Candle Holders

I know people have been addicted to Pinterest for awhile now but I just started it this past week.  I saw something the other day and was like "hey that looks SO easy and I have lots of glass candle holders left from our wedding - I could do that!"  Can you believe that I actually carried through and did it!?!  - I'm shocked myself :-)  This really was so easy and very cheap - $1.43 for Epsom Salt.  p.s. - I was in the grocery store and was looking through the whole salt/spices area for Epsom Salt and couldn't find it.  Well, I found Shirley working in the health and beauty aisle and I asked her and she said yep, it's right here!  She said it is used to treat wounds or as a soak when you have sores etc. so it's in the health section instead of in the baking/spices section.  

 Take Elmer's glue (school glue) and mix it with just alittle bit of water.

 With a paint brush, brush the glue on the candle holder.

 Once you have the candle holder covered in glue, roll it around in the Epsom Salt.

 And tada!!  Easy as that!

 (Picture taken with the lights off)

Seriously such an easy project and a pretty way to spice up plain glass candle holders!  This candle holder literally took me less than 5 minutes from the very start to finish (with taking pictures in the process haha!).  Also, I barely made a dent in the Epsom Salt and have tons left to do more candles...or treat a wound :-)

Ashley 2 Years

This is Ashley's 2 year old post but since I'm sooo behind on this, it's technically a 25.5 month post!!!  I've been meaning to do this forever but since I knew it'd be a longer post, I kept putting it off...oops.

My oh my do I have a big girl on my hands!  She is such a smarty pants, a sweetheart, a drama queen and a toddler!  Here are a couple of her latest and greatest things that she's been doing lately.

Talking  = She is talking constantly and saying so many words and sentences.  She can pretty much tell me anything that she wants or needs and I actually do mostly understand her.  It's great being able to communicate with her!  Bennett enjoys it too - listening to them play together or carry on a conversation together is so awesome.

Playing = Ashley and Bennett play together pretty well.  But, she wants her way and so does he so most times when they are playing together, I hear lots of whining or "Moooommmm".  When she is playing by herself though, I don't hear a peep from her (which is sooo nice!).  Her favorite things to play with are Barbies, her dolls, read her books, dress up, or play with her pretend food and cook things for me.

ABC's = Ashley has known all of her ABC's since 18 months old.  This surprised us so much when we first found this out.  I'm not totally sure where exactly she learned them but she knows them all.  I can point to any letter and she will tell me what it is.  If anybody is wearing a shirt with words on them she will tell us all the letters on the shirt.  She does like the show Super Why and will say all the letters on the show but I don't really think that's where she learned the letters.

Numbers = She knows her number 1 to 9 but not always in the right order.  She loves to count things and will count out on her fingers but like I said, she skips numbers alot.

Colors = She knows all her basic colors.  I'd say pink is probably her favorite (go figure).  And she really enjoys coloring and "drawing".

Potty Training = Like I said in the post the other day, she is doing really well at this and hopefully it continues!

Eating = She is a great eater...much better than her brother!  She will eat pretty much any meal I make (or at least pick at it enough to get enough food).  Her favorite foods are pizza, string cheese, chips, eggs, raisins  chicken nuggets and hot dogs.  One thing she doesn't really eat to much of is fruits.  She'll sometimes eat apples or grapes but that is about it.  She also isn't really a fan of noodles but that doesn't surprise me because neither is Bennett...I thought all kids loved Mac n' Cheese?

She just had her 2 year doctors appointment this past week.  I had it scheduled but of course, it landed right on Grandma's funeral so I had to reschedule and just got her in.
-She is still my little peanut coming in at 26 lbs. which is in the 37%
-She is 35 inches in height which puts her in the 74%
-I just recently packed away all of the 18 months clothes and got out the 2T clothes.  Alot of the 2T is still alittle big on her but I was just getting sick of the same 18 month clothes that she's been wearing since September.  Plus, I had lots of 2T clothes that I got at garage sales that I was afraid won't fit her next winter.
-Shoe size 5 or 6  (p.s. - She LOVES shoes! She is constantly putting on different shoes throughout the day!)
-Diaper size 4
-Teeth - who knows.  I know she has a full mouth of teeth and that she is getting some molars that are coming in right now.  The only reason that I know this is because she had a fever and a couple of messy diapers last week.  Every time I try to check in her mouth, she bites my finger SO hard that it's not worth it to me to get an exact number anymore!!!

