~* My 2014*~

Sorry I haven't been on in a long time. Last year I had a partially fun, crazy, and stressful kind of year. I tried to do a series of blog posts about my fitness and all the events going on last year but I became to busy and wasn't able to keep up with them So I ended up just deleting everything. So here is a quick over view of my year last year.

So last year my cousin got engaged and ask me to be her maid of honor in January. I began planning events and things right away. 

I took her to a bridal show. We had fun tasting desserts and seeing all the demo's. We even got a free massage!

Went dress shopping. Her wedding was all done in purple. As far as dresses go, we all did the same dark purple color and length but did slightly different styles. 

Two of the bridesmaids wore this dress.

The grooms sister wore this. 

And this was my dress!

I planned and had a bridal shower that turned out great!

 I did a candy/dessert bar & had little bags for people to take things home with them afterwards if they wanted.

This was the drink and food buffet.

 The bridesmaids and I got together and planned  the Bachelorette party. 

We all wanted some clean fun so we decided to do a murder mystery dinner. I also had the idea to do shirts for that night too. I designed and ordered them for everyone and they turned out great!

This is what some of the shirts looked like. They said Team Bride and had our names at the bottom of the shirt.


 We all did different colors and painted our nails the same color as our shirts.

As a gift to the bride to remember that night and all the fun we had we made this for her.

That night we all put lipstick on and kissed the paper and signed under our lip prints and framed it to give to

 her to have and hang on the wall.

On the day of the rehearsal dinner, all of us girls had a nice relaxing spa day earlier that day. It was pretty nice. I haven't had my nails done since before Nathan was born.. which was 5 years ago now.

These were my toes after I got done.

And finally the wedding day. It was a fun and nerve racking day. There were tears and the bride was a ball of nerves.. but I helped her get through it and everything went just fine. I also was a little bit of a ball of nerves myself after the ceremony. 

I have never given a speech in my life and was shaking like crazy... but some how I managed to do it and it turned out great. everyone loved it!

Me in my pretty maid of honor dress.

There was a ton more details and craziness that went on (That was not wedding related). But I just wanted to highlight the fun and happy parts of last year. 

Last year was a fun and crazy year and I am so happy my cousin ask me to be apart of all of it!

~*Is Potty Training Ever Done?!*~

I have finally got my little boy potty trained..
Well sorta. 

 I started Jan. 3, 2012 shortly after he turned 2. I would have to say it has been a crazy struggle and a long hard road with this one. The reason I decided to start potty training him at 2 was because he would come to me and tell me that he went poop or pee in his diaper all the time and want changed. I had heard that those were some good signs that he may be ready for potty training. So we went to the store and picked out a potty chair, some pull ups, and underwear.  

He started out great and really loved sitting on the potty and even peed a few times. We would praise him like crazy and it seemed like we were having fun and things were going great!
 But then all of the sudden he decided he hated the potty and wanted nothing to do with it. He would cry and fight me and wouldn't even sit on it anymore. Not really sure what happened. It was just like a switch was flipped and he hated it with a passion. He would cry and become hard to deal with if we tried to push it or make him go on the potty. I remember becoming very frustrated and even going into my room and crying over it. I felt kinda like a failure, like maybe I was doing something wrong. I didn't know if it was him or me or what the heck was wrong really. I guess in my mind I figured it was going to be a lot easier then it was and I had this idea of how it was going to go.
 I realized there would be messes and it would take work and time. But I never thought He would fight me so much and react toward everything like he did.
 So What did I do?

After a little while I decided to just back off and let him have some room and just let it go for awhile.  Even though I had let it go and he was still refusing to have anything to do with the potty at all. I decided to keep talking to him about it here and there. I would mentioned things like how big boys go to the potty and I would show him books and we would listen to songs. I would have his daddy take him in the bathroom with him and even I would bring him in with me to try and get him to see it was a good and natural thing everyone does. Every time he was around my nephew who is only a few yrs older then him, I would draw attention to the fact he was going to the potty and even doing it by himself.

