Princess potty

Here's a pic of Megan with her much talked about princess potty. (it's all the rage in the 3 year old set!) She is doing really well with the potty training and I am really hoping she will be 100% done with diapers before preschool starts. Of course now that I just said that I probably just jinxed myself! : )

9 years

Frank and I are celebrating nine years of marriage today!

Happy day, babe! May we have many, many more!

Big girl bed!

Megan made the move to a big girl bed over the weekend. She really wasn't sure about it and it took A LOT of coaxing and many late nights before we finally got her comfortable in it but now she really likes it, and I found her some princess sheets online so what girl couldn't sleep in a bed that has princess sheets?! BTW...she is faking being asleep in the picture: )

Pics from Heritage Square

Later in the evening, on Saturday, we took the family to Heritage Square and had the best time with the kids(both big and small!!). Megan has proved to be quite the dare devil and was willing to try out just about any ride, even the big roller coaster with Aunt Traci. It was a great time and we can't wait to do it again.

Megan and Daddy on the flying bananas
Opps!

Aunt Traci, Uncle Phil, Megan, Frank, and me

Megan practicing her princess wave on the train

Megan's Birthday

Megan had her very first kid birthday party on Saturday. A very good friend brought her 2 kids over and the kids had a great time playing out in the yard, eating pizza, cake and watching Megan open her pink princess and Barbie gifts. Some of the family was there too and it was a great day. Megan has really grown up in the last few months and it was just fun to watch all 4 kids together. She is such a diva and had to have her whole Ariel ensemble to get in the sprinkler and check out the new shoes Grandma got her!!

Megan playing with her dolphin and the kids getting candy from the pinata Megan and I made

Showing off the new princess shoes

Happy Birthday Megan

Dear Megan,
Happy Birthday my sweet girl! I hope this is the best year yet for you! Each day you wake up slowly, yet sweetly, ready to explore the world around you. This past year you have found a love for all things pink, flowery and anything princess or Barbie. You are all girl but you are still willing to rough and tumble with your brother and are the first one to give him a good whack if he needs it or not. You are getting to be a big girl more and more each day; now you are using the big girl potty, and soon you will start preschool. I look forward to watching you grow this year and spending lots of time shopping, playing Barbies, dress up, reading books, doing art and playing in the garden.

Happy Birthday!

Lots of love always,
Mommy

Before and after...the cast

Mitch before getting his cast off
...and after!

He was so thrilled(and so was I)! He got a new transformer and was very brave!

My princess and her potty

I did it. I broke down and bought Megan a Fisher Price Princess Potty. You know, one of those ones that makes the princess sounds when they "go" on the potty. (Jill, if you are reading this before I see you tomorrow I am sure you are ready to slap me!!) I know, I swore I wouldn't give in but there are just some things that it is easier to give in to and this was one of them and potty training is one of my least favorite things to do AND Megan is more stubborn than a mule or Mitch so I had to try something. I just bought it for her at 12:30pm today and we only had one wet pull-up. If I can grab my camera fast enough tomorrow I will try to get a "decent" picture of her next to it because it is very beautiful, and very pink, but really you have to hear the music it plays to get the full effect. It so amazing that I had to give Mitch an ultimatum because I thought he might just sit on it and give it a try. We'll see how it goes. We have a really busy week this week with Vacation Bible School and then the BIG 3 on Sat. so I will set my expectations low but still stick to my guns. Oh, and did I mention I am in the bathroom ALL THE TIME! So if anyone calls or needs me this week and I don't answer the phone or email just come over and look on the floor of my bathroom and I'll be sitting there waiting for the beautiful princess music!

Zoo night

We went to the Zoo Member ice cream social tonight and I tried out my new camera for the first time. I was pretty impressed with the pictures it took and I reloaded all my software and I can't believe how fast I zipped all these(2) pictures onto my blog. We had a great night and around 8pm all of the animals got very active so we got a good show and the kids and had fun telling them all "good night" as we left. We even rode the carousel and train for free, always a big hit.

Mitch and I riding the trainMegan enjoying pink ice cream with sprinkles

So Fancy!

I am getting so fancy and so technically savvy!! I just connected my Facebook page to my blog (check it out!) AND today I got a new Kodak Easy Share M380!!(doing a little happy dance) As soon as the battery is charged I will post some pics! Now off to a MOPS Steering Meeting...

Chai Tea

I have this terrible craving for coffee and tea lately! Two really good friends make homemade chai and I have finally found a good chai recipe of my own so I thought I would share in case anyone else gets a craving too. It came from www.allrecipes.com It's excellent over ice too! Enjoy : )

INGREDIENTS
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom


DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer, sugar and instant tea. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In a blender or food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.
To serve: Stir 2 heaping tablespoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water.

July 4th hike

The morning of July 4th we headed out for a family hike(basically to wear the kids out so they would nap and stay up late!). We had a great time and it was a cool morning just right for hiking. There are getting so great at it and we are looking forward to some longer hikes in the future, but for now we sure do love our day hikes!

Let me elaborate

Last night I felt I had to quickly post pics from our 4th because my camera took a digger (so this week I will be camera shopping) but I wanted to go into more detail about our 4th. We had the most fabulous time at my parents house and my mom and dad always host a great party. As I have mentioned before, they had a gorgeous backyard and I think each year there are between 25 and 30 friends and relatives that gather to celebrate the 4th. It's always a great time and most years we also have a water fight but because the weather has been so rainy this year and Mitch has a broken elbow we kind of decided to forgo that whole thing. It was just as much fun anyway and my husband aka the pyro never fails to entertain with endless hours of fireworks. Tonight we went back over for leftovers(there is always a ton of food) and some more fireworks and I think Frank might be in our backyard as I type this setting off a few blackcats!

4th of July

We had the most smokin' 4th of July ever! Frank, Phil and Brett lit my parents driveway on fire(well, smoke) and we had the best time. Here are just a few pics from the night. If you have never been to a Youngmann Family 4th of July you are truly missing out.

Just a few smoke bomb to start off the night

Megan really wasn't sure about all the noise but she did like the smoke

Isn't she cute?!
Isn't he a freak?
Watching the fireworks and freezing in the back of the truck! The finale was amazing!