Yahoo! Yipee! Whoopee! It's a MIRACLE!

Leah went potty today...all day! She was still dry this morning and so I suggested that she go potty. She did it! "I make the potty yellow!" That's what she was saying. She went a second time, after she got her training pants a little wet. She knew what was happening, so she controlled it. She found a third chance to go potty for daddy, who made sure she knew how fantastic it was. She went big potty after dinner (FYI: Collettese: little potty= pee, big potty=poop) and was so proud of herself all day long! Now we're down to one size of diapers to buy (and change). She now has a little goat, bunny, turkey and play wishing well to show for her successfull day. I hope tomorrow goes just as well and we never look back (yes, I am being optomistic). It has been so weird to hear her talking like a 3 year old, but not be able to get her potty-trained. We are all smiles around here! (I'm glad we don't have any big road trips planned for the next few weeks.)

Waiting

Rebekah has had a fever for two days now. She started out really cranky on Sunday and started a fever in the early hours of Wed. This morning she had a febrile seizure. Her arms and legs were stiff and trembling and she threw up a little bit. She was HOT! (I was out shopping with the kids yesterday when I realized that her fever from the night wasn't going away. I spent the whole trip trying to decide if teething REALLY does cause fevers...it seems we've had them around here before.)

Well, enough of the fevers. I took her into the doctor this morning. He finally gave up trying to find something wrong and bagged her (for a urine sample), gave her some motrin, then sent us to get some blood drawn. She was already feeling pretty miserable. She completely lost her self-control when they stuck her for a syringe full of blood!

So now it's a waiting game. They said some of the results would be available by the end of the day. The blood culture needs to grow for 48 hours. By the time that comes back, she'll be back to Rebekah again. At least the motrin helped and she's cool again, dishing out smiles and begging for snacks.

##FOLLOW UP##

The first bag fell off in her diaper and missed its chance to be useful, so I had to get another bag from the nurse and start over (about noon). I guess it's kind of like a watched pot never boils because Rebekah didn't even do anything until nearly 5pm. That bag had been coming off, too, but at least it caught some so we were able to find out that she has a bladder infection. The lab results from the hospital confirmed it.

She's on antibiotics now plus a prescription vitamin with iron since her results indicated that she's a little anemic (Dr. says it's very slight and not really a concern...just take these vitamins for a month.). So it was a long day of not much. I love that we're paying for a culture to grow that we don't even need now. I shouldn't complain. I would be shocked to find something else was hiding out there in her blood that needed this little event to uncover it.

Leah Hona

It was quite amusing this evening when Leah made a comment during Family Home Evening. We were talking about the Liahona and Leah interrupts with, "I not a hona!" Chad and I laughed pretty hard and the boys looked at us, wondering what they'd missed. Now we know she was listening! Still no success with the potty-trianing effort. I wonder if she even knows she can control that function. Maybe this will the be the break-through week.

Fun in the SUN at Lagoon!

We went to Lagoon on Friday. It was the kids' first time, and the first time for Chad and I in quite a while! There were several thing there that I didn't recognize. I worked there the summer I was 16 (16 years ago for those of you who might be trying to do the math) and I had a lot of memories surface! We went with Grandma during her Stake Lagoon Day (thank you, Grandma) and a little of family & new friends. Here are a few pictures of all of us, goofing of and having fun. (Click on a picture to enlarge it.)


Everyone in line for the Terror Ride. Leah is already showing signs of terror. She didn't ride with us though...just got in for the picture.









Leah did enjoy the carousel. Here she is with Grandma at the end of the ride.









Daniel in an airplane. He didn't want to ride this ride at first because he thought it was a "baby ride." He was right, but when he saw that you could make the planes go up and down, he decided he could lower his standards just a bit! :)







Here are Leah and Nathan on the same ride.










Daniel and Nathan got to "drive" this car. I think the line was 10 or 15 minutes long and the ride was about one minute. Doesn't that figure?








