Bean Sprout Chronicles

We're back!

2009-04-02T19:20:00.005-06:00

Did you miss these two kids?
Well, we've been pretty.....sick! (Thought I'd say busy?) Grady got pneumonia. It was really bad. He was treated for it and 2 weeks later came down with a high fever again. We went back to the doctor and he STILL had it! He couldn't keep the steroids down, but he actually seemed to enjoy the breathing treatments. Is this not the saddest picture you've ever seen?

During our time of pneumonia, I also had strep and Ainsley had a virus. We also celebrated Clint's 31st birthday and our 9th wedding anniversary! So, my parents came up one weekend to watch the kids and let us go out on a much needed date. Yeah!!! We went to Crabby's which was absolutely fantastic! I always thought it was seafood because of the name, but they specialize in their steaks. I had lamb chops, roasted grape tomatoes, saute`d spinach, and gnocchi and Clint had a blue cheese encrusted KC strip with grilled asparagus and horseradish mashed potatoes. (I make these potatoes all the time now!) The next day, my mom helped me keep Grady content while I gave him his first haircut. Before....

And After....
He looks SO much better. I may be weird, but I don't really have any sentimental attachment to the first haircut. I mean, I kept his hair, but it didn't make me sad to cut it. I love to cut hair, though. :) He looks like such a big boy now, and those baby blues really stand out!

We've also had some CRAZY weather in the Ozarks. We, very literally, go from 70 degree weather to snow in one weekend. We've had a few snowfalls this year, but Ainsley has had a fever for every one and has not been able to play outside. So, we let her build a snowman this time...

And back to 70 degree weather! This was on St. Patrick's Day. It was in the 70's so we went to the park for Grady's first swing. He loves his sister so much!

Last year on St. Patrick's Day, I was at my baby shower. This year has gone by SO fast. Haircuts may not make me sad, but my babies growing up REALLY makes me sad. Please stop growing!!!

Check out the picture above. My kids have completely different skin tones. Grady has a very olive-y tone. It looks yellow when he gets next to Ainsley's peachy skin.

We were seriously sick for about 6 weeks. So as soon as everyone started feeling better, we locked the doors, boarded up the windows, and started planning our vacation! I felt bad for not going to church the day before we left, but I just knew I'd be coming home with a sick kid if I did.

We went to Kansas City for Spring Break for a little time away. It was a lot of fun and easy on the wallet! The kids were fantastic! Slept well, ate well....we just had a really good time. We went to the T-Rex cafe, Crown Center, Children's Edutainment Center at Paradise Fun Park, Union Station, Fritz's Railroad Restaurant, Bass Pro, had some KC barbeque and lots of ice cream, and swimming at the hotel. Ainsley still cries now and then because she wants to go back to our "new house". :) She loved the hotel! I didn't upload any pictures on here because it took me so long to upload them all to Flickr, but you can check them out there.

Whew! What a relief! Getting caught up on blogger is like getting caught up on laundry. It's one of those things that just piles up and makes you feel anxious. Come on, you all know what I'm talking about!

Oh, one last thing. With the economy the way it is and all the recent lay-offs, Wal-Mart's bonus was a little uncertain this year, but it finally happened! We bought each other an annniversary gift. Clint got a new TV and I got a new console...

Furniture shopping is definitely a weakness of mine! You can also see my new wicker toy trunk in front of the fireplace. I got a great deal on this and it holds ALL of the baby toys in the living room....plus serves as a good fireplace barrier.

Well, I'd love to catch you all up on the kids as well, but Grady has a high fever that won't break and I think I'm going to have to put that sweet boy in bed with me tonight. Oh, darn! :)

Little Shrimp?

2009-02-04T12:14:00.004-06:00

Grady's 9 Month Appointment:

Weight: 18 lbs 5 ounces -- 10%
Height: 28 1/2 inches -- 50%
**Head was still 75th %! :)

When Grady was born I thought he was such a chunk! Ainsley never had a single roll or dimple on her body...anywhere....ever! So, I have laughed and laughed at the little dimples on Grady's bottom and rolls around his knees. I knew he was losing a lot of that, but I didn't realize just how much he had lost until his appointment. He was only in the 10th percentile for his weight! The doctor was not concerned at all since he recently started scooting around though. I just can't believe how much his little body looks like Ainsley's now. Another long, slender string Bean!

He is getting around super fast these days! Still just army crawling, but he occasionally gets up on all fours and tries to move. He usually only moves one leg and then plops back down on his tummy, but he LOVES to stand up. If he's ever fussing, all I have to do is stand him up and let him walk around. Silly boy. He also loves to mimic us and play games with us. He gets REALLY excited to see his sister too. I can sit him in the toy room with Ainsley and go cook dinner or do some laundry. How great is that??!! The only problem is, he doesn't play well alone. He always wants someone playing with him, so I don't get much done on the days Ainsley is at school.

Speaking of Bean Sprout #1, that girl is growing! I put her pink dance pants (guachos) on her last night. A year ago they looked funny because they came all the way down to her feet, but now they come just below her knees! She must have grown 4 inches or more. She still hasn't really gained any weight in several months, but that's not really her style. :) We play LOTS of Polly Pockets. I mean ALL DAY LONG. She's not allowed to bring any clothes or shoes for Polly out of her bedroom, but she can bring the dolls out. She loves to give a couple of dolls to Grady and she calls him the prince. It's so cute to watch her get them dressed in their jammies to go to bed and dressed in their princess dresses to go to the ball and then their swimsuits to go to the beach! She's so funny! On a sidenote, I think Grady ate a Polly Pocket shoe yesterday....

I have a cute video of Ainsley playing "Hide and Go Seek" with Grady. Or at least she thought she was! He found her, though. I'll try to get that uploaded tonight because I don't know how to use my new iMovie very well. Until then, you can check out all the new pictures on flickr!

I also had a great time with many of you at Girl's Night Out last week! Next time I hope to get to visit with everyone!

Doctor or Mechanic?

2009-01-30T17:07:00.000-06:00

Ainsley just came out with a printer cartridge saying, "Momma, I found it! I found it!"
Me: "What did you find?"
Ainsley: "Medication for my bicycle! Yeah!"

??? My kids are really weird.

Kid's are both napping!!!

2009-01-21T16:23:00.005-06:00

...so, I'm taking this opportunity to be crafty! I've always wanted a very inviting entrance to my home. Something that feels warm, yet still grand. Well, most everything I've wanted to do would cost way too much money. So, I went to Hobby Lobby and took advantage of the 50% off all floral today. I took the old stuff off of my wreath and put all my new things on, plus some pheasant feathers! We also got a new rug from my aunt for Christmas and the topiaries from the associate's store. Here's the front door...

And here's a close-up of my feather wreath...

I was inspired after this, so I went around the house looking for more flowers. I had a few things laying around, plucked a few from other arrangements, and picked up a dead branch from the backyard too. Here's that result....

The vase does not really match the decor, but it will do for now. Here's what I did with the rest of my Hobby Lobby purchases...

It has feathers too! :) I also scored a great deal on a big, wicker bowl/plate kind of thing...$3. They had a lot of things that were 66% off. I didn't really decorate anything any differently when we moved into this house because we had used any extra cash on the loan. I have to say, though, after my new arrangements, I really am inspired to start redecorating...little by little. So, stay tuned!

Update on Baby Harper

2009-01-20T20:55:00.002-06:00

Clint talked to Scott today and it sounds like there has been a tiny bit of improvement. (If you didn't read Kelly's blog, Harper was born with pneumonia.) There was some concern that the left side of her heart was swollen and may not be working correctly, but they were told today that she has a healthy heart. There is still a lot of fluid in her lungs, but it is clearing up little by little. They're even hoping to have her off the ventilator soon. Wow! This little baby went from a prognosis of "little hope" to talk of coming off the ventilator in a period of only 4 days! However, she IS still in very critical condition and needs lots of prayers to pull through this. They are basing all of this information on the rate of her progress, but that could change at any time. They know it is going to be a very long recovery, but they never stop giving God all the praise...no matter what news they are given. Please keep praying!

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord delivers him out of them all." Psalm 34:19

Please pray...

2009-01-17T22:24:00.001-06:00

Please join me in praying for baby Harper. Her daddy, Scott, is a good friend of Clint's and they have been very excited about her arrival. They are a wonderful christian couple and are asking God for a miracle today...and I believe it will happen.

Sweeties

2009-01-12T21:28:00.002-06:00

Last night on the way home from church....

Me: "Ainsley, who did you play with tonight?"
Ainsley: "Cooper."
Me: "Did you play superheros?" (Cooper has been teaching Ainsley how to be superheroes. He's named her Lava Girl!)
Ainsley: "No, we played babies."
Me: "Were you a family? Was Cooper a Daddy and you a Mommy?"
Ainsley: "No, we didn't play families, we played BABIES!"
Me: "Well, did you have a baby and Cooper had a baby? Or did you share a baby?"
Ainsley: [Rolls Eyes at Me] "No, Cooper's a boy. Only Mommies and Sweeties have babies in their tummies."

Also, Grady started scooting a few inches this weekend!!! He's not very good at it yet, so it leaves me a little bit of time to childproof and, you know, vacuum!

Crawling Update?

2009-01-07T22:15:00.003-06:00

Nope! The boy is not even trying to scoot. He does get up on all fours in his crib some, but that's about it. I think it's because he has a little "helper" that brings everything to him. Who needs to crawl when you can whine instead? However, he has cut 3 teeth since Christmas Eve and is working on the 4th one. I thought he'd never get a tooth and soon he'll have 4 teeth in less than 2 weeks!

Another Trip

2009-01-07T21:47:00.004-06:00

Since we didn't get back home from Christmas in Oklahoma until Sunday evening (the 28th), I spent all day Monday and Tuesday organizing and cleaning to make room for all the new toys. Clint went back to work on Wednesday so I packed up all the decorations and then Clint loaded the attic and took the lights down on New Years morning. Then about noon we got a phone call that Clint's grandmother had passed away. We were expecting it and had been "on notice" for about a week. So, while Clint was at work on Friday, I finished unpacking our bags from Christmas and then did laundry and re-packed over the weekend. Talk about stressful! We left Monday morning and just got back tonight.

We actually had a really good time, though. My parents kept the kids Monday night while we went to the visitation and then several of us went to eat pancakes at 9:00pm. Then the next day there was a big family dinner at the church. I got to see some of Clint's cousins that I had never met and other family members that I hadn't seen since our wedding. (Almost 9 years ago now) We took Ainsley to the funeral and she did really good. I think it was good for her. She understood that the lady in the casket was just Grandma's body and her heart was in heaven "talking with Jesus and singing with the angels" as she said. At one point, she said that Grandma was in heaven now singing "Glory to God!" She understands so much more than I ever give her credit for. After the lunch, we took the kids back to my parents to nap (Thanks Mom and Dad!) and went over to Clint's grandma's house to look through some things. She was Clint's last living grandparent so it was important that we get some momentos to take back home. We got a table from their farmhouse, some old tools, I got a homemade apron, etc.

When my dad got home from work, Ainsley told him that she had gone to "Grandma's fever". She kept calling it that! I guess the word funeral was not in her vocabulary? The only thing that really confused her about the whole event was the difference between being baptized and death. She has watched some baptisms at church and we've told her that they asked Jesus into their heart so now they're going "under the water" to tell everyone else that they're going to heaven. Well, when we started talking about Grandma going to heaven also, she kept asking if she went down in the water. She does understand a lot, but she's still just a 3 year old. :)

I'm glad to be home and hope we don't have to travel again for a while. Grady has been in bed since 4:00pm and Ainsley went to bed at 6:00pm. They are WORN OUT!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-07T20:14:00.007-06:00

So, if you're wondering, yes I finished (& started) my Christmas shopping in 1 week! Clint's parents came up the weekend after Thanksgiving for an early Christmas with us. It was a lot of work, hosting Christmas at my house with the whole family, but we had a good time. We got a Wii and Guitar Hero World Tour, so the evening was spent battling it out! Here are the Christmas outfits I bought the kids at the consignment sale. They were super cheap and super cute!

Grady, like all babies, LOVED the tissue paper, tags, etc. He latched onto this one tag on one of Ainsley's shirts and played with it the whole time.

Here's what happened when I finally took the tag away from him! (Yes, I gave it back...I'm a sucker for crocodile tears!)

The following weekend was our Connection group Christmas party. We now have 14 kids (under 7) in our group with 2 more on the way. It was at my friend Jamie's house who had a 14 day old baby! Crazy woman! Here are a few of the kids showing off their presents after their gift exchange. We won an Olive Garden gift card!

Clint was sick the weekend of our group party and I got sick that Monday. I was sick until Christmas Eve! Grady got a little puny right before Christmas too, so Clint met us one day at the Promenade and sat in the car with Grady while Ainsley and I went to meet Santa. She was so excited! She went right up to him and crawled up in his lap, but then gave me this funny, little face for the picture. Typical 3 year old. She told Santa that she wanted "Princess dresses and my baby brother wants toys." :) I thought it was so sweet that she included Grady.

Here are my boys after the Christmas Eve service. This was our second year in a row to be home on Christmas Eve/Day and I think we'll probably always try to be in Arkansas for the service if at all possible.

Ainsley's letter to Santa. She drew the pictures first and then I wrote the words around them.

Christmas morning at home! Santa brought princess dresses and toys for Grady! I actually didn't spend any money on Grady's toys....Santa went shopping in the attic. :) After all the Santa excitement, I was cooking breakfast when I looked over and found this...

So, Ainsley and I ate breakfast and got the presents ready for our family Christmas. We normally do the 3 wisemen gifts, but I had already bought 3 gifts when I remembered that Grady and Ainsley had not bought each other anything. So, since our nativity scene has 3 wisemen and a shepherd, we called the 4th gift a shepherd gift. Ha! This is Ainsley with her gift from Grady. It was BY FAR her favorite gift from anyone. It's a music box with a little ballerina that dances around. She stares at it for sometimes 30 minutes or more!

After presents, kids went down for a nap and I started cooking. Clint's sister was supposed to be bringing a friend that didn't have anywhere to go, but she ended up not coming. So we had a ton of food! I made a huge brisket, rosemary roasted potatoes, homemade cracked-wheat yeast rolls with pumpkin butter, corn casserole and green beans. Yum!

