Playing and Planting

Ryley still loves her swimsuit. She and Jodie were swimming in the kitchen.The kids were painting pots for our herbs we planted this week.

The kids love playing in the dirt. We let them play in the garden until we plant. They love digging, and finding worms.

Jodie also loves the dirt. I just have to keep a close eye on her that she doesn't eat it (it has animal poop and other nasty stuff in it!). Yuk!

Ryley wanted to plant pink flowers. Thanks Granny for the hat, she is convinced it is her gardening hat.

Jodie's Adventures with the Potty

OK so let me start this post by saying: No I am not trying to potty train Jodie yet and I really wish she wasn't this interested in the potty. For those of you who haven't been through potty training it is no fun, and it is a lot of work in the beginning! OK so my secrets out: I am lazy, and even though I don't like to change diapers; rushing to the potty every five minutes and then sitting while they play, get up, sit down, play some more, is just not my idea of a fun time.
Jodie found the potty chair in my closet and thought it looked like fun. She played with it, climbed on it, took it apart, and sat in it. Ryley and Mason played with her some too. So I asked her if she wanted to sit on it and she did. When she got up her diaper was wet and warm so I knew she had peed. A couple hours later I had to go to the bathroom and she came too. I asked her if she wanted to sit and she did and peed in her diaper. So the next day she sat a couple times but this time I took her diaper off and she peed and pooped in the potty twice. I yelled and screamed and made a huge deal, and Ryley came in and made a big deal too so of course Jodie loves the potty now. Anytime one of us says "potty" she goes running for the bathroom, she also sits when I go to the potty. So I am still not saying we are potty training, we are just playing and if she ends up trained then great and if not then we will try again later (this thinking is so different then when Mason was little!).

Her feet don't touch the floor because she is so little. Notice her knees...she fell several times on the concrete trying to keep up with Mason and Ryley the other day.

New Stuff

Sorry for being very behind on posting! I would love to tell you all that I have been doing something really fun or productive, but that would be a lie. The truth is we have been sick for the past two weeks. It seems when one of us gets better then someone else gets something, but never the same thing. The exception has been Mason, he hasn't been sick with anything. Ryan had the flu, Ryley had a different stomach bug, Jodie has been battling diaper rash and pink eye, and I have had a cold and pink eye (thank you Jodie!)

So here are a few pictures I have taken over the last few weeks.Mason in desperate need of a hair cut. He thought he wanted to grow it out like Ryan's but changed his mind when it wouldn't lay flat.

Mason with his new hair cut. He told me he really wanted it bald, braided, or a bald mullet. Luckily I talked him out of each one, but who knows the future of his hair Ha ha ha ha!
Jodie at my Mom's house at 5:30a.m. All I could think of as I was taking this picture was "the early bird really does get the worm!" Ok so maybe I was just really tired, but it was very funny at the time.

The girls in their pink hats. Jodie wasn't sure what to make of her hat, but Ryley really wanted her to wear it so she chased her around the house and put it on her every time Jodie took it off.She loved her sunglasses.

So what else is new with us... We went to Mason's school conference and he is doing great. His teacher said she wished she had 100 Mason's. Ryley has been watching The Lion King nonstop, she can write her name and a couple other words, and she has been singing Hakuna Matata ,but instead of philosophy she says silosophy (which makes me giggle every time!). Jodie is going through several changes... We have moved her crib into her and Ryleys's room and we are trying to get her to sleep there. She is not real happy with the change and is letting us know very loudly that she protests! Jodie had a Dr.'s appointment and looks great. She is very small, but growing right on track so no worries for her. She has learned the art of fit throwing and is using this power as often as she can. She has several words now and will let you know what she wants. We are all loving this wonderful weather and hope it stays for awhile so we can play outside more.

The Basement is DONE!!!

Our basement is finished and has been most of the week, but I didn't want to take pictures until I had some of the stuff put down here and organized. We are all so thrilled with our new space. It is wonderful and has allowed us so much more space upstairs. The morning after we moved all the toys down I told Ryan it looked like we had been robbed and all they took were toys! I truly think I am falling in love with my house HA HA HA!
This is Ryan's room. In the corner will be his work bench, but we still have to build it.
This is where his pool table will go eventually.

The extra bedroom that doesn't have a bed yet, but is great for storing stuff right now.

The bathroom.

Here is the big room/toy room. The kids love playing down here and there is no TV so we watch a lot less than we did when we were upstairs. I haven't started organizing all the toys yet...that's next week!

We are well on our way to having our finished basement. This is a picture of the bedroom. This is the bathroom, it still needs the mirror, light, and outlet covers.

Mason was so excited about the toliet being down here and had to be the first one to pee in it.

This is the kids room. I love the carpet, but it looks brown in this picture...it is actually a dark gray.

