New Bedrooms for the New Three Year Olds

So, my friend Natalie, showed me a dollhouse bed in September that she had gotten on Craiglist, and from then on, the mission was on! The kids were being TERRIBLE at going to sleep lately, staying up for sometimes two hours talking or fighting with each other, so I decided they needed to have their own bedrooms! Plus, I wanted to make a girly room and that made my decision easier! I thought it would be sad, but it turns out that bedtime is much more pleasant this last week! They were already separated at naptime at our house, so the transition for them hasn't been difficult.

So, now I began searching for the beds! Oops! They were only $1100-$1500 a piece! Yikes! That was NOT going to work! So, I tried EBAY, and what do you know, I found the woodworking plans to build the beds! Now, don't get excited, I DO NOT know how to build beds, but I do know how to ask around :) I found a wonderful man to build both beds and do so in time for their 3rd birthday. Now, my worst decision was painting them ourselves! They turned out just fine, but I thought, "no biggie, he'll build them, we'll paint them, and we'll save money!" Well, 90,000 hours later and big huge paint messes all over our garage....I have changed my mind! Oh well, you live and learn :). We got the beds primered (is that a word?), painted and all finished before their birthday without them knowing. Oh, not to mention that we had to paint their bedrooms and decorate all of the inside also! They did get to see their new bedroom colors, etc. There was no way to keep that hidden for two months!

Kinley's room was inspired by the dollhouse bed, an owl painting I found at Hobby Lobby and a vinyl tree I found on pinterest (and then purchased on etsy)! The words around the top were copied from Sharon's sister in law's house and I ordered them from www.adheringthoughts.com. She does a fantastic job with vinyl and is VERY reasonable. I also got the FAO Shwartz wooden baby doll furniture at my Tulsa Moms of Multiples Sale for only $17! Thanks girls!

Kason's room was a harder task. I could not figure out how to make a dollhouse bed into a boy bed, but I talked to our art teacher and she was a great help! Toy Story is big with Kason right now as well as Buzz Light Year, so I was leaning toward a Toy Story room. She suggested that I make the bed into a Buzz Light Year spaceship and paint its wings on the wall around it. Great idea! But, turns out there wasn't much wall left and the bed sticks out so far that you can't see them all that well, but I did do it and the room looks fantastic! If I were to do the wings over, I think I would make them extend to the side walls where you could actually see them! (I painted them before the beds were put in the room, and I didn't figure in that the bed would stick out! Duh!) The awesome vinyl decals were purchased from http://www.roommatespeelandstick.com/. Buzz glows in the dark, and I think they both really help "make" the room.

Kinley and Kason got to see their rooms, beds and all, for the first time after their birthday party on their actual birthday. The whole family was here to watch and they were very excited! Kason didn't want to get down! Shawn showed Kason how to throw a ball against the wall and have it bounce back to you which has been an exciting skill for Kason to learn ;)

 This is a tap light from Lowes....there is one underneat his bed as well. Thought it might come in handy for a tent!

 Kason wanted to touch Woody & Buzz so Nick helped him!

Parker wanted to try it out!

Their first night-night kisses through the windows :)

How sweet is this??

All in all, I couldn't be happier! There are a couple more things to be done still.....two of the shelves that I purchased for the tree were too long, so I need to trade them in at Target and hang those as well as put all of the cutesy items that Sarah and I found at Hobby Lobby for Kinley's bookshelves and tree shelves. Then, the rooms will be finished! (Jason already has ideas for a baseball room when Kason gets older and turning the bed into a dugout!)

Potty Training Mr. Kason

So, after several months of being terrified of even going near the potty, Kason has finally come around! He is going to LOVE the story later though, I'm sure!
I knew he was ready to go because if I tell him to pee in the drain in the shower, he can go "on command" so he know how to make it happen, but he would never get anywhere close to the potty and just yelled "No peepee potty" anytime I asked him!
So, Monday night, in order to prepare for the blizzard that was coming, I scooted everything to one side of the garage so we could at least fit one car in before the storm! As we were doing that, we found Kinley's box of princess dolls from Christmas. We had only ever opened the Tiana one. So, we brought the package in and Kason DESPERATELY wanted me to open the dolls right then and GIVE HIM BELLE! So, since he wanted it so bad, I thought I would try the potty angle and it worked! I told him that if he would try to pee pee on the potty, I would open the dolls. He ran into the bathroom and took off his pants and diaper and was ready to go! He sat right down and peed and then asked for Belle and some candy! (which we had been promising for months!)
After this, I stuck some Toy Story underwear on him and we kept going to the potty! We were out of school this entire week because of the weather so we have been working on it all week! He has been dry now for 4 days and we are just trying to get him to poop in the potty now! (Sorry for anyone that is offended by "potty talk". I didn't realize how de-sensitized you get as you have children!) We gave him candy everytime he stayed dry but that wasn't quite working out because he would be up for hours trying to take his nap! One day, he was literally in there talking and carrying on for 2 hours, so I had to take him out of the room so Kinley could sleep and he finally fell asleep on the couch with Daddy! So, after that, we decided to give him popcorn as his treat and this has worked much better. We haven't given him any treats today for going pee, we are just trying to get him to do the other now and offering him all sorts of bribes for doing so! He is wearing training pants and they are a nasty mess when he goes in them, so everyone keep your fingers crossed for us! He is doing very well and we are very proud of him! Kinley is also very proud and she claps and tells me, "Bubba went pee pee in the potty like a BIG boy!" She keeps trying to coax him into pooping also, but that hasn't helped so far!
These are some photos of the first night :)

Our first snow days of the year!

It seems like a lifetime ago, but we had our first school snowdays of the year on January 20th and January 21st. At the time, it seemed like a lot of snow, but little did we know we were going to get mounds and mounds more in a couple weeks!
We bundled up the kids and took them out in it, but they didn't quite know what to think! They just kept saying, "Snow came out of the sky!" The first time we took them out, they were a little crabby, but the second time we ventured out, they were in better moods! Kinley just wanted to stand in one place and eat the snow! Kason walked through the yard and we finally showed him that he could throw the snow and that seemed to be what he wanted to do!

Is this picture not precious? I LOVE my family!



Kash's 3rd Birthday Party

On January 15th, Kash turned 3 and we went and celebrated his birthday party at The Little Gym! I still cannot believe that he is already 3 years old!!

It was a great time there as always! Kason was a little more shy on this trip and Kinley was the outgoing one, even though she was the only girl at the party for quite some time!

 Kinley was trying to crawl up and give Kash a kiss right here, but he wasn't too sure about all that! He did finally take her hand and kiss her on the hand though!

At the end of the night as we were walking out the door, Kinley turned and ran back to the door and said "Happy Birthday, Kash" and gave him a big hug and kissed him! It was adorable! I promise that I didn't tell her to do it! 
Here are a couple videos of Kash doing his "tricks"!