Potty training

Potty training has been interesting. Everyone has their ways and they all swear by them because they worked for them. We have given a few methods a shot and none have seemed to work. Like: bribery, rewards, getting really excited, princes everything, a portable potty, waiting till she was ready, and lots of other little thing. She didn't want anything to do with the real process of going potty. Everyone says wait til they are ready, well, I'm ready... Now what? My stubborn two and a half year old doesn't want to do it but I am tired fighting her to put a diaper on one day then the next day all she wants is a diaper on. 

It's exhausting trying to convince her that going on the potty is "fun". 

We started potty training on Monday and she had 5 accidents. It was ok. I was patient with her. She was still scared of the toilet and would pee 5 minutes after we finished sitting on the potty. She wet the bed that night and woke up and cried to sleep in our bed which woke Walt up. After getting Walt back to sleep I gave in and let her sleep in our bed.

Tuesday she had no accidents and peed in the potty 3 times and pooped once. We celebrated and got ice cream. She hated every second she was on the potty and by luck she made it each time. I was exausted from the night before and had little patience which made things a little harder.

Wednesday she had 2 big accidents and made it once when Michael took over after he got home. She holds it all day. She was so afraid of the potty today. Last night she wet the bed and after being up with Walt 3 times already I couldn't clean it up so I put her in bed with us. This made today extremely hard and emotionally exhausting. Every one says day 3 is the hardest and let's hope they are right and tomorrow it clicks!

I had planned a fun outing with our friends before we really decided to potty train and I didn't want to back out on the event I planned and got so many people to agree to go to, so, we went. Olivia refused to go potty for 3 hours prior to going to the museum. We got there and after a half hour of playing around she ran to me and told me she had to potty so we ran to the bathroom and she refused to go. We went back to play and she ran up to me 5 minutes later so we ran to the bathroom and she fell on the floor crying "no potty". We went back to play... Then she was out of my sight for 30 seconds and in a panic I started stretching for her and found her crying that she had gone potty. All over the floor. Luckily I has been listening to the promptings of the spirit and brought extra undies and clothes which I am usually too scatterbrained to remember to bring. 

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Day 4!! It clicked!!! They were right! It all started last night or morning... It started at 4 this morning when she woke up and went on the potty! She pooped in the potty twice and peed 4 times! She wasn't afraid at all and told me every time she needed to go! We went to Michael's work to trick or treat and then to the airport to say bye to our friend who moved and she stayed dry the whole time then went potty when we got home! We celebrated and made it a big deal. I know we are just starting and have a long way to go but I'm just happy we had such a successful day! 

I know Heavenly Father answers prayers and helped me through this hard week.

Oh, and I love her cute little butt in undies!!

To grandmothers house we go

Michael and I have talked a lot about Christmas this year. We have decided to stay in Idaho in our own home. Now that we have to pay for Olivia to fly it would take more than $1,000 to get to Colorado! It was a VERY hard decision to make and it will be even harder to deal with the decision we made on Christmas Day but I'll deal with that when it comes. 

We decided to take a trip to Colorado and spend time with family while it was safe to drive and we wouldn't get stuck in a snow storm.

We started our trip on Saturday morning. We drove to Utah for my cousins baby shower and I got to see my best friends. Our first stop was in Layton for breakfast with Laurin and her family. I hadn't seen Laurin in 2 years. I got to meet her sweet little girl and Walters future wife, Kaymin! 

I dropped Michael off at a nice golf course with my uncle and cousins while us girls (and Walt) went to the baby shower. It was so fun to be with family. Tori is going to be an amazing mother! 

After the shower we met up with my old roommates, Hannah and Sarah. It had been 5 years since we were all together (at my wedding). It was so good to spend some time eating yummy cookies on the grass at the temple with them. I didn't want our time together to end. Olivia and Walt loved them!! 

That night Tori did my hair and Megan did my sisters hair! Thanks Tor! Thankfully after Tori finished my hair Walt woke up and decided not to sleep the rest of the night and that kept all of us up. Our plan to leave at 5am was not going to work since we hadn't slept. It was really a blessing since it had snowed 4 inches on the Eisenhower tunnel and it was closed. We stayed the night in grand junction and we all slept great (for the last time on our trip...). We headed out to Colorado springs the next morning.

We did some fun things in Colorado Springs. We went on a nature walk and had some good laughs. As you will see in the pictures below Olivia was a happy camper then 5 seconds later she turned into a diva and had a meltdown. She only wanted to be held by me and when I set her down she would go limp and lay with her eyes closed and when grandma held her she went limp. The second I picked her up she perked back up and pointed at all the things she saw. Walt was an angel as always!

We went to a cute pumpkin patch that had a lot of fun things to do. We saw lots of animals and Olivia road a pony but hated every second of it. She also road in a tractor train and hated that. We jumped on a cool blow up bouncy thing and luckly she enjoyed that. We found the perfect pumpkin and carved it when we got home into Cinderella.

We also went to Boo at the Zoo! It was so cute! Walt dressed up as a giraffe and the real giraffes must have thought he was one of their own and licked him to make sure. It was so funny! Olivia was a cowgirl and probably the cutest cowgirl ever!

Our favorite part was playing with cousins and spending time with family. Also, carrying around daisy the dog. We are so glad we got to spend so much time with family. We love you all! I hate not knowing when we will get to see everyone again. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.