Silly Little Girl

When Ainsley was born we had SO many people tell us, "Enjoy it while it lasts because they grow up so quickly!" Well, I remember thinking to myself that I'd do anything just to get her to the "sleeping through the night" stage. Now I look back and can't believe I ever wanted her to grow up so fast! She has become such a big girl!

For example, tonight I asked her if she could see something out the car window. A few months ago she would have said, "Uh huh" or even just shake her head, but tonight she said, "Yes, I see it, Momma! It's pretty!" I have NO idea why this got to me, but just realizing how different our conversations are now made me see how grown up she has become. So, here are a few of the cute things she's been doing lately....just so I don't forget how little and silly she really is!

* A couple of nights ago, she said, "Come here, sit down Momma!" This is something we hear every few minutes at our house so after avoiding it several times I thought I'd better oblige. She had me lean over so I was on my hands and knees and then she crawled under me and started fake-snoring! When I asked her what she was doing she said, "I made a house! Night night baby brother!" And then she rubbed and kissed my tummy! :)

* Clint had found this website where you can look up just about any TV theme song you can think of. He had his laptop in the bathroom during bathtime and we were trying to stump each other. Ainsley wanted to play so Clint played Dora, Diego, Wiggles, etc. and she guessed every one in just the first few notes! So, anyway, she decided to make up her own game. She would say a name and then tell us "how they go":
Benji - "She howled and said, "Ruff ruff!"
Mimi - "A song, a song! Do you ears are low, can you throw your shoulder?"
Bapa - She attempted at an elephant noise and spit all over everything!
Daddy - She put her hands up to her mouth and made a pootie sound! Ha!
Will - "Dada!" She thinks this is how Will goes because he likes to hear his echo and says this quite a bit. :)
Caleb (Will's Daddy) - She put her finger in her mouth and pulled it out to make a pop noise. He actually does this quite often!
Mommy - "I so proud of you, Sweetie!" (Yeah, I almost cried!)

* I've been asked a lot lately if Ainsley is excited about having a baby brother. Well, I'm not sure how much she understands, but she does love to play with him! She'll come up to my tummy and carefully make a cup with her hands to hold baby brother. Then she'll sit him down and come back to take a blanket out of my belly button. Then a bottle, a paci, etc. Yep, it's all stored in there! Sometimes she even changes his diaper before she puts him back in to go night-night. So, does she know a real baby is coming out of there? I really don't think so!

* The one thing Ainsley does the most these days is play pretend house. I'm not exaggerating when I say this goes on every few minutes! One day she had a Mommy, Daddy, and Baby pickle on her plate! They fed each other, took naps, etc. She loves to play with our spare toothbrushes too. (No, I don't think they're spares anymore!) There is a pink one (Mommy), blue one (Daddy), and a green one (baby). She will carry these around for hours and make up funny little voices for them. She does play house with normal things like dolls too, but anything in this house (including pieces of string found in the carpet) can be great entertainment!

* She is SO in to Barbie dolls right now. Back in the Fall I got a bag full of Barbies at a free garage sale. From that day forward, I think she was in love. The kid LOVES Barbies! She has 2 in the bathtub (mermaids) that are the only 2 toys she plays with and we ALWAYS have one in the car with us. The weird thing is that she treats them like babies. Clint thinks it's really weird that she rocks and feeds dolls with breasts, though! She got a Barbie car for Christmas which is now the only way they can transfer from room to room, but the funny thing is that she makes them put their seat belts on and close the door themselves. Meaning, she gets their little plastic hand and "helps" them close the door and such. It's really cute!

* One of Ainsley's favorite shows is Diego. She probably likes him more than Dora. Well, Diego helps animals that are in trouble and they have to say, "Help!" So, now anytime Ainsley needs help with something she says, "Ayudame, I'm in twouble, Momma!" It's usually just that she can't get her shoe on, or needs help washing her hands, but she thinks she has to say that she's in trouble for me to come "rescue" her!