Another picture of the big room. I didn't get any pictures of the "man room" because it is messy and not much has changed. We think it will be finished next week. So I will try to post finished pictures later.

This is the "man room". Just showing we have doors, trim, paint, and baseboards. The doors will be painted white. This is the vinyl that is in the bathroom and in front of the backdoor.

Just another shot of all the work that has been done so far.

Our basement is well on its way to being finished and we couldn't be more excited! Sorry I didn't specify, we are not actually doing the work ourselves. We always thought we would, but it worked out to hire the original builder so we just have to sit back and watch the work get done. When it is finished we are going to refinance the house which will make our house payment much cheaper.
I thought I would share some pictures of the transformation and I will add new ones when more work is complete.

This is Ryan's "man room".

This is the kids space.
Same space just looking the other way.

Here is what it looks like today. This is the kids space. For those of you who have been in our house I am standing by the basement stairs, the sliding door is on the right.
I am standing at the other side of the same room. The door leads upstairs.
This is in the extra bedroom looking out to the big room.

This is the bathroom. Mason was so excited that it was purple, we keep trying to explain that it is just the color of the drywall, and we still have to paint it.

This is Ryan's room. In the spot on the far left will be his workbench/tool area. The place in front of the window will be for his weight bench and eventually a treadmill.

This is the other side of that room. This will be for Ryan's guitar's and amp for now. However, one day I am told it will be where the pool table will go.

Funny and Not so Funny!

Sorry no pictures with this blog, just some random things that have happened the last couple of days...

Mason was out of school yesterday and I need something to do to break up the constant fighting and yelling that now occurs all day! So I took the kids swimming for an hour. As I was getting ready to go I was trying on my two swimsuits that I hate, and trying to decide which one looked the least atrocious. Mason comes in the bathroom and states "Mom, I don't think you should go swimming with us!", "Why Mason?", "because your swimsuit is too tight and makes you look kinda fat!" "Thanks son, that was very rude, but thanks for your opinion, if you would like we can all stay home?!?" "I wasn't trying to be mean its just that the top is too tight", "OK Mason get out of the bathroom and shut your mouth!" Yes this is in fact the exact conversation I had with my son yesterday. Then I called Ryan to complain that Mason did have a point and that he needed to have a long talk with him about being polite! Oh the joys of honesty!

So this morning before school I was going through Mason's backpack and getting it ready for today. I came across a piece of paper that had two lines of words (a sound and o sound). Half way down the a column was DAM, which spelled this way is OK, however, I know my son and know that he doesn't realize a difference in DAM and DAMN. So I ask him to say the word allowed, but he conveniently forgot this word. After some questioning and talking he decided that if he put a "p" on the end then it would make the word damp and everything would be fine. I explained that this was not OK and I better not see this word on his paper again. To which he replied "OK Mom" and ran off to fight with his sister.

Gymnastics Fun Day

Today we went to Gymnastics. There is a local gym that hosts "Fun Days" once a month and for $5/hr. the kids can run around and play. My girls love it. We have been once before, but I forgot to take the camera last time. All their friends go so they have a blast running around and playing!

Jodie loves to run around and get into everything! Here is Ryley with a neighbor friend. She loves jumping into the pit.

Here are the girls in the block pit. Ryley jumps and jumps into the pit. Jodie is too little to jump but she loves to sit in it. Jodie needed new pants because she has finally outgrown her 9 month ones so I bought her new ones. When Ryley saw the pink ones with the hearts on them she had to have a pair too. Plus, I love dressing them up in matching clothes while I still can!

What kid doesn't love a huge trampoline? Ryley spends a lot of time on this one.

Crazy Hair, Swimsuits, and Funny Face

This is Mason's crazy hair. For those of you who don't know he has really thick, curly hair. He has started insisting on wearing it straight down, ugh!. However, it is his hair so we let him do with it what he wants. I love messing with it after his bath and today he let me make it curly and make him a Mohawk. Oh and that is my new shower curtain. I have wanted this shower curtain for months because I knew it would match the kids bathroom perfectly, but didn't want to spend the money. Last week I decided I was sick of walking by it every day at Target so I finally broke down and bought it. It matches perfectly and I love going in the kids bathroom now.

Mason wanted to show off his scar.This has been Ryley's outfit for the past two weeks. Every morning she puts her swimsuit on and only takes it off to eat or leave the house. I have had to fight with her to put clothes on to take Mason to school. She has really been asserting herself this week. We also registered her for preschool and she is really excited. Mason told her if she didn't cry on her first day then she was cooler than him, because he did cry. To which she replied, " I'm not going to cry, I'm not a baby!"

This is Jodie's "funny face", I am trying to get video up, but I have not been real successful.