AMANDA IS OFFICIALLY POTTY TRAINED!

Well, this happened back on Feb. 26, but I am finally getting around to post about it. I figured it was worth a post all on its own. She has been in 'training' for awhile as far as wearing pull-ups and sitting on the potty and going poo-poo and sometimes pee-pee. The pull-ups thing confuses me somewhat so I didn't want to confuse Amanda with dilly-daddling around with them for too long. The point is to get in to underwear, right? But she mostly wanted to sit on the potty for poo-poo?! Anyway, I told her when she's ready to wear underwear like her big sister, to let me know and that was all I had to say. She said she was ready on Feb. 26 and that was it. I put undies on her and she made it thru the weekend and the next few days w/no accidents (she still wears a diaper to bed though)...then we went to Grandma's house and she had her first accident, but not entirely her fault, we just didn't make it there in time....so that was it. She was ready and now she is a BIG GIRL! We are so proud of her! Here is a picture of her potty chart that we used for about a week at the most.

March Happenings, continued....

March 13, 2008 - Well, it was in the mid-50's on this day, so the girls thought it was summertime and got the scooter (not pictured) and bubble mower out and played like it was summer out. They've been praying to Jesus & God for warm, sunny weather. It is hysterical. They are definitely bouncing off the walls these days and need some outdoor play....I wonder when that will happen?!? I don't mean to sound so negative, but golly, we need a break.

So it's back in to the house and the girls empty the toybox and pretend they are on a train going somewhere (probably warm! haha!) Look at Amanda playing peek-a-boo!

My Grandma Van was in town the week of St. Patrick's Day, so we had our monthly dinner get-together with Dad & Grandma joined us for a festive fun evening @ Rob & Lisa's house. Here are some highlights of that evening. We've been having dinner w/Dad one night a month just to have an official night to get together and catch up. It's so hard with everyone working, kids, activities...

Here are some highlights from that entire day! Starting with Ryan officially doing "SO BIG!" ! I will include a short video too, just b/c it's so darn cute. What a big boy!

How big is the baby? SO BIG!

Some cute pix of the kids w/Great Grandma Van and of course

Uncle Robbie's cake and ice cream to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

I thought this was so cute...while visiting that evening, the girls all were coloring at the kitchen table while the adults were visiting in the living room. All of the sudden, Natalie came in with her 'pair of scissors, water bottle and comb' and was giving away free haircuts to all. She had asked Uncle Robbie for scissors and he told her no but made these instead. Then she said she needed a water bottle and so he cut out this water bottle and then she needed a comb.....you get the idea. Pretty crafty there, Uncle Robbie!

More March Happenings - Bunny Hop!!!

On March 7, we attended the BUNNY HOP that the park district puts on. It was a lot of fun for the girls...games, crafts, Easter Bunny! Here are some pictures. Actually, their favorite thing was the actual "Bunny Hop" in a picture below. They got to hop on candy-land-like squares to the Bunny Hop music! Ryan had a blast too!

March Happenings

Well, March is almost over and so I thought I'd post a few more

highlights from the month....

Natalie (Tumbling Tykes) had a FUN Gymnastics meet on March 2. Amanda's age range (Tumbling Tots) did not participate. But Amanda still had fun playing in the bleechers while Natalie performed. Natalie performed her somersaults like '10's' - and she even got a trophy...well, so did everyone else that participated. Haha!

Amanda, Miss Caroline (coach)

(her favorite person in the whole world!),

Miss Heather (coach) and Natalie and the Superstar Star Trophy!

Ryan starts army crawling March 1. Watch out America - this kid is on the loose and looking for cords and any paper scraps he can find.

And he can move as fast as lightning

Ry pulls himself up on the side of the toybox just a couple days later and gets 'stuck' so he starts crying for me to come help him get down. I love it when they discover they can pull themselves up but then realize they don't know how to get themselves back down yet. Stay tuned, he is army crawling and I will have to see if I have a picture of him in action.

I happened upon this cute moment where all 3 of my children were playing with the same toy, together, quietly....wow! So I had to document the moment! There is something for everyone on this cube-shaped toy. They each had their own side.

Sweet Amanda gets caught relaxing and reading.

More pictures coming....Good night.