Springtime

There is no rhyme or reason to this entry due to the fact that I am just trying to catch up! Ha ha......we have had a crazy busy spring! We have been able to make a few trips to Delta. Most of the trips were because I was doing clinicals at Delta Family Medicine but a couple were for fun! Like for my dad's birthday and some good ole fashioned cousin time! 

I have loved watching, as she now calls herself, Hayden Millie Bliss's little personality blossom! She thinks her dog is her sister. She'll say, "Hey Char-wee, Dad's home!" One day I heard her say, "Go find our Mom." She is also the little nurturer....everything has to be covered with a blanket. She is always great to tuck me, Charlie, and Colby in a whole pile of blankets and she is a little OCD about them all being laid straight on you! It's not Charlie's funnest activity but she deals.....just like being sat on while playing the iPad......

Clothes have become a nuisance.... she likes to strip down and she never wants her shoes on! Those things come off the second she is in the house or the car! We  have had a hard time keeping track of her shoes because of that and unfortunately I can only find one foot of probably 3 of her pairs of shoes!

Also, she loves to build "towers" out of things and she is actually pretty good at getting them to balance!



She has made friends with "Sister Jones" at church- she doesn't call her Bonnie just Sister Jones haha. She looks forward to seeing her every Sunday and Bonnie is so nice and always has a little bag packed with snacks and toys for her! The Jones' are such a nice family and we are so glad to have gotten to know them and are grateful for how sweet they are to our little spit-fire!

Easter REALLY snuck up on me this year! I seriously feel like I drop the ball with ALOT of things as a mother! Like the fact that Easter was around the corner, we hadn't done eggs, and I worked the 5 nights before/on it:-( I am so thankful for the other mothers in my life that help me pick up all these dropped balls! It is true, it takes a village to raise a child and in my child's case it takes a whole army of amazing women to help me along this crazy journey. I have a great friend, Amanda, we switch watching each other's kids one day a week to help out while we are both in school and poor! She called Colby a few days before my birthday and had it set up with him to babysit while we went on a date and they had so much fun coloring eggs!

We did, however, have a fun Easter at home! Russ and Nikki came down and spent the afternoon with us. It was so nice getting a chance to see them! I didn't get our annual family Easter pic in our Sundays best though which saddens me!

I love this little girly so stinking much!!!

Like I was saying earlier, I had the chance to do some of my clinicals in Delta! It was really nice to get and even more rural aspect of being an NP. I was so fortunate to be able to take my girl up with me and have her looked after by some of our family members! She got to spend several days with her awesome Great-Grandma Joyce- a couple days with Dylan, Shayda, and Drex (thanks Kristy!)- a day with Kyson and Aria (thanks Karlee!)- and a day with Hadee and Brookie (thanks Crystal!) We are so fortunate to have awesome family memebers that help out!

Back to randomness......this girl loves her pooch and is always showing a little crack! But, she doesn't care!!! Haha 

Potty Training

Okay! So I have been a little pre-occupied the last few months as a result of my final semester so I am just going to pick up where I left off- which was POTTY TRAINING! Read at your own discretion. I talk graphically for my own future reference for other kids I may have!

Day #1
So, the adventure started on Saturday, December 29th bright and early in the morning. Colby had to work at the Instacare that day so it was a perfect day to start! Just me and her! I started off by just putting her on the little green portable potty in the front room every 10 minutes. I let her drink as much juice, water, and milk as she wanted to make sure we had plenty of opportunities to practice. She had a couple accidents. Okay, she was pretty much 50% all day long. It was especially difficult after her nap time. I put her in her underwear for her nap. Which she didn't even have an accident then! I used candy and stickers as incentive. I also had her baby doll go "pee" in the potty. I used a little medicine medicine dropper with water that had yellow food coloring in it. I figured out later in the afternoon that just being panty-less worked better. Surprisingly, she went poop in the potty all by herself on the first day!!! I made a HUGE deal about it! I put a diaper on her for bedtime.

Day #2
Her diaper was extremely full. Colby got up before me and put panties on her and tried to get her to go potty and she REFUSED! She had an accident and then promptly went in and went potty after that. The entire time before her nap, she pretty much just went potty by herself. We sluffed church because she was not ready to go out! She had an accident during her nap and was then a little resilient again after. She only had one more accident that afternoon/evening. She also pooped again in the potty without prompting!

