2014 Challenge

I'm always up for a good, fun challenge, and Tim and I have a personal goal of getting the house organized & de-cluttered, so this one actually fits well into our plans for this year.

The 2014 Challenge is to remove 2,014 items from the home,  keeping in mind that new items brought IN have to be accounted for on the output.  (So at Easter, birthdays and Christmas we will have to get rid of as many things as we receive.)

I decided to start it off with going through the boys' "junk" toy bin.  They have one toy box that is for all the miscellaneous little things they cherish.  The toys there don't fit in with any of their other toys.  I managed to pull out 16 things into a "boy grab bag" to donate to Peace.Love.Swap at our Feb. 8 swap and 3 pieces to the Thomas Train track that we have recently rehomed to the Grandparents house.

So, this isn't to say that the boys won't get new stuff (or me or Daddy) but that we will try to get rid of some STUFF that we don't need. :) (in a eco-responsible way if possible)

We have a pile behind the shed as well of toys that need to go to the dump and we also plan to clean out the garage & my office!

I plan to have a nice stash of stuff to donate at the February 8 Peace.Love.Swap since it is being hosted by our church & I'd love it to have a great turn-out.

Updated Cloth Diaper Stash

Vinnie has no desire to use the toilet or even begin potty learning so we are still full-time in cloth diapers for him!  Luke has graduated to Pull-Ups overnight and regular big-boy undies all day long.

Here's Vinnie's current diaper stash!

12 Bum Genius 3.0 Diapers
5 Bum Genius 4.0 Diapers
6 Soggy Bottom Baby Fitted Diapers (3 small, 3 medium)
4 BSRB Fitteds
1 MamaGoetsch Creations Fitted Pocket
9 Alva Baby Diapers stuffed for day-times
7 Happy Flute OS AIOs (one not pictured) 
5 Alva Baby Diapers stuffed for night-times

I super-duper love the Happy Flute AIOs and want to add some more of them to the stash! 

Cloth Diaper Stash

Last week I decided to take a short break from cloth diapers, since I was feeling burnt out with all the housework and laundry.

As of tonight, Vinnie is back in cloth.  Here's our stash as it is today, minus the diaper (navy blue night-time alva) that he's sleeping in.

From top left-to right, to bottom left- to right

12 Bum Genius 3.0 Diapers
6 Bum Genius 4.0 Diapers
6 Soggy Bottom Baby Fitted Diapers (3 small, 3 medium)
12 Alva Baby Diapers stuffed for day-times
6 Alva Baby Diapers stuffed for night-times

---
42 Diapers

We also have 6 or 7 Happy Flute OS AIO diapers coming soon from a co-op, but I'm not sure how they're going to work out on my skinny guy.

Happy 4th Birthday Lucas Wayne!!

Friday was Luke's fourth birthday! It's crazy to think about four YEARS having passed!

We started celebrating his big day by making Iron Man cupcakes for his classmates at Churchland Baptist Preschool on Thursday.

That evening, I made rice & gravy for dinner, which used to be one of his favorites, but he wouldn't touch it.

Luke got to celebrate his 4th birthday from the time he woke up until bedtime!

First thing in the morning, Tim took him to I-Hop for a chocolate chip smiley face pancake breakfast.

Then we spent the day at home, hanging out & getting things done, before leaving around 2:30 to pick up Carolynn.

Both boys napped in the car & at 3:15 Carolynn joined us!

We headed to Sonic for a VERY late lunch &  then to my friend Sarah's house, for a playdate with her kids.

After the play-date, we headed to Norfolk to meet Tim for dinner.  We made a pit-stop at Heaven & Earth to look for a Bible for Luke (no luck) and then to the Dollar Deals Store for some birthday balloons and treat bag favors.

Finally, we met Tim at CiCi's for Luke's birthday dinner!

After dinner and dessert it was finally time for presents!

Luke got a Pirate whale & a pirate with a cannon Imaginext playsets. :) He's all about pirates, ever since Trevor's party back in May, so he was very happy.

He also got a set of PJs from me. I made the Spiderman pants that he has been requesting and managed to find a like-new PJ top at the thrift shop that matched the pants perfectly. :)

Happy 4th Birthday Lucas Wayne! 

Mommy & Daddy love you to pieces!

