potty talk

Bryant to Todd:  You have to go potty, dad?

Todd to Bryant:  No, I don't have to go potty.

Bryant to Todd:  Yes you do, I smell you!

He he he!  Bryant also says, "I sarted" and laughs.  He can't pronounce his F's...  :)  Isn't he cute though?

Cold winter day!

Bryant in a basket...  This is the snow we got over night Sunday night.

Church is cancelled!

I can't remember church ever being cancelled in a ward I was attending...but it was yesterday.  We were at a friend's Christmas party and  got the message that church was indeed cancelled for the next day.  It snowed all day long and overnight too.  A few families got together, we ate potluck, watched the Seahawks, played the Wii fit and rock band, and went sledding, or some of us did.  This is Taylor and a friend.

This is Sydney and her friend.

This is Bryant whining about it snowing in his face and complaining that he wanted to go home!  He wasn't the only one.  So the moms took the little ones home.

I put these photos in backwards order, this is Taylor opening an early Christmas present...because we were going sledding, of course!

Jensen family Christmas Party

Here are friends cutting out our cinnamon ornaments.

Next year we will do lunch and decorate the gingerbread houses, they adults had way more fun decorating them, and with so much detail!  Yah, we even had a couple of dads show up.  It had snowed that day, and they were working from home... :)
The cinnamon ornaments were 1/4 cup applesauce to 1/2 cup cinnamon... that easy!  we pressed our dough out and used cookie cutters in Christmas shapes.  Let them dry at least over night, if thick, and glue a ribbon on the back.  
We also decorated and ate sugar cookies.  This is Taylor's friend and her little brother.

Syndey's class Winter Party

This is Sydney's third grade Winter party.  We had it on a Wednesday, which is good as school was canceled Thursday and Friday.  Monday morning another mom and I "glued" the graham crackers together to make the houses for the kids to decorate at the party.  I need to vent... We have a room mother who is very nice and avoids confrontation... we have another mother who is controlling and is running everything.  Other mothers want to help with the parties and feel like they aren't wanted...  I didn't really care, because I was going to show up whether they wanted me to or not.  But others were upset about it.  I really do not like the room mother politics!  Does anyone else have these problems or does everyone all get along?  This is my friend Cathy, we are innocent bystanders, and her daughter, Valerie, she is Sydney's friend.  Also they asked for donations of $3 from each child, they had way too much candy for the houses and way too much food for snacks, they had just had lunch before the party... how dumb, they didn't even need snacks!  So, all in all, they wasted so much!  I've always been in a classroom where the children each donated something, like a bag of chips or carrots.  Too many chiefs and not enough indians the teacher says!  he he!  I am just not going to worry about it.  I'll just be an Indian and bite my tongue for Sydney's sake.  It is supposed to be fun, right?  Thanks for listening...

In the background is the nonconfrontational chief... and Syd and Trent playing mad or something.


This is one of the Chiefs...

The "Big" storm of '08

They had been talking up this huge snow storm to hit the Seattle area for days and this is what we got!  An inch, maybe...  But of course the kids dug out their snow clothing and boots and headed outside to play!  We had three days of 90 minute late start at school this week and Thursday and Friday off.  An early start to Christmas break.  Yeah!  I must report that to the north and south of us got dumped on, somehow it missed us and Seattle.

Christmas card photo shoot

A couple of days ago I received our first Christmas cards of the season, and went... oh, no!  I had totally forgotten about sending cards out!  What is wrong with me, I am like a chicken running around without a head most of the time now days!  Ugh!  So last night I made my wonderfully, perfect, proper children put on white shirts and Santa hats to pose properly for me to take the best photo ever, if that is even possible with my camera, it was free so I shouldn't complain too loudly.  I got maybe ten photos to choose from... this is one of them I narrowed it down to...

This is the second one and the one I chose (I think).  We'll see when I pick them up tomorrow.  he he he.
I must say that Sydney was putting up the biggest stink.  I seriously would have used this photo, except you can't see Taylor's face at all.  You can see Syd's tonsils! Did I spell that right?
Weird tongues and constipation going on in this one...
Naughty Santa boy!  He wouldn't put on his shirt!
Hope all your photo shoots go better than mine did!

Renton downtown

Last night we went to some friends for dinner and meant to make it to the lighting of the trees in downtown Renton.  We got to talking about adoption and missed it.  Everyone was gone and they were packing up the chairs.  The kids had fun running around and rolling too.  Look at the wet knees on Tay and Bry.  Bryant kept trying to touch the lights on the plants.  He likes to touch the ornaments on our tree too.  I'll post those photos later.

He did it!

Bryant finally wee'd in the toilet! I pumped him full of juice and set the timer for 15 minutes.  After two accidents, he says I have to go potty as he was weeing, I set the timer for 10 minutes and it worked.  He wee'd three times.  Then it was off to Target, as I had promised him a train if he went.  Then today, nothing.  He wouldn't even put on the underpants!  We have playgroup at our house tomorrow, so we'll try again!  Wish us luck!  

Lunch at McDonalds

I really don't think I ever took my girls to lunch at McDonalds... because I don't like it! But, Bryant is another thing all together.  We go to get out of the house.  Our friends live around the corner from us and then it is a short walk, just a couple of blocks, to McDonalds.  This day our friend Rylee was wanting to be called "Hopper" from A Bugs Life movie.  Today at church the graduating nursery kids, we have three, went to singing time in Primary.  They were asked to introduce themselves... Rylee said, "I'm Picasso".  Bryant said, "I'm Bryant, call me Hopper!"... he he he!

Toilet Training and training and training...

Bryant will be four in April.  He refuses to use the toilet!  He won't even let me put underpants on him anymore.  Today he walked by me and I smelled a pooh.  So, I asked him if he'd gone in his diaper and he said, "No Mom, I farted!"  I laughed at that!  Yesterday and today he's come up to me right after he'd gone and has asked me to change him...  Maybe this is it, I think we are getting really close.  Did it take anyone's child this long to even be interested?  I spent $42 on a box of diapers yesterday at Costco... yikes!  Think of the money I'd save, that I could spend elsewhere!  :)  just kidding Todd!  What have your toilet training troubles been?