"I want to hold Emma the Nora way"

The other day I walked in the living room and saw Rebekah holding Emma like this.



I had a total flashback to when Rebekah was 6 months old and I took her to Idaho to visit my family. My niece Nora was 4 and I have a picture of her holding Rebekah just like that. So I took a picture of Rebekah and Emma and then showed Rebekah the picture in her scrapbook of Nora holding her the same way. She was beyond tickled. She now says, "Come here Emma let me hold you the Nora way."

I looked at my old picture files and couldn't find the picture of Nora, I am guessing my mom took the picture, so I scanned the page from Rebekah's scrapbook and cropped out that picture isn't technology grand?




I tried to take some without Emma smiling so they would look more similar - impossible. That girl smiles if you blink at her!

Nora, if you are reading this we are SO excited to see you in October!

I love my kids!

Can I just say how much I love my kids? I know, I know, I'm their mom, of course I love them. But I am just feeling very blessed lately that I have such wonderful kids that love each other. Especially the fact that Alex and Rebekah love Emma so much. I have seriously not seen an ounce of jealousy and it amazes me.

Cute story. One day Alex woke up from his nap kinda whiny - which is how he wakes up from most naps - crying for me. I went in there and asked him why he was crying. He said "I want my Emma!" How cute is that!

Rebekah is so loving and good with Emma. I can always count on her to entertain Emma if she is fussy in the car - or I can't get to her right away - it's awesome I tell ya!

So here are some recent pictures of my three awesome kids. Enjoy!

I just love this one - Emma is just having a blast playing with her brother and sister!

The latest in potty training

****DISCLAIMER**** The word poop is used excessively in this post, if this word offends you in any way, I am sorry, it is what it is.

I have conceded to the fact that most of the excitement in my life at this time comes from my children. Monday was an especially exciting day in my life because Alex POOPED IN THE POTTY!!!!!! I can't tell you how thrilled I was that he actually did it! I have been waiting 6 months for this event to occur. I was sure we had made a major breakthrough.

I was wrong.

Tuesday and Wednesday both passed with no successful potty pooping. On top of that it seemed I would ask him if he needed to go potty and then 5 minutes later he would say "Mommy I'm poopy!"

I admit, I was annoyed. Why can't this kid just use the potty!

Yes yes, I know boys take longer than girls, he will do it when he is ready blah blah BLAH! What about me, I'M READY NOW!

OK, that sounds really angry, I'm really not all that angry, just tired, so very tired of all the poopy Pull-Ups and really frustrated because I KNOW Alex knows EXACTLY what to do it just seems the connection gets lost when he is actually DOING it.

Last week at Bible Study a friend of mine mentioned that her brother and sister-in-law or her sister and brother-in-law, I can't remember now which, gave their son a Hot Wheels car every time he went poop. Last week that seemed a little excessive. This week it seemed like a BRILLIANT solution! Bryan is away this week and before I went off to buy 20 Hot Wheels I decided to run the idea by him - and actually he kind of mentioned trying an new incentive so I mentioned it to him, he also thought it was BRILLIANT.

I love him.

So today after dropping Rebekah off at preschool Alex and I made a trip to Target. (For those of you who are wondering Emma came along too!) I kind of explained what we were doing and that we were going to pick out a toy but he couldn't have it until after he went poo poo on the potty. He seemed to get it. So we go to the toy car aisle and he immediately went to the bottom shelf where all the BIG ($20) trucks were and picked out several that he would like. I quickly tried to redirect his attention to some smaller cars but he wouldn't be easily pulled away from the wonder of the giant bulldozer that played music. So I came up with another BRILLIANT solution and told him if he went poo poo on the potty for a week we could come back and get a BIG toy. Then I explained it again about 500 or 10 more times and then finally I just put him in the cart, showed him the little package of Tonka trucks I picked out and then we moved on.

What I forget is that 2 year olds live very in the moment and by the time we got to the checkout line he was very excited about his little trucks. We got to talking about all of them and I asked him which one he was going to pick first and he said the fire engine. So all day we have been talking about getting the fire engine.

He did great all day and kept his Pull Up dry, except for one small incident at Bible Study, but I can hardly blame him for that one! I kept asking him and asking him if he had to go poo poo and the answer came back no every time. He went pee pee TONS probably more than he ever has before which is really good too but no poo poo. I was disappointed, I really wanted him to have success TODAY so I could reinforce it all - but bedtime came and no poop.

