POTD

In case you were wondering what the title stands for: Picture of the day. I have decided to follow this trend of taking one picture a day to tell the story of my family over the year. I thought about doing this last year but I was dealing with a new baby and being a stay at home mom and still adjusting to having two kids, so I didn't think I would be able to keep up with it. This year I am going to try. I know it is the end of January, but I have looked back on the pictures I have taken so far this year and I have one for almost every day. I am not going to worry about missing a few. My hope is that this will make it a little easier to keep caught up with my scrapbooks for the family.

So my POTD today is one of the lovely art work that Ashton did on a layout I was doing for Noah. He did this while I was in the shower this morning. I left him in front of a movie, I guess no more showering for me at least while the kids are awake :) I guess it could of been worse, but I don't have anymore of that paper and I bought it quite a while ago and I doubt I will find it again.

The joys of motherhood

I went to the store this morning and left Dad in charge of the boys. At some point while I was gone Ashton decided to do some painting with my chalk ink pads.

Which by the way were put away in a drawer. I was not a happy mommy, especially since Jason said he was in the office the whole time I was gone. So Ashton did all of this while Jason was sitting in the same room. I guess some day I might laugh about this, but not yet.

Oh and these were taken after I tried to clean it up, the leather album is now ruined and my laptop will never look the same :(

snowbird

Today I got to go skiing with Dad and Val. It was so much fun, I hate to admit it but it has been probably 4-5 years since I have been skiing last. I kept having these winter babies that made it a little difficult for me to go. I decided that this year I was going to go. Dad called me and asked if I wanted to go and said that Aaron has offered to watch the boys for me.

So this morning after delivering some instructions for Aaron I headed for the slopes. The first couple of runs, my legs were burning I was using muscles that I have not used for a while. After the first couple of runs, I was good to go. The snow wasn't great, but it was still an awesome "day off" from being a mom. The unfortunate part of the day happened on the last run of the day and My step mom Val fell and twisted her knee and couldn't ski down, so she got to ride down a sled. So the day ended on a not so happy note, but it was still a great day overall.

Vinyl Crazy

I have been going a little crazy with the vinyl lately. I just have to say I LOVE my Silhouette cutter, it is awesome. I have been learning all the things that it can do and it is such a cool tool. It is little sad to think that I have had it for 3 years now and I am just now learning all the really cool things it can do. Thanks honey for such an awesome gift, oh did I mention that Jason gave this to me 3 Christmases ago, as a surprise. I was totally shocked and had no idea he had even remembered me telling him I would like one of these.

Anyways, I figured out how to cut long images the other day and I have put two up already. I have a couple more that I want to do but I need to go and buy some more vinyl before I can.

I put this on up in the office right above my table

This is in the family room. And I finally got up some current family pictures, thanks to Korie who took such good pictures for us.

I am a little embarrassed to post this picture, but I figure that this is life. In case you were wondering what the boys are doing while I am playing with my vinyl. They are destroying the family room, I guess I should be glad that they only dumped out two of the four baskets they have in there!

Yah for Ashton

I have been thinking about potty training Ashton for a while now. He got really interested about 7 months ago, so we went and got a frog potty for him and tried to get him excited about it. He would sit on it but he had to have his clothes on. So that was the end of it, I didn't want to make a big deal about it, I figured when he was ready he would let me know.

Well lately I have been trying to get him excited about going potty again, with absolutely no luck, he has been very adamant about not wanting to use the potty. Tonight the boys had a bath and we were getting them out and Ashton started to pee, so we grabbed the potty and tried to get him to go he refused to sit on the potty. But he wanted to stand over the potty, so he did and he peed in the potty. I was so excited for him and he was really excited about it. I think we may have just found a way to potty train Ashton, by letting him stand to pee. It is going to be a bit messier, but if he will do it then I will let him. I even had a toy tucked away for a moment like this. I had bought a toy the other day at target and told him that he could have it when he went pee in the potty. Little did I know he would get the toy 2 days later.

I was so excited about him doing this, I hope this wasn't one time deal. I am so proud of my big boy.

changes

I don't know what it is about a new year that makes me want to make changes in my life. But it happens every year.
Of course there is always the ever present wanting to lose weight, exercise more often and eat healthier.

But there are other things that are driving me crazy such as, our office we spend so much time in it so it is a mess all the time. My table becomes the catch all for everything, if Jason has to much stuff on his desk, he moves things to mine (thanks honey). Every time I want to start a project or scrapbook, I have to spend time clearing off my table before I can start. So when I actually do start I have lost some of my motivation. Well last night when I got home from work, it was driving me crazy, so I decided to go through somethings. It is amazing how much stuff I get done when I don't have two kids wanting to help. I was able to go through the closet and I have a huge pile of stuff I need to take to DI. I love getting rid of stuff, it makes me feel like a weight has been lifted off me. I know that may seem silly but oh well.

I am ready to make some decorating changes in the house, I want to redo Ashton's room, but I have to wait till the weather gets warmer so I can finish his bed, it needs another coat of paint and I can't do it in the house.

Then there is our bedroom, I haven't done anything in there other than have some nice bedding, I want a new bed, but unfortunately the ones I have found I really like are really expensive.

I want a couch in the living room, I know we don't use the room much but it still would be nice to have couch in there so there is more seating.

I want to repaint the kitchen, but then again I don't cause it is going to be a pain. I want to recover our kitchen chairs, because the fabric is starting to rip which is also annoying because they are only about 4 yrs old.

The downstairs bathroom, has been a work in progress for almost a year now, it would be nice to finish that.

My list could go on and on, but I am bored now and I am sure if anyone has finished reading this you are too!

New Years

We were going to get together with the Bellamy's for the second year in a row to play games and etc. We decided at the last minute it would be fun to go somewhere, but we didn't want to drive a long ways and the places we thought of around here would of cost a fortune. We ended up going to Spencer's grandma's house in Woodruff, it was this 100 year old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Now we all thought this was going to be a great idea, then we got to the house. Now don't get me wrong, we had a good time, but next time my husband will shell out the money to stay at a hotel :)

We left at about 5pm on new years eve, we had about an 1 1/2 drive ahead of us. Things started out good, then for the last 40 mins Noah decided to cry and nothing would calm him down and I mean nothing, so we let him cry. By the time we got to the house both Jason and I were really on edge. I thought getting Noah out out of the car would help the crying, but it did not, he kept crying and whining for probably another 30 mins. This was just the start of our little adventure.

I won't bore you with all the little details, but we did have fun hanging out and playing games. The boys did have a lot of fun playing outside in the snow, and on the old tractor.

A few of the things we didn't enjoy were the flies, getting no sleep, and me getting sick and spending way to much time puking. I can't remember the last time I was this sick. On the bright side, I am starting out my new years resolution on the right track, I am sure I lost a few pounds :)