Chatting with Holland {Prequel}

So I just wrote this post about Holland's talking nowadays but I wanted to do a little prequel to all of her talking posts to write a little bit about when she started talking and all of that fun stuff. Just for memories' sake! {The pictures are to show how much she has changed over the last year or so!}

June 2013 {just barely learning how to walk}

Holland's first words were "mama" and "dada". In no particular order...of course! And I actually can't find the dates of when she said both of these though so whoops on that one! But those were definitely her first two words. After those she learned "no" in the end of June 2013 followed by "dog" and "wow" {July 2013}. For a while those were her only few words other than signing a couple of things {"more" "all done" "eat"}. Then towards the end of October and into November she just started talking a bunch more. By the end of November {about 14 months old} she had 25-35 words that she said on a regular basis and she could also point to a bunch of her body parts {belly/belly button, toes, head, nose, tongue, ears, eyes, mouth, teeth, hair, fingers, knees, cheeks}, and she knew how to do some fun gestures {high fives, kisses, more, please, eat, bump it, blow kisses, wave}.

November 2013

Towards the end of January {2014} Race and I wrote down all of the words Holland could say one night and we ended up with over TWO HUNDRED words! It was crazy! A few of them we asked her to say but most of them were words she used on a regular basis.

February 2014

We have enjoyed Holland's talking so much over the past year. Every time she learns a new word or the correct way to phrase something it is so exciting but also a little bit sad! It is just a constant reminder that she is growing up so fast! I'm trying to write it all down so I never forget this fun phase!

September 2014

Chatting with Holland {Part One}

Holland has been talking for a LONG time and I have yet to document it on the blog! Recently she has gotten even more entertaining and I've been writing some of the adorable and funny things she says down and I just wanted to compile them somewhere so that they're all together instead of jotted on whiteboards, chalkboards, in my phone, in notebooks, and just all over the house. So here are some of the funny things my sweet two year old is saying these days!

{E: Emma, H: Holland, M: Madison--Holland's cousin}

Some examples of Holland being the absolute sweetest: 

H: I always love you so much! I can hug you!

H: Hey mommy? You wanna hold me super bad?

H: You being a princess mommy. Like soooo princess. {As she brushes my [super greasy] hair}

H: Hold me closer!

H: I wanna hold you closer.

H: I got you so closer! {As she is holding me or Irelyn or Race}


Some "phone conversations" Holland has had. {With herself on her fake cell phone}

H: Hi Granddad! It's good to see you! I touched the water today for like....three hours! Hi! It's good to see you! {We had gone to the aquarium that day}

H: Hello daddy! It's good to see you daddy! I text my daddy! It's my daddy calling me?

H: Hi daddy! It's good to see you! I talkin' to my granddad!


Loving on her baby sister: 

H: She's done eating! Poke poke! *Kiss* {She actually said poke and didn't poke Irelyn but she did kiss her}

H: She wanna hold me so closer?

H: {While holding Irelyn's feet and making them "run"} Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Squeeeeeeze the poops out! Squeeeeeeze the poops out! {Irelyn used to poop EVERY time I changed her diaper so I used to say this to Irelyn while I held her legs against her tummy to make sure everything was out. Haha. Apparently Holland remembers that and decided to copy it recently! It cracks me up!}

H: {I don't know if this one exactly qualifies as loving on Irelyn...Irelyn was crying and this is how Holland responded} Shh shhh... It's okay baby sister! You're gonna be okay! {A little pause and then...} HUSH THE GUB BABY SISTER! HUSH THE GUB! {This is a phrase Race uses on the girls. Haha. It was so funny to see Holland respond just like me and then just like Race!}


And some randoms: 

H: I have my two heavy girls! {While carrying dolls around. I have said this about Holland and Irelyn a few times while carrying them down the stairs at our apartment complex. Haha. She picked up on it pretty fast and says it about her dolls all the time now!}

E: Are those fruit loops?
H: FART loops??

H: I cried in blanket and then in bedroom. {Talking about nap time--it's hard stuff!}

H: I just spank my bum!

E: Do you know what color that is?
H: ....
E: It's purple.
H: Oooh that's so silly!
{A lot of things are "so silly" to Holland}

H: You gonna eat all the pananas {bananas} all gone? Awww that's so sad! {She randomly started calling them pananas after calling them bananas in the past. Random, but it's so dang cute!}

H: Look at your pants! They're mine! I match like you! I have pants! It matches just like mine...or yours! {Holland noticing for the first time all day that her and Madison are wearing matching pants...this was after nap time...so it had been a while!}

I love this girl of mine so much! She brings so much joy to our home every single day and she is a dang smarty pants! There will probably be more of these posts to come as I'm sure the things she says will just get more and more amusing over the next few years!

