Well Josiah did go pee on the toilet once.  Guess I got my wish!  Yeah.  Let's hope tomorrow is a lot more on the toilet and less in the underwear.  LOL!!

Potty Training Time

I have finally decided to potty train Josiah.  My nephew got potty trained about a month ago, so Byron has been on my case to get Josiah trained. To be honest, I have been dreading it.   He is so funny.   He will be sitting on the toilet and then say to me, go pee ever again mom! or no underwear ever again mom!  His new favorite word is ever again.  It's so funny.  We are on day 2 and he still hasn't gone potty in the toilet.  However, today we had fewer accidents because he has learned to hold it in.   He went like 5 hours before finally going potty.  I tried washing his hands, leaving the faucet to run while he was sitting on the toilet but nothing has seemed to help.  Let's hope tomorrow brings going to the bathroom on the toilet at least once.  I can only hope right?

September Happenings

Why is it that we always move when I am either pregnant or just barely had a baby.  We have moved with me being pregnant with all of our children, except Landen.  I was 8 months pregnant with Sydney when we first moved out to Queen Creek from Ahwatukee.  Then when I was 7 and a half months pregnant with Josiah I moved to Show Low and Byron moved to Flagstaff.  Then when Josiah was one month old, the kids and I joined Byron in Flagstaff.  Then when we moved from Flagstaff to Show Low, I was 3 months pregnant, but sadly I lost that baby.  Who knows if I lost the baby from moving and all the heavy lifting or if the baby just wasn't ready to come to this earth.   Then when I was pregnant with Colter, Byron moved to his parents house in Glendale when I was 7 months pregnant and then when Colter was 2 months old we moved to Glendale with Byron's parents while we were looking for a home to buy.  And we wanted to be together as a family also.  Finally, once Colter was almost 3 months we were able to move into our home in San Tan Valley.  I'm so tired of moving and we hope this will be our last move for a very long time.  Of course, we have said that the last 3 moves. So who knows if the Lord will keep us here or take us somewhere else.   Only time will tell! 

Sydney broke her arm :(

As I am sure many of you have experienced, having a child get hurt is a really scarey thing.  We were in Greens Peak for our annual Longhurst family reunion and we had only been there maybe two or three hours.  We were trying to set up the travel trailer that we borrowed from Byron's parents and I was busy trying to make fry bread for dinner.  I had seen Sydney with her cousin Halee over by my brother's horse he just got and just figured she was over there.  Well then the next thing I knew she was on a small ATV and my nephew Hinkley was driving who is only 3 years old. He was coming towards our trailer and was going really slow and made a small turn.  Sydney must not have been hanging on, and for some reason she fell and landed on her arm at just the right angle and snapped her hurmerous bone just slightly above the elbow. My heart just fell out of my chest.  She didn't cry or anything, just looked up in a daze.  My brother Anthon swooped her up and held her while Byron and I rushed to get Colter in the truck and threw out the other kids car seats.  We grabbed whatever we thought we might need and rushed to the hospital.  I was crying and trying to be brave for Sydney.  I just held her in my arms and tried to hold her arm to try to keep it from bouching around.  I could feel her bone moving back and forth.  I was just so sick to my stomach. I talked to her and kept asking her questions to try to keep her from falling asleep. I wasn't sure if she had a concussion or not, so I didn't want her to fall asleep.  About 45 minutes later we arrived at the hospital in Show Low and rushed her in.  They took her back immediately. They tried to stabilize her arm and gave her morphine to help with the pain, as by now the shock of the accident was starting to wear off. They then took a lot of xrays and a cat scan.  Thankfully, the cat scan came back normal. The xrays did show that she broke it off completely, a clean break, just above the elbow. They were worried about the bone moving around and severing the artery.  Finally, about three hours later, they decided to air vac her to Cardon's Children's Hospital in Mesa.  She would need surgery to stabilize the bones to each other.  By then, I had called my parents to bring me the other kids.  We would be going back to the valley tomorrow morning, and Byron will fly with Sydney.  I wanted so badly to be with Sydney every single minute.  It was so hard for me to leave her.  But since Colter is just a few months old, I obviously needed to stay with him.  I didn't want to stay the night, but I knew I would be too tired to drive to Mesa this late, as by now it was about 11 pm.  So we stayed at my parents house and early the next morning, my mom came with me to Mesa.  When Sydney arrived at the hospital, they did surgery around 3 am.  Everything had gone well and she was recovering just fine.  As soon as I got to Mesa, I dropped my mom and the boys off at our house and drove to the hospital. I took Colter with me though. They called it surgery, but it wasn't your typical surgery.  They did put her under anethisia, but they pushed two pins in through the humerous bone and on into the elbow bone.  That way the bone can fuse together in the correct position. They then put a temporary cast on her for a month so the swelling could go down before they put a real cast on it. It was so hard for her not get to play and be rowdy with her brothers. She felt fine, except that she has to keep her arm elevated for several hours at a time.  I think it was harder for me than it was for her.  Emotionally and physically. My mom thankfully stayed with me for about four days and then my dad came and got her. She has to take it real easy for a while.  At her first appointment, she did well.  The Dr. said it looked good and then she got to get a pink cast on.  However, since the break is so low, to help alleviate pressure and gravity, she has to wear a sling 24/7. We had her sleep in our room on the floor.  We put her mattress on the floor and put pillows under her arm to elevate it. She had to go to weekly appointments just to make sure everything was progessing well.  Then after four more weeks, they took the cast off and took more xrays. Everything has healed so well.  Her arm is so skinny, but it is very sensitive. Over the next week, her skin was peeling bad.  It was kinda gross. She is glad to be out of the cast and be able to take a normal bath.  She has had to take a bath with her arm sticking out of the tub and then I have had to lay her down on the counter to wash her hair in the kitchen sink. She can now take a normal bath or shower.

