THE HOUSE SOLD!

Well, I have just a minute to update everyone who wants to know. We sold our house last Thursday!!! We accepted the offer (which was way too good to pass up) and were told we need to be out as soon as possible. So, the weekend was spent looking for somewhere to live, and after a very stressful 4 days we are almost packed up and will move to our new place on Friday, 8 days after we signed the offer. We close on Tuesday!

Yes, this happened all way too fast, but we know that it is what we are supposed to be doing right now! We can't move to our new property until May (hopefully sooner if we are lucky). So, we found a furnished condo here in Post Falls, right above the dam, way cool. We will live here for 2 months and then move to Tyson's Parent's house until we move to our property. Tyson's parents have a place in AZ they vacation to in the winter so there house will be vacant anyways. We are super excited for what lies ahead, although stressed and nervous at the same time!! hopefully we will get Halloween pics up after we move and other updates of what we have been doing!!

Wish us Luck!!

Hey, hey, hey. We are alive and doing well. What a busy crazy, and really fun summer we have had. We went on a really fun trip to the Seattle area to visit my sister. stayed on the Oregon coast for a few days and even made a short side trip to Tyson's uncle's orchard in Mt Hood. When we got back there was no rest for the weary, we started cleaning out the old house to get it ready to sell. Oh yeah, we bought a piece of property earlier this summer, it is BEAUTIFUL!! Now, we are trying to sell this house so in June we can move to the new property. (there are renters in the little house that is on the property). So, between all these exciting points there has been little things too:
Aaron decided diapers are better than the toilet, so he is NOT potty trained
Leah is walking now!!
Leah turned ONE year...time flies huh?
Tyson is scuba certified now, he had a lot of fun
And me, I can't wait to read catching fire second book of the hunger games~!!

Tyson and I decided to start a new tradition in our home. When the baby is weaned, mom gets a weekend out! So, now that I get this exciting time to myself, I have no idea what to do! I think I will get a room at the CDA resort and bring my cool book, take in a massage and just relax. I am so nervous to do this all by myself, weird huh?

Anyways, just a quick update.

Aaron's happy birthday song

So, after the appealing rendition of ABC's. We thought we would follow up with this beautiful song. Aaron has been to lots of b-day parties and has leaned how to get attention while he sings to the birthday person.

Now I know my ABC's

So, Aaron has "learned" his ABC's. check out my whiz kid.

potty training

So, the day has come for our first born to be potty trained. So, being the studious mommy that I am, I studied methods and books and advice. I decided to try "potty train your child in just one day" (HA!) I spent weeks planning the perfect POTTY PARTY for Aaron, dished out my daughter for the day and got together a rockin' day for Aaron. Well, the day went great, I thought all the bad advice and comments I received were jokes. He only had a few accidents and by the end of the day he was telling me he had to "go". I thought it was successful. We ended the day with a big party. His Aunt Autumn got him a pair of boxer briefs, he loves them and never wanted to take them off, even the next day when he "wet" them.
I woke up the next day very optimistic, thinking my brilliant son was potty trained in one day! (HA!) Well, we had accident after accident..... he finally picked things back up after his nap, and ended the day great. Meanwhile I was crying and freaking out, I mean, I failed after all right? I finally came to grips with the fact that potty training in one day is crap (sorry for that) and that accidents happen. With that knowledge in my arsenal I faced the next day better and today was GREAT. He had two small accidents and the rest of the day he did great. Even when we had to go on a ride, we brought his potty and went 3 times in the back of the car. He has done so great.
I now understand why all you mothers out there would rather give birth than potty train, it was serious work and emotional for both of us. Now that he is basically doing it on his own, I am more relaxed and am so proud of him. I, by all means, know there will be tons more accidents, but I am feeling pretty good about the whole thing. I am now calling the program we used "jump start your potty training in just one day" I think it is more realistic and fitting.
Thanks for all your well wishes and day to day comments to my freaking out on facebook, they helped me unwind at the end of the day!

our "square foot" garden

Well, it's a little bigger than a square foot but it sure has been fun getting together and planting. Here are a few pictures.

This is Aaron and Tyson making mommy's "mother's day" gift. The garden is beautiful, and the love that went into making it was amazing.

Here is a picture of the finished product, we are super proud of them.
Here is a shot of the shallow box. It holds 4 tomatoes, 2 peppers, 16 peas, 4 cucumbers, 1 pumpkin and 4 watermelons. Also, 4 experimental tomato plants that aren't looking so good at this point.

This is a shot of the deeper box. It holds 16 corn plants, 48 carrots, 48 radishes, 1 sunflower and 16 peas.

