My little plumber

Is that not the sweetest thing ever ;) I had to snap a picture of that.



My messy little boy

"wheelie tall, mom"

I knew there had to be another use for the blocks that Stampin Up sends with my orders....and Ashley was just the one to figure it out! Blocks!!!!


She was so proud!

Uggh

So after having Ashley potty-trained for a month we have since gone back to diapers. I am taking advice of others and letting her be the one in control. Plus I was getting sick of trying to keep up the laundry when she would pee in her pants sometimes 10 times a day! So I am now giving her the choice whether she wants diapers or big girl pants and we can try again in a little bit.

It's really frustrating! But I realized that I was the one fighting going back to diapers because that meant I was admitting I had failed. But I am not the one potty training, she is, and she is the one to has control over her actions. It took me a while to realize it but now that I did I feel much better about it. It just seemed as the more we pushed and encouraged the more she quit trying. So that's how it will be for a little while.

Otherwise nothing much going on here. I am in the thick of another round of classes so I am busy doing homework and writing papers, and taking tests. Oh so much fun! Oh well, I am on the final stretch of my degree, YIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Oh and Ben cut his second tooth 2 days before Halloween. I thought he was just trying to get ready to eat some candy. He did try one sucker and boy did he love it. He screamed so loudly when I took it away.

Ben crawling

So here is Ben's version of crawling. I will have to try to capture some of him coming at me because it looks quite silly from that direction also. It is really funny when he gets moving fast.

Carving Pumpkins

She has the cheesiest smile lately. I love it. I think all kids go through a stage where they do this.



Ben just wanted to eat the pumpkin guts. Hehe, it's a vegetable right? One serving down


So here is Mike and Ben at 11:30 last night. Yes, Ben was awake at 11:30! He does a wierd late nap thing where he goes to sleep at 7 (like Ashley) but then wakes up around 9 to play for an hour or so and then hits the hay again. I don't mind too much because I am up anyway and then he sleeps in a bit longer in the morning.


Mike did this one and I just love it. The pumpkin is all warty looking so it looks cool even during the day.


This one I made for Ashley. I thought it was pretty cute.

My chuckle for the day

I saw this and it made me laugh. Enjoy!

Potty training HELP!

I am calling on all my more experienced Mommy friends for some potty training advice!

Ok, so here is the issue. Ashley did great the first few weeks of potty training with very few accidents. We did a potty chart that she filled up and earned a trip to the water park. She was staying dry most nights although I was still putting her in a diaper for bedtime. Everything was going too smooth :).

This past week she is peeing her pants constantly. Most times without even saying she has to go or trying to get to the potty chair. I tried to bribe her with a piece of candy corn for everytime she went and it worked for the first few days but now she is doing it again. I also tried to resurect the potty chart and still she's not too interesting in going to the bathroom.

So my question is what should we do. First response is to get mad and try time out or something but I know there has to be a better way! Help, I need some advice!!!!

Pumpkin Patch

Ben is so into balls he never wants to put them down. His new favorite toy is the dinosaur ball toy. Mike's sister M got it for Ashley when she was a year and boy he loves it way more than she ever did!


We took the kiddo's to the pumpkin patch. Ashley is hard to get pictures of now because she moves so quickly. Even if you get her to stop and smile it's only for a half second and then she is going again. Most of the pictures I got of her were either blurred or I got the back of her head.


Here is Ben in his bumble bee costume. It barely fits. But it will work for this year! It looks so cute because he is so rolly-polly.

He found a pumpkin and wouldn't let it go, of course, until his big sister Ashley stole it away in the wagon. How sweet huh!

Update on Ben

So I took Ben to his 9 month check up yesterday and he is 23lbs 15oz. They said he was in the 95th percentile for weight and 90th for height. So he is for sure a big boy! Otherwise he is doing great, besides being cranky from teething.

Here's a funny one of Ashley. She was trying to get her big baby to eat her dinner. She was quite mad that the baby wouldn't pick up the spoon to feed herself. hehe. I was just laughing while watching her explain that she needed to eat her dinner.

*I swear I have that same conversation with my little girl EVERY day*

Yay, Ben is 9 months old!

Yippee, Ben is 9 months old! He is doing well and is still the most smiley baby I have been around. I snapped a couple of his precious smiles this evening for you.

He's got a funny thing going on with his tongue which is probably because he CUT HIS 1ST TOOTH TONIGHT!!!

Here I think he is really just hamming it up so I have a cute picture for his 9 month page in his album (yikes, that I haven't started, bad mommy!)

Now here he is trying to show off how he started crawling, or scooting, or whatever you can call it. He works his arms well but only one leg is in the crawling position and the other is folded under him, but he gets around so that's what counts.

Now tell me this picture doesn't make him look older than 9 months, holy cow. What a big boy we have!

So yes, he started crawling, and cut his first tooth all on the day he turns 9 months!

Break from school

Man, I was really looking forward to my break between classes and when I went and looked today on the calender I realized I only have a week. Classes start on the 22nd, No fun! Usually it has been a little longer but oh well. I guess a week is better than none, right?

So for the next term I am taking:

Psychology Tests and Measurements & Minority Group Relations.

Should be fun! But now I only have one more quarter of required courses and then the rest are all electives. Yay!

Fall fun!

I love fall weather, I just don't like raking the leaves. Ok, well I don't mind raking as much as I hate getting the leaves into the bag. I did 5 bags 2 days ago and I swear if I went out right now I could probably get at least another 5 bags.

At least everyone enjoyed themselves though. I have to keep Ben in something because he likes to eat anything and everything, including leaves, grass and bugs. YUM, right!

