Dinosaur 1st Birthday for our little Jaxon

This year seemed to fly by faster than ever. I can't believe our little Jaxon is already one years old and zooming past all those little things that qualify him more as a baby and not as a toddler. He's not drinking bottles anymore, just straight up whole milk from a sippy cup! Where has my baby gone!? He's moments away from walking. He waves, talks (babbles) up a storm, and is now really letting us know when he's not interested in what we're asking of him...Now if that's not showing toddler symptoms I don't know what is. It's crazy in and of itself that we can now say we have 1 year old and a 2 year old ( *insert bug eyed face!*)  Although having 2 toddlers really is something to enjoy as they are both experiencing all of life's amazing things together and having them grow up so close in age I hope inspires them to forever be great friends.

So this weekend we celebrated Jaxon's 1st birthday with a fun Dinosaur theme party and I LOVE how it all turned out. But what I love more are all the family and friends that took the time to be here to celebrate with us. We had many drive all the way up from San Diego and my brother even drove 8 hours to get here, so we are incredibly grateful! It always means so much to me when people get together to celebrate my kids, so I'm eternally grateful for the amazing people in our lives, so to all of you THANK YOU! We're extremely blessed having you all in our lives.

Pardon the backdrop...the wind blew the sides over the back so after this photo I ended up fixing it and taping it down. Not sure why I didn't retake these photos but none the less, I loved how the wall turned out.

Our little dino nest out front!

I had everyone sign a dinosaur themed book as a little party momento for Jaxon

Lots of fun food like dinosaur shaped sandwiches, herbivore cups of veggies and delicious jungle pasta

My fun backdrop board!

I made custom water bottle wraps - custom everything makes it so much fun!

My attempt at making a 2 tier fondant cake didn't come out as well as I'd hope but whatever, looked cute on top of the cupcake tower lol 

So for this party I went nuts using my Cricut Air 2 making tons of different dinosaur decorations. Anyone that loves crafting and doesn't have one of these, stop reading this and go buy one. It's A-MAZE-ING! I made centerpieces, Jaxon's monthly milestone banner and his Happy Birthday Banner on the big backboard of the drink/dessert table. The silverware charms, I even whipped up his happy birthday card, that I forgot to make, at 9pm (anyone that really knows me will tell you this is very late for me to be up doing anything...you'd think I was a 90 year old woman as I love to be in bed watching Friends by 8ish LOL). 

I then used my new Photoshop program and made this chalkboard print to show people a little more about what milestones Jaxon was at, the things he loves and anything else that gave people a little more insight on who this special boy of ours really is. :)

We couldn't be happier with how the party turned out and how gracious everyone was! Based on these last couple photos you can really tell how happy Jaxon was all day. Between a bounce house slide, gift wrap galore, yummy food, a bunch of friends and family and a giant bow, who wouldn't be happy!? Hope you all have a great rest of your weekend!! 

Love,
Kaylin

Potty training success/ Potty Training Chart

I ended up being sick on Friday so we started Saturday instead :)

So this 3 day potty training method I think will be more like an "I'm not sure how many days but we're going to keep truckin' potty training method"...We started off Saturday with setting the timer for 45 min intervals (as the book requested) to head to the bathroom, but after a handful of accidents I found that amount of time was just too long. I switched it up to 25 min and that's when it clicked! He headed to his super cool Paw Patrol potty and pee'd! I cheered and screamed with so much excitement! He had the biggest grin on his face and he continued to have that grin every potty trip. There were several times to he kept saying "mow, mow" ( "more") but he just had nothing left in him! LOL.  

So every time he went in his potty, without any accidents in-between, it would win him a sticker to add to his chart and he loved that part! I was so glad as I loved the stickers I made for the chart as I thought I was so whitty to come up with a fire hydrant and dump truck! haha. But anyways, I used my sticker paper to the back of the paper with another one of my craft tools and then used my Cricut Explorer Air 2, that Lee got me for Christmas, and let me just tell you this machine is AMAZING!!! So he went ahead and added his fire hydrants for every successful potty trip, but I'm sure you'll see there are no dump truck stickers that made it to the chart...I'll let you come to your own conclusions there, but yeah I'll just say I really wish the dump trucks made it to the chart. There is absolutely a difference in cleaning a diaper of poop vs underwear with poop, i'll just add that tid bit...

Poor dump truck stickers that never got used, but maybe in the next couple days we'll get lucky!

  

   A reward for many successful potty trips - Painting on his easel!