Day #3
She didn't have any accidents until her nap then she peed and pooped in her sleep. Unfortunately, Colby was home with her so he got the pleasure of cleaning that one up! Then, she only had one more accident before bed.

All in all, we pretty much stayed home for a week straight. Either me or Colby stayed home with her. After a few days of just being in the front room with the porta-potty, we transitioned into the big potty with her princess insert thingy and step stool!  We continued to put diapers on her at night which we were a little bit apprehensive about but she sleeps in our bed at least half the time so I did not want her peeing in my bed!! After about a month, she kept waking up dry and we felt like we were just wasting diapers so we stopped putting them on her. She has peed in my bed a few times but definitely does good 99% of the time! Occaisionally, when she is playing hard or is super mad she will have an accident. She wants us in the bathroom with her everytime she goes which is fine with me cause little girls need to be wiped correctly so until she can grasp that, I will go with her!

Christmas 2012

Brown paper packages tied up with string......these are a few of my favorite things!

I love Christmas......I hope to someday be able to make it magical like I remember when I was little. But I seem fall short each year and Christmas creeps up on me and I have not done or thought out the gifts or traditions that I intend too. That won't keep me from trying next year though!! 

This year, however, I wrapped late into the night the day before we were heading to Delta, I didn't get Christmas shopping completed until late Christmas Eve afternoon, and just like the years before, my poor child didn't even see Santa until the night before Christmas.........Thank you Hinckley City for pulling through for me each and every year! Also, I had every intention of sending out our yearly Christmas card- that never happened.......and for all my neighbors- I meant to get those "neighbor gifts" around and that never happened! Please accept my apologies! Even though Christmas has seemed to jump me from behind since becoming a mother, it is still a wonderful time of year.

Doesn't she look adorable!?!

TERRIFIED of Santa....Colby couldn't even peel her off of him so sit on his lap!

She begged and begged for DAYS after Christmas to, "open more presents?"

As always, it is so wonderful to have a chance to spend time with family since that chance doesn't come around all that often! Here is Millie with her Great-Grandma Marlene Bliss

She got into my makeup when we were in Delta. Hey- at least she has the general vicinity of where the mascara should go!

The Friday before Christmas we went back up to Primary Children's to get an echo done and follow up with the cardiologist. She did really well. Colby and I had a bet going- he said she would for sure need sedation- I said she wouldn't! I knew if she had her binky, blanket, and daddy that she would be as still as they needed her to be..........and I was RIGHT! No sedation needed! She snuggled with Dad and watched Tangled. Then she got another EKG and Dr. Garnreiter looked at everything and said that everything looked great and she was in the clear from a cardiology standpoint! Wahoo!! She has had no other incidences and they are calling her seizure a ALTE which stands for Acute Life Threatening Event with no known cause. I am grateful for a healthy happy (for the most part) little girl!

We had to leave Delta at 5 am that morning so she was crashed in the car on the ride up! I love sleeping pics!

I hope everyone had a very happy holiday season.

The Bliss Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

In mid-December, we had our first annual (hopefully) Bliss Ugly Christmas Sweater Party! It was Crystal's master plan; she even lined up a baby sitter that was willing to take ALL of the crazy kiddos so that all of us adults could relax at a family function! It was fun.....we each brought a game had some yummy soup and showed off our glamorous attire!

Here are some of my favorite pics from that evening....

Are you ready for the awesome awkward family photos?....1..2...3..GO!!

DECEMBER

December, December, I do not remember a December like this! It has been CRAZY- therefore, a whirlwind of pics, updates, and what not! We FINALLY finished our fall semester! It seemed like such a long and exhausting one........part of the reason was because Colby had a WHOPPING 23 credits between Weber and SUU.
               
               This question was seriously on my final!! Ha ha

We have definitely been enjoying a little R&R since taking our finals. Reading, movies, family.....anything but school work! 

Earlier this month we made the trek to find OUR tree......

There she is.....right behind the dead one!

Glad he was willing to haul it out cause there is no way I'd be able too!

I love my little girl!

Our poor truck looks so tiny with that big ole tree....

......as does our house!

We had the best little elf decorator who also loved to un-decorate it as well.

More on December to come....including..... The Bliss Ugly Sweater Party, Hayden's medical updates, Christmas, and potty-training........whew.....what a month!!!