No more diapers AT ALL

I had 0 motivation to try and get Anna dry during nap and night time but over the last 3 months or so, she was becoming dry on her own and started to ask to wear panties to bed off and on (she would switch between pull ups, diapers and panties depending on her nightly mood). So much that for the last 2 weeks we have worn panties to bed during nap and night night and we have had 0 accidents!!!! We have to be careful not to drink too much water after dinner and she has to go potty before bed though. She is super excited because the reward for being dry for a month is.... drum roll please...... A BIG GIRL BED!!!!!

We are proud of our Anna Banana!

Much Love,
Jenny

A-N-N-A!

When picking up Anna from Mother's Day Out today, I ran into the preschool director and she shared this story about Anna that happened today in class with me.

They were making I-Spy bottles (which are pretty cool) and they were trying to pick out the letters to their name. One of the teachers asked if anyone knew how to spell their name and Anna's hand shot up into the air. They called on her and she got so excited that she held up a piece of paper that she had just written her name on and showed the class her name while shouting "A-N-N-A, Anna!" And that's not it; right after she goes, "and Mommy. M-O-M-M-Y," while pointing at the word Mommy she had just written. I guess Anna was super proud! The preschool director said they were all pretty amazed. I just giggled proudly, oh my Anna Banana.

Much Love,
Jenny

PS The next day Anna was making Valentine's and she had written Daddy all by herself. Later that evening I asked her if she could spell Daddy and without looking at anything she said, after thinking for a minute,"D-A-D-D-Y!" That was the first time I had seen/heard her spell his name! We got super excited!!!! She then asked me how to spell Belle and I told her. She didn't know how to draw a B so I explained it to her. Hours later she asked, "Mommy, you make a B by making a line and then a half circle like a P and then another half circle?" She had explained writing a B the EXACT same way I had taught her! Blows my mind!

The Zoo

74 degrees... on January 28th?

Yup, so where did we choose to go... the zoo!!! Grammy decided to meet us out there and we bumped into some friends from our church's playgroup. We had so much fun- watched the sea lion show, rode the carousel, played on the playground, saw lots of animals, rode the choo choo train and had a picnic lunch; we even got to see the new polar bear! Anna really had a blast with Avery (who just turned 4) and on the way home told me that she is so happy to have a new friend.

 Anna and her new friend, Avery.

 Anna totally jumped into the car halfway through Avery's turn. Luckily Avery was sweet enough to not get mad at Anna!

 Someone was ready for her nap..... but once we got home it took her over an hour to get to sleep..... she didn't fall asleep until 3:00.

What a great way to spend a nice day outside! We are definitely ready for Spring!

Much Love,
Jenny

Anna and Ashley make dinner!

Besides cutting the ham and pouring the corn bread batter into the pan and putting it in the oven, we made our Saturday evening dinner of ham and bean soup in the crockpot and cornbread to go with it. We just love to cook!

Love,
Anna and Ashley

Weekend Home Updates

It's been a while since we've done anything around the house besides paint, but with the gorgeous weekend we had, we started back at the TO DO list. Rob trimmed the front evergreens and trimmed the bottoms of the 20 pine trees we have lining out backyard and did a Lowe's run for wood to start building shelving and other organizational units for the garage (we are super excited to get this accomplished before spring!) As for me, I FINALLY got the item that has been on my TO DO list since before we moved in.... and it literally took 20 minutes. I spray painting the brass that is on our hearth room fireplace. And it looks so much better!!! I also assembled the last 2 of our 6 kitchen chairs, cleaned the house and made hand print ornaments that I have meant to do since the beginning of Christmas. It felt good to get these things off the list!

Here is the before picture taken a long time ago before we took down the drapes and painted the walls. I thought about taking a before picture when I was halfway done disassembling the fireplace and I wasn't going to reassemble it for a pic. So this will do!

And here is the fireplace now!

I will have to take a picture like the first one with the walls painted, but I am still tackling what to put on the HUGE wall space and on a mantle that has a huge window above it. Any suggestions?!?!?

Much Love,
Jenny

PS And here I am at 22 weeks..... gotta start painting the living room.dining room.foyer and hallway ASAP before this belly gets any bigger!

Picture of Peanut

Today when mommy was still in bed and I was drawing in my drawing pad on her floor, I asked mommy how to draw Peanut.

She told me.....

1. Draw a small circle for his head
2. Below it draw a bigger/longer circle for his body
3. Draw ears on his head
4. Draw 4 legs on his body
5. Draw 1 tail
6. Give him eyes, a nose and a mouth

When she looked at what I had drawn she was impressed! She told me I was really good at listening to directions. She also LOVED where I put his tail :) Just in case you are looking for Peanut, he's pink.

