Little Micah isn't usually a fan of tummy time, and I'm not so good at making him do it. But with his new Christmas mobile gym/ tummy mat (Thanks, Grammy!) tummy time just got more enjoyable for everyone involved.
About 2 weeks ago, we decided that Luke may never become interested in using the potty on his own and that we'd just have to make him do it. So I wrestled (literally!) him into a pull up and started putting him on the potty every 30 minutes or so. The first day we had nothing but accidents, but on the 2nd day he went for the first time in the potty. He was so proud! Since then we've practiced for a few hours every day. After the first 2 days with a lot of accidents we've mostly switched to big boy underwear during our practice time at home. (Pull-ups are too expensive for lots of accidents and they weren't good at helping Luke recognize his accidents.) When I'm consistent in taking him to the bathroom he'll go several times a day in the toilet. We usually only do a few hours a day because he has too many accidents to wear underwear at other people's houses or out while we're running errands, etc. And to be honest I can only deal with so many accidents and bathroom trouble each day.
The best way that I've found to keep him on the potty is to let him draw all over the toilet seat with bath crayons. He has to sit for quite a while before he goes, so sometimes I have to pop in and out of the bathroom. He's figured out all the fun, naughty things to do in there, so when I open the bathroom door he usually tries to push me out saying, "Help mama go bye." Some of the things he has done are:
1. Draw all over inside the toilet with his crayons. Note for anyone out there who wants to try the same thing: if you leave the crayon in the toilet for a few days IT WON'T EVER COME OFF.
2. Load up the toilet with toilet paper.
3. Throw his toothbrush in the toilet, fish it out, suck on it, repeat. When I caught that one I almost threw up. I threw away said toothbrush, scrubbed his hands and face with soap, and have since hidden the new toothbrush in the medicine cabinet.
4. Escape into his bedroom and hide all of his big boy underwear. Don't worry. I found it.
We deal with the trouble as it comes. No one can say he isn't creative!
And speaking of creative, potty training has inspired some pretty funny phrases. I was trying to teach Luke how to relax and pee. I told him to push on his tummy to help the pee pee come. I was trying to show him where the muscles are. Anyway, he started pushing really hard and looking down at his (you know). When nothing happened he looked back up at me and asked, "Is it broken?"
But we applaud his progress! Late last week he told me that he had to go potty for the first time. When I let him into the bathroom he got right onto the potty and went! I was so proud of him. Luke got 3 m&ms for that potty trip. Little Luke is becoming such a big boy.
We left Nevada on Christmas day, and we drove to Utah to visit with my side of the family. My dad met us at the Salt Lake airport, and then we met everybody else in temple square to look at the lights.
It was beautiful, but very cold. All the buildings closed at 5 pm, but we were able to nab a few minutes of warmth in the tabernacle before everyone was kicked out.
Let me tell you that nursing a baby outside in the freezing cold is not a fun experience! But it felt so good and Christmasy to be around so many lights. And looking at the temple was the perfect reminder of the true reason for the Christmas season.
I love this depiction of the nativity.
It felt like we were pretty busy the whole time we were in Utah. But all the days have run together in my memory and I'm not sure what we did on which day. We had dinner at Megan's and hung out there one day. We hung out in Provo another day. I was very excited to see my friend Nora one of those mornings. I'm pretty sure that Nathan's family and Michael came into town on the 29th. While we were waiting for Michael's flight to get in the rest of us went to Chuck E. Cheese.
Luke loved it! He pretended to play this video game for awhile. He tried a couple games of ski ball in which he definitely got his token's worth because the ball never made it all the way up the ramp so he could have just kept rolling it and rolling it all day long.
He played a few games of basketball with Jared.
And then he discovered Blue Car.
And that was that. He wouldn't look at any other ride. He would grin and drive the car. When it stopped moving, he would run over to Jared and say, "More monies," then climb back into the car, insert the token, and drive to his heart's content. When we noticed other kids waiting we'd drag him out and restrain him until it could be his turn again.
He didn't mind sharing his car. Here he is with Skyler. I think he also drove it with Blake. He definitely shared a ride with a little girl with more than a casual encounter on her mind. She climbed right into the car and put her arm around Luke. Luke leaned as far away from her as he could. His head was literally hanging out of the car, but he never let go of the steering wheel for a second.
We tried to get Luke to go on another ride. This is the result:
He was straining so hard to get out of the seat that he didn't even finish the ride. We got him out and let him drive the blue car some more.