* For a while now Ainsley has had a very strange infatuation with boobies. Yep, you read it right! It's not anything real weird, she just likes to point them out when she sees them....even in public. I think it started after seeing my sister nurse one time. Anyway, I picked her up from MDO one day and her substitute that day (my good friend Leigh) had written that she wanted to see me on Ainsley's report card. When I walked in she couldn't stop laughing! Leigh said that she had a zip-up hoodie on (over a t-shirt) and Ainsley was playing with the zipper when she said, "What's that?" Well, Leigh didn't know what to say so she just ignored her. (Bad idea when dealing with an inquisitive 2 year old!) So then Ainsley said, "Hey, hey! What's that?" And Leigh just said, "You're silly!" And Ainsley said, "No, not silly...that your boobie!" I totally expected this, but I guess they staff was all really surprised that Ainsley knew what a boobie was! :)

* She thinks Daddy's chest hair is gross and says, "Ooo, yuckie! Put shirt on, Daddy!" if she sees him without a shirt on. Needless to say, he's very self-conscious around her now and makes sure he always has a shirt on! :)

* Tonight we heard Ainsley through the monitor praying in her room all by herself. She was thanking Jesus for all her family and friends (by name) and then had her bunny thank Jesus for Momma Bunny, Daddy Bunny, Ainsley Bunny, etc.

* She has a little wooden crib in her room and every night she puts one of her babies (or Barbies) in it, covers them up with a blanket, says a prayer with them, and kisses them on their forhead! Too cute!

* We play a lot of made-up games around our house. Today we played one where she would put hair clips in our hair (Clint too), put us "night-night", then wake us up and tell us what color of clips we had in our hair! Then she'd re-sort them (sometimes by size, sometimes by color) and start all over. I'm sure this would have gone on for an hour, but it was not much fun on the receiving end!

* Ainsley thinks all ladies with glasses are called "Grandma". One night after choir she was in the worship center with me and we walked past Gilda Stanbery, our worship minister's mom, when Ainsely said, "Jesse's grandma!" Jesse is Ainsley's 2-year-old friend and yes, Gilda is her grandma. Well, I guess she was proud of herself because she started running up to all of the women with glasses saying, "Look! Another grandma...another grandma...another grandma!" Most of them were grandmas, but I was embarrassed on a couple of the runs before I ushered her out of the worship center! Then at Hobby Lobby yesterday she walked up to the lady in the fabric department and said, "Hi grandma, how you doin?" Luckily, she was a grandma too and didn't mind.

* On a similar note, we walked past a lady at Wal-Mart one day that was on the heavy side and, for story's sake, had an up-turned nose. We were only a foot or so past her when Ainsley said, "A piggy! Oink, oink!" and pointed right at her! (It wasn't too loud, but I heard it very clearly) Ugh! TOTAL embarrassment! I sped up and skipped 2 aisles to make sure we didn't see her again! But later on the peanut butter aisle, the lady stopped me and thought it was so cute that Ainsley had called her "Nanny" because that's what her own grandkids called her. I was SO relived that she didn't hear what Ainsley had really said that I just laughed and went on. That could have been a bad one!

* Ainsley loves to talk on the phone, but just doesn't quite understand how the phone works yet. Yesterday she told Daddy she was drinking juice and said she was going to share. Then she put the phone up to her straw and said, "Drink it!" She also took Mimi "jumping" on the trampoline by bouncing the phone up and down on it a few days ago. Then yesterday we were talking to baby cousin Hailey and Ainsley held the phone down like a baby, rocked it, and said, "I wuv you baby Hailey!" Thank you to my patient family for acting like crazy people and obliging! :)

There are SO many more stories, but I'm way past the hour in which my brain functions normally!

Christmas 2007 (Very long post!)

We had a great Christmas this year! I've finally weeded through all of the pictures and narrowed it down to 58! It may very well take me a week to get them all uploaded, so I probably won't put any on the blog, but you can check out the flickr link at the end of this post.

We were planning to leave bright and early Friday morning for Oklahoma. We had the car loaded, had eaten breakfast, and even picked up the house before 7:30am. I had all of Ainsley's clothes laid out so all I had to do was get her dressed and stick her in the car. Well, we waited and waited, but she never woke up! So about 8:45am I went in to get her and I could smell it as soon as I opened the door! Yep, she pooped in the bed! Ugh! It seriously looked like Swamp Thing attacked her during the night! (If you didn't know, she's been on medicine because she will go 10 or 12 days without a BM. With the medicine, she has no control over her bowels...it just comes) So, after stripping her bed and bathing the child, we finally left about an hour later. It actually turned out ok and I was very glad she had a good poop before we left! Never thought I'd be praying for poop!

We stopped in Tulsa and ate lunch at Fish Daddy's and it was really good. Then Ainsley was asleep by 12:45pm and slept almost the rest of the way. We unloaded at my parents house and then headed over to the Bean's for our gift exchange. As we had expected, Ainsley asked for Blaine several times and kept looking for him, but once we started opening presents she seemed to forget about it. She got little stainless steel pots and pans, a wooden stand mixer, wooden cookie baking set, and measuring spoons which all match her new kitchen. She also got several trains which she was very excited about, including the pink train, Rosie, that has freckles! My sister-in-law got her a huge pop-up princess tent with a skylight in the top, so we had lots of pretend tea parties and Ainsley served pretend tea to everyone. She even had a pretend crown for all of the girls and a "big king" crown for Daddy. She got a box full of clothes and dresses from her Grandma too, which were definitely needed! We all had a great time and still got back to my parents house in time for Ainsley to be in bed by 8:45pm that night.

