Bathroom Makeover

Today we did, or I should say Derek, did a bathroom remodel. A huge thank you goes out to PaPa Barry who painted it for us. That was a huge blessing to me, as I am the painter in the family. Derek decided it was time for a change from the bright green frog theme since it is our only other bathroom and used by guests when they come. He was going for a more grown up look. The paint is the same color as the rest of our house, so if flows better. He did a great job all for under $200!


This is Derek's favorite piece.
The little vase has been in many different places in our homes. Derek loves to move things around.

Ethan's Artwork

This is some of the artwork that Ethan has done at school. The top one he did the last few days and said it took him a lot of time. The second one was picked to be in an art show. It is on symmetry and he did it at the beginning of the year.

Barry and Laura's Shower

Last night the youth surprised Barry and Laura with a baby shower. It was crazy and fun and they were totally surprised. I made the cake for the event. The hanger from the nursery was the inspiration for the cake.

The cake was huge and weighed a ton. It took six cake mixes to make it. It feed about 80 people though.

The Skirt

Aubrey recently found this skirt that Nana had bought her with a Halloween costume. She LOVES it. I think one of the reasons is simply that she can put it on herself. Since Monday she has been wearing it constantly. She even threw up on it and it had to be washed. So, here is the day in her skirt. She wakes me up in the morning with it already on over her jammies.


Wearing it to take Ethan to school.
She even wore it at nap time today. I usually have her take it off to sleep in as it leaves glitter everywhere (something Daddy hates), but she put it back on today.
Aubrey had to wear it to church today and show Pam her skirt. I think Pam already saw it Monday night when she had to wear it to small group.
Oh yes, she even wore it into Walmart. Ethan was embarrassed. Not sure if it was the skirt or me taking a picture of her wearing the skirt. Poor kid
Side note: Her hair looked much better earlier before her nap and I did rebraid it before going to eat.
After wearing the skirt to Cracker Barrel for dinner and then to the church nursery again tonight it has finally been retired to her floor for the evening. I am sure she will put it on first thing in the morning again tomorrow. The simple pleasures of a little girl. I am running out of pink clothes to try to coordinate with the silly thing.

How My Time Was Spent

Derek says he can always tell when I am really busy because I do not update the blog. Every 8 weeks at church the theme for the Children's Ministry changes and I decorate the room according to the theme. Well, last week was the change week. So, a lot of my time was spent getting the new set together. Our theme is To The Depths so I made a little underwater world. I let Ethan help me paint the submarine and I thought all the paint was washable. Well, it turns out the blue that I let him use was not and it ruined a pair of his jeans...oops!
Both sides of the room have all these posters on them to look like we are under the ocean. Derek found this book at Books A Million on clearance with all these pictures. They are really cool and will give the ADD kids something to look at! As with everything, they took longer to put up than I expected.
The Submarine and the backdrop

The jellyfish. Derek remembered seeing David Bromstad on HGTV make one, so we did it too. It was actually pretty easy to make using coffee filters, streamers and spray paint.
Aubrey took her doll to church Saturday night with her matching dress. I even did their hair the same. She looked really cute and got a lot of comments.

Picnic

Ethan was out of school last Monday and had been asking for some time to go on a picnic. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. We met some friends from church at the park and had a nice time. There were picnic tables to sit at, but Ethan does not think it is a true picnic unless you eat on a blanket under a tree. So that is what we did. We were flying some kites that our friends had out in the soccer field and I decided to be a fun Mom and have rolling races with the kids. Bad idea...I got 4 ant bites that drove me crazy the rest of the day. At least the kids did not get any. So much for being a fun Mom!

Upward Basketball

Ethan started playing Upward basketball and here are some pictures from his first game. It is really funny to watch them play. We are told they get better by the end as they learn more of what to do. Ethan really likes it, but he is not very aggressive, so we are working on that.

Running out under the cheerleaders pom poms.

Aubrey and her friend Marissa (her sister is a cheerleader)
Showing off her basketball bow, now she just needs some pom poms. I think we actually have some hiding in her room.

Go Ethan!
He had just thrown it in, but I missed that with the camera.


Showing off the star that he earned.

Animal Kingdom

Ethan had a teacher workday at school yesterday, so we used the opportunity to use another day of our passes at Disney. We went to Animal Kingdom for the day. We bundled up because especially in the morning it was cold. Ethan remembered going in that we should take a picture of our parking section. We got that tip from a guy at Magic Kingdom and thought it was a good one. However, it does not work too well when your camera batteries die! Lucky for us we remembered without needing the picture. Aubrey loved the characters this time and ran right up to them. Last year she was terrified of them and we did not really have an opportunity to get up close to any at Magic Kingdom. We were able to see lots of characters and they liked that. Aubrey has been watching Mickey's Clubhouse on tv and they do a funny dance at the end, so she wanted the characters to do their dance. She is such a silly girl. We were able to see a lot of animals on the safari since it was cold they were out a lot more than when it is hot. Ethan liked the Lion King show the best. Ethan rode Mt. Everest with Derek and was scared to death, but was a good sport. I went on it by myself and decided just before the park was about to close I would like to try again since there was not any wait. Ethan rode it with me and was a really brave. It is a pretty intense roller coaster. Aubrey laid down on the train ride for a little break and the conductor asked her if she would like a pillow. She told him she was just resting. They have a really neat playground for the kids to play on and I think they could have stayed all day in that spot. We had the kids sitting on a dinosaur head to take their picture and an attendant told us we were not to play on them. I looked around and did not see a sign that said not to climb and it was made out of the same material as all the other play things. I am all about following rules, but it is a kids playground. We are really not supposed to climb on the stuff. Oh well, we got off, but not before snapping a picture.

