Finishing Audrey's 6th birthday

Well, after Audrey's phone call from Mickey. She got 2 more phone calls from grandparents. We went to visit her Great Grandma and Grandpa Jensen. We spent a little bit of time there and Audrey got a present from them. Gave them hugs and then went home to get ready for Dance class. After dance class was done and we handed out treats to all of the girls and their brothers, we got back into the car and headed to the party. Audrey knew there was going to be a party but thought for sure that it was going to be at our house. And so when I started driving away from our house instead of towards it, she started getting confused. I told her not to worry, but I just felt like taking a drive before the party. 

I hoped that she wouldn't put all the pieces together. As she had gotten several clues. She had seen the Chuck E Cheese web page open in my browser. I hadn't been cleaning the house like crazy. And we were packing all of the party supplies into the cars. She saw the balloons in daddy's car. But we told her that daddy was in charge of decorating for the party. I told her I was just checking the prices of Chuck E Cheese, and she put it to being able to go there on pizza night for dinner. 

I drove past the Aquarium, which is where we went last year for her birthday. But the girls didn't notice... and I drove towards Chuck E Cheese. We were a little late as dance gets out right about 6. But it was pretty smooth driving there, I didn't hit much traffic. As I pulled into the parking lot the girls thought we were going to go shopping a little.

I pulled into the parking stall, and Audrey turns to me and says,"Mom, I think you are lost...". Me,"Oh, really?". Audrey,"Are we going to have dinner at Chuck E Cheese's!?!". "Yes". "But, what about the party??" (starting to get a little down) "Honey, the party is here." "It is!!!! Yay!!!"

I just wish I had someone with a camera when she went through this conversation. It was pretty awesome. And apparently I can keep a pretty good secret... But probably not for too much longer, or I will just have to get sneakier. :)

We had lots of fun with family, friends, pizza and games! And I didn't have to stress to much about all of it. So it ended up fairly enjoyable

And now I shall post pics...

The Rainbow Cake in all it's prettiness!

One update on Audrey's birthday... I may have a few today...

So this morning I made Audrey's cake...

 I had a little helper...

 We made the cake while Audrey was at school... 

then Audrey got a special phone call

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

So today, 11 years ago Stu proposed to me. I am so happy he chose me and I was able to choose him. I wouldn't change anything about these years together. I am so grateful for everything that Stu has done for me and our kiddos. 

Now for a short video... 

And also some pics from today!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Wow... Water

• Pros

1. Cupboard filled with junk, now dejunked
2. Bathroom floor, now sparkly clean
3. bathroom sink/counter, now sparkly clean
4. basement floor, now clean
5. Kitty Litter boxes, now much cleaner
6. I now know exactly how many towels I own
7. All of my towels are now clean
8. Table in my Laundry room, now dejunked and clean
9. Food storage in my Laundry room not damaged! yay!
10. water did not touch any electrical stuffs!!!
11. Learning how to listen to those promptings that say, "Check on your kids" or "You had better take care of that kitty litter now before it gets really bad" or "No, you don't really want to throw away those old towels"
12. and we now have a fan in case we ever need it again... :)

• Cons

1. Loosing all of my stocked up bandaids
2. throwing away my unused/unopened tissue boxes
3. loosing 10 or so unused diapers... (not to bad as Thing 2 is mostly potty trained at this point)
4. Cleaning kitty litter that was filled with water
5. having to ground Thing 1 and Thing 2... 
6. No tv for 2 days...
7. No computer/ipad time for a week (eek)
8. Not having listened to those promptings
9. Getting really upset at my sweet girls...

Well, if you can't figure out what happened from that... 

I was not paying attention to the girls. Ellie had to use the potty and I just let her go. Audrey went in to "help" and I just let them be. About 15 to 20 mins later they are still in the bathroom, with the water running. And I decide that I really need to go check on them and tell them to leave the bathroom. As I walked down the hall I noticed the water on the carpet outside the bathroom door. I opened the door and they had stuffed up the sink with everything from the counter, plugged the sink and had let the water run. For the entire time. There was probably about an inch of water covering the bathroom floor, and since the sink isn't well sealed to the counter, it had filled the cupboard under the sink with water, and their drawer was filled with water. 

I sent the kids to their room to change and stay in their room and then proceeded to call my mother and Stu. I gathered all the towels I could find upstairs and then went downstairs to get more out of the Laundry/Storage room. And found that the water had leaked through the vent system into my Laundry room and onto my table and blankets and clothing set there, and into the Kitty litter boxes that were stored under the table. 