We Moved.

We moved for the seventh time in our four years of marriage last month {August 10th}. You would think that we would be pros at the whole moving thing by now but we're not. It's stressful and crazy every. single. time. This was our smoothest move to date though! We had family, friends, and soooo many people from both our old ward and our new ward come to help us load and unload all of our stuff. We felt so blessed to have so much help!

Over the last month I've gotten everything unpacked and have kind of started decorating things. It's a work in progress of course but this is the fastest I've ever unpacked before so I'm feeling pretty good! It usually takes me a good six months to get the final few boxes unpacked and then another six months to a year to get the house decorated. This time I was unpacked in under a month and we're about halfway done with decorating. Woot! Woot!  I guess it has helped that I'm not pregnant/have a brand new baby {We moved two times while I was pregnant with Holland and then again less than a month after her birth--ridiculous!}. I just wanted to post a few pictures of our new place. It's nothing fancy but we are really loving our new apartment and making it feel like home!

I have a couple more decorating projects I want to get done but I am trying to make a trip down to IKEA first so it might be a while before things are finished. I'll post more pictures whenever that actually happens though!

In the girls' room. {Pallet bookshelves made by Patrick and Tyne}

Living room. {Cubbies made by Race, banner from Nikki}

Kitchen {ASHBY est. 2010 sign made by Amy Gregson of My 3 Monsters, whiteboard from IKEA years ago, chalkboard from a friend's wedding, tin buckets from Target}.

Aprons made by my mom, aunt, and grandma. {We LOVE these aprons for art projects and eating and just wearing around the house!}

I spent a good hour+ decorating our fridge with contact paper one of the first nights after we moved in. Race got a good laugh out of the fact that I got so distracted by this pretty, but definitely not top priority, project. He was super nice about it and helped me finish it up and I love it! I'm thinking of switching it out for some chalkboard contact paper but we shall see. I'm enjoying the bright green! {Crate from Michael's, white basket from Target $1 section, contact paper from WalMart}

We only have two drawers in our whole kitchen {ridiculous!} so these 

little containers are our new "junk drawers"! 

Sunday Family Photos 08.17.2014

These are from the first Sunday in our new ward {We moved about a month ago--I don't think I've written about that yet}.

We are loving our new apartment and the ward we moved into. Holland hasn't cried once going to nursery {!!/Knock on wood} and we are already making some new friends! We haven't always been super great at being involved in some of our previous wards and are trying to make a better effort this time around. We haven't missed a Sunday yet so that's a good start!

I really like trying to match everyone on Sundays and today I felt like it worked out particularly well so of course we had to take pictures! Holland was not in the mood at first but as soon as she knew she could show off her new cupcake toys {thanks Aunt Tyne!} she was fine.

I sure do love this family of mine!

Iris' Birth Story

Today I am so excited to be sharing my niece's birth story on the blog. Iris was born just three days after Irelyn and my sister Helena and I are just loving having babies so close together. To read more about that you can go here but for now enjoy this beautiful birth story!

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To my sweet sweet Iris,

I have always loved hearing the story of my birth, over and over again (even though I caused my mother lots and lots of pain!) so I want to write down your birth story for you to read someday, and also as a way for me to remember everything that made it such a hard but miraculous experience. 

Your due date was April 19th, the Saturday before Easter. The week before I'd had a few nights of Braxton Hicks for a few hours, and my lower back would ache, but your due date came and went with no sign of your coming. Dad and I spent the day at Ma and Pa's with his family to celebrate Easter. I had expected all along for you to be late, so I wasn't too disappointed.

Right around midnight the Wednesday after your due date I started feeling very mild contractions, usually about 5 minutes apart. This was more regular than anything before, so I suspected it was the real thing, but still didn't believe it yet or want to get my hopes up. I woke up my mom to let her know something was happening, and an hour or so later contacted your Gramma Cluff to let her know they were good to head down from Springerville- it looked like you were coming! By 2 am contractions were closer together, but a little shorter. When I wasn't in the bathtub (listening to Benjamin Francis Leftwich) I mostly rocked in my rocking chair, breathing through contractions. By 3 am contractions were strong enough I could talk through them but didn't want to, and the back labor had gotten much worse. Between my legs would ache and shake (the same way I remember them shaking when I went to the dentist when I was younger. So I guess just a nerves thing.) By 5 am my contractions had been consistently 2 minutes apart for a while, although still shorter than in the beginning. We gathered up last-minute things for our hospital bag and headed to the hospital. The whole drive there we listened to “All at Once” by Jack Johnson on repeat, a song that I have always thought is very soothing and relaxing.

