one small step

When PJ was about 18 month I would set him on his little yellow potty every 30 minutes. I was diligent in this and at 24 months PJ was potty trained at home and at 28 month we could go out of the house in his big boy underwear. It was so much work! I learned my lesson with PJ. I have let all the other kids potty train in their own time.

Penelope is 21 months old and I know she will potty train when she want to. It could be 6 month it could be a year, or longer. To be truthful about it, I don't really care when she starts to use the potty, but it's nice to see her getting the potty out of the bathroom and sitting on to read a book. I know that it's a small step towards learning a big life skill.

xxoo

a snip and a clip

It was a big night for us over at the Tripp house. It was hair cut night. Mr. Tripp is pretty good at cutting small children's hair. To be honest Mr. Tripp learned how to cut the kids hair because he's cheap. To get three boys and one little girl's hair cut and tip the poor lady who had to cut the hair ran us about 60 bucks. Times that by 5 or 6 time a year and, well it adds up.

(Penny is still to little for her first trim)

Matt's hair is the hardest to cut. It's thin and strait. One miss cut can be seen a mile away but he sits the stillest out of all the kids.

Ben's hair is thick and texture like mine and is much more forgiving if a OPS should happen. However her is the worst of all the kids. He hates the buzzers and can't be still.

PJ's hair is also challenging. He has funny cowlicks in the very front of his hair line, so no matter how hard Mr. Tripp try's, it always has a goofy flip to it.

After Ella's self hair cut we thought it would be a good idea to trim a little off her ends so she wouldn't feel left out of all the hair cutting fun and try another self cut.

Mr. Tripp also got his hair cut tonight. He let Penny help out. She was loving the buzzers.

I have never seen a man so okay with loosing his hair. He says if its going to go it might as well go now. So a buzz cut it is.

I don't think I have seen him with more than 3/4 of an inch of hair on his head in 5 years.

I asked him if he wanted to try and cut my hair tonight...

"no way".

xxoo

bed room makeover 1 of 2

Last weekend Mr. Tripp and I transformed the nursery into a bedroom for Ben and Matt. It was a bitter sweet makeover. This little 9 x 10 room has been the nursery since we moved into this house almost 10 years ago. All of my baby have slept in it. When the boys were babies it had star wall paper and the cow jumped over the moon border. When Ella came home I striped the wall paper and painted her name and flower all over the walls. Sadly when Penny was born the room stayed the same and her name was never added to the wall. Thats what happens when your the 5th kid. Sorry Penny.

This is the before. A crib and lots of toys. The crib has been around for 10 years too.

Mr. Tripp picked out the paint colors. Splash and Yosemite Blue from Benjamin Moore. It cost about $50.00 for paint a supplies.

Matt said "wow dad I didn't know you could paint walls. I only thought you knew how to paint cars." Mr. Tripp can paint just about anything. I was not allowed to paint. I'm no good at it.

And now the after!

New bunk beds from Walmart $190.00. Sheets $10.00 form Walmart. Two new matters for Sam's club ran us $200.00 and a TV stand from Ikea was $40.00

Shelfs for Ikea that wrap all the way around the room $120.00.

The boys love having a place to set all their stuffed animals, super heros and art projects.

Tall toy storage from Ikea with red bins $64.00.

You can't tell from the picture but I hung "black out" roll blinds from Ikea. They keep the room nice and dark and only cost $40.00 for two of them.

I climbed into the closet to take this picture. It really shows just how small this room is. But with well thought out storage and shelving the room works for two boys. My hope is that they can be happy in it for the next 5 years or until Mr. Tripp wins the lotto.

I am so happy with the way the room turned out. The total cost was $714.00. Mr. Tripp wanter to keep the cost under $500.00 but when we came up with this number we didn't think about needing new mattresses. I haven't told him the total cost yet and I'm hoping he doesn't ask.

