Extrinsic Motivation

Occasional extrinsic motivation never hurt a soul.

Last week, Karl was fighting a head cold and I was battling back/hip pain that left me in the recliner by dinner time. The result was a MESSY MESSY house. While we normally have the girls help me clean up throughout the day and at night, we were lacking the energy to motivate them. So by day three it looked as though a tornado hit the inside of our house.

Right after dinner on that third night, I went straight the recliner and Karl hit the sofa. We were talking about the mess and hopefully we could feel well enough tomorrow to get to it. Then, I decided bribing my girls can't hurt that much right? So I told them if they worked together to clean their two bedrooms in thirty minutes I would give them candy. They were pumped (and so was I). Without any direction at all from us, this was the result.

While the bookshelves are obviously stacked by 3 and 4 year olds, blankets draped over bed rails etc. I was thoroughly pleased with their teamwork and efficiency. Can you see the pride in their sweet faces in the second to last picture? They certainly earned the candy I promised!

So this is yet another time that I was glad I limit the amount of candy/sugar I give them (they ask for it several times a day). Two reasons: one, they really enjoy it when they do get it and two, I can use it to my advantage ;)

Craft with a Disclaimer

My sister sent me a cute idea for Valentine's to pass out to the girls' friends. Using old broken crayons you can create heart shaped crayons using a silicon muffin pan. Well, I didn't have heart muffin pan but I do have snowflake shaped ones that I bought years ago on clearance to freeze my homemade baby food in. So the girls and I decided to make snowflake crayons to gift to their BFF for her Jan. bday.

First step: unwrap crayons and snap them into even smaller pieces...a step sure to please the little ones!

 Step two: use knife if needed to chop up smaller... hint I think I went a little too small because the end result didn't have the pops of color I was looking for.

 Step three: sort mixed crayons into silicon pans.

 Step four: 230 degrees at 15 minutes...hint, I thought it didn't look ready at 15 minutes, so I did 3 more minutes. But in hindsight, they overcooked which caused colors to mix.

Step five: cool and pop out!

Now for the disclaimer.... Use a cutting board and muffin pans that you do NOT plan on using for food again. I cannot get the wax residue off either... hand washing, scratching, hot dishwasher cycle, etc.

But with that said the girls loved this easy craft and really enjoyed giving them as gifts. Gifts that didn't cost a penny out of my pocket, and we saved broken crayons from the landfill!

Baby Bump: 21 weeks

Boy (well girl) do I feel like you can see the baby bump pop out in this latest profile pic! WOW...funny how one month there is no change and then another month it looks like there is three months of change.

Brady was at Sunday School with her friend during today's photo shoot but Reese decided to show some loving to Baby Elliot. Nothing beats the bond between two sisters!

So I am 21 weeks now. Lots of women like to celebrate the 20 weeks "halfway" milestone. I feel like that is false, because you spend 4-5 weeks not knowing about the pregnancy...and those last weeks feel like months! The milestone I like to celebrate is 23 weeks, because that is when you have caught up with medicine. If something was to happen, and I went into labor, medicine has been shown to save babies 23 weeks gestation and beyond, that is why I like the 23 week milestone, and I am only two weeks away from that YAH!

I am starting to really have lots of back and hip pain. I don't remember it being this severe this early with the other two, but I remind myself this pain is the result of the wonderful miracle growing inside of me. I am LUCKY to be 'bothered' by this pain, it is a pain of joy!

Is it June yet?

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Winter from FL!

Thanks Cera for the idea...

I have a high paying job and an office with a view

Today (Monday) when I was at the beach, I again appreciated life and how lucky I am to be where I am in my life, thankful to Karl for supporting me as a stay at home mom, and thankful to my girls for being amazing.

So I don't get adult conversation during the day, but I do get this...

and no adult conversation beats this...

 Elli Dew makes an appearance too...

 The girls working on their 'project'

 I love this job!

Mounds of clothes...

Up until now, I have been saving EVERY single piece of clothing my girls have ever worn. Which calculates to about 15 buckets (totes) of clothes. Well, now that I know that we will have another lovely lady to enjoy all these clothes and I am getting rid of them...hahaha seems backwards right? Well, I was waiting for the sex of Elli Dew so that I could know whether to downsize completely or just somewhat. I will obviously be saving the hand-me-downs, but I can't feasibly save the three and half years of clothes that will be between Reese is Elliot. I brought down some of the buckets last night and Brady decided she would help me go through them...by matching up outfits. This is her handiwork.

I love this outfit that includes panties, skirt, socks, shoes, shirt and hat. 

So I sorted through what to keep, give away, and what needed some serious stain removing TLC. Brady helped me sort my GIANT mound of keep clothes into sizes.  She loved climbing onto the bed to get clothes from the top of the pile.

Then would either toss the clothes at me or climb down and bring them to me and tell me the size. I was proud of my big helper and of myself for downsizing my load by two buckets. Hopefully I have it down to where I will be storing only six buckets of clothes at a time. 

Sleeping Beauties Part Three

As I have mentioned in the past I LOVE taking pictures of my girls sleeping. Reese especially always gives me a good laugh. I thought I would post my collection of sleeping pictures over the last couple months. 

One night Reese got out her favorite coat to sleep in. And no, it wasn't a cold night. 

The girls love playing sleepover and so we let them try it again. Reese fell asleep over an hour after Brady but she did choose the spot next to her sister to rest her eyes. 

Speaking of sleepover, the girls (who would really love to share a room) now sit at their doors and talk to each other at bedtime. Our rule is they can do anything in their room after bedtime but must not leave their rooms. Last night, they both fell asleep at the doorway, this is Brady tonight...um well Reese is still awake as I type at 9:45.

I posted about this before, but I still love this one...

Gotta love the cliffhanger

My diva, Brady

Reese loves having someone in bed with her!

Elliot DeWees Orthner

Today was an amazing day at the doctor! We (Karl, Reese and I, Brady choose school over seeing the baby) got to see a beautifully healthy baby on the screen today. Measuring right on track, calculated to be a baby due 6/9/2012. Several times we saw a beautiful spread of long fingers on the screen, a heartbeat of 150 bpm...all great great stuff...

And yes, we saw a cheeseburger on the screen... Karl and I happily introduce to you Elliot DeWees Orthner!

We already have Brady BOO, Reesey Poo, so now to the mix we are adding Elli Dew. Yes, we intend on calling her "Elli Dew"!

We are honestly very excited about the news of health and girl parts! We humbly believe we do an excellent job raising little girls and look forward to the opportunity to love another little girl. I have got this girl thing down (for now).

Now for more pictures of this beautiful baby.

I have to start with my personal favorite: Her fingers...I LOVE IT!!!! Awesomeness is in this picture

The profile shot is the first one above, see the characteristic button nose our girls have? Here is the scary alien shot from face on.

Most of the time, when she wasn't spreading her fingers, she had her palms together and resting her cheek on them....so sweet. See if you can tell in this picture... Her head is bottom center with hands just above.

foot... to the left

Cheeseburger in paradise...girl parts

And one more profile to close out with. I love how she is stretching her neck out! I love baby stretches!

Can't wait to meet this angel in June!