Then about 5 minutes after he went to bed he came out and said he had to go pee pee. So he got on the potty and then all of a sudden I could see the strain in his face and I said "ARE YOU GOING POO POO???!!" He said "Ya" I ran and got the trucks! Ya'll his little face was SO EXCITED when he got his little fire engine. It was a happy moment for me. So since it was bedtime I told him he could sleep with his fire engine. A happy little boy went to bed tonight.

So here's hoping tomorrow goes just as well. I have 7 more little Tonka trucks waiting for a little boy to go poop!

Tell me that isn't the most PRECIOUS thing you have EVER seen in your ENTIRE life!

My life is now officially chaotic...

Emma is crawling - she has been crawling for about a week or so for small distances - but yesterday she crawled all the way across the living room floor and and into the hallway. Life as I know it has changed forever! I can't remember for sure but I am almost positive Emma is about a month ahead of Alex and Rebekah as far as crawling goes.

So I took this video yesterday, the first one of her really crawling - I love it, not only because it shows her crawling, but it shows how much her big brother and sister LOVE her! Hope you all get as big of a kick out of this as Bryan and I did!

Go Broncos!

Today is a monumental day. A day to go down in the history books - at least the history of the Shumways. Today I am going to a professional football game AND I am excited. Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is happening, I am going to sit through an ENTIRE football game and I'm pretty sure I am going to enjoy the entire thing. My dear husband Bryan couldn't be happier.

Let me just explain WHY this is such a monumental event.

I have never really WATCHED footabll. Growing up my dad and brother we quite the football fans and when I was little I knew a few names Danny White, Tony Dorsett, because my brother Jim talked about them CONSTANTLY and would pretend to BE them dressed in his little Cowboy uniform. My dad was a big Bronco fan so of course I knew John Elway. I was sitting in the living room when Joe Theisman broke is leg - Wow! That's pretty good that you remember that it was Joe Theisman, not being a football fan - you might say. Do you know how I remember?

Phonetically Theisman is THIGHsman - he broke his LEG

Growing up Dad and Jim were downstairs watching football while Mom and I played Yahtzee or Bible Trivia or watched movies. Girls didn't watch football. I did watch the Super Bowl most years, but that was only because there was a party involved. If the Cowboys or the Broncos were playing I would feign mild interest just because those were the teams my dad and brother cared about - and usually there was some guy at the party I was trying to impress. One year, that "guy" was Bryan.

The one thing I didn't think about when feigning interest that day in 1998 was that one day I would be MARRIED to this guy and my cover would be blown. Football season of 1999 started and I couldn't be less interested in what was happening. Bryan was devastated. Who WAS this woman he thought he married! Here he thought he had hooked a good one who even if she didn't like to watch ALL football at least was a Broncos fan and would watch those games with him. I would give a half hearted try every now and then, and usually make through half of the first quarter and then go read a book.

Over the last 9 years Bryan has tried DESPERATELY to get me interested. My argument has been "Women just aren't into football." Which thanks to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law who are HUGE Clemson fans and season ticket holders, Bryan knew was not true. So over the years, every football season I give it another try - I try to make it through more and more of a game - and really I do enjoy what I DO watch, it's just hard to hold my interest through an entire game. Last year my mother-in-law gave me good advice, if you can only keep interest though 1 quarter, make it the last quarter - it's the most exciting. So that's what I did, and I really enjoyed it!

So today is the beginning of a new era of the Shumway household. An era where Julie likes to watch football! I'm still not sure I can make it through an entire televised game, but I am trying...

Our Vacation....Finally!

Well, ok, so it has been at least 2 weeks since we got back from vacation and I promised a recap of the vacation. I am putting all of the blame on the Olympics. My usual blogging time is being taken up with watching beach volleyball, gymnastics, diving etc... go USA!!! I digress. My original plan was to do several posts over the course of a week highlighting various events - but at this rate, if I did that, it would be next year before I finished! So here is a mongo post with a bunch of pictures and stories to go along with. It may take a while, so if you have to pee, go now!

We spent a week with Bryan's mom, Melissa when we first got there. Emma especially had Grandma wrapped around her little finger! Grandma had all kinds of toys and puzzles ready for Alex and Rebekah - the puzzles kept them busy all week, we realized Alex is a bit of a prodigy when it comes to putting puzzles together. Rebekah was quite tickled with her grandma's southern accent and couldn't stop giggling when she told Rebekah to take a "pilla" (that's a pillow for you Yankees) upstairs to Aunt Ree Ree (Bryan's sister Suzanne) When she got upstairs she was giggling and said "Grandma called this a 'pilla'!"

