Did it!

 This crazy full of life 2 . 2 year old is POTTY trained!

She didn't need a fancy chart, she didn't need special rewards, all she needed was DORA panties and a horrendous diaper rash.  For 2 weeks she has been diaper free - through the night!  It started out with the world's WORST rash, blood and all and me sitting down with her and saying...if you use the potty, the rash and owies will go away.  She said okay and that was it. She has been going on command consistently since she was 19 months but I didn't want to push the issue since I had a baby coming and didn't want her to regress.  I am an all or nothing kinda gal so if she had more than 2 accidents in a 4 hour period I was going to bring out the diapers.  She went all day and night without an accident so we did the church thing and she would have made it through nursery if they didn't have to leave because someone was using the nursery potty.  She was so sad about it and told her FAVORITE teacher Nora that she was sorry. So cute!

We are so proud of Scarlett and how she decided to be a big girl all by herself!

Wahoo Scarlett!

Quiet Time

There is this very peaceful and serene time in my house where something amazing happens.  The house is all whispers the kids are doing what they are supposed to and when I least expect it I capture these little moments of cuteness.

Today while the kids had their quiet time, I was magic erasing the trim/baseboards and doors.  They get so nasty through out the year so I try and do it at least once a month...which usually means it happens every OTHER month. :)

I had just finished and I see that Bridget had pushed Juliet in the Bumbo right over to her little area.  The kids are NEVER allowed to bring toys upstairs. If they do those toys go into TOY JAIL and they have to earn them back the next day.  But today was an exception to that rule...

 She was being so sweet to the baby.

 I didn't want to disturb them.

 Until Juliet needed a change so I took her up to change the diaper and then laid her next to me so I could finish up. I turn around and Bridget convinced Scarlett to play with her.  I didn't want to interrupt them so I sat back and snapped one last picture.

I love quiet time and when sassy pants decides to be sweetie munch.

(Bridget)

No Tears Today

Today Lucas told us "Today is the last day of Preschool. My Birthday is in 1 month and 3 weeks and 87 days till Kindergarten. I can't wait to be 5 and in real school."

On the way to PreSchool Graduation he told me he wasn't going to cry and to remember not to cry too.

Here is Kaitlin, Robert, Anna and Lucas on the first Day...

Anna moved to Kansas but here are Lucas, Robert and Kaitlin on the LAST day of PreSchool.

Here is a picture of Mrs. McDonald and the boys (they were in the same class)

Everyone got a class picture and a special note from the teacher and after reading it himself...there are about 6 sentences he said..."That is a lot of words, why didn't she just say she was going to miss me and leave it at that?" Hahaha.

There was a cute little program...the girls were enthralled.

And then Lucas leaped over the bridge took his "diploma" and was ready for KINDERGARTEN!

He was greeted by these 4...

and that was it.  No tears just a HUGE lump in my throat that I have an almost 5 year old who is going to SCHOOL in 87 days.  He is so excited and so ready and we are very proud of him.

We asked what he wanted to do to celebrate and he wanted to go on a family bike ride. So we hit up REI for some bike cables...

and went home to go on a ride.

 Scarlett and I stayed home and snuggled outside while they rode through the neighborhood.

 Time to get those bangs trimmed! Yikes!

Lucas came home because he needed immediate attention.

He ate it really bad.

 After we calmed him down we rode over to the library.

 This was Nathan's solution to forgetting the bike lock problem.  He was so proud of himself...like if they can untangle this they deserve the bikes. Hahahaha. 

To celebrate Lucas's BIG day I made his favorite things...pasta, broccoli and chicken. 

He was sad there was no shrimp in this dish - BUT - it didn't stop him from eating 2 bowls of it so I count it as a success!

Sun Dried Tomatoes, Broccoli, Mozzarella, Prosciutto and cheesy sauce! Mmmmm.

I made (A)Ebleskivers for dessert but the  picture isn't that great.

 

Grandma and Dad - these are vanilla shells with nutella inside.

They went WAAAAAY to fast!