We left the next day for Oklahoma to spend Christmas with my family. My sister, her husband, and my niece, Hailey, were all there too. Hailey is almost 2 now so the girls are finally at an age where they play well together. They were inseperable! My parents are currently remodeling all the bathrooms, basement, part of the kitchen, etc. so the entire upstairs and garage is full of stuff. So, with so many people and only 4 bedrooms, we had to get creative. My sister and brother-in-law slept in one bedroom, Ainsley slept in her normal bedroom, Hailey slept in the nursery, my parents slept in the basement, Clint and I slept in my parents room, and Grady slept in the pack-n-play in the dressing area of my parent's bathroom! He slept really good in the bathroom! :) I got the kids matching pajamas, but they were flannel and it was like 65 degrees. Grady got hot so we took his shirt off...

All the kids with their matching pjs and Mom and Dad with their "World's Greatest Mimi/Papa" shirts...

Here is a video of some after-Christmas dancing Beans for your enjoyment!

Thanksgiving - 2008

2009-01-07T19:46:00.004-06:00

I just pulled up the blog to see how long it had been since I had posted, but I had no idea it was this long! So, I'm starting at Thanksgiving and I'll work my way forward.

We went back to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving to my parents home. Luckily, it turned out that my aunts and uncles were in town visiting some other relatives so everyone got to meet Grady! He did so good. My parents had set the crib up in the office (it used to be in the room Ainsley sleeps in) so we all had our own bedrooms. Now that makes traveling easy!

We also got to travel up to see my grandma while we were there, who had never seen Grady either. She adored him and was so glad to see us all.

Clint got up and went Blitz shopping with my parents on Friday where he bought all kinds of things! He really did so good. He even bought me a new bedding set that I LOVE! I really should get pictures of it on here because it's impressive. How many guys can actually pick out bedding for their wife...successfully? We traveled back on Saturday and my parents followed so we'd be back in time for the baby dedication at church on Sunday. Grady looked adorable in his cords and little sweater and big sister was as pretty as ever! She wore her dress I got at a consignment sale for $4 and got TONS of compliments on it. The pictures from the actual dedication were all blurry, so here's a picture of us after service.

While we were in OK at my in-laws home, we started talking about plans for Christmas. Clint's sister was not going to be able to go home for Christmas, so his parents were going to come up here. No big deal...until we started looking at our calendars. The only weekend we all had free was the very NEXT weekend! I had done ZERO shopping, and now only had 1 week...

Careers of a 3 year old

2008-11-19T21:28:00.003-06:00

When I comb Ainsley's hair after her bath, she usually wants to comb mine too, but tonight she took it to a higher level...

Ainsley: "Momma, I'm a hair cutter, ok?"
Me: "Ok."
Ainsley: "You want long or short?"
Me: "How about short?"
Ainsley: "No, you want long with yalers."
**She uses the tail of my rat tail comb to part my hair and proceeds to "cut" it. Then she "dips " the tail into the lotion lid.
Ainsley: "This is my paint. You want to change colors like the leaves?"
Me: "Sure, that will be pretty."
Ainsley: "Ok, can we go to Wal-Mart to get some silver paper?" (Foil for you color-illiterates out there)

Ha! It has been at least a month since I've colored anyone's hair, but she was doing everything exactly like I do. I never even thought she watched me at all. So, this sparked a conversation about careers. We talked about what daddy did at work. I just said he helps the people that work on the computers. :) Then I pretended to be a dentist so I could get her teeth extra clean. So, I asked Ainsley what she wanted to do when she grew up. Her answer...

"I'm going to sing, but not very loud, and dance just a little bit." :) Such a silly girl!

Grady had a fever a couple of days last week so I took him to the doctor on Friday...his first ear infection. He's on amoxicillan (sp?) which is staining all of his shirts and bibs bright pink...fun. With his fever, he was such a sleepy baby. So, I was putting him to bed between 4:30 and 5:00pm every day. He'd easily sleep until 5:00am the next morning before he'd wake up to eat. I guess he got used to sleeping 12 hour stretches because the last couple of days he's been going to bed about 6:30pm and sleeping until 7am. What a good baby! Oh, and he's been spitting his pacifier out to go to sleep too! If it's in his mouth he just plays with it, but when he's ready to go to sleep I see him spit it out, roll over, and close his eyes. (I'm SO addicted to the video monitor!)

I have a few new pictures up from Toddler Toes if you'd like to take a look!

I'm back!

2008-10-29T20:04:00.003-06:00

Well, it's been a long month...to say the least. Grady has been teething for weeks now with little progress. I can see it just under the skin, but it just won't come through. This makes for a very cranky little baby. And Ainsley has just had all sorts of problems! Let me explain...

Somewhere around the end of August I noticed that Ainsley had a rash in her left armpit. The kid is very sensitive to anything we put on her and allergic to something as common as grass, so she has rashes all the time. A couple of weeks later, it started spreading down her left side, but still not much to worry about. In all, she had about 15 little, red bumps. So, on Monday (10/6) I had taken her to the doctor for another issue and said, "While I'm here, can you look at these bumps that just won't go away?" The doctor took one look at them and said it was "Molluscum Contagiosum" - a viral rash that is extremely contagious. They looked like over-sized zits and the white area in the middle was full of thousands of viruses. (Is that the plural form?) In most kids, it takes about 6 months to 2 years to go away, but may be faster if you treat it with this cream called Aldara. So, we got the cream.

We only applied it with a toothpick to the individual bumps because it burned a bit, but after just 2 treatments, she had gone from the measly 15 bumps (now 6 weeks old) to a whopping 200 or so! We did one more treatment on Sunday night and when she woke up Monday (10/13) morning, she had about 300. They were spreading like wildfire! Now, I have to tell you, they are NOT pretty. It was SO, SO sad. They itched, they burned, they looked scary. So, we went back to the doctor. This time we saw our pediatrician. She took one look at just Ainsley's knees and said it was the worse case of Molluscum she had ever seen in all her practice and that there was nothing else she could do for us. So, she made a referral call and got us in with a dermatologist the next morning.

We saw Dr. Summerlin - a fantastic dermatologist if you need one. Ainsley loves him. (We still see him weekly) He immediately diagnosed Ainsley with Atopic Dermatitis. It's a skin condition that causes an immune deficiency (which is why the molluscum took over), causes her body to not create it's own moisture, and also causes all of her heat to escape from her head because her pores are too small to sweat everywhere else. It explained so much...the super high fevers all of her life, the random rashes every week, the wet hair all of the time, slow hair growth, etc. Before you think your child might have it, you should know that the parents have to have a combination of a penicillin allergy, asthma, and hayfever allergies in order to produce a child with AD. Because of her immune deficiency, her body was just not able to fight off the molluscum. It continued to get worse for the next few days. We began treatments to burn the spots off with acid and a toothpick. It was very painful and required Clint to come home in the mornings just to help me hold Ainsley down. Needless to say, we didn't leave the house for several days.

So, it's been a long process, but we're finally seeing results. ALL, I repeat ALL of the molluscum is dead. She's no longer contagious and only has some dark red spots that might scar, but they're under her arms and on her knees so a scar is not the end of the world. We're still treating her skin for the AD outbreak, but this is something we'll have to do for the rest of her life. We go to the dermatologist weekly and he's going to start training Ainsley on how to take care of her own skin. Since she can't really moisturize herself or sweat like she should, she'll have to learn how to artificially apply these things. I can't tell you how humbled I am about her recovery. It truly was a miracle. It should have taken up to 4 years to heal on a child with AD, but her's are already dead and healing in less than a month! (I'm trying to upload some pictures of what it looked like, but blogger is being especially stubborn tonight!)

So, my sweet baby girl is back in school and in the public again. We know what to look for and how to treat it if it happens again. Our only fear is that she got it from someone who she's in regular contact with and could get it again. In most kids it just looks like 2 or 3 chigger bits and goes away on its own. In Ainsley, however, it can take over her body. So, prayers of protection over her little body are much appreciated!

What else is new? I have maxed myself out, once again. I started way too many projects. I was making burp cloths and wipes pouches like crazy this month! I also made both the kids Halloween costumes, a costume for a friend of mine, a dozen bows for 2 other friends, and gave several haircuts. I have a real problem with saying no. I just want to be able to help everyone that does so much for me, but it always seems to come all at once.

Grady had his first 1/2 birthday this weekend. My baby is growing up! He's almost sitting up and he LOVES to sing. Some nights, he wakes up in his crib and sings himself back to sleep! With the exception of the bad teething nights, he's still sleeping about 11-12 hours before waking up, then eating and sleeping another couple of hours. He's a really excellent little boy! We're going to dedicate him next month at church too. Look at the blog below this and leave me a comment telling me which of those 3 photos you like best, if you have time. The photo we send in will be in the bulletin. We also started giving him baby food about a month ago. He does pretty well with it, but just always prefers to nurse over anything else. Not going to happen, Grady! You have to learn to eat something else before kindergarten!

That's about all the time I have right now. I'll end with a funny Ainsley moment:

Me: "Ainsley, do you know what happens in 2 days?"

Ainsley: "I grow up!"

Me: "Well, yes, but it's Halloween too."

Ainsley: "Oh, and I'm gonna say 'trick or treat' and get candy for me!"

Me: "That's right, if you're a good girl."

Ainsley: "What are you going to be?"

Me: "How about this?" I showed her my t-shirt with a pumpkin on it...

Ainsley: "No, I think you want to be a witch."

Me: "A witch?"

Ainsley: "Like a witch at Wal-Mart. You'll be so scary - ooooooo, but I won't be scared because you're my mom."

Me: "Thanks, I love you Ainsley."

Ainsley: "And I love witches!"

Yeah....all of this after she saw a witch costume at Wal-Mart.

6 Month Check-up

2008-10-29T12:17:00.003-06:00

Weight: 16 lbs. 11 oz -- 45%

Height: 27 1/2 inches -- 75%

More to come....

Short Update - Video Link

2008-09-22T22:15:00.003-05:00

We've had a busy month! Too busy, actually. After a month on my busy schedule, I've finally caved and started cutting some things out. Last week was the first week on our "easy" schedule and it was great! On Tuesday we didn't go anywhere until dance, so I had time to play a few games with Ainsley and some tummy time with Grady. Who, by the way, rolled all the way over from his back to his tummy today...finally! He's such a cutie! I've also been working about once a week, so I actually have a bit of money to spend. :)

I don't have much time to blog...I'm watching Heroes with my hubby...but you should check out the new update on flickr. There are several videos of the kids playing together, as well as Grady's first giggles and first cereal! Here's a little teaser...

4 Month Check-up

2008-09-08T22:11:00.002-05:00

Weight: 15 lbs 4 oz -- 50%
Height: 26 1/4 inches -- 90%

I don't know where my kids get all of this height, but at this rate Grady is going to pass Ainsley!

Happy Birthday, Grady!

2008-08-24T22:14:00.000-05:00

Graden Matthew is officially 4 months old! We weighed him and he's about 15 pounds...wow!

Ainsley LOVES birthday parties and loves cake even more, so we had a little party for Grady. He had a puppy dog cake. He just stared at Ainsley like she was crazy. :)
Right after this picture, he drooled on the cake plate. I guess he really could have put the candle out himself!

My sweet kids after church....precious!

2008-08-23T20:47:00.001-05:00

Guess who?

Ainsley was 4 months here and Grady was 3 months 3 weeks. It's obvious how much lighter Grady's eyes are than Ainsley's. They're still very blue. Ainsley came out with black eyes and they just keep getting darker! :)

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. As much as I enjoy all of the Fall activities, I really hate all the busyness. I know at some point I just need to stop putting my kids in every activity available, but it's so hard to choose which one to keep! Right now, Ainsley's in school twice a week, dance, swimming lessons, and Toddler Toes. I'm going to women's bible study, home group (which involves a lot of cleaning!) and I started back to choir this week. Then Clint has Impact on Tuesday nights and choir/praise team on Wednesday nights. It gives me a headache just thinking about it! I think I might have to cut something out. Last week I worked 2 days in addition to all of that....if you could see my house right now you'd believe it! Plus, it's getting hard on Grady. I need to be home more for him to get some decent naps in instead of cat-napping in the car. At least my soccer mom car is being put to good use!

So, this is random, but the other night Ainsley looked at Clint and said, "Daddy, can I watch the Tit-munks?" He kept asking her to say it over and over. It was so funny! Maybe it's just the age, but she also plays with the oddest toys. Yesterday she played the ENTIRE day with a little cup full of hair clips. They were all different colors so she had a daddy, a mommy, a teacher, a kitty, etc. She took them in the car and everything. She's also WAY into Peter Pan. We got her the "Return to Neverland" movie for Christmas and she's watched it probably once a week since then. But a couple of weeks ago Clint came home with the original Disney Peter Pan and, no lie, we watch it at least twice a day. It's not a bad movie at all so I really don't mind too much. She gets all of her toys and fairies in the floor and acts out the movie with them. Then when it's over, she makes up new stories about Peter Pan's adventures. As a result, everything, including her sandwich, can fly with a happy thought and a little pixie dust! She even lays in the floor and tells Grady that he can be a "lost boy" when he grows up. :)

Grady is still growing like a weed! As of last week, he's officially in 3-6 months and just yesterday we moved up to size 2 diapers. He's rolling over from his tummy to his back, and from his back to his side, but that's as far as he gets. I think Ainsley was probably rolling much more at this point, but then again she had much more opportunity. I don't put Grady in the floor much because he might get squished! Yesterday I left the room for 2 minutes and when I came back he was wearing a cinderella hat and chewing on a barbie dress! I will be SO surprised if he doesn't get some teeth real soon! It still amazes me how much the kids are alike too. They both LOVE to cuddle and sleep best when they're next to me. Grady even likes to play with my fingernails to go to sleep just like Ainsley did. Oh - we finally got a video monitor too and I LOVE IT! I'm a little addicted to it though. With any little noise at night, I find myself watching it. It was supposed to help me sleep. Ha!

I'll close with a little video of Ainsley's first tap lesson. She was as graceful as a 3-year-old can be!

First Day of School

2008-08-04T21:29:00.004-05:00

First of all, isn't this the cutest little boy you've ever seen? :)

Ainsley had her first day of school today! She's going to a pre-pre-K program 2 days a week. She was very excited about her new school! There were a lot of changes this year because they moved to a new facility. One of the changes was that they no longer provide a hot meal so we had to pack a lunch. Ainsley thought that was especially cool!

