Calvin and the potty

I waited a long time for Calvin to be ready for the potty. We even bought him a CARS potty seat to encourage it, but he just didn't care. I finally got tired of waiting and once we moved into our new apartment in November I told him that we were going to use the potty. He did pretty good and we made a potty chart with stickers to reward him. But, when Thanksgiving came around and we were in NC for a couple of weeks it was no longer his priority to earn stickers. I decided that it was just easier to wait until the holidays were over, because it was just going to be too hectic.

So, as soon as we were home for good I cracked down and during this month, he filled his potty chart! Look how proud he is!

We rewarded every ten stickers with a prize. He would get about 2-3 on a good day.

On Monday I made him a new potty chart. He wouldn't let me take down the old one to make it on the other side... he was so proud of it!

On Monday we started the new potty chart and I decided that he was getting 10 stickers too fast, so I made it 20. Well... it took Calvin 4 days, 4 DAYS to earn 20 stickers!!!

We have been accident free all week long! And by accident free I mean no puddles to clean up and no underwear to scrub or throw away!


He wears underwear during the day and when I remember during his nap. but 3 times now I have forgotten to change him and he is still dry after his nap!

He wears pull-ups, or as we call them "special underwear," to bed every night and if we get him on the potty before he gets in bed and after he wakes up those are dry too!

I might be jinxing this good streak, but I am just SO proud of Calvin and I hope that he can keep it up!

I love this boy!

"SNOW!"

"Cheese!"

Toilet paper tower...

Super Calvin taking a break...

Impatiently waiting for his turn to take a picture...

Coloring in his bug boots...

I love this little boy more than I can say and he just keeps getting "bigger and bigger like daddy" so I am enjoying every second I can.

Calvin, you are my baby. Forever and ever...

Catching up...

In November we moved into our new apartment. We love it. It is only a 2 bedroom, but it's big and roomy, has 2 bathrooms, lots of closet space AND a washer and dryer.

I wish I had pictures to show, but we still haven't gotten every thing in order. The recycling here is pitiful, one bin for 6 apartment buildings, so we have A LOT of boxes still. Hopefully now that the holidays are over I can get some cleaning and organization done.

We love our hand-me-down table! And Calvin loves to help with dinner. He even sets the table every night. So cute!

This is Calvin's new big boy bed. He loves it! He also LOVES this baby doll that he borrowed from Grammy! Hopefully we can get it back to her soon!

We went to Roxboro for Thanksgiving this year. It was so nice. There was still a lot of my family that had never met Nick and it was nice to finally be able to show him off! Calvin loves going to NC... he really gets spoiled there!

He destroyed Granny Jo's living room with all of his toys!! When we first got to her house, he ran to the tv and asked to watch a movie! Granny has a lot of movies to pick from!

And of course we had to go see Kate! They had so much fun playing and running around.

BEADS!

Calvin asked Grandma to read him to book! So sweet!

Playing the piano with Madeline! Madeline is one of Calvin's favorite people! Everyday when she would come home he would run and hug her yelling "Mad-a-win!"

The countdown to Brandon Flowers was finally over and after standing outside in the freezing cold for 3 hours, it was concert time!

It was the most AMAZING thing to see him in person... I couldn't believe it! I was so excited and happy that I might have cried a little bit...

The concert was amazing. It was everything that I expected it to be. We were lucky enough to have him sing The Killers new Christmas song before anyone else had heard it! Very exciting! It was hard to leave and go back to the real world... and it took me a while to get used to listening to music after hearing and seeing it sung in person, but I am fine now!

Halloween

We went to Homestead Gardens for the Halloween festival. They had all kinds of rides and activities for kids.

Calvin was so brave on the pony with his Grammy by his side!

Feeding the sheep with Linda!

Calvin was excited to ride the pumpkin barrels! Look how cool and calm he looks before it starts. Well, about the second time around we could hear him screaming and the driver stopped and let me pull him out. Poor Calvin, not so brave without his Grammy!

He loved the slide though! Linda helped him up about 10 times before we had to drag him away!

Linda carried Calvin around all morning! We love Linda!

And here is Calvin is his cute tiger costume!

Calvin and the ice cream cone

Once upon a time I did a very stupid thing... I gave Calvin a chocolate ice cream cone on my bed. Calvin made a mess and since I gave him the ice cream I couldn't get mad, so instead I took pictures and a video. Enjoy!

True love is...

True love is taking your son camping and being just as exited as he is.

True love is having patience when your wife does not.

True love is when all he needs is to hear his Daddy's voice and be in his arms to fall asleep.

True love is taking time to go out on a weekend when you would rather be home on the couch.

True love is loving my family despite our Phillips' ways.

True love is standing outside in the freezing cold for 3 hours to make your wife happy.


True love is saving our spot against the wall while I stand in front and drool over another man...

True love is taking Calvin to Chuck-E-Cheese just because.

True love is not complaining when I don't get the house in order when he gets home from work.

True love is sneaking out of bed on a Sunday to get up with a crazy 2 year old and letting me sleeping in.

True love is waking up every morning at the crack of dawn and then driving home in traffic and never complaining.

True love is giving me a kiss every morning with crazy hair and bad breath before he goes to work.

True love is cleaning the house and vacuuming for me when I had a bad day with Calvin or if I just didn't do it myself.

True love is staying up late watching 30 Rock, even though you've already seen them all and rewinding the funny parts over and over just to make me laugh.

True love is knowing how important the little things are.

This is what true love looks like...

4 years ago we were sealed in the Temple and now our true love can last forever and ever.

I love you Nicholas. Happy Anniversary.

Library and Picnic

I decided to walk to the library. It was about a mile away, but it was such a nice day! So, I packed a lunch and his books and we were on our way!

Unfortunately it was Columbus Day and we couldn't go inside, but it was still fun!

Calvin's favorite part was the food!

When we got back home, Calvin didn't want to go inside...

so we finished our lunch under a tree!

We went again a the next week when the library was open and had another fun trip and picnic! I'll do anything to see that smile!