At 5:45 in triage they checked me and I was at 4 cm. They suggested I walk the halls for an hour to get me dilated further. It took the whole hour pretty much for my mom and I to walk down the hall and back. I would only get past two doors between contractions, and then I'd have to stop, lean my head against the wall, and sway and breathe through the contraction. Mom would also put pressure on my lower back throughout each contraction to help with the intense back pain. At 7:50 they checked me again- I was at 4.5 cm, you were beginning to move down, and my water was bulging right at the edge of my cervix but had yet to break. They suggested I walk for another hour, and at that point if things hadn't progressed further they would have to send me home. At this point your dad came back in to triage (they'd said at first that only one person could be in there with me), and I spent the next hour sitting on a birthing ball and leaning over the side of the bed, with Mimo and Dad constantly putting pressure on my back, and rubbing my legs to help with the aching and shaking. I didn't feel like my legs could have taken much more walking. At about 9:30 they checked me again, and I (thankfully!) was between 5 and 6 cm dilated. They started me on a round of antibiotics for Group B Strep and I was officially admitted! I remember feeling so relieved that things had progressed enough for them to not send me home. I did NOT want to get back in the car.

At some point they moved me to a delivery room, and I think I spent the next few hours mostly lying on my side on the bed. (My ability to measure the passing of time accurately during labor was a bit skewed, thankfully.) I think I was urged multiple times to labor in more vertical positions, to help you move down, so two or three times I labored in the shower with Dad for a bit, but didn't ever last very long because my legs were exhausted. Over the next few hours I just focused on breathing through increasingly strong contractions, and trying to rest in the two minutes between. At some point your Gramma Cluff arrived (with your aunts Karra, Evie, and Jessie) and joined Dad and Mimo in rubbing my legs and back and giving me verbal encouragement. I don't know what time, but eventually they checked me and I had reached 8 cm. That meant we were getting closer! But also meant time for the most painful contractions as you were making your final descent down the birth canal. After 2 or 3 hours of very intense contractions along with very painful back labor, a part of me wanted to give up. My eyes would water and I wanted to look up at my mom and tell her I couldn't do it anymore. I continued enduring contraction after contraction though, and finally decided to try a technique your aunt Emma had used three days before during her labor with Irelyn, after learning you were posterior (which they had known all along but never told me? Probably a good thing because I think that would have made me worry and made it harder to stay focused). The technique (abdominal lift and tucks) would help get you facing the right direction, which would move things along and relieve most of the back pain.

Dad stood behind me and did the lift and tucks for me (I admittedly was too scared to, knowing it would make contractions even more uncomfortable), while I applied pressure to my back. After a few lift and tucks I began feeling an intense (super super intense) need to go to the bathroom with each contraction. In hindsight I realized this was feeling the urge to push, but at the time I remember just saying, "I HAVE to go to the bathroom. Get me to the bathroom" and thinking they were the most awful contractions yet. As soon as I sat down on the toilet my water broke, and probably 2 or 3 minutes later I was on the bed pushing! It was one of the best feelings I'd yet experienced, knowing very very soon I would be meeting you, my sweet baby girl. 

You were born less than 15 minutes after I started pushing. Those 15 minutes were a blur. I don't remember much, but I almost right away I was told your heart rate had dropped. We needed to get you out as quickly as possible. I think after a few rounds of pushing you were crowning but weren't coming out any further. My midwife gave me an episiotomy, and you were out within seconds. Mimo says you were born with your fist by your cheek, and it looked like the cord was pinched under your arm, explaining your heart rate. I didn't get to hold you right away because you were not yet breathing, but within a minute you were breathing on your own and doing just fine. In retrospect, I realize that I could have/should have been a lot more scared and worried those last few minutes of delivery, but all I remember is feeling calm and knowing everything would be okay. I am very thankful I was able to feel that peace, because I know it wouldn't have helped any for me to freak out. I also remember feeling extremely relieved that you were here and healthy, immensely grateful for your dad and grandmas for helping me through labor, and especially thankful for our Heavenly Father. Being able to give birth to you naturally was an answer to months of prayers, and I felt the Spirit so strongly at your birth. I had never felt so close to heaven. 