Ainsley with her teacher, Mrs. Loretta. She looks scared here, but I promise she wasn't. She loves school and threw a huge fit when I picked her up because she didn't want to go home! She really loves Mrs. "Loweda" too!

That kid has really been cracking us up lately! First, Grady was in the bouncy seat in the bedroom. When I turned around, he had 3 naked Barbie dolls laying with him. So, I sat them to the side and transferred him to the swing in the kitchen. A few minutes later Ainsley comes running in screaming, "No, no, no! No ma'am! You say sorry!" I had NO clue what she was talking about until she came running back into the kitchen and placed all 3 naked Barbies back in the swing with Grady. (That poor little boy!) She never let up until I said I was sorry and insisted that "Gwady wants his Barbies!"

Then she decided she'd set the table tonight. Just out of the blue, she went to the pantry and got a handful of napkins. She said, "I just got us 3 napkins for Ainsley, Mommy, and Daddy. Ok?" Then she says, "Forks, Mommy?" I tell her that yes, we need forks, so she got plastic forks and laid them on the napkins at each place setting. She even tried to cut up my food for me! It was so sweet!

She always has some wild prayers, but tonight was just ridiculous. "Thank you God and Jesus..." (She's started that on her own...maybe starting to understand the trinity?) "...for my family and for lots of Never Land, and my heart, and thank you for my best friend Peter Pan, and for pixie dust! Amen!"

Too "Wittle"

2008-08-04T21:19:00.004-05:00

I was changing the sheets on the bed today (hence the pillows all over the floor) so I decided to try Grady out in the jumpy thingy. He's holding his head up pretty good these days, but I think maybe he's not quite big enough. He seemed to enjoy it for a while, but his big 'ole head kept falling over and he couldn't lift it back up. Ainsley kept saying, "I think he too wittle, Momma! It's only for big boys."

Grady's First Giggles

2008-08-02T16:38:00.003-05:00

Of course, he was laughing hysterically before we got the camera out...that always seems to happen. Nonetheless, you can still watch me making a fool out of myself! :)

Random Pics

2008-07-21T21:12:00.003-05:00

I forgot to get a picture after church yesterday (before the spit-up), but Grady looked adorable! My friend Teresa got me these embroidered onesies. He wore one to church that said "Bean Sprout" and here's the other one he wore to a cook-out last night...along with more Krout shoes! :)
Will came over to play in the pool today and the baby brothers just happened to have the same outfit on...along with matching nursing covers. :) Our little tax deductions...

Where does it come from?

2008-07-20T20:21:00.002-05:00

We never have a problem getting Ainsley to go to bed, the problem is getting her to go to sleep!
Tonight:
Me: "Ainsley, tonight Momma is going to lay my head down on my pillow, close my eyes, and go to sleep. I'm not going to sing or play with my animals...I'm just going to stay real still and fall asleep."
Ainsley: "Wow! That's a great idea, Momma! I'm so proud of you!"

Ok, so that didn't work!

We're Home!

2008-07-07T20:15:00.001-05:00

We're all 4 back home and had a fabulous time in Oklahoma! Grady slept 3 hours on the way down and it ended up only taking us about 4.5 hours to get there. So, we were off to a great start. We got up Friday morning (the 4th) and headed over to Wintersmith Park as we do every year. They have putt putt golf, a merry-go-round, train rides, and snow cones all for just $.75! It's not a special thing...it's going on every day. There's a lake to fish from, a gorgeous walking trail, peacocks, monkey cage, feed the ducks, etc. too. I really miss having a park like that...nothing in NWA really compares to it. Anyway, Ainsley usually loves the merry-go-round (horsies), but this time not so much. She grinned ear-to-ear the first couple of times around and then busted into tears. I still have NO idea why. They had to stop the ride just so we could get her off! We thought the train would cheer her up, but she even pouted on it the first few minutes. She finally warmed up later and enjoyed her strawberry snow cone the most. :)

Friday night all of the family came down to my mom's house to meet little man. We had a large cook-out and all went swimming...including Grady bug! He loved it! I even let Ainsley stay up and watch the big fireworks. She actually had her bath first, wore her pajamas, and watched them from the moon roof in my mom's car. She thinks it's a special treat. Grady was in bed at 7:30pm so I stayed home with him. So, we all slept in late Saturday, a little more swimming, dinner with Clint's parents, and then Ainsley was going to shoot her own "cracker fires" that night. However, even after picking them out with my dad and being so excited about them, she actually cried so much that we didn't even shoot off half of them. And we're not talking about anything big....sparklers, ladybugs, tanks, etc. We left Sunday morning and I was so excited about the ride home since the ride down went so well, but it was awful! It took us over 6 hours and way too many stops. So, I've been broken in....traveling with 2 kids is no picnic!

New pictures on flickr of our trip!

2 Month Check-up

2008-07-02T22:34:00.002-05:00

Grady weighs 12 pounds even! He's in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height. He's growing way too fast for me!

(New photos on flickr!)

Fireworks and Bonding Time

2008-07-02T21:40:00.004-05:00

I met my mom in Oklahoma last Wednesday and dropped Ainsley off to stay with Mimi and Papa for a week! A whole week! I think it has been good for all of us, though. Ainsley is having a blast and getting a lot of attention from her grandparents. They spent the weekend at my parents cabin on the lake where Ainsley caught something like 6 or 7 fish, they've played in my mom's camper, had picnics at the park, fed the ducks, spent lots of time at the pool, caught a pet turtle (that Ainsley named "Grady"), and played LOTS and LOTS of barbie dolls! :) I've tried to talk to her every day, but she's usually preoccupied with a popsicle or something. I have to admit, though, it's been hard not to jump in the car and go pick her up. I miss her SO much!

On the other side of things, it gave me a lot of time to bond with Grady in a way I haven't really been able to yet. He is such a cuddly little boy! I've taken the opportunity this week to really work on his sleep routine/techniques. I'm happy to report that he is successfully sleeping in his bed (or pack 'n play) all night and now for his morning naps. He's going to bed about 7:30pm and waking up about 3:30am to eat, again at 7:30am to eat, and is up for the day about 11:00am. Then he takes his first nap in his bed also. I just lay him down and he closes his eyes....it's great! (If you're getting jealous right now, you have to read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." It's worked wonders for both of my kids.) Anyway, the nap we're still having difficulty with is the afternoon nap, but I can always get him to sleep if I lay down next to him. I don't have to touch him, he just likes to look into my eyes to fall asleep. (I know...precious isn't it?) He's still learning to soothe himself so I guess it's not awful, but we'll keep working on it nonetheless. That's his longest nap, about 4 hours, so it would be great if he would sleep in his bed since Ainsley is also napping during that time.
Sunday night we went to watch the fireworks at our church. It was so easy with just a baby. Actually, everything has been super easy! It makes me wonder why I ever thought things were difficult when Ainsley was a baby. :)

My handsome man in his red, white, and blue! (Kelly, I couldn't resist the shoes...even though they're double the size of his actual feet!)

Grady's reaction to the fireworks. His eyes stayed this big the whole time and he was holding onto Tiphanie with all his might!
Tomorrow we're heading to Oklahoma for the weekend to pick Ainsley up and let Grady meet the family...in my new mini van!!! I can't believe I took the plunge. I have taken vows with friends that I'd never get a van, but here I am...30 years old with 2 kids and a mini van. :) It's really great and we're looking forward to using the DVD player and GPS system on the trip. We're excited to show Ainsley our new "Dave car", but I don't think she'll be quite as thrilled. We've been looking at vans for about 3 months now and Ainsley never wants to sit in any of them. She always wants to stay in "Momma's car" and tells me she doesn't want me to get a new car. She'll get over it when she sees the new movies we got her, though! :)

My Little Artist

2008-06-27T10:29:00.000-05:00

We gave Ainsley a few crayons and 2 cards to send her Grandpas for Father's Day. Usually she just draws all kinds of random shapes and tells us what each of them are. The same little squiggle can be anything from a heart to the moon to a shoe. So, she was drawing away when Clint looked over and said, "She drew a face!" She quickly corrected him and said it was a happy face! :)

I was very impressed...eyes, hair, nose, ears, etc......

She told me she added "cheeks" and a "cloud" on this one....

Nursing Room Update

2008-06-18T23:08:00.003-05:00

Since I complained about the men in the nursing room last week I have had so many different people tell me the same thing has happened to them. Ok, was I out of line to say something? Maybe I just gripe too much, but the preschool director said I was the first person to bring this to her attention. She had no idea this was going on. Anyway, there were signs posted this week. The outside door said, "WOMEN ONLY" and the inside door said something about "Out of respect for our nursing mothers......" It was worded really well and there were absolutely no men in sight! :) I hope it stays that way!

Grady will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. Ainsley was 8 weeks the first time I put her in the nursery at church. Every time I walk through the children's area people ask me when I'm going to leave Grady. I just don't think I'm ready to yet. Is that silly? I always wished I could have kept Ainsley with me a little longer, but in the old building there was no foyer. You were either in the building or you were outside. So if she started to fuss a little bit, I had to leave. I just felt like she was too much of a distraction to others trying to hear the sermon so I put her in childcare. Grady is much more content in church, though. I put him straight in the carrier and he stays asleep all the way to church and at least through the worship time. At some point during the sermon he usually wakes up and is starving since it's been usually 4 or 5 hours since his last feeding. So, I just take him to the nursing room and finish the rest of the sermon. And about half of the time he falls asleep and I can go back out and sit in the worship center while he naps. It just seems so easy! I'm trying not to feel the pressure to put him in childcare like I did with Ainsley. As long as I'm able to keep him with me and get something out of the sermon without Grady being a distraction to others, why put him in childcare where I'll just worry the whole time that he's not sleeping or he's hungry (since he won't take a bottle right now)? I'd probably be worrying about him and not listening to Pastor.

Ok, off of church and onto other things..... I took the stroller for a test drive yesterday. I decided to walk up to the new elementary school and let Ainsley play on the playground. I knew it was a good walk (just over a mile one way) but I didn't realize it was all up hill...nor did I realize how much weight I'd be pushing! 30 pounds of stroller + 30 pounds of toddler + 20 pounds of baby/carrier = a very tired momma! My arms were killing me and it was very humid, but Ainsley had a blast and Grady slept right through it all. (At least until the stroller stopped moving) I was easily able to steer with just 1 hand, though, and Ainsley seemed to really like the ride. I really think I'm going to like it a lot! Right now I still have the second seat on for Ainsley, but when we take it shopping or something I'll convert it to a Sit 'n Stand and see how she likes that. She's always been a good kid to sit in the stroller, though.

Well, I'm exhausted so I should really take advantage of my time and go to bed! I've been a little sick and Clint's also been working some late nights (like I'm in bed when he gets home) so I've had to deal with bath/bedtime routines with both kids. Not an easy task....tonight I nursed Grady while reading Peter Pan in Ainsley's bed! At least pottying is going really well. All I have to do now is help her pull her pants back up. She's going "All my byself!" every time and it's great! She just waddles in to find me with her panties around her ankles. Of course, she still finds a way of pooping and calling out for a "wipe" just as I start to feed Grady. We need to establish a poop schedule, I think. I'll add that to the list. :)

New do...

2008-06-14T22:17:00.003-05:00

My dear, sweet friend Casey came over to watch Grady yesterday (Ainsley was at school) so I could go get my hair cut! It was the first time in 7 weeks I've been without any kids, so it was nice to pamper myself a little. I thought it would be harder to leave Grady than it was, but I think it helped that it was Casey watching him. I cut about 6-7 inches off...it's pretty short! It's not quite what I asked for, but I think I like it.

Here's Ainsley helping me take a picture of my new haircut....

And here she wanted to take a picture of my "eawwings." :)
On another note, there is a nursing room at church for nursing mothers to sit in during the service and nurse your babies. It has a one-way mirror so you can see the stage and a few recliners...really nice! I used to nurse Ainsley either in a metal chair in the bathroom or in one of the pastor's offices (at the old church building) or I'd have to go across the street to the children's area. So, I was really excited about using this new room! I've only used it the last 2 weeks, but both times there has been a different family in there just hanging out with their toddler. Yes, that means mom AND dad....and 2 year old too! ??? Last week I asked the dad to leave because I was not able to stay covered up very well. These people just sit in there so their kids can play. Seriously. The mom told me so last week. She said that her daughter (who was walking and talking) did not like to be dropped off in the nursery so they always sat in the nursing room where she could play. So, you know me, I just couldn't let this slide. I talked to our preschool director and she was going to post some signs on the door this week. So, I'm anxious to see tomorrow if there are any men in the room. I'll keep you advised! :)

Twins?

2008-06-13T16:02:00.012-05:00

Grady
Ainsley

Ok, I need better comparison pictures, but don't my kids look a lot alike? I had a picture of Ainsley pulled up earlier (in pink) and Clint actually thought it was Grady! The funny thing is, I have to compare Grady's 6 week pictures to Ainsley's 10 week pictures because she was so much smaller than him. They sleep just alike too...

Funny that they both have thermal blankets, in the same chair, and I might even be wearing the same shirt! I couldn't have done better if I'd staged it!

Things have been pretty crazy around here, but we're adjusting. Grady has turned into quite the fussy little thing. He's just not ever happy unless he's being held...and sometimes that doesn't help. The only way I can get him to nap is to hold him. Luckily, he doesn't mind if I'm walking around and doing things too much, but the minute his head hits the bed he wakes up! So, I am getting very little done. I've been letting him fuss some and he's starting to learn to self-soothe a little bit, so I see a light at the end of the tunnel! He's still doing great at night. I don't know why he goes right down in his bed at night, but won't during the day. Who knows?

Ainsley is doing fabulous! She kisses that little boy all the time! And her new name for him is "Big Man." Weird, huh? I guess she's heard me call him "Little Man" before. She also calls him Sweetie a lot too. Anytime he starts crying she goes running to him and says, "It's alright...your big sister is here!" It's so cute! She loves to dance for him when he fusses and help give him baths. She tells me to be quiet when he's sleeping and is always more than happy to share anything with him....from Mommy to chocolate. (Yeah, she got two M&M's one day after pottying and she wanted to give one of them to Grady. How sweet is that!??!) Her biggest achievement lately has been on the potty! She's completely potty trained now. She wears nothing but panties (day & night) and even goes all by herself. About half of the time she'll just disappear and go potty. The only way I even know she's gone is that I hear the toilet flush! I'm SO proud of her!