This was the first time Ainsley and my niece Hailey had been at Mimi and Bapa's house at the same time, so we weren't sure how the sleeping arrangements would go. It actually turned out great! Usually we put Ainsley in the crib, but lower the mattress all the way and leave the rail down so it's almost just like her toddler bed. But since Hailey was sleeping in the crib, my mom put my old play pen (it's huge!) in the office for Ainsley. She had 2 down comforters in it with lots of teddy bears and blankets. Ainsley slept 12 hours that night! "Present time" started as soon as Ainsley woke up and went on all day long. After the first 10 presents or so, Ainsley was tired of opening presents and just wanted to play. So, we opened a few toys and let her play with them while Hailey took her morning nap. Then when Hailey woke up we continued with the kid presents. I can't even remember everything Ainsley got, but we had a car so full we barely found room for the dog! One of her favorites was a pink Barbie VW bug. She loves it! She's also really into mermaids so she got 2 Barbie mermaids which have been big hits at home. Another favorite is a Mickey Mouse doll that comes with a piano with numbered keys. He sings "La" to each note that you play and even starts singing the words to the song if he recognizes it. It's totally age appropriate too! Since Clint and I both play, we can tell Ainsley some numbers to play and she gets SO excited when he recognizes "her" song. It comes with a play book too that tells you which numbers to play so we'll probably get that out next and start working on her first piano lessons! But I have to say, the biggest hit at Mimi and Bapa's house was the trampoline! It's an indoor trampoline with a bar to hold onto. And the best part is that there are no springs. It's just a big bungee cord wrapped around it. Hailey was crawling all over it while Ainsley jumped and there's no way for her to get hurt! It goes up to age 8 so we have lots of years of fun left in that one! She also got lots of music and books. Ainsley will sit and listen to a kids songs CD for an hour even if I'm not in the room. It's crazy how much she likes to sing...and dance! She got a really cool DVD set of probably 15 movies too. It's basically the book of Matthew....the adventures of these kids and how they relate them to Jesus' journeys and teachings through his resurrection. It's pretty neat! Oh, and Ainsley, Hailey, and "baby brother" all got bath robes! Too cute! ("Baby brother" got several things this year!)

I didn't figure Ainsley would nap long since she was so excited about her presents, but she slept almost 4 hours! Seriously, I was getting worried about her. A normal nap is about 2.5 hours. It snowed while she was sleeping too, so I really wanted her to see all of the snow. Luckily it was really cold so there was still a little bit of snow for her to see when she woke up, but the wind was already blowing a lot of it away. She played in it for a while before we headed over to my grandparent's home for another Christmas. Despite her super long nap, she was very tired that night after all of her excitement. Speaking of excitement, she would get SO excited when opening each present. Her mouth would drop open and she'd gasp....even if it was clothes! We never really talked about Christmas presents before the trip so I think she was really surprised she was getting all of these things. She was also very good to share her toys with Hailey and gave LOTS of hugs after each present. I got several comments over the weekend on how polite she is. She slept about 12 hours again that night so we had the car loaded and ready to go when she woke up the next morning. On the way back, we stopped in Tulsa again and hit Babies R Us to get some inspiration for the new baby and try out some strollers. I didn't think there would be enough room for Ainsley in the big double-limo styles, but she had plenty of room! Her favorite, by far, was the sit 'n stand, though. I'm not sure that we'll even get a new stroller, but I wanted to at least look at them and see them in person before I made my decision. Oh, and while we were there, Ainsley pooped again! Yeah - you go girl! 2 poops in 3 days! Woohoo!

