Blake

Blake is making me crazy. I know when you see his cute face you can't imagine him ever doing anything other than make you smile, but don't let him fool you. Blake is his own man. He is super stubborn. I wonder where he gets it??

Right now we are battling out the Potty Training. Before any of you calculate just how old Blake is....STOP. He really should be all done but allow this post to explain. Here is what is making me so mad. He can do it. He has been pooping on the toilet for a few months. He just refuses to finally conquer the pee. After some tears (mostly mine), lots of clean up and many loads of laundry, I finally have decided that he'll just do it when he wants. He has a track record of taking his sweet time.

• Walking - 14 months. He could totally do it but just refused. It was funny to watch his buddies run circles around him for months.
• Eating Solid food - 12 months. Yes, most of your little ones start about 4-6 months but Blake REFUSED anything but liquids until he had a full set of teeth! It was crazy.
• Talking - I don't remember when but let's just say he kept to himself to quite awhile. He was happy with his "noise" for communication. If you know about the noise, I hope your ears have recovered.

So, I guess on potty training we are on Blake Time. He can do it. We both know he can but I can feel him holding out on me. I am sure one day I will be so glad that Blake knows what he wants and how to get it but for now we'll just keep buying diapers.

Side note: I would say leave your advice and you are welcome to do that but chances are we have tried it. Most things seem to backfire or have zero effect. Take for instance our sticker chart. Notice how many stickers there are. Really Blake, how many more stickers do we need to go through to figure this out?

Thursday Three - Camera

Grandma and Grandpa gave Blakester a digital camera for Christmas. It has proved to be a great gift. I think we have some real talent on our hands! Here are 3 favorites.

Thursday Three - Christmas Vacation

Three things that happen when you leave to see family and cousins for Christmas Vacation.

1. Your house feels really empty when you get home with no cousins to play with.

2. Your 3 year old figures out that our names are Matt and Megan and has been using them frequently to get our attention. Too many days with nieces and nephews calling us that and it has caught on. It is actually really funny to me and I am sure it will wear off soon.

3. You end up staying up too late and eating too much but it is totally worth it.

Here are some pictures of the holiday. This really doesn't do justice to what we did, who we saw and how much fun we had but it is all I got for now.

Blake loving the airplane

He is obsessed with flashlights right now.

Breakfast with cousins.

Snowmobiling

Hardcore

Bowling

Faces of Blake

Three Reasons to not use your self timer when taking your Christmas card photo:

1. You will be sweating for the photo from running back and forth trying to get in the picture.

2. It takes forever.

See photos for reason number 3.

I realize it is an early Thursday Three but wanted to post these cute pictures.

Thursday Three - dedicated to Grandma Jan

Three things going on with us.

1. Blake's birthday. He loved his birthday this year and it was really fun to see him get into it.

2. Holiday Decorating. In our marriage I have never really done a ton of holiday decorating. Our last place was so small I didn't need one more thing taking up space. This year I did my best to make things look festive. Thanks Paiger for the wooden nativity. I love it!


3. I finally put a nail hole in our new walls. I am still no where close to really decorating but we have done two things that I am excited about. Our new clock for the living room. I think we could have gone even bigger but I am still happy with our choice. I would like to thank my friend AB for helping me make the tree wall hanging. I chose to hang it in my bathroom and couldn't be happier with my decision. My trips to the bathroom are much more cozy with the new decor.

On a side note, we are potty training the Blake Man. Going great!! Today he watched himself go pee all over the kitchen floor. He seriously just stood there and watched and had no idea what was going on. The best part was that when he was done he couldn't wait to help me clean it up. Not sure we are all on the same page.

Today during a church meeting at my house every time (seriously every time) I looked over at Blake he had no clothes on from the waist down from "going potty" on the toilet. He heads in to sit on the toilet about 30 times a day. I was not going to push the potty training stuff until after the holidays but he is so into it. Hopefully at some point his body catches up with his enthusiasm for the toilet paper going down the tunnel that goes under the house.

Thursday Three - House stuff

Blake is LOVING Halloween this year. Grandma Wendy sent him a fun dragon costume that has been attached to Blake's body since it arrived. We have had a lot of fun this Halloween and look forward to more fun this weekend.

Three projects we have done in our house.

1. Blinds. I am so excited to finally have them up. They look great and I don't feel so exposed. Matt did a great job installing them and I like to believe I was a fabulous assistant. Thanks to our friends for all the recommendations on how and where to buy our blinds.

2. Staining the fence. I was actually kind of excited about doing this one but the fun of the painting wore off after only a few minutes. We still managed to get it done and just in time because we have had rain ever since. As you can imagine, Blake was a HUGE help with this project.

3. Shelves in the garage. We are slowly working our way to fitting both cars in the garage. Matt worked for two Saturdays with our friend Kevin (who was a big help and who we hope still calls us friends after taking up two of his Saturdays. Thank you so much!). They busted these shelves out and we love them!

Thursday Three

I am back. Not sure why I was gone for so long. Here are three things Matt has bought from Amazon in the last six weeks. Not the only three but it is Thursday so I will limit myself.

1. garage door opener.

2. bungee cords (because seriously the number of times I have said if only I had one more bungee cord I could ___________. We are set for awhile.)

3. umbrella (where does he think we live?)

So what I am telling you is before you buy anything ask yourself this, "Could I find it cheaper on Amazon?" I am not saying you will but I sure get asked this question a lot!!