How to get a toddler to sleep in a bed.

Rebekah has been struggling with naps because she has learned how to climb out of her crib and wouldn't stay in her bed. Although she stays in her bed just fine at night, probably because it's dark. Finally on Monday after not napping she was so tired that she had a hard time sleeping (don't ask why, but when my kids get over-tired they don't sleep.) She kept me up half the night on Monday night. So, Tuesday I decided she had to take a nap. After she played for an hour I prayed about what to because nothing was working and I was getting frustrated. I didn't want another sleepless night because she wouldn't nap again. After praying, I felt like I should go in there and sit with her, ignore her, but put her back in bed each time she sat up. I did that and she was out in 20 minutes. I felt bad ignoring Hyrum while I did it, though. Wednesday, she wouldn't stay in bed at naps again and I couldn't stay in there because Hyrum was fussy and needed me. I tried, but he kept screaming. So, I decided that each time she got out of her bed I would take something away. (One of her sleeping items: baby, water cup, extra pillow, favorite blanket, etc.) Finally I was down to her last item, and I wasn't sure what to do. Then it came to me- I warned her that if she got out of bed again I would have to buckle her in her car seat for a nap. I closed her door and went to get her car seat. Sure enough in a minute or two she was out of bed again. So, I buckled her in her car seat gave her a blanket that she doesn't necessarily like and left. She screamed for about 5 minutes and fell asleep. I wasn't sure I liked restraining her to get her to sleep, but something had to be done for my sanity as well as hers. The next day, Thursday, I took down her crib in the morning because it wasn't doing any good anyway. Then, at naps I told her the same story. If you get out of bed I'll have to take your things away, when everything's gone you're going to have to be buckled in your car seat. So, that day I ended up taking her water cup, baby, favorite blanket, and extra pillow. But, that was it. She stayed in her bed after that and fell asleep. On Friday I told her the same story, and -she proved to be a pretty smart two year old.- she didn't get out of bed once! She realized she got to keep her stuff if she stayed in bed. Saturday and today I didn't have to take anything away either. I'm glad I didn't have to use the car seat method again. And I'm glad she's back to her normal sleeping patterns.

A bit of a self-reliance lesson

A few days ago I had made a really hot fire in the wood burning stove to heat our cold house. Well, apparently I did a good job, because the fire was hotter than ever. So, I wondered if I could boil water on top like people used to do to cook food. Well, it worked. I boiled potatoes and and I boiled some noodles for snack. I decided to use the potatoes to make a shepherds pie for dinner. Then, when the boiling water was successful I decided to try making a makeshift oven on top and see if I could make the whole dinner over the fire. Here's a few pictures of my "oven". I made it with #10 cans, a cookie cooling rack and some tin foil. Shepherds Pie turned out great!
That worked and so I thought I'd try making some brownies in my makeshift oven. But, by this time the fire was even hotter. It ended up being too hot and burnt the brownies on the bottom and edges while the middle took longer than normal to cook. The brownies turned out okay as long as we just ate the center. I definitely learned a lot and am more prepared to cook over a fire if we don't have electricity for some reason.

Yesterday I decided to move all my canned food out the food storage area and into the house because (silliness) the food storage shelves are in the laundry room where the air gets very moist from the dryer. The cans are starting to rust on the outside. So, I pulled all the extra toys out of Rebekah's closet and put them in the laundry room storage cupboards and I also cleaned out the linen closet and put the extra blankets, sheets and towels out in the laundry room too. I filled those two closets with food storage.This is where my cans used to be stored.

I also made a little stair place for the children to play on in Rebekah's room. I covered it with two table cloths to protect the boxes. We'll see how long this lasts.

The children had fun helping me put the cans and jars in the closet when I was down to the single cans.
Sorry the pictures are fuzzy, I just realized that there was a big smudge on the camera lens. (Probably toddler fingerprints) :)

First Birthday!

Happy Birthday Hyrum!

My baby turned one! I can't believe time has flown by so fast. Hyrum's been with us for 8 months now and he's growing so fast. Here's a little picture story of his cake expereince. I
made a cake for him, but his "Nana" (old foster mom) made him a little one to have all for himself. So, he had that one and the rest of us had the big one.

Had to move the curtain out of the way...




On to the presents!

He's our happy boy. We sure love him!!

It's final

Yesterday we received a pile of papers in the mail from out attorney basically stating that Brigham and Rebekah are now ours for good. The adoptions were finalized and their names legally changed. We are so excited! To celebrate, we went out to dinner as a family. It feels so good to have two out of the three be ours for real. We're still waiting on the amended birth certificates, but those will be along shortly. Now I have to go to the doctor office, pharmacy, and everywhere else that has records of them and get their names changed. It will be so nice to call the doctor and actually make an appointment for Rebekah F____ instead of Angelina G______ . And to go to the pharmacy asking for a prescription for Brigham F______ instead of William R____. I'm so glad they're ours!!! We're also looking forward to getting them sealed to us, but we're going to wait until Hyrum's adoption is final as well and seal all three of them at once.

For those of you who haven't heard yet, Hyrum is now legally free!! We're just waiting on paperwork to be sent to us so that we can contact the attorney to get things rolling for him. He'll probably be ours for good in about 4-5 months.