We got home in enough time to get most of our presents put away and clean out a lot of toys for the garage sale to make room for the new ones. I really wanted the house back in order before Christmas Eve so I wouldn't have to worry about anything and Clint and I could relax. Ainsley slept another 13.5 hours that night and took a 3 hour nap! I took that time to get all of my food prepared for Christmas Day so I wouldn't have to do anything but pop it in the oven. Clint got home from work early and we just laid around and relaxed until Ainsley woke up. Then we all had some dinner and got ready for church. The service was great! It was my first Christmas Eve service - ever. There wasn't a sermon really, but Pastor told the Christmas Story on a kid level (to all of the kids on stage) which I thought was very appropriate for any guests who might be visiting too. Then we sang several songs, had the candle lighting ceremony (which Ainsley thought was for Jesus' birthday cake) and we were dismissed in under 45 minutes. Our plan was to go to Cold Stone after the service since I had holiday coupons, but it was closed. I had already planned on it being closed and bought some gelato that morning so we went home and had ice cream. Then Ainsley and I baked cookies. It was so funny! As we were putting the cookies on the plate for Santa, she took a bite of each one to make sure they were good. Then she helped me pour the milk and took everything over to the table. As soon as she laid it all down, she just sat her little self down and started eating again! I literally had to pull her away from the table so she'd leave some cookies for Santa! She even wrote a letter saying that she'd been a good girl this year. (She actually said that she wrote, "Ainsley's a good girl - go peepee in da potty!") But either way, I think Santa knew what she meant. Then off to bed...she was asleep just before 9:00pm.

Here's where my fantasy Christmas Day (the first EVER at home in our 8 years of marriage) started getting skewed a bit. I got up a little before 7 to get the stockings stuffed and Clint already had the Santa gift put out. My plan was to cook breakfast and eat an early dinner. But by 8:30am Clint and I were getting really hungry. So, we ended up eating cereal while we were waiting on Ainsley to wake up. I figured surely she'd be up early....especially since she went to bed late and was so excited about Christmas. Well, by 9:30am we had already eaten breakfast and watched a movie together! So, I woke the little hobbit up from her hibernation. She walked into the living room and saw her kitchen and table all set up and said, "Hey, what's this?" Ha! We told her that Santa left these presents for her and she said, "Oh! Ok." What a goof! She loved the kitchen, but was even more excited about the little table! It's a wooden crayola table that I got from this store in Ada for only $15! She also had "Return to Neverland" in her stocking with bonus Tinkerbell stories....we've watched it about 5 times already! Even amidst all of the chocolate and candy in her stocking, her favorite was the pack of Slim Jims I had put in Clint's stocking. Go figure?

Next we opened our gifts to each other. Ainsley made a mug for Daddy with her handprints on it and picked out some gloves for him. For those of you that see her at church much, you've probably seen her wearing the latex gloves before. She LOVES gloves and it was the first thing she picked out for Daddy. (And they were cheap from TJ Max) Ainsley bought me some Egg Nog flavored hot chocolate in a cute little tin and "baby brother" even got me something! It's a devotional for mommies of babies with a prayer to pray over your babies each day. Really cute and special. Daddy got Ainsley a really cute Noah's Ark book that has these HUGE googlie eyes on each page for different animals. She loves Noah's Ark (and even thought pictures of Santa were Noah until recently) so this has been a big hit too. And Santa brought me a waffle maker! I've wanted one for a long time...not sure why I never got one. Only the tag said for "Clint and Mandy" since Clint said he figured he'd enjoy it as much as I would. :) We always do the three wisemen gifts for Ainsley so in addition to the book, she got another train set and a big tub of wooden train tracks that I bought at the consignment sale this Fall. She and Daddy built tracks the rest of the day! After each gift she was supposed to say something she was thankful for. So after the first gift I asked her what she was thankful for and she said, "All my pwesents!" Ha! Of course, what else would a 2 year old say? Then next she said, "All my fwiends!" and the third time she said, "My tummy!" I know it has something to do with me being pregnant, but I just don't get the new infatuation with her tummy! After we ate lunch (instead of dinner) Ainsley took another marathon nap and Clint and I watched another movie. Then we all watched "Hairspray" when she woke up. There was 1 bad phrase in it, but not anything Ainsley could have really caught on to. She LOVED the movie and wanted to watch it again. She kept dancing with all of the songs and now she does this cute little 40's style dance around the house. It was too cute!

So, that's our Christmas...2007. I've hit a few after-Christmas sales and bought a new 7.5 foot pre-lit tree for only $25 and several ornaments and such. I sure wish Motherhood had after-Christmas sales! :) If you'd like to check out all the pictures, just click here. Merry Christmas!

More Dance Pictures!

Back by popular demand...new dance pictures below! There are not any of the girls actually dancing, since I have to dance also, but I got a few shots of them doing stretches and warm-ups. Here is Ainsley and Miss Cherrie waiting for the class to arrive. Ainsley is playing with the ribbons they use during the freeze dance. It's Cherrie's bribe dance. Anytime the kids are acting up or not doing as they're told she says, "If you don't get on the line you don't get to do the freeze dance!" It's funny...those little toes run straight back to the red line every time!

