Potty Practice

 I even gave her a snack on the pot

 So dang cute though

 In her Minnie shirt and underpants

Lily will be 2 1/2 next month and she is still not potty trained.  She really has zero interest in it.  I ask her if her friends at school go in their diapers still and she laughs and says, "no Mommy, they are big."  I ask her why she doesn't go on the potty and she tells me,"I too little Mommy."  Help me please.  I moved her potty seat into the kitchen since that is her preferred pooping spot hoping that would help.  She did at least sit on it for a while yesterday, but without results.  I put underpants on her too, but she just pooped right in them and peed.  I put her on the potty afterwards and shook the "turds" into the potty and told her that "SHE DID IT!" and I made a big deal of it and I gave her a treat.  She was so excited because she "thought" she really did it.  I was so excited because I "thought" she would want to do it again...NOPE.  No luck.  She did pull her pants down and her diaper off tonight and sat on it herself, but then she was just playing on it and scooted herself all around the kitchen saying, "look at me, look at me!"  Any tips, suggestions, words of wisdom on this matter?

Rock and Roll!

Miss Avery Grace rolled over today for the very first time!  I knew she was close and I turned my back for one second and she did it!  She was crying so I went in to check on her and she was just mad because her little arm was stuck underneath her and she couldn't get back.  Happy Valentine's Day to us!

Avery's 4 Month Appointment

Avery will turn 4 months old on the 17th, but she had her 4 month check-up on the 10th.  She is a healthy, happy baby girl!  Her head is looking better (the front has pretty much evened out but the back is still a little asymmetrical) and her tear duct has opened up!  No more crusty, goopy eye! She only had to get 2 shots and drink a little drink.  She only cried for a minute and was back to her happy little self!

Avery's Stats:

*Weight~13lbs 11oz~58th percentile

*Height~25 inches~82nd percentile

*Head Circumference~16.5 inches~79th percentile

Although her weight doesn't reflect it, she does have some chub to her.  She has chubby little cheeks and chubby little rolls on her thighs.  We love our little peanut!

Daddy Turns 31!

On February 9th, Jason, celebrated his 31st birthday!  It was a bummer that he had to work all day long, but at least we got a little bit of time with him to celebrate when he got home.  Lily waited in the window for him like she usually does, and when he pulled in the driveway she hurried up and ran into the kitchen and shut the lights off so we could sing to him when he walked in the door.  I was shocked that she knew the entire Happy Birthday song!  The girls each made their daddy a card and Lily picked out some cupcakes for him.  They suprised him with Kenny Chesney concert tickets and they took him to eat at Texas Road House.  We hope he had a good time with his girls!  We love you daddy!

 Waiting in the window for daddy

 Helping daddy blow out his candles

 Giving daddy his presents

 Eating cupcakes

Snuggling with dad before bed

Pics and Stuff

We are having fun at our house lately!  Avery is getting bigger and interacting more and it is so fun to see Lily play with her.  We are having Tea parties, working on the potty, painting, playing, laughing, smiling, cuddling, and just plain LOVING!  Lily got an Olivia the Pig Tea Party Set for Christmas and she sets up her stuffed animals and dolls and tells me "I'm having a tea party with my girls mom."  WOW...she cracks me up!  Lily continues to enjoy going to "school" and she loves being a big sister.  We call Avery Avers sometimes and Lily has picked up on this and she calls her Avers too and she calls her Avery Gracers.  The other day Lily told me that her and Avery were best friends...awe.  I hope they do grow up to be best friends.  Sisters should be best friends...right?  I celebrated my 31st birthday last week and I'm sad that I didn't get any pictures with my girls.  I had a great day though.  I got lots of great gifts and cards and I even got to enjoy a nice night out with my hubby while GaGa and Papa watched the girls.  Thank you to my friends and family for making my day so special!

Snow Days

 All bundled up getting ready to play in the snow with Daddy.

 My little snowbunny

 She says "Its cold out here mom!"

 Stuck

 "Telly" the Snowman

 Yes...spraypainted the eyes and mouth

Lily has finally wanted to go outside and play in the snow.  We have been asking her if she wanted to for weeks!  She always said NO.  The first time she went out she just sat in the snow on the driveway and watched Jason shovel.  She kept taking her gloves off and sticking her hands in the snow and then her hands got cold and she wanted to come back inside.  Silly Lily.  A few days ago while Avery and I were napping, Lily built a snowman with Jason.  They got creative when they didn't have anything for the eyes and mouth...they spraypainted them on!  Goofs!  The melting snowman now has a blob for a face.  I asked Lily what she named her snowman and she replied "Telly."  I said, "Oh, that is an interesting name for a snowman."  Jason said, "His name isn't Telly, its Rusty."  Who knows where Lily came up with Telly! She is a silly girl!