Ashley had fun collecting the leaves in her trike and then I got to dump it in the can.

Oh and she also decided to make a bed in the leaves and as you can tell she improvised with a garbage bag for a blanket.

Potty Training Reward...the waterpark!

So we took the kids to the water park to celebrate Ashley and her new big girl skills.

Both kids loved the water. Ashley even went on the biggest slide with Daddy although when he asked her if she wanted to go again her was response was "NO!"
But she loved these slides. She even went down this one all by herself.

Here is Ben after we got them ready to go home and go to bed. It was a fun time but both kids were pretty wiped out.


here's a pic of Ashley on the way home. She is doing so great with her potty business.

Potty trained!!!!

YAY we finally have Ashely potty trained! Whooohoo! We started this past weekend and she is doing great. Today was the first outing in big girl pants and we went to the library for storyhour then to the BX. We had to visit the bathroom 3 times but only once made a deposit. I was just super happy that she didn't have an accident. Yay, we have a big girl on our hands.

Mike's Radio

So here is Mike's latest project a Philco radio from 1938. He bought it off ebay (we picked it up in Fargo) and stripped it down, sanded, refinished, replaced all the tubes and compacitors, order a new part for the dial and so here it is. The only thing left to do was to order the original fabric for the bottom as this has been changed. Oh and the darn thing really works. It picks up stations from all over, the other night we were listening to a Thailand station. It's pretty neat.

The only problem is now he is addicted to the old radios. Two days later we were at a garage sale out in the prairies of GF and came across one from 1935ish so he had to have that one too. Oh well, I got my crop-a-dile so I'll be happy for a little while :)

32 degrees

Holy cow it is only 32 degrees outside. Brrr, I had to turn the heat on this morning when we woke up because apparently I stole all the blankets and Mike was left with a sheet for most of the night. Oops! Brr. I better get back into my ND layering mode.

Gotta bundle up all those kiddos cause were heading out for story hour. I love story hour, especially cause they do art projects which means no clean-up for me! Last week the theme was monsters and so they made paper bag puppet monsters. Ben if so scared of Ashley's, everytime he sees it he starts screaming.

3 Firsts in 1 day!

So we put Ben in the pool today for the first time. He is usually quite finicky with cold water but today he seemed to love it. He sat in there for close to 20 minutes.

He's already picking on his big sister. tisk tisk

His second first was saying "mama". He did it probably 10 times yesterday!

Aren't they cute from behind? Anyway his 3rd first was clapping. Which is what Ashely was showing him to do in this photo. He is doing it on demand now, as soon as we clap he starts too!

We went on a date....

So Mike and I got a babysitter for the day and went downtown for a movie. We had planned on seeing Chuck and Larry but when we got there we realized that Borne Ultimatum was still playing. Yippee! So I saw my first....let me repeat that....first movie in a theater since we moved to Grand forks in 03. Crazy huh? I am really not a fan of movie theaters (and it drives Mike nuts). I don't know why but here are a few of the reasons I have come up with....

1. I'm short and tall people with big heads always sit in front of me.
2. The chairs are always uncomfortable.
3. I always get cold!!!!!!
4. I end up biting my nails to where they almost (or do) bleed.

I know I am weird but for the most part I would much rather lay at home on the couch with a big blanket cuddling with my hubby or kiddos. The ability to pause the movie for a bathroom or snack break is always a plus...

So anyways I actually did pretty good in the theater besides being uncomfortable and COLD. The movie was great and we both enjoyed the time out. Plus the kids did well with the sitter even though Ben refused his bottle. At least he is eating some solids now so she could feed him that instead! When we got home she had both kids passed out for naps at the same time (trust me that's a challenge). If ya need a sitter, I know a good one!

Our kitchen table, just for you Ellen

Okay Ellen, here is the picture of the kitchen table. Whatcha think? The camera makes the table tops look much lighter on both of them than they are in person.

Our coffeetable

So here is our *new* coffee table. This is the one that I saw on the curb while on a walk and sent Mike to go pick up. Mike stripped it down and refinished it so that it matches our kitchen table. We really like the way it turned out!


Now, Mike has a wild itching to reupholster our couches...the next big project. We bought them used from a family on base and we really like the shape of them, but the fabric pills and it itchy on bare skin. So Mike did some research, ordered some new micro fiber fabric and now we are just waiting for it to come in.

So I'll post more pictures when the next project is done....

the kiddos

So here are a few pictures I took of the kids the other day. I was folding laundry and thought hmm this blanket could be a backdrop.


On another note, I made Mike go curb shopping the other day because while on a walk I notice that someone was throwing out a decent coffee table. We used to have one but it was a piece of crap. We bought it new and within a few months it was chipping and wobbly. A total waste of money. This new one was a little beat up but was solid wood so Mike went to work and has stripped the stain, and is now in the process of staining and painting so that it will match our newer kitchen table that we bought. I love it already! So far he has the bottom (legs and ledge) stripped and painted black and all he has left is the table top. I can't wait to take a picture. Silly me forgot to snap one before he went to work on it....

Football!

We brought out the football that Mike's dad brought when he visited last time and boy Ben loved it. He chewed on it, rolled it, and then threw a fit when he couldn't get it back.

Looks like we may have a football junkie on our hands, well just have to wait and see.

I fell down!

Ashley has gained a new sense of invincibility and with that has come some daring trials and of course that have ended with booboos.

She had been running around in cirlces on the back patio and tripped, fell and scraped her knee. Although it was traumatizing she was back doing stunts in about 3 minutes. Today she fell down the back stairs onto the cement while I was mowing the lawn.