So on Day 2 the book says to challenge them and to not set the timer, therefore they can work on just telling you they need to go to the bathroom. Yeah.... this definitely did not work. So after a few accidents I went back to the timer but I increased it to 45 minutes for day 2 and he did awesome. So he's holding it for longer which is a definite plus! The only bummer is that he does have to be told it's time to go potty, BUT he's going in the potty and we're not changing diapers, so that's a win to me!

By Day 3 the book says that our child would be totally potty trained and I have to laugh a little at this because I knew within 5 min of waking up on that third day there wasn't a chance in you know where that would happen. We went to a mommy and me class on that third day, as the book says to go out for 2 - 1 hour outings, so I was hopeful we'd be ok buuuuut no. I think the nervousness of new people got to him. It was a learning moment for me though that although going out for a quiet lunch with us as a family the day before worked out perfectly, that situation was stress free for him as it was just our family sitting outside on a nice day eating at The Bronx so it was easy breezy, but anything or anyone beyond that throws him off. So I'll add that to my notes for Jaxon's potty training!

Overall I am so proud of Greyson for all he's doing at only 2.4 years old. He's able to pull down his own pants 75% of the time and go potty in his own potty chair. He gets to wear big boy underwear and gets to start figuring this new world out and he'll get there! So although 3 days wasn't so much accurate for our little man, I hope within another week or so he'll start understanding that sensation to go and just let us know. But yay for this new exciting milestone! 

 Love, Kaylin

Potty Training my 2 year old!

Ecstatic, nervous and slightly apprehensive are the words that come to mind when I think about these next 3 days. Tomorrow is the day, Greyson is being potty trained. 

I've been actively preparing for the last month, both mentally and physically, as this is going to be my first go at this and I'm crossing my fingers, toes and everything else I can possibly cross in the hopes all goes well! My designated words are set, chart is made, training toilet has been present for months, fun underwear is purchased ( Greyson decided he wanted ALL the underwear packs I showed him verses what I had planned to buy...I guess "puppies" (Paw Patrol), "choo choo trains" (Thomas the Train) and "cars" (He actually got this one spot on, Cars it is...) are just too exciting to turn down!) So we now have more toddler underwear than I know what to do with, but they are washed and ready to go. My fun filled activities are set for the next 3 days in order to avoid the horrifying terrible 2 tantrum to emerge when he's pissed that he's having to stay inside for multiple days. I've got sponge blocks, bubbles galore, puzzles, paint projects with his new easle, a fun movie, play-doh making and more! Thankfully we have a roomy back yard with plenty of outdoor activities so that's also going to be a lifesaver.

I've read this highly recommended book "Potty Training" (They really nailed that title on the head didn't they) - cover to cover, highlighted and now placed it in an easy to grab spot when things go awry. My hope is that Greyson will wake up Friday morning ready to master this little thing called potty training and it won't be nothin' but a thang' but we shall see... In all honestly, he really is insanely smart and picks up things far quicker that I'd ever expect a 2 year old to do. Lee and I have been told many times he acts older than he is, so with that said I think he's going to take the toilet by the horns and own it! My genius 2 year old, please please own it...

So wish us luck as we go through our 3 day potty training journey. By Monday one of my babies will be taking another step to independence and I could cry. Yet, running around my house in pure excitement is also highly probable. I hope to be a pro potty trainer at the end of these 3 days and who knows maybe I'll have my other genius child, Jaxon, potty trained right at 2 years old! Then it will be time for a 3rd child as I feel like I can't imagine not changing diapers everyday, so that's a reason for a 3rd right? haha.

Looking forward to updating you all! 

Love,

Kaylin

Glamis Trip with the kids

Glamis is a place I grew up going to and to see my kids doing the same is both surreal and brings me a heck of a lot of happiness. It's part of what formed me into the person I am today and I know it will do the same for my kids. Getting away from electronics, having so much time to just talk and laugh with your family, play sand games, run and ride around the dunes, building fires, I mean everything I loved and those that know of this amazing place get to experience these unique opportunities that seem to not exist when we are just in our homes. Everything seems to revolve around a TV so this escape is serene.

