Brielle's Activities

My baby bird.  She's so good.  So kind, always wants to do the right thing, a rule follower, a great friend, compassionate, intelligent, creative, loves Jesus, loves rainbows, adores her daddy, and has patience for her little brother beyond measure.  She is a pure joy, easy to raise, easy to mother easy to love.  

Out the door to her first public school event.  Movie on the lawn.

We had pizza, popcorn and watched how to train a dragon.  Little brother was very good :)

Student of the Week.  These little achievements sure make a parent so incredibly proud!

Toys, who cares...crafts are her thing.  She will sit at the table for hours drawing, coloring, cutting pasting and taping.  Wasting so much paper to her mothers dismay :)

I had to work during most of her little soccer games so I made sure to go to the practises.  I finally got to go to her last game.

And she scored a goal!!!!  The feeling you have when your child succeeds is like no other!!!

She is still attending Awana.  They have different themes ever so often and this particular night was "dress like your parent night"  Everyone died for our outfits :)

She has no problem volunteering and getting up in front of everybody.

What a special night I got to share with her.  I loved getting to see every part of what they do.  I'm so grateful to those volunteers that take time out of their own lives to speak truth and the word of Jesus over my child.  What a gift. 

They always take about 30 minutes to burn off steam and play games in the gym.

My first teacher parent orientation went very well.  Her teacher was so complimenting and said Brielle was perfect :)  Then she said "well not perfect but you know what I mean"  Yes I do, that you're really not supposed to say that but she's just that much of a joy to have in your class.  I get ya :) 

Here sweet writing.   To summarize it says if the scarecrow could trad his hat he would get a diamond so if the lights went you it would shine and lighten everything back up haha.  That's my girl! 

How'd we get so lucky.  I love her so much and appreciate what she brings to our family.  What a little lady.  

Lets Get Creative

When Brielle was little I was so much better at coming up with fun crafts for her to do at home.  I'm really slacking with the second kid.  I try when I can.  

Since it's been a year since I've updated my blog a few posts are going to be out of order mind you cause I can't remember what came first ha.  This one is obviously older since Hase is still in a diaper and my last post said he was potty trained.  So try not to let me confuse you :) 

Love being able to heat up the pool in the fall.  It's a great way to wear those two out.

Who doesn't remember coloring and playing in a big ole box as a kid.

Potty Training Time!!!

Well the time has come, the time is now, Hason Louis Gann time to throw in the towel.  It's potty training time!  Bitter sweet for me, diapers never bothered me as much as they do some people.  The price the number of times you have to change them, never a big deal to me...there are other things that annoy me way more like bath time.  

We started potty training Brielle before she turned two, she wasn't ready so we put it off until one day she decided to go on her own.  I was thrilled, she was 2 years and 3 months old.  With Hason being way more stubborn than Brielle ever was, I was planning on not starting till he was at least 2 1/2.  Well a friend of mine emailed me a 3 day potty training guide.  I read it and it said if you wait till 2 1/2 or later it can actually be much harder so I though shoot I gotta do this now!  So we started when Hason was also 2 years and 3 months old which I find funny to be both my children's prime potty training age :)  So I set aside a whole weekend in October to potty train. 

We went to Walmart and let him pick out underwear, rewards and drinks. 

I bought 3 packs of underwear, 21 pair total.  This guide says to not take them every 15 min to the potty but to wait until they actually start going then run them there.  I foresee many accidents, many many accidents!  I don't give my kids juice so this was quite a treat for him.  The M&M's were reward for making it in the potty and the cupcakes were if he did #2!  Or for me when I felt like I was loosing my sanity.  

I had him throw his diapers away.

Into a new clean bag of trash cause I ain't throwing away perfectly good diapers... I'm selling the ones we had left! 

Drink up! 

This guide is different because you actually let them have accidents.  You run them to the potty when they are in the process of going and if they even get a drop in they get a reward.  If not you tell them it's ok we will try again next time but no treat.  You HAVE to stay upbeat and positive.  I was determined to follow this to a T because she guaranteed it to work if you do and I wanted to get it over with in a weekend.  

So we pretty much sat here by the bathroom and played all day, boy did my back hurt the next day.

Woe is me covered in pee. 