The second day we were there we went up to Whitmire, South Carolina to attend Bryan's grandmother's funeral. Although we were sad to see "Goomy" pass, it was a blessing that the timing was such that we were able to attend her memorial service. She was a kind and loving, mother, grandmother and friend and she will be missed. We were also able to see family, most of whom I met for the first time. I have to say "hey" to Martha who reads this blog (SOMEBODY BESIDES GRANDMA READS MY BLOG!) "Hey Martha!"

So after a week with Grandma we headed up to North Carolina for Joe's wedding (Bryan's cousin). We stayed the night with Suzanne and the next day went to Carowinds, amusement park and had a great HOT time - here are a FEW pictures.

On Azul the train with Grandma
(the kid area of the park had a Nickelodian theme)

On a ROLLER COASTER!

Rebekah loved it, Alex liked it too, but there were some bumps at the end he didn't like, and just today he was talking about how he didn't like the bumps on the roller coaster - I guess it was traumatic enough to stick in his head. Check out Rebekah with her arms up (you can click to see a bigger picture) - she absolutely LOVED it - she will definitely be ready for the big ones once she is tall enough (Daddy can't wait!)

We were on our way out when we ran into Sponge Bob and Blue - oh the JOY! Alex just kept saying "Hi Sponge Bob! I love you Sponge Bob!"

Next came Joe's wedding and seeing all of the Shumway clan - which was SO wonderful. The best part was Grandma Shumway finally got to see her great grandkids. It was priceless. So here are a bunch of pictures with Great Grandma Shumway.

This is our absolute favorite shot!

This is at the reception, we decided to take Emma so everyone could see her - she was SO tired, but so content in Grandma's arms.

It took about 15 shots and at least three different cameras but this was the best shot of all three with Grandma.

This is my second favorite shot - pure SWEETNESS!!!

The morning of the wedding we decided to take the kids to a little park that had a bunch of stuff to do. Well, it was a fun time but it was HOT, so very HOT and HUMID!!!!! I was miserable the whole time, but the kids had a blast. There was a Merry go Round, and that always makes our kids happy.

We got back to the hotel and Bryan heard Rebekah say, "Ahhhhh, that feels GOOOOOD" he looked in the other room and saw Rebekah cooling herself by the air conditioner. LOL!!!

Rebekah made a new friend Casey at the wedding. Casey is 6 and these girls just had a ball dancing and playing both at the rehearsal dinner and at the reception. Rebekah still talks about her friend Casey.

When they are 16 we will all be together again and we will say "Don't you remember dancing at Joe and Jen's reception?" And they will look at us with the teen glazed look and say "huh?"

With the bride - Jen. Rebekah just wanted to touch her dress - it was "soooo BEAUtiful Mommy!"


This is the table they had set up the reception as party favors - a big table of candy!

Every time I turned around Alex had another piece of candy in his hand!


It turns out Uncle Tommy (actually Bryan's cousin) was keeping him in supply.


Bryan finally took matter's into his own hands and put a stop to the madness. Note the sign pinned to Alex's shirt. You may have to click to enlarge.


Thanks Uncle Tommy for hookin' me up - it was good while it lasted!

Of course everyone had to have a turn holding Emma!

Uncle Denny

Karen

Aunt Elaine

so I didn't actually GET a picture of EVERYONE holding Emma, but she did make the rounds!

One of the factors that made this time so special was that it was the first time ALL of the Shumway cousins have been together at the SAME TIME. So, of course a picture was taken of the event.

Youngest to oldest (L to R), Suzanne, Joe, Karen, Tommy, Bryan and Tara.

Grandma with her grandkids

Our family with Grandma

And the whole Shumway clan, finally ALL together.

Whew! Well that's it for tonight! Hopefully I will be more consistent in the coming weeks - the Olympics are almost over right?

Emma took a bottle!

Yes ladies and gentlemen it has happened! Emma finally broke down and took a bottle! I am so excited I could scream! Hopefully this is the beginning of a long run of bottle taking! Bryan just bought tickets to a pre season Broncos game in Phoenix - so in two weeks we are going to have to leave her for the evening or I ain't goin'! Out of this desperation I decided to give it another try tonight. I had bought a special kind of bottle a while ago when I was trying anything and everything - it is suppose to mimic breast feeding, so for some reason when I went for the bottle tonight I grabbed that one and thought - "I'll just try this one again and see how it goes" It took a few minutes, a little breast faking out and a little screaming, but before long she started sucking on the bottle - and she just kept sucking! I wanted to get up, run around the house and scream "Emma is sucking! EMMA IS SUCKING!!! and do a little jig, but somehow I managed to remain seated and calm. She drank about an ounce - hey I'll take it! So we shall see what the future brings, I am hopeful!

I know I still haven't posted any more about our vacation. Hopefully I will get to that this week!