Best Laid Plans

It was raining and gloomy today 

- BUT - 

I have a new nephew! On MY side for once! :)

He is adorable and has lots of hair!

I made Brown Sugar Cookies.

And...we made our Summer Plans!

I saw this on another blog a long time ago and before I had my Pinterest account I wrote it all down and forgot to link it up! Oh well.  On hers you write with a sharpie directly on the glass - BUT its a pain to clean up so I wrote mine on lamination sheets then taped it to the inside.  When we check things off I will use dry erase on the glass since its easy to clean up.

The kids each got to pick 2 things to do that they added themselves! 

I am so excited to start plowing through the list.

Happy Tuesday!

Teal

is one of my most favorite colors.  It looks good with every skin tone, it looks good with most colors and I just happen to have this one dress that makes me happy when I see it.

Its this dress.

Bridget is 6 months in this dress.

I love this picture. Haha.

Lue/Veronica gave it to me when I found out Bridget was going to be a girl.  She picked it because she knew I wasn't into pinks and purples.  It was perfect for Bridget.

It was so perfect for Bridget that I never put Scarlett in it because it was Bridget's dress...if that makes sense.
I just couldn't put her in it knowing how cute Bridget looked in it.

Well today I saw it in the 6 month bin because Juliet is a little bit heftier than Bridget was at this age...if you can believe it...and thought about putting her (Juliet) in it. Bridget made a girly gasp and pretty much begged me to put her in it. We ALL had to redress but it was worth it.

This dress is 6-9 months and Juliet is 3 months and 1 week old.

Juliet is a porker. An adorable one at that.

I love teal. I love this dress. I love my kids. I love my life. The End.

3 new Witte's!

The kids and Nathan found something exciting!

 It is so exciting. The kids have named the eggs Henrietta and Jacques.  I can't wait till my kids have kids they are GREAT and naming animals, babies and things. Haha.

We enjoyed purple pasta for dinner...

And Lemon Pound Cake for dessert.  I am on a lemon kick if anyone hasn't figured that out yet.

I have officially used my food processor EVERY day since I have gotten it!

Love you GiGi!

Loud Rocks!

At 1:15pm we got a tornado warning. You could see FUNNEL CLOUDS from our bathroom window.  Then it started to POUR.  It POURED and POURED and then it started HAILING. Not some whimpy hail dusting of hail you get excited about but a FULL 30 MINUTES of downpour. I think we got about 1.5 INCHES of hail.  But it gets better...our POWER went out. my half of the street was without power for 2 hours.  I can top that...Lucas was at school and I had to go pick him up!  I manage to open the door get going and call Nathan and he is like "GET OFF THE ROAD you are RIGHT IN the MIDDLE of the CELL!" He is really dramatic sometimes.  Lets just FORGET that I was crying the ENTIRE RIDE to the school. I look back at the kids and their hands are on their ears. "Loud Rocks Mommy!" shouts Scarlett. Juliet decides at that moment to SCREAM her head OFF in SHEER TERROR.  I love that my Dad returns my call right in the middle of all of this DRAMA.  It was his usual Perfect Timing. Like the time I drove the bread truck over a snake and got a flat tire. Hahaha. Those were some good times!  Okay, back to the story. I pick up Lucas and the WHOLE CLASS is in the BATHROOM in the Tornado Shelter.  I wish I took a picture of it. She (Mrs. McD) told me that they delayed pick up for 30 minutes because of the SIRENS. Did I mention the SIRENS?  6 years of living here and its only the 2nd time I have EVER heard them! We got home to access the DAMAGE and cancel our thing with Ali because it was getting WORSE!  Here are some of the pics!

 Our poor tree was thrashed! Leaves were EVERYWHERE!

One fatality. A baby bird. :( So sad!

It was quite an adventure.  I also forgot about the cupcakes that were in the oven so when the power came back on I didn't even think about the oven and well - we now know the smoke alarms work!

YUCK!

 JP - We will try again tomorrow!

7 news said we (our area) had the worst of the storm. 11 inches of rain/snow mix.

.