Well, hats off to all of you who continued to blog every couple of days after your babies were born. I have NO idea how you did it! I can barely find time to potty, much less shower or even blog! So, sorry for the hiatus...hopefully it will get better soon! Oh, and my stroller came in yesterday! I'm pumped! I took some pictures of the kids in it today (we rode in the living room since it was raining) so I'll try to post those soon. Wish me luck!

Gross!

2008-06-13T15:38:00.002-05:00

This picture is for you, Becky Petrie!

Ok, here's the story. Ainsley's friend, Zoe, got her this cute, little Barbie swimming pool for her birthday. It's been great entertainment! Ainsley loves to play Barbie's outside on the porch and it really keeps her busy for an hour or more at a time. Well, on this particular day she had been playing for a while when she came inside and went straight to the kitchen. I heard the silverware drawer open and close and then saw her run back outside. I didn't think much of it because it didn't look like she had anything in her hand...I was wrong. It turns out, she had taken her bag of dry cereal (Fruit Loops) and dumped them into the swimming pool. As soon as I saw it I said, "Ainsley what did you do?" Her response was....."Yummy!" Yeah, now I know what the spoon was for! You want to hear the best part? Look at the picture closely....see the brown things in the pool? Her cereal is mixed in with pine bark nuggets from the landscaping!!!

MAY

2008-05-25T21:48:00.004-05:00

Shew! I'm so glad this month is almost over! Bringing a new baby home, Mother's Day, my 30th birthday, Ainsley's first dance recital (and extra practices), and Ainsley's birthday party.....I'm tired!

Clint uploaded some new pictures of the birthday party. It was a blast! Ainsley had every one of her friends she requested except one little girl that got sick the morning of the party. She was SO excited and is still talking about her friends and what each one gave her. :) The girl loves presents!

After the party, we had just enough time for a quick nap and then we started getting ready again for Ainsley's first dance recital. Amazingly, I got her hair to stay in a little bun, and finished it off with blush and lipstick. She actually carried the mirror around the house until we got in the car. Now, I have to warn you....if you do not already have a little girl, you might want to think twice before clicking on this link. It's so precious - there's no way you can watch it without wanting a little ballerina of your own! :) (No video cameras were allowed, so we tried to "sneak" it in on our camera. We had some focus issues from all the heads in front of us, and the host site cut off at 2 minutes, but it's still cute!)

Bean Sprout Videos

I woke Grady up at 9:00am to get ready for the birthday party. As usual, he fought sleep in his carrier, so I put him in the sling when we got there. Just as I had him almost asleep, it was time to cut the cake so I had to pass him off, hoping he might nap for someone else. When we left at noon he was still awake and already over-tired. I figured he'd be so tired that he'd fall asleep as soon as we got home and I fed him, but nope! With Ainsley so excited and my parents being here, I think it was just too much for him. It was about 1:30pm before he finally fell asleep and only slept about an hour. Then he slept another 20 minutes or so before it was time to leave again. He was awake all through the recital and didn't finally fall asleep until 10:00pm! So, in 13 hours, he slept less than 1.5 hours. I was so stressed out and worried about him that I was actually sick to my stomach. That poor little baby was so overtired that I had to hold his hands and feet down just to get him to sleep. He did sleep until 7:00am without waking up, though. I woke him up to feed him and he went back to sleep until noon, so I guess he's starting to get caught up! Hopefully, we won't have another day quite that busy for a while!

I only have 2 more days with Clint at home, and then I have to start getting up early (with Ainsley) again. :( I just hope Grady can get caught back up on his sleep. If he's as cranky as he has been the last 2 days I don't think I'll make it!

4 more days?

2008-05-21T15:45:00.004-05:00

I can't believe it...in 4 days my baby will be 3 years old!!! Surely it hasn't already been 3 years, has it? Since Grady has been born, I've really started to see just how mature Ainsley has gotten lately. She says phrases like, "I have an idea! How about we...." and remembers things from MONTHS ago. She's the best little helper too. She loves to get me items and try to change Grady's diaper and such. This morning she even got Grady to sleep by holding his paci in his mouth and holding his hand. (The boy won't fall asleep unless he's holding someones hand!) Plus, she's actually doing a pretty good job of folding clothes as well. (Can't complain there!) The girls is SOOOO excited about her party coming up! She absolutely loves birthday parties. We seriously play "birthday party" at least once a day. She made out her own invitation list and even picked out her own cake and party favors. I can't wait...after how easily she has adjusted to our new family the last few weeks, she deserves a day just for her! Plus, her dance recital is the evening of the party as well. It will be a busy day, but definitely fun!

Grady is still doing excellent. He's in bed anywhere between 6:00 and 8:00pm and sleeps about 8 hours the first round, then 5 hours, then another 4 or 5 hours. He's still waking up between 10:00am and noon...depending on when he went to bed. So, I seriously can't complain. It's the TOTAL opposite of Ainsley. Oh, and did I mention that he isn't even swaddled? Yeah, we kept trying to swaddle him in the hospital and he'd get his arms out. We quickly found that if he had his hands up on each cheek he'd sleep longer, so we started swaddling him with his hands out. Now I just lay a blanket over his legs. (He still sleeps in a sleep positioner so he can't really move around much.) He's also great to take a paci until I'm ready to feed him and he always spits it out as soon as he falls asleep. He's such a sweet little man! When he gets really fussy (which still is FAR from crying) I can lie him next to me, let him hold my finger, and he goes right to sleep...no matter what time of day. He's already started looking around when he hears me talking too. Yep - he's definitely going to be a momma's boy!

My car was in the shop today so we all took a little outing in the Bronco. That was a challenge! It's plenty big, but only 2 doors so getting the kids (especially the carrier) in and out was difficult. Ainsley thought it was a lot of fun, though. And since Clint has these oversized tires, there's a lot of road noise so Grady slept great. We went to Sam's and ordered the cake, ate some pizza, then bought a ton of frozen food from Wal-Mart. I just can't seem to find time to cook right now. At least, I'm not doing a good job planning. All of a sudden it's dinner time and I have nothing laid out to thaw, so I thought another couple of weeks on frozen dinners wouldn't hurt anybody. We got mostly stir-fry and broccoli chicken so my almost-vegetarian daughter will eat it too. :) I also gave Grady a bit of formula while we were out. He wasn't crazy about it, but he did drink a little bit. I'm not going to wait until it's too late (like I did with Ainsley) and then be joined at the hip with him. I waited until almost 4 months with Ainsley and then she wouldn't take formula OR a bottle. For almost 3 months I was called out of church service or bible study every single week! The worse part was, I pumped and always included a bottle in her bag, but it would get wasted every time. For those of you who have been in that position, you know how expressed milk becomes precious little jewels! So, hopefully, Grady will take some formula now and then.

Well, I uploaded some new pictures to the "May '08" set on flickr. We also took the kids to get studio pictures made yesterday so those will be coming soon! I'm off to feed the little one! (Who has been asleep for the last 4 hours!)

Stats on my kids!

2008-05-13T21:53:00.002-05:00

Ainsley: 30 pounds 8 ounces
38.5 inches

Grady: 8 pounds 3 ounces
20.25 inches

We took Grady back to the doctor today to get weighed, so I had Ainsley weighed/measured as well. Both are doing great! Ainsley finally hit 30 pounds! And Grady has gained over a pound in 2 weeks so the doctor was very pleased with his progress also. He was right in the 50th percentile for both his weight and height. I just need him to gain enough weight to wear 0-3 month clothes. I keep trying things on him and they literally fall off. I'm SO tired of the same 5 outfits.

On another note, Grady's cord fell off yesterday so he got to take his first bath today! Yeah!!! He smells SO good and I just couldn't stop kissing him! (Pictures later) I wanted to let Ainsley help me, but she was at dance and Grady was getting very tired. She got home just as I was taking him out so I was sad about that, but I know there will be plenty of time for her to "help". :)

Recovery is still going pretty slow for me. I'm almost over all of my nursing issues and starting to heal in that area, but my incision is still giving me a lot of trouble. It still starts hurting really bad if I do too much...that's getting old. I can feel some hard scarring, but I'm not sure if that's causing the pain or not. I go back to the doctor in a week and a half so I'm hoping things will be better by then. In the meantime, if I can stay off of my medication I can start driving on Thursday! What a great birthday present...freedom! :)

Daily activities are going really well around here, but Clint is doing most everything. He gets up way too early, so he takes care of Ainsley in the morning and lets me sleep in with Grady. (Which is usually close to 10:00am!) Ainsley has been great to entertain herself throughout the day and has really enjoyed doing yard work with her daddy too. Grady just sleeps all through the day and is usually awake a couple of hours in the evening. Ainsley is taking 2-3 hour naps, too, which allows Clint and I to nap in the afternoon. Then both kids are in bed by 8:00pm. Grady usually wakes up about midnight and again about 5:00am. That's it! The only real issue is that Grady is not napping well unless he's being held. Ainsley was exactly the same way as a baby too, so I was expecting it. I still try to lay him down almost every time, but he wakes up each time. So, that's an opportunity for improvement, but other than that I'd say things are going really well!

Finally Caught Up!

2008-05-10T22:12:00.001-05:00

I finally got time to sort through all of the pictures on Clint's computer, so I've added a few to the existing sets on flickr. I'm caught up now so it will be easier to upload pics and blog from here on! :)

More Pics

2008-05-05T15:29:00.002-05:00

A few more pictures on flickr!

Grady is really starting to fill out! As he should be...the boy is eating a ton! Ainsley still adores her baby brother and is always asking about him. She's had a fever since Friday, though, and we still don't know what's wrong. She's on antibiotics and now she's starting to develop a fever blister. Luckily we caught it early so hopefully we can stop it, but it's been hard keeping her and Grady separated for the last 4 days. Plus, Mommy is going stir crazy not being able to leave the house!!! Things can only get better from here, though...right? :)

Quick Update

2008-04-29T21:57:00.002-05:00

Grady went to the doctor today. He weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces....only 2 ounces away from his birth weight. He gained 1/2 a pound in just 2.5 days! His color was perfect and his rash is clearing up nicely too, so the doctor was very pleased with his progress. And if you were wondering, yes...it looks like his hair is fairly blonde! I hadn't really noticed, but today was the first day out in the sun and florescent lights. Eyes are still blue, but they're pretty dark. They're not as dark as Ainsley's were so I'm not sure if they'll turn or not. You never know!

There are a handful of new pictures on flickr also. Clint's still in charge of pictures, so as soon as I get a chance I'll get on his laptop and sort through them all.

Graden Matthew Bean

2008-04-28T16:34:00.003-05:00

Grady is here!
7 lbs 12 oz
20 inches
4/24/2008
7:47am

Clint uploaded a few pictures on our flickr site. I'll try to get a few more uploaded as soon as I can.

Grady is doing great! He's SO sweet and I'm absolutely in love with him. He's a super cuddle-bug and sleeps all the time. He had lost down to 7 lbs 2 ounces when we left the hospital on Saturday, but my milk came in the same day so I think he's making it back up quickly. He sure poops a lot! The kid poops every single time he eats...while he's eating. He seems to always smile when he poops too....such a little boy! :)

Ainsley is doing really good with him. She's still learning just what "gentle" means and is starting to not be quite so interested in him (that's a good thing) and play on her own. Overall, we haven't really had any jealousy issues, but we had a small accident yesterday. I was holding Grady in one arm and Ainsley climbed up on the arm of the recliner on my other side. We sat like that watching TV for a while until Ainsley went to climb down. When she did, she elbowed my incision......OUCH! Luckily, my mom swept her off real quick before she saw me cry. She got emotional...I got emotional....we were all crying. :)

I'm recovering fairly well. I still can't stand up completely straight and I have a LOT of back pain. It's the same pain that put me in the ER after Ainsley was born. So far, it's controlled with the Ibuprofen the doctor prescribed, but as soon as I get within an hour of taking more meds I'm in enough pain that it often sets me into tears. Other than the back pain, the left side of my incision "popped" a bit on Saturday and has been hurting since then, but it's manageable. I'm just glad I have my mom here to help with Ainsley. Clint is working 4.5 hour days this week while my mom is helping and he'll be off next week.

I'd just like to thank everyone who came to see us in the hospital. It was SO great sharing this time with all of our friends and I love each of you! Also, thanks to everyone (especially Becca) who kept or offered to keep Ainsley last week while I finished "nesting". You're all such a huge help and I'm so blessed to have such a great circle of friends.

I'll try to get back into posting in a few days. Until then, check our flickr site now and then for more pictures!

Veggie Tales and MDO!

2008-04-21T21:05:00.003-05:00

Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber (from Veggie Tales) were at church on Sunday. They were in the kid's area before church Sunday morning, but Ainsley was pretty hesitant. She was excited, and even waved, but kept her distance. Apparently they visited each classroom during church, which must have worked because Ainsley was hugging them by the time we picked her up! We had a big celebration that evening so they were back again and Ainsley was hugging AND kissing them...plus lots of hand shakes, high-fives, and even put her little clown nose on Bob and told him he could keep it! (He gave it back)

They served hot dogs, chips, ice cream, and brownies. Ainsley LOVED it! She doesn't usually eat hot dogs very well, but she ate almost all of hers, most of her chips (dipped in ketchup) and ate the ice cream until we took it away because it was completely melted. She loved eating it with a "stick" though. :)Kyla and her parents sat right by us, so Ainsley and Kyla danced together for a while. There was some pretty loud music while the performer was eating fire and juggling. :) Including Kyla's baby brother, I bet I pulled Ainsley away from 4 babies! She LOVES babies!
My "boss" at Mother's Day Out let me bring Ainsley in today since I'm having a baby Thursday. She's so sweet! I bought a few last minute things at Wal-Mart and then came home for the rest of the day. That's something I never do! I watched TV for about an hour, surfed the internet for another hour, cleaned out the refrigerator in a major way, and picked up around the house. It was a great day! PLUS Ainsley took a nap at school...3 times in a row now! So, I took her to the park where we met her friend Wilson (who is bringing home his baby brother tomorrow) and another friend was there that she knows from Toddler Toes, Blake and his baby sister (who Ainsley also wouldn't stop playing with!) She was SO brave! She was climbing things that she's never climbed before and swinging by herself. It was so nice to know that I might actually be able to take her to the park this summer and be able to sit back, hold Grady, and just watch! Then we came home and Clint (& Ainsley) made a homemade pizza and served it to me in the recliner! :)

It was a good day, which is good because I've had really bad nights. I have terrible back pain because I've been sleeping on an incline...on my side. I have terrible indigestion/nausea even after taking Prilosec daily and Tums every 4 hours, so I have to sleep sitting up. Plus, I'm very congested so I'm sleeping with my mouth open which makes my throat SO sore! I still don't quite have my voice back, but my cough is getting a bit better. I have high hopes that it will be gone by Thursday! We're going to stay home tomorrow and try to re-coop (other than dance) and then I go in Wednesday morning for my pre-op! It's almost time!!!