Then I asked her how to spell Peanut and I did it all on my own (except Daddy helped me with the U). When drawing the P, I asked mommy, do I do the circle like the D but smaller? She smiled because that is what she always tells me to do and it showed her that I really DO listen to everything she tells me :)

Love,
Anna

In Training

And someone else (Ashley) is just figuring out the buttons!!!!

Much Love,
Jenny

Budding Photographer

I really LOVE to take mommy's small point and shoot camera and snap pictures!
Here's my best to date....

Mommy can NOT believe I took the picture above. The lighting was just perfect when I took the pic and BAM!

And some other pretty decent ones. I am getting pretty good at getting the object I want to take pictures of in the picture!

Love,
Anna

KFKF

I have been meaning to post this since Christmas but have clearly forgotten. Better late then never, right???

Well Anna loves to sing Christmas songs (still does actually) and a couple weeks before Christmas she out of the blue started singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas, KFKF!!!" When I heard it I thought it was HILARIOUS because it shows how much we had the local Christmas radio station on in our house and in the car.... pretty much like every minute of every day. And since she saw me laugh SO hard, she does it now just to see me laugh and call her crazy. It is super cute.

"We wish you a Merry Christmas.... K...F....K.......F!"

Much Love,
Jenny

PAT Playgroup

We love going to the Blue Valley PAT (Parent As Teacher) playroom. We are allowed to go one hour a week on either Tuesday or Friday mornings for free. We usually make it in every week because it is THAT awesome. We usually go after Tuesday speech class with Miss Lisa. They always have different activities sitting out and we get to play with whatever we want. Mommy says it's like a pinterest dream come true! One of our favorite things is the row boat (pictured below). We also like when they have sand, water, play dough and shaving cream out to play in. We get REALLY messy!

It is by far the best perk of Ashley being in the PAT program!

Love,

Anna and Ashley

Peanut's haircut!

Peanut was really needing a cut and since the girls are into haircuts, they were super excited to take him in yesterday to get groomed!

Now the only person needed a cut is ME!

Much Love,
Jenny

Ashley's First Haircut

I had originally booked just a haircut for Anna since I thought it would drain me of energy to try and convince both Anna and Ashley to get a hair cut. I wasn't up for the stress. But when Ashley saw her sister handle the hair cut like a professional, when it was time to leave the hair salon, Ashley refused. She started saying, "Ashley haircut. Ashley haircut here!" There was no way I was getting this little stubborn thing out of the hair salon. I should have figured it would happen this way; "monkey see, monkey do!"

So we waited around 45 minutes for the next opening and then it was Ashley's turn. She picked the Lightening McQueen car and watched the movie Cars. I wouldn't say she was as calm as Anna but she did a really good job. I think she only stood up and tried to climb out of the car 2 times and was easily distracted by the lollipop bin.  In the end, she too got around 2 inches cut off. It was much harder for me to see Ashley's hair go because it was really beautiful. Anna's was dry and damaged but Ashley's was still healthy. But she needed a good trim and she's awfully cute with the new cut!

And I hadn't promised Ashley a Snow White doll or any toy for that matter but two hours or so after we got home, Anna says to me, "Ashley never got a Snow White Doll. That's not fair mommy." So right then and there I ran down to my stash of toys and got Ashley her Snow White Barbie doll. She was all smiles!

Much Love,
Jenny

Anna's First Haircut

The FIRST hair cut FINALLY happened. It was years over due, I swear at least 2 inches of her hair was damaged. But since she was resistant to getting her hair cut, I didn't push the matter. But then the tangles got worse and it needed to be done. So this past week, when talking about hair cuts, Anna actually agreed to one under the following terms (Don't you love this.... she had terms?!?!?!)

1. Someone other then mommy cut her hair

2. That her cousin Kate goes with her

3. That she gets a Belle Barbie Doll (I had told her I'd get her a toy)

So, quickly before she changed her mind, we called and made an appointment, picked up Kate and Grama and off we went to Shear Madness. When we walked in, Anna was in heaven. She ran straight to a purple Jeep that was facing a tv that was playing the movie Rapunzel. At that moment she was sold on hair cuts. Watching the movie the entire time in Anna movie watching mode (which is 110% serious) she got a little over 2 inches cut off her hair and was excited to get a tiny braid in the front. And what did she say when she was done? "Mommy it didn't hurt a bit! Can we get a hair cut again?!?!?!"

Amazing. She didn't even ask for the Belle doll, but holding up my end of the agreement I had her go look through my bag where she found her very own Barbie Belle.

So all that hype over a haircut......

Much Love,

Jenny

PS She has already asked to get another hair cut and LOVES her hair! Too funny!