An evening at Central Market

The weekend weather could not have been more beautiful!  We headed out to Central Market for dinner-they have a huge patio with live music and big playground, so fun!  

 Mamaw took the boys in and they each picked out their own ice cream.  After they ate a few spoonfuls, Dad and Papaw happily finished the rest.

 Think they were having fun?  The boys bath water that night was brown!

After baths-it was movie night watching 101 Dalmations.

Mamaw, Papaw and Kellen Visit!

Grandparents visiting 2 weekends in a row-how lucky are we!  Extra lucky because Mamaw and Papaw brought Kellen along to visit!!!  The weather was beautiful-so we spent lots of time outside playing and again, another weekend of great college basketball!

a great afternoon for a walk to the neighbor's lemonade and cookie stand

these lucky boys got a few rides in the bike trailer-they even rode to breakfast in it!

 next to impossible to get 2 toddler boys to look at camera and smile-they loved chasing each other around on the playground

oh my gosh, i love these feet!

Flying Cooper

Lately this is one of the first things Cooper asks Dad to do when he gets home from work...good thing we have high ceilings!

Safari Park

This place has been featured on Groupon a few times, which means we have made many visits.  Our latest visit was today after preschool because I had a Groupon that was expiring!  No pics from today, but we took Grandma and met the Fimmens last week and got a few, enjoy!

Funny story about this little indoor park...it is always the same lady working and she is always late to work!  It is supposed to open at 10 and everytime I have been (3-4 times), she is 15-20 minutes late.  There is usually a line of people waiting to get in and she doesn't even acknowledge she is late!  Honestly, it is just funny now-I mean, who does that and gets away with it!

Probably Cooper's favorite part-miniature golf.  Kind of a nightmare for me-a 2 year old, golf club, ball and children everywhere is not a good combo!

 Best Buds!

We were happy to have Grandma stay a few extra days-I love the extra hands and adult conversations!

Final Four...aaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Those of you that really know me-know that Jayhawk basketball holds an extra special and pretty big piece of my heart.  I will leave it at that, but know that I could just go on and on.  So, to say this house is excited about being in the Final Four would be a gigantic understatement...I can't stop smiling and we are wearing Jayhawk gear full time!  We want everyone to know who we are rooting for this weekend!  

I have been fortunate enough to attend the last 3 Final Fours that KU has been a part of-2002 (Atlanta), 2003 (New Orleans), and 2008 (San Antonio).  Seriously, these are the best experiences and my goal is to never miss another one!  I am ecstatic to say that Adam and I are New Orleans bound this weekend, aaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!!  I can barely sleep I am so excited!  We had talked about doing a fun, exotic vacation this year but this trumps that anyday!  So, we are flying Grandma in to take care of the kids and we are hitting the highway-I found us a hotel room today and we are going with good friends that have us tickets already!  

I have said it before and I will say it again-never doubt a Bill Self coached team.

 Oh T-Rob-what will we do without those arms next year?

 Love this pic because it shows how we hard we were after that Final Four!

Uncle Bill-we will see you in New Orleans!  Let's do this-rock chalk jayhawk.

Sitting up...not so much

I just had to post this because I happened to catch the typical (and rapid) progression of events that happen whenever we try to get Laner Doodles to sit up on her own.

 it's all good for a few seconds,

 uh oh, losing balance,

and she's down.

This happens on a daily basis and it doesn't bother her one bit!  She prefers to be on her belly, so she maneuvers herself onto her front and starts her crazy rolling!

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Yes, I realize St. Patrick's Day was almost 2 weeks ago...

 Dad and his sweet girl!

 Grandpa working with Coop on his batting stance.

We love when grandparents are in town because that means we get to go out all by ourselves and not pay a sitter-because, let's face it-they are not here to see us :).  This St. Patrick's Day we went to a local sports bar, drank green beer, and watched college basketball for 5 hours straight...my idea of perfect!

Grandma and Grandpa Visit!

 Over St. Patrick's Day and first weekend of NCAA tourney, Grandma and Grandpa drove down to visit!  On Friday morning we headed to the zoo-along with half of Ft. Worth since it was Spring Break.  It was a beautiful morning!

 Our Jayhawks were set to close out the first round that night with the late game vs Detroit, so we were all in our Kansas gear!  

 Cooper has maybe worn these sunglasses 3 times before for a total of 45 seconds.  He requested them at the zoo and didn't take them off the whole time we were there.

Oh sweet Laney,  you will enjoy the zoo someday, I promise.

Spring is Here!

look good for a great cause

As a former teacher and mother, I am so proud of Stella and Dot's support of Autism Awareness month this April.  They have partnered with Autism Speaks and will be donating 20% of sales from 2 bracelets.  The shine bracelet is limited edition, goes on sale April 1st and it is sure to sell out fast.  I am taking pre-orders now to ensure those that want one, get one!  Message me at ash4545@hotmail.com or leave a comment below.  