Ainsley's Special Day

2008-04-19T22:13:00.003-05:00

First of all, thank you all SO much for your prayers! Luckily, Ainsley's fever only lasted about 2.5 days and, after a few breathing treatments, the cough went away too! So, she was able to go to school on Friday and give Mommy a day off! :) That's the day I started getting sick. I had no voice on Friday (after coughing all night Thursday night) and had a real scratchy throat all day today too. I still have a really bad cough and since I can't take any medicine it's not getting much better. Hopefully it will be gone by Wednesday because I can NOT recover from an incision in my stomach while coughing!

So, as most of you know, we've tried to make this entire month very special for Ainsley before Grady comes. I'm a little worried that she's getting spoiled, but so far we haven't had any issues. We purposely made sure that we kept our schedules today completely open so we could spend the entire day with Ainsley. When she woke up I explained what was going to happen and she kept running through the house saying, "Its' my special day!" and then she'd tell us to "Say 'Happy Special Day Ainsley!'" Ha! All day we kept asking her what she wanted to do next. She started off wanting to watch cartoons. Then she wanted to do a puzzle. It's a Thomas the Train puzzle she got for Christmas that's pretty complicated. She loves puzzles and is really pretty good at them! Next she asked to play a game. She actually wanted to play a game outside, but it was a bit too cold. I bought this Lucky Ducks game on the clearance aisle a couple of weeks ago, thinking it would be something fun to play after Grady comes. Even thought it was maybe a bit elementary for her (said 3-8 yrs on box, though) she absolutely LOVED it!

Choosing her duck...

Found a match!

After playing that game WAY too many times, we all built a fort together. (By the way, chip clips work really well to keep the blankets on!)

Wearing Daddy's glasses. She can't see at all when she has these on. It's pretty funny to watch her. :)

After a GREAT nap, we went fishing at the lake close to our house...in Decatur. She always thinks it's a treat to ride in Daddy's Bronco.

Reeling it in...she had a blast! Right after we got there, a guy was leaving and asked us if we wanted the 3 Perch that he caught. I declined, but he let Ainsley watch as he released them back into the lake. Ainsley thought it was a lot of fun watching them swim in circles until they got oriented again. :)

Like father, like daughter!

I was a nervous wreck when she was on the dock with Clint. She kept running and I was trying to yell, "Don't let her run!", but I had no voice! They were pretty far away from me too. Here she is waving at me.

She ate all of the snacks I brought on the 10 minute trip to the lake, so all I had was a sucker. :)

There were several geese and a couple of little families with babies too...

Casting...she was dangerous!

She kept getting upset when her plastic fishy would get moss on it.

I found another snack...an apple!

I just had to get one with her tongue out...she can't do anything with her tongue in her mouth!

When we got home she played outside for a long time, in the sand box, on the roller coaster, and kicking balls with Daddy. Needless to say, she went right to sleep tonight! Tomorrow is "Kid's Day" at church too, so it's an extra special weekend for her. Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber (from Veggie Tales) will be visiting her class and she's very excited about seeing them. She's also counting down the number of days until Grady comes...she's so cute!

Prayer Request

2008-04-15T10:01:00.003-05:00

Please pray for us! Ainsley is very sick...high fever, really bad cough, runny nose, etc. and I have a sore throat now too. In addition, the doctor's office called and said that my doctor had a surgery scheduled during my appointment time on Friday so it's now moved to Thursday....right in the middle of a very important presentation Clint had to give at work! It's my last appointment and now I have to take Ainsley (who will probably still be sick) and hope Clint can work his schedule out so he can go with me. I haven't really talked to my doctor about the surgery at all...we were waiting to do this at the last appointment so Clint could be there. I don't know what they'll do if I go in with a fever on the day of my surgery either. Ugh! I'm so disappointed and VERY tired after being up with Ainsley half of the night. So, please keep us all in your prayers! We could use a lot of healing in the next few days! Thank you!

More Belly Pics.....with Bean Sprout #1...

2008-04-09T20:38:00.004-05:00

Baby Grady Update

2008-04-09T15:31:00.002-05:00

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and got some good news. It's funny....if I was having a vaginal delivery, most of the news would have been pretty disappointing, but since I'm having a C-section it didn't really matter!

First he couldn't feel the baby at all, which meant he was still really high up. It didn't surprise me at all since Ainsley stayed like this until I was induced at 41 weeks. (This also means that I'm still on track for a C-section on the 24th) So, he told me he couldn't even tell what position the baby might be in. I said that I thought his bottom was on my right side because this hard lump was always popping out. But then the doctor said if it was a hard lump it's most likely his head. He felt around on my stomach a bit and said, "Well let's just see!" So, he turned the lights out and did an ultrasound! What a surprise! (Maybe it was because I had baked him cookies too, though...ha!) It was kind of neat seeing a baby that far along. I don't think I've ever seen an ultrasound at 37 weeks. Well, it turns out, the lump was his head!

I felt SO bad immediately because I've been sleeping mostly on my right side. That meant I've been sleeping on the poor thing's head! And making the baby sleep upside down! Oh well, right? So, as the doctor was doing the ultrasound he said, "Looks like he's coming out butt first! You were expecting a boy, right?" And then I looked at the screen.....let's just say there's no doubt this kid is a boy! I was also measuring much bigger this week, but the doctor believes it's because Grady is laying across my belly, rather than down in the pelvic bone. He is, however, sitting right on top of my bladder...also very clear in the ultrasound!

I thought this was my last appointment, but he wants to see me back in a week. Just to get back on MDO day, I scheduled it for 10 days, rather than 7. That will be 6 days before the surgery, so it's very likely the next appointment will be my last.

I can't believe it's gone by so fast! Clint just commented last night, "It's so weird having babies." I thought he meant how they are formed and such, but he went on to say, "I feel like we should be in high school, hanging out at the movie theatre or something!" It is kind of weird...thinking that we're 30 years old with 2 kids. I thought I'd feel much older when I got to this stage in my life, but I still feel very young. Hopefully the lack of sleep in a couple of weeks won't make me look much older! :)

Train Ride

2008-04-09T15:11:00.004-05:00

Our Toddler Toes group went on a train ride from Springdale to Fayetteville today. The kids had a BLAST! Ainsley was SO excited! Here she is before the train started moving...

And one of us before we left the station...
(I look really ridiculous holding her way up above my belly!)

She and Will sat together. They were so cute to sit and hold their tickets until the conductor came by!

Zoie joined Will and Ainsley after a little while. The kids were funny...they didn't really talk to each other. They just sat there and looked out the window. :)

Ainsley was tattling on Will for something...I don't even remember what. (She's quite the tattle-tale) So, I told her to give Will a hug....

And here's the "hug"...
(Always a little Mommy)

It was a lot of fun and I'm very glad we went. Ainsley was worn out when we got home and went right down for her nap, so that was good too! There is some kind of Mother's Day train ride coming up too. I'll have to check into that and see what it's about. Maybe it means that Dad's take the kids on the train while Mommies get the day off? :)

More Baby Showers

2008-04-07T23:20:00.000-05:00

I have officially attended my last baby shower before Grady comes. For those of you who know just how many pregnant friends I have, this is a big deal. Since the majority of my close friends are expecting, I've been on the hostess committees of almost all these showers. This has taken a lot of my time lately. Especially since I've made all of the gifts for everyone as well. (Luckily I've finished the gifts for all showers through the month of June!) This shower was for two of my best friends, Leah and Leigh. They are due 2 days apart, so we had a joint shower for them at Johnny Carino's. We had the entire patio just for us - it was perfect! We all ate dinner under the stars in 65 degree weather! It couldn't have been better!

We had the gift table divided...one side was pink and the other was blue. My friend Andrea made the cutest diaper cakes in pink and blue, Katie made picture frames for guests to write prayers and blessings over the baby, and we got each of the mommies a beautiful bouquet of flowers to take home.

Picture with all of the hostesses...

Picture of all the pregnant ladies in attendance...

The cake...yummmm! We had ordered a really cute cake from Sam's Club...an umbrella made out of cupcakes. It was going to have both blue and pink stripes on the umbrella...very cute. When we went to pick it up (45 minutes before the shower) they had left a note saying they didn't know how to make it! Ugh! The manager did offer to make another one for us, but we only had like 10 minutes before we needed to start decorating for the shower. So, we ended up getting two Black Forest cakes free. Plus, they threw in some raspberry topping to drizzle over each piece...in addition to the chocolate flakes lining the sides. It was delicious! The best baby shower cake I've ever had! :)

On another note, Clint's mom came up to visit this weekend. We went shopping on Saturday and she bought Ainsley some summer pajamas. We found some really cute gowns, and since Ainsley sleeps in a big bed with "covers" now, we thought they'd be perfect for my little hot-natured girl. Well, now she's out of control! She wears a gown all the time and even cries when she has to put on real clothes! I don't mind too much, though, because she looks SO cute in her little, frilly gowns! :)

18 days....

2008-04-06T22:22:00.005-05:00

Clint took a few pics of me today since we haven't really taken any "belly shots" of me since I've been pregnant. I think I took one every month when I was pregnant with Ainsley, so maybe all of these will make up for it. I think he did a pretty good job! Although, it took me a LONG time to get over the shock of how big I was! :)

One more project...

2008-04-03T14:06:00.004-06:00

...but it's for a friend so it doesn't count, right? :)

Last project....for now...

2008-04-02T19:52:00.003-06:00

Ainsley and I went to Hobby Lobby early this morning to get some letters for Grady's room. I don't know why I felt like he needed letters. Ainsley didn't have any in her nursery, but she did have a lot of personalized things. And she has her name on her wall now, so it was only fitting that Grady have his name up too! I actually had a project for Ainsley to do while I worked on the letters, but I should have known I couldn't get the paint out without her asking to help! I took her shirt off, so all she had was her paint apron...

This is where she realized she had paint on her fingers. This girl really hates to have anything on her fingers! She did a great job and painted 2 full letters by herself. She was SO proud to show Daddy when he got home too.

Sorry, I had some flash issues...

They look really cute and I'm so glad I did them. I was planning on doing random patterns (dots, stripes, etc.) but I found these wooden cut-outs at Hobby Lobby for $.50 that I thought would be really cute instead. They weren't the right colors, so I had to re-paint most of them, but I'm pleased with the outcome!

On another note, I'm not feeling great. I've had a sore throat since last night and my stomach is crummy feeling. Ainsley had a sore throat (at least I think she did...she doesn't really understand what a throat is) yesterday and has had a very runny nose too. She's also been sleeping about 11 hours at night and taking 3.5 hour naps every day so I think she doesn't feel great either. I just hope we all feel better by Friday for Mother's Day Out!

Grady's Ready!

2008-03-31T20:21:00.004-06:00

Ok, somebody stop me! I just can't stop decorating! I don't know what it is, but I just feel like I need to be working on a project at all times. And since the baby is all I can think about right now, all of my projects revolve around him. You know those crazy crib quilts that come with baby bedding? I've never really understood why. In Ainsley's room I just hung hers over the rocking chair, but after working so hard on my chair cover, I didn't want to cover anything up in Grady's room! So, I thought I'd get some quilt clips. Well, those are really expensive and not real cheap to make either. So, I bought some wooden star hooks at Hobby Lobby for $.50 each and painted them blue. Then I just hooked some ribbon onto the corners of the quilt and whala! Wall decoration! :)

It adds a little whimsy to that wall, so I like the way it looks. Plus, it only cost me a dollar and gave me a good place to store the quilt!

Here's how Grady balls up every time I sit down. He immediately goes to my left side and pokes his little hiney out. Then he almost stretches sideways because the right side pokes out too, but way over under my arm almost. It always looks so ugly...my deformed belly and all. It's a little hard to see here because I was sitting on the bed and the comforter has a swirly background, but you get the idea...
My ticker says 24 days left, which I guess is more like 23 now. I really think we're ready! I mean, there are a million things I could still think of, but if we had a baby today I think I'd be ok and not have to rush out to the store. Tonight, Ainsley was playing with her rubber duckies in the bathtub. (I usually don't let her play with things that can hold water...yucky!) One was a doctor and one was a princess. The princes duck's chest kind of stuck out, so Ainsley told me she had a baby in her tummy. She laid the duckie down and told her to push, then the doctor said, "Oh! Here's your baby!" Ha! She played the rest of the time with the imaginary baby and then told me his name was Grady. I think she's ready too!

Sesame Street Live 2008

2008-03-31T19:54:00.004-06:00

Saturday I took my last official "trip" before the baby is born. I bought tickets a few weeks ago, so we drove to Tulsa to take Ainsley to "Sesame Street Live 2008 - When Elmo Grows Up". We all had a blast! Ainsley was SO cute! She kept telling us that she was going to "Elmo's house." All I told her was that we were going to see Elmo, but I guess she thought that meant we'd go to his house. She even told me that she was going to see Elmo's Mommy and Daddy too. We got there in just enough time to take a potty break and find our seats when Big Bird's voice came over the speakers to count us down. Every kid in that entire place gasped when they heard his voice! :) I was trying to get her to pose with me here, but she kept telling me that she heard Big Bird! And the show begins! Ainsley was so overwhelmed. She just stared...we couldn't get a single smile or reaction out of her. The songs were really loud and it was pretty fast paced, so maybe that was it. She's always been the type to just sit back and take it all in, but I was starting to get worried that she wasn't having fun. That is, until Clint pointed out that every toddler around us had the same look on their face. I think they were all just in awe!
There were several different sets and they were all very impressive. The costumes were excellent too...much better than I remember them being when I was little.

