "pee-pee" on the potty and not in their pants.  I did give them either a M&M or  marshmallow each time they went on the potty.  They were cloth training pants to help them feel wet. I also had them only wear the training pants and no pants over them.  Less wash and quicker to catch them and bring them to the potty.   (Here is a tutorial on making your own training pants.)

 

The first day of training I'd try to take them to the bathroom every half an hour.  I would sit them on the potty for just a few minutes.  Because they were used to going on the potty, they would usually go within a minute.  By the end of the week, I would need to take them every hour or so.  We would gradually be able to go for 2 hours in between potty times.  I would use the same key words that I used while doing EC.  When they would urinate, I would say, " pee-pee."   When they would have a BM, I would say,   "poo-poo."  If they were successful, we would celebrate big time!  The older children were involved in this celebration.  It was like a big party every time they went to the bathroom.  Everyone got a marshmallow.

 

The best advice I can give is to be patient and celebrate and have fun.  Wait until you have time to do it.  Make it a whole family affair and enjoy each other.  It won't last forever, believe me, I've been there.

 

 

Resources:

Here is the board book that all of my kids loved.  Just find a book that uses the same kind of "potty" that you will use.

 Click here to try and buy it used.

 

We used this style of potty seat that fits on top of the toilet.  I had bought some other seat with pee guards that folded down.  They were a disaster!  They would always fall of and into the toilet.  This one has a hard pee guard that snaps firmly in place to use with little boys. 

Click on the seat to find one from Target.

Potty chairs-- make sure you use one that is low enough to the ground that it is easy for your child to sit down without help.  Also, make sure it is easy to empty (you will be doing this a lot!)  For boys, make sure the pee-guard actually is tall enough to keep it all in and also won't fall off all of the time. 

Grandma B turns 50!

We got to celebrate Grandma's birthday with a lot of family and friends.  We had a great time.  It was great to see everyone!  Thanks for making the trip.

I made the cakes.  This was my first attempt at making a fondant cake.  I think that they turned out fairly well.  I was wanting a black and white cake, but ruined the black fondant.  I used gold ribbon on the devil's food round cake and pure white fondant on the rectangular white cake with blackberry filling.  It was a lot of fun playing with the fondant, although I like the taste of butter cream icing  much better.

Christmas Pancakes Anyone?

Each boy had a pancake in the shape of his initial and a Christmas tree pancake.  They loved it! Yummy!

Christmas + Cousins + Games = FUN!

8 Years and Counting

Keith and I celebrated 8 years of marriage on December 16th. He and the boys surprised me with 8 gifts and the boys made our bed.  The boys also "decorated" a chair for me to sit in and open the gifts, as well as bringing in a box to use as a table for the gifts.  They were so excited!

 

If You Build It, They Will ...Eat It

 

 

Here is Joshua starting with the icing.  He was the project supervisor.

 

 

 

  Brian was in charge of the candy and where it should go. 

 

 

    

 

 

                               The finished product! 

  Lucas was not happy until it was time to EAT the gingerbread house.