Potty Learning!

I feel like I've posted on this topic before, but this time it is REALLY real.

Luke is officially day-time potty trained.

He has been going pee on the potty (and poo too) since he was a tiny little guy, not even two years old.

But, he's always had the diapers to fall back on, and then when he broke his foot this summer, we went to Pull-Ups 100% of the time.

He does not do well, knowing that he has a "crutch", so trainers and Pull-Ups had to go.  

Now that Luke is in Pre-K 3, we needed to get him trained pretty quickly, since the school PREFERS that the kids are in underwear.

Last weekend, September 19-23, we headed to Emporia.  We left right from school (where he had a Pull-Up on) and drove out to Mom & Dad's.  As soon as we got there, we said goodbye to Pull-Ups.

Luke didn't have any accidents on Thursday.  On Friday he pee'ed on the couch while playing on the i-Pad.  So, he lost the i-Pad for the day.  Saturday he had an accident early in the morning, but stayed dry all day, even through playing outside.  Sunday he stayed dry.  And ever since he has pretty much been dry. :) He's had one or two accidents, but they were true accidents and not just laziness.  (at the play-place--too distracted)

We aren't concerned with night-time potty training right now.  When he has day-times down and we don't have to remind him or keep after him, then we'll start to think about night-time training.

Quick Craft!

Tomorrow night is "Crazy Hat Night" at Awanas, at Central Baptist Church.

Vinnie will wear his Woody hat, simply because its his favorite hat right now.  BUT, Luke didn't have a hat to wear.

So, I searched the web for about 30 minutes and came across this free tutorial package, from FleeceFun.Com.

I quickly printed out the pieces & dug into my big bag o' fleece (a King size quilt bag).  I found enough scraps to make the dino hat & got to work.

It is an easy pattern to follow with clear instructions but also features a video tutorial (I didn't watch).
I made the Child Large.

So, without further ado, here's Luke "crazy" dino hat!

Modeled by Luke

Modeled by Carolynn

3 Year Old Preschool!

Tim and I have talked quite a bit about whether or not to send Luke to preschool.  Ultimately we decided that if we could afford it and found a school that would be a good fit for him and us, that we would go for it.

We didn't think we were going to be able to make it happen, until the Friday before Labor Day, so we got a very late start, but fortunately I was already pretty sure I knew where I wanted to send him.  This school came recommended by several friends and  has been in existence (and operating) for over 60 years.  It was also very affordable.

So, Tuesday morning Sept. 3, I made the arrangements for Luke to start Pre-K 3 on Thursday, September 5, 2013 at Churchland Baptist Church's Weekday Preschool.  We had MOPS on Tuesday & Vinnie stayed home with Tim.  Luke had a good time in the nursery care, but they are no longer sending our Moppets to the Central Christian Academy, so I'm glad we're putting him in preschool.

Click for Photo Source

After MOPS we had a ton of errands to run in Virginia Beach and ended up being gone until the early evening.

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to the school at dismissal time and met with his teacher, Mrs. Ratcliff and the director Mrs.Smith.  The boys and I got a tour of the school and all of the admissions paperwork.  Mrs. Ratcliff went over their class size, schedule, goals, and made the boys both feel welcome.

That evening I filled everything out and got Luke prepared for the big  day!  We also went to Awanas Family Fun Night at Central, where hopefully both boys will be doing Cubbies and Puggles.  They had jump-jumps and other fun stuff for the kids & I got to visit with some friends.

We had to head home early, before the informational meetings, so that I could babysit.

We had a bit of a rough time getting the kids to bed, since they were so excited by little Miss A, the 9 month old I was babysitting, but eventually all of the children were asleep.  Miss A kept me up quite a bit during the night, but we did manage to get some sleep early in the morning.

Tim worked from home and so at about 8:30 we set off to take Luke in for his first day of school.  Luke was very excited and ran right into his classroom.

After we dropped him off, we headed home to let Tim do some work.  Vinnie, Miss A, and her big brother T all fell asleep in the car so I road around and waited for them to wake up.  It ended up that they slept ALL THE WAY THROUGH Luke's preschool!  So, we picked Luke up and then headed to Miss A & T's house in Virginia Beach.

After we dropped them off, we had Chic Fil A for lunch and went to Luke's physical appointment.