Finally Some Snow

Winter is finally here (except that it's melting outside again today).  This was the first time this year that Bennett really got to go outside and play in the snow.  He's been outside other times this winter but never with snow.  I was going to take the kids outside on Tuesday and of course, when I went to put Bennett's boots from last year on him, they wouldn't fit at all.  So, we went to Target to get them both some new ones.  And, I'm glad I had waited!  Boots were on major clearance and I got both pairs for $10.74 total!  Way better than $20 a pair like they were in November when I almost bought them. 
Anyways, Mike took Bennett outside on Wednesday and then Jon took them out on Thursday while he was watching them. 

Space Bags

A few weeks ago I was complaining to Mike about how our closets are so jam packed full of stuff.  So after some re-arranging of storage bins etc., I was able to clear up alittle bit of room.  But then, while I was at Target one day, I walked by these Space Bags that you always see an infomercial for on TV.  Well, I decided to give them a try.  I have done 2 bags so far and saved TONS of space.  In the first bag I put a huge comforter and a few smaller blankets in the bag which basically cleared a whole shelf.  The second bag I did had a bunch of baby things - swing cover, floor mat, bouncy seat cover, blankets etc.  These items are so puffy that they take up sooo much room.  I decided to give this a try and wow, it worked great!  Here is a picture for reference.  I definitely would recommend these if you have lots of blankets, pillows, or anything puffy that takes up lots of space and that you don't use very often.  The 2 pack box that I bought was $12.

p.s. - You fill the bags with your stuff, it ziplocs shut and then you hook your vacuum cleaner up to it for about 10 seconds and suck out all of the air. 

Birthday Party

Tonight we had a Birthday Party for Bennett and Ashley.  It was a simple party with just my family and Shirley.  We ordered pizza, my mom and Shirley each brought a salad, Kristen made the cakes, and Laura brought the ice cream.  The kids got some great gifts!  Ashley got clothes, books, hair barrettes, and a few other things.  Bennett got a very warm bear hat, a backpack for preschool next year (sniff sniff), a remote control car, some Curious George books, a Veggie Tale Movie, and a few other things.  Great gifts!  Thanks everyone!

Bennett was very excited about his new backpack.  It was a coincidence that he had a Thomas shirt on too tonight.

David was showing Ashley one of her new books.

Thank you to Kristen for baking their cakes.  Ashley had Cherry Chip and Bennett had Chocolate.  She made the letters out of fondant.

Laura set her cake down on the table, turned around to get her pop, turned back around and found a large piece of her cake missing!!! 

Bennett's plate however, somehow got a huge piece of extra frosting!  Bennett had no clue how that got on his plate :-)

Happy 3rd Birthday Bennett!

Today was Bennett's 3rd Birthday!  This afternoon we let him open the presents from us - Candy Land game and Finger Paints.  He wanted to paint right away and he had lots of fun doing it.  Then this evening I took Bennett to his FAVORITE place to eat - McDonald's.  I dropped Ashley off at my moms (Mike had school tonight), so that we could take our time and eat and then he could have all the time he wanted in the Play Place too.  Normally when we go to McD's I just do the drive-thru to avoid the Play Place with both kids.  Anyways, he had a great time and he was in there playing for probably a half hour.  There were no other kids in there for him to play with tonight though.  We'll be having a birthday part for him and Ashley this weekend. 

Happy Birthday to my Big Boy!  Love You!

 

Ashley 12 Months

My little girl is a year old already.  This first year with her has been so wonderful!  She is such a sweet addition to our family.  Here are a few of her 12 month achievements.

Weight:  20lbs (exactly) - 33%
Height:  29.5 inches - 65%
Diapers:  size 3
Clothes:  size 12 or 18 month.  12 month pants are alittle too short but 18 month pants are wayyy too long. 
Shoes:  size 3

-She has taken a few steps on a few different occasions but she still definitely prefers crawling.

-When I'm dressing her, she sticks her arms in the arm holes and she will give me her feet to put her socks on.  This is nice that she never fights me to get dressed.  Now diaper changes are a totally different story!
-She is starting to play with really well with Bennett.  I don't know how much of the playing she is actually doing but she follows him around.  Some days Bennett is fine with this, some days it irritates him (alot).

