Pre-Easter Post

Here are a few pictures taken of the kids today at my mom's...

He was interested in this for a whole 2 minutes.  And then about an hour later he came back and was mad that they were all done and he didn't get to do them.

This was a pair of Kristen's sunglasses from when Kristen was about Ashley's age. 

Ashley figured out how she could ride the tricycle too - she sat on the little step stool on the back, held on to the actual seat and was able to move her feet to move it backwards.  Josh said she tried to climb up but couldn't on her own so she figured out a different was for it to work for her - smarty pants! 

Mmmm what's this?  She ended up with blue lips.

54 eggs later...

My mom saves too much stuff... the other day while cleaning a closet, they found Josh's Easter outfit from when he was 2 or 3.  It was alittle small for Bennett but he had fun trying it on tonight.

I think she thought they were like purses or something and was carrying them around all day.

My mom got the table leaf out to add to her table for Easter Dinner for tomorrow and Ashley thought it was a slide.  She would try to climb up it -

and then back down.  Don't worry, my mom didn't really see this happen :-)

Suckers

Here are just a couple of cute pictures of the kids each having a sucker this afternoon.  And surprisingly, we didn't have a huge sticky mess afterwards!

Are these two siblings or what!?!

Ashley 15 Months

Ashley turned 15 months old a couple days ago.  She's had a huge month and is changing and growing up so fast.  She is by no way a baby anymore.  She does new things daily that surprises me...but alot of it really isn't things that are easy to blog about...

• The biggest thing I've noticed during the past month is her vocabulary!  She is impressing me by saying about 20 words already.  Maybe this is normal but since Bennett's words took such a long time to come, I'm surprised by how much she will say already.  Here are a few of the newer words...Hot, Puppy, Kitty, Blue, Purple, Ball, Elmo, Baby.  She also knows the animals sounds for Cow, Pig and Kitty. 
• Her 12th tooth is slowly poking through. 
• She LOVES books!  This is sometimes the only thing that gets us through church these days. 
• She has fun copying goofy faces that we make - sticking out tongues, blinking eyes, making a sneezing noise etc. 
• Along with this growing up comes its challenges also though.  She is finding it very hard to sit still, be quiet, not get her way, empty drawers, making a terrible mess with food, whining etc.  If I had to go shopping and could take one kid and leave one, I used to always want to take Ashley...that is starting to change!

I'm going to wrap this up because I can't take it having her stand by the chair whining any longer! 

Weight Loss

1 month (5 weeks), 44 miles walked on the treadmill = 6 lbs. and down 1 pant size!

I decided something needed to be done.  I've tried to loose weight before but kept finding out that to get that first pound or two gone was the hardest thing!  This time I decided I would stick with it for one entire month and, if at the end of the month nothing changed, I would then just "give in"and accept my weight and body.  But, I was able to get my weight from 178 to 172.  172 is still obviously not great but, it is a huge start.  I have noticed alittle flatter tummy, some fat gone from my hips/thighs and the back of my legs.  I did this by walking on the treadmill - mostly inclined and by watching how much food I ate at meals.  I still eat everything I normally would, I guess maybe just not quite as much.  And I've tried very hard to not have anything to eat after the supper meal - this is hard when some nights I could feel my stomach growling at 11:00 after my walk.  This is also a challenging part - the treadmill is in the basement.  Bennett's bedroom is also in the basement.  In order for me to be motivated enough to do this, I need to watch the TV to have something to do.  If Bennett is already sleeping, he doesn't seem to wake up and hear the treadmill or TV.  But, there are plenty of nights lately where he will lay in his bed awake until 10:00.  Who wants to go walk on a treadmill at 10:30! - it takes alot of will-power to get my rear out of the chair to go walk at this time of night!  This means that it is 11:00 or later until I'm finally done walking for the night.  

My goal for March was 5 lbs.  My goal for April will be 4 lbs which would put me under 170.  I haven't been under that weight since before I was pregnant with Bennett.  Wish me luck! 

First Haircut

Last week I took Ashley to get her first real haircut.  My mom has cut her bangs a few times in the past but she's never really had her baby hair cut.  She has long hair but it is thin and the back was getting so straggly looking.  Ashley sat so still the entire time and even let her curl the ends after she was done cutting.  She probably got an inch cut off of the back and then got the ends trimmed off of the rest.  You always hear how a haircut will help to thicken up baby hair so I'm hoping it helps alittle.  But even if it doesn't, at least she looks alittle cutier now and it doesn't look as messy.

 Before

 During

After.  She looked so serious and not very happy the whole time.  (She does not like strangers!)

Look Who's Walking Now

Ashley has been officially walking for about 3-4 weeks now (right around 13 months).  But, this past week she's really taken off and is walking around like she's been doing it forever.  It still catches me off guard when I walk to a different room and she follows me walking right behind.  Or, I'll turn around and there she is standing.  She's pretty quick already which is great (but isn't... - mom's, you know what I'm talking about).  She is so proud of herself! 

Valentines Gift

I got one of the best presents from Mike this year for Valentines day.  He gave me (with help from his mom who works at a flower nursery), this potted plant with 5 different flower bulbs in.  Once the flowers and leaves die off, I'll be able to plant these outside this fall.  When he gave this to me, the the stems where barely poking through the dirt.  Within about 5 days I had a daffodil blooming already!  The last of the flowers are blooming right now - talk about a long-lasting flower gift!  And wow it is sooo fragrant too - my house has smelled great for the past few weeks!!!  There are five different bulbs - daffodil, tulip, and hyacinth (the pink and purple ones).  The other two I had to look up online and I think I've found that one is called a grape hyacinth (the blue bell shaped things) and the other one (tall whiteish flower) I still can't figure out what it is - but I like it because it smells wonderful!
Thank You Mike!

 picture taken on Feb 19th

 picture taken Feb 26th

  picture taken Feb 28th