Starting a new...

The time has come!  I have made it over a year with two blogs for both kids, but it has taken quite a bit to keep both updated.  I wanted to create a separate book for Cooper, detailing his first year and now it is time to combine the two.  Hop on over to check out our new "family" blog.  Introducing... The Botts Brigade!

Thanks for reading!

Potty Training

We have been wearing big girl panties for a little over 2 months!  I think I can safely say that we are at a pretty good place!  Caroline hates missing out on anything and it has taken a little bit to convince her that she can stop and go without missing out on anything.  It seems like she loved the newness of each tactic we tried, but then it wore off and she just didn't care.  I started with marshmallows, then it was M&Ms and then I finally made her a potty chart.

 Every time she goes potty she gets a sticker.  Each row has 7 flowers and a hot pink flower at the end.  Once we reach the hot pink flower, she gets a surprise!  The biggest change with doing this, is that she was excited to go and she would actually sit on the potty!  {A big improvement!}  She loved filling up the different "Princess Rows".  I bought presents, wrapped them and put them in a basket next to the potty.  All of the presents were small little things from the dollar spot, but she was so excited for each one and couldn't wait to show Daddy every time he came home!

So far it has been several weeks since the chart has been filled up and I just haven't printed out another one. She's done well and we've had really few accidents!  Our little girl is growing up SO quickly and so desperately wants to be BIG!  She sure keeps us on our toes!

CONGRATULATIONS DADDY!!!

 We are SO proud of Josh!  He got a call Thursday night from all of the equity shareholders at his firm announcing that he had just been voted in as PARTNER!!  Josh has worked so hard for this and deserves every bit of it!  I honestly do not know anyone else who deserves it more!  

Josh had me review his memo to the partners and it really made me honor being his wife!  In the first paragraph of the write up he mentioned his family and that first and foremost he is a husband and father and he works so hard for his amazing family!  Josh works a lot, but makes sure to be at every important event and always puts us first.  He tries so hard to not work at night and always be home on the weekends.  We celebrated the evening with some champagne!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!  

We love you!

we love visitors!

March was such a busy month for us and I honestly can not believe that it is over!  We started things off with Grami coming to visit on March 1st.  This is her annual "tax season" trip to get away for a little while during the time that my dad is swamped, but this year it was extra special because it was Cooper's birthday!  We started off the visit with a trip to Canton for First Monday.  I have been in Texas for quite a while, but never been so we finally planned a time where she would be here for the first weekend of the month.  We had a great time and found a lot of treasures!  Too many, in fact, that they did not fit in our car!  :)

Caroline made us cupcakes the first morning Grami arrived.

Caroline and Grami picked out a special cake for me and surprised me on my birthday.  Aunt Mimi, Emma and Ellie all flew in the night before so they were there to celebrate too.

I had help blowing out my candles.

And lots of help opening my presents.  And because there were so many people visiting, Josh and I got to enjoy a nice dinner out by ourselves.

Emma was quite the encourager for going potty.

And Ellie gave Beca lots of attention!

Quite a classic picture.  Both girls on iPads not paying any attention to the boys.

We couldn't have a party without a DANCE PARTY!

Uncle Josh (Daddy) is the BEST spinner!

We love Grami!!

We tried to get a picture of Grami with all of the kids and this is the best we got!  We love you all and hope you come back VERY soon!!

Handfuls!

AND OH SO MUCH FUN!!

2 1/2 YEARS OLD

{Give or take a couple months!  I started writing this in the beginning of February and still haven't gotten it finished.  Some things have changed, but I just can't keep up with my spunky little girl!}

Caroline...Caroline... Caroline!  My where has the time gone?!  My little girl has grown into quite the young lady!  She has lost all signs of her "baby-ness" and no longer has the chubby fingers or round tummy that identifies a baby.  I look at her and honestly could not be more proud of who she is today!  She has such a kind and warm heart and just loves to be around people!  She welcomes all of her friends with open arms and just can't wait to give them hugs the moment we see them.  She runs right in to school and waves bye to me and Cooper like it is nothing and all along the way she never stops talking!  She asks question after question and is always learning!!

We have hit several milestones in the past couple of months!


