Family

 

These last two days, B and I had the pleasure of going on a mini-vacation to Estes Park!  Thanks to LivingSocial, I got a good deal at a nice lodge, Murphy's River Lodge.  Thanks to my mom, we had someone we love and trust taking care of the kids.  Unfortunately, we had a few issues with the room temperature not working correctly and hearing everything above us, but the room was nice and the staff was really friendly.  There was a jacuzzi in our room, so we got to relax in that and watch movies in the evening.  Believe me, it was hard not to pick an animated movie, but we did it.:)  The river was frozen, so B didn't do any fishing.

The town was beautiful and quiet.  A lot of the shops were closed, and we weren't used to not seeing hordes of people on the street.  We did discover a nice knitting shop, which was my favorite, but I didn't by anything.  I love perusing knitting shops and I LOVE alpaca yarn, but at $15-$20 a skein, I can't bring myself to buy it.  Maybe when we become rich.:)  We did buy some souvenirs for the kids, though.  F and Cb's love Brave, so we bought them each a bow and arrows.  Cb's bow has black bears carved on it and F's has moose.  The tips are rubber, so they can't do too much damage.  I didn't think they'd be able to shoot them, but they figured it out quickly.  I set up some stuffed animals in the living room for them to "hunt".  Let's just say, the angry birds and stuffed pug didn't make it.  Little A loves sorting things, so we bought her some nesting dolls.  The shop where we bought the nesting dolls was awesome!  They had so many cool nesting doll sets.  B bought a cute Winnie the Pooh nesting set for himself.  Tiny A doesn't like too much, yet, so we bought him a stuffed moose.  He's more interested in playing with whatever everyone else doesn't want him touching.:)

Before leaving for our trip, I took some pictures of these adorable faces.  Enjoy!

Crafting and Happy Faces

 I don't know where F picked these up, but I think he's flashing some gang signs.  Beware of the silly-tongued gangsta!  Holla! 

 Here are some things we've made recently.

Since F is sharing a room with tiny A, now, I have him pick out his clothes before he goes to bed so that he doesn't wake the baby up in the morning.  To help motivate him, I made a cardboard F for him to dress each night.  I made a cardboard Cb's, too, but she got tired of dressing her.  Now, she is just hanging by the window in her room, creepily staring at them while they sleep.  Before we got used to cardboard F hanging around in the hall, everytime I turned around I got a little start my immediate reaction was to tell him to go back to bed.  Thankfully, I'm used to seeing cardboard F, now.

My sweet friend and sister-in-law had her 30th birthday this month!  I was so excited to surprise her and take her out for her birthday.  B and the kids hung out at Granny and Grampy's and were very gracious to give me the day off to celebrate this wonderful lady.  I am in love with fingerless gloves, so I knit her these.  I love the color and the little sparkle that's in the yarn, which you can't really see in the picture.

Little A felt her water bottle deserved a picture.  She is rockin' the potty train!

Today, tiny A decided to help himself to a snack.  He went into the cupboard and pulled out a few things, as you can see, but settled on the Chex.  How can you be upset when the little man is so happy and proud of himself!?

Love

Last week was Valentine's Day and I really enjoyed planning something special for the kids and B.  I never fancied myself a huge Valentine's Day person, but I had a lot of fun thinking of fun/heart/red things to get and do for the family.

My friend at church told me that her grand-daughters put an old mailbox outside of their room at Christmas time and she leaves them little notes and gifts.  I thought that was such a cute idea, and then I found these cute V-day mailboxes at Walmart.  They are perfect!  I like the idea of each kid having a mailbox in their room and leaving them little notes and gifts throughout the year.  F kept putting his mailbox flag up on his mailbox, thinking that would make a letter magically appear.

So, when the kids got home from school, they each found their mailbox (with the flag up) and looked inside to find a clue.  The clue led them to their Valentine's Day bag.  I found the ideas for their clues here.