Still in awe, I guess... She stayed like this all the way through the first half of the show. Then at intermission, Clint took her out to buy a t-shirt (which she LOVES) and she came back SO excited to see Elmo again.

The entire second half of the show, she danced and sang with all the characters. She even got off of my lap (thank goodness because I don't have much of a lap these days!) and stood in front of us. I bet she turned around 10 times just to tell me "Momma, I see Zoe!" and then give me a big hug! The lady next to me told me that she was very sweet. :)

We really had a great time and we'll definitely go back if they come again sometime. Just, preferably, not while I'm 9 months pregnant! It was not a fun drive. We got home at 3:55pm, went to the bathroom, and left at 4:00pm for a birthday party for one of Ainsley's best little friends. We didn't get home until after 6:00pm that night (and left at 8:00am) so I was BEAT! I think all I did the rest of the night was complain about how much pain I was in. :) Hey, I deserve to now and then!

Kids are funny!

2008-03-25T22:58:00.002-06:00

In the last week or so, Clint has been in charge of Ainsley's bedtime routine. I will usually bathe her and get her dressed, but then Clint brushes her teeth, reads to her, tucks her in, etc. It's just gotten too hard for me this late in the pregnancy. By the end of the day my stomach muscles hurt so bad that it hurts to even sit up (and crawling out of her bed is even harder) but she's such a cuddle-bug! So, anyway, last night I had been listening in the monitor and heard her crying a little. This is not normal, so I was concerned. But it turns out that she was just wired and was very squirmy and giggly and wouldn't cooperate at all, so Clint told her she was going to get a spankin' if she didn't stop. We rarely have to spank her...just the though of it always gets her SO upset that she immediately stops. So, she burst into tears and then just wanted hugs. :)

Usually in the mornings when I go to get her (yes, she still lays in her bed until I come get her) she says, "Hi Momma! I sweep good!" but instead, this morning she said, "My Daddy no spank me!" in a pitiful, wimpy-cry sort of voice. So I explained that she wasn't being a good girl, but Daddy didn't spank her. (Actually, he felt so bad when she started crying that he kissed and hugged her a whole lot!) Well, that wasn't good enough. She kept wimpering for a while and then said, "My Daddy a bad, bad boy." Wow! She was really upset about this! I just can't believe she was still so upset about it the next morning. So, we had to call Clint at work and have him tell her that he loved her and he wasn't mad at her. When we got off the phone she was all smiles and said, "My Daddy happy now!" :)

A few minutes later we were cooking biscuits (from a can) which she always gets to place on the cookie sheet. Normally she knows to stand back while I open the oven, but she kept putting her hands out and saying, "Me do it!" When I did it anyway she started crying again. She was saying she wanted to cook. I guess she thought she wasn't really cooking unless she used the oven. So, I explained that it was something that only Mommy's could do...not little girls. Then she turns to me with this mad look on her face, put her arms up to "show her muscles" and said, "I'm a big girl! But I strong, Momma!"

After eating her biscuits she turned to me and said she was sad. When I asked why she said, "I sick."
Me: "Where are you sick?"
Ainsley: "My head."
Me: "Why is your head sick? Does it hurt?"
Ainsley: "I have hole in my head...right here."
Me: "Do you need some medicine?"
Ainsley: "Yeah, I need mecine for my hole."
***I gave her a vitamin...
Ainsley: "Mecine make me feel all better, Momma. My hole all gone!"

Ok, I asked for it....next she came walking in with her baby doll. (The one she calls "Baby Grady") She was kissing his head and said baby was sad. When I asked why she said, "Baby has hole too. Ainsey need more mecine." When I said no that Ainsley had enough medicine, she said, "Benji have hole too...Ainsey need more mecine. Say 'Ok Ainsey doctor!'"

What a silly little girl! Oh, and when my friend, Teresa, called to say they had their baby, and I told Ainsley, she put her shoes on and said, "Me go see! Me go hopital!" Now she's going to think we go to the hospital every time someone has a baby. :)

Easter Egg Hunt

2008-03-25T14:08:00.004-06:00

My sister, brother-in-law, and niece had planned to come over Saturday afternoon to let the girls have an egg hunt while the weather was still warm. We didn't want to wait until Sunday because it was supposed to be so cold. Here's Ainsley (and Daddy) decorating her eggs. You know it just can't be done without the tongue!

It was so hard to wait for the dye! She kept asking, "Now? Now?"

Having a tea party with cousin Hailey! My parents called while we were doing the eggs and said they were on their way to Arkansas too! They got here just in time for the egg hunt!

Ready, set, go! Hailey fell over about 5 times before I got this shot! :)

Little Easter girls

Easter morning...checking out what the Easter Bunny brought!

We had a very good Easter and I'm SO glad we celebrated the outside stuff on Saturday. It was 30 degrees on Sunday morning and very windy too. There weren't many Spring colors at church on Sunday. After the egg hunt, my sister also surprised me with homemade cheesecake (my brother-in-law is a great cook!) and a homemade berry topping for my baby shower. We all ate dessert and I opened my present from her. It was a lot of fun. Then (after dessert) we went to the Hiwasse Hilton for burgers....the best burgers around, and probably cheapest too!

I am SO sad to say that I have no pictures from Sunday morning. We were all 3 in our Easter outfits. It was the first time in a couple of years that Clint and I have gone to church together in the same car and sat together the entire time. It was my Easter present. :) He'll be back in the choir next week, but it was nice to have a week off. After church we went to lunch with my parents and my sister's family at Olive Garden. There was a crazy long wait and then we waited forever on our food. By the time we left it was 1:30pm and Ainsley fell asleep in the car. So, she took a nap in her Easter dress (another 3 hour nap) and we didn't really want to stay dressed up that long. Clint promised that we could all dress up again and take some pictures soon, though!

Beauty Shop Ainsley!

2008-03-22T20:53:00.001-06:00

Clint and Ainsley had been playing back in her room for quite a while this morning...and being very quiet too. I had no idea what they were doing since there aren't hardly any toys in her bedroom, but I figured they were just reading or something. I soon figured it out when Ainsley came running out and said, "I ready for church, Momma!" Here's what she looked like:

Apparently, they had been playing "beauty shop." Ha! It was TOO cute! After Christmas I bought her this little set with a hairdryer, lipstick, perfumes, shadow, curling iron, etc. (all plastic, of course) for $3 in the clearance toys at Wal-Mart. I gave her an old makeup box of mine and put all of her costume jewelry in there too. Daddy had shown her how to set it all out on her step stool and turn it into a shop. She was SO excited to show me what she had been doing! Then I heard, "Daddy's tuwn!"

Blush...

Eye Shadow...

Clint was tired of getting his nails done so he volunteered the baby...

And some lipstick...

It was pretty funny! Clint is the best Daddy...so patient when he's playing beauty shop, Barbie dolls, school, etc. She gets a lot of her imagination from him!

Going to Mommy's Doctor!

2008-03-21T13:31:00.003-06:00

We had such a fun day today. I had a doctor's appointment, as usual on a Friday, but Ainsley is usually in school. Since it's Spring Break, I decided to take her with me. I have never taken her before because my doctor's office has a policy that children under the age of 6 are not allowed in the office. This is to keep the expectant moms and newborns in the office from getting all the little toddler germs. :) A policy that I much appreciated when I was pregnant the first time, but now that I have a child it's a policy that I have grown to despise!

Anyway, I decided to just take her and see what they said. It turns out it really wasn't a big deal. Especially since it was almost closing time and we were the only people in the waiting room. Ainsley was SO cute. While we were waiting, she danced for all the older ladies of the office and touched every one of their shiny rings. This, of course, scored her some nice Little Mermaid stickers! Then when my doctor came in, she sat patiently as I had told her and colored in her book while the doctor and I talked. I had explained ahead of time that the chair was going to make into a bed so when it started moving she got very excited. Dr. Reiter asked her, "Ainsley, what's in Mommy's tummy?" And she said, "My baby Grady!" It was very cute. As we listened to the heartbeat I asked Ainsley if she could hear Grady. She said, "Her goes boom, boom...boom, boom!" (Still working on the "he vs. her" thing) She was very talkative and even scored a sucker from the doctor. The kid thought Mommy's doctor was a carnival! Ha!

I'm very glad I took her because this was my last regular appointment. I have one more in 2 weeks to check me and do the Strep B test and that's it! Nothing else until I go to the hospital. After the doctor we went to Target and bought the last couple of things we needed for the baby. Ainsley also picked out 2 shirts (I was needing t-shirts for her) and she got an Ariel t-shirt and a Tinkerbell t-shirt. At some point, I swore I'd never put my child in character clothing, but here I am! She was so good and had so much fun shopping for Grady. (This is something I usually do on Friday's while she's at school too) Then she got an icee and we stopped at McDonald's on the way home too. She took a 3 hour nap when we got home and then we played outside for a while. I'm so glad she's so good in public...I'm such a stress ball and control freak that I just don't think I could handle anything else. I know, I know...I just jinxed myself and now I'm going to have a wild little boy! :)

By the way, I'm still measuring right on track and gaining about a pound a week right now, so the doctor thinks I'll have a 6-7 pound baby. I just want a baby bigger than Ainsley was! But I do have all the preemie clothes washed up just in case...

My Baby Shower!

2008-03-19T20:41:00.005-06:00

I had a fabulous shower! It was in the banquet room at Copeland's....one of my favorite restaurants! It was pouring down rain that night, so it gave all of us a good excuse to get out of our pj's and put on some makeup. :) I got a lot of great gifts too...almost everything I needed! I have the best friends! And if you're wondering...it was on St. Patrick's Day so there's a lot of green in these pictures!

Check out Leigh's tummy sneaking into this pic....

These are onesies that say "Grady" and "Bean Sprout". SO cute! (Thanks Teresa!)

This was a nursing cover (or otherwise known as a "hooter hider") that I'm very excited about too!

My friend Leigh stuffed a nursing bra down in the bottom of her gift. (Just one that didn't fit her) She came over and told me not to pull it out, so of course I had to pull it out and show everyone! The funniest part was that we had a fairly young, male waiter that had to listen to all of our birth/pregnancy stories and watch me take pictures with bras! :)

The cookies were so cute...little onesies with all sorts of different designs on them!

Cookies and fresh cut tulips!

A picture of me with all of the hostesses....

This is a picture of all the pregnant ladies at my shower. There are only 8 here, but 3 others just had their babies in the last 2 months.

I seriously had a great time and wish I could have a shower every week! :) My friends are great and so very thoughtful. Now I just have to get everything put away and ready to go!

(My apologies to Barbie and Katie for posting you in almost every picture!)

2008-03-14T20:19:00.001-06:00

Ainsley is really into mimicking us lately. She'll put my shoes on and say, "Come on...time for you to take a nap. You go pee pee first, ok? Good girl!" (etc, etc.) Here she put the phone on her shoulder and said, "Hi! How are you?" and then turned to me and said, "Look, I like Momma!"

Ainsley's friend Kyla's baby brother was born yesterday. We went to the hospital to see him and timed it so that Kyla would be there to show him off. We walked in right behind Kyla and her grandparents when she came running up to hug Ainsley and said, "Follow me! I'll show you baby Nathan!" It was so cute! What a proud big sister!
Ainsley immediately put both arms around him and kissed his head while Kyla reminded her she needed to hold his head. :) They sat here for a while holding him and he was SO good! The girls played for a while in the tiny hospital room, running around and all. Ainsley was so upset when we had to leave. She really wanted to stay.

When we talked about going to the hospital, Ainsley assumed it meant that I was going to the hospital. She got all excited and said, "And see Baby Grady!" It took a while, but by the time we were in the car she was saying, "I will go see Baby Nathan and Kyla!" I'm very glad we went. She was a little timid of Becca in the hospital bed at first, until Becca showed her how cool her bracelets were and all of the neat lights and buttons on the bed. Then she seemed ok. Hopefully this will be a good warm-up for my delivery...right around the corner!

An Early Easter (And Playing with Kyla)

2008-03-12T13:48:00.011-06:00

Our Toddler Toes group had an Easter egg hunt at the park today. We were supposed to have it last week, but it ended up snowing the day before. I'm so glad we waited because it was 65 degrees today! Each child was asked to bring 10 plastic eggs filled with something. I bought Ainsley some Starbursts in Easter colors, but that turned out to be such a headache. She had to color-coordinate each egg with a matching candy. It was fine until she reached the purple eggs and realized I didn't have any purple candy for her. Meltdown! :) Oh, and another trait I wish she didn't get from me....check out the tongue!
At some point, she decided it would be easier if she sorted the candy and lined it up by color. Again with the tongue! She was beside herself with excitement at this time...Easter egg hunt AND playdate with Kyla!
Kyla's mom has her C-section tomorrow so her pre-op appointment/work was this morning. She brought Kyla over for the morning so the girls could play and go to the egg hunt together while she was at the hospital. They had SO much fun! I told Becca so many times about how good they were, but I really was amazed. They didn't have a single fight, argument, even disagreement on any level. They shared their toys, said please/thank you/your welcome to each other, etc. They were just so good and super cute in their little 2 year old conversations. (You know, about who should be the big doggy and who should be the little doggy, whether it's better to have jelly on your sandwich or just peanut butter, etc.) They started the morning off with every little girl's favorite activity....a tea party picnic!

Then a little activity to work all the extra pounds off from the plastic food...

This was during the role-playing phase where Kyla was the mommy doggy and Ainsley was the baby doggy. The doghouse was the slide and the baby bed was the 4 inches under the trampoline. :) Ainsley was pretending to be sleeping like a baby...

The car ride was the funniest part. I was cracking up at them talking about how interesting their books were and telling each other all about them. It was so cute and I kept laughing! (They each have a Dora book. I'm so glad we had 2!)

Walking down to the egg hunt...they were just giddy!

The girls...Sadie, Kyla, Ainsley, and Zoie.

Ready, set, go!

Kyla's first egg. I had to convince her it really was ok to keep it!

Ainsley really got into the hunt! She was crawling under the tables and everything!

And Kyla finally started getting a little more aggressive. By the end, I was having the girls put eggs BACK because none of the younger kids could get to them fast enough! :) (They pretended like they were the "mommies" and they were hiding the eggs for the babies)

I have no pictures of their faces. They were so fast I never could get in front of them! This is Ainsley, Zoie, and Kyla. They stayed together the whole time.