Thanks for your help in supporting this great cause! 

Pretend Play

blog update-for the last couple nights, i have created this post and then when i went to publish the only thing that showed up was the title.  so, so frustrating because there is no 1-800 blogger help line.  luckily, i found some forum and got a tip to download Google Chrome-it worked!  So now you know what to do if you run across this problem :)

I was wondering when the world of pretend play would enter this house.  Wonder no longer, it is here!  Coop is really using that imagination and acting out some pretty entertaining pretend play with his cars, trucks, Woody and Buzz.  His big thing is to fight bad guys (def not my favorite-but he is insistent on it).  When we go on walks, he collects sticks to fight them off.  He does the same thing in the garage, but usually has to be wearing his working gloves.  

One morning while cleaning up the kitchen, I heard some interesting chatter upstairs and decided to grab my camera.  Here is what I captured...

Cooper was the bad guy and Dad was the good guy.

She is taking it in everyday.  We joke that in about 6 months she is probably going to give her big brother a run for his money. :)

Yep, that is my bracelet, a pink measuring tape, and old flip phone.  At times like this we wonder why we have all these fancy toys!

My blog is broken...working on it!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope all the luck of the Irish is with you today and your favorite basketball team playing in the tourney!  It looks like the weather is going to be beautiful so we will try to spend some of it outside and not all of it on the couch watching basketball.  Grandma and Grandpa are here so Adam and I are pretty excited to head to a local sports bar tonight to watch some games and drink a green beer, cheers!  

 Cooper was busy fighting bad guys 

 Happy 1st St. Patrick's Day Laney Faith!

Getting a 'normal' picture of this kid is next to impossible these days, especially when he thinks he is Spiderman taking down all the bad guys.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

March Madness, it just doesn't get better in the sports world!  Selection Sunday and filling out brackets is one of our favorite things.  This is the first year that we brought Coop into the mix-how did he fill out his bracket you ask?  Well, Adam would give him the 2 team names and he would pick one :).  He was very adamant about St. Mary's beating the Hawks (and everyone else for that matter), even though we kept saying, "are you sure-that's Uncle Bill's team."  If St. Mary's goes to the Final Four-we are taking this kid to Vegas.

As always, Adam and I are loyal to our Hawks and put them as the Champions.  We have a friendly bet-whoever wins gets to plan a night out!

Rock Chalk Baby!

Poop on the Potty!!!!!!!

I have never been so excited to see that "I am about to poop" look on my son's face.  He had just finished up in the bath and was playing like he always does.  I saw that look and swooped him out of there and onto the potty in the fastest I may have ever moved.  Sure enough, seconds later, we had poop in the potty on our 4th day of potty training!!!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!  Seriously, the joy this brought to Adam and I was ridiculous.  As he was going, he said, "I watch movie and eat ice cream with Dad!"  You see, Adam had made him this "poop" promise on day 1 of potty training and Coop had not forgot!  It was about 8:15 at this time, but there was no delaying this promise-honestly, we didn't even try.  We put Toy Story in the DVD player and off Adam went to Walgreens for ice cream.  Yep, Cooper ate ice cream and watched a movie until 10pm, you can get away with a lot when your mom doesn't have to clean poop out of big boy underwear (or the bath tub).  

 Yes, I blurred out the poop...it was pretty offensive and I was afraid Mr. Blogger might track me down and take my blogging rights away. :)  However, grandmas/grandpas and aunts/uncles got the real, unblurred image thru text message when it happened-that's what family is for, right?

 Father and Son bonding over a pint of Cookies and Cream and Toy Story.  Mom was out-gave up Coca-Cola and chocolate for lent.  Adam did pick up vanilla ice cream too-but it's just not the same without chocolate syrup on it!

Way to go Cooper Jones!  

After all this excitement, he pooped in his pants yesterday :(.  Oh well, we will keep on truckin'!

Laney's First Tooth!

While at the park today, I spotted a little white spot on Laner's gums.  Yep, she has her first tooth at 6 and 1/2 months.  It is on the bottom, front right.  Will post pics when it is camera visible!

Potty Party 2012

Oh, where do I begin?  Please remember that this blog is my way of documenting my children-in other words, the following is going to be way more than you ever wanted to know about our potty training experience with Cooper.  So, with that warning, (seriously, consider yourself warned) here it is...

Why potty training now?  Well, he is 2 1/2, so age wise we thought was appropriate.  Looking ahead the rest of this month and next, we potentially only have one open weekend.  We knew we wouldn't be traveling for a few weeks.  I didn't want to wait until the weather was perfect and we wanted to be outside, at the park, at the pool, etc.  He is definitely having long dry periods, not changing his diaper a lot throughout day.  Was he talking about potty training or wanting to?  Was he telling me to change his diaper when dirty?  Not at all!  However, until recently he would run and kick when changing a poopy diaper (seriously, think he would sit in it for a looong time).  We have had the potty out for months, been talking about it, and always ask if he wants to sit before bath at night.  His answer is always, no!  But honestly, he is so laid back that we are pretty sure he would stay in diapers for as long as we let him.  Definitely not one of those kids that would have initiated it...maybe that is a boy thing?  With that being said, Friday March 9th and that weekend was in calendar as Potty Party!