Ainsley and her friend Jacee (just a month older) still waiting on their class...

Apparently there were a lot of people out of town. There are usually about 7 girls, but this week we only had the three little girls (the 2 year olds.) The other girls are all 3 years old. When the older kids are there, our little girls do much better. Apparently mocking their friends is more fun than following directions! :)

Toe stretches!

If you didn't know, I cut hair. I don't have a license or anything, but I love to do it. My mom went through a cosmetology program at her high school (although she has several degrees and never worked in a salon) and cut our hair my entire childhood. She did all of our perms too. Actually, I had only been to a salon once in my life until college. Then my roommate also went through a cosmetology program at her high school and put herself through college by working in a salon. So she taught me a lot of things as well. We even used to go up to the salon late at night and do hair! So, I've been cutting hair for about 15 years now...my poor sister was my guinea pig for years! I made a lot of extra cash in college by cutting hair...even cut 12 inches off of my professor's hair once!

So, last night a friend and her husband came over for me to cut his hair. He pays $16 for a cut, so it saved them a lot of money during this time when things are so tight. Is that really ow much a man's haircut cost? Wow! Anyway, when I finished, I trimmed Clint up a bit to get ready for Christmas, and then Ainsley climbed up in the chair. She got her booster seat and everything and said, "Ainsley needs a haircut!" Oh, I forgot to mention that we had also taken Benji to the groomer's for a haircut yesterday. So she was really feeling left out, I guess. Her hair has always grown so slowly in the front and fast in the back, so I cut the back quite a bit. I'm working SO hard to get rid of her terminal mullet! She needed a trim up anyway so I put the cape on her and began to snip. She was SOOOO still! And she wanted to see every piece I cut off. It was so cute! I cut about 2 inches in the back and now the front is only about an inch shorter than the back....getting closer. She still has a lot of short hair in front that looks like bangs, though. I think it may take years to get that to grow out! Before...
Here is our after shot. It's just a short little bob. Cute when her hair is wet and curly! She was so excited and wanted to see her hair as soon as she woke up this morning!
So, there is my hair history story. If anyone ever needs a cut or color (foils or all over) just give me a call! I'm as free as they come and I love to do it!

Well, the car is packed up and we're leaving first thing in the morning for Oklahoma. We're planning to come back Sunday evening, though, so Clint can work on Monday. I am beside myself with excitement because this will be the first year in 8 years of marriage that we'll be home on Christmas day! I seriously can't wait! Plus I get to go to my first Christmas Eve service!

We'll be at Clint's parents tomorrow evening for our gift exchange. It will be different since my sister-in-law and her husband just split the weekend of Thanksgiving. They were together for 4 years and he had a little boy, Blaine, who was Ainsley's only cousin for a long time. She keeps talking about playing with him...I haven't quite figured out how to explain it all just yet. She really did adore him, but we'll probably never see him again. We'll be at my parents on Saturday and probably see grandparents during that time also. It will be my niece's first Christmas and also the first time for both of the girls to be at Mimi's house together. Hopefully Ainsley will be so excited about playing with Hailey that she won't focus on missing Blaine too much!

I didn't get to my cookies, but I finished my cheese balls and every last present is wrapped. We also put Ainsley's kitchen together (from Santa), which took 3 hours, and all of the laundry is caught up and house is picked up. So, I'm feeling a little like super mom right now! Now I just have to find a comfortable position and try to fall asleep. That's the hardest part! :)

Silly girls!

Ainsley had on her cute Christmas dress today and I had on my (rather ugly) sparkly red choir shirt that Ainsley thinks is my Christmas shirt. So, when we got home from church she thought we needed the camera. Clint was busy, so we tried a few self-portraits. None of them turned out great, but they make a cute story together!

This is Ainsley's fake smile.

She was squealing here!

Ok, we're getting closer to a real smile...

Gave up on the smiling thing...she thought it was fun to make silly faces in the camera! (Our camera screen flips around so you can see what you're doing)

Until today, we had done absolutely nothing to get ready for the baby. I keep thinking I have so much time, but when I think about all I have to do it's really not long enough! Our crib is converted to a toddler bed (Ainsley's bed) so it can't be moved to the new room yet. My parents are going to be bringing my old furniture (a full size canopy bed, nightstand, dresser, chest, desk) up for her as soon as we get past the holidays, but until then I can't really take any furniture out of Ainsley's room. I do, however, have all of the bedding but I still need to make curtains, a couple of throw pillows, and a chair cover. So, hopefully I can get on top of all that soon. I really need to get Ainsley settled before I start working on the nursery or I'm afraid I'd never finish her room.

