New Year= New Things!!

Well, 2015 is off and running!  We've had a full week back at school and work.  And that week seemed to fly by!  I just knew it would drag by since I haven't worked a full week in a a while but it didn't!  I am not complaining though.  Well, I think it is finally safe to say that Evan is potty trained!  When we attempted this with them back in the summer...Emma did great and after just one accident on the floor...she was pretty much trained.  We put on big girl panties and never looked back.  With Evan that 1st attempt was a nightmare.  He was NOT ready for potty training.  He would just pee on the floor and think it was funny!  So, to pull-ups we went with him!  So, the week after Christmas we attempted the whole three day wear nothing tactic again and this time it worked!  The first morning we took off the pull-up and didn't let him wear anything.  He did GREAT that first day.  He peed and pooped in the potty all day long.  A couple times he didn't even tell us...he'd just go in the bathroom by himself.  So, I thought we had it whipped.  He even stayed dry during nap time and I was determined we weren't going back to pull-ups.  That night we put on big boy underwear and he stayed dry all night.  So, we just left the big boy underwear on the next day and that was a mistake!  I think in Evan's mind, the big boy underwear and pull-up were the same thing.  He peed in his underwear several times.  I would take the underwear off and he'd use the potty like he was supposed too. So, it took a couple times of peeing in this underwear for him to realize this wasn't how it worked!   I do have to note that he had never wet anything while sleeping...which is VERY rare!  Most all kids take a while to not go while sleeping.  So, for over a week now, he has had no accidents at home and he is wearing his big boy undies like a champ.  He did have a couple accidents at school last week, but even Mrs. Tina was surprised with his process.  But by the end of the week he was doing great and did great at church this morning.  So, today was my first trip in a LONG time to the grocery store where I didn't have to buy diapers or pull-ups!  We are officially past that phase in life!!  I will admit it was a little bitter sweet!  Since we on the topic of Evan...Justin took him squirrel hunting for the 1st time on Saturday.  I really didn't want him too considering it was freezing outside but trust me...he had on plenty of layers!  My dad helped get Justin's gun ready and I think he was just itching to try it out.  They didn't actually kill anything but at least Justin got to shoot the gun.  Here area  few pictures of my sweet boy!

                

Doesn't every boy own some camo and boots???

   

Couldn't you just squeeze that sweet little face???

                 

Apparently he wanted to climb under this limb!

And climb up the ladder stand.  This boy loves to climb all of a sudden! 

So, even though they didn't kill anything, they had a great time.  Evan will tell you they saw several squirrels and that they all ran away.  Justin says they didn't see any.  Who knows which one is telling the truth!! :)  Now on to some other new things!!  As most of you know...I am not the crafty one of the family...Katie got all those genes...but here lately...I have even surprised myself!  Remember a couple months back we redid our floors in the house.  We put new hardwood in the den, dining room, and hall and put down linoleum tiles in the kitchen.  I really love it and Justin did an awesome job but these tiles just aren't going to work.  The guy at Snead's told Justin to nail the underboard down, which we did...but the nails are coming back up and the floor is going to have to be redone!  So, we are going to just continue the hardwood through the kitchen.  Yes...I should have just listened to Justin because he wanted to do this from the beginning...but I wouldn't hear of it.  Now, we have more work to do.  But at least Justin is on board with wanting this!!  He was NOT on board when I decided we needed to paint before we put down our new flooring!  But being the sweet guy he is...when I started painting...he can in and helped me out!!  Well what goes better with new paint, than new curtains??  And it just so happened that the cloth sale in Williamston was this past weekend.  Me and momma decided to head over and see what we could find!  Here is where my new found craftiness is going to come in.  We found the most perfect fabric for my new wall color and got what we needed and headed back home to attempt diy roman shades!!  Momma helped for a while but had to leave so once again I called on my sweet hubby for help!  He again was not happy because he has just gotten his fire outside burning good...but he came in to help!  We worked and finally got the first one up!  What do you think??

I think it is going to take a while to get use to no blinds and how empty the wall above the window looks...but I love them!!  We didn't take down any of our curtain rod holders just in case we needed to put them back.  So, now that we like the new shades...we have two more to make.  Our flooring will be delivered probably sometime next week and our kitchen will have gotten a new makeover!!  This is the last time for a while...I promised Justin!!  That is it for now!  Hope you all have a great week!!