The Suisse Family Robinson

Big news today! Lara peed in the potty!

I have avoided formally potty-training because I haven't felt that I've had the time to devote to the process. But for the last week Lara has been deprived of candy because that's her prize for going on the potty. Whenever she asked for candy I'd ask her what she needed to do to get it. She'd say something to the effect of "candy, go potty." Well, today she asked for candy today at daycare and we went through the whole spiel. So she went to where the little potties were, pulled down her pants, and took off her diaper. She didn't go right away so Ms. Corie just put Lara's pants on her without her diaper. 2 minutes later she had disappeared and when we looked for her she was by the potties pulling up her pants! We had to call Daddy at work and tell him, and Grandma :) She was pretty proud of herself AND she got her candy. Now I just have to knuckle down and seriously potty train...

I just have to say that Jamie Foxx was the BEST celebrity mentor that those contestants could have had this season. He had awesome advice and it was obvious that he was honest with them. Loved, loved, loved most of the songs and most of the contestants tonight.

Top performances- I'm going to put Danny Gokey on here first, not because I think he was better than Adam Lambert, but because he finally was good enough to make me smile and say WOW!
Simon was wrong- with Kris Allen and Matt Giraud. Kris was good, Matt was not. Most pitchy performance, again- Matt Giraud. Most boring- Allison Iraheta. Who should go home?- Allison Iraheta. Best looking in a white suit- Adam Lambert. Best entrance- Adam Lambert. Best falsetto- Adam Lambert. My prediction for final 3- Danny Gokey, Kris Allen, Adam Lambert.

I started going back to the gym this week, hence my Melaleuca Product of the Week is the Access bars and shakes. Access uses a patented process that helps your body turn fat into fuel by blocking adenosine. (Adenosine is something that is left over from our caveman days when you had to fight or take flight to survive). Tammy Van Wisse, a world renowned swimmer, used this product when swimming across the English Channel! I, personally, enjoy the milk chocolate shakes and Reed prefers the bars (Krunchers specifically). I definitely have more energy during my exercise and am less sore when I get home. You can watch a little video about the Access products at melaleuca.com.

Disco week usually brings hokey, horrible singing along with bad dancing. Tonight was a pleasant surprise with a few exceptions. Best performance of a BeeGee's song that didn't sound like a BeeGee's song- Adam Lambert. Best dressed- Adam Lambert. Best falsetto- Adam Lambert. Can I say enough about Adam Lambert? I wasn't too sure about him in the beginning because I thought it was kind of cheap that he was on American Idol but already had a touring star role in Wicked. But I now have decided that he should win.

Other top performance- Kris Allen. I think he should be in the final 2. Most frantic performance but still showed great vocals- Matt Giraud. O.K.- Danny Gokey. Really, really, really tired of her- Lil Rounds. Two to go home tomorrow- Lil Rounds and Anoop Desai.

Due to the killer hike we took in Wisconsin, this is my favorite product of the week. Goes on cool, heats up, muscles feel good. What else is there to say?

This year my family (minus Reed) decided to travel to Wisconsin Dells, WI for spring break. (I'll post more pictures specific to that on Facebook at a later date). The day we are scheduled to leave Vivi decides to have a temperature of 101 degrees. Really? What is it with kids deciding to get sick right before vacation? There were no other symptoms of the flu so I decided it was O.K. to take her anyways.

Vacation was fun! But while Lara looked like this during the week...


Vivi looked like this...

It wasn't until the drive back that I figured out what was wrong. She's teething! Poor baby. And poor mommy, I'm sore from nursing her.

I (Reed) am posting for Valerie, so this is gonna be quick. (She's in Wisconsin on vacation.... I miss you and Lara and Genevieve ;)

Top performances - Adam Lambert and Anoop Desai

Most Pitchy - Matt Giraud

Should get voted off tomorrow - Lil' Rounds

P.S. - I (Reed) do in no way condone the watching of American Idol. Go read a book.

I have been looking forward to the girls wearing their new dresses and headbands! Finally the big day arrived and I was excited to take pictures.

Unfortunately, Lara did not share my excitement.

I finally got some happy pictures at the church.


Reed and I made the decision to follow the tradition of my family to have a Spring Bunny rather than the Easter Bunny. My mom had decided that we were spending too much time on the Easter Bunny and forgetting the real reason for Easter. So the Spring Bunny visited us the day before or the day after Easter. All of the gifts came from sellers on Etsy.com :) One of the favorites being a peek-a-boo bag which made sacrament meeting a real treat!


