LOVE the Ponytails!

We are FINALLY able to get all of Anastyn's hair into one ponytail , and I LOVE IT! I still opt for pigtails more often than not because they are easier for me to get in. (It takes a lot of combing, water and smoothing to get all of her hair to the back of her head!) But I love her messy little ponytail. Although, I think it makes her look older and I don't know if I am ready for that yet!

We sure do LOVE this sweet little girl, just look at those big eyes!

See, you think her ponytail is cute too, don't you? ;)

Snowy Day!

We have had snow a few times this year, but with it being soooo cold we hadn't really let Anastyn get out and experience it. One day when I picked her up from Mrs. Norma's (our babysitter), I decided I would let her walk to the car so she could walk in the snow a little. SHE LOVED IT! She liked walking in it, and then stomping her feet so the snow would fall off her shoes. Needless to say, she didn't really want to get in the car that day. So when we got home we put on her snow boots and let her go get the mail with daddy. She loved walking down the driveway in the snow. This is exactly what I love soooo much about little ones, the simplest things give them so much joy... we didn't make snow angels, we didn't make a snowman, or even snowballs...we just let her WALK in this stuff and she was so EXCITED! I LOVE THAT! The joys of discovery and everything being new is so much fun for me to watch as Anastyn goes through this stage of life. Here are a few pictures of her walk in the snow. (Ignore the hair in her face, it was driving me crazy hanging there, but it was too late to fix it!)

She wasn't completely thrilled to be so bundled up, but when she realized we were going outside she was fine with it.

She couldn't stop looking at the snow gathering on her little boots! She was not ready to come back inside, but it was just too cold on her little nose and cheeks. Maybe we will get another nice snow and a fairly sunny day so we can play a little more!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My Funny Valentine

Red Velvet Cupcakes for my Valentine's!

Aren't they so cute!


A girl needs her chapstick!

Potty Training in Progress

For the last few months we have been trying to introduce the potty chair to Anastyn. We would have her sit on it before her bath while the water was running or we would let her run around bare bottomed and try to run her to the bathroom when we could tell she was about to go. Then we bought her some cute big girl underwear. We have had some successes and more than a few accidents. Over Christmas break, Nathan was home for about 2 weeks, so he really worked on trying to get Anastyn to go potty. We bought her a book about going potty and she loves it (A Potty for Me by Karen Katz). She will sit there and let us read the entire book and often ends up going after sitting there a while. More recently she has been showing that she is much more aware of when she goes and will grab her diaper or underwear before or as soon as she goes. So on weekends and in the evenings we have been putting her in big girl underwear and letting her run around and she has been doing pretty well. This past Friday, my mom came up and watched her and said that she ran to the bathroom every time she had to go potty. She had a few small accidents in her underwear, but always held most of it until she sat down on her potty chair. Since then, she has hardly had any accidents and we have had her in big girl underwear whenever we are at home. She always runs to the bathroom when she feels like she needs to go and yells for "DAAA" or "MaMa". We always do the potty dance (while singing " Anastyn went potty, Anastyn went potty) after she goes, and she gets a treat (a bite of twizzlers or Nilla wafers). I am so excited for her and she gets very proud of herself. She also likes to dump her potty into the toilet and flush it down. She even woke up the other night crying and after trying everything else to get her to stop I asked if she needed to go potty, she said "yeessss" so I took her to the bathroom, took her dry diaper off and she sat down and went potty. I put her diaper back on and she layed right down and went to sleep. I honestly can't believe how well she is doing. Soooo.... I guess it is time to start sending her big girl underwear to the babysitters.

Is there anything cuter than belly buttons and big kid underwear?