We're So Proud of Our Friend!

Click here to check out our friend Erika's interview on the "My Home Ideas" website. If you haven't already, I also suggest you check out her blog and read about her latest adventure...at the Daytime Emmys!
The above photo was taken by another friend from Florida, Marla Carter. You should check her out if you want to have beach portraits taken on your next vacation.

Operation Diaper Free

For my birthday, my husband gave me the book Toilet Training in Less Than a Day. After reading it, I felt like it would be a good method for AP. Our day was Monday. The idea is to focus on the potty, and only the potty, until the child can go by his or herself. It seemed easy enough, and she did pretty well for a while, but after spending 4 hours sitting on the kitchen floor with all focus on her, I was pooped, (pardon the pun) and AP was ready to do something else. I thought I'd failed miserably and maybe even tried too soon. I was especially frustrated the next day when she refused to sit on the potty at all.

Then, something wonderful happened. That night, I heard her calling for me at 1:45 am. I ran and got her and took her to the potty! Since then, she's been doing great. I've just been so proud of her! I've also been pretty sad, though. Once the diapers are gone, you really don't have a baby anymore.

The book encourages you to praise dry pants instead of going to the potty. This illustration from the book cracks me up. It says, "Happiness is dry pants."

Anne Parks Is Two!

I can't believe that it has been two years since AP joined our family! It seems like she should still be a little baby, but then, it seems like she's always been here. Each day, she's more and more fun for us. She's talking so much, definitely has a personality all her own, and always has the funniest things to say.

AP on her "birth" day - all 9 lbs. ll oz. of her.

Sandcastle Rice Krispy treats...I wasn't sure these would work, but I coated the sandcastle molds with lots of butter and they slipped right out! The big one in the middle was cut into thin individual serving-sized slices (for people to pick up), and then put back together like a puzzle.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

Let's Have a Ball!

AP had a beach birthday party this weekend, and I'll share photos soon. For the invitations to other kids, I wrote the info on a beach ball and put it in an envelope with the instructions, "Blow me up!" But for everyone else, I wanted a picture of AP to put on a paper invitation. After filling up my memory card with trial pics, we finally got it right.

Pretty cute, huh?

Financial Peace

My husband and I just completed Financial Peace University. I'd been a Dave Ramsey fan for a while and was thrilled when Jason signed us up for FPU for my birthday. I learned so much! Dave's philosophy (don't spend money you don't have) is easy enough to understand and is pretty common sense, but in addition to avoiding debt, I learned a lot about taxes, insurance, and investing. We had a great time and recommend the class to anyone. If you're interested, click here to see if there is a class in your area.

our graduation cake

a mosaic made from all of the credit cards that were cut up during the course of the class