1.  No more sucking our finger!
Most of the recent pictures I have shows Caroline with her index finger in her mouth.  Well, she is now only doing it occasionally and hardly at all!!  What a blessing and a definite answer of prayer!!  Over Christmas, she basically had her finger in her mouth every single second.  I was getting pretty worried that she would never stop and this would be a crutch for so long.  How do you take away a finger??  We were all constantly getting sick and I was convinced that it was because every germ entered her mouth.  Once we were home from Colorado, we attended several birthday parties and were seriously sick for weeks straight! Well, I kept telling her that tons of germs were getting into her body from her sucking her finger.  I picked up some big heart marshmallows at the store and placed one on the coffee table.  Them I told her that if she didn't suck her finger through an entire Mickey show (yes, I know, tv is probably just as bad, but I'm not giving up that crutch!) without sucking her finger, she would get the marshmallow.  We did this for about a day and a half and after that, she really just stopped.  It was pretty amazing!

2.  Potty Training has Begun!
I picked Caroline up from school one day about 2 weeks ago (6 weeks ago now) and started talking to another mom about potty training.  Her daughter is a month younger than Caroline and is already potty trained.  She has an older son and started telling me how she thought the best way to potty train them was to just put them in panties and go cold turkey.  I was impressed, but thought Caroline was far from ready.  That afternoon we ended up going to the park with some friends and because we just walked there, I didn't take any diapers.  Well Caroline had a dirty one.  We had to leave and she had to ride the whole way home in the wagon sitting on her diaper.  Right after that I just decided to put panties on her.  She has had several accidents, but has done SO well and I am so impressed!!  And I'm also SO happy that we did it!  The last two days have been completely accident free and she's learning so quickly.  She gets two marshmallows every time she goes and she is quite proud of this fact!  One morning she had 6 before 10 am.  Oops!  At the least, it is good motivation!

3.  "Let me tell you a Story"
Every chance she gets, Caroline will tell you a story!  She loves having everyone sit in a circle and begins every time with "All right Boys and Girls, you have to be quiet".  She's just so funny and will talk to whoever will listen.  Most times this ends up being her bunny and stuffed animals.  Her favorite story of all is Jesus, Mary and Joseph and that is exactly how she refers to it.  Her Bible is her all time favorite book and she carries it around everywhere.  When Josh tried to take it and read her another story out of it, she said "Daddy, the whole book is Jesus, Mary and Joseph!! And it's all true!"  I have had to tape the front cover on several times because it is so worn.  Her teacher even told me she taught the whole class their Bible story because she knew the whole thing.  This child is definitely not shy!

4.  Dance Class
We started a Mommy and Me dance class in the middle of January.  Because it is Mommy and Me, it definitely has me working too!  It takes quite a bit of work to keep 4 little 2-3 year olds entertained and on task.  But it is a lot of fun and we enjoy dancing like animals, playing air instruments and learning new things every time!  Cooper is such a little trooper and gets to sit against the wall and just watch.  So far he has been great!  I'm not sure how much longer after he really starts moving that we can keep doing it, but so far he has been wonderful!  Daddy even came and surprised us for one and watched while Caroline danced.  Although she wasn't too happy during that class, she was still so excited he came!

 Poor Coop is such a good sport!  He just sits in the corner and watches quietly.  Who says not being able to move is a bad thing?  :)

5. Transition to a Big Girl Bed
Caroline had been sleeping in her toddler bed for quite some time.  We decided to move her to a regular bed the first week of February.  Her room is pretty small and twin size really fits the best.  If we end up moving at some point, I would like to get her something bigger, so I just did not want to spend a lot of money on a bed.  I had been looking on craigslist for daybeds and one morning one popped up that was exactly what I had in mind!  $250 later and a random trip to Frisco and we had a new bed!!  Thanks to Amanda for helping me pick it up!  I don't have a picture of the finished product, bedding and all, but here is Caroline's all time favorite place to hide!

Park Days

The weather has been so nice lately and it has been great to be able to get out and go to the park!!  Caroline has been sick and we were stuck inside for several days in a row.  So the other morning, before Cooper went down for a nap, we took a walk to the park.  It was early, around 9am, and we were the only people there.  Caroline was so concerned and kept asking "Mommy, where are the kids?!"  She is such a people person and could not understand why there was no one there to play with.

 However she made do and made her own fun!  She took bunny and a flower she found and raced them down the slides.

 Even Beca got to come with us!  She had fun basking the sun while we played on the playground.

 Once we got home, Caroline had to reenact the whole thing inside, Beca and all.