Thursday, February 21, 2008

Update on Fit for a Lifetime

I am down about 3 inches in my waist, 2 and a half in my hips and I have lost 6 pounds. I will finish my 5th week tomorrow and I haven't missed one day yet! I am so glad to see some results! 7 more weeks to go!

It's Story Time


What I loved about this picture is that they are all reading different books! Makes me smile!

Determined girl

I walked into the playroom yesterday and saw Ariel like this...


She was determined to get all those mega blocks out of the basket!

Bye Bye Paci!

On Monday night, Dan and I decided it was time to get rid of Ariel's pacifier! I had been weaning her off of it during the day and only giving it to her during naps and at nap time the past week and a half and I figured it wasn't going to get any easier so we just took the plunge and did it...cold turkey. She cried for and hour and 15 minutes on Monday night but didin't wake up at all during the night. She was up bright and early (for her anyway) at 7:30 on Tuesday and then had a rough day...she was awake all day with only an hour nap because she would just sit in her room and cry for the paci instead of sleep. Tuesday night she cried for maybe 20 minutes. Yesterday she ended up taking a two great naps without and we went through a whole wal-mart trip without a meltdown!!! Last night she cried for less than a minute and then was out all night. She is now taking a good nap and has been down for about an hour and a half! I am so relieved to be done with the paci...I was REALLY dreading taking it away!

No more gender neutral bedrooms!

Ok so since the day that I found out that I was having my first child, I decided that I was going to make my own gender neutral crib bedding so that I could use it over again with the second child. It worked great for both kids but I SO wanted to get Ariel into some really girly crib duds ASAP but the money just wouldn't provide for that so I stuck with the same gender neutral bedding that I had with Caleb for her. My grandma wanted to make both kids some quilts for their beds and she gave those to me over Christmas. I had to switch the beds around and stuff in order make the quilts work (she made a twin size quilt for Caleb and he had a full size bed and vise versa for Ariel) but I have their bedrooms looking great now! I took the painted letters that I had in Ariel's room with the gender netral colors and painted over them and made new ones...they are SO girly!! I love them! She walked into her room after I had changed the beds around and got her new quilt on her bed and she just spun around and then smiled. I think she likes it too. Caleb was a little upset that his bed was being moved to Ariel's room but he got over it quickly when I told him that bed was only for when babies leave the crib and that he was a big boy now and not a baby!

This is what the bedding and the colors of their nursery looked like before and also the letters that were in her bedroom before.

I am still lacking a few things in this picture for her room (the letters and a few other things on the walls) but I will post pics of those after I get it completed.





Caleb's room is pretty much done!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Ainsley Came to Play!!

Mandy had her 3 hour glucose test on Monday so I offered to watch Ainsley for her. Clint dropped Ainsley off at 9:45 and I had already gotten things ready for both Caleb and Ainsley to make Valentine's cards for Mommy's and Daddy's. They went straight to work and they did such a great job!

What a pretty girl!!!



After they made their cards they colored a little while with markers on construction paper. Caleb drew his first person!!!! I was so excited for him! He called it his King and even drew a crown on top of his head!
Then the fun REALLY started. Yo Gabba Gabba came on and they started dancing all around the living room doing their "Dancy Dance" moves. At one point Ariel decided it was too much for her so she sat on the ottoman and just spun her head around trying to keep up with them as they ran circles around her. They also played "Rocket" off of Little Einsteins and patted their legs real fast just like they do in the cartoon and then said "Blast off!" and then ran around the living room, they were so funny to watch!

Here they are playing "Rocket"...look at those cute belly's sticking out!!


We did have some down time though, Ariel went down for a quick nap so Caleb, Ainsley and I piled ourselves into Caleb's bed and I read them some books. They had such a great time together!

