Zoo

It was such a nice day today I decided to take the boys to the zoo.  We bought a pass last year (I think it was around May), well it is good for a year and we are going to make good use of it while we can. 

This year Noah actually gets  to enjoy it, last year he was just a lump in the stroller.  He was having so much fun pointing and grunting at all the animals.  We did have one causuality, we lost one orange binky, oh well its a good thing we have lots of them around this place. 

We of course had to ride the carousel, and the train.  The boys seemed a little apprehensive on the carousel, which is weird for Ashton, he loved it last year. He seemed fine once it started going, although he didn't want me to take my hand off his leg the whole time.  Noah just sat on the dolphin and held on, he wouldn't smile or anything.  He tried a few times to get me to hold him, but I made him stick it out. 

The train ride was so cute Ashton wrapped his arms around Noah and held him for the whole ride ( it is only a few mins) it was the cutest thing ever.  Noah even sat still and let him do it which is a surprise in itself. 

I love these boys more than anything, they do drive me crazy somedays but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  I loved this picture of Ashton, but Noah looks like he was drugged or something.  I swear he isn't!

Cleaning Bug

A friend recently posted about buying this steam cleaner,so I looked it up and decided that it was definitely something that I needed. So I sold Jason on the idea and when we were at Costco on Saturday we picked one up (Thanks to Ariana who told me about this and that it was cheaper at Costco than it was on Amazon) Anyways today I have been cleaning up a storm.

I just think this little machine is cute, it reminds me of a bug for some reason. 

I started with the bathroom floor, the grout was getting a little gross, it looks like new tile now, next came the bathroom fauset, it had stuff built up around it, that I have tried many different methods to get off with no success.  It is so shiney right now, I wish it would stay this way forever!  Then I steamed cleaned the shower and tub.  I am not against using cleaners by any means,  but there is just something that seems so much fresher and so clean about using steam. 

After the bathroom I headed to the kitchen,  Now please don't judge me because of what I am going to say next.  I have never cleaned my oven before (gasp), we have had this oven for 4 years now.  I know it is pathetic, it even cleans itself, I just have to press the button to turn it on.  So on went to oven, the house did smell like somthing was burning all day but hey I now have a nice clean oven.  It is not perfect, but those that know me, know I am not a perfectionist so I am okay with a few spots.
 

While the oven was doing it's thing I tackeled the sink and fauscet, the fridge and a few other things.  I wanted to clean the kitchen floor with my new little machine but I am tired of cleaning today.  I will tackle that one another day. 

larger images

I found out how to make pictures larger without using another site like flicker or anything else, so I thought I would give it a try.  It is so simple. 

Go into your settings and scroll all the way down to Global settings,
choose the updated editor and save the changes. 
Now when you go to post your pictures, it will be so much easier
Once you get the photo in the post, you just have to put the cursor on top of it and all your options for size are right there!

Try it...if you hate it (you won't) you can go back and switch to the old editor

New Chairs

Well they aren't exactly new chairs, but they sure look better then they did. We bought these chairs before we were married so they have gotten some good use. A few months ago I noticed that the fabric was starting to tear on the seats, so I wanted to recover them but I just never got around to it until last week.

Here is one of the chairs before I covered them. This chair only had a small tear in the corner, but it was still annoying to look at and I decided I wasn't enjoying the plaid anymore.

I went and picked out some new fabric and recovered the chairs. I initially didn't get enough fabric so I had to go back and get some more. I finally finished all four chairs last night. I am happy with how they turned out. Now I have to decide what to do with the leftover fabric. I think I might make a table runner.

Here is the "new" chair, Jason even approved of my fabric choice.

Another Potty Update

Potty training has taken over my life this last week. After a rocky start the first day or two, things got much better. On Thursday we had no accidents at all, Friday we had one accident and Saturday we had one accident. But we did have what I like to think of as a break through on Saturday, Ashton went potty on his own, I could hear him up in the bathroom so I went to check on him. He had gone potty and he was trying to get his pants back on by himself. I was so proud of him, he got to have two potty treats for that one. I think he is finally understanding what he is suppose to do. Sunday morning I woke up to Ashton calling for me from the bathroom, he was trying to get his diaper off so he could go potty. I am so proud of him, I still get a kick out of watching him go potty, he doesn't like to sit down to pee he likes to stand it makes a little more of a mess, but oh well.

All last week I pretty much stayed home while we were doing the potty training, it was killing me I get so stir crazy so hopefully this week we can get back to our regular routine and get out of the house more. I know it will make for a much happier mom if we do!

Day #2 Potty training

So today went much better than yesterday. We still had some accidents but they were fairly small ones, we did go through 4 pairs of underwear. He even went poop in the potty, I was so proud of him I could hardly stand it.

I was a little unprepared for the whole potty training thing. I did have a couple pairs of underwwear and some pull ups and I thought that was going to be fine. I am going to have to go buy some more underwear because I refuse to do laundry every night that just seems like way to much work. When it is so easy to go buy some more :)

Ashton got enough stickers on his chart today to go and buy a new train so Daddy took the boys to Target while I was at work tonight. They stopped by to show me and it was so cute how excited Ashton was with his new train. He had been talking all day about wanting a new blue train, so I was surprised when he ended up with a green train, and it was not a Geotrax one either. I guess they were all out at Target so Ashton chose a Thomas one instead.

I know that some day Ashton it going to kill me for posting pictures of him in his underwear, but it is so stinking cute.

Potty training bootcamp: Day 1

So I should warn anyone reading this that there will be talk about poop and pee, so if you want to stop reading now is the time :)

So today officially marks the first day of potty training boot camp. We have been working with Ashton for the last couple of weeks to go potty but he just wasn't getting it. So I decided I needed to just put him in underwear and let him make a mess to show him not to go in in pants anymore.

So this morning we got up and he peed in the potty and we put underwear on. I was thinking ahead and put towels and blankets on the couch so if he did make a mess I would only have to wash the blankets and not the couch. I set a timer on my phone and every 15 mins I was asking him if he needed to go potty. The answer was always no, around 10:00 I asked him again and he said no, I went into the family room not two mins later and what did I find but I soaking wet child on the couch. I wanted to scream but I didn't we went up stairs got him cleaned up into some new underwear and pants and I even tried to get him to go potty again. He didn't have to go and he went and was playing in his room. I swear it wasn't more than 5 mins later and he came back into the bathroom and he had not only peed himself again, he pooped too! This time I did scream, and I felt horrible about it too. I had told myself I wasn't going to yell at him but I was very frustrated with him at this point.

We cleaned up again and this time I told him he only got wear underwear. Now you have to understand Ashton he hates to be naked, he insists on being dressed all the time, no running around naked for this one, so he wasn't thrilled with not having any pants on, but I didn't want any more laundry than necessary. The rest of the day went pretty well, no more major accidents. We have been filling up a potty chart with stickers and when he fills up tow rows of stickers he gets a new train. He also gets a potty treat when he goes, which is a piece of candy. Normally I don't give him candy very often but I am not above bribery if it is going to get him to understand this concept.

Here's to hoping tomorrow is going to be a better day!