August Happenings

We live at my inlaws house now for a short while until we get the keys to our house.  The kids love playing outside in the water of course. 

Ha ha!!!  Josiah and Landen have the exact same swim shorts so Landen and put his shorts on JT by accident.  So now he is walking around with a plumbers crack.  LOL!!!!

 Poor dog isn't used to this heat!  He is going to have a hard time next summer when it is hotter.

 Colter baby!  

 Sydney loves her baby brother to death!!   She went and layed down next to him on the couch and ended up falling asleep next to him.  So very sweet!  Colter loved the extra snuggles.

 Now that Sydney is awake, she can hold a sleeping Colter.  They switched places. LOL!

 What a happy baby boy!  I can't get enough of his smiles and happiness.  I love it!

This picture was taken on our 8th wedding anniversary.  We only went to dinner and Dairy Queen afterwards since Colter is still so young to be left for very long without his mamma!   I love you sweetheart.  You are the world to me through happiness and sorrow.  We have gone through a lot together and I know our love is stronger for it.  My love grows more and more for you every day.  I LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!  I can't wait to spend many more wonderful years together with you.

1st day of KINDERGARTEN

Swimming with my family (need to finish typing kindergarten)

Landen's 6th birthday party!!!!

For Landen's birthday party this year I let him invited friends.  So we invited friends from church and cousins.  He wanted a spiderman theme, so when I was in Mesa two weeks ago, I bought a bunch of spider man stuff. 

                                     

My cheap version of decorations. Ha Ha.

 Ok so don't laugh.  I am very far away from being an artist, but this is supposed to be a spider web for our game, "Pin the spider on the web."

                                                      Landen goes first, does pretty good.

                                                    Bayden you are pretty far away!

                                                           Playing sport bingo!

                                                           Dougie, Tate, and Bayden

                                                               Sydney and Hinkley

                                                       Cohwen, Landen and Evan

                                                                      Colter

                                                                  Presents time!!!

                Colter exploded all over my poor friend Mindy.  Naughty baby Colter!

                I sure hope her shirt comes clean!  GROSS!!!  I sure did feel bad about this though.

Grandma couldn't make it, so he is opening his present at her house.

Josiah thinks he is riding a horse.  LOL!!!!

