3rd TIMES A CHARM!

Elias is finally potty trained - woo hoo!! 3rd time is definitely a charm for this kiddo. Our 3rd round of trying to potty train him and he finally did it. Our 3rd day he was finally able to pee when he put him on the potty and after that first time he never had an accident. The 3rd day of pooping his pants and finally getting it in the potty and he hasn't had an accident since. He is doing awesome. 3 trips to the store for prizes but it was all worth it! That day he finally figured it out Aunt Randi, Uncle Mike and Aunt Richelle happen to stop by for a visit and did an extra excited potty dance for him and really liked that. Yay for not having 3 boys in diapers anymore!! Woo Hoo!! (We have not attempted to try the night time thing yet and I honestly don't even care at this point so I am considering him done!)

Elias funny potty training sayings:
* While going to the bathroom he will put one hand over his ear to listen for it and then he will shout with a big smile on his face, "it's working!"
* After going #2 for the first time he says, "it's big! it's so beautiful!" and then as its being flushed away he says, "bye bye, see you later."
* After getting some candy for a successful trip to the potty he says in the cutest way ever, "mmmm, its wa-wishes!" (delicious)

I FREAKIN' DID IT!!

I ran my 2nd Half Marathon this year and did a personal best! (If you run 2 half marathons in the same year does that count as a full marathon?!) The day started off with my alarm going off at 5:30am and finding this noteand then heading out to meet a group of great runner girls at Denise's house at 5:45am to carpool together to the race. Stephanie, Amber, Jenny, Denise, Me, Jenesey and RachelStephanie, Denise and I had this great game plan of running the first 7 miles together and then splitting up after that and haulin' butt to the finish. Well, it was a great plan for the first 2 miles but then after that we all turned on our ipods and were in our own zone.It was nice to have 13 miles to myself and my thoughts. I became grateful for so many dumb things. I was grateful for the fact that everyone running by me was wearing headphones so no one could hear how loud I was breathing, I was grateful for the rain that fell on us until it made the sweat run into my eyes, I was grateful for the port-a-potty at mile 8 so I could stop and pee for a second, I was grateful for Denise running back and handing me a magical jelly belly, I was grateful for the people handing out waters, powerade and vitamin waters at the water station and I was especially grateful for the band Muse and their song Uprising to get me through the last mile when I wanted to stop and walk. I have to say I really enjoyed running this race. The paved roads and sidewalks were a welcomed surprise from the tractor tracks of Queen Creek, my fancy watch the Pro Spirit 999 was fantastic (aka: the Target Pro Spirit $9.99 - not the really cool Garmin watches that all my friends have) at helping me keep on pace and just the fact that I met all the goals I made for myself; I wanted to run the whole thing, done, and I wanted to keep at a 10 minute pace and I maintained a 9:29 pace, woo hoo! I was able to shave 23 minutes and 46 seconds off of my last race, finishing up at 2 hours 4 minutes and 11 seconds. I ended up being faster than I thought so between that and the traffic to get into the stadium, Jared didn't even make it to see me finish. I didn't get mad though because I knew he tried and already had a busy morning getting up the 4 kiddos and getting them ready to take them to my parents house to be babysit and all my friends made up for him not being there by waiting for me at the finish line and cheering me on.Denise was so nice to be a good friend and grab me a bottle of water right when it was over and try to help me even though I was about to truly puke my guts up. If I could have found a trash can I would have. It was a great race and I look forward to running again and beating my time again. Jared surprised me that night by getting his mom to come over and babysit while he took me out to a victory celebration dinner!

TODAY IS JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS!

NOSTRIL OR NOZZLE?

Emma: "Dad, I can only breathe out of one of my nozzles. The other one is all stuffy"
Parents: (laughing so hard but trying to hide it) "Em, you mean nostril not nozzle!"
Emma: "Oh right, nostril."

Their new favorite thing of the week. Climb up on the train table and stare pathetically out the window. Dang I love these boys! (PS - yes, after I noticed how nasty my windows were I cleaned them)

TRICK-OR-TREAT 2009!

