Signs of Spring!

Last weekend the weather was warm and so we decided it was time to get started on the garden we had been planning for so long! I am growing everything from seeds inside until the threat of frost is gone but we prepared the plot and planted some flowers. These are the before pictures and hopefully we will have some afters very soon! I suppose it all depends on this schizophrenic weather. Bella has since added some things to her fairy and butterfly flower garden that I don't have pictures of yet, but she is one happy girl working outside! We also let her go ahead and plant her strawberries in the raised garden bed so that is what you see at the end there.

Impromptu Valentine's Day

We started out with heart pancakes of course. Luckily, the sun was out that day and the snow began to melt.

Randy took Bella on their annual Valentine's Day date. They went to Chuck E Cheese and I'm not really sure where else. She always looks forward to her dates with Daddy!

Randy and I had plans to go out but with the roads likely to freeze up again we ended up having a date at home after the kids went to bed. I have to say it was quite nice actually! It was like being in a private restaurant. I made shrimp scampi and chocolate covered strawberries. After we ate, we watched a movie and the best part was not having to drive home!

More Snow

This was a few weeks ago now but it was a pretty big deal. We don't typically get this much snow. It snowed on and off for three days and covered the roads. We weren't able to drive but no one seemed to mind. I think we all liked having an excuse to stay in our pajamas and hang out together with nowhere to be!

Ava had the same feelings this time around.

Ava's Second Birthday, February 4th

Ava turned two and we decided to do a family party to make it easier on all of us. She loves Minnie Mouse and Elmo, but since we did a Minnie theme last year, we went with Elmo and Abby. Ava was full of herself and loved all of the attention. She loved the Elmo cupcakes but never ate one (and Bella had a special request of cupcakes with no frosting- what is wrong with our kids?!)

We had chicken salad sandwiches, mac n cheese for the kids, lots of goldfish b/c Elmo loves his Dorothy (a goldfish), and some other random things. I made a little game for the kids to play with a box we had and Randy brought home some bean bags to throw. Ava got her favorite things: books, puzzles, money and Minnie Mouse stuff plus a new baby doll, a bathrobe and some other fun stuff. She really had fun and so did we!

here lately...

I have some pictures and posts that I am behind on but here are a couple things going on around here.

I had to put Ava in time out today for the first time. It was the longest two minutes of my life. She is typically a good listener and I just have to ask her once if she wants to go to time out and she straightens up but today she tested me. The strangest part is that I have no idea how she learned about time out and how she knew she had to stay there. I was prepared to have to work at it.

We also recently discovered that Ava can't say truck and I will leave it at that. You can imagine what is comes out as. Yikes.

Bella has been full of herself, as usual. She talks about listening to your heart and Jesus giving her some of His power and it just amazes me. The other day we had this conversation:

Bella: When people say things, you need to listen to your heart. ..after they talk, you listen and see what your heart says.
Me: That’s right, Bella. You need to do the right thing and sometimes people don’t tell us the right things. You are wise. Is that why you didn’t run off with your friend after school today? Because your heart said not to?
Bella: No, my heart said to but I knew I would get in trouble. It kept saying, “yes. no. yes. no.”
Bella: (A few minutes later, getting out of the van) Mommy, my heart is saying to go to my fairy garden.
Me: Okay, that is fine.

She keeps me on my toes with her questions and comments.

Big Girl Issues

As Ava's second birthday quickly approaches and a new baby has plans to arrive in the spring, we are doing big girl things! She has shown some interest in the potty but mostly scared to ever try until recently. We encourage her to try through the day but no luck until this past weekend when she finally did it! Randy is the lucky go-to and so she regularly goes to him now when she needs to potty.

We also started and have now completely transitioned her to her big girl bed in Bella's room. We had plans to move her in there around her second birthday but she started climbing into the new bed on her own a few weeks early. We would entertain her interest and let her try it out but it mostly lasted a few minutes each time. Last week we made the change by not giving her a choice anymore and making a big deal out of her being a big girl! It was a success after three short days. Nap time served to be a little more difficult until this weekend so as you can see she gave up one day and went to sleep on the floor. The first night she slept the entire night in there we found both girls watching tv the next morning together. Ava doesn't have a chance at sleeping in anymore like she used to! Big sister has her up at 7:30 now. Research suggests that children make the transition from the crib quite a while before a new baby comes to take over. This way, her move to the big girl bed is all about her and now about a new baby taking her place causing her to resent him in anyway. It worked quite well with her developing an interest on her own and then some reinforcement and encouragement.

SNOW DAY

They started calling for snow and so Tuesday morning everyone was on high alert! The girls still had school but we were waiting to hear if we would need to get there early to pick them up. They ended up having a full day but Randy's county got out early and so he was able to surprise them and pick them up! Everyone came home and we waited and waited... it finally started falling around dinner time. School was then closed Wednesday and Thursday. We went out for a little bit Tuesday evening and then again Wednesday morning. Bella is at a stage where she loves it, but Ava is not too fond of it as you will see in the pictures below.....