While the boys were waiting in that line, Leah and I were in line for the little rollercoaster. We finally got in a car (after someone SHAMELESSLY cut in front of us and caused us to wait for the next go). We had been standing in the sun for over 15 mintues. Her face is so red!






This is the only ride all 3 kids rode at the same time. It was their 2nd ride (each) and I don't think Daniel knew it was a "baby ride" yet. :) They were so cute.







Rebekah's favorite ride was her stroller. She rode it more than anyone rode any other ride! She did get to ride the train, but was enjoying a refreshing bottle, so I don't think she got much from it. Even her cheeks are red from the heat. We Idahoans don't transition weather well!






Here are Chad and Daniel coming out of a water slide. My mom made me go on this despite my CLEAR PROTESTS that I didn't want to get wet again. We had been on a very wet ride earlier that I was still trying to get dry from. I was pushed and pulled to the line and Chad was pressured from the rest of the group. I went down with Nathan who seemed to have absorbed most of the water for me. What a good boy. I got the least wet of everyone that went. Chad had water dripping from his face. :)



Here are Grandma and Rebekah hiding out in the shade.









Of course, kids are kids and we did have a few tears. Isn't this the sadest face you've ever seen? (I mean Leah's, not mine.)








We spent most of our time waiting in lines. They sure look eager to get in there, don't they?







We had an "Old Time" photo taken in Pioneer Village. It was really easy for our family to not smile. I don't think we could have gotten Nathan to smile if we wanted to. The boys are soldiers...Confederate & Union. I thought that would be fitting since they fight so well. Brother against brother...history repeating itself! Hopefully, Lagoon will have better things to do than chase me down for posting this tiny copy of a copyrighted picture!



We were tired all the next day, but I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. I felt bad for the kids that they didn't get to try more things, but they probably don't know that they missed anything. We can go again next year and they will think they're doing everything for the first time.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever! (Ok, I know this is a little late - I'm not the best mom/wife ever!) Here are the kids after church last week.
I told them to line up for a picture and this is what I got. You may never guess that it was Daniel who started it! But, I'm learning, so I took the picture. And then I got them to turn around. Aren't they all so cute? Oh yeah, this is about Father's Day.
The kids all got a candy bar (well Rebekah didn't) from Primary to give to Chad and the boys got some candy from their teachers to give him as well. While we were walking out of the building, the boys loaded up their Daddy with sugar. Leah was holding the door open for Chad and as he walked through, she held her candy bar up to him and said, "I keep this." It was the funniest thing. There is a woman who knows the value of chocolate!

We gave Chad a bunch of stuff for his truck, from new windshield wipers, to a 30' tow rope. He's so hard to buy for! Of course, we personalized the gifts in silly ways and I loaded him up with a bunch more chocolate. He eats so much more candy since he met me! ;)

Chad is such a good Daddy and the kids, of course, love him! He does 95% of their baths and puts them to bed just as often. He stands at their doors and sings silly, made-up songs, and tells them "pretend stories" (off the top of his head). He's much better and more comfortable at it than I am, which seems strange, since I'm the one with the teaching degree. I guess I'm too grumpy by the end of the day.

Chad is good for a push on the swing, going fishing, riding around together in his truck, etc. He's so silly that sometimes I secretly record his antics! It's too bad no one outside of our family has heard him sing the ABC song cowboy-style or opera or underwater, etc!

My Girls

Here are some pictures of my girls. The first one is of Rebekah after she wheeled herself under the table. I was busy in the kitchen and was hoping she could stay happy just a little longer. I turned away for a bit and then had to look to find her under here.




About then, Leah walked in and I asked her to get Rebekah out. Well, Leah saw me with the camera and requested a picture first. This is what we got. Don't you love the hair style? She's a little anti-conformity when it comes to her hair. At least it's pulled back!

We're trying to potty-train Leah. It is not going well. I bought her a set of Fisher Price Little People to encourage her to use the potty. This trick worked VERY WELL with Daniel. So far, we haven't even opened the box! Of course, Daniel tried, so it's ripped a bit. I have found that it's a good time for conversation. Today we talked about the animals that she saw on her train ride at Lagoon (pictures and a report coming in the near future). She told me that the mommy "amimals" hug the baby "amimals." We talked about how I hug her, too. She was very cute...and oh, so serious. (Why is it that little kids have to talk so loudly? She was making the bathroom ring.)