We headed out with the kids just after Christmas to hang out with my family and some close family friends and it ended up being such a great trip. It felt so good to be out there again as it had been 2 years since I'd last been there as pregnancy and riding I'd say isn't the best mix ;) 

The boys did amazing, loved every bit of the endless sand pit they had to play in. They loved seeing Mama on a motorcycle and I'll say Greyson loved the Razor initially but that faded after a bit as it gets quite chilly riding and some get car sick so we think he felt a little of both but it faded quickly once he got out at Geo-Cach spot that my parents hid out in the desert. This is SUCH an awesome concept where people can hunt for these Geo-Cach treasure boxes of sorts, see all the fun items inside, sign the book and over many years time you'll have all these visitors that have seen your box, and all the other boxes out there to find and it's the history piece in the making! It could be filled with coins, toys or just random little treasures in each box (which is the case of the one my parents hid) but you can see all these awesome signatures of all the people that have found it. Love this concept, it's like a giant treasure hunt in the desert, who wouldn't love this!? Just have a GPS handle to find them as people have logged them so that there is a way to find them...pretty essential or else you'd NEVER find these things lol. I'll say though, although my family has never used a GPS in all the years we've ridden out into the dunes (My Dad is no joke a human GPS - we've rode miles and miles into the endless dunes and he always gets us back to camp with no problem at all, we do use it to find these Geo-Cach spots).

So even after all the fun we had, I say we'd need to stay one day longer next time as we didn't get time to go to Oldsmobile which is staple if you go to Glamis. We just found working in rides around naps was a little tough so we couldn't do everything we planned for. Now I know though that one more day would have done the trick. Regardless though, going on a nice ride with them and doing all we did was still awesome. The mere sight of them climbing on the exact sand dunes I did as a child was so nostalgic and made me feel like a real adult for some reason haha. Having Greyson roll all the way down a dune and Jaxon dig around and us bury his legs in sand and make sand angels of sorts, Jaxons were more like a a turtle trying to flip over off his bag but close enough to a sand angel that I used to make all the time as a kid!

The weather was perfect, just chilly at night so I'm thankful for the 27 blankets I brought in fear of the boys being too cold! Another thank you to the RV we rented as I would have about died in a tent. My brothers can do it without the blink of an eye but me...nope. Give me that RV! 

Always Grandpa's shadow!

Sunset for days

First time roasting marshmallows

Me and my boys :)

Returning to the blog/Christmas extravaganza!

I'm finally back in action here on the blog! I wasn't finding the time I had really wanted to spend writing this blog but now I feel it's time to pick it back up as I'm finding so many things I'd love to share but as I'm no longer have social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram I have no way to share! I felt like those accounts were taking too much time away from my kids as I kept scrolling through everything for too much time during the day so it was time for a change up. So now I'm even more excited to share the fun things we're doing over here as well as some new business ventures I'm interested in, so hopefully you'll all enjoy it with me!

So for my first return post I thought I'd share about our wonderful Christmas celebrations with BOTH our boys since little Jaxon was still growing in the womb at Christmas time last year and I was so ready to NOT be pregnant anymore...the constant back pain and incessant need to pee really gets old after a while. Not to mention the tedious finger pricking I had to do 4 times a day due to gestational diabetes, so needless to say I was done done done by this point. Thankfully Jaxon arrived just a mere 6 weeks after Christmas!

So this Christmas we participated in Operation Christmas Child again, which is an amazing organization giving these gift boxes to kids in need all over the world. As well as helping wherever else we could like with our home church. Always nice to find ways to give back and showing our kids the importance of it. We also enjoyed friends and family Christmas parties, gift wrapping, meeting Santa, church activities and baking galore (like the famous Tucker family Nuts n' Bolts) and then had the ultimate closing of Christmas festivities with a perfect Christmas morning opening gifts with the boys at home and then heading to my families home to celebrate with my parents and brothers. The boys received their annual Christmas eve gift from my parents with their new pjs and a special book for the night (absolutely LOVE this tradition). We then had dinner with my Lee's family for additional fun family time. Tons of amazing memories for us and the kids and we can safely say we have toys coming out our ears now after all this celebrating! Time to hide some away for a rainy day! We are so grateful for our families and the joy this season brings. There is something so unique about the Christmas season, regardless of the family time you have throughout the year it seems that during December it's something to treasure that much more. 

Church Winter Wonderland - Thanks Sweet Pea Vintage Rentals for this adorable truck photo prop!

Matching PJs is a must! Lee did not agree...bah humbug to him

Best giant Jenga set ever which doubles as dominos for kids that my brother made! (Coming soon to Etsy!)

Opening their Christmas Eve boxes from Grandma and Grandpa!

Christmas morning! 

Hope you all had a perfect Christmas with your loved ones!