Kate is ONE!

For the next 2 1/2 months now I have a 1 year old and a 2 year old.

I was welcomed into this "Mom of a one and two year old" phase of my life by Kaden peeing all over the bathroom floor (accident?? I think so.) on the morning of Kate's birthday. Awesome.

Speaking of Kate's birthday. It was a fun party! We had it the day after her birthday so my parents could be here with us. We had a few other people over and had brats (the meat-we didn't eat the kids), polish dogs, hot dogs, potato, pasta and green salads, lemonade, and chips. Of course, it snowed.

I didn't get a lot of pictures, but managed to get a good one (or 2) of the cake. I was proud of it! Just cupcakes made to look like flowers. Then I made a little spot of mud where I wrote Happy Birthday Kate. For months I had looked at cake ideas and didn't like anything I saw...finally found just a picture of this one and knew it was perfect for Katelyn. It took a lot longer than I thought it would to frost and put together, but it was totally worth it!


She truly enjoyed every lick of frosting and can now be considered a frosting-aholic. SHe KNOWS what frosting is now!



She got lots of cool toys too! Ironically-everyone got her Melissa and Doug brand. Kitchen toys and sandbox toys. Kaden is pretty sure it was all for him.

I FAILED!

Love this video! Watch HERE My favorite part is about 3 minutes in probably, but it's all good!

I FAILED, I FAILED, I FAILED!

This is one of my favorite comedies ever!

And after I fail I often cheer myself up by thinking of this!

So...having said that. I failed to do "basic cleaning" and once again, found myself spring cleaning.

It went through my head, "I FAILED, I FAILED, I FAILED!"

If you don't get it, refer to previous post.

I Have Problems - Right Here at Home

Last year, today was my last day before having my beautiful baby girl, Katelyn Joy! You might think this post is gonna be about her...but it's really not. Really, what I mean by that is, I was doing the exact some things last April as I am this April-except everyone accused me of nesting. I really don't think I ever truly nested with either child BUT in April every year I get this crazy spring cleaning urge.

Urge, really, is not a strong enough word. I am absolutely overtaken by the forces of the spring cleaning bug and I cannot fight back.

So, here I am, once again spring cleaning (nesting if this was last year.)Problem is, I have company coming. So, here's what happens. I go downstairs to get the guest room clean (you know, the normal, vaccum, dust, make the bed, etc) and come back up having completely sorted every drawer, the closet, the scrapbooking stuff, etc..

Then I restart. I have lunch or something and re-focus. "Ok Bethany. The goal here is a clean house for company. They won't be going through your deepest drawers." You know the talk. So, geared up to just do the basics, I head down.

So far I have completely re-organized, de-cluttered, and re-drawered my files. I have gone through all the drawers and closets in the entire house; re-organized my Pampered Chef inventory/supplies; decluttered my travel bag(YES, PEOPLE, MY TRAVEL BAG); Kaden's AND Katelyn's clothes have been gone through and weeded out-including halloween costumes, and winter wear. I've repacked my Christmas decor into a nicer tub...people-I've done everything!

Or so I think. Until I go down to SIMPLY dust and vaccum...and then I find another thing!

So, all that to say. My house is not clean. it needs vaccumed in the worst way. It is extremely dusty (Except the ledge that leads to the file cabinet..which I was dusting and is what brought me to the wretched file cabinet which sucked me in)... yes, that ledge is dusted.

So..I'm headed down to attempt this "basic cleaning" again. I have mapped out areas to stay away from. The laundry room for one. It's basically clean, but I just know it could suck me in. The shelf has a FEW things that could be reorganized and...well..you know. The storage under the stairs is another. The DVD rack---yes...even that is not safe. The refridgerater is a definite stay away from item.

Maybe I should just let myself be sucked in and apologize to my sneezy guests and explain why I didn't get the place dusted? (You see, this is the argument that GETS me sucked in in the first place.)

It's an evil bug. I love to hate it, and hate to love it.

BUT-I am planning to have a garage sale SOON-and I won't be finding things I wish I'd remembered to put in! I've found them!!!!

Also. I am NOT (I repeat, NOT) for hire.

Kadenisms

"Awfuls" ---Waffles
"Kung-uhl"--Tunnel
"Nah-nuh"---Banana
"Katewin"---Katelyn
"Percy Juice"--anything in his Percy sippy cup
"Kick-up"---pickup
"Trabis and Lebi"--his cousins Travis and Levi
"tuit"--foot
"potato"---tomato or potato (good luck guessing!)
"gakkett"--jacket
"WHAAA WHICH"---(said in a horrible voice) Sandwhich
"yangya"--lasagna

For the most part his words are very clear. There are a few that he just kills us with!

