Ancestors

Our family was talking about Family History tonight. We were trying to help our children understand what an ancestor is. Kaeleigh was sure it was only those who came before us, but they had to have passed away to be considered an "ancestor".

Kaeleigh and Carson have to debate on just about everything now days and we busted up when Carson fought back with this comment:

"No, Kaeleigh! Ancestors means....AND WE HAD ANOTHER SISTER (and sisters)!" Guess that means that Ashlyn is our first ancestor in Carson's book. Thank goodness she made it to our family. Better late, than never.

When it's reunion time

My kids heard this song from the primary children's song collection and they said we should make sure that we sing that song at our reunion because it would be a good song for a reunion---Really? They are very bright! (:

We head out tomorrow for this exciting adventure. I can't really remember how old I was last time we did this, but it seems like I must have been no older than middle school. Crazy! Back then, there were only 8 adults and 14 kids...TIMES HAVE CHANGED!!! This year, we will be packing in (literally) 25 1/2 (that's for you Trev!) adults and 19 kids right inside my parents house! This year, instead of no responsibility and just playing with the cousins, swimming in the pool and playing tennis all day we will have to work a little harder to feed kids, life guard pools and make sure everyone else is having fun. Don't worry...there's fun to be had by the adults too. Maybe our family doesn't want to know what crazies we have turned into. Won't they be lucky to see the grown ups we've become! Thankfully, the more boring one of us planned the activities so we won't have blue dart competitions and who knows what else?

Luckily we don't all have to sleep at Mom and Dad's, but none the less, it could be interesting!

I can't wait to see everyone. I will have to remember to take pictures for sure. Wish us luck...mostly my Mom and Dad though-what troopers!

TO potty train, or NOT to potty train?

I have exactly 6 days until I leave for CA with the kids for a reunion. My carpet cleaner is scheduled during our vacation and he'll have my carpets sparkling for me upon my arrival home...man, I love that guy.

Ashlyn will potty in the toilet if I put her there, but won't tell me when she needs to go. She will poo in the toilet, but same as above! She stays dry at night about 90% of the time. She is thrilled for anyone who she sees use the potty, so what do I do? She does tell me she needs to potty when she wants to get out of something like church and naps(...smart girl!) but if I take her, it's nothing. It's more like I am the one being trained to take her at the right time, so how do I make the switch to her being the one trained?

She's been in underwear and she's been allowed to run naked for 10 minute intervals...but today she had 3 accidents. I wasn't completely on top of it. I haven't done this in a while and got distracted and totally forgot she was in underwear. So, if I keep a close eye on her, is it worth it? My mother would tell me to wait until after we go to CA because she won't want accidents on her carpet, plus there is the 5 hour drive. Would 6 days of underwear (with princesses) confuse her if we suddenly switched to pull-ups (with princesses) a week later?

Help! Remind me what works for this age. She is very bright. She communicates well and can undress and re-dress with the best of them. Consider her Houdini! The only thing she can't really do is get on the potty by herself without scaring me to death. I got her a stool and that kind of helps but she hasn't mastered the turning around after crawling on.