Showing off her egg supply!

This picture totally cracks me up! Doesn't Will look like he's mackin' on Ainsley? :) He looks so grown up here!

Checking out the prizes...

Building a sand castle. Their shoes were full of sand, but (being the little girls they are) they were surprisingly fairly clean!

After the hunt a few of the kids played chase. It was really such a wonderful day to be at the park.

Eating lunch. I don't know what happened to this picture. I was doing red-eye touch-ups and somehow turned ALL the red to black. (Including the napkins and apples on the table....I even think the jelly on Ainsley's face is black!)

The day ended with the girls playing tricycles in the driveway and riding the horsey.

They had so much fun! Kyla's baby brother will be here tomorrow morning, so we plan to go see him in the hospital at some point. I'm hoping I can get Ainsley used to the idea of Mommy being in the hospital so she won't freak out when she sees my IV and stuff. And since the girls like to talk to each other about their baby brothers, I know Ainsley will love to see baby Nathan and I'm sure Kyla will be very proud to show him off!

Silly Pictures!

2008-03-11T13:36:00.001-06:00

I flat-ironed Ainsley's hair tonight before dance. I was using the flat iron and Ainsley just kept asking me to do her hair, so I did! It actually looked really cute, although her Daddy doesn't like it at all. He thinks it just looks stringy (and it kind of does) it's just something different so I guess that's why I like it. Anyway, Clint was getting her ready for her bath and thought her hair looked really funny after her took her hair down. I have no idea what they were playing to get a face like this....

I had the camera in my hand, but only because I was walking to the other room to put it up. Ainsley yelled at me, "Cheese, Momma!" So this was the pose I got...
Ainsley playing with "Baby Hailey", her little cousin. It was Hailey's 1st birthday party so she's not exactly a baby anymore, but I'm not sure Ainsley will ever stop calling her that. I just realized Hailey must have been extra hot...look at that hair!

Ainsley's newest thing is "I do it all my byself!" It's so funny when she gets the "m" and the "b" mixed up too! She really wants to do everything by herself and it's made things move even slower than ever before. (Which has always been the hardest part of motherhood for me...pokey little toddlers!)

On another note, Clint and I have been married 8 years today! I can't believe how fast time has flown by us! It really seems like yesterday that we were planning a wedding and a move to Arkansas. And now, we have a daughter and a son on the way....surreal!

A look back...

2008-03-06T15:17:00.002-06:00

Ainsley's 2nd day home from the hospital....she was 4 pounds 10 ounces when we brought her home. This is a preemie outfit she has on and it's huge! :) 49 more days and we'll have another little bean sprout in this outfit!

Catch-up Post - Birthday and Babies!

2008-03-06T13:49:00.009-06:00

I was working in the baby's closet one day and pulled the Boppy out. Ainsley immediately went running to find her baby (she calls him Grady) and crawled up in the chair to feed him. It was really cute. When he was finished with the bottle, she covered him up (face and all) and rocked him to sleep. That's when I got in trouble for talking (instead of whispering) and making too much noise in the closet. I had to wait until the baby woke up! :)

We've been trying to stay home more lately, since we have activities 5 days of the week and it's starting to really wear on me! This day we stayed in our jammies all day, but I got cold and put a sweatshirt and my house shoes on. So, Ainsley needed clothes just like Mommy's clothes. These little house shoe/boot things are funny. I got them at a garage sale, but Ainsley really likes them! I took a picture because she looked funny with her pink zebra pants on! :)
Sunday was Clint's 30th birthday, but since Sunday's are such a wash with church and home group, we celebrated on Saturday. He had to work in the morning, so we met him at Sam's club to pick up a couple of things and eat some Sam's pizza. While there, we saw some friends of ours (that we've known since college) so we all had lunch together while the kids played. It was fun. Then we went to the park, something Clint rarely gets to do with Ainsley, and played on the playground. Clint took Ainsley down to the lake and they even saw a turtle! :)

Our plan was to go fishing that afternoon, but since Clint was napping while Ainsley was napping, we were all in a pretty lazy mood. So, we ended up staying here and playing in the backyard. I painted and Clint hosed off some of the baby equipment from the attic while Ainsley played in the sand box. It was a very nice day to sit outside and do nothing! Ainsley helped me cook Daddy's birthday dinner (he requested pancakes, sausage, and eggs) and the dessert he had requested as well. We made brownies with chocolate caramel ice cream, dulce du leche topping, and almond slices. Ainsley didn't like it that we were putting the candle in the ice cream instead of the cake, but she gave in once I explained what a "sundae" was...
(And if you're wondering, he did get a real celebration with "the guys" Monday night too!)
The couple that was assigned to watch the kids during home group Sunday night had a sick child, so Clint and I ended up watching the kids. Halfway through the night we looked down and noticed that her left eye was almost swollen shut on one side! We assumed she got hit since she was playing with all boys and seems to get picked on a lot for whatever reason. But as time went on, her right eye started swelling also. One of the kids had been playing outside with some cats and such that afternoon, so maybe it rubbed off on Ainsley. I had also been rocking the baby earlier and then held Ainsley on the same side of my shirt, so it could have been the laundry detergent they use too. (Ainsley is allergic to most laundry detergents) Who knows? This picture was taken after Benadryl so the swelling had already gone down....
We all stripped down as soon as we got home and washed the clothes. I put Ainsley in the tub right away and even fed her dinner in the bathtub! :) But she still woke up the next morning and the other eye was swollen quite a bit. I ran all over town the next morning trying to get her into a doctor, but no one had any openings. I finally talked to a nurse who told me what to watch for (hives, breathing, etc.) and advised to stay on Benadryl another 24 hours. By the following day it was gone! She has such sensitive skin and allergies....we just never know with her!

I have been cleaning up all of the baby toys, swings, bouncy seats, etc. this week. Ainsley insisted on sitting in "baby brother's" chair. Here she is at 2 years and 9 months old...29 pounds...
And again at 4 weeks old....almost 6 pounds..... :)
You saw the picture of Ainsley with the boppy earlier? Well, she thinks the boppy is hers now. Every time I put it up, she runs and gets it and says she needs to rock her baby. So, I found a great buy at the consignment sale last night! It's a tummy time boppy, but it's just Ainsley's size. She LOVES it! She's been rocking all of her babies...bears and lambs included. It's so cute! And it can be her pillow to hold the baby when he comes too. I also got a toy Graco baby carrier that looks almost just like our real one. It was only $2. I gave it to her this morning and the baby had to get all dressed up and go to swimming lessons with us. He even fell asleep in his carrier once in the car, so there was a period of time where I couldn't talk and had to "turn music down" so the baby could sleep. :) I'm encouraging that all I can! I love it that she wants everyone to be quiet during naptime! How easy is that going to make it for me!??!!
After swimming lessons, Ainsley pulled out this doodle pad in her toy box in the car. She was tracing her hand, so when we got home she decided to trace Benji's hands too. Look at his pathetic little face. He's the best dog ever!

So, speaking of swimming lessons, we only have 1 more week and boy am I glad! The only swimsuit I had left that fit (yes, I've outgrown maternity suits already) is now too little. It won't cover my belly and floats up in the water to expose my entire stomach! Plus, we have to throw the kids up and lift them out of the pool and stuff. It's just getting really hard! I'm in so much pain this afternoon that I can barely walk. I'm sure some of it was from standing for 2 hours and fighting 50 other pregnant women at the consignment sale, but swimming lessons was definitely hard this morning. I did get permission to put Ainsley in the 3 year old class for the next session, even though she should be in the Mommy and Me class for 1 more session. She's been in lessons since she was 10 months old with the same instructor, so she was confident Ainsley would do great. There are no mommies in this class (yeah!) and the kids do a lot of things on their own. I think Ainsley will love it!

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and lots of question for my doctor about how difficult this pregnancy has suddenly gotten, so I'm looking forward to the appointment. And Ainsley, for some reason, has been asking to go to school all week, so she's going to be super excited that it's Friday! Saturday is my niece's first birthday party too...it's been a fast year!

Some random stories

2008-02-28T21:31:00.003-06:00

Ainsley got a balloon at the train show over the weekend, but decided to bite it (yes BITE it) yesterday. So, once it deflated she had to find a new use for it. She started filling it up with Benji's food and then feeding him from it...piece by piece. She did this all morning so as soon as she sat it down I quickly chunked it. Only I put it in the toy room trash (a small wastebasket in the closet) rather than the kitchen trash. My mistake. So, this morning she's playing in the toy room when I hear, "No, no, no, Momma!" and she comes running into the kitchen with the balloon in her hand. "Don't throw-a my bloon in trash, ok? That is NOT nice! You say, 'I sorry, Ainsley!'" Me-"I'm sorry Ainsley." Ainsley-"Good girl. You be nice now, ok? Or you get spakin!" (Oh, and the next conversation always goes... "Ainsley, who's the boss?" "Oh, I sorry Momma.") Ha! Sweet baby girl!

Last night Clint came home and ate with us, then left for choir rehearsal. As you know, Ainsley likes to say that Daddy goes to church to 'sing for Jesus'. So, I found her in the toy room playing "church" with her barbie dolls. She had her foam puzzle pieces set up like chairs and a whole little family (Ken, Barbie, and Dora) sitting in "church". I wish I would have thought to get a picture. When I walked in, she was standing in front of them holding a domino as a microphone and singing "I have da doy, doy, doy, doy down in ma hawt...whewe?" When she noticed I was watching, she handed me a microphone and instructed me to stand behind her and clap my hands. I think I was the praise team! Ha!

Today Ainsley told me that Daddy goes to work with Jesus. She said he works in 'da heaben' and says "Hi Jesus! Good morning, Jesus! How are you?" (And she's sticking her hand out like she's shaking someone's hand as she's saying this) Ha! Oh, also, on Sunday she was sitting in big church with me when Josh, our worship minister, walked up to start the worship time and Ainsley said, "Look Momma! It's God!"

Her favorite thing to do lately is be "Miss Cherrie", her dance instructor. She likes to stand in front of us and tell us to put our toes on the red line. Then she tells us everything to do. If we don't do it exactly, she gets upset too. Like tonight I was supposed to have my arms straight out and I guess they were droopy, because she lifted them up and said, "Airplane arms, Momma!"

Lunch: "Momma, I want pizza!"
"No, we're having noodles, remember?"
"Oh, noodles....for me?"
"Yes, for you!"
"Oh, thank you! I love noodles! They're SOOOOOO yummy!"
After eating: "I love noodles. I love pizza too! I love pizza later?"

Baby Peas?

2008-02-26T14:34:00.003-06:00

We had some steamed sugar snap peas for dinner last night. Ainsley picked every pea out and kept telling us they were her baby peas and the pods were the mommas. (She's really getting into this whole "baby in the momma's tummy" thing!) She would cup them in her hands and talk to them in a baby voice. Then rock them and sing to them, and finally put them to "sleep" under the napkin. It was SO funny! We were cracking up! She acted like they were so special to her, but after she put about 10 or so to sleep, then she'd eat them and start all over again! Needless to say, dinner lasted MUCH longer than usual last night! :)

Baby's Room - Completed

2008-02-26T14:17:00.004-06:00

I still need some decorative items, but I'm calling it complete!
(BTW - I don't know if the TV will stay in here. It's was there before and I just haven't moved it, but it might come in handy for Ainsley to watch TV while I'm nursing or something. We'll see...)

Wow! I just noticed the countdown...58 days! This pregnancy has gone by SO fast! So, do you think we need a name? :) Drum roll please.....

Grady Matthew Bean

Well, actually, we may name him Graydon and call him Grady, but that's still undecided. Grady means "Noble and Renowned" and Matthew (Clint's middle name and a family name) means "Gift of the Lord". Again, we went with a Gaelic first name and a Hebrew middle name....just like Ainsley. And, as with Ainsley, this is what we think we'll name him, but we have backups if he just doesn't look like a Grady when he's born. (I don't like to be firm on the name thing until I see the baby) And, of course, we have a girl backup too...just in case the ultrasound tech made a mistake! :)

Almost finished.....

2008-02-25T13:56:00.000-06:00

I stayed home today to finish some projects in the baby's room. I didn't have a lot to do, but just a few craft projects that I wanted to do...if I found the time. I had promised Ainsley, a couple of weeks ago, that she could paint a picture for baby brother's room. (She had asked back when I was painting the canvases) So, here is Ainsley at her messiest! She insisted on using her hands just like we did at Christmas....

The finished product....she ended up mixing all the colors together so it doesn't really match the room, but it's still cute. And she's VERY proud of it!

Ok, I'm kind of a "matchy" dork! (Just like my mom!) So, I glued some ribbon onto this wipes container to match the room also. When we get a name nailed down, I'll probably put his name on it too.

I couldn't find a lamp that I liked, so I improvised. I found the shade on the clearance aisle at Wal-Mart and only paid $9 for the base. (I just glued the ribbon onto the shade)

Ok....so here are the curtains that I hated! I used the leftover fabric from the chair cover and I just thought it made the room look too drab. It was just....well...brown! So, I took them off yesterday and sewed some ribbon onto them also. The ribbon matches pretty well (it was just some I had leftover from Ainsley's hair bows) and made the curtains look much cuter. They are double-layered suede denim, so it's very dark in the room when they're closed. An added bonus!

A close-up of the ribbon...

I still want to paint a shelf, as well as a little foot stool for Ainsley to stand on when she's "helping" me with the baby. (Right now she tries to climb on the side of the crib and changing table to see, so I think the stool will help ease my stress) But, overall, I'm finished with the major pieces of the room. It looks like a babies room now! Pictures of the entire room coming....

Trains & Shopping!

2008-02-24T13:37:00.002-06:00

I went to the "Going Beyond" women's conference with Priscilla Shirer this weekend. It was held at our church and I absolutely LOVE her studies so I was super excited about going! I really had a great weekend. I had been worried that Mother's Day Out would be canceled because of the weather. (The schools were closed the day before due to the ice) But luckily, school was in session! I went straight to my doctor's appointment that morning where I learned that I PASSED MY GLUCOSE TEST! Yeah! What better way to start the morning? Then I went to Target to create a baby registry and buy a few things that we needed for the nursery. The day continued with lots of shopping. I'm hosting bunco this month so shopping with someone else's money was fabulous! And to top it all off, Ainsley took a nap at school again this week! Almost 2 hours!

