Jessica Curless, a friend from college, took some great pictures of Trenton about a month ago. She did such a good job and we had a lot of fun! Here are a few. :) Oh, and if you're looking for a photographer, I'm happy to connect you to Jess!

Potty Training

We are venturing into the new world of underpants and potties! It has only been two full days of training, but they have been two VERY long days!

Day One Score: Potty-1, Wet undies-5.
Day Two Score: Potty-1.5 (made it to the potty halfway through!), Wet undies-3.

It is unbelievable to me that we have yet to encounter dirty undies! He's miraculously having dirty diapers only at night. But give us time, there's always tomorrow! Given the fact that Trenton is highly aware of anything messy, I am hoping the knowledge that "Me may-MESS!" will help move this process along. He lets out the tiniest whimper about 1/2 second before he starts to wet his pants, so I know the wheels are turning up there in his sweet little head! We are praying that the 1/2 second warning turns into at least enough time to run to the potty!

Motivating Trenton has always been difficult--I'm sure many toddlers can be persuaded with the reward of candy or some edible treat. We are relying on pure praise, high fives, and letting Trenton call everyone we know to brag that "Me pee-potty!" With any luck, someday he'll be able to amaze his friends with the story that he was potty trained before he ever learned how to eat! Gotta find some humor in these crazy days, right? :)

Quirks to Remember

Here are some of the crazy things Trenton has been doing lately:

-He demands to wear mismatched shoes! One of each, and preferably the same footed shoe. Yes, he knows the difference and lets us know when his "ooohs" are not up to his standard.

-When he's sung the Annie song, "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow--you're only a day . . ." he promptly follows with a big "AWAY!".

-He has great rhythm, much unlike his dad. :) He claps or twirls his hands on beat and often the half-beat whenever he hears music. This keeps him very entertained in the car!

-Beware passing gas in the same room as our son. He delights in announcing that he knows who has "pooped," and he's usually right. :)

-Trenton can spot a "Pee-Man" (Police man, or a police car) like it's his job. He even finds unmarked police cars now.

-He will always choose something with the colors blue or red. If he is holding one item of each color, the red belongs in his left hand, and the blue in his right. We try to switch them, but he always puts them back in the proper hand. We have no idea where this came from!

-He typically wakes up asking to play "basset-ball" (basketball) or wants to know where "Mo-Mo" (our poodle, Marley) is.

-Trenton is in the habit of repeating things over and over. He apparently wants to be absolutely SURE that "Matt Mow!?!" (Matt is mowing the lawn??).

-Since he can't really say anything with D's yet, he calls his dad "Matt." This is hilarious but demands explanation whenever we meet someone new. Yes, Matt is in fact, his father. :) Thank goodness "Mom" is easier than "Shannon!"

Cherry Blossoms!

Cherry Blossom in Washington D.C.

I love things that remind me of Asia, and I have always loved the look of Japanese Cherry Blossom trees. On our Beaver World Tour 2009, we hung out with friends in Washington, D.C. right at the time of the city's Cherry Blossom Festival. D.C. was beautiful with all the gorgeous pink trees blooming everywhere! Sadly, we could only look at them, despite our searches for a small tree to take home with us. A few weeks later Matt's parents came over to help with our landscaping projects (or to LEAD in our landscaping projects, honestly!), and after some searching and investigation on Cherry Blossoms, they surprised me with one of my very own!!! Here is a picture of Matt planting my sweet little tree! Hopefully it will grow well and bloom next spring!!

The Mini-Marathon Runners

Matt and my brother, Ryan ran the Mini-marathon last weekend! They both did great. Karie and I missed watching Ryan crossed the finish line and barely saw Matt running the last stretch of the 13.1 miles. We are so proud of those guys and maybe we'll be with them in the race next year!!!

Trenton's Party

We had a month-late birthday party for Trenton this weekend. It was a great time and we hardly had enough room for everyone! Trenton (and John!) are both completely enthralled with all of his new presents, which have kept them busy for hours! Here are some pictures from the party.

The cupcake he never tasted . . . lol.

Family and Friends!!!

The Birthday Boy!

Charity and Miguel!

Hours of entertainment!

Babies, Computers and Such . . .