For B, I used ideas from the Dating Divas.  I left him a Valentine's Day note in our "Sweetheart Journal".

To greet him, I used this idea from the Dating Divas.  Originally, I tied the chocolate on the front door, but then I heard him coming in through the garage, so I quickly ran and switched the chocolate to the correct door.

When he went to our room, he found a shower of love waiting for him.  I swapped the raindrops from his "shower of blessings" birthday with hearts.  The rose petals are fake and from the dollar store, so I can use them again!  I left a few gifts for him on his pillow.

For dinner, we had mini-meatloafs with heart shaped cheese on top.  I took a pre-cooked picture so that you could see the cheese hearts before they melted.  For dessert, I made Sweet Heart Brownies.  Cb's helped crush the graham crackers.  I used half honey graham crackers and half chocolate graham crackers (I always think more chocolate is better).  They were yummy!

The evening took a brief pause when I went to symphony rehearsal, but picked up when I returned with a "Love Hunt".  Here are all the clues and tasks laid out.  You can see the clues and tasks at the Dating Divas website.  Pugsley was thrilled, as you can see (he's trying to go outside), to participate in the hunt and hold one of the clues on his back.  What a pug!

I love my family!

Potty Training...Again

We are jumping aboard the potty train with little A, today.  

Gasp!  I am anxious about starting this process because my experience with Cb's was not so pleasant, for either of us.  F, on the other hand, was much easier.  I had been told that boys were harder to potty train, but not from my experience.  As a boy, F could stand on the potty and shoot the cheerios, as well as run around the backyard and "water" the trees and flowers.  Girls don't get to have all that fun.

Anyway, it's not that I am in a rush to potty train little A, but frequent diaper rash is telling me that it is time.  This time, I mentally prepared myself, weeks in advance.  I perused the Internet for potty training tips and picked a little from here and there of the ideas I thought would work for us.  Next, I gathered my supplies. 

I kept a stack of towels and clean-up supplies nearby.  

One of the sites I came across mentioned that their little boy liked "Cars", so they gave him a figurine from the movie every time he pooped.  Little A likes Mini-Mouse, and not having enough money to buy her a bunch of Mini-Mouse toys, I found some Mini-Mouse dominos.  Every time she pees or poops on the potty she gets a chocolate covered raisin, in honor of what just occurred (just kidding), and a domino.  Every time she just sits on the potty, she gets a Mini-Mouse sticker.  I was going to do what someone suggested and have her stick them on her shirt, but I thought she would loose them if she had an accident and had to change her clothes.  So, as an alternative, I gave her a photo album, put a couple pictures of her in it, and let her stick her sticker collection on the plastic pages.  

I was also going to have her wear one of B's t-shirts and nothing on bottom so that it was easy to just sit and go without feeling naked, as suggested by an Internet site.  She did not like wearing the t-shirt, it was too big.  So, she wore one of her summer dresses with her bare bottom.  That was going well, until the afternoon when she kept asking to wear a diaper.  Instead, I let her wear her new Mini-Mouse underwear and told her that Mini doesn't like to get wet.  I also had some chocolate on hand for myself, in case I was getting frustrated and needed to take a time out.

I bought her this cute little cupcake water bottle to encourage her to drink lots of water throughout the day, which would make her need to go potty more.  She liked the cupcake, but she didn't drink any more.  She just carried it around.

Potty training day 1 wrap up:  Little A earned 3 dominos (peed on the potty 3 times), lots of stickers in her sticker book (sat on the potty every time the potty timer went off, about every 15 minutes, and even asked to sit on the potty unprompted a few times), only 3 minor carpet accidents, a dry Mini at the end of the day, and no chocolate needed for mommy!  She still doesn't fully get the connection between peeing and pooping on the potty and getting her reward, but it will come.  Thank goodness for the iPad, because I was able to put a movie on for her whenever she was on the potty, which helped her to sit longer.  Go Little A!