I then proceeded to quickly melt down. 

Luckily, my mother was able to come to the rescue. Stu was able to get off of work early and pick up a few things we needed to get everything cleaned and drying.

I was able to calm down while scrubbing and realize that this was my fault too... And as you read above I was able to figure out the good things to come from this Life Lesson... May I never have to repeat it again. Which is also why I am writing it down.

Unfortunately, when I am in complete melt down mode I cannot seem to take pictures... so I have no pictures of this disaster when I found it... Though I don't think the pictures could have done it any justice.... 

Also, a side note. I found out after all was said and done. Stu told me that after I had gotten off the phone with him, he began laughing hysterically... (while I was sobbing hysterically)

So I reminded him of a mishap that happened to him while I was not at home, and he was tending a PT-ing Thing 1 and a crawling-stick-everything-in-the-mouth Thing 2. And Thing 2 grabbed Thing 1's #2 and proceeded to try to... yeah... He freaked out about that... and I got to just laugh then... :)

It is good to remember to laugh when life throws you curve balls, right :)

Big night for Elle

Ellie was able to start taking dance class with Audrey!

She went a few days without accidents, and she made it!

Adventures in Crazy, January....

Yes I think this January has been crazy... no not in the I have a thousand things to do kind of crazy. Though, I do like to do that to myself. But in the we are going to do things that we haven't really done before kind of crazy. Or the Stir Crazy kind.

Two Monday nights ago, Stu decided that he needed to go buy a new car. Which he did... He got a new Audi A6. And he bought it that night, finishing the paperwork at 11... while I was home with the girlies. And yes I thought it was kind of crazy.

And of course we have tried and retried this potty training thing. I even melted down and asked for all sorts of advice on the Facebooks... I got a lot. And I took a lot and added it to my repertoire. And I bought things that I had told myself I would never buy. I bought a book on potty training, a feed and peeing dolly, and a potty watch.

The book on potty training is very good. But I ended up not really using it as what I was doing was showing progress.

The baby doll had gain a lot of interest. But I didn't really use it's features to get the point across. And when I did get around to trying them out, it turned out that they didn't work. Apparently it is a sort of flawed dolly, and only some of them really work well... and I got a doll that didn't. But the girls still love her. And she helped Ellie become a "big" girl.

However, the Potty Watch! A huge success! I didn't have to bug her about going to the potty. It put her in charge! And she went every time it went off. But she was still scared of the #2... And would have accidents with that... and a few times she didn't clean off very well, and she was not cleaning off well after going to the potty.

She started telling me she had to go potty without the watch! Which was awesome progress... but then she was going every 15 mins... I should have gotten the clue. But she wasn't having accidents.

After a playdate last Monday, I noticed that she looked off. She said she had a headache so I asked her to come upstairs so I could look at her. And then I noticed a glazed look in her eyes, and a blood shot eye. She also had a slight fever. So I decided that she needed to go to a dr.

We got her in. And I am glad we did... apparently she had a UTI. Poor kiddo, and I hadn't noticed the signs. She wasn't acting like she was in pain. But apparently she was. We got her on the medicine and things seem to be getting better...

Finally, today she told me she had to go potty, and she had to do the #2! And she did!!!! Success!!! We finally made it over that milestone! I don't expect her to get it right away. But we have made progress and that is all I need to see.

Audrey, has learned how to tie her shoes this last week. :) My friend showed me a video that has taught my daughter how to confidently tie her shoes! She is way excited, and so am I! And she loves to wear her shoes with laces now.

Today was beautiful! The storm got rid of the icky air and left some amazing snow!

We have been stuck inside a lot lately. Due to freezing temperatures outside, and a crazy bad inversion. And we have all gone a little crazy. But Sunday we had an awesome snowstorm that cleared out the air and dumped about 4 inches of awesome packing snow. So today after school I sent the girls out back to play with Penny, until I was ready to go out front and play with them. We ended up building a Snow Castle/fort.

The girls are ready to have a snow ball fight... So if anyone is up for the challenge... we are ready :) The girls spent probably an hour or more outside playing. It was awesome! (And they went to bed much more easily tonight than they had been.)

 Hopefully we can do more of the same tomorrow after school... and possibly build our snowman :)

Here are some pics of the Hockey game we went to... 2nd row near the goalie! We had a blast :)

 And now for some more random pics of the girls going Stir Crazy and learning to tie shoes :)

Yes, we have had some fun :)