The Next room we will be making over is the new girls room. This is going to take a lot longer because there is many, many layers of wallpaper to be striped. UGGG.

xxoo

handmade

I order the girls some handmade winter hat and ohhh, they are so very lovely. I placed a custom order less than a week ago. The colors are bright and the yarn is very soft, they were really affordable too. Only $15.00 each. I know winter is almost over but really here in Michigan you need a good winter hat well into May. The hat were beautifully made by Keisa. She take custom order HERE. I am so happy with the way the girls hats turned out I might need one for myself. Thanks Keisa.

xxoo

dress to skirt

I bought this dress on clearance at Target yesterday. I love the bottom but not a fan at all of the top part of the dress. So with a little cutting and sewing, a skirt.

$20 is my all my allowenc for the week so I really debated if the dress was worth it. But I like the black and white stripes and the fabric is soft and flows nicely, I went for it.

xxoo

whoppie

Yesterday the kids had school off. So we made whoopie pies. I found a recipe I liked here.

All you need is

1 Box devils food cake mix

1/2 Cup butter, softened to room temperature

2 Eggs

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix ingredients until combined.
• Drop spoonfuls of cookie batter onto baking sheet about two inches apart.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes.
• Cool

• 
  

  Cream Cheese Frosting
  1/2 Cup butter, softened to room temperature
  1 8 oz. Package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  1 1lb. Box of confectioner’s sugar
  1 tsp Vanilla

  • In a mixer, cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla.
  • Gradually add sugar and mix until smooth.

  Makes about 24 cookies or 12 cookie sandwiches

  

  ENJOY!

xxoo

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” - Herman Melville

xxoo

northern girls

When I think of the south I think of little souther girls in BIG hair bow. I know this is a bit stereotypical but that just were my mind goes. Southern Bells with thier hair done up and BIG BIG bows, I love it!

We, however are Northern girls, south central Michigan to be more precise. And my norther ladies needed some BIG bows too. Yesterday I washed and folded laundry, cleaned house, played with my kiddos, did homework and reading with the boys, cooked chicken alfredo for dinner and managed to make my ladies a couple of fun bows.

I made Ella funky fun bows.

Penny got red and black stacked bows

I think more BIG bow will be in my little girls future.

xxoo

discriminating taste

Penelope has been loving her momma's milk for 20 months and it's fine with me. The plan is to let her stop nursing when she ready. However my milk suply just isn't what it used to be. I have been trying to supplement her with cows milk but she just won't have it. I'v also tried goats milks, soy milk, almond milk and rice milk. Penelope has very discriminating taste.

Someone suggested giving her chocolate milk but I just can't

let her drink that on a regular basis.

Strawberry milk is a different story. I can make that with

really strawberries and zero added sugar.

milk and frozen berry

blend very well

Yummy milk for my baby!

It's not her momma's milk and she know it but I did get her to drink about 6 oz of it today. It's a tiny victory for me and my boobs.

xxoo

weight watcher

Lat week I went to weight watchers and had gained +0.6 lb. It was very frustrating to have gained on week #2. Good news! This week at weigh in, -3.2 lb. I was very happy to see that minus sign on my check-in card. I worked extra hard to keep track of my points and wrote down what I ate and it paid off. My three week grand total is -6.8 lb. Now I only have 39 lb more to go.

Cheese ravioli with mediterranean veggies, sauce, + low fat cheese. 12 points

xxoo

snip, snip

My Ella has long, shiny, silky black hair. We have been letting her grown it out ever since she was a baby. Honestly, she has hair that every girl wishes for.

Last night when I went to brush my teeth I found a clump of black shiny hair on the bathroon floor. And then I found handfuls of long black hair in the trash can. I know its just hair but I was so mad. Ella had given her self a hair cut.

WHY? WHY? WHY?

She mostly cut from the fount. She Chopped off big chunks of hair. And there's really not much I can do to fix it other than let it grow back out.

xxoo