Thumbsucker

Avery has found her thumb.  She loves to suck on her thumb...the left one...and she even spits out her binky and pops her little thumb into her mouth.  It is so cute.  When she is tired she finds her thumb and puts herself right to sleep!  It is funny how different these two sisters are.  Lily didn't care for the binky and she only sucked her thumb for a few days.  Avery always has one or the other in her mouth.

Silly Lily

Lily's vocabulary has grown so much in the past months.  I can't believe she says half of what she does, and half of what she says are probably things she shouldn't say!  She is so funny these days!  She over articulates her R's and her L's.  When she says dollar it is dolllllarrrrrr and quarter is quarterrrrr and Lily is Lillllllyyyyy. 

She has really melted my heart with some of the things she says.  For example, at night I say to her "I love you Lily," and Lily says back to me, "I love you to mom".  I then say "I love you more Lily," and she says, "I love you more mom."  This goes on and on.  Although I would rather her call me mommy, it is pretty cute how she says mom. Yesterday, I was getting frustrated and stressed out because Avery wouldn't eat.  I said to Avery, "Come on honey, you are scaring mommy," and Lily came over to me patted me on the back and said, "Don't worry."  If I wasn't crying already, I was now.  I picked that little booger up and hugged her so tight!

Lily can sing along to her ABC's, she can count to 20 by herself, she knows most shapes,  her colors, and everything about every show on Nick Jr....bad...I know.  She loves to dance...especially to the show Yo Gabba Gabba.  The one thing her mommy wishes she would do more than anything else is to go on the potty!  She will hardly even sit on it anymore.  She knows when she has to poop, but she refuses to go on the potty.  She now takes off running for the kitchen and does her business in there. 

I think the newness of having a baby in the house has ended.  Lily loves her little sister so much, but at least she leaves her alone most of the time.  She does play with her and reads to her, and the first thing every morning is still "Mommy, where's Avweee Gwace?"  She will occasionally steal her binky, and the other day she threw a soccer ball at Avery's head, but other than that Lily's behavior has gotten much better since Avery has been born.

Love you Silly Lily Rosebud!

Who is Who?

One of these is of Lily and one of is Avery.  Can you guess who is who?  The funny thing is that they are 6 weeks apart in these pics.  Avery is 3 months in this pic and Lily is 6 weeks.

Trip Across the State

I am behind on my blogging, but two weekends ago we packed up and made a trip out to Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  Jason's good friend and old college roommate got married and Jason was an usher in the wedding.  I wasn't sure how the road trip would go with a 2 year old and a baby, but the girls did amazingly well.  It was a 7 hour trip and I think we made it in 8-8.5 hours with the stops...not too bad at all.  I think we stopped twice...to eat and for diaper changes.  The trip back home was a different story.  The big snow storm hit during the trip home and we were delayed two days from getting back to Omaha.  On Sunday morning we left and we only made it 2 hours (to Ogallala) before we had to call it quits.  It was snowing hard and the interstate was a total white out when semis would pass.  There were tons of cars and semis in the ditches and we were only going 35-40mph on I-80.  There were accidents all over.  It was just too scary with the kids in the car.  We spent the night in Ogallala and we decided that we would try again the next day.  We learned a little while later that due to a major accident on I80 that it was closed down for the night, wo we wouldn't have made it home anyways. 

We got up the next morning and headed out again.  Things were okay for a little while, but then we were back to going only 35-40mph with trucks and cars in the ditches all over.  The interstate was ice and snow packed and just not good.  The wind was blowing and it was hard to see.  A semi flew past us and we fishtailed and I then of course freaked out.  It took us 5 hours to get from Ogallala to Grand Island...I think it should have taken us 3 hours.  We decided once again that it wasn't worth it to keep doing this for another 150 miles so we stayed in Grand Island for the night.  At least Grand Island's hotel had a pool...this kept Lily happy! 

Lily woke up around 1:00am with a fever of 102 and a horrible cough.  I gave her some Ibuprofen and she was better by morning.  We packed everything up yet again and this time we FINALLY made it back home safely.  I80 was clear and totally fine by now.  Poor Lily was not so fine.  I think she just got worn out with all of the traveling.  She continued with the fever through Tuesday night.  She was better by Wednesday but still had a bad cough.  She coughs so hard that she throws up.  Here, a week later she is finally getting over it...I hope!

I am really proud of how well both girls did.  It was a long ride in the car and a long time to be away from home.  Lily said at one point "Daddy I stuck in the car," and "I want to go to Lily's house."  I don't think Avery knew the difference or cared one way or the other. :)

Congrats to Jerrad and Cami Buller and thanks for a memorable trip!

 Chimney Rock