The nursery? It will be in the guest room. We sold the guest bed and nightstand in our garage sale this Fall, but we still have a closet full of stuff and 2 huge bookshelves in there. In addition, it's become our room to dump everything that doesn't have a home. Especially if we're trying to pick-up quickly before home group! So, tonight we started at least cleaning it up a bit. Clint had to go into work for a conference call about 7:30pm and we didn't even start until after 6, so it was just enough time to make a huge mess before he left. Needless to say, I just couldn't leave it that way! I ended up getting just about everything out of the closet (what's still there will be transferred to our closet), 2 bags of trash, and 2 big boxes for a garage sale. Now all we have to do is get the bookshelves and hundreds of books moved into our room! To make room for it all, we're going to sell our computer armoire (in our bedroom) since we never use it. We each have laptops and a wireless network so we usually just slide our computers under our nightstands. :) So, anyone in the market for a really nice Riverside computer armoire? Red, distressed look....

Hopefully I won't focus too much on the rooms this week. I really need to finish my Christmas shopping since I have 5 days until our first gift exchange! Speaking of, we had our home group party at our house last night. We had a babysitter for all of the kids, we all dressed up, had sparkling cider, and lots of fancy finger foods. We even made up a really fun game for our gift exchange that had us rolling! It was a blast! We've already decided to get together again for New Year's!

We have a winky!!!

Yep, IT'S A BOY!!! Needless to say, we're still a little shocked! This pregnancy has been exactly the same as my pregnancy with Ainsley. I mean, sick from week 9 to 13, and again from 15 to 18, felt the baby move about the same time, gaining weight about the same, etc. Just everything has been SO similar so we weren't sure if that meant we'd have another girl, or God was pulling out that crazy sense of humor on us again. Well guys, we have a funny God!

The tech was positive it's a boy and the ultrasound was very clear. She said, "There's a winker dinker!" Ha! So, we're going to tell Ainsley tonight that Mommy is going to have a baby, it's a boy, it's coming home with us, etc. At least now we have a DVD to show her as well. She's going to be the best big sister - I can't wait! I even have bedding picked out already that I want to get! But, right now I have a lot of phone calls to make so stay tuned for more later...

Christmas Survey

Ok, I've been tagged like a million times on this thing, so here we go...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? A little of both. All presents that travel with us get wrapping paper and no bow. It just makes it easier to fit everything in the car. But presents that stay at home or for gift exchanges and such, I usually use recycled gift bags until I run out. Gift bags are just too expensive to buy!

2. Real trees or artificial? There are way too many allergy/asthma issues in our house for real trees. It was the same growing up...we always had artificial trees. Our current tree has a rather sad story. It was given to us when we first moved to the area and our next door neighbors (very good friends of ours) were getting divorced. Believe it or not, I'm still using wrapping paper given to us at the same time! I really want to get a new tree after Christmas this year...a pre-lit tree.

3. When do you put up your Christmas tree? Usually the weekend or week after Thanksgiving, but not before.

4. When do you take your tree down? Around New Years.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but I'm not crazy about it cold. I like it warm. I also prefer homemade because the store kind has too many spices added to it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? This is a hard one! Probably my doll house my mom made me as a child. It's wooden with probably 12 rooms and all of the little wooden furniture, real doors and windows, etc. It has 2 or 3 bathrooms, a servants pantry, 2 staircases, etc. She worked on it for a very long time, after putting my sister and I to bed. She hid it in the basement downstairs and told us there were mice traps in there so I never peeked! My Glamor Gals were the perfect size for it. I can't wait for Ainsley to play with it someday.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a really cheap one that looks really expensive with jewels on the kings and all. I really like it!

8. Hardest person to buy for? My brother-in-law.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Clint! I get hugs and kisses just for a 6 pack of Yoo-Hoo!

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever got? I don't know that I ever received any BAD gifts, but my great-grandma used to get all of the grandkids a box of Little Debbies. We really liked it, but always thought it was kind of funny!

11. Christmas cards or e-mail Christmas Cards? Christmas Cards for sure! I save them every year and look at them while I put decorations up the following year.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol. I've DVR'd a ton of movies for Ainsley this year, but I could never catch that one on anywhere.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? November

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Oh yeah! And if you're coming to our home group Christmas party, you'll see some examples!

15. Favorite things to eat at Christmas? LOVE cheese balls and cheese logs!

16. Clear light or colored light? I like the clear lights, but I recently saw a tree with colored lights and all clear ornaments....it was very pretty!

