Big Girl Bed

Last night was the first night that Mia slept in her "Big Girl Bed" of course she calls it her "Big Boy Bed" but that's ok.  She thought it was pretty exciting when we put her in it when we got home from daycare, however that was not the case when Mommy shut the door when it was time to go night, night! Once that door closed it took about 2 minutes for her to get out of bed and try to come back downstairs.  Of course Mommy was waiting for her on the stairs, so needless to say, she didn't make it! We marched right back to bed and Mommy got in bed with her and sang her a song.  She cried for awhile once I shut the door and kept screaming, "Mommy, I don't want to!" but we made it and she eventually fell asleep and did not get back out of bed.  I was pleasantly surprised that she only got out of bed once, but felt terrible listening to her cry longer than normal. :(  Hopefully, she cries a little less tonight, she was happy when she woke up and saw she was still in her "big boy bed".


Mia's "Big Boy Bed"

There is a trundle bed that goes underneath but we haven't put it together yet.  Second night was much easier than the first!!!

New Year's Resolutions

So we had to sit down and have a family discussion about what we wanted to do or change for the new year.  Here's what we've come up with:

Molly

I've decided that I'm going to attempt to get my life a little more organized...you know, minor things like unpacking the rest of the boxes from when we moved in 14 months ago!! I'm also going to attempt to purge some of the crap we've accumulated over the last several years.  I would also like to start working out a little more regularly to get me through the winter! :)

Jared

Jared is going to start a program.  Working out more, eating better, and drinking less beer.  We'll see how that goes!! Good Luck Jared!

Mia

Mia has decided that she is not going to be affected by the terrible twos.  She is going to be an angel and do exactly what we tell her always.  She is also going to start using the potty and learn to sleep in a big girl bed!

Hunter

Hunter has decided he is going to sleep through the night every night! He's also told me that he promises to sleep in on the weekends so Mommy & Daddy can sleep in too!  He is going to learn to walk, and talk, and eat all by himself!!  (definitely a big year!)

All in all I would say that the Kurtz family is going to have a very fun and eventful year! So bring on 2011, we are ready for you!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  It was less chaotic than in years past which was a blessing, but it was still very busy!!

We started with Christmas Eve morning and the kids coming to work with me.  We are down a vehicle since I decided to take out a fire hydrant with the truck a few weeks ago and it was in the shop getting fixed! Anyway, I brought the kids in and then Jared picked them up a couple hours later.  Hunter slept in Nicole's back closet most of the time and Mia spent her time eating, coloring, and sleeping on Mommy's lap! It made going to work on Christmas Eve a little less painful so for that I am thankful!  After work (we did get to leave early!) we headed to Nonny's for the Kurtz family celebration.  We had prime rib for dinner which was delicious and then did our annual gift exchange.  Mia ended up with a Mickey Mouse Airplane, another baby, and a couple sing-a-ma-jigs! Hunter now has a big stuffed monkey and a magnet puzzle.  Mia, of course, thinks everything is for her but that's ok! Afterwards we went to Nana & Pops' house so Mommy and Daddy could sit in the hot tub which was delightful!



Mia at work with Mommy!



Hunter & Cousins Andrew & John



Hunter & Amanda



Mia riding her Mickey Mouse plane down the ramp!

Christmas morning was low key at home with just the kiddos and us.  We had a fun time opening gifts and realized that it is only going to get more fun as they get older and understand what is going on! After we played for a short time both kids went down for a 3+ hour nap and then we woke them up to go to Nana & Pops' house for more Christmas fun.  We spent all afternoon and evening there and everyone got wonderful new things.  I got a new video camera so I can now chronicle the kids in additional media! Woo Hoo! The kids got a lot of wonderful new things.  They both got some new outfits and plenty of new toys.  Mia got some more babies (her favorite) and lots of blocks.  She also got her first nerf dart gun, thanks Pops! It was hard to keep track of everything especially with all the people helping but a big THANK YOU goes out to everyone!



Mia taking her time :)



Kayci & Hunter

Sunday we had our last celebration at Jared's Aunt Karen's house with the Beatty families! It was a wonderful visit since we have all been so busy and not gotten together much over the past year.  Mia and Hunter both got new beach/bath animal towels that are adorable and Mia ended up with a brand new library of her own!! Fun reading for us!!!  Hopefully we get to see each other a little more often in 2011! :)

All I can say is whew! Thanks Mom and Dad for moving our Christmas to the weekend before, it makes life a lot easier and even leaves time for proper naps! I still felt like we were missing a little bit without being together, but it's worth it to get to spend even more time together!!

We love you all! Thank you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I Love My Kids!

Some days I just look at my children and I feel so blessed.  They amaze me every day and I feel like my heart couldn't be any fuller and then, as impossible as it may seem, I feel my heart and love for them growing continuously!

What I love the most is watching them interact with each other.  In the car they sometimes sit there just laughing at each other! Other times, even though she may take Hunter's toy, she always gives him something else to play with. I could watch them both for hours and be happy! Here is what I've noticed recently:

Hunter

Last night Hunter was so pleasant.  Normally, he likes a lot of attention.  Granted, I love giving him attention and playing with him, but it is hard when I am trying to make dinner or clean the kitchen! Last night he just sat in the front room eating an animal cracker and playing with toys.  As long as someone was in the room with him he was fine! Then he just sat and played in his highchair during dinner and ate but didn't really fuss.  Jared and I are really hoping this is the new, grown-up Hunter, that we are dealing with and not just a fluke! He has been all smiles lately and has just kicked a recent cold so that helps too! I love the stage we are at but at the same time can't wait to see him grow and learn new things! I've recently come to the conclusion that he may skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking, but now that Addi (at daycare) is crawling who knows!!

