Success!!!

I can successfully say that Nora is definately on her way to being completely potty trained!!!  I am so glad that I pushed through the beginning of the week.  Thanks so much to those who gave me encouraging words along the way...I definately needed them.  She is now telling us when she has to go potty and doesn't even want to use her potty chair.  She wants to use the big potty!  It is great.  She has not had an accident since Thursday, which is wonderful.  I really thought that we were not going to make it through the beginning of the week and we did!  She is so proud of herself.  We are still going to be doing the pull-ups at night and during nap time, but my daughter is potty trained!  So exciting!  No more diapers for Nora!!!

stand off

So I guess I spoke too soon when I said the potty training was going well.  Yesterday we hit a wall and I don't like it at all!  The weekend was great and Monday came around and of course I had to wake her up to go to Rebecca's and asked her to potty and she did not want to.  The last two mornings were "okay mommy" and she would run into the bathroom.  I am not sure what changed, but it has.  She had a rough day on the potty Monday and Peter was the one to pick her up since I had class and she had just had an accident and then went again in the pull-up right when they got home.  Needless to say she didn't go again for the rest of the night.
Yesterday I didn't even attempt when she woke up and waited until we got to the sitter.  She did end up going for her around 8:00 am and they decided she was going to be in charge and held it ALL day.  She still had not gone when I picked her up at 4:30....she was not going to "pee pee on the potty"!  We got home and I made her sit on it in front of the tv, offered pudding, ice cream and a movie, no potty.  We then moved to all the potty's in the house to try, no go....I finally got tired of the whining and crying and put a diaper on and she said, "I not pee pee in my diaper".  Okay, whatever Nora...about 20 minutes later she asked for a pull up, which I thought was a step in the right direction...NO!  Not 2 minutes later she went in the pull up!  Seriously child of mine! 
This morning she woke up at 6:00 am, which is very unusual for my child, because she was wet.  She stayed up and I put her princess underwear on and thanks to a good idea from a friend, on the way to the sitter we stopped and got a huge bag of M&M's.  Still not sure how I feel using candy as a reward, but I am desperate.  So, we shall see how the standoff goes today at the sitters house.  I hope she goes!!!

Braids & potty training

Cheese!! Look at me! I was trying to take a picture of the back of her head and she kept turning and smiling at me. Of course this is the same girl who would not even smile for me a month and a half ago at the park!!

So this was my first attempt at french braiding Nora's hair. I felt like something different today and she does so well when i do her hair that she actually held still. I did not part her hair very well, but she did good while I tried and braided her hair...I think it actually looked pretty darn cute! She was too funny. She kept touching it and asking me was in her hair.

Well my sitter decided that we were going to start potty training and Nora has done great!!! It was four months ago that we tried to do it on our own and it didn't take. So I was a little nervous, but she has been waking up dry in the morning and as soon as she goes she is asking to be changed. So we got out the potty again and underwear and it has been good. She has had a couple of accidents, but nothing like before. We have set times that we try and it is working. Before she was always going sporadically, but now she is actually going about the same time everyday and that actually helps so that is when we put her on the chair. She just lights up when she actually goes...it is funny. She has been telling everyone too! Our little girl is getting so big!!!

Jewels by Park Lane

So any of you know that my mom has started selling Jewels by Park Lane. She started on September 9th of this year and I could not be more proud of her! I am the one who pushed her to take on this new adventure and she is soaring with it. I had gone to a Park Lane event and wanted to start selling the jewelry myself, but decided my photography was more important, even though i would make WAY more doing JBPL.

Well last night they had a huge event here in St. Louis and the CEO of the company, Scott Levin, was here. It was held at Windows off Washington, a very nice banquet place. They had drinks and appetizers, a fashion show and jewelry raffle. We had known about this event for almost a month and as it got closer we were more excited. Well on Monday my mom found out that she was #1, yes you read that right, #1 in the country for the past week!!! The Senior VP of St. Louis emailed her and asked her to speak at the event, where over 300 people were going to be! With a little convincing from me and Mary Grace, she said yes. She was sooo nervous and I didn't even talk to her yesterday during the day because I didn't want to make her more nervous.

The event came and Susie, Katie, Aunt Janet, Yvette, Diane and Bitsy were all there. Some of them were interested in joining, and they had NO idea that mom was going to be speaking. So Mary Grace introduced by saying..."this person is very nervous and has never spoken in front of this many people before....she has only been with the company 10 weeks and has been in the top 25 three times, please welcome Kathy Bromeier". I thought Katie was going to die!!! Her speech was great! She did a fantastic job and even made people cry! It was sooo awesome! She did it and I am just so proud of her that she did. There were 300 people in that room and she gave an excellent speech!!!

After she was done the CEO took the stage and started handing out free jewelry!!! It was crazy and I got a beautiful necklace and earrings handed to me!!! He only handed out 10 sets of jewelry and I got one!!!! I can't wait to wear it. Then came the raffle and there were maybe 20 sets of jewelry given away and we had all bought raffle tickets and put them in the ones we wanted. Katie made us each put tickets in one of the blingy necklace and earring combo b/c she said she would wear it for the wedding. Yvette, won one of the ones that she had put in for and then number after number was called and no one at our table was winning until they called Susie's number for the blingy necklace and earrings!!! We couldn't believe it. It is valued at over $500!! Aunt Janet won a signature bracelet for signing up!

It was an amazing night and I am so glad that I was there to support my mom in her new business. Thanks to my friends and family who have had parties and I hope for those of you who haven't had a party you will!!! If you hold a show between now and March I am giving a free photo session to those who do. So if you want free photos or know someone who does have a show and you will get free pics and jewelry. It is an awesome thing and the deals are unbelieveable.

O Christmas Tree

 

 

 

 

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday and it was so fun to do it with Nora. She is sooo excited about Christmas. I don't think she realizes what is going to happen on Christmas morning yet, but can't wait for that either. We did see Santa last weekend and have seen some lights, but when we put our tree up she was too cute. She wanted to help put every ornament up and did such a good job being careful with everything. She kept repeating that back to me. She would get excited when another snowman or santa came out of the box and she has had a blast playing with the christmas stuffed animals I have pulled out. Peter put more christmas lights on the house this year and it was so funny as we were coming home this evening she got all excited and said, "Look mom, our christmas!!". Anytime she sees lights she calls it Christmas. I just love having a little one. It is more fun than I thought it would be! She brings a smile to my face everyday! She was having fun posing for me in front of the tree. Poor girl has her daddy's squinty smiling eyes! Me

Happy Thanksgiving

 

 

 

 

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We went to my Aunt Janet and Uncle Dan's for lunch and got to see that side of the family and then we headed to my mom's for dinner. My sisters and Uncle Mike were at her house. Nora got really wound up playing with Uncle Mike and she was just a riot! Nora and Jalen ended up spending the night at Pappy's house so the girls could do some shopping at midnight. That was an adventure! Hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving! We are so blessed!

Happy Halloween

 

 

 

 

Nora had a great Halloween this year. She was so fun and actually got it this year. She was on such a sugar rush that she was running from door to door with Jalen and that lasted all of 20 minutes. Then she walked and after an hour she was riding in the wagon. She got a good amount of candy and kept saying, "another house?". Supergirl did a great job!