Pretty Dress

Pointing at her new dress!
I have been so blessed the past week! I have been thinking about what I was going to do for spring clothes for Ariel and trying to save some money to get her some clothes. I was on e-bay last week and bid on a lot of clothes and won it. I payed $16.00, that was with shipping, and the lady said that it was a HUGE box full of stuff. She has twin girls so I can only imagine! I should be getting those in the mail soon. Then, Mandy Bean called and said that she had some clothes from Ainsley that she wanted Ariel to borrow. She gave me a big bag full! AND, Becca gave me a bag full of clothes as well that was Kyla's!
I went last week to TJ Maxx and got Ariel a few outfits for church and the picture above is one of the dresses that I got her. She was so cute, once I got her dressed and put her down on the floor she automatically started swaying back and forth and even did a little twirl in her dress. She is SUCH a girly girl!

By the way, I don't need near as many clothes for Caleb since I have tons of shorts from last year that he can still wear and I just bought him 3 new pairs of jeans. He is set for a while! Just didn't want you all to think that he was going to go without clothes this spring!

Chunky Jesus


Last Wednesday we had our monthly Toddler Toes playdate at Chuck E Cheese. Caleb hadn't been there since he was a year old and they just built a new one in Rogers so I didn't have to drive all the way down to Fayetteville to go. The kids had a blast and we were there for nearly 3 hours. What's the meaning of the title? Caleb calls it Chunky Jesus instead of Chuck E Cheese's!



Holding on!


Skee-Ball!


This girl found a solution to her problem!!



He loved this game



Didn't know that you could get your license at 16 months!


Working on the fence

Dan started the fence a few weekends ago. He was so excited because for Valentine's day I got him a nail gun so that he could install his pickets more quickly than having to drill them all in like he has done in the past. Obviously we don't give each other traditional V-day gifts...I got weight lifting gloves and a new pair of tennis shoes!!


Caleb helped him on the fence one afternoon. We noticed after we moved in that there is not an outdoor water spicket so in order for Dan to mix the concrete for the posts, he has to fill a five gallon bucket with water and then use a coffee can to get the right amount of water into the concrete. What a hassle! Especially for a landscape architect....oh and not to mention....how in the world am I going to fill up the pool for the kids this summer. We need to look into that!
My sweet boys doing what they do best...making a mess and getting dirty!

If you click on this picture and make it larger (if it will let you, sometimes it won't) you can see that they both have the same expressin on their faces!

Here is a wider shot of how big the backyard will be. It is going to be a TON bigger than I thought it would be but I am so happy to have so much space. There is a small decline towards the back of the yard...I can just see both my kids rolling down the hill...better get prepared for those grass stains!

Helping Daddy pour some water into the hole.

Friday, February 01, 2008

200th POST!

That's right this is my 200th post! And here is one cute girl and her ponytail!

SNOW!!!!

Yep we got about 3 inches of snow yesterday. I got up at 5:15 and went to the gym and by the time I got out (only an hour and a half later) everything was covered in snow. They ended up closing all the schools yesterday and today so I am sure that there are a lot of happy kids out there and a lot of parents who were a little more than normal stressed out. Especially since all the snow has melted in all the sunny spots and the roads are completely clear.

I was supposed to get Caleb back today...yes he is STILL at his Granny's!!! I have never gone this long without my boy, I do miss him! Since the roads were kinda "ify" today, Dan and his mom decided to make tomorrow the day to get him back. I talked to Caleb on the phone yesterday and he had been playing in the snow a lot there. I really wanted him here so that him and Ariel could play together in it but it just wasn't possible. Plus I am sure that he had a wonderful time at Granny's house.

I did however let Ariel play in the snow for a little while today. This was her first time being in it. She wasn't sure how to walk in it and there was a time or two that she took a nose dive into it, but all she did was get back up and brush it off. We stayed outside for maybe 10 minutes. I didn't want her getting too cold since I didn't have the "proper" clothes to put her in. She did have fun though!

New Hair!




I did a last minute hair cut on Wednesday. I had told myself that I wasn't going to get it cut off until after I lost some weight but I just couldn't stand it anymore. I got about 3-4 inches cut off! Here is a picture of Ariel and I. You can't really tell in the picture with the two of us but she has a ponytail with a bow! So cute!