Mia

Mia has definitely developed quite the personality over the last several months.  She knows what buttons to push, especially with her Daddy, and how to push them.  She is so smart it's scary sometimes! She definitely has a stubborn streak and wants to do everything her way right now. She has also started to tell me what to do NOW! That's not going well for her since she is repeatedly getting in trouble for talking mean!

She has been getting better about using the potty and has developed a pretty easy night time routine.  She has to go give Daddy a kiss and a hug and they say "Night, night. I love you. Have a good night sleep. See you in the morning. Don't let the bed bugs bite." Ok, so there goes that heart thing again! Then I take her upstairs and she turns off the light and we tuck her and the babies in and were good to go; of course as soon as I shut the door she sometimes changes her mind and cries because she wants to come back downstairs, but we're on the right track! We'll see what happens when we introduce the new big girl bed! I'm not sure I'm ready for that fight!!

I could go on and on about all the things my children do that make me happy and proud to be a parent, but we'll save that for future posts!

Sanders Family Christmas

We had our first big Christmas of the year this past weekend.  It was the first year our Sanders' Family Christmas got moved off of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It was wonderful and relaxing.  No one had anywhere else to be and we were able to hang out the whole day and eat lots and lots of food.  The only thing better would be if we didn't all have to work on Monday so the evening didn't have to end before we were able to break out the annual game playing in full gear.  Maybe a Saturday in our future???

The kids were wonderful and are very thankful to their aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa for all the wonderful new things! Hunter was able to open some of his gifts but I think his favorite part was the paper! That's ok though, I'll still make sure he gets to ride around on his train and practice fixing things with his new tool set! Mia was really getting into opening her things until she got her Baby Alive.  After that she had little use for the rest of her gifts.  Since then she has played with everything and our house looks like a battle zone. To top it all off, we're not even finished yet!!!

Oh No!!

Last night I mentioned that I'm thinking about trying this potty training deal with Mia...well tonight she again takes off her diaper and says she has to potty.  However, instead of sitting on the potty she ended up peeing on the kitchen floor!!!  After I got her cleaned up and in a new diaper she then took her diaper back off and did actually poopy in the potty again, so even though we had a slight set-back I would still consider the evening a success.  If anyone wants to come over and mop my floors for me it'd be much appreciated!

Later this evening, we discovered that Mia has a new trick.  Yep, she said she wanted to go night night but was not happy when I put her down.  Five minutes later we hear a big thud and I mention to Jared that I hate that noise because I always think Mia has fallen out of bed.  So, Jared goes upstairs to check and when he rounds the corner he sees the doorknob to Mia's room turning and a little girl coming out to play some more.  Yep, Mia climbed out of bed AND opened the door.  I was thinking about trying potty training this weekend and now you're talking toddler bed...she needs to SLOW DOWN with all this growing up stuff (although I wouldn't mind only buying diapers for 1 child!) 

On a side note...tonight was also the first night that Jared used the wood burner he brought up from the basement to heat our house.  It is amazing in the few short hours he's been burning how warm our house has gotten!! So, there, you extremely high electric bill we will win this battle one way or another!!

Random

Ok, I know it's been like two weeks since my last post but I'm tired and have absolutely NO free time lately!! Some days I forget what it was like before kids when I used to come home and sit in front of the TV with a beer.  Now, once the kids are to bed I get to finish cleaning the kitchen and loading the dishwasher (since Mia most likely just took out all the cups and stacked them with the silverware!) Then, there is most likely laundry to fold and toys to pick up.  So now here it is 10:00 and I've just sat down to say hi and give a little update and I should really be going to bed, addressing our Christmas cards, reading my book, or finish cleaning my bedroom which looks like a hurricane blew threw!! Oh well, sometimes you just got to let it all go!!

So, now for the update...

Mia is really starting to get into this potty thing and I think we might see if we can get a handle on this thing.  Tonight when she went poopy on the potty she said "good job" before the poop had made it to the bowl but had started it's travels...then she sat back down to pee 5 minutes later!! (Of course Jared just informed me that Mia peed in Nana and Pops bed yesterday after her bath...oops!!)  She is also infatuated with watching her twinkle, twinkle performance! She will sit in the back of the car and sing it all the way to Tonya's in the morning.  She's also learning to sing Jingle Bells, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and many other nursery rhyme songs.  It is super cute and amazing to listen to! It still amazes me with how much she knows and understand...I'm pretty sure she might be a genius.

Hunter is still working on the crawling thing.  He has mastered scooting backwards but still gets a little testy when he can't figure out how to move forward.  I'm not sure, but I think he may just skip crawling and go straight to walking. However, I believe he probably has a stronger core than I do with all the push-ups he's been doing!  He's been waking up at night again which is definitely not Daddy's favorite thing! I think he's just growing and getting teeth.  His SIXTH tooth has just popped through this week.  I think Mia was just getting her first tooth around now...crazy!! 

Ok, I really am tired so I'm off to bed.  I will try to post some recent pictures if I get a chance!