The weekend was marked-now, how to approach?  We knew that once we started, there was no going back!  Diapers were going to be for nap time only-from here on out, it was going to be big boy pants! That was the biggest piece of advice I received from fellow moms and to take a whole weekend dedicated to it...that means no going out to dinner, no gym, no church, really no leaving the house!  My friend Betsy has a sister with a great mom blog.  She documented her potty training and I loved the approach-read all about it here!  My friend Jenny followed this as well when potty training her girl and it worked like a charm.

The Prep-Treat the weekend like a party, especially the first day.  I mean, think about your life and how you work with people/feel motivated.  Aren't you more likely to jump on board to something if there is a party involved!?  I know I am, so a Potty Party it was!  We talked and talked and talked about it that week.  Every time I went to the bathroom, I pretended it was the most exciting thing that happened since the last time I went :).  I pulled out all of his big boy underwear from Christmas and new ones I bought-Toy Story and Cars theme.  I had downloaded two different versions of the Potty Dance-we sang and danced!  By Thursday night, I think he was ready for this party-good thing because it was starting the next morning!

The Plan-Big boy pants right when he wakes up.  Stock the fridge with juice boxes, chocolate milk-things he wants all the time, but rarely gets.  We needed him drinking lots of fluids!  Set a timer for every 10-15 minutes, we wanted there to be lots of success and get used to the idea.  Try to keep him away from the TV-when watching, his focus is 100% there and we wanted him thinking about the potty idea.  2 bags of prizes-one bag for dry underwear-stickers, a few fruit snacks, stickers and other small items.  The other bag was for potty success-hot wheels cars, m&ms, other $1 toys from Target-definitely more exciting than the first bag!

Is the suspense killing you, I am sure it is...

Potty Party-Day 1, Right when Cooper woke up-it was all about the potty party.  We played our potty dance music, changed him into big boy pants-he chose Cars and to stay in his pjs.  I have never offered him more chocolate milk/juice boxes!  He went pee 8 times on the potty with 4 accidents.  We had the timer set for 10-15 increments and every time it went off, he knew we were headed to the potty.  This first day we really debated on how long to let him sit there-we wanted him to have success, but not spend all day there.  We played cars, watched Toy Story clips on YouTube, and read books.  We celebrated each potty like it was the first-thanks to the McCormacks for our potty song.  We were definitely prompting all the potty trips-he wasn't initiating it, but wasn't fighting it either...a win in our books!  By the end of the day, we were exhausted...who knew potty training could be so tiring and then to think we had days/weeks to go!

Potty Party-Day 2- Same idea as day one-but the timer was pushed out to 20-30 minutes.  He went pee on the potty 10 times (yep, still lots of fluid pushing!) and only 1 accident.  He went first thing in the morning-out of his prize bag he chose m&ms, so that's what he had for breakfast...with chocolate milk, awesome nutritional weekend!  He told us one time in the evening that he had to go.

Potty Party-Day 3-The potty party rages on for a 3rd day.  We stretched the timing out to 45 minutes and there was no accidents with 8 pees on potty...yay!

The potty party rager ended on Monday.  It might have been the first time I was jealous of Adam going to work!  We had been cooped up in this house since Thursday afternoon...aaahhh! Coop was still doing great!  He's still not telling us he has to go, it is all Mom/Dad initiated.  Lots of pee on potty successes and one poop accident.  I will leave out the details on that one, you are welcome.  We have weaned off dry underwear/pee on potty prizes.  Occasionally he asks for something, but we can usually distract him.

I couldn't be happier with our progress!  Honestly, I was petrified of potty training and that it could blow up in my face, but I think (hope) we are headed in the right direction...yay!  Kind of bittersweet, as I feel diapers was the one thing that was keeping him my baby, but he just gets more fun with each passing phase!  A big shout out to Adam who was the best potty training partner!  Don't you worry, I will update you on the poop progress soon, I have good news :).

Toy Story, Cars, and Spiderman...3 of his favorite things!  Could these be any cuter???

 Here's where we were most of the day.

 2 of his cheerleaders

 The first potty

 Doing the potty dance!

 prize bag for dry underwear 

 prize bag for success on potty

 He was determined to keep going and get all the hot wheels cars!

 Cupcakes for celebration on day 2!

 For the past few months, he's always asking about my gum.  My answer...you can have some when you go on the big boy potty.  He did not forget!  We gave him a piece and he swallowed it 15 seconds later.

 Check out those briefs!

 Yay for big boy underwear and a successful potty party!

I am exhausted after this post, anybody still reading?