Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We had dinner with mine and Joe's families together. I love that we all get along, it makes it so much easier for us so we don't have to limit our time with one family. These three pictures are the only ones I got of Thanksgiving:



Jonah "helping" mommy the night before!



Jonah, Aidan, and Syrena eating at the little kids table.



Kayden being a cutie and not letting mommy and daddy eat, lol!

Santa Pictures

I took Jonah to visit Santa early this year so that I didn't have to wait three hours for him to get his pictures done. He did so good, we were a little worried at first because he wasn't wanting to sit down with Santa. Santa had to tickle him to get him to smile but at least he didn't cry! We told Santa we would leave him some cupcakes this year since mommy doesn't make the greatest cookies!

Christmas Cards

This year while looking around for Christmas Cards I decided to check out Shutterfly.




They have some really cute designs and they were a little cheaper then the other websites I have checked out. I am really bad at making these kinds of decisions so it has been a little tough choosing from all their different cards.




I also really like their photo calenders for my office and Joe's office and maybe for some of the grandparents.



Last year for both my parents and Joe's parents I ordered their photo books for Christmas. They came out so awesome and they were a huge hit! Everytime we go to my parents house Jonah grabs the "Jonah book" off the shelf to look through the pictures. They have lots of book designs and page designs you can choose from. It is really the perfect gift to grandparents.

So before you order your cards and other Christmas gifts make sure you check out shutterfly first!

Halloween, At last!

We (and by we I mean me) waited until the night before Halloween to carve our pumpkins this year, so they wouldn't cave in. As you can tell Jonah was SUPER excited about helping and Joe pretty much cut the tops off and then left us to it.



See totally not into it!!!



Aren't kids supposed to like this stuff? He acted like a sulky teenager the whole time.



My finished products! Pretty generic but it was only my second time ever to carve pumpkins so this is as good as it gets. The small pumpkin has Jonah's initials carved in to it, and I only carved the bigger pumpkin so I could get more seeds to roast.



He looks all happy here once we were all done. I think he was only mad because he really liked his pumpkin and would carry it around the house to cuddle with it, lol.



On Halloween night we had to make the rounds to see all the grandparents. First stop was at Jonah's great grandma Dot's. Jonah wasn't really in to taking pictures so my grandma had to hold him back. Jonah was a fireman this year but he would not wear his hat. The boots were super cute though!



Second stop was at his grandma and grandpa Venter's house! He kept trying to go in to get dirty in the backyard and throwing tantrums so we had to leave fast.



Last stop was at grandma and grandpa Holdridge's house to go trick or treating with his Auntie Beka and Uncle Jake.



Kayden also came along for the ride in his cute monkey costume that Jonah wore when he was 14 months old.



He had so much fun trick or treating this year. We were pretty worried because he had been very cranky before we went and kept throwing tantrums and we almost took him home. After the first few houses he figured out that he was getting candy he was all in to it. He was so cute and kept telling people Happy Howoween. He ended up getting a ton of candy which we let him have for about two days and then took the rest to my office.

Now on to the potty training! Since my last post he has totally gotten the poo thing down. We had two accidents (one at both grandma's houses), but other then that he is doing great! Now we just need to work on the night time thing.

One funny story from yesterday, he ran to the bathroom saying he had to go potty and by the time I got in there he was already on the toilet going pee and he had never taken his underwear off. I almost died laughing!

Fall Activities

Since I have been so bad about posting lately this post is going to have a ton of pictures.



Last week we went to San Diego to visit my in laws and also for my great grandpa's birthday. While we were out there we went to this cute farm that had a pumpkin patch, pony rides, horse drawn wagon rides, a petting zoo, hay rides, and a straw maze. It was so cute and we all had a blast.






They had TONS of huge pumpkins there and we told Jonah if he pushed one all the way back to the car he could take one home, lol.



This isn't the greatest picture of Jonah but he LOVED the pumpkins and hasn't stopped talking about them since.



Being a monkey!



Checking out the animals with grandpa!



Jonah loving the chickens.



I wanted to take one of this baby goats home. They were so cute!



About to go on the hay ride, he was so excited until they started the tractor up...



and then he freaked out!



But only for a minute and then grandma made it all better!



Then we went in the straw maze. When he would run in to a dead end he kept saying "Oh, that's not quite right!" that kid cracks me up!



The other day we made some Halloween cupcakes. Jonah loves cupcakes more then anything (except trains). He was surprisingly good at helping in the kitchen. He dumped all the ingredients in the bowl and then mixed it all up for me.



We had a few missing cupcakes because Jonah couldn't wait till they were cool and frosted.



Our finished product! So cute!!

So the potty training thing has been going good. He caught on to the number 1 part really fast and has had almost no accidents since the beginning. The number 2 part has been a lot harder. Until today he had only gone poo on the potty once and that is because I caught him going and practically held him on the toilet. We were beginning to think it would never happen but today he went in to the bathroom by himself without telling us and went! We were so excited and he has been getting the royal treatment this afternoon. First daddy took him to McDonalds and he got chicken nuggets and an ice cream cone and got to play on the NASTY playland for an hour and then we he came home he got a cupcake (well he only eats the frosting and not the actual cupcake) and then he got to go to the park! Hopefully he will continue to do it! I know he has understood what to do he just wouldn't do it because he was constantly telling Joe and I to "go poop in the potty and not your pants!" Lol. He has also been a parrot lately.

Potty Training

This morning I decided it was finally time to start potty training Jonah. For the past few weeks anytime we use the restroom Jonah is in there sitting on his potty. He wouldn't actually go potty, he just wanted to sit there with us. So I decided to make him sit on his potty today until he went. I have a feeling that once he does it he would want to do it all the time. So I gave him a cup of juice (he had already had two cups of milk) and brought in all his books and we sat there for over an hour. I just knew that the second I let him get up and put his undies back on he would pee everywhere. He finally got tired of reading books so I put his chair in the living room and let him watch Thomas. After a little while he yelled "mommy I did it!" Sure enough he had peed a tiny bit, so I made him sit there for a few more minutes until he had finished. He was so proud of himself and so excited that he peed in his potty. He went all day with one tiny accident, (he started peeing in his underwear but stopped himself and then told me so we put him on the potty and he finished) but didn't pee on the floor or furniture so that was a huge plus. By the end of the day he was telling me when he had to go. I know it is only the first day so who knows how he will do tomorrow, but hopefully today was a good sign.

Three year stats

Jonah had his three year check up last week, he is now 43 pounds and 42 inches tall. He had a great birthday party which I got no pictures of. Hopefully I can get some from someone else. Here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks:



One morning I woke up and Joe told me Jonah was hiding so I went to the family room and I found him getting into the oven in his kitchen. I couldn't believe he actually fit in there.




Just a sweet picture of him sleeping. He looks so peaceful!



And then this is how his is in the morning when he wants mac and cheese for breakfast and mommy won't let him, lol!