Just today when we checked the garden all our plants are thriving and up except the carrots, which we expect to pop up any day!! who knew gardening could be so fun!!! we will keep the pictures coming to update our progress.

Our Little LELU

Many of you have asked how little Leah is doing, so for you here it is! Our little LeLu is not so little she is HONKIN!! At 6 months she was over the 100% mark in height and weight. Way to go Leah. She is 7 1/2 months now and we cannot believe how time has past us by. She started crawling right around her 6 month birthday and hasn't stopped moving since. She can now pull her self up on furniture and tries to move around a little (most of the time flopping over and banging her head, lovely day!) She has four teeth, her bottom front 2 teeth and her top side teeth, what can we say, we are white trash!! She loves playing with Aaron, who bytheway relentlessly beats her. He can make her laugh and cry all in about 30 seconds time. She loves toys and playing outside, when it is not snowing or raining buckets, even then I think she would enjoy it. She loves to wake up real early and spend an hour of alone time with mom and dad in bed. BUT she has been sleeping through the night since forever so we don't mind snuggling with her in the wee hours of the morning. She LOVES LOVES LOVES food, duh she weighs a ton. She loves her sippy cup and any type of substance you can put in front of her. She loves Screaming at the top of her lungs especially at church when the music starts playing. She loves jabbering and saying DADA. Her tubes are proving to be the best thing we ever did. She hasn't had to deal with ear pain for over 4 months now and we are so happy about that. She looks darling in all her dresses and mom loves making her look like a girly girl.

That is the update about our Leah... hope you have an idea about how she is doing.

BOOKS

So, I think I have been pretty caught up the last month or so. I have been reading like a crazy maniac. Seriously, there is something wrong with me. I recently watched Twilight, the movie, and couldn't get enough so I reread all of those books twice, before moving on to the unfinished draft of Midnight Sun. Dang those books are good, and addicting. However, I needed a change and something out of the vampire genre. So, I found a book that Stephanie Meyer recommended and LOVED IT. It is called The Hunger Games!! WOW. I loved it. When I reached the end I was dying for more, so I searched the Internet and was happily surprised when I found out this is the first book of a trilogy! YEAH. The best part of the book is that it is written for young adults (teens) so it is super clean and is fantastically captivating!! If you're looking for a good, quick and easy, read try The Hunger Games! You won't be disappointed.
My next challenge will be finishing Wuthering Heights. My first classic in a long time. Wish me luck!

P.S. I am looking for some great "running" songs. I have found that my play list isn't exactly a good match for keeping a good tempo while I am training. So, if you have any ideas, please scoot them this way! thanks

WHAT?!

Yes, this is really the Frantzes (I guess that is the correct grammatical spelling, that's what my brother-in-law taught us, looks funny to me) We have certainly been busy bees these last few weeks. Leah has pulled through the "tubes" ordeal great and is so happy and dealing with life so much better. She sleeps, eats and moves just wonderfully. Aaron is good too, he is a typical 2 year old little boy.
We took a fun trip to Scottsdale Az a while ago to visit Tyson's parents and his Aunt and uncle. We took a "Hairplane" ride, Aaron loved every minute of it. Leah took the trip just fine as well. we had so much fun. We took a ATV ride into National forest land and I was expecting to go into the trees, but to my surprise it was all cactus. We got to see a Huge fountain squirt into the air at a near by town and coincidentally there was a street fair going on. So we strolled for a little while, and we ran into a friend's mother. Kirsten, that's you!
We have been doing a lot with the families. Making fun trips to Chuck E Cheese, and playing with cousins. One of Tyson's projects is finished and had a wonderful open house yesterday. Tyson was so nervous, but everything went so well.
Anyways, just trying to keep the ol blog updated!!

Have you ever...

So, have you ever had one of those days when, after the kids are in bed, you think 'boy I am glad the day is over!"? Well, for me, today is one of those days. The day began great, both kids slept in until almost 8:00 (WOW, I know). Tyson was getting ready to go to the New Shanghai Circus in Missoula (A Christmas present from me!) with his dad, WHEN all of the sudden (really out of the blue) Aaron puked all over our bed. Thus begins our story... Tyson still had to get ready so I was cleaning up everything and crying because I was so stressed about taking care of a barfing baby and a teething baby all by myself, both of whom are very clingy. Tyson left home and we proceeded to watch Finding Nemo, Toy Story...took a break in there for some more barf... then ate lunch, took a HEAVENLY 3 hour nap, watched Cars, Thomas the Train, Little Einsteins and a part of Wall-E. .. in between taking breaks for medication and temp checks (Aaron got up to 103.7) Got up and ready for bed and finally we have peace again! I know I am a bad mom but with 2 attachments hanging on all day it is all I could do but to turn on the tube and be entertained all day. Truthfully, I am still worried that the night will bring more adventure and when Ty returns tomorrow I will be zonked! Anywho, thought I would share my eventful day.