You also do NOT ask them "do you need to go potty"  you give them the control and say "Tell mommy when you need to go potty"  but you obviously say that a lot, reverse psychology :)  

This boy had 18 accidents before nap time.  During nap time and the rest of the day.... NOT. A. SINGLE. ACCIDENT!!!!!!!!!  I was shocked myself.  You hear all the crap about boys being harder to potty train and I was especially expecting that considering his attitude lately.  Y'all this system works!  He didn't have another  accident till Sunday when his dad didn't take him seriously when he said he had to go potty, we started on Friday.   Landon came home and with I feel sorry for you eyes he asked "well how'd it go?" he never imagined I would say EXCELLENT!  I was so proud of my boy!  Brielle was easy to train but it was a process, first pee pee in the potty, then poo, then overnight..which all took a total of 6 months.  Hason learned it all in a day, a freakin day!  I'm still beaming!  I tell myself this  was my reward from the good Lord for suffering so much with him as a baby and now a terrible two year old haha!  I caught a break. 

My baby, no more diapers.  I was happy and sad all at the same time.  He has such a bubbly booty that even without diapers he still looked like he had them on under his pants haha. 

Great job baby!  I'm so so proud of you!

Dark Hair Don't Care

Well I had had enough of the light hair and the upkeep and my hair had had with all the bleach.

After all the weddings I thought it would be a good time to color my hair since I did't have to be in anymore important photographs for a while.  I took a little trip to North Park mall inside Neiman Marcus.  I heard of a great salon there called Halcyon Day Salon and Spa.  It's where the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders get their makeovers done. 

I had to take Hason with me and he was soooo good! Two hours and he didn't make a peep!

Dark hair don't care!  Makes my eyes look much bluer!

Celebrated my new look with dinner alfresco.

Hason was a mess this night and literally fell out of his seat 3 times.  We were certainly parents of the year that night, how did we let him fall 3 times... we have no idea but after the last time we picked up our kids with heads hung in shame and left.  So much for our relaxing evening out.

See he's a mess!

Can't get enough of outdoor eating round here.

Just one of his typical fits.  It's been rough around here.

So Hason was already going through the terrible twos but it went to a WHOLE new LEVEL when I got back from Michigan.  I think it really messed him up having his mom gone for so long and he sure let me know it.   He was a total nightmare for about 3 weeks after.  The fits he was throwing were insane. I had to cancel all mommy and me classes we had signed up for and cease going to library time because he was so unmanageable.  It broke my heart because I cherished all of those things so much when Brielle was his age but it just wasn't worth the effort to take him anymore if he was going to make our outing so miserable.  We pretty much stopped going to anything from the time he was two to the time he was 2 1/2.

After leaving the gym one day when he had one of his unmanageable fits I noticed this outside the nursery the next day.  How embarrassing.  They have never ever had signs like this up in the past 2 years I've been going.  All because of Hason.  I was mortified.  Landon and I just don't know how to handle it and we take back anything we ever said about parents we'd seen out and about with unruly children. No matter how hard you try they will be who they are and Hason is tough right now.  He gets so mad about everything, we have to walk around on eggshells.  Spankings don't work, taking something away doesn't work, threatening doesn't work, redirecting his attention doesn't work. We just have to let him be and cry it out.  Have I mentioned the deafening high pitched scream he lets out and he can hold that pitch for a full 30 seconds.  It feels like your ears might bleed.  Fo real!
With all that said that boy does something to my heart nobody else can.  He's my baby and on his good days I want 10 more just like him :)

But that husband of mine knows just how to make me feel better.  Seriously, there was another time where it had been a hard week with Hason, so what does Landon do.  He gets on the computer to search for nannys who could come to the house and watch the kids from around 3 to 5 so I could get dinner and other things done without losing my mind.  He is the best!  Of course I declined his offer to bring in help cause this is my job and I know I can manage alone but still, he is so thoughtful and only wants to make my life easier.  

Then there is this sweetie bear who hasn't been trouble a day in her life.  I took for granted how well behaved she was cause I thought it was our awesome parenting skills that made her that way.  Then the second kid comes along and boom you realize they are born the way they are ha!

She had crazy hair day at Awana, that's why she looks like a quail in this picture.

Enough on tantrums, have I mentioned how much we love our Market Street United!?

And donuts before church if we can ever get there early enough!

Love these babes of mine.