After about 10 or 15 minutes (I think?) they brought you over to me to hold, and you cried and cried and cried. I have no idea how long I held you for, but at some point you went back to Dad and other family, while I stayed on my back waiting for my  placenta to come out. We waited for about a half hour with nothing happening, so they started me on Pitocin. A half hour later the placenta still hadn't detached. Because of the risk of hemorrhaging , we couldn't wait much longer for it to detach on its own. They gave me Stadol so I wouldn't feel anything and had the doctor manually detach my placenta. The pain killers made me very loopy, and although it didn't hurt I could still feel pressure and movement, which was really uncomfortable. I remember thinking it was worse than labor, although it definitely was not.

There are a dozen other things I could write about, but most of all I hope you know your birth was a special day for so many people, and you are surrounded by family that loves you very very much :)

Love, 
Your Momma

Dad helping me do the lift and tucks. This was probably less than 20 minutes before you were born.

Getting cleaned up and measured.

Weight: 6 lb. 6 oz. Height: 19.5 in.

Our first family picture.

You and Gramma Cluff. 

You with your Aunt Evie. I think she may have been the first person to hold you.

You and your Mimo.

One more from the hospital.

And my most recent picture of you- almost 3 months old!

Ten Tips and Tricks for Potty Training

I want to start this off by saying that I am by no means a potty training expert. I have not even read any books on potty training so this really is just what worked for us. And honestly, Race and I mostly just attribute Holland being potty trained to her little genius-ness. Haha. We are her parents though so of course we think that!

Anyway, here's a quick rundown of some of the things that I think really helped us:

1. Get your child comfortable around the toilet.
For us this meant introducing Holland to the potty months ago. I have never been weirded out by having Holland in the bathroom with me so she has seen me going to the bathroom for a long time. Around 16 months she started expressing some interest in sitting on the toilet. At the time we didn't have a potty seat so I would just help her sit on the toilet for a couple of minutes at a time. She didn't ever actually go but since she was expressing interest in the potty I decided to run with it and spend the money on a potty seat for her. I ended up getting the two below from Amazon. One for on the toilet and one for everywhere else. They are so cheap that it was affordable to buy both--thank goodness! Once we had these little potties I would have Holland sit on the toilet multiple times a week {sometimes multiple times a day if she wanted to} just to get her used to it. I made sure to always make it a fun thing and not pressure her to go or anything. Usually we would just hang out and read books for a few minutes. She only actually went to the bathroom a couple of times over the next few months but she was never scared of the potty so I called it a success and left it at that!

Arm & Hammer Secure Comfort Potty Seat, Summer Infant Lil' Loo Potty

2. Decide on a good time for your child/your family
We had thought about potty training Holland ever since she first started showing interest in it in December but ultimately ended up deciding not to before we had Irelyn though because I had heard so much about children regressing when a new baby comes home. I knew I would not want to deal with that so I just kept things at the "getting comfortable with the potty" stage for quite a while. Once we started getting comfortable as a family of four I started to think about potty training again but then we ended up traveling/having family in town for about a month so I put it off again. I think that finding a good time where you're not going to be adding potty training to other possible life stresses is important as you really don't want potty training to be a stressful thing for you or for your child. This timing can be totally different for every family though.

3. Make sure your child can communicate well.
As far as communication goes I just think that it's important that your child can communicate with you when they need to go. What I mean by this is not necessarily that they are already communicating it but more that they talk enough {or sign enough} that they are able to communicate it {use words like pee pee, poo poo, potty, etc.} and are able to answer you when you ask them if they need to use the potty. Holland was not communicating when she was going to the bathroom before we started potty training. However, she is really great at talking {another post for another time--I really want to brag about her talking skills sometime. Is that ridiculous??} and my mom had mentioned that it might help her potty train quickly whenever we decided to try. I really think that it did help because as soon as we got started and she began to recognize when she needed to go she was easily able to communicate that with us.

4. Leggings/Underwear
We had a friend tell us to put Holland in underwear and leggings as we started potty training her. That way she would be able to recognize when she wet herself but it would soak up in the leggings before pooling all over the floor/furniture. I would only recommend this if you have LOTS of leggings and underwear. Luckily we did so this worked out great for us {be prepared to do a lot of laundry those first few days}! The first couple of days of potty training we went through tons of underwear and leggings but by about day three she was figuring it out and having almost no accidents.

5. Set a time period to work on potty training.
So I don't know if this is super good advice or anything but I set a time period for how long I was willing to give potty training a go. I said I would give it one week. Setting a time limit helped me to not stress about whether or not it actually worked. I knew that I would be doing a lot of laundry for the next week but there was an end point if it wasn't going well. I knew that if I got stressed then Holland would get stressed as well and I really didn't want going to the bathroom to be a stressful thing for her. Luckily, Holland was potty trained within the week so that was super exciting!