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!! :) :) :)

Shortly, before I moved down to Glendale, I signed a whole bunch of papers bidding on a house.  Im hoping the buyers will accept our offer.  After all, we offered full asking price.  It's in Pecan Creek, just about a mile further south than where we used to live in Taylor Ranch about two years ago.
I packed up all the clothes that we might need and a dresser and a few other things and headed down to the valley.  Before I left, my mom and sister came over to say good bye and help me load up a few things. Of course, my mom started crying so that got me started crying.  This is a very difficult move for me and my family.  We thought we had finally made it to Show Low for good, but sadly we were only here about a year. Byron got a promotion with his job. He is now one of the branch managers at Diebold.  He will be home more and in the evenings too.  So overall, it will be a better situation for our family.  We feel moving back to the valley is the right choice for us right now. 

We just heard back and the sellers accepted our offer. YEAH!!!!  We get to move into our new home in 30 days.  So very exciting.  If all goes well we can move in over the weekend before Labor Day weekend.  On my way to the valley, I stopped at our new house.  The relator met us there so I could see the house.  It is so nice and big compared to what I'm used to. The only thing I don't like about it, is the living room.  It is a long rectangle.  Tthat is going to make it difficult to decorate.  And the walls are a light blue, kinda grey hue to it.  There is a huge storage room right as you walk into the house with wall to wall shelves.  That is going to be a great room for all my food storage. And then a pantry in the kitchen that goes under the stairs, with wall to wall shelves.  So fantastic!!! I'm so excited!  Sydney saw her room, which is already painted pink. Of course, it will need touch ups and the walls need washed. It's so cute.  She is very excited!  There is a very light blue room, but its on the other side of the hallway and we wanted the kids' bedrooms to be right next to each other. So for now, that will just be the guest room and my sewing/craft room.  The kids bath is awesome.  Double sinks, with toilet and shower seperate, with a door.  There is a huge loft (that is going to be the play room. No more toys in the bedrooms.) The master bath and bedroom are so big.  It's going to be great.  And the walk in closet is wonderful.  We don't have very many clothes, so there will be plenty of space in the closet. The back yard is already landscaped with grass, and a grapefruit tree and an orange tree.  Our house backs up to the wash, so the back fence is open.  Makes it looks bigger.  There is a two car garage with a tandem. That is great cause then hopefully we can park our huge truck in the garage now.  (course that is going to be forever away since I'll have to unpack and get everything organized.)  With such a large house, I should be able to put things in an orderly fashion and have a place for everything. Hopefully, I can be really organized soon. (I doubt it will be anytime soon though.  lol!)  After looking at the house, we drove back to Byron's parents house and unloaded the truck. I spent all that evening and the next day trying to organize our things.  We are all sleeping in the garage that has been turned into a big room.  I feel bad my in laws had to move around so many things to make room for all of us. And they thought it would be for a long time (at least a couple of months.  We had talked about staying all school year).  But we get to totally move in at the end of August.  CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

Irrigation swimming/Grandparents house

We went to Byron's parents house for a week.  Byron is already living there since his new job position started in May.  We sure miss having him at home all the time.  This summer is a repeat of two summers ago with Byron living somewhere else.  In a few weeks we will move in with Byron's parents so that we can be together all the time and so Landen can start school.  We will do this until we can find a house to buy in the San Tan Valley area.

 Playing in the kiddie pool. 

 Josiah sleeping with his "Ruffy"  (It's really a stuffed pig, and for some reason he calls it Ruffy)

                                     
 My inlaws got irrigation while we were there, so the kids had a blast jumping into it. It was at least 2 ft deep.

 Josiah was deathly afraid of playing in it.  Michelle was trying to hold him and get him to play in it, but he just wouldn't put his feet down.  LOL!

                                                                    Colter baby!

       Sydney singing songs

                 While we were there, we decided to celebrate Josiah's and Landen's birthdays. 

 Sydney was jealous (was actually crying about it) that her brothers were getting gifts and she wasn't, so her Great Grandma Nancy Scott gave her a dollar and I did too.