Potty training

Legree is in the midst of potty training! I found a potty training boot camp on Pinterest and thought why not? He knew exactly what to do he just was being stubborn about going #2 and would go pee pee about half the time. I thought maybe if we got serious about he would to. I decided to give it a try. I found the boot camp last Thursday and decided I'd give it a try next week (now this week). The boot camp requires you to stay home for 5-7 days before going out in public (because you basically go cold turkey with no diapers so you want to be home to teach them to go the potty and clean up all the pee pee_. Well, low and behold on Saturday night Legree decided he wanted to do #2 in the potty. The first time ever! Before we would know when he was doing it but he'd REFUSE to go on the potty. He just randomly asked me to go and sure enoguh he went! Ever since then he's only used the potty for #2. We started the boot camp on Wed. as planned. He had three accidents that morning and finally realized OHH that's what you mean by don't pee pee in my pants. Ever since then (yesterday and today) he's only had three accidents total with probably 10-15 successes! I'm SO proud of him and he's been SO easy. He already seems to understand and mostly remembers to go. We still nedd to work on fine tuning and for him to learn to pull his underware down on his own etc, but he's doing gerat for only day 2! I'm so proud!!

Some cute things before I forget

I do...

For quite some time now Legree has been using "I do" to replace his "yes". For example, do you want to eat lunch? "I do". Do you want to color? "I do". It's so funny and cute! Now that he's in school he's started to say "yes" more because I guess he's finally realized that that is the correct response. I never corrected him because we all thought it was so cute and part of him!

I want to pick APPLES!....

We went to the mountains for a quick day trip this past weekend. We had talked about going to pick apples while we were up there. They also talked about apples at his school this past week. Well, I guess Legree latched onto that idea and all weekend all we heard over and over again was " I want to pick APPPPLLLESS!". Too cute!


I'm scared of....

Lately Legree is "scared" of everything. Really he's not scared of anything (except Ben's uncle John for some unknown reason). But instead of saying he doesn't want something he says he's scared of it. I offered him some bread with pumpkin butter on it the other day and instead of saying no or I don't want it he proclamied he was "scared" of pumpkin butter and started screaming when I got it near him. What a mess!!

Legree has started to potty train some now too! Another plus from going to school! He usually goes potty two or three times a day (never more then that and not all the time)... but it's a start!! He also has gotten to where he does NOT want to leave his grandparents houses. If we go there for a visit he will literally grab onto the door frames screaming if we try to leave.

Okay, there's my quick Legree update... more to come!!

A bum again

I've become a bum again. So, a quick update on what's going on in our lives...

1. I've started a business with two of my closest friends, Megan and Jessica. They are extremely talented. Jess in the jewlery field (among other areas) and Megan with her diaper cakes and canvases... you wouldn't believe the cute and beautiful stuff these girls come up with! I am on the sewing end and have no clue what I'm doing, but maybe i'll catch up :). Our business is Simply Sweet Gifts. We are going to festivals, selling online etc. more details soon! Here we are at our very first festival!

2. We're heading to the Garden City SC to enjoy the beach for a week. We leave on Sat and I'm SUPER excited!! Legree LOVES the beach and so does this mommy! Let's pray this hurricane doesn't mess up our plans.

3. Legree starts preschool on Sept 6th. I don't want to think about it or talk about it, we are attached at the hip and I don't know what I'm going to do without him! Maybe work on my business? That would be a start!

That's all for now! Pictures and updates to come when we get back from the beach!

At the risk of being cheesy...

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat, But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed.....



I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean....

Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking ....Lovin' might be a mistake ....But it's worth making

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter

When you come close to selling out
Reconsider....
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance

I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, Dance.....

Happy 4th of July!

This is how we spent our 4th of July weekend...

Relaxing outside at Grandma and Paw's house... cousin Ava, Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Keri came down to play...

We had picnics outside with yummy summer foods...

We found a new found love of the slip and slide...

We took a trip to the zoo to see all the animals... (best trip ever, we got there right when they opened and I've never seen the animals so active, I guess because it was cooler)

We feed the giraffes at the zoo...