6. Ask your child if they need to go to the bathroom...A LOT.
So this one is pretty straight forward. Ask them if they need to go again and again and again. I try not to force Holland to go but I still ask her a lot just so that she's thinking about it. Toddlers are easily distracted so doing anything {eating meals, playing, watching a show, etc.} can cause them to forget about going to the bathroom. The bulk of Holland's accidents happen while she's eating or drawing at the table. So I just ask her if she needs to go all the time and eventually she says yes if she hasn't already told me she needs to go.

7. Rewards/Celebrations
As far as rewarding Holland we just did little potty treats. When we started potty training all we had in the house was the end of a bag of marshmallows. So now marshmallows are her potty treat. In the beginning every time she went to the bathroom she would get a marshmallow and we would clap/give hugs and kisses/cheer/do a little celebration dance just to remind her how proud we were of her and to keep this whole potty training thing exciting. Now she gets a treat when she remembers and asks for it and we still cheer for her because we think she's pretty awesome! I don't think Holland is quite to the age where we are able to explain to her that once she's potty trained she'll get a new toy so we didn't even bother with anything larger than marshmallows. Which works for our budget so yay!!

8. Stay at Home!
We stayed at home for the first few days of potty training just so we weren't adding the stress of having an accident out of the house. We also did this so we could solely focus on potty training. We started over a weekend which was nice because it meant I had Race's help changing all the peed clothes and doing the laundry. By the time the weekend was over Holland was starting to get the hang of things so the following week wasn't too bad! Also, try to make the time at home fun. Not getting out of the house as much can make everyone feel a little antsy so make sure you have lots of fun activities to do. And of course go on a walk around the neighborhood or whatever. I mostly just mean don't try and do any big family outings.

9. Bring a Potty with you EVERYWHERE!
Once you do start leaving the house bring your portable potty with you everywhere. Public restrooms are sometimes hard to locate when you need them, they are kind of scary for little kids, and they are definitely gross. So just bring your potty in your car and have your child go before you go into the store {and/or before you leave the house} and then before you load them back into the car. We also have Holland wear pull-ups when we leave the house just as an extra precaution. She usually doesn't pee in them though and we have her change back into underwear as soon as we get home and then just re-use the pull-up for our next outing.

10. Don't Stress/Make it Exciting!
I've mentioned this a few times above but this is a big one to me.  I didn't want Holland to feel at all like we were forcing this on her or disappointed in her when she had an accident so I worked really hard on not getting stressed throughout this process. Show excitement every time they make it to the potty/tell you they need to go and when they do have an accident you can have them help you clean it up and talk to them about trying to make it to the potty next time but try not to show anger or disappointment. They are still young and they will get it eventually! I think potty training can be such a fun and exciting time for our little ones but not if we make it stressful. So good luck potty training and don't stress too much!

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I hope this information helps someone out there! Who knows if it lines up with any books/legit parenting information out there but it's what worked for us. Holland has yet to be night time potty trained though so if anyone has any tips and tricks on that let me know! I'm all ears!

And just for fun here are some links to some super cute little girls' underwear. I want to buy ALL the underwear now!

The top three are ones Holland has. Find them here, here, and here. 

{They are all super soft and comfy fabrics! The boy shorts are nice for under dresses just to give a little bit more coverage}

The bottom three are on my underwear wish list for Holland. 

{She wants tons of underwear for her second birthday, right?? Haha.}

Find them here, here, and here.

Potty Training Update

So I haven't posted about potty training yet {other than on Instagram--kind of} so this isn't exactly an "update" but that's okay!

This video is pretty much an idea of how awesome potty training has been going!



We are just in shock and awe at how fast Holland has picked up potty training. Sure, it meant quite a few messes to clean up and she still has an accident once every couple of days {sorry she peed on your floor Claire!} but we are just so proud of Holland and her skills at going to the bathroom like a big girl! It is so nice to be back down to just one baby in diapers!

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I've had this post ready to go for a few days now but other things have come up first and it keeps getting pushed back. So of course, the day before it's supposed to go up Holland has a terrible potty training day! Haha. She had three accidents which really isn't huge in the whole scheme of things but it was her worst day since the first two days of potty training. Oh life. Anyway, we'll see how tomorrow/the rest of the week goes. And I'll have to do another update and post some of the things that have worked for us in getting her potty trained! Super exciting stuff, eh?! Anyway, happy Sunday everyone!