My sister cussed me out for not posting more pics, so here are some. The first here is called the "chapless cowboy" for obvious reasons. Aaron got dress up clothes from grandma Asper this Christmas and here is the cowboy outfit.

Here is our cute Leah in her bumbo while mom got dinner ready. The temptation was too great and the paper towels lost the fight!

This is a picture of our little pirate. He is so cute with the sword. The other day we were watching a show and there happened to be a sword fight. Aaron looked at it intently then made a mad dash upstairs and came back with his sword, he had a little battle with the fellows on TV. It was hilarious.

Have a great night!

Leah's ears

So, it is finally done!! Leah's ears now hove tubes! We are thankful that we were able to go through with the surgery this time around and she did wonderfully! WAY TO GO LEAH! The hardest part was thinking about it the whole night before, and when she was first out of surgery. But she did great!! Just thought you all would want to know!

New card

Posted a new card for 2 sketches 4 you. Here is the direct link if you want to check it out.

Leah's poor ears

So, it has been an "exciting" week. We had scheduled Leah to get ear tubes this week. She has had 4 double ear infections back to back for what seems likes months. Some times one infection would last two rounds of antibiotic. It sure has been a struggle but she has been a trooper. So, on Monday night we farmed out Aaron to family, prepared the bags and what not, and Tuesday morning we got up @ 5:00 am starved out daughter (she had to be fasting) and headed to the hospital. (Sorry for the super long sentence) She had been sick a few days prior to the surgery and that cold put a halt on the surgery. We went to the Dr.s office later that day and what do you know, she still has infection (that "should" have been cleared) So, we are back to the Dr.s tomorrow to get a new treatment for her infection. Hopefully one she will respond to and that won't make her sick. Please pray for our Leah! She is such a good baby even through all this.

Posted a new card for this week's sketch from 2 sketches 4 you. If you want to see a direct link to the card here it is.

Wish us luck for the week to come!!!

Thought I would sit and write about the happenings of the last few days. Well, yesterday was a fun day. I attended a baby shower for a friend and was so excited. I made a cute word book scrapbook for daughter-to-be and she loved it. It is always hard to create something for someone else, I never know if they will have the same taste as me. I was nervous going because I left Leah home with the boys (Aaron and Tyson) I have never left her home at bedtime. This would have been her first time with the bottle (my milk of course) and it scared me. I held onto my cell during the whole shower. As bed time approached then passed I relaxed, IT HAD WORKED I thought. I got a call at 8:05, it was Ty, I knew I was going to have to go home right away, but I was wrong. Leah was great, took the bottle and fell asleep. Aaron on the other hand was not okay. He had gotten a hold of a full box of corn starch that was left on our buffet in our living room. He dumped it all out on our carpet, rubbed it into our beautiful shag, ate it and played in it. Fun times. Uncle Jon (Frantz) was at our house and gratefully got the camera and snapped a few photos. Most of it has come out of the carpet and buffet. I woke up this morning and discovered a beautiful "dust" covering on most of our furniture! This incident alone had made me thankful that I went to the shower, I did not have to clean it up!

Well, I have been into a crafty mood as of late, and I can thank my hubby for that. For Christmas He gave me the Pazzles inspiration cutter. AWESOME. This baby is way better than my cricut!! It is a die cutting system that cuts paper (any thickness, chipboard, metal, wood...) engraves, etches, draws, embosses, distresses and pierces!!! SWEET. And the best thing is, it will cut anything on your PC (that includes fonts, pictures, clip art... from the Internet too) I told you last time that we were all spoiled this year! Anywho, the word book from above, that I regretfully did not get a photo of, was made by the pazzles, and I have made cards and have been inspired to make more cards because of websites like http://2sketches4you.blogspot.com/. I have already completed the challenge that is listed!!! I made a baby shower invitation for the three sister-in-laws having babies. ( Kim H., Tori F, and Katie F. all due with days of each other!) Fun, fun, fun.

Anyways, lots going on. I am super excited to get back to things I love. I always seem to take a break from the "wants" of life after having a baby. This time it took me a little longer to get back to it... Have a great week and sorry for the long update.

Here are a few shots of the kids.

Leah, and her LONG tongue

Found Leah and Aaron in her crib together. The sweet thing was, Aaron put his lightening McQueen car on her belly, and he took her puppy!!! They both were mesmerized by her mobile.

Aaron after his first real haircut, can't see his hair but his wink was totally adorable!!!