playing catch up

i am back from our beautiful rachel's weekend and still in awe of the way God touches each and every one of our lives, no matter what we do, and how he has abundantly blessed mine in particular!

on monday, i returned home only to joyously discover that my little russell is potty trained! i suppose he was just waiting for me to leave... the week before, he had made a HUGE leap in his potty training when he went poopoo in the potty for the FIRST time, AND he went to the bathroom ALL ON HIS OWN! (usually i have to remind him to go). i was a little worried that he would regress while i was away for the weekend, but in fact, the exact opposite happened and now he is doing excellent with going all on his own with few to none accidents.

my little boy has really been growing up on me -- it's like i blinked and he turned into a big boy over night! the other day i asked him to help set the dinner table for the first time and without me telling him where to put anything, he did it perfectly. and just this past week, i was upset about something, and he came up to me and patted my back and said "it's ok mommy, it's ok." he is my quiet little observer. he watches and retains knowledge but you have no idea he knows what he knows until he does something like that!

we took the kids to eat at a japanese habachi grill restaurant as a treat the sunday i got home and despite the fact that we had to wait about an hour to get dinner started, the kids loved every second of it! natalie had fun talking to the "chef" and he had fun entertaining her. to my surprise, the kids tried everything that they were served. natalie, who normally picks at her salad, ate every last bite, they both gulped down their soup, both tried, and loved the shrimp appetizer, both kids ate those veggies like they were candy (when they normally won't even touch zuccini, onions and mushrooms), and natalie, who is not a big fan of rice, couldn't stop eating it! i think i'm going to take up japanese cooking lessons, b/c we surely cannot afford to eat at a place like that all the time!

now on to a more gloomy subject... THE NON-STOP RAIN IN JACKSONVILLE! just a week ago, our city was in the middle of a drought, and literally, for the last FIVE days, the rain has been coming down continuously! and of course, when it rains, russ cannot work. so it's been a little scary to think about his next paycheck... but having him home this week has been a real treat. he got to see natalie in her my gym class, has been a huge help in running errands and going shopping with me and the kids (both of which i would have been miserable doing by myself in these terrible weather conditions), and we have also had some good quality family time. the kids got to watch a cute dreamworks movie called Flushed Away, which in fact we all enjoyed, and russ and i enjoyed watching the season finales to our shows Lost and American Idol.

All in all, it's been a good week, despite the nasty and gloomy weather.

We are looking forward to celebrating Celena and Alex's birthdays this Memorial weekend!

Here are some random pictures from the last few days:

waiting to be seated at Daruma's Japanese Grill

natalie and russell playing doctor together

russell playing with his new toy that he got for going poopoo in the potty for the first time

natalie playing with her puppets (a christmas gift from last yr), her new favorite toy

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WISHING YOU ALL A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY WEEKEND!