17. Angel on top or Star? Until this year we've only had a bow, but I bought a star a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if I like it yet or not so I still have the bow up also. :)

Ok, there is no one left to tag because I have procrastinated too long. So, someone needs to start a new one! (Yeah, I guess that should be me, huh?)

By the way, thanks for the prayers, but Ainsley woke up with a fever this morning....oh well. At least we're all getting it over with before Christmas!

Lots of Friends!

We had a very busy week this week. The Dinner Theater production at our church started on Monday. So Sunday night was our last dress rehearsal and several of our props had been thrown around so many times that they were starting to fall apart. So, my friend Katie, who had made most of these props, had to run up to the church to make some "repairs". And we got to watch Ariel!

The girls play SO well together. Ainsley has loved Ariel since she was born and just can't get enough of her. I'm always surprised at how good Ainsley is to share with the little ones. She's not as good with the kids her own age, but she just lives to make the babies happy! Here she is making Ariel laugh at breakfast...

Once again, such a good sharer. This is her favorite chair and very few people are allowed to sit here. Not only did she let Ariel sit here, but she moved over to make room! They watched cartoons like this for a while...
Lexi is Ainsley's other favorite baby! She was born 6 weeks premature and weighed the exact same amount when she came home as Ainsley did when she came home. So, the girls have been very similar in their sleeping/eating habits. It's hard coming home with a 4 pound baby that doesn't sleep and even harder to find someone to watch her that won't pull their hair out before the day is up! But Lexi is so similar to how Ainsley was as a baby that I don't know any different. So, we watch her occasionally when she can't go to her MDO program. She came over Wednesday while her Mommy went to work. Ainsley was SO excited!

You know how I said Ainsley likes to share with the little ones? Well, Ainsley is 2 and very addicted to stickers. Last Sunday she had a sticker on her hand after Sunday School. (It was a penny....kind of weird sticker to get at church, huh?) We were playing with Lexi out in the gatheria before we left and I looked down to see Ainsley taking the sticker off of her hand and putting it on Lexi's hand. I was SHOCKED! She screams when we take her stickers off for bathtime, so that really showed how much she loves Lexi. She loved to help change Lexi and sit with me while we rocked her. At one point, I was trying to get Lexi to sleep and she was crying, so Ainsley came running into the room with a burp cloth over her shoulder, a paci in one hand, and a bottle in the other hand. She just whispered, "Baby Wexali hungwy?" It was so cute! She's going to be the best little helper! Here she is feeding Lexi...just for the picture. :)
Wal-Mart was doing free pictures with Santa yesterday, so I put Ainsley's red shirt on so we could get her picture taken. (I had already taken her to the promenade, but since she was scared of Santa, I wasn't about to PAY for a picture of her crying!) So, I got the camera out and told her I wanted a picture of her before we left and she quickly posed in front of the tree...and so did Benji! She never let go of this mermaid...it's even in the professional picture with Santa. (I'll try to scan that one in later)


I stopped at a garage sale on the way home from Wal-Mart because Clint was at work and we had nothing better to do. It turns out, I had met the girl who lived there at a party recently. She had some really great things, but way too pricey. But, as I was leaving I saw these Johnston & Murphy shoes in Clint's size for only $5!!! They just needed polished, but looked brand new! Clint loves Johnston & Murphy so he was very excited. I just wish I would have waited and given them to him for Christmas. Of course, Ainsley had to help "poweesh" the shoes...
This weekend was date weekend. We do this now and then with our friends Caleb and Leah. They watched Ainsley Friday night while we went out, so we watched Will last night while they went out. It works out great since we save SO much money for a babysitter. We just keep the kids at our own house for dinner, bathtime, etc. and take them home for bedtime. We decided to take the kids to the Gentry Christmas parade last night. There are many more pictures on flickr if you care to take a look...

Clean kids...they had so much fun together!

Clint took Ainsley to church today because I got sick last night. I was up for about 5 hours trying not to throw up! Then just as I would start feeling better, the baby would wake up and start moving around and kicking, which just made me more nauseous! It was awful! Now my throat hurts like crazy and I'm all stopped up. I was supposed to work in the nursery today too, but my morning in bed has been much more relaxing. :) I just hope it goes away quick because I have a ton to do before our group Christmas party Saturday. So, now I'm just praying that Clint and Ainsley don't get it...I really can't afford to have a sick family too!

Catching Up...

