MONSTER JAM MANIA

So, to celebrate Brock being POTTY TRAINED as a special treat we took him and Jillian to Monster Jam over in Indianapolis. It was so fun! We got there early and went to their pit party where we got an up close and personal look at all the monster trucks. We got a few autographs of some of the drivers, too. Brock LOVED it! He couldn't sleep the night before because he was so excited. He was up at 2:00 am ready to go! He did fall back asleep, but he didn't sleep the whole way over to Indy, so needless to say, he was about tuckered out! About midway through the show, I think he could have fallen asleep if it hadn't been so loud. For such a long day, they both did great. Saw lots of interesting characters. Seeing his little face light up looking at all the monster trucks was priceless. Stay tuned to the end of this post for another priceless moment...

This was Grave Diggers one and only jump before he

flipped over. Pitiful. He got a score of 3.

Got to keep those ears covered. It was LOUD!!!

Here's TJ & Brock with the Bounty Hunter driver.

His driving was pretty sorry, too. TJ thought

he may have broke something on his truck.

Brock looking a little tired, but we had to get a photo

with the Escalade driver and his hotties. Jillian

wouldn't have anything to do with them!

Here's a little video of Escalade. I can't believe I

caught this on video! Sooooo cool!!!!!!

And here's the winner of the night.....MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION!

Now, these last two pictures Brock took for me! I am only including them for the purpose of one of the highlights of our evening. Jillian decided to drop her pacifier (for a second time I might add) into the seat in front of us, which belonged to Miss Pigtails in this photo. So, I'm holding Brock when I decided to bend down and try and pick it up for her. Big mistake. As I'm leaning over, I lose my balance, fall head first into Miss Pigtails seat, all still while holding Brock, and almost fall into the whole next row of seats on top of a little boy. It was bad. I might add that we were like three or four rows from the very TOP of the stadium. Thank goodness for the guy I was sitting next to for helping pull me and Brock up. It's amazing no one got hurt! Talk about being SUPER embarrassed surrounded by MALES staring and chuckling. I had to laugh it off, and I can still laugh about it now just thinking about it. Oh, what a night!!!

POTTY Time!!!!!

Well, today was attempt #3 at potty training Brock. We didn't start off too hot this morning. He was all grumpy when he got up and did NOT want to wear big boy undies. It wasn't until I showed him his drawer FULL of undies and let him pick which ones he wanted to wear that he started changing his tune a bit. I set my kitchen timer for about every 15-30 minutes and wouldn't you know, on our first sit down, he does NOTHING. But, Jillian was our little shadow today and was just so curious, so after Brock did nothing, she wanted to try. In the process of her trying, he got to playing in the water faucet and peed right there on the floor! Oh, I was so frustrated!!!!! But, we just cleaned it up and put on a new pair of undies. He basically ran around all day in a shirt and undies! He did great after that one episode. When my timer went off we tried again, and SUCCESS! Pee in the potty! I didn't think I could be more excited about some silly pee, but it was absolutely pure JOY. I put a pull up on him for nap time, and when I got him up after his nap he was still dry so we went to the potty and sure enough he went!!!! Then we got really brave and ventured out to Wal-Mart to get a new monster truck for going potty in the potty and he made it all the way home, and then peed in his pants. I couldn't even be mad. He did great. Then tonight he peed several more times, several tinkles, and then I couldn't believe my eyes...POOP. In...the...potty!!!! You think I was excited to see pee, you should have seen my face when I saw poop!!! I never thought I could be so excited to see poop in that toilet! We were both so proud!!!! Now, let's hope tomorrow we are just as successful, and maybe shoot me now, but we bought big girl panties tonight for Jillian to let her give it a go tomorrow! (By the way, this is Jillian wearing the potty seat as a hat...lovely. Don't worry, we weren't using it today!)

It's Official...I have One Cute Birthday Girl!