So Happy Easter, everyone! We hope you remember the great miracle that occurred when Christ was risen after 3 days of being in the tomb. We know that because of his sacrifice, we all will be able to live again with Heavenly Father. Again, Happy Easter!

Renew is the best intensive skin therapy available, period. It contains 3 main natural ingredients- Malaysian glycerin, Allantoin, and Melaleuca oil (of course) that do the job. It's less greasy than Eucerin and works better, in my opinion. We use Renew instead of other diaper cream on diaper rashes (which Lara and Vivi have rarely, thanks to our homemade wipies), and the rash is usually gone after one treatment. I also have a friend who has severe eczema and this is the only lotion that works on it. Melaleuca has a 60-day trial offer- If after 60 days you don't see a difference in your skin, you can get your money back. On a side note, some people are a little skeptical of sending something back when you don't like it. We once got a box of cereal from Melaleuca that didn't smell quite right. I called them up, two minutes later I had a refund with no questions asked. They're quite easy with which to work.

My family has nicknamed Genevieve "Chubba Bubba" for obvious reasons. I don't mind because, let's face it, she's chubby!

1. She is growing out of clothes that Lara fit until she was 7 months.

2. She is now in the same size diapers (3) as Lara.

3. Her cheeks are huge!

4. My arm hurts when I carry her.

Lara had better be a nice older sister to Vivi. Because Vivi could possibly be the much bigger younger sister.

I didn't think that tonight would be that great because there's not a huge age range in this year's contestants. But there was a surprising variety in song choice so all was good. Top performances- Matt Giraud and Adam Lambert. Judges didn't like him but I did- Kris Allen. Best performance from a 16-year-old ever on the show- Allison Iraheta. Not a big fan but he sang well anyways- Danny Gokey. Should get voted off tomorrow- Lil Rounds.

There's a wonderful 24 hour stomach flu going around and I was hoping that we would be untouched. But Lara was sick last Wednesday and then again with an ear infection on Friday, Reed came down with it on Sunday, and Vivi started throwing up this morning. I, however, am not sick thanks to my supercharged immune system. (I haven't been sick in over 6 years).

Even in the midst of all the sickness, Vivi and Lara remain cute as ever. Some examples-

Nursing Vivi when she is sick with the flu is quite the chore. I have to feed her every hour for about 3-4 minutes so that she can keep it down. One of the times I was nursing her she just stopped, looked at me, smiled, and gave the cutest little giggle ever! I wish I had captured it on film because it was quite precious. It was like she was telling me "Don't worry, Mom. I'm still cute." I find it very telling that even when she probably feels like crap, she's able to find the humor in life.

Lara has become quite the blabber mouth in the past few weeks. She'll pop out little sentences when I least expect it. Things like "Hold on!", "Don't move", "That's funny", and my favorite "No Mommy, I don't want to", complete with the eye roll. There are times when Lara is urgently trying to tell me something but I have no idea what she's talking about. Like this afternoon she was crying "Mommy, Vivi Fire!" It took me a few minutes to realize that she wanted me to get a pacifier so she could give it to Vivi. Very cute.

A side note, thank you to my wonderful husband who stayed up till 3:00 am Saturday morning with Lara and let me have a nap on Sunday afternoon even though he was still sick. :)

One of the Melaleuca products that caught our attention when we enrolled was their tooth polish. In the past, Reed would get these awful canker sores in his mouth. They would be huge, stay for 2 weeks, be very painful, and when they would go away more would take their place. It got so bad that he had stopped brushing his teeth because the tooth paste made the sores even more painful. Let me tell you, there is nothing more gross than a husband who has not brushed his teeth! We decided to give the Melaleuca tooth polish a try because it contained natural ingredients like myrrh and propolis, and none of the foaming agents that regular toothpaste contains. Reed discovered that he could directly brush the canker sores without any pain! The sores disappeared and now he only gets them about once a year (darn stress). He can now brush his teeth again and we all can live happily ever after.

So since I replied to this on another blog, I am obligated to post it on mine. :) I mostly did it because I like getting things, especially in the mail. But I will suck it up and try to be creative.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.
This might be great for me since I'm not sure that 5 people read my blog. Maybe this is a good test.
The catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.