Visit from the Chambers

Nancy, Ron, Jeff , Mel and their three kids made a visit to see us a few weeks agao. The kids had a blast playing together. Ron got worked on with some tools as you can see. the boys were getting a kick out of it. Sierra wanted to hold Ava the whole time , which Ava was not too sure of.

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Ava Dabbling in Paints...

Ava is experimenting with paints at the easel..=)

Making us proud!!!!

Aiden has officially earned his letter of recognition for being potty trained now. We started 2 weeks ago-- and now he wears regular underwear everywhere we go and has not had any accidents in almost a week! He even was dry 2 nights this week all night. Scott and i are so proud of him. He loves his stickers charts--when we get home from work--he runs to the bathroom to show us all his stickers.. Now that we are potty trained i made him a chores chart and we are getting started on learning to make our bed, put away toys, get himself dressed, put his laundry away.. etc. He loves the recognition and gives him something to show off and be proud of. He is really growing up and making us proud...=) Here's a picture of him helping me gather all the garbage the other day...

Fun Photoshoot!!

Momy and Ava posing for the cameraman- Aiden- who is taking the pictures here. Ava finally had enough hair to wear cute barrettes...

Somersaults...

Ava on video...

"No more Diapers.. I'm a big boy!"

This is Aiden telling me that he doesn't wear diapers anymore- he's a big boy! He is doing so well potty training- we are in week 2 of wearing regular underwear-no diapers except at night. Which now he hates to even have them on for that. He goes before he goes to bed and says --no diapers mom! We skipped over wearing pullups- in fact when we go out now i just take an extra set of pants and underwear - in case of an accident instead of using the pullups--since he tends to want to go in the pullups when they are on. Still working on getting to the potty for poop every time--but we are well on our way to being fully potty trained.. Yeah for Aiden!!!

Miscellaneous videos

Deer Camp Videos..

These are 2 videos taken while the guys were up camping at deer camp... =)

Happenings at The Bilyeu's House.......

Ava is really growing up since she turned one. She is already taking after her brother in the climbing department-- getting on top of everything. She is off and running full speed around after him too. She mimics everything we do now.. brushing her hair, trying on her shoes, blowing bubbles in the bath water ( yes she's a water-bug like her brother), blow drying her hair, blowing kisses, and giving sweet wet kisses all the time. She is learning her body parts too- I'm teaching her where they all are. She hold up her foot when i ask her where her feet are--she thinks it's funny. Aiden is showing her all he knows too. She is saying some words now--i think she is gonna be quite the talker early on. So far she is saying momma, dadda, foofoo, bye, baba, bath, thankyou, hello ( on her little phone to her ear)..... she tries to say other stuff that i just don't understand yet also..=)

Aiden is in full potty training mode. We started and stopped a few times over the past few months, since i didn't feel he was quite ready- and now we're back on track and he's been doing very well thus far. He's wearing training pants or underwear under his clothes while we are home--and pull ups when we go out. He does pretty well with the peeing in the potty- still needs help with the pooping part. He has his own potty chart hung behind the toilet in his bathroom that he gets stickers every time he goes for every days of the week. We motivate him by telling him that it "makes us happy" when he goes to the potty--and he says after he goes now--"i make you happy mom"! Some friend of ours gave us this idea . He prefers to stand up and pee like Daddy-- rather than sitting down. Monkey see Monkey do.. We also have some potty books that he likes us to read to him. We use the same to motivate him to eat his food--yes he eats like a bird... We tell him that he has to eat to get big and strong like daddy-- which got him to eat all of his asparagus the other night..haha. He has been into playing with his play dough lately--and making his own little creations at the table. I got some new cookie cutters that came with the play dough and used them to make fun creations of food--he loved it.. Even Ava thought it was cute!

Scott has been on a workout and diet routine for the past 2 months and has lost 20 pounds. He started off doing these home workouts called P90X, and now he's doing them and a little gym workout together. It saves time for him to workout at home, and not have to drive to the gym. Besides that not much else new, he stays busy with the grocery shopping and taking care of the kids when i am working opposite him. It is so nice though- since i get home by 4 pm even if i do work. We get lots of time as a family every evening now. He is doing very well at work also- he got Buyer of the Month the last several months and has gotten lots of great feedback on his trips to the auctions.

I have been at my new job as most of you know since the middle of September working at Kaiser Permanente in Labor and Delivery. I love the schedule - I work 4 -days 7am-330pm. The benefits are free for the whole family and it is only 5 miles from our house. There is no more call time either. It has been a real blessing to our family for me to get this job. It was a long road to get my foot in the door though- Kaiser is hard to get into. I was working 2 jobs since April so that i could hopefully be able to get this position. I was very lucky to get day shift also. Besides work i have been spending all my time mostly just doing the normal weekly stuff around the house and family time. Scott and i have even been able to get away for date nights regularly also--which i highly recommend. =) Our new babysitter is great- Alyssa- it is worked into her schedule so we get a chance to get away together.

Family Pictures

This was our annual family photo and Ava's 1 year photo shoot.. We did not get any pictures of just the 2 kids this time around, hopefully before the holidays. =)

TRICK OR TREAT '09

This was our first year of trick-or-treating with the kids. We took them to a few houses in the neighborhood and then passed out candy at our house. Aiden was a dinosaur and Ava was a little fairy. As you can see everybody was enjoying the candy..=)