I honestly can't believe how big my girl is already.  She is such a bright part of my day.  I love hugs and kisses from her and her little giggle is infectious.  Love you Ashley girl :-)

My little sweatheart

This is a Polar Bear that Bennett made in school but Ashley loves using the mask too.  

Training

We are busy with training in this house.  We are working on potty training with Ashley and working on training Bennett to sleep the whole night in his bed.

Ashley has been doing GREAT with her training.  We have been at this strong for about two weeks so far.  She isn't really telling me when she has to go yet but almost 80% of the time that I put her on the potty chair now, she will instantly go!  Instead of me sitting with her for 15 minutes and her not doing anything like it was two weeks ago.  She is also to the point that most times, if she has gone pee in her diaper, she will come and tell me or bring me a new one to change her.  She is staying dry for a good part of the day too (as long as I remember to take her).  The other day she was dry from after I changed her in the morning until 6:30pm at night!!!  She's doing great and I'm really hoping that by spring she'll be trained!

Bennett, Bennett, Bennett...  For well over a year Bennett would make his way upstairs to sleep in our bed every night around 1:00am on the dot.  I used to not mind 'that' much but he gets SO hot sleeping next to me and he cuddles SO close that Mike has 3/4 of the bed and Bennett and I end up sharing 1/4 of it with me feeling like I'm going to fall out.  A couple of weeks ago when he had a bad cold and kept coughing and breathing so heavy right next to my face I couldn't take it anymore and moved out to the couch to sleep.  When I realized that I was kicked out of my own bed and sleeping on the couch, I said enough was enough. So, from that next night on, he has been staying in his bed all night.  How you might ask?  Well, we have a child-safety lock on the inside of his door.  (don't worry, I have a child monitor set up so I can hear him if he is crying or knocking).  The first 3 nights he woke up knocking at the door and wanting me.  But after putting him back to bed, he'd sleep until morning.  Since those first couple of nights, he has slept the night without waking up at all!  I'm sleeping so much better and he has got to be too!  I am going to give this another week just so that he gets used to sleeping all night and if he continues to, I will take the lock off of his door and hope that he still will sleep through.  Anyways this has been a much much easier transition than I ever thought it would be...which is why I haven't attempted it a year ago!

So wish us luck as we continue our child training.  Hopefully in two months I can write again telling you that they are both fully trained!  

Wacky Day

Bennett's preschool class got to participate in National Lutheran School's Week dressup days at his school.  Since he goes to school on Tuesday's and Thursday's he got to dress up on those days with all the rest of the kids at school.  On Tuesday they had Wacky Day and Thursday was Pajama Day.  He enjoyed Wacky Day and totally understood that he didn't match and that everybody had silly clothes on.  His friend Jimmy had orange spray painted hair which Bennett loved too.  Then on Thursday for Pajama Day I actually bought him a new pair of pjs.  He has a bunch of pjs but they are getting wayyy too small for him and the only pair that really fits him was his feet pajamas.  The only problem with these though is that when he pulls them down to go to the bathroom he usually can not get them back on and zipped by himself so I didn't want him to have to struggle getting dressed when he had to go during school.  Anyways, I found a pair on clearance for $4.50 so he lucked out and got some new ones...otherwise I probably would have just sent him in sweats.  Anyways, he liked pajama day too and was very excited that they got to eat popcorn for their snack and watch a Veggie Tales movie during snack time! 

I feel so very lucky that we have a Lutheran Grade School for him to go to so he can learn about Jesus and openly love and worship Him!