Don't Judge...

...but I just got this out of my living room yesterday:

Notice that half of the ornaments are off?  Well, I had s l o w l y been working at it but I so despise putting up and taking down decorations.  I love them when they're up, it's just so much work!  I think I'm going to simplify my decorations next year.

When we took the tree out, we also rearranged the furniture and took out a chair so it feels much roomier in the living room now!  I LOVE it!  There's a few other things and knick knacks I want to get out of the living room and I think it will feel even better.  Oh that reminds me, I have a post I want to do about the kitchen table and island we re-painted.  Love how those turned out!  I have some future plans for our office as well...

But I digress...so back to the topic of airing my dirty laundry...here's another issue I've let go on far too long...

What can I say?  She came to us used to a nightly and morning bottle of milk.  We bought this bottle in China and she loves it.  It brings her such comfort (along with that pink blanket, (or "ganget" as she says) that I just haven't been able to make myself wean her from it.  None of my other girls had a bottle this long.  Sigh.  I hope she doesn't have bucky teeth because of it!

However, I have to say, we have bitten the bullet and started potty training and she is doing EXCEPTIONALLY well!  After five or six days of this, she has only had a few accidents.  She is doing so well and I'm happy to see she can be continent and I have high hopes that she will be out of diapers soon!

With the nice weather, we've been outside and up at the barn more this week.  Amelia really wanted to ride her horse, Butters, the other day.  So we pulled out the tack and took a little spin.  She had a blast.  

And when someone else saw her older sister having a blast, she decided to try it too!!

This was her first ride ever by herself and what a milestone!  If you had seen this girl and how absolutely terrified she was of our horses, cats and dog when she first got home, you would understand how wonderful this is!  

And what was more surprising, is that when I went to squeeze in an extra ride on my horses a few days later...well, Audrey decided she wanted a ride then too!

She looks like such a little peanut up there!  I was surprised she wanted to ride Magic because obviously, Magic is much bigger than Butters!  But Audrey didn't seem to notice.  Hopefully with the warm and dry weather predicted (unfortunately, we still need more rain) I'll get some more riding in this week.

Until next time...