I seriously can't believe that Jillian is TWO years old!!!!! I just want them to stay little forever! We had a busy day today. We started our day by going to the Doctor for Jillian's last well baby check-up, because when they turn three they start calling them physicals, which Brock had today. They both look great! Jillian was 34 1/4 inches long (63 percentile) and 26 pounds 8 ounces (50 percentile). They project her to be between 5'5" - 5'8" when she's an adult. Brock got his blood pressure checked and his hearing and vision screened. He did great! He's weighing in at 37 pounds (91 percentile) and he's 3'4" tall (92 percentile). I knew he'd be up there, he's a tall boy! They both got their second dose of the H1N1 vaccine and weren't big fans of that part of the visit. After all that we went and got our cupcake and then went to the indoor playground to run off some of that sugar high! Tonight we celebrated with pizza at Monical's and then Barbie cake and another present! That cake was pretty good, too!! They liked it so much, who needs a plate? Let's just dig right in! The sun shined all day and it was a perfect day for my sweet baby girl's second birthday!

A New Birthday Tradition

I decided that on the kids' birthdays, since it stinks being winter babies, we are going to go somewhere special on their special day to have a special treat and celebrate. Today I took Jillian to Cakes on Walnut in Champaign and we all enjoyed our own yummy cupcake! Brock picked Lemon, Jillian went with vanilla, and I got Salty Caramel. Jillian licked her cupcake maybe 5 times and had enough. So, after paying for three cupcakes, two milks, and a soda for me, I was not about to let her cupcake go to waste, so being the nice mommy that I am....I ate her's, too. I let Brock have the last bite though! By the time we were done, he was running circles around the table from his sugar high! Thank goodness no one else was in there!

Silly Girl

Just a little tribute to my sweet baby girl who turned TWO today!!!!! All decked out in big brother's snow boots!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Princess Jillian!

I can't believe she's 2 years old already!!!!!!

This gift from her cousin, Rachel, is a pretend birthday cake,

that has candles that light up, and you can

actually blow them out! That gift was a big HIT!!!

She had LOTS of help!

How angelic???!! Oh, if only you knew...

She only eats the icing, none of the cupcake!

We figured since Brock got a new 4 wheeler for his

birthday, it would only be fair if Jillian got a ride

of her own. I found this Barbie Jeep on ebay and ended

up getting it for less than half the price of a new one, and

didn't have to pay anything for shipping! Amazing deal and

a BIG thanks to TJ for giving it a good cleaning before the

big reveal!!! I think Brock may like it even more than his

own. He kept talking about it all night and was saying he wanted

to ride the jeep, sis could ride the 4 wheeler. We did give

them both test runs in the basement tonight! Good exercise!

I have a feeling these three are going to be best

buddies, as they already LOVE playing together

and causing trouble! Here's Brock tormenting them and loving

every minute! Poor Brock, outnumbered with all

these girls because we can't forget baby girl Kooi arriving this April!!

We hosted Jillian's 2nd Birthday Party today at our house! We went with a Princess/Purple & Pink polka dots theme. I think it turned out pretty cute! I didn't include any pictures of the party decorations on this post, so go check out http://www.pirates-n-princesses.blogspot.com/ to see all of the decor for the party!!!! I made her a pink and purple tutu and with my mom's sewing expertise, we crafted her a princess shirt. Speaking of my mom real quick, I have to give her a BIG shout out for taking all the pictures of Brock's and Jillian's birthday parties!!! She's amazing! Jillian had a really nice party, lots of family, lots of presents, and lots of FUN! I still can't believe she's two! She's grown up way too fast. I tell them everynight they need to stop growing and stay my sweet babies forever, but for some reason I don't think they're going to help me out with that one! Here's to an awesome first 2 years, and can't wait to see what the future brings! We love you, Jilly Bean!!!!

I'd say she had a FUN time at her party...she and Daddy were exhausted!

Christmas with the Schlittler's

Dacey got a new baby doll for Christmas.

I think she loves her! She gave her big smooches!

We celebrated Christmas with TJ's parents and Kindi, Danny, and Dacey on Christmas Eve. After eating lunch we dug into the presents! The kids are so blessed with such loving grandparents and aunts and uncles!

Christmas Photo Shoot

This is about how well our photo shoots go these days, which is why I am not brave enough to take them somewhere professionally! Probably end up being about a big waste of time and money! Plus, these are the kind of shots you get when Granddad is over on the side with a big blowup snowman. That's not distracting...

Christmas Cookies for Santa

We had to make some cookies for Santa! But of course, wouldn't you know it, we forgot to put them out since we got home so late Christmas Eve!