-She is solely eating table food now.  During this past month I tried to get her to finish up the few jars of baby food that I had left and I only got her to eat a few bites before she started spitting it out.  She is doing pretty good at eating her meals but she has a bad habit of throwing her food on the floor.  This usually happens towards the end of the meal so I always can take that as a sign that she's done.  Her favorite snack right now is raisens.
-She only has a bottle right before bed - otherwise she uses her sippy cup.

-Since summer already, she only takes one nap a day.  And unfortunately, (for me), this is only a 1.5 hour nap (if that).  Bennett still takes almost a 3 hour nap so this is very weird for me to to get such a short "break".  She goes to bed at 8:00 at night and sleeps till 8:00 in the morning.  She had a very bad habit of waking up every night for a bottle.  This had been happening for the past 5+ months.  She's slept the night though the past 3 nights so I'm hoping she is now getting enough to eat during the day that she doesn't need that extra bottle during the night.

-She got 4 new teeth (molars) this past month which brings her total to 10 - 4 on the top and 6 on the bottom.
-She gives real (open mouthed) kisses and hugs now which is so sweet.  I'll take whatever I can get since she is not a cuddler at all!
-She cruises up steps!  She is such a fast climber and really good at it.  She can get up our flight of 14 steps in less than 30 seconds!  We've tried to show her how to climb down but she hasn't mastered that yet.

Well I think that pretty much sums up some of her best accomplishments during this past month.  She is definitely not a baby anymore but yet an almost toddler.

Potty Training

Bennett has been officially potty trained since August but he still wore a diaper or pull-up to bed at night.  Last weekend we were at my mom's and I got him in his pjs at her house so that we could come home and go straight to bed.  I forgot to bring a diaper with though so he had to go home in his underwear.  I decided to keep him in his underwear and see how it would go.  Most mornings his diaper is wet.  Well, he made it!  I did wake him up around midnight before I went to bed to try to get him to go but he refused.  So, he has slept in underwear and been dry 4 out of the past 5 nights!  The one night that he did have an accident I partially blame myself.  He was still awake around 9:30 and said that he was hungry so I gave him an orange.  That probably was not the best choice of food as a midnight snack.  So as long as I'm not jinxing myself by putting this on here, I think he is completely trained and that he is done with diapers!!! 

Also, about 3 weeks ago Mike got a stool out and let him try to stand and pee.  Well, he caught on right away and has been doing this every since.  And so far, I've only had one mess to clean up which I'm pretty impressed by!

UPDATE:  Seriously, I just had to stop typing in the middle of the last paragraph to go downstairs and change bed sheets and pjs.  Seriously....I knew I should have waited a few more days to write this post!!!  At least I was still awake and this wasn't at 3:00 in the morning.  Ugh, I so knew this would happen...oh well...we're on our way I think (hope).  I asked him if he forgot that he was wearing undies and he said "uh huh" in a sad kind of voice. 

Merry Christmas!!!

Wow what a busy Christmas week!  All of our Christmas gatherings wrapped up this past weekend so I'm just going to do one Christmas post instead of five!
Dec. 20, 21, 22 = 4 church bulletins (20 hour work week - usually about 6 hours), finish Christmas shopping, finish wrapping gifts etc.
Dec. 23 = Christmas lunch with Mike's Aunt Dianne & Uncle Jon and Grandpa Bill (a few from his dad's side) at Chammps
Dec. 24 = Christmas Eve with Mike mom's side at his Uncle Leo's house in the cities
Dec. 25 = Christmas Day Church, Opened gifts from Santa and then to my mom's for Family Christmas meal and gifts in the afternoon
Dec. 26 = Mielke Family Christmas at my mom's
Jan. 1 = Laue Family Christmas in Fairmont

It was a very busy week but we all had tons of family fun!  The kids had shortened/mixed up naps many of those days but they managed very well without any major meltdowns. 

Here are a few pictures from those days.  My camera had awful lighting all of Christmas so my pictures aren't that great of quality.  And, after the awful time trying to get a family picture for our Christmas cards, I didn't even attempt one on Christmas this year. 

 Ashley and Aunt Dianne

Bennett and his Great-Grandpa Bill

 Bennett's main gift from Santa - a very cheap set of drums which has kept his busy for hours.

 Gift from Santa - Bennett & David

 Ashley's main gift from my mom.  It even reclines :-)



Ashley and Grace both decided to give it a try.



 Ashley (12 mo) and Abbi (9 mo)