The Joys of Potty Training

Well, we decided to potty train Asher this week. She is 2 years 4 months, and Aidan was 2 years 9 months. With Aidan we really lucked out because Miss Claudia for the most part potty trained Aidan at daycare in 2 days. He wore pull ups for about 2 nights, and that was it!

Asher really is doing amazingly well in my opinion. We did not make any plans for 3 days and have been at home. Day one Ash had about 6 accidents, peed on the couch 2 times, but also went on the potty like 20 times! We went through a lot of strawberry heart shaped marshmallows, and Aidan was happy to be getting a marshmallow every time Asher did. He was really helpful and encouraging to Sissy too!

Day 2 went a little better. She only had 3 accidents, all of which involved either nap time or a #2, and still went a bunch on the potty. And the couch stayed dry too!

Today is day 3 and she is doing awesome! NO accidents as of yet!! She went down for a nap and hopefully (cross your fingers) will wake up dry. Night times we are still doing pull ups and probably will need to a little longer than we did with Aidan.

I can't say this process has been "fun" but it has actually been a little easier than I thought. I am really proud of her and happy that Aidan was able to help her out too. :)

The Blog of Six Christmases Past

Well, it's been awhile. I am going to try to catch up on blogging this week. We have had a wonderful past couple of months at the Buss household. We were able to celebrate with almost our entire family for the holidays and made trips to Grand Prairie, Texas and Illinois. We were able to play in lots of snow and Aidan got to experience the joy of snowmobiling and sledding. We made it through a 20 hour drive to Mom and Tom's and a 22 hour drive back thanks to some slippery snowy roads. The kids saw all of their grandparents and aunts/uncles. The best way to sum it up would be to say we had a fantastic time with family. Here are some pictures of our holidays.

The kids were able to see Santa again at Grandma Buss' work. It was so amazing this year because Aidan was excited about going to see Santa and went right up and sat on his lap!! Last year he was a little scared and wanted Grandma to go with him. It is so neat to see him growing up! Asher was still enjoying Santa from a distance and didn't want anything to do with getting close to him. It was still a fun time for all of us and is every year.

What a big boy!
Loving Santa from a distance.

The kids with Grandma Buss.

We celebrated at Rob and Katy's near Dallas for Christmas this year because our newest niece, Lily, was due to arrive soon. Our family, Great Grandma Gloria, Matt's parents, and Rob, Katy, and Robby had a wonderful ham dinner before we dove into the presents. It was fun to watch the kids play with their cousin who is right between them in age. They especially loved playing in his play house upstairs. The guys walked to the park to test out Aidan's new walkie talkies from Aunt Katy and Uncle Rob while the girls relaxed at the house. Ashy liked her cut up fruit for her kitchen and Aidan loved his Toy Story figures, as well as all of the other cool toys and clothes they got.

The kids before present time.

Asher and Robby playing with Aunt Katy.

The boys had a good time playing the Wii.

Ash though Champ was her personal recliner. He didn't seem to mind.

I wonder what Asher was thinking in this picture...

Christmas number two was going over to Grandad, Nana's, and Uncle Zach's for dinner and presents. I was really excited to get my first house for my Christmas village. My dad always had a beautiful village when I was growing up and I look forward to hopefully adding a piece each year. The kids also enjoyed their cool retro gifts, a jack-in-the-box and a neat wooden top for Aidan that spins forever. It's really nice to see Zach more now that he moved here from Arizona. Unfortunately I brought my camera but forgot to take pictures.

The night before we left for our trip to Illinois we were able to have our family Christmas with just Matt, me, and the kids. The kids were both really fun this year and enjoyed opening and playing with their presents. They change so much every year! My favorite gift that Aidan got was his slinky dog. I had one when I was younger and loved it! I think the kids had fun opening presents before Christmas this year. We also ordered in Chinese food as a Christmas gift to myself!

Our family

Look closely and you can see Asher's first ever earrings - sticker earrings from Aidan for Christmas. She LOVED them!

The kids and Daddy with his presents from them.

I love getting earrings from Aidan. Matt says he is really excited to pick them out and I love knowing he did.

We got the kids in bed at a decent time and tried to be as ready as possible for the morning. We didn't end up leaving until about 11:00. Our trip actually went really well, although it was long! We hit some rain, but driving was still fine. I thought the kids did better in general this trip which I'm sure is because they are both older and Ash was able to watch the DVD's this time. Sleeping is still hard for them and Matt, although I slept great in the van! We arrived excitedly at Mom's at about 7am. They were ready for us and came running out to van. The kids were so excited!!! There was no electricity because of the ice/snow/weather, but that made it even more fun for the kids. We didn't waste much time and were at the big snow hill in Cherry Valley by 9:30 going sledding. It was awesome!

This is my mom racing down the hill with a look of pure joy. Who says you can't be a kid again?

Tom, Mom, Aidan, Asher, and Kaleb

Aidan was such a big boy and just climbed right up the hill. He LOVED sledding and had no fear!!

Christmas Eve we celebrated at my Aunt Mary and Uncle Gordon's. Our family always celebrates my Uncle Gordon's birthday Christmas Eve because his actual birthday is on Christmas day. It was so nice being there and seeing my aunt and uncle and cousins. We did our annual gift exchange game and then did another really fun gift exchange with the kids using a Christmas story that we read aloud and traded gifts while the story was being read. It was a lot of fun!

Aidan was dressing up Meme in a make your own snowman kit.

Uncle Kaleb and Aidan.

Aidan, me, Mom, Asher, and Jakey (as Asher calls him)

My Uncle Gordon and the kids.

Meme read them 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Christmas morning was a blast! Mom, Tom, Jake, Kaleb, Matt, Me, Aidan, and Asher had such a fun time being together. We read our traditional bible story and enjoyed opening presents one by one. The kids both got a castle to play with - Aidan's was a dragon castle and Asher's was a princess castle. Asher also loved her dress up shoes from Uncle Kaleb and here Baby Alive. Aidan loved getting Legos from Uncle Jake and later discovered that he really liked his first ever video game, a Leapster. The kids were spoiled and so were we!! Then we had our traditional orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

The family

Uncle Kaleb and Ashy
Daddy and Ashy

That night we had Christmas number six at Great Grandma Gus' house. The kids love seeing her and so do I! They got these really neat grass heads that you grow and then can cut their hair. The kids love them!

We had lots of Christmases, lots of great food, and spent time with those that we love so much. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family to share the true meaning of Christmas with!

All the single kids...

Along with 'Jesus loves me,' another favorite song for the kids has been 'All the single ladies' by Beyonce. They have been dancing to it off and on over the last couple of weeks. Asher has recently learned a few new moves to do to the song. Check out her hip action.

Jesus loves... duets?

Here is a quick clip of Aidan and Asher in rare form. They have been singing 'Jesus loves me' a lot lately and decided to perform a duet. You know things go wrong when you toe ends up in your nose.