Drive-In Sleeper!

We went to the drive-in movie one Monday night. The kids hadn't been to the drive-in since we saw "Shrek." The remembered neither the experience nor the movie! (We were kind of glad our kids didn't know what "Shrek" was. They know enough about unimportant movies as it is.) They figured out where we were and what movie we were going to see ("Cars") while we were sitting in line in the truck.

It was a lot of fun getting comfortable in the back of the truck. Nathan and I played a game of war while Daniel tried to keep Rebekah from escaping. Leah busied herself with the popcorn.




















The movie was good, but it started at 10 PM so the kids didn't have a chance. They fell asleep in stages, Rebekah having the hardest time settling in.

The next day we had some very grumpy kids. They all went back to bed after breakfast and were less than pleasant the rest of the day. I think if we make it to one drive-in a year, we'll be just fine! But they had fun!

Giving "Old Blue Eyes" a run for his money

Rebekah has blue eyes. They have been showing up really well in pictures lately. Here she is with dinner all over her face. She HATES having her face washed. It's not uncommon to find bits meals in spots on her face because she squirms and cries so much when we're washing her up. This is such a classic Collett face (food included).

Here she is after church a couple of weeks ago. Her face is a little cleaner. :) Those blue eyes just pop out at you! Leah has Chad's hazel eyes. Everyone else got my blue ones. Leah thinks everyone's eyes are black. She's only looking at the pupils. :) Rebekah is crawling on one knee and one foot. It's more like a lope than a crawl. We just say that she's almost walking. ;)

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Daniel's birthday party was this month. He's six years old! He wanted a dinosaur party and so we did what we could. Here's Daniel's cake. I was tired of decorating birthday cakes (already had done 2), so I spent big bucks and got this one. There is a volcano in the upper left corner, some trees and a toy dinosaur...and enough frosting to dye your entire mouth!



We played some games:

Pin the Horn On the Triceratops












Dinosaur Memory










A game to open presents (like a cake walk)











And a dinosaur pinata (go Nathan!)











It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad it's over!

Circus!

We went to the Shrine Circus earlier this month. It was a hot day, so we were glad for shaded seats. We got "free" tickets from a "donation" I made over the phone, so it only cost gas to Pocatello for the show. Here is everyone waiting for the show to begin. The biggest boy (not including Chad) is our cousin, Jacen, visiting us for the week.

They started by entertaining the crowd with clowns who came out to throw huge balls into the stands. The kids really liked this activity. I don't think the mommies and daddies really liked being hit in the head with a big ball as it came back to the clown! We were fortunate enough to escape injury!














This guy stacked several chairs as he climbed them. Daniel especially was impressed. He came home and recreated the act with our 3 little yellow chairs. I guess I should have predicted that, but it's really beyond my mental abilities to keep up with all the possibilties of life around here!



This was the center ring. It was a really good seat. The view was a little interrupted by the rodeo gates in front of us, but we learned to ignore it. Here is an act of bears. All I could think of during this part was how hot the people must be in those jackets!
















Our camera died (who would expect any less?) and so we have limited photo memories. The kids also liked the tightrope walkers, the guy who walked round and round in a metal ring that spun up and around, repeatedly, and the 3 elephants at the end (those were impressive). We didn't buy the $3 cotton candy (although the woman with the spoiled daughter in front of us offered us their half-eaten cotton candy to share around) and we didn't ride any ponies or elephants for $6 (the little girl in front of us did).

Rebekah did get pretty hungry during the show and Chad went out for the diaper bag (and bottle) during intermission. She finished off 12 ounces of formula! She's just wasting away before our very eyes.

We did stop and pick up some dinner in Blackfoot and eat it at the park on the way home. We were tired and dirty by the time we got home. It was fun.