On the 30th we took family pictures at the Provo Library. Megan's friend does photography as a hobby and she got some pretty good shots. Here's the fam (minus Michael's fiancee Cara, whom I have yet to meet.)
After the big group shots, we did individual family photos.
My brother Eric with his wife Monica and daughters Bridget and Brooklyn
My sister Megan and her husband James and kids: Ethan, Taylie, Brenna, and Blake
My brother Nathan with his wife Sarah and sons Skyler and Zack
Our family
And then we did my parents with their kids, grandkids, and a few more group shots.
I loved this picture of the Orton Brady Bunch.
The Grandkids
My beautiful sister Amber
This picture makes me want to have a big family. We have so much fun together! And we always did. Then of course I remember that 6 kids means 6 pregnancies and 6 births and 6 years of very little sleep and I just think to myself, "Mmmmm....we'll have to think that through a little more." I'm so glad my mom was a lot more tough than myself. I sure am glad that she did it.
Later that day my whole family (minus grandkids) did a temple session in the Mount Timpanogas Temple where we could all be with Michael when he received his endowments. What a special, special day! It was amazing to be there with my whole family.
On New Years day, Jared and I met up with his parents (in town for the blessing) for a breakfast buffet at Golden Corral. Then we met up with my family for a lunch buffet at Golden Corral. Yeah. I ate a lot that day. Then we went home for a few hours break before the blessing. Luke played outside in the snow with his cousins Bridget and Brooklyn.
That night was the baby blessing.
Micah and Zack
Most of the people from out of town took off on the 2nd. We were able to nab a few pictures of Luke and Micah with Mima and Papa before they left. I'm excited that Luke and Micah will have a lot of time with them over this coming summer.
We stayed in Utah until the 5th, and it was nice to have a little bit more time with Michael, Megan, and Amber. With Micah being so small and Luke being so crazy it was hard to have time to just sit and visit. A few extra days to talk with a few of my siblings was nice. I wish we lived closer together. How does everyone feel about Texas???
Micah was blessed in Provo on January 1, 2011 (1-1-11). It was a very special day, and we were glad to have so much family with us.
Jared gave Micah a beautiful blessing in which Micah was promised that he would be happy and healthy. He was told to look to his family as examples. That means that Jared, Luke, and I need to make sure we try our very best in all things but especially in following Christ's example so that we will be good examples for Micah. Micah was also blessed with empathy to recognize people around him who are in pain and the ability to help them overcome that pain. Jared's cousin Susan thinks that Micah will be a doctor. Maybe.
Sweet Micah with Dada
So precious
So pure
After the blessing we had refreshments and the while the Ortons mostly talked in the Relief Society Room, the Wilkersons started a game of basketball.
We were excited that so many of Jared's siblings were able to make it. Katrina and her husband David (below) were there from Oklahoma, and his sister Rachel and her family came up from Moroni. We hadn't seen either of them for about 3 years.
The Wilkerson Girls:
Rachel, Katrina, and Sally
The Girls with Their Cousin Susan
(Jared and I used to live in Susan's basement)
And the whole Wilkerson crew
(Minus Leonard, Edward, Rod and families)
Thank you to all who came, and thank you Sally for the beautiful pictures!
Cousin Zack was born just 1 month after Micah. I really hope they're going to be buds.
Looks like they're on their way
Zack and Micah shared a blessing day. It was very special to have Michael be a part of the blessings. And it was special that Zack and Micah could do this together.
This year we were lucky to have a long Christmas vacation. We spent the first 10 days of our break in Nevada with Jared's parents. It was so great to get to visit his home because we hadn't been back there for 3 years! And it was especially special because it was probably the last time we'll ever get to go there since Jared's parents will be leaving on a mission and are trying to sell their house before they leave.
Luke remembered Grandma and Grandpa from their trip out to Virginia when Micah was born. He was sooooo happy to play with them again!
We were trying to get Luke to smile. It wasn't working so well, so I told him to do a surprised face instead. This is Grandma's and Luke's surprised faces:
Grandma and Micah
Luke is almost smiling.
"No, Luke! I said smile, not pick your nose!"
We did lots of fun things while we were there, and had plenty of time to visit. I think I enjoyed the visiting more than anything because I haven't had as much time with my new family as I would like. We've always lived so far apart! So I had fun talking with Mom, Sally, Jessica, and all the men. When I wasn't feeding Micah or chasing Luke, that is.
Jared liked going for runs in the snowy hills and helping Frank frame the windows in the house. Too bad for him he had to do some research and work while he was there. Poor Jared. It just never ends. Jared also played a lot of Mario Kart once Sally and Jeff came with their Wii.
