A Day on the Farm...

... That is, a commercialized zoo style farm run for profit at Thanksgiving Point. But hey :)


If you could "hear" this photo, all you would hear is Keyan saying "Baaaaaa" to the sheep over & over again.


Keyan and I both loved the horses. They would nuzzle up right against you.


Even though Keyan kept telling me he wanted to ride a pony, I was skeptical. I thought he would freak out when I actually went to sit him on it. But he loved it. Our own little cowboy.

(I have to say, tho, I felt sorry for the ponies and horses who were hooked up to the merry-go-round all day long. The poor things looked pathetic.)


After riding the pony, Keyan insisted on riding everything.


This scale said Keyan weighed 50 lbs- Ha! Looks like too many other kiddies didn't know how to read the sign on the left.


You know, of course, I had to take a picture of these :)


Shawn, this one's for you...

... Guanaco!

Who is this... Incarnación?

My friend Alicia tagged me on her blog... which means I am going to share 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, and 3 random, surprising facts about myself. If I tag you, you do the same on your blog. And Megan, you're it! :)

JOYS
1. Bodies of water. Yes, sounds strange. But I am totally captivated by all bodies of water- rivers, lakes, streams, and of course, the ocean. That's why, wherever we end up settling down, I either want to be 2 minutes from the ocean or else live on a lake.
2. Wide open spaces. And no, I don't mean the Dixie Chicks song. Life is just too crowded anymore. Everywhere I look there are enormous, new houses popping up with no yard to speak of. Someday, I'd like to have not just a yard, but several acres of property. And live some place like Cache Valley with green farmland stretching every which way for miles. In fact, we'd move to Logan.. but I'd never survive the winters!
3. Not intended to be a self-righteous, eye-rolling response.... my third joy is the gospel. I was driving the other day and just thinking how blessed I am to have a testimony of Jesus Christ. Not just a belief, but a conviction. A conviction that there is more to life than this life, that families are eternal, and that there is One who lives and loves me more perfectly than I can comprehend. That is true joy.

FEARS
1. Snakes
2. Alligators. Sure, I've skied in Lake Tarpon tons of times, but that doesn't mean that every time I fell, I didn't imagine my legs as two long pieces of meat dangling in the water. (Was anyone with me the time I jumped out of RoseAnn's boat in the middle of the lake and swam about 100 m to shore? It's not nicknamed Gator Lake for nothing... what the heck was I thinking??!!)
4. Germs. I'm a Purell addict.

GOALS
1. Learn Italian
2. Run a marathon/triathlon. The marathon part would have gotten crossed off in October, but since I won't be able to run it anymore, I'll have to keep it on the list a little longer. I've also always wanted to do a triathlon. Maybe I'll start with a relay one.
3. Own a house! And fix it up (or preferably, restore it. Jonathan & I love older homes.) And have a huge garden. And maybe raise some animals.

OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS
I don't really have any tangible obsessions/collections, just obsessions that include:
1. Having a clean home (that doesn't mean that it always is... just that I really enjoy cleaning)
2. Doing family history. It's like fitting together pieces of a puzzle... and also like living a piece of that history. A few weeks ago, for example, I came across the passenger lists for some family members when they came to the states, including the passenger list of my mother and grandmother. It felt like I was there with them. I just love family history.
3. Reading good books.
(That's right, Alicia! No more daisy fetish! But they are still my favorite flower :) )

RANDOM/SURPRISING FACTS
1. I don't have any first cousins.
2. I am allergic to ibuprofen.
3. I love Jonathan! Okay, so no surprise there :)

Vote 4 Your Coach

My brother Shawn just started a website called Vote 4 Your Coach. I'm trying to spread the word about it and also get as many votes as possible for BYU :) But I suppose you can vote for your own alma mater if you want ;).

Go visit the page and cast your vote! Thanks!

Look at My Husband, Y'all !!!

That's what Flo says about Ramon in Cars, and that's what I'm saying about my gorgeous husband, Jonathan, who officially began teaching 4th grade today.

Jonathan was so nervous, but once in the classroom, he said it all felt so completely natural. And that is just as it should be, because Jonathan really is a natural when it comes to teaching children. His gifts abound when it comes to creativity, patience, and fostering a love for learning.

I'm proud to have a husband who loves what he does and works hard at it.

Taking Care of Business!

A little over a month ago, Keyan started notifying us that he had finished going to the bathroom in his diaper. He would lie down on the ground, lift up his legs, and say, "Diaper change!" We have a friend whose daughter exhibited the same behavior.... until she was four and a half years old. Horrified by that possibility, Jonathan and I decided to potty train.

But we were totally baffled by what approach to take. We researched a bunch of methods and came across one that had actually been part of a scientific study. The results were made into a book by Nathan Azrin & Richard Foxx entitled "Potty Training in Less than a Day." So we read it, followed it, and were quite pleased with the results.

Of course, I know what you're thinking- there's no way it can be done in a day. And that's true. For us, it took four days. One day, four days... it's all good to me!

To sum up the book: you train with a doll, then have your child mimic the training- all the while reinforcing with treats. The authors say you can still put your child in training diapers at night, so we have been putting Keyan in Pull-Ups, but he has woken up dry each morning.

We trained Keyan Thursday, and Friday was the last day he had a pee accident. Poo took a little longer... but when he woke up Monday morning, he went #2 all on his own and has ever since. I'm sure there will be accidents here and there, but if Keyan can stay dry for five hours like he did when we went to Logan last weekend, then I am pretty confident that they will be only occasional.

I recognize that this is not the only way to potty train your kids (many of you have already trained your kids and were successful with other methods)... but this totally worked for us. And I guess that's the point of my post. Different things work for different people. It really bothers me when people try to tell me I'm wrong about something I am trying with my child. In respect to potty training, we have been told things like "You are totally rushing your child. You have to wait until he's ready." (What does ready mean anyway? Don't we all define it differently and know when our child fits the definition we've created?) Another thing we were told was that we were going to make Keyan get a bowel obstruction by forcing potty training on him at such a young age. But we never forced Keyan to potty train (We all know the result of parent-child power struggles- parents never win!) and he did just fine. There is no right or wrong to parenting; we all do it differently. We learn from suggestions, not disparaging remarks.

Okay, I'll step down from my soap box now... and simply say that we are so proud of our little boy and the progress he has made!

I'm probably a boring mom that I didn't get "fun" underwear for Keyan to wear. But $5.74 for three pairs of Lightning McQueen underwear or $3.99 for seven pairs of plain white ones? I'm just too practical!

Sitting on the little potty.

And sometimes on the big potty, too.