I will let the pictures do most of the talking this year! 4 kiddos trick-or-treating - it was awesome!
This is what Tyson and Tyler were originally going to be (minus the hangers poking out of their heads)...But then we decided to go trick-or-treating with the Parrys so we had to change the boys costumes to match their girlfriends, so they became little Spanish Dancers (Chiara, Tyson, Tyler and Payton)Eli started out as Buzz Lightyear but ended up being Eli the Pirate but before trick-or-treating was over he finished off the night being Eli the kid with Pirate pants on and a t-shirtMy little girl is not so little anymore. Every year since she was 2 she has picked out her costumes all revolving around Disney Princesses. This year, well, she went in the complete opposite direction and wanted to be a vampire!Her and Maddy had a great time being vampires together and sucking blood together and giggling and running from house to house togetherAfter the first house, Tyler was completely satisfied and just wanted to eat his lootThe 8 of them gettin' the goods (I do have to say that poor little Tyson was usually the last one to the door and he never waited around long enough to get candy, silly kid)Tyler: Don't mind if I do, thank you!Eli did great this year. He could actually say, "trick or treat" perfectly and he would use "thank you" on occasion and he would also help himself to the candy he was being offered and sometimes even help himself inside their home. When we were done he even said, "more trick-or-treat."After walking around to a few houses the twins were quite content eating suckers and being pushed around, they are no dummies!

SCHNEPF FARMS DANCE RECITAL!

Emma had another dance performance on Saturday at Schnepf Farms. It was fun to see her new routines and watch how much she has improved. In her dance attack dance she came home one night and was all excited because, "Miss Danielle moved me to the front because I have good faces and big hips!" (which translates to: she makes the sassy facial expressions and smiles and for once; in dance, big hips is a good thing and not a child bearing "compliment").

This first picture cracks us up, check out her sassy face!Emma rockin' itEmma and her sassy sister LibertyHer competition "Working at the Car Wash" dance (notice the crown clip in her hair, that's one of her favorite parts about making the competition team - I could have saved a couple thousand dollars and just bought her a dumb crown clip - ha ha!)This was the first time the boys came out to watch Emma dance. They enjoyed the beats from the songs but they mostly just wanted to run around and play or sleep in the stroller during nap time. Emma was very lucky to have her Grandma Jensen and Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers come out and support her and she was even honored by her 2nd grade teacher coming out and watching her as well. What an amazing teacher Emma has!!After her dancing was all over with, we hung out at Schnepf farms for a bit but didn't last long, Jared was grumpy, the twins were tired, Jared was grumpy, Eli was kicking dirt everywhere, Jared was grumpy, Emma wanted to hang out with her friends and Jared was grumpy so we left but we did grab a pumpkin to carve and the twins created their own "pumpkin throw game" by picking up all the little ones and well, throwing them (sorry to anyone who may be purchasing one my child has thrown but they thoroughly enjoyed themselves!)And finally, the best group shot we could get, nice!

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON!

Grandpa Rodgers came over on Monday to over seed our front lawn while Jared was at work so he wouldn't have to do so much when he came home from work. All 3 boys LOVED having him over and "helped" him do the yard work outside. Then when it was time for him and Grandma Rodgers to leave, Grandpa was kind enough to leave an extra set of "over seeding tools" behind so Eli could continue to help his dad! Thanks Grandpa!Look at the nice pile of cow poop Eli is helping his dad make. Thanks big guy - you're a super helper :)

Funny Eli story. Sometimes when I am blogging during the day and Eli is awake (just for the record all 3 boys are sleeping right now so I am not neglecting them) he will just help himself to whatever food/treats he wants and he knows he can get away with it because I am not paying attention to him and I won't get mad when I find out either because it was my fault for not watching him. So yesterday we made some cookies and I gave one to Eli and when he was done he asked for another one and our conversation went like this:
me: no more
Eli: peas (please) one more
me: no, sorry
Eli: mom, you go get on ca-puter (computer)
me laughing: no, sorry charlie
Eli: PEAS! GO GET ON CA-PUTER
Man, this kid is a sneaky little snake isn't he :) He ended up getting a cookie just because I was so proud of him for being so smart and thinking of how to get rid of me so he could sneak one.