A year went by and we did nothing and had let the whole thing go. Finally he turned 3 years old and I had been contemplating maybe trying to start things up again to see how he would do this time. I realize he was not ready at all the first time. But maybe, just maybe he would be ready this time.
I brought the potty out again and started trying to have him sit on the potty. It was a little bit of a rough start but he decided he was finally ok with it and started peeing in the potty again. He actually did a lot better with it this time and would even try to go on his own. I think he just needed some time. He was doing so good with the potty chair I decided to let him try peeing in the big potty standing up and he did great with it. He is 4 yrs old now and goes to the potty great and for a little while was staying drying all night and getting up and going to the potty in the morning. However the staying dry all night thing didn't last very long and we are still working on that right now. Plus he has this terrible fear of pooping in the potty. He pee's just fine but for whatever reason he struggles with the pooping part. I had tried just about everything with him to get him to go on the potty. It has gotten a little bit better since we started and we are working on it with him, but it's still a struggle with him. I know with a little time and patience he will eventually get it.

If there is anything I have learned about potty training it is that every child is different and learns differently. You can read as many blogs or articles about how to train them in a week or a day as you want to. That doesn't mean that your child will be willing to do that and if it doesn't work out for you don't think you are a failure or that there is something wrong with your child. Because in truth what nobody really tells you is that potty training is a long process that doesn't happen over night or in a week. 

It happens more in stages or well atleast for me it did. 
The first stage is the introduction, getting them to tell you they have to go and then to go in the potty. (Make sure they are truly ready!)

The second stage is getting them to wear underwear all the time and go in the big potty and maybe even by themselves. 

The third stage is getting them to ditch the pull ups at night, sleep through the night without peeing the bed and get up when they have to go.

 Each one of these stages is a process and takes time to do. Trying to do them quickly and pushing them on your child to fast is only going to frustrate you and your child. Take your time, try and figure out how your child works best and try to make it as much fun as you possible can. Lots of praise, love, hugs, kisses, and most of all patience.

~*How To Get Wax Out Of Your Carpet*~

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the other day my husband decided to plug in our new candle warmer in the living room and got one of my Yankee candles to put on it.  The problem is he put in a place where our 3 year old son could reach it! Yep you guessed it!

He dumped the whole candle all over our sub to our surround sound, all over half the DVD's and a bunch all over the carpet!

I freaked out when I saw it. Since we are renting the place we are living in the last thing we want is to ruin the carpet and get in trouble with the landlord.

 So my husband and I sat and looked at in awhile and talk about different things we could do to try and fix this problem. But I felt that it would only ruin the carpet worse.

 I eventually gave up and got on my Facebook and asked for help. I had a few people come to the rescue with some good idea's. I picked one and decided it was the best way to go about things.

 

The Paper Bag Trick is what I chose to do. 

 

Here is what you will need

 

 

Brown Paper Bag

 

 

&

 

An Iron

 

 

 

 

 I heated up my iron on a medium heat.

You don't want it to hot or it will either burn the carpet or melt it depending on what kind of carpet you have.

Once heated up I layed the paper bag flat over the spot of wax. I began ironing the paper bag like I was ironing a piece of clothing. You want to keep the iron moving... You do not want to just sit it on there. As I was ironing I began to see what looked like greasy spots coming through the paper bag. Sure enough it was the wax melting and being pulled up through the bag. I just kepting ironing and checking it every little bit and then I would rub the carpet to help break it up and bring it out. I wore a rubber glove. You don't have to though.. I just wanted to. Because I had a pretty big amount of it splattered on the carpet it ended up taking me almost and hour or so to get it all out of the carpet. I went through about 3 or 4 paper bags.

I am happy to say it was a success and it worked out wonderful!

The carpet looked just as good as new and it really did pull all of the wax right up. Not only was I surprised it worked... but I was happy enough with the result that I wanted to share this idea with everyone.

I wished I would have taken pictures for you guys to see but I didn't think of it at the time. Plus I didn't know this crazy idea would have worked.
 

 

So there you go if you ever have this problem. This is how to fix it.

I hope someone finds this as helpfull as I did.