{Potty Training}

4 weeks ago today I decided it was time to start potty training Eliana. Every time she went #2 in her diaper she would run to me and proudly announce that she went potty and would point to her diaper. Since she understood that she was going potty in her diaper, I figured that she would be able to understand how to go potty in the potty chair. AND I was running low on diapers for her and didn't feel like having to buy another pack! :)

 I hadn't read any books on the subject of potty training, only a couple of blog posts- this was one I found on pinterest (BabySavers.com) and this one is from a friend of mine (Four Girls & A Daddy) so I wasn't sure what "method" to follow or what was the best way to potty train my 2 year old.

For starters, I purchased a potty chair and a book on potty training {for Eliana} from Amazon.
Here is link to the potty chair I ordered- Baby Bjorn Potty Chair and here is the link to the book I bought for Eliana- The Potty Book for Girls

I ordered that specific potty chair because the lady from the first blog post recommended it and it's super easy to clean, it's small, and it's convient and easy to travel with.

When the potty chair arrived, we let Eliana open up the box and she got really excited when she saw her "potty." She wanted to sit on it right away, but we told her that she could only sit on it if she was actually going to go potty. {I think she might of thought it was just a really cool pink chair :)} At first she was pumped about being able to sit on the potty chair but then after about a day of that, she started crying if I asked her if she needed to go potty or if I set her on the potty chair. I didn't want to force her into going potty, so we just took a break and didn't talk about the potty or sit on it for about 2-3 weeks.

On the Sunday before we started potty training, we picked up some Disney princess big girl panties for Eliana, but we told her she could only wear them if she went potty in the big girl potty. She seemed to understand and wasn't too happy that she couldn't wear the panties over her pants. :)
 I decided to reintroduce the potty chair to Eliana and she didn't seem to mind sitting on
it, in fact, she almost enjoyed it. I was hoping this was a good sign!

We officially starting potty training on Wednesday April 10th, 2013. Like I said before, I didn't know what the best way was to PT Eliana, so I just decided to go "all-natural" and let her run around buck naked. I knew we would have accidents and I knew I would have to clean up some bodily fluids, but I was hoping that if she saw when she peed or pooped on the floor that she would make the connection that those fluids coming out of her needed to go in the potty, not on the floor.

On day 1, she went potty in the potty chair 3 times! She had about 3 or 4 accidents as well, but I was so
proud of her for actually going in the potty chair!
Each day it seemed to get better, but the first 4 days were definitely the hardest and most trying. She would still wear a diaper at nap times and at bedtime. During the first two weeks, if we needed to go out or for nap time I started putting a pull-up on her, but we called them her "panties"...I didn't want her thinking it was just another diaper that she could pee in. She did really well with keeping her pull-ups dry, so I actually started letting her wear her real panties at nap time and she has woken up dry every time! So awesome!

As far as a reward system goes, every time she went potty, she was able to put up a sticker on her potty chart and she received a jelly bean. We're on week 3 of potty training and we're still sticking with the sticker chart because she seems to really enjoy seeing all of her stickers on the fridge.

Here are pictures of her sticker chart.

Today is the start of Week 4 and Eliana wears her panties all day now. She usually tells me if she has to go to potty, but if I know that she hasn't gone in a while or she is really into playtime- I'll ask her if she needs to go and she will tell me either yes or no and either sit on the potty or keep playing. We haven't had an accident in public yet, and for that I am quite thankful!


I'm so proud of my little girl for putting up with me during this potty training adventure. :)
I sure do love her!

Eliana's 2nd Birthday {Finding Nemo Style}

My favorite little red head turned 2 on March 22nd, but we celebrated her birthday on the 14th. The girls on the soccer team are like big sisters to Eliana and I wanted to make sure they were able to join us for her party- they were all leaving for spring break the next day.

I absolutely LOVE birthday parties! My mom always made sure that our birthdays were a very special day that included a theme party and lots of friends and games. I would love to continue that tradition with my girls. Nate and I have talked about what sort of traditions we would like to do for a our girls, an when we talk about birthday traditions, I just get SO excited! :) :)

Finding Nemo has pretty much characterized the life of Miss Eliana Lou since she was 10 months old until about 4 months ago. We ended up traveling a decent amount after Eliana turned 1 and watching this movie was just about the only thing that would keep her entertained. I'm not sure how parents took trips without the technology we have available today! I am soooooo thankful for our iPad and for Finding Nemo- it has definitely kept me sane on quite a few trips. :)

Here are some pictures from Eliana's Party. 

I can't believe my sweet little girl is 2! She loved her party and two of her favorite gifts were her Mickey Mouse and Woody from us. 

My first attempt at a shaped cake. As long as Eliana knew who the cake was, I was satisfied! :)

Her Birthday Bunting

Nemo Cookies

You can't have a fish party without some gold fish...

Cupcakes. 

We "found" Nemo and he was sitting on the table to welcome the party guests. :0) 

The Table Spread with the desserts/snacks

My poor watermelon "shark" is missing his top row of teeth because I ran out of time, but I still thought it looked cool and so did my little nephew. :)

The blue jello jigglers even had fish "swimming" on them. 

One of my favorite parts about the party was the photo op. All of the party guests wrote Eliana a special message on the chalkboard and had their pictures taken with their message. 

Nate thinks he is so funny sometimes. :)

Our family at the photo op. 

