Monday, January 28, 2013

CRAFT!

If you know me well, you know that crafts aren't my thing.  They're messy and just not my thing.  Play dough especially, will never be an activity that causes me delight.  Yeah, yeah, it's not about me.  But it is, I have to clean up all those ground in dough pieces from my floor, table, chairs, and clothes.  And I'm not creative, so it just isn't fun.  And until now the girls have too little to want to do things on their own.  It was just painful.  Yes, we have play dough.  Yes, they have played with it.....twice!  I'm kind of kidding, it might be more like 3 times. 
 
I'm kind of that way with all crafts.  If they can play with it and clean it up mostly independently, great, lets do it.  If not, it probably won't happen at my house.  I think now that they are getting older it will be more fun and happen more often.
Well, imagine my children's delight, when, after I accidently spilled a large amount of spaghetti on the floor, I delared it craft time.  I gave them each a good amount of spaghetti noodles and a pile of mini marshmellows and let them go to it, building whatever kind of tower/artwork they would like. 
 
They LOVED it!  Mark and I may have helped a little.  Mark helped Alaina more as she had a harder time getting it how she wanted it.  But Paige really did a great job. 

Alaina just liked to put the marshmellows on the noodles and REALLY wanted to eat them!

They were proud of their creations and stayed on our counter for too many days. 

Friday, January 25, 2013

Introducing Cate Ivy...

I think it's about time I introduce Cate Ivy on the blog.  She is my newest niece born to Uncle James and Aunt Jenna and sister Olivia.  She was born December 7, 2012.  They stopped by this past weekend, so we finally got some pictures.  (We did go visit when she was a week old, but forgot our camera.)  Alaina is enamored and can't get enough. 



Olivia knows we have LOTS of princess dresses at our house and didn't last too long before she came down like this.

Checkin' each other out!

Paige and Lainey ADORE their uncles.  Uncle James is always up for horsey rides and all kinds of climbing fun.

Livvy was a little jealous of her daddy playing with her cousins, so her Uncle Mark joined the fun.

It was great to see them and get some snuggles.  Even if I didn't get a picture of myself with Cate.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Aren't they beautiful?!

You can thank Amber for the new post.  She was the one who nagged long enough for me to actually sit down and get a new post.  Check back tomorrow for another new one.
 
So, all the girls wanted for Christmas this year were stuffed dolphins and make-up.  Alaina also wanted a mini puppy pillow pet and Paige wanted fairy wings.  Well, I had bought a big box of make-up at Wal-mart after Christmas last year very clearanced, and it was still unopened in the closet, so we gave it to the girls for Christmas this year.  They LOVE to play with it.  Please note, that it is in my possession and they have to ask to play with it, because if they had free reign.....this is what they would look like ALL of the time!

Paige asked if she could use the eye liner to make a cat face.  Why Not?!  And apparently this wasn't quite enough because she came back a few minutes later like this.......

Silly girls!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Absent

I know, I know, I've been a bit absent lately on the blog.  I'm hoping to remedy that soon.  My reasons for blogging are still the same.  I do not want to forget these days and what life was like.  So stay tuned,  new posts arriving soon!

On our way to the land of no pull ups!

It has been a LONG time coming.  So I was never in a hurry to potty train the girls.  I knew early on that it was something we wouldn't tackle until they were 3.  And we didn't.  They were well past three before they were trained and that was just fine.

They could take themselves, wipe themselves, and we were done with it in like 3 days.  I didn't want to have to sit in the bathroom with them for hours.  It's just not my thing.  And after those 3 days, WE.WERE.DONE!  No accidents, just potty trained bliss.  I hate to say it, but it really was relatively easy.

Except for at night....

My girls just never got it.  They were NEVER EVER dry in the morning.  Like EVER!  So thanks to some dear friends, who also had a child with this problem, we were able to borrow an alarm.

So we started with Paige this past fall.  Basically you clip a sensor to their underwear and it alarms as soon as any moisture is detected.  (Even if they are just hot and sweat a little.)  It worked better than I could have imagined.  My child, who had NEVER been dry in the morning, was wearing undies to bed without the alarm after 2 weeks.  And the best part.....she hasn't had an accident one time since then.

We are now on day 5 with Alaina, and she actually woke me up at 1:30 last night to go potty.  YAY!!!!        The alarm had gone off at 1:30 the past 3 nights.  So this is HUGE!  I am seeing the light.  She couldn't just take herself because of the alarm, but hey, I don't mind getting woken up for that!  And she was SOOO proud of herself this morning.