I know, I know...it's been a long time. (I have kept flickr updated though.) To be honest, I'm not sure why I was so busy last month, but it was absolutely crazy! For one, we potty-trained Ainsley. We also traveled back home for Thanksgiving, went to a couple of different Christmas lightings, play groups, bunco, connection group, choir, dance, swimming lessons, Mother's Day Out, etc. It just takes up a lot of time, I guess. Ainsley has actually started associating the day of the week with her activity. For instance, I can say, "It's Friday. Do you know what we do on Fridays?", and she'll say, "I go skoo with Miss Sacey!" We have such a routine at our house, but I honestly could not live any other way. I'm a very organized, routine type of person. I have VERY little spontaneity in my body! And Ainsley does really well on a schedule. When we travel and she has to be a little more flexible she gets so cranky!

So, here's what our schedule usually looks like. On Mondays we try to do our Wal-Mart shopping and maybe an errand or two. (Ainsley doesn't wake up until about 8, naptime is 12:30 or 1pm, and she usually sleeps until about 3 or 4, so we don't do much in the afternoons.) Then I have to make sure I cook enough for dinner on Tuesday also. Tuesday mornings are usually just cleaning, laundry days while I'm not in bible study at church. Then after nap we practice Ainsley's dance routine, eat our leftovers from the day before, and head off to dance. We cross paths with Daddy for about 10 minutes and get home about 30 minutes before bathtime, so there's not much of an evening, but our mornings are very relaxed. Wednesdays are usually play date mornings with different friends of Ainsley's or sometimes even the park, then choir in the evenings. Thursdays are swimming lessons which take up most of the morning, and on Fridays Ainsley goes to school! Here is a picture of Ainsley and her favorite teacher, Miss Stacey. Ainsley begs to see Miss Stacey throughout the week. She's crazy - super hyper and silly - the kids just love her! (This was taken on Friday when Ainsley didn't take a nap at school....she was so tired!)


That's our week. But the last couple of weeks have been even busier with Christmas Dinner Theatre practices in the evenings. The production starts tonight through Wednesday night. I'm so glad it's finally here and will be over soon. Since we're both in choir, we have to drag Ainsley with us all the time, keeping her at church until 9:00pm some evenings. The poor baby is just worn out, so she's staying with a friend tonight for a change of pace. Hopefully it will give her a little time to rest, but I know she's going to miss her friends at church. Here lately, she's been adding Jessie and Rex to her prayers at night! :)

Here are some of the girls from our dress rehearsal last night. This was taken during the second run-through of the entire production so we were all a little tired.

(Left to Right) Leah (pregnant), Mandy (pregnant), Shannon (pregnant), Andrea (very pregnant), and Katie (who didn't get the baby memo). I think it's funny how you can tell how pregnant we all are by how many buttons we have buttoned on our jacket. Notice I only have 1 buttoned and Andrea is way past the point of buttoning now! :) Katie has all of hers buttoned!

So, here's a little bit of random information. Ainsley has become SO imaginative lately. She's always had a very active imagination and very rarely ever enjoyed playing with the loud, noisy toys with lights and stuff, but it' really come out more lately. For example, she likes to play Diego all the time. She'll put Lily (her Build-A-Bear bear) on the couch and say "Ayudame`!" which means "help". Then she'll look through her camera "Click" to zoom in and see who is asking for help. It just continues from there, acting out an entire episode, singing the songs and all. She also started doing some other random role playing by herself. The other day we were watching Max and Ruby on PBS and she said, "Momma, I Max and you Ruby! Now, say 'No, Max, no!'" She does the same with Blue's Clues and others. This is by far her favorite activity next to playing house.

On a similar note, she's started adding things to her prayers that don't make much sense. Saturday night she said....
"Tank ew Jesus for Momma and Daddy....
and BENJI!...(our dog)
and Mimi and Bapa...
and BENJI!...
and my fweends, Wheell, and Dessie, and WEX!..
and my bicycle...(we don't even have a bicycle)
and my oder bicycle...
and my tummy...
I wuv ew Jesus, AMEN!"
Ha! Ok, I have no idea where this stuff is coming from. Maybe watching the kids on the street ride their bikes? We don't have bicycles in any books that I know of. Hmm.... She also thanks Jesus for her tummy some...I think it's because she thinks there is a baby in her tummy. We still haven't officially told her I'm pregnant, but she already things everyone has a baby in their tummy. Why wouldn't she? All of her friends' Mommy's have babies in their tummies. :) We're going to sit her down and explain things when we find out the sex. My doctor has had me wait until 21 weeks...just a week and a half!

Ok, it's been so long I could keep going and going, but I need to actually get out of bed this morning! I promise I'll try to do better this month guys!