And Luke liked almost everything. He LOVED the snow. And he looked so cute bundled up in his snow suit.
Mom and Dad's house has a fenced yard all around the house (so no separate fence for front and back yards.) Luke invented a game where he would run around the house to the back door and knock. When the door was opened he would come inside say hello, run through the house to the front door, yell good-bye, slam the door and then run back to the back door. He would do this over and over and over. Mom and Dad were so patient with this game. Mom and Dad also took Luke on walks every day. They went to the mail, to get the newspaper or just around the yard.
Luke spent a lot of time begging to go out the back fence to do one of three things: play basketball, play in the car, or play in the food storage shed.
Grandpa tried making a snowman with Luke. Luke didn't quite get it. He liked putting on the carrot nose, but he wouldn't leave it on the snowman's face. So Grandpa pretty much made the snowman all on his own. But he did a great job.
Luke really enjoyed helping Grandma in the kitchen. He was always underfoot, but Grandma didn't mind. Luke helped with the smoothies every morning. He also begged to make cookies several times.
Decorating gingerbread cookies
Grandma also helped Luke do some art. This is Grandma showing Luke a glue stick. I can't remember now what they used the glue to do, but I know Luke did some painting and coloring while at Grandma's house. One of his other favorite things was playing with the CD player. He would play a "How to play the Bass Guitar" CD over and over. We all thought that was pretty funny.
A few days after we got there Jared's brother Frank and his family came to visit. Luke really enjoyed having another kid around. Myles was a little sick while they were there and wanted to spend a lot of time cuddling with his mom and dad. But Luke always wanted to play with Myles. He would tug on Myles's leg when Jessica or Frank was holding him and say, "Get down. Play with Luke." Some of their favorite games were:
Talking on the phone
Luke spinning Myles on the chair
And playing with Grandma's toys
Grandpa had a super fun 4wheeler. Jared took me on an awesome ride through the hills by their house. I was a little scared at first but I soon caught the thrill and asked him to take me again. Jared took it easy with Luke. They just drove around the garage a few times.
I also drove it around the garage, but I was too scared to drive it on the bumpy trails. This was Luke's absolute favorite thing about Grandma and Grandpa's house: the food storage shed. He would BEG to go "see fan, see heater, see fan, see heater," every single day. There was a space heater inside that Luke couldn't get enough of.
Inside the shed
Finding some spices
The space heater!!!
On one day Luke laid on the floor of the shed turning the heater on and off for over an hour while Jared, Sally, Frank, and I played horse in the driveway.
His second favorite outdoor activity was playing with the car. Grandpa showed him how to open the door and it became quite the hobby.
Did you see Luke mouth the word "open" when he was inside the car? He could open the door on the outside but had trouble opening from the inside, so someone had to stand out there next to him to let him out. Which means that while Luke loved the car game no one else was a big fan.
Grandpa is on a special diet that restricts, among other things, his sodium intake. He couldn't have salt in his food, so we got Grandpa a big supply of Mrs. Dash for his birthday. Luke liked to line up the spices and smell them. Seriously, they kept him occupied for a long time.
Luke also loved the wood burning stove. He would want Grandma or Grandpa to open the stove so he could see the fire. A couple of times he tried to open it himself. In this picture, he stole the matches and took them to Grandma because he wanted to help light the fire. I hope we don't have a pyro on our hands.
Last year Jared and I made a birthday cake to celebrate the birth of Christ. (Tres Leches of course). We wanted to make it a tradition, so we made it again, this time on Christmas Eve since we were leaving on Christmas morning. Yum!
Luke still didn't understand Santa and presents that well, but he did like his lego train that Santa brought him. However he liked some other presents more.
Luke really liked playing with Grandma's funnel. So she gave him one for Christmas. He carried it around all that morning. Luke likes to transfer water back and forth between bowls and bottles. He loved using the funnel to get the water in the bottle, but he still spills enough that the funnel has become a bath toy-- his favorite bath toy.
It was such a nice trip! Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for letting us stay!
The best way that I've found to keep him on the potty is to let him draw all over the toilet seat with bath crayons. He has to sit for quite a while before he goes, so sometimes I have to pop in and out of the bathroom. He's figured out all the fun, naughty things to do in there, so when I open the bathroom door he usually tries to push me out saying, "Help mama go bye." Some of the things he has done are:
It was beautiful, but very cold. All the buildings closed at 5 pm, but we were able to nab a few minutes of warmth in the tabernacle before everyone was kicked out.
