A walk a day!

Maddie started getting sleepy for her morning nap so we decided to put her in the chariot and let her snooze in the great outdoors while we strolled around the neighborhood.  It totally beats being stuck at home for however many hours she decides to sleep!  Our neighborhood is very hilly and very awesome!  It is quite woodsy, and most people have acre lots so the houses are not crammed together right on the road.  Pretty much the exact opposite of our last neighborhood.  Anyhow, it is officially spring, and as you can see most of the trees are getting their leaves.  This happens all at once here.  Literally all the trees are bare one day, and the next they have leaves.  The surge of growth hypes up the sweet smell of spring (think flowers, meets forest, meets smell of rain, meets cut grass...pretty much the best smell you can imagine).  And it is getting warmer!  It pushed 60 today, and we got in every ounce of sunshine we could!  Of course we had sunscreen :)  

 Chloe kept very occupied saying hello to every person who passed by, and picking every dandelion on our side of the road.  Luckily there are only a few dandelions out so far.  I imagine next week we wont make it past the end of the street while she gathers her bouquet!  Today we made it more than 2.5 very hilly miles.  Chloe walked the whole way!  Amazing!

 When we got home we had a picnic in the sun on our patio.  Our grass is newly uncovered by snow, and itching to turn green!  We even watered it today!  We have also been doing a lot of watering and planting and hopefully we will get some photos of that soon too! 

Hope your spring is amazing too!

Smoothies

Yesterday was super yummy smoothie day at our house.  They are so easy to make and so healthy, I am not sure why I don't make them more often!  Maddie and Chloe were both big fans!  

 It was also ride your bike to work day!  Even though we live quite a distance away from his work, Andrew took on the challenge.  (The bacon station along the way may have had something to do with motivating him).  Local companies and vendors set up refreshment stations along the main bikeways to give out drinks, food etc, and generally make it a more fun ride to work.

There should be a ride your bike to work day every week!  What a great way to get around and breathe in the fresh air!  Easy for me to say, since I am not the one riding :)  Now that Andrew is all primed for a triathlon, maybe he will start riding to work more often!  Bye Daddy!  The girls like to wave goodbye to Andrew every morning.  Pretty adorable.

Play day!

The sun is still shining and we are making the very most of it!  After some driving around running errand we stopped by to visit our friends Rylee and and her mom T.  They have a trampoline, and as you can imagine it was a TON of fun for Chloe! 

 They also have this super cool wheelbarrow that is now on my wish list.  It is big enough and tough enough to be an outback wagon, but it can also tip like a wheelbarrow (when the safety lock is off).    Wagon rides were a huge hit.  

 Thanks for the ride T!!

 Maddie even got in on the action!

 Her favorite things were my sunglasses.....

and a cup I used to put her baby puffs in.  She also ate a bit of grass and a few leaves when I wasn't looking.  She is quite the determined little one!

 After Andrew got home from work we loaded up the truck with the bikes and went on a family ride on Campbell Creek Trail.  It was awesome!  Already the air has that fresh smell of growing plants, grass and trees.  The birds are chirping, and even the beavers were out building their dams.  We also saw two bald eagles hunting for food.  It was a pretty good day for wildlife viewing!

 Andrew is the stronger biker by far, so he took on the full load.  Thanks babe!

 We took a bubble break about halfway through :)

Just another day in paradise!

sunshine!

We had a nice sunny day and made the most of it by going out to a park!  Yeah a park!!!  There was no snow, and yes there was green grass!  It was high 50's and it felt so nice!  Spring has sprung!  The rest of the day I spent in the yard, raking up mountains of pinecones and sprucing up the yard.  In short it was a glorious day! 

I can't wait to see what it is like to be home with the girls when we can easily play outside, go to parks or really do anything without the massive prep time involved with bundling them up!  This is going to be great!!

Before and After Kitchen

 Our kitchen is still in progress but my oh my is it progressing!  We moved into a kitchen full of matching top of the line (circa 1981) appliances.  They were functional, but barely.  They were so old they almost looked cool in a retro way.  ALMOST.  We thought about listing them for free on craigs list, but when the delivery guys were willing to take them away for 10 bucks each when they delivered the new ones we jumped on it.  Sayonara!    The instruction manuals were pretty cool though!  Check out the font!  Groovy Baby!

wall oven/microwave BEFORE  

wall oven/microwave AFTER

trash compactor BEFORE

 trash compactor AFTER

Fridge BEFORE

 Fridge AFTER (counter depth no longer sticks into the hallway)

Island Range BEFORE

 ........STILL waiting on the AFTER :)  6 more weeks until the new one comes in! 

 One last photo.  I suppose this is a before to Maddie's walking.  She can stand up in the middle of the room by herself , and is "cruising" by walking while holding on to furniture!  Not much longer now!  (the folding chairs and tables were from a party we had the other night...this was taken during setup).   It is so awesome to have a party house!  I love living here more and more every day! 

Did I mention that we saw a moose in our yard the other day?!!!!  It was AWESOME!!!!!

Potty Time

Now that we are settled in our new house, and Maddie has no trouble sitting on her own I decided it was time to start introducing Maddie to the potty.  It took a few days to "catch" anything but now it seems she knows just what to do when she sits down!  It is awesome!  Honestly I think she went on the potty 5 times today, and even better only had a few wet diapers (usually we go thru about 12 or more a day as I change them right when she gets wet).  

It is a little more work up front but the benefits are HUGE!  I know all kids are different but Chloe was potty trained by one, and really didn't have any "misses" or accidents after about 14 months.  In the EC (elimination communication) community you say miss instead of accident because it is probably your fault that the pee didn't make it into the potty.....you do have to take them for it to work :)  The idea is to give regular "potty-tunities" and the child will choose to use a potty rather than pee/poop on themselves. Go figure right?! Then when they get a little older they can sign or tell you when they have to go.  Then the most awesome day is when they take themselves!

If you are interested in trying it, get this book!  

It is called Diaper Free Baby and it is amazing.  I do not read self help books, or parenting books really and am not a granola girl and I can even say it changed my life!  

Yay Maddie! and Yay Mama for finally getting my act together and starting this! 

Rock out!

Chloe got a harmonica for being a very good helper on one of our out and about days.  I knew she would like it, but didn't know how much!  She plays it all the time and is really good!  Here she is video-jamming with Tuesday.  Tuesday is also excellent at harmonica :)

 We also had a Cinco de Mayo party this weekend.  The girls had a fun time because Heather and Chris brought James (almost 2), and Connor and Gloria brought themselves :)  The sombreros also did not hurt.  

Oh yes and there was tres leche cake.  Did I mention Chloe loves cake?  Well technically she loves frosting and doesn't really eat the cake, but this one was loaded with frosting!  And oh boy did she eat the frosting!

The scratch margaritas were the frosting for the adults.  Yum!