Since we've been home......

We've been very busy since we came home from vacation about a month ago. While we were in California, the kids shared a bedroom and each had their own twin bed to sleep in. We were a little concerned about Gabe .. he had never slept in a real bed by himself before. We were afraid he'd either roll out or get up and down a lot. Well, we designed a make shift guard so he wouldn't roll out and he only got up and down a couple of nights. Once he realized what was expected of him we didn't have any more problems. When we got home we thought now was a good time to make the switch from crib to big boy bed since he had already been sleeping in a big boy bed for two weeks. We went to the store the day after we got home and made the purchase and then I took the kids to the grocery store while Joel stayed home and put the bed together.

I was so excited to get Gabe a bed and when I came home and found this I realized I wasn't quite ready to put my baby in a big boy bed. :( Oh well, what can I do about it now??? I guess it's like ripping a band-aid off ...... it was probably better that it happened before I had time to prepare for it.

Almost there!

Gabe loves his new bed!!! There was pretty much no adjustment needed. We put him in it and he went to sleep. He is pretty proud of himself when he gets up in the morning or after naptime and comes out to find us!

Gabe is also starting to potty train. He is doing a very good job. He is a bit young so I am expecting it to take a little longer, but he goes on the potty often and is getting more comfortable with it. At this point we are just concerned with learning to recognize the need to go and feeling relaxed enough on the potty to allow something to happen. He is doing great! I've set up a little training corner for him in the bathroom downstairs. He has his own little potty, with a book next to it and a jar of M&M's on the sink to encourage him to go! Maybe he'll be trained before he is two!!!! I will post some pictures of this soon. I haven't taken any of him recently.

We also have a new addition to our family since we've been back from vacation. When we got home our dog, Bailey, was very depressed and crabby. She had spent two weeks with Joel's dad and she was missing him and his dog, Micah. Joel has been bugging me for months to get a second dog to keep Bailey company, and he jumped on this opportunity! I told him as long as he was willing to do all the training and poop scooping it was ok with me. So, he started searching Craigslist and this is what he found ....

His name is Beckham and he is a one year old Beagle. He is a sweet boy! He's great with the kids and he is learning his manners very quickly. We still have some work to do, but we couldn't be happier with him. Bailey likes him too!!

This one is Bailey.

Well, our summer is winding down. Isabel won't start school for another month, but we are starting to get ready. She has her first dentist appointment in a couple of weeks! We are taking her to the same pediatric dentist that Mady went to and she has an appointment at the same time as her cousin, Ethan, so they will have each other to lean on for their first visit. They told us that they will probably get to sit in chairs right next to each other. More on that later!!! Well, I guess that's about all for now. Hope you all had a great summer too!

Utah

Well, this is the last of our vacation pictures! After two weeks in California, we headed home. The drive from California to Colorado is about 18 hours, and only a crazy person would try to drive that straight through with two little ones in tow. So, we split our drive into two legs. We drove for about 11 hours the first day and arrived in Brigham City, UT to stay with Druh and Candice for a couple of nights. The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE their Uncle Druh and Auntie Candice. Again, they wanted Druh to read them books, sit next to them, feed them dinner, brush their teeth. We were able to stay for two nights in Utah, so we had one full day to do something fun while we were there. Druh took us to one of the zoos in Salt Lake City. The kids loved it! We had a great time and were sorry to leave Druh and Candice behind when we headed home the next day. Now that we know we can easily make the drive, we'll be dropping in on them more often.