Let me tell you that nursing a baby outside in the freezing cold is not a fun experience! But it felt so good and Christmasy to be around so many lights. And looking at the temple was the perfect reminder of the true reason for the Christmas season.
It felt like we were pretty busy the whole time we were in Utah. But all the days have run together in my memory and I'm not sure what we did on which day. We had dinner at Megan's and hung out there one day. We hung out in Provo another day. I was very excited to see my friend Nora one of those mornings. I'm pretty sure that Nathan's family and Michael came into town on the 29th. While we were waiting for Michael's flight to get in the rest of us went to Chuck E. Cheese.
And that was that. He wouldn't look at any other ride. He would grin and drive the car. When it stopped moving, he would run over to Jared and say, "More monies," then climb back into the car, insert the token, and drive to his heart's content. When we noticed other kids waiting we'd drag him out and restrain him until it could be his turn again.
We tried to get Luke to go on another ride. This is the result:
He was straining so hard to get out of the seat that he didn't even finish the ride. We got him out and let him drive the blue car some more.
On the 30th we took family pictures at the Provo Library. Megan's friend does photography as a hobby and she got some pretty good shots. Here's the fam (minus Michael's fiancee Cara, whom I have yet to meet.)
After the big group shots, we did individual family photos. 
My sister Megan and her husband James and kids: Ethan, Taylie, Brenna, and Blake
My brother Nathan with his wife Sarah and sons Skyler and Zack
This picture makes me want to have a big family. We have so much fun together! And we always did. Then of course I remember that 6 kids means 6 pregnancies and 6 births and 6 years of very little sleep and I just think to myself, "Mmmmm....we'll have to think that through a little more." I'm so glad my mom was a lot more tough than myself. I sure am glad that she did it.
Most of the people from out of town took off on the 2nd. We were able to nab a few pictures of Luke and Micah with Mima and Papa before they left. I'm excited that Luke and Micah will have a lot of time with them over this coming summer.
After the blessing we had refreshments and the while the Ortons mostly talked in the Relief Society Room, the Wilkersons started a game of basketball.
We were excited that so many of Jared's siblings were able to make it. Katrina and her husband David (below) were there from Oklahoma, and his sister Rachel and her family came up from Moroni. We hadn't seen either of them for about 3 years.
Zack and Micah shared a blessing day. It was very special to have Michael be a part of the blessings. And it was special that Zack and Micah could do this together.
We were trying to get Luke to smile. It wasn't working so well, so I told him to do a surprised face instead. This is Grandma's and Luke's surprised faces:
We did lots of fun things while we were there, and had plenty of time to visit. I think I enjoyed the visiting more than anything because I haven't had as much time with my new family as I would like. We've always lived so far apart! So I had fun talking with Mom, Sally, Jessica, and all the men. When I wasn't feeding Micah or chasing Luke, that is.
Mom and Dad's house has a fenced yard all around the house (so no separate fence for front and back yards.) Luke invented a game where he would run around the house to the back door and knock. When the door was opened he would come inside say hello, run through the house to the front door, yell good-bye, slam the door and then run back to the back door. He would do this over and over and over. Mom and Dad were so patient with this game. Mom and Dad also took Luke on walks every day. They went to the mail, to get the newspaper or just around the yard.
Grandpa tried making a snowman with Luke. Luke didn't quite get it. He liked putting on the carrot nose, but he wouldn't leave it on the snowman's face. So Grandpa pretty much made the snowman all on his own. But he did a great job.
Luke really enjoyed helping Grandma in the kitchen. He was always underfoot, but Grandma didn't mind. Luke helped with the smoothies every morning. He also begged to make cookies several times. 
Grandpa had a super fun 4wheeler. Jared took me on an awesome ride through the hills by their house. I was a little scared at first but I soon caught the thrill and asked him to take me again. Jared took it easy with Luke. They just drove around the garage a few times. 
I also drove it around the garage, but I was too scared to drive it on the bumpy trails.
This was Luke's absolute favorite thing about Grandma and Grandpa's house: the food storage shed. He would BEG to go "see fan, see heater, see fan, see heater," every single day. There was a space heater inside that Luke couldn't get enough of.
Luke really liked playing with Grandma's funnel. So she gave him one for Christmas. He carried it around all that morning. Luke likes to transfer water back and forth between bowls and bottles. He loved using the funnel to get the water in the bottle, but he still spills enough that the funnel has become a bath toy-- his favorite bath toy.