Also, we are "chasing" whichever car we are following in our car.

His bed "kicks him out" at times.

And, if you ask, Katelyn is always "10 Months" while he is mostly "2 and a half" or "almost free, but i'm 2" while holding up 5 fingers.

Where's the Dog?

We've been working on teaching Kaden how to put on his shirts and coats all by himself. He's got underwear and pants mastered! Anyway, so he got his PJ shirt on but, unknown to him, it was backwards. He was sooo proud of his accomplishment so I praised him highly! After adequate praise, I urged him to go show Daddy then I asked, "Oh Kaden! Where's the dog?" (He has a dog on the front of his pajama shirt.) Without pause, he pointed to where the dog should be and said "RIGHT here!!!" But as he looked down he stopped short. He twisted it. Then he lifted it and looked at his belly. "Mom, WHERE is he?" He was truly amazed that the dog had just jumped off his shirt.
Then Luke told him it was on the back....He's a nice daddy. I was going to leave him hanging. ♥

The Joys of Motherhood

Maybe it was because I was too proud of my Kaden.

Maybe it was because I needed to clean my bathroom and it seemed that nothing would motivate me.

Or maybe it was all just one big oops.

It sure is funny now that it's done!

The story, you ask? Oh yes. I'll tell.

It starts like any other normal day. Kaden wakes up. Kaden asks for breakfast. I ask if he needs to go potty. Kaden says no. Kaden eats breakfast. Kaden tells me he needs to go potty. Kaden takes his pants and underwear off. (ALL the way off.) Kaden gets on his stool to get on the potty. Kaden goes potty. Kaden gets down. Kaden puts his underwear and pants back on. All with little or no help from me.

I'm proud of this. VERY proud that at 2 1/2 Kaden is so well pottytrained...(not that I could have forced him!) This is why I wonder if it was punishment for my pride.

Today we skip to the part where Kaden takes his pants off. He deviates from plan. He decided the door must be closed to avoid sister coming in to try to stick her hand in the toilet. (I appreciate this deviation). I hear massive, hysterical screaming. I run into the bathroom to find Kaden standing there---peeing. Now, I know you are picturing a puddle on the floor.

NO. this kid was PEEING. I mean, I have never seen these amounts of pee come out of a child before. And it was going straight out from him for about 2 feet. As I realize this I see that he is turning to me...screaming "It's on my leg! It WON'T stop! It just keeps going!" He's hysterical. Picture this. Hysterical Kaden. Me just trying to keep out of the line of fire! I pinched his "pee thing" (as he calls it) and sat him on the toilet, and stood there. As I assessed the damage it all hit me how hilarios that less than 5 second episode really probably was. And how not hilarious the clean up would be.

Enter Katelyn.

Let's just say I had a lot of clean-up of both kids and the bathroom. (It did get the deepest cleaning it's had in a while!) And, I was able to laugh about it. It was hilarious. I asked Kaden why he did it...why he didn't wait til he was on the toilet and he said "My pee-thing just wouldn't stop!" Later, he needed to go potty again and wouldn't take off his underwear. When I asked him why he said "My pee-thing might start before I'm on the toilet!"

He's nervous about the whole potty thing. But I think in a day or 2 two we'll be back to his normal, potty-trained schedule. Maybe a bit less pride.

I'm just so glad it was in my own house, with no one around. So so glad.

Oh So Excited!

Today is the day. THE DAY. It's been a loooooong time coming and I'm so very very excited!

Today is the day the dining room is declared DONE.

(With the exception of needing a new chandelier, one more wall decoration, and some curtains......ok...so maybe a project is never DONE.)

BUT, it will be painted and the hutches moved back in. I will have my bedroom back (read as- I will have my junk heap to turn back into a bedroom.) I will be able to find a place in said (buried) hutches for my new Pampered Chef glasses...so they don't have to sit on my counter anymore.

The other day someone made this comment: "I'm not really an orange person, but this is coming together and looking GREAT!!" I was thrilled. You don't have to love orange-but I hope it still looks good. Kind of like how I'm not really a pink or purple person, but I can still appreciate when it does look good!

I'll have before/during/after pictures up SOON!!!!

Now Luke can move on to fixing the 2 chairs sitting there unused. And getting the windows we're storing put in, and you know...more fixing up of the house.

But first maybe we'll enjoy a down weekend!