My temporary blogging break has been caused by our lives being turned upside down! Well, mostly mine for right now . . . I have started to watch a 4 month old (? I think he's that old! See, things are crazy!) here at our house during the week. This has been quite the adjustment for us all. Matt has been a huge help with the baby and giving me breaks when I need them, and Trenton has been pretty accepting of his new little friend. That's a huge relief since we've got another litle friend in the making--he or she should be arriving in 6 or 7 months! So things not only are hectic, but I am battling the first trimester nausea and sleepiness throughout each day! We are super excited and will hopefully will know more soon about when the baby is due. :)

Oh, and our computer crashed a couple weeks ago, so updates may still be scarce. At least until we've saved up enough for a new one (and I get caught up on my never-ending desire for sleep)!

Trenton, Son of Matt

If you know my husband, chances are you've seen glimpses of the ridiculous amount of shoes he's collected over the years. A few of you might have been oh-so-lucky to have actually seen the shoes lined up on display as proof that he does, indeed, possess shoes in higher value than our wedding rings put together. Now, I'm really not bitter, or even making fun of Matt, and I'm not saying that he needs to get rid of his shoes (he might throw me out with them if I say that!). But, I am quite thankful that a large amount of his Never-Worn-Out-of-the-House Jordans and similarly useless shoes are stored away in his mom's attic. Our closet already looks like a shoe store, and I'm not sure where we would be able to put the entire collection. :) He is so proud of all of his shoes, and he does take great care of them. Since we've been married, he's reigned in on his never-ending shoe purchasing urges, and sticks to longingly browsing through Foot Locker's collection both in the store and on the Internet. He's training for the Indy Mini-Marathon for the second year, so he stays somewhat satiated with his new, as-needed, running shoes a couple of times each year.

Here's the problem: He has a son. A son with an eerily similar shoe obsession! UGH!! How did this happen? I think Matt whispers to Trenton in his sleep when I'm not around. I do know that Matt now also longingly looks at toddler shoes (Jordans, Nike Shox, etc.), and laughs when I say that Target might carry shoes that would be just fine for a three-year old. Trenton's wide feet basically force the two of us to call a truce--Matt's fancy shoes don't quite fit right, nor do my cheap, but cute shoes from Target. Instead, we are forced to find a compromise in Stride Rite's wide shoes that are equally expensive as the Jordans, but still as cute as I'd like (I think Jordans are UGLY!). Trenton, however, sees no need for this compromise. We can barely walk into a shoe store before he starts screaming "ooooooh!" (that's shoe without the "sh") and expects us to hand him shoes to hold and admire with longing eyes just like his Father's. After we bought a new pair this week, Trenton asks for them the moment he wakes up, and will wear them until he goes to bed (yes, he wears them even with pajamas). He makes us take off the "oooohs" and then put them back on seconds later, only to repeat 15 times within an hour. He shows them off to everyone, and we caught him doing a little dance in them last night because he was so excited to wear them. It's like seeing my husband in his toddler years!! I fear that by the time Trenton is married, he might have a wife with some blogging material about her husband's shoe obsession, too. :)

Sister, Sister Cake Decorating Company, Inc.

Karie and I have watched a couple episodes of "Ace of Cakes" on TV when we are bored--those cake decorators are incredible! We always get hungry for cake while we watch, amazed at the cakes that Duff and his people create. At the risk of sounding like we watch too much TV (and we do!), we recently watched the movie "Because I Said So." Great movie--and at the end, they show a pretty cool wedding cake with colored polka dots all over it. I think this was Karie's breaking point. She was suddenly inspired to make and decorate a cake. We looked up tips for using and making fondant (the smooth stuff that goes over icing to make the cakes look so good), and eventually made a trip to the store to buy pre-made fondant and some supplies. It took us at least 3 hours to finish this cake. Matt's mom's icing recipe is amazing, and we had to make two batches to cover the cake. Icing the cake was my job, and I have to say I was horrible at it! It took me forever to get that stuff smooth. Later we realized that it didn't need to be perfectly smooth since the fondant covers many of the flaws. Karie is the fondant roller-outer, and she is great at coloring the fondant, too! Here was our creation:

We had so much fun making this cake, and the funniest part was that it tasted awful! Fondant isn't known for being yummy, but somehow the cake underneath was bad, too. We laughed at ourselves and said we'd try again soon. Then the opportunity came! Our sister-in-law, Stephanie's birthday is Jan. 15, so we made a cake for her birthday dinner. This time, we used Linda's icing recipe AND cake recipe, and the cake tasted MUCH better. (Thanks, Linda!) Our decorating time was less than an hour, and I think it turned out better! We joke around about starting a cake company (hence the title above) so that we can save up for an expensive camera to start our own photography business! And now I think I've let everyone in a bit too much on just how crazy Karie and I really are. :)

Steph's birthday cake!!