Hank pottied!!!!

After 2 days, I finally convinced Hank to pee in the potty and he would get m&ms. Tonight before bed he finally did it...TWICE!! He even peed standing up, we didn't have to do the sit down thing. I am so excited for this potential potty training success!! This afternoon we went to the park for Zane's first Birthday party. It was a really great party. The boys had fun, and Cooper was in underwear the entire time. Of course he had 2 accidents, but I brought extra undies and grocery bags.  This post will have lots of random photos, as I just emptied my camera onto the computer today.


Hank found my hat and put it on

 he was getting to much camera attention, so Cooper slammed him into the wall and took the hat... yes he got spanked for that.

 I came downstairs the other day to find Cooper sitting in the office at the desk holding his dog and pretend talking on the phone (he had Zac's ipod held to his ear).

 Cozied up before bed watching tom and jerry

 We got up this morning and the boys wanted to paint after breakfast so we painted...

 Cooper told us a story for about 20 minutes. I took a video but it was too long to load to youtube.

 eating pizza with Amory at the birthday party

the boys wanted to paint their hands and feet, but when I painted them they laughed and Hank said, "it tickle".

Friday

Today has been a crazy busy day. After getting Cooper to school, Hank and I came back home, showered, got ready and headed to the DS office for a potty training luncheon. I got some pretty good tips that we are putting into practice as of 4 hours ago! Cooper has been pooping in the potty for the past few days which is fabulous, but it's hit or miss. So from now on he will be in underwear exclusively (which means more laundry for me!!). After that we went straight to school at 2 to pick up Cooper. As soon as the kids busted out the door, I saw these chef looking hats on them. So I ran back to the car and grabbed my phone so I could get a picture. Cooper was actually wearing his hat and enjoying it. I got a few shots of he and Cain before we headed home.


Cooper took off running and Cain went after to help out.

 Cooper way back there, waiting on me to get him.

 Happy boy and his pop tart before our potty training meeting

 Cooper and Cain

 running toward me...so excited about his hat

 My freshly darker hair

Weekend away

I got pictures today from the boys weekend at Grandad and Gigi's. It sure looked like fun, I wish I could post every picture, but I just picked some of my favorites....


So precious

 Grandad made pancakes....

 Looks like a quiet group of boys now that they are eating....

 Ok, this one is priceless......look at all those boys in their underoos

Sorry Lauren, they have no sense of personal space!!

Mt Leconte

Friday night we dropped the boys off at dad's house for the weekend. After that we went to the Cox's house to pick up ponchos and rain jackets ( we ended up rummaging through the cabinets and snacking, then walked out the door....yep we realised we forgot what we came for and turned around). We met Erin and Michael and rode with them to Sparta. We were spending the night with Laura and Johnny so that we could knock an hour off of our drive. I realised as we sat around the table talking and laughing until almost 10:30 how much I miss staying with my aunt and uncle. We used to be neighbors when I was little and I probably saw them every day. Once you get married and have kids though, you just can't visit as much as you'd like. We had such a fun night! Then the alarm clock went off the next morning at 3 am....not so fun. We all got our backpacks ready, had some donuts and jumped in the cars to drive to the mountains. I rode with mom and Greg and Zac rode with Erin and Michael. So not to break tradition we stopped in Harriman at Hardees for breakfast around 5am. We stopped at Sugar Lands to take a last bathroom break and check the weather, then went to Alum Cave parking. It started sprinkling as we were getting our packs on. Nathan and Kara met us in the parking lot with Bruce. They were going to walk just a little way with us on the flat parts. As soon as Laura, Johnny and Megan saw little Bruce, we knew they were bailing on us. They went with Kara and Nathan to eat at the Pancake pantry and spent the day with them. They brought a friend with them to hike with us..Dema. Dema was with us (we had gotten ahead of the group) at arch rock. We stopped there to wait for the rest to catch up. I unfortunately already had to pee 20 minutes into our hike. It was early in the morning and pouring down rain, so i walked up to the top of arch rock, found a little area over to the left of the trail and started to pee. Just when I thought I had peed in private, 3 men came around the corner, coming down the mountain. They stopped and said oh we are so sorry, what else was I going to do??, I waved at them, said I'm sorry and finished peeing. Hahaha, oh they were nice about it. Zac heard what was going on, and hollered up.."are they pressing charges", we had a good laugh and then Mom and Greg walked up. That was when we realized the others had turned back. Dema said he wanted to hike to the top with us, so we all headed up. It poured down the entire trip. By the time we got close to the lodge, it was really cold and we were hiking in water ankle deep. It was in the 40's at the top of Leconte. We reached the lodge and started taking off our wet clothes and trying to dry what we could over the furnace. We ate our lunch there, we didn't even hike on up to cliff tops. This may have been the only time I have hiked but not gone on up to cliff tops. We were freezing sitting in the lodge, so we ate, put dry socks on, and headed back down the mountain. When we got down the mountain, less than half a mile to the parking lot, we met Laura, Johnny, and Megan walking up to meet us. We were so surprised, we assumed they had driven on back to Sparta. Once we all got changed in the parking lot, we went to eat dinner at Zaxbys. That warm food was wonderful!! We got back to Manchester around 9:30 and we slept like rocks!! I woke up very sore the next morning. Zac went to pick up the boys at dads while i got ready for church.

This is how much it rained....on the way back down the mountain, the water was already pouring over the trail...

 Dmitry at alum cave

 Me and Erin in the parking lot before the hike

 Bruce getting ready to walk a little

 Mom and Greg coming up alum cave

 Arch rock...right before my public urination

 Megan took our picture when she met us at the bottom

 Kara getting Bruce in his backpack

 Erin and Michael at Alum Cave

 DRY CLOTHES never felt so wonderful!!

 Zac stripping down at the Lodge

It was a great trip....this was my 17th trip up to Leconte and I'm ready for my 18th!! Can't wait to carry on the tradition with my kids.