Miss Independent

My little Ashlyn has become quite the independent girl lately. At times it's very cute, and sometime very frustrating as well. She is in LOVE with clothes and shoes, and putting them on. Most days after I get her dressed, she comes downstairs later with something else added to her outfit (usually a pair of shorts over her pants). In the picture below she added the shorts and sweater to her outfit for the day, which she was very proud of.

She loves shoes more than clothes I believe, and puts every pair on that she can get her hand on, whether they be hers or not. She is very good at it, and puts her own shoes on the right feet before we go out the door (something some of my older children still struggle with from time to time). This is the first child I've had that at 17 months old I can TELL her to go get her socks and shoes on before we leave, and they are actually on! The down side to this is that because she is constantly putting shoes on during the day and walking around with them, often I don't know where she took them off! So finding a matching pair can sometimes be a struggle!
Ashlyn has also been quite enthralled with the toilet lately, and not for potty training reasons! She thinks this is the funnest toy in the house! If a bathroom door has been left open, you can guarantee that she's playing in the toilet! We have been fortunate enough for her to of never encountered a 'dirty' toilet. But, she loves to put things in it! I have a small decorative glass container on the back of the toilet filled with colorful rocks, which is perfect for throwing and making a splash in the toilet!
Another time I say the bathroom door open, and ran in there to find the toilet full of socks.

I got the socks out, and as I was leaving the bathroom bumped into Ashlyn with her arms full of more socks ready to put in the toilet! Crazy girl!

Another time I found that she had taken all the contents from the trash can in the bathroom and FILLED the toilet bowl with them-that was fun to clean out! :) Luckily she has not discovered the flusher yet, so things just get put in the toilet, but not flushed! The rule of the house is that whoever left the bathroom door open, is the one that gets to clean out the toilet if Ashlyn gets to it! Morgan has had the opportunity to clean out rocks, bath toys, and toy animals from the toilet. Duncan has also had the pleasure of cleaning out rocks-the older boys seem to of broken the code so far. She is my first child who has been SO interested in with the toilet!

Even with all the messes that Ashlyn seems to create lately, we do love having her around! She is so fun! She loves to be outside, and brings me her coat often to go out. She is a cuddlier, and everyone loves to get in on her cuddles. We have to rotate seats in the car so that everyone gets a chance to sit by Ashlyn throughout the week-they are all in love with her!

Brian was pulling his hair out yesterday after washing her hair for the second time in 2 hours because she had gotten into stuff. I said to him, "We have a toddler in the house, what do you expect? And we're about to do it all over again in 3 1/2 months! Isn't this fun?!" Life sure isn't boring around here, that's for sure!

Pinewood Derby

Last night was the boy's Pinewood Derby race. They had a great time, and did well!
This is Ronan's car on the left coming in 2nd!

Hayden's car on the far right coming in 2nd (the 1is car already went under the red blanket).

This was Hayden's last year, as he will be a Boy Scout next month, and he was so excited to not come in last! The poor boy has come in last every race, every year. He has handled it like a champ, but we were all so excited for him to be 2nd this year! And Ronan was over the moon to be 2nd his first year racing! Brian said it was funny how everyone else was hoping for 1st, but we were all SO excited to get 2nd! It was a good night and fun had by all!

Snow Day

Last week the kids were only in school for a day and a half! Monday was a teacher work day, Tuesday & Wednesday were snow/ice days, and Thursday school was delayed by 2 hours. What a tough week for those school children!
Tuesday's snow was really our first 'playable' snow of the season. We had one or two dusting's in the last month, but nothing you could play in, so outside we went. This was the first time Ashlyn had been in snow, and she had a blast! I pulled her and Duncan around in the sled in the cul-de-sac, before it was plowed, and she loved it, so off to find a hill for sledding we went!
Luckily we don't have to go very far, there is one behind our house, and the kids had a blast sledding.

Hayden was the only one that didn't join us for sledding. He went right to work shoveling the sidewalks. We have 3 elderly neighbors on our circle, and Hayden usually shovels their walks when it snows. He ended up doing every body's this day.....except for ours that is! That afternoon I asked if he was going to shovel our walk (especially since Brian was in Virginia for 2 days, and his mother was pregnant). The response: "Mom, I'm SOOO tired from doing service, I just can't!" I pulled the whole, "Do you want your PREGNANT mother to slip on the steps?" card, and he, Ronan, and Morgan all got out there and shoveled!

That night we had freezing rain, and the next morning everything was cover in a sheet of ice! The kids were 'ice skating' in the road, and on what used to be snow. They had a blast, and sledded extra fast that day. Ashlyn and I opted to stay inside (especially after watching the many slips the others encountered). Everyone was excited though to finally have a snow day (until that day gets added on to the summer I'm sure :) ).