A picture with my beautiful little 2 year old right before we sang Happy Birthday. 

The next two pictures were on Eliana's actual birthday. One of the traditions we would like to continue is to have birthday pancakes for the girls on the morning of their actual birthday.  

 

Eliana LOVES pancakes and she was super excited about the sprinkles and the "2" on her plate.

Since today is all about Eliana we took her out to eat at Pizza Hut since she loves pizza as well.

 {pizza and sweets...this girl is a mini-me!}

I am so incredibly blessed to have this sweet little girl in my life. All I can say is thank you, Lord. 

Duck Dynasty Party!

February 27, 2013...does this date mean anything to you?? Well it does to my family...it was the Season 3 Premier of Duck Dynasty. This show has easily become one of our favorite shows to watch as a family. Even Eliana recognizes the theme song and says "Duck Dynasty?" 

To celebrate the Season 3 Premier, we had some friends over to our house for a little party. :) 

Here are some pictures...

My friend Jami snapped these pictures. 

The two pictures on the left were by our front door. 

Oh, Si. :)

Close-up of my Duck Dynasty Cupcakes.

Some DD cupcakes

Welcome to the party...

Food! 

My Duck Commander labels that I made

One more picture of the table. 

Gallery Wall

This is one of my favorite wall decorations in my house. 

I love being able to display a ton of my family pictures in a neat, organized way!

Over half of the frames in the collage are from goodwill that I got for less than $2 a piece and spray- painted them black. I got the family sign and "C" from Hobby Lobby and the green circle frame was also from goodwill that I spray- painted- that's probably my favorite part. :)

Easy Beef and Bean Echiladas

This is a new family favorite of ours! 
They are very simple beef enchiladas and they taste amazing. 

Original Recipe- Food.com

Ingredients: 

1 lb ground beef

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon chili powder (this can be adjusted based on preference) 

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 can of black beans (refried beans taste great too) 

3 cups shredded cheese 

1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce 

12 whole wheat tortillas (corn tortillas work well too) 

oil

Directions:

1) Brown ground beef with onion and garlic. Drain.  

2) Add next 8 ingredients (worcestershire sauce through beans).

3) In another skillet, heat oil.

4) Add tortillas, one at a time, for 10 seconds on each side.

5) Drain on paper towel.

6) In 9x13 baking pan, pour just enough enchilada sauce in the bottom to coat the bottom of the pan.

7) Fill each tortilla with a spoonful of meat mixture.

8) Cheese can be put inside each enchilada at this time, if desired.

9) Roll tortilla and place seam side down in pan.

10) Continue with remaining tortillas.

11) Pour remaining enchilada sauce over tortillas and top with cheese.

12) At this time, pan may be refrigerated for several hours or overnight.

13) Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes (30 minutes if refrigerated).

Enjoy!

This meal is easy to make ahead and store in the refrigerator and then just pop in the oven when dinner time rolls around. This would also make for a good meal to take over to a friend's house. 

New Favorite Paint

When we moved into our duplex, I was looking for some kind of paint that I could use to cover up the nasty bronze chandelier in our dining room. I was thinking about spray painting it, but I really did not want the hassle of unhooking the light fixture, taking it outside, painting it, and then hooking it back up.   I'm in my 3rd trimester, and just the thought of doing all of that drained my energy. ;)


So, while on the hunt for paint, which started at home on Pinterest and led me to Home Depot, I found this awesome little aisle of Martha Stewart paint. And this is where I fell in love...I mean...found my new favorite paint!

This is the finish and color I chose...Metallic Paint in Cast Bronze. It only cost around $6 and it goes a long way. I posted some pictures of different things around my house that I have painted. 

And I've only used about half the container of paint after doing all of these little paint projects. 

Light switch covers. 

My $2 good-will find. 

The nasty old bronze light fixture :)

And about 10 or so handles for my dresser {my latest project- pictures to come later}

So fun! 

{Tutorial} Simple Hair Bow

Here is a simple, no-sew tutorial for hair bows!

Materials Needed-- scissors, hot glue gun, felt {or any material of your choice} , measuring tape {or ruler}, hair clips and/or ribbon for a headband.

Start out by cutting a piece of felt 2 inches wide by 8 inches long. You can adjust the length and width depending on the size of bow you're looking to make.

Cut out a piece of felt that is 2 inches long by about a 1/2 inch wide. 

Now take your longer piece of felt and fold it to make the sides meet. Try to get the sides to be as even as possible. 

Put a thin strip of glue on each side of the felt to hold them in place. 

This is what your felt should look like after you're done gluing down the sides. 

Flip the felt over so you can fold it to get the desired look you want for your bow. You can either pinch in the middle like I did, or you you can make the inside puff out a little. It just depends on how you fold the felt. It took me a little while to figure out how to fold the felt to get the look I wanted. You'll have to mess around with it :)

Once you have your desired "look", go ahead and place a small of drop of glue on each fold of the felt to get the center to hold in place. 

Now take your smaller piece of felt to wrap around the center of the bow. 

Glue each side to the back of the bow. 

And here is the finished product! Now you can either attach a metal hair clip or a head band to the back of the bow.  

I choose to go with a head band for baby #2. 

So there ya go- a simple hair bow that DOESN'T require a needle and thread! ;) And the nice thing about felt is that it comes in many different colors, so you can make lots of bows in many different colors!