Feeling Crafty

Today I was feeling crafty and decided to use the bow maker that Derek got me for Christmas.


I made this cute little bow to go with Aubrey's birthday girl shirt.

This is so she can look cute while cheering on Ethan at his basketball games.
I found this cupcake ribbon on sale and thought it would be cute with her cupcake shirt.

It was fun and not really that hard when I got the hang of it.

I also make Aubrey a little hat to match her jacket since we are heading to Animal Kingdom tomorrow and it is actually supposed to be cold for Florida.That got my craftiness out of me for a little while.

Small Steps

We are making small steps with Aubrey and potty training. I finally found a reward that she likes...Dum Dums! She did not like M& M's, gummy bears, fruit snacks or Hershey Kisses. Today we picked up some lollipops at the store and she came right home and pee peed on the potty. She was so proud of herself. We danced, Daddy danced, Ethan clapped and Aubrey kept saying " I am so proud of you!" She got her lollipop, which was "delicious," and we took pictures. We called family to share the good news. Aunt Kelly asked if she was wearing underwear like a big girl, so we went and put some on. I should have know it was a bad ideas seeing that she had already wet her diaper in the 15 minutes it had been on. She lasted about an hour in the underwear (of course I asked about every 5 minutes if she needed to use the potty) before she came to me and announced that she pee peed in her underwear. Into the bath she went while I cleaned up the mess. As I am scrubbing the carpet that I thought she made a mess on, I then realize that it is simply the shadow from the Rock Band drums. Oh well, now we have clean carpet too. Anyway, here are some pictures of Aubrey very proud of herself. At least it is another step in the right direction.

Scavenger Hunt and Basketball

Ethan is working on higher numbers at school and his teacher suggested doing a scavenger hunt at home for practice. I took some pictures of things we had a lot of around the house and made up a little hunt for Ethan. After we got rid of the light up pen he was using and playing with more than counting, we had a good time. I was surprised at how many pillows we have around the house - 39. That included decorative and bed pillows.
Ethan started Upward basketball and had practice today. He really likes it. There are only 4 kids on his team so he will get a lot of attention and playing time.



There was an old basketball goal lying around the back of the church so Barry said we could take it home for Ethan to practice on. The rim was broken some so we purchased a new backboard for it tonight and a little spray paint on the post and it will look as good as new. Trying our best to be frugal. Thanks to Barry Sr. for finding the goal at church!
Here is a picture of Aubrey just because she is so darn cute! Today she was a fairy and had imaginary wings. I would hold her on her belly and fly her around the house. She loved it! The simple things in life are sometimes the best. She was a happy girl at preschool today because her buddy Trent was there today. Aubrey just loves Trent and Tuesday when I picked her up she told me Trent was not there. Her teacher sadly told us that Trent changed his days and will no longer be coming on Tuesdays. However, he is still there on Thursdays, so Aubrey was very glad to see him. I think she likes him because she can boss him around and he takes it! She loves to say "Trent is my friend." She says it with such a cute southern accent it is just precious. I will try to get it on video and post it.

Not As Easy As I Thought

Before Derek left for practice tonight he started putting together Ethan's matchbox ramp he got for Christmas. He spent about 10 minutes with it before dinner was ready and had it almost finished. Ethan assured me that there were "constructions" for it so I should be able to finish it. Well, 45 minutes later, it was done. I was started to get frustrated and about to give up when moving the box I found another piece - that solved my problem. We were able to finish it and Ethan is happily playing. I guess I do not have the gift of Matchbox cars. I think I will stick to doll houses and leave the cars to Derek!


I have been doing laundry today and have a pile on my bed that I need to put away. That is my motivation, if it is on the bed I can not go to sleep until it is done! I have been know to toss the laundry onto the floor at times, but it usually works.

New Years Eve at Disney

We decided to take the kids to Magic Kingdom for New Years Eve. We got there at 9:00 am and stayed until 9pm. We knew it would be crowded, but it was PACKED! We had a good time though. We used the Fast Passes to ride the rides and enjoyed some of the attractions that we did not know were even there. We watched the daytime parade and the night parade and both were wonderful. It was fun to see Aubrey really enjoy seeing the princesses. The fireworks were amazing. Both kids feel asleep in the stroller after the fireworks, so we decided to leave. The park was open until 2am, but we did not make it. However, the kids got a second wind and were up until midnight with us at the hotel anyway. We were lazy the next morning and spent some time in the pool before heading back home. We had a great time, but I think we will stick to the less crowded days from now on. We got a Fl resident 4 day pass, so our next trip will be to Animal Kingdom in about 2 weeks when Ethan has a day off school.