Thanksgiving...

Well we survived Thanksgiving! I was really worried how Kayley would do with the potty training while we were away from home, but I was worried for nothing. Kayley did even better on the potty there than she does at home! She had a few accidents, but that was because she drank a TON! She pooped several times in the potty. What was the most impressive was on the way home. She said poopoo and stinky a couple of times. So we pulled in to a gas station parking lot and put her on her little potty in the back of the van...door closed of course so no one could see. She pooped all on her own without us trying to push her. She just sat down, pooped then stood up with arms raised yelling "I POOPOO, I POOPOO!!!"
She has become a modest pottier (not that that's even a word). She will go much faster when we leave her in the bathroom to do her business. So we have been doing that. We no longer have to use warm water to get her going. She'll hold her pee a lot longer now too. We have been potty training for about 3 months now. But we took 10 days off in the beginning. So I guess only 2.5 months or so. I definately think by Christmas she'll be done. Sure she'll have accidents every now and then, all kids do.

The drive to and from North Carolina was HORRIBLE!!! Apparently every person in VA. goes to North Carolina for the Holidays, and they all go at the same freaking time! It is technically only supposed to be a 6 hour drive, 7 with stops. Oh no, turned out to be 9.5 hours. For only 3 days to actually visit. I guess the one good thing of having gas at $5 a gallon is that there isn't as much traffic. Now that gas prices are down, so are the IQ points of drivers. Apparently 90% of drivers slept through drivers training when they talked about how to MERGE in traffic. It's not complicated people, 2 lanes go to one, every other car...MERGE! Not "get as many people over as possible before the person takes a break from texting on his cell phone and realizes he should go forward now." I mean seriously, we moved 3 miles in one hour. Construction on a holiday weekend, alright dumbies. Seriously, the spot of construction was all of 100 feet. Yet it caused an hour worth of delays. If we were in our F-350 dually truck, our butts would have driven on the side of the road all the way. 4 wheel drive is awesome!

The kids had a great time, and the grandparents did too. I was so stressed, I could have been in Hawaii and been grumpy. I am a control freak, duh. I am not used to my kids having free reign of the house. Not that it was a big deal, there were 4 adults and 2 teenagers that kept an eye on the kids, but I still felt like I was constantly trying to make sure which kid was where. Hard to relax like that :P

The grandparents were amazing with the kids. The kiddos had no problem being left with them so Clint and I could go out on a much needed date. I got to go to my fav restaurant and watch a movie I really wanted to see (Twilight). Clint was a good sport :) We then got to walk through Walmart. As bad as that sounds, I really enjoyed it. You see, out here, the Walmarts are BEYOND ghetto. So being able to walk through a nice walmart was really fun. Out here I have to stick to Target. Not as much variety as Walmart has. Oh well.

We also took the kids to see the new movie Bolt. The kids did amazing! They watched the whole movie and Ky only had to get up once to pee. But that's the night she had tons of pee accidents. In order to bribe her to stay seated she got to drink as much juice as she wanted. Boy did that backfire!

I didn't take any pics because I just wanted to relax and enjoy the moment. Not like that happened, but still. I did get a great video of Kaiden eating a pickle in his sleep. I'll find a way to post that somehow. It is hilarious!

On the way home I really felt like jumping in to a meat grinder would have been more tolerable. Traffic was backed up for over 120 miles. Again, the idiot drivers not knowing how to merge. For 3 hours we were in rush hour stop and barely go traffic. Almost 10 hours of driving total. Kayley screamed for most of that. Kaiden did good, he didn't start screaming until near the end of the drive. By the time we got home I was so angry and tired. I am so glad the trip is over. I loved being at Clint's parents house. Next time we are flying down. I'll gladly pay $250 per person to fly. I don't think my nerves could take any more traffic!

We're going down again for Christmas. At least now we have all the kinks worked out. I know what to expect so I won't be as stressed this time.

Thank you Sharon and Rick for having us! We really did have a good time. Plan on picking us up at the airport next time :)