We pretended to take naps with cousin Ava... when really all we did was giggle

We dressed alike to make sure we were the cutest kids at the Peach Festival...

We tried to talk Paw into letting us drive the tractor in the Peach Festival...

We rode in the wagon Paw made us in the Peach Festival... Legree helped Paw drive while everyone else rode in the wagon.. (don't let this picture fool you there were TONS of people, this is when we were in line waiting to get to the parade route)

We played in the park with our most favorite and prettiest little girl...(gree's girlfriend Kaylynn)

Legree's 2nd Birthday Party... part 2... the decorations

Legree's birthday party this year was a John Deere theme. If you don't know us personally, or Legree, then you don't know that he is OBSESSED with John Deere (no other tractor will do). Ben's father restores antique John Deere's and has quite a few, so Legree has grown up aroud him. I have a picture of Legree when he was 2 months old sitting up on an antique tractor. One of his first words and his first multiple word was "John Deere". So, it was only natural to have his birthday party John Deere. I scoured the internet for John Deere decorations and everything was just SO expensive. So, I just decided to get crafty and do it on my own. It was pretty easy to just stick to the green and yellow theme with a couple of tractors thrown in. Legree loved the theme! The whole ride home from the party he kept saying "My John Deere party!" "My John Deere party!" It made this mommy's heart melt! For all the hard work, time and effort to hear his exciment even after we left was PRICELESS!

Here are some pictures and descriptions...

This is a banner I made to hang up at the party. I did one like this last year with a picture for each month. So, I used those same pictures for the first year and then printed off pictures for each month for the second year. I attached the pictures to the ribbon by... get this... sewing them onto the ribbon! Who knew you could sew pictures, but you can! I used my circle cutter to cut out 24 circles and wrote the month on each one. It turned out super cute and everyone loved seeing the pictures!






I purchased the cupcake toppers and wrappers from Chickabug on Etsy. Super easy and cute! I just printed the PDF off that she sent me, cut them out and put them on the cupcakes. I found the cupcake stands on clearance at Walmart for $3 a piece! Can't beat that! I took ribbon and tied it onto the cupcake stands for some extra pizzaz. The Happy Birthday hat was given to Legree on his 1st birthday. Thank goodness it didn't say 1st birthday because it was perfect for this birthday. And I completed the cupcake table with a picture of Legree on his tractor.



This was a big hit at the party! A Balloon wreath. I can't take the credit. I mean I made it, but the idea came from here: http://www.howdoesshe.com/birthday-wreath. I love this blog! They have the cutest crafts and ideas. This one was SO easy and precious!




And here's a picture of the food table. Nothing to fancy. Just the food, the wreath and a couple of pictures of our little man around it.

This is not the best picture of these little gems. But they are cake pops. Ever heard of them? Well you need to go make some... now! Because they are OH SO GOOD! Do you like to eat cake batter? You know like the spoon clean of cake batter? Well, these puppies taste just like cake batter, but they are fully cooked! I got the idea here: http://brodyfrancis.blogspot.com/2011/04/cake-pops.html .

I'm so glad I made them! I had these in cups sitting on each table for people to eat as they wanted. They were soo good! Everyone was begging for the recipe on how to make them. Basically you bake a cake, cool it, crumble it all up in a bowl (like into little pieces), mix it with a can of frosting, roll it into balls, stick it on a lollipop stick and coat it with melted candy and cover with sprinkles. Sugar rush much? Seriously, give them a try! YUMMY!

And last but not least the kids table. Pretty simple but the kids loved the tractors on the table. And each kid had a bag with their name on it. They got crayon rolls monogrammed with their name on it (thanks to my sister in law Keri), a coloring book (I just printed off farm pictures off the internet and tied the papers together to make a personalized coloring book. The cover said "Thanks for coming to my party! Love, Legree) and they had a package of John deere fruit snacks.

There you have it! Pretty cheap but still very cute nd fun for the kids!

Next up, the party, the guests, the birthday boy eating his TWO cupcakes AND the John Deere Choo Choo train!! Yup, you read that right... Legree had a John Deere pulling a little train at his party (courtesy of his Paw Lewis).

I feel so blessed...

to call myself this little guy's mommy...

Birthday details and more pictures to come soon!