The conference that evening was great. I went with a group of girls from my home group and we really had a lot of fun together, but got home very late. It was about 11:30pm when I got home. That's very late for a pregnant woman that can't sleep anyway! Saturday morning as I was getting ready I asked Clint if they had any plans for the day. (I was only gone until about 1:00pm) He said he hadn't really thought about it much yet, so I figured if anything they might just go to the associate's store or something. Well, when I got home and asked where they had been he didn't want to tell me. He kept saying he was going to let Ainsley tell me. I was very intrigued!

So, as soon as Ainsley woke up I asked her what she did with Daddy. She got real excited and shouted, "I go with Daddy to the train store!" And she showed me a stamp of a train on her hand.....and one on Daddy's hand too. So, I thought they went to Dilly Dally's (a toy store) and played with trains. I couldn't imagine what she was talking about until Clint told me that he took her to the model train show at the Clarion hotel! He wanted to do something fun with her so he got online to learn about all of the events happening. It turns out that the train show was only on Saturday. She got lots of free stuff like balloons, key chains, etc. and Clint bought her some new pieces for her train track since they were sold at cost. He told me that it was probably good he wasn't home with her all day because he would spend way too much money on her. (They did go to the associate's store where she got a new toy and then to Sonic for lunch too!) Apparently she loved it and all the old men loved showing their trains off...making them go super fast and all.

Oh, yeah.....I was also shocked to learn that he even remembered to take the camera! So here are a couple of pictures. Oh, another shock? He took her out in panties too!

P.S. This was the first time (EVER) since Ainsley was about a year old that she was out in public without a bow in her hair! Clint said he fixed her hair, but couldn't get the bow to stay in. He ran into a friend of mine at the store who is very observant and quickly pointed out, "Mandy's going to kill you when she finds out Ainsley didn't have her hair fixed!"

Sesame Street Live!

2008-02-21T15:36:00.002-06:00

I'm SO excited! I just purchased Sesame Street Live tickets! Ainsley is going to love it! We wanted to take her to some sort of show before the baby was born, but there weren't any good options. Doodlebops was in OKC in January, but I waited too long to get tickets and they were too expensive. Then Diego was going to be in Tulsa (who Ainsley LOVES), but after watching the preview for the show, I don't think Ainsley would like it much. "Diego" is just some guy with a rescue pack on. He doesn't have a big foamy Diego-head costume, so I don't think Ainsley would recognize that he's playing the part of Diego. So, our last option was Sesame Street, but it was in OKC in late March and I thought that was too far to travel so close to my due date. I was VERY swollen with Ainsley in my last month and traveling to Oklahoma was miserable! So, to make my long story short, Sesame Street opened up a show in Tulsa the last weekend in March. And to make matters even better, they have a Saturday morning show! It's at 10:30am...plenty of time to go to the show, get lunch, and nap in the car on the way back! PLUS I ordered the tickets directly from the Mabee Center for only $16 each....ground floor....row 14! Yeah!

We had some friends come by yesterday to dig through some of Ainsley's baby clothes and check out the nursery. Baby Avery came too...she's 3 months old. Ainsley absolutely adored her! She had a Soothie pacifier and Ainsley kept asking to put her finger in the hole! Ha! She'd try to dress her (she put several pairs of shoes on her) and put headbands and bows in her hair. You should have seen the look on her face when I asked her if she wanted to hold the baby! Talk about a happy girl! She was SO good too....supported her head, patted her back, etc. Her friend Peyton was here to play during that time too, but Ainsley hardly played with him at all. Even while we were walking around the house, Ainsley just sat next to the baby in the living room the whole time. Silly little momma!

Well, I have a "client" coming over for a haircut so I better stop bragging now! :)

Gross!

2008-02-18T14:27:00.002-06:00

I just changed my first poop in panties! ugh! They were mostly white so I ended up throwing them away, which sent Ainsley screaming for 10 minutes. "My panties! No, I want my panties!" Ha! I guess she'll learn not to do that again! She's been doing so great, but wet her panties at childcare last night and then this today....not sure what's going on around here...

Chair Cover Complete!

2008-02-16T21:48:00.004-06:00

I finally finished my slipcover for the pink chair. Boy was that hard! I definitely won't be tackling anything like that again in the near future. Anyway, here are a couple of before/after pictures. As you can see, it was a very ugly pink chair. :) I bought it at a garage sale for $8 from an older couple. It's actually somewhat mauve. Here's the before: (The black mat underneath is to keep the carpet clean after oiling the chair...just hadn't been moved)Tada! The finished product! I even put piping around the cushion to make it a little more professional looking. The hardest part was the piece of the chair that pops up when you recline. I couldn't figure out how to slipcover that piece, so I ended up upholstering it on...just loosely.
I also made some curtains today, but I really don't like them at all. I had a lot of fabric left over from the slipcover, so I decided to make good use out of it. I doubled it up to make it extra dark (and it really does) but it also made the curtains rather stiff. They hang really funny and I just don't think I like the color (tan) with all of the other bedding and wall colors. It's too blah. So, I have to come up with a different option for the window treatment. Maybe a roman shade or something?

Ainsley and I had a date with Daddy yesterday. We had discussed going out for Valentine's Day, but we never really do much since our anniversary is in March. So, Clint told me he was kind of wanting to take "his Valentines" out for dinner. Ainsley was SUPER excited about going on a date with Daddy. She got all dressed up and picked out a bow for her hair and everything. It was the cutest thing! She sat right next to him and even wanted to ride home with him. It was just really sweet.

I also have some Valentine pictures posted on flickr. Also a funny story....I asked Ainsley what she wanted to make Daddy for Valentine's Day and she told me pizza! Pizza? So, I said, "What about a cake or cookies...maybe chocolate?" And she replied, "Chocolate pizza!" Ha! Well, it was her present to her daddy, so we made some chocolate pizza! I bought some pizza molds and she had all kinds of things (dates, raisins, almonds, pecans, peanut butter chips, chex, pretzels, etc.) to "top" the pizza with. It took FOREVER, but she did it all by herself! Clint also bought her a Tinkerbell purse and coin purse that she's in love with. She took it on her date....filled with crayons and her Blue's Clue's notebook. I got a vanilla reed diffuser and this really cool pillow/wrap thing that you can heat up and lay on pregnancy aches. :) My husband is so sweet!

More projects!

2008-02-13T21:08:00.003-06:00

I've been working hard on the baby's room the last week. I started sewing the cover for the pink chair this weekend and I'm really close to finishing. It has proven, though, to be a monster project! All I have left is the foot part that reclines...I have to figure out how to attach the material without attaching it permanently. The chair is a swivel/glider/recliner that I bought for $8 at a garage sale, so I wasn't about to spend $150 for a recliner slipcover. Can you believe they cost that much!?!

Anyway, I wanted to take a break from all of the sewing so I decided to work on the mobile today. I bought this for under $10 when I was pregnant with Ainsley. It was pink and purple with safari animals...all pastel colors. Since I couldn't find a cheap mobile that matched our bedding, I decided to just convert the pink one for the baby boy. I bought the little animals on the $1 Easter gift aisle at Target and painted everything else. I think it turned out pretty cute...especially since I wanted something real simple. Ainsley absolutely LOVED this mobile as a baby and it was a real life saver for us at times, so hopefully this baby is going to love it too!

I had planned on painting some sort of canvases for the nursery also, but I just haven't had time to go get any. Since I had my paint supplies out while painting the mobile, I decided to go ahead and paint over the canvases I had in Ainsley's nursery. They never matched exactly anyway. I think they turned out pretty cute...especially after I put the frames on!

I had my doctor's appointment on Friday that included my glucose test and rhogam shot. I'm measuring 2 weeks big, which is something I never did with Ainsley so that was good news! Maybe we'll at least have a "normal" sized baby rather than a 41 week preemie! :) I failed the glucose test, though, and had to go back to the hospital Monday for the more extensive test. I still haven't received a call with my results, so I'm hoping that no news is good news! I'm pretty worried about it, though. I failed the first test with Ainsley too, but just by 8 points. This time I failed the first test by 40 points!

Anyway, Clint stayed home Monday morning until Ainsley woke up and then dropped her off at Katie's house. When she woke up she apparently asked where I was. Clint said I had to go see the doctor. He said she got all excited, her face lit up, and she said, "Ahhhh! Gonna take baby bwoder out! Yeah!" :) Yeah, I think she understands now. Anytime I tell her I have a surprise for her she says, "Baby bwoder come home?" She's SO excited! We didn't even tell her I was pregnant until Dec 14....I can't imagine having her wait longer than that!

Big Girl Room

2008-01-31T21:51:00.000-06:00

As promised, here are some pictures of Ainsley's new big girl bed and decorations! I did a lot of sewing to save money, and I bought her quilt and sheet set (separately) both on clearance back in the Fall. Here's a picture of the bed. I got the canopy from Dollar General for $8 and the beads on it came off of a chandelier that my neighbor gave me out of her garage sale for free! Ainsley loves it and calls it her "castle bed!" Most of the decorative items are things I had laying around the house. I made the valance and all of the throw pillows...it's not easy to sew with feathers either! :)

More views of the furniture...and some good finds I stole out of a friend's garage sale pile this summer!

Here's the cheap, little bookcase I looked everywhere for! I haven't hung the mirror yet because she can only barely see in it even just sitting on the bookcase (as it is here). Also, a little hard to see, but I made the chair cushion, lamp shade, and painted the lamp base.

And here are the letters that I waited 6 months for! Well, actually, I just waited 6 months to get a "Y". :) Good thing, too, because I ended up getting them half price! I wasn't planning to put them on this wall, but Ainsley insisted that's where they should go. It's her room, after all! I had planned to do some designs on them too (stripes, polka dots, etc.) but I decided there were too many patterns in here already!

"Baby Bwoder's Woom"

2008-01-31T13:39:00.000-06:00

I finally finished the painting in the nursery! There are still a few touch-ups I could do, but I made myself stop! (I'm such a perfectionist...this was harder than you'd think!) I was actually planning to paint some kind of a decorative border around the room also, but after 2 weeks just to do the stripes, I think I've given up on that. I'll probably just do some canvases...maybe ABC's or the patterns on the bedding.

The bedding just arrived yesterday so I haven't washed it or ironed it, but I wanted to see what it looked like together. I plan to make some window treatments and a slipcover for the pink rocker (a huge undertaking, I'm afraid) as well. I think all I have left to buy for the decorating is the pillow and changing pad cover that match the Babylicious Islands collection and some type of lamp. I feel SO much more prepared now! There are still a few necessities (like a name!), but at least he has a room! I have 11 more weekends to get everything in order!

(I uploaded the full size, so if you click on the picture you can get a better view of the bedding.)

Also, I know several of you are waiting for pictures of Ainsley's room! I finished painting her letters so I just have to get those hung and I'll post some pictures of her room too....

Video! Ainsley's First Dance Performance!

2008-01-29T21:57:00.001-06:00

Ainsley had her first dance performance tonight. Her class performed during the health fair at the elementary school. I totally thought she'd just stand there and pick her nose, but she actually danced! She was the youngest one there, but I think she did just as good as some of the bigger girls! At one point, she even pats the back of her friend Jacee! All the girls were very excited to be wearing their sparkly skirts too. I think that helped. Hopefully, they'll do even better at the recital in their little tutus.

I can't get the video to upload, so just click here to view it. And turn your volume up!

Pictures - Chuck E. Cheese

2008-01-29T07:15:00.000-06:00

I forgot to mention that the Chuck E. Cheese pictures have been added to the January set on flickr.

Sick Baby

2008-01-29T07:03:00.000-06:00

Thank goodness my husband loves me and enjoys spending quality time with Ainsley or I would be pulling my hair out by now from lack of social contact! I took Ainsley to the doctor on Friday (which means we missed MDO) after her fever reached 104 Thursday night. The doctor suspects that she probably got a virus going around (symptoms are fever and runny nose) and then developed an ear infection from all of the drainage. I figured that was probably it after her fever spiked up Thursday night. Anytime she gets a fever over 104 it's always been either an ear infection or a urinary tract infection, and she seemed to be pottying just fine. Mother's really should be able to diagnose our own kids, ya know? :)

Anyway, she's been on antibiotics and doing much better now, but her fever didn't break until Saturday. Then she still had a mild fever when she woke up on Sunday so I stayed home while Clint went to church and he let me go to church that evening while he stayed home. Since then she has been SO cranky and clingy....like way more than normal. I'm not sure if she still doesn't feel good or if she just got so much attention by whining while she was sick that now she's discovered a hidden secret! (Pout and Momma will hold you) She keeps going around saying, "I need big hug!" and just wants to lay with us. Who knows, but it sure is getting annoying!

I was a little disappointed that Ainsley hadn't been playing with her kitchen as much as I had hoped, so I decided to move her little table into the toy room while she was sick to see if that made a difference. She hasn't stopped playing with it since then! She gets ALL of her babies set up around the table (and they each have to have their own chair) and cooks them each exactly what they ask for. It's so funny! She even feeds the baby (which is whoever happens to be sitting in the highchair at the time) baby food. I even noticed that she uses the spoon to clean the extra food mess off of the babies mouth....just like Mommies do when we're feeding baby food! I'm not sure where she's seen this done, but I'm guessing it's from watching her cousin eat a couple of months ago.

Friday night was girl's night out and since I had been couped up in the house since Tuesday, AND missed my MDO day, Clint was more than willing to let me leave a couple of hours early to shop with friends before we went to eat. I even replaced my black pants with some cuff-less, shorter ones that hopefully won't be so hazardous! Here's a current belly shot at 27 weeks...a little hard to tell with the crazy shirt...
On a totally different subject, Ainsley has been saying a few things lately that just crack us up! For example, she knows that we both sing in the choir so when Clint left for choir rehearsal Wednesday night she asked where he was going. He said, "I'm going to church to practice singing." And she said, "Ok, have fun singing for Jesus!" So now every time we say we're going to church she says, "You sing for Jesus? Ainsley play playground!" Ha! She also told me yesterday that my name was Mandy and Daddy's name was Sweetie! She's very set on this too!

She has also been making up her own prayers at dinner time instead of our standard, "Thank you Jesus for our food. Amen." She'll thank Jesus for anything and everything but food! And the funniest part is that she always ends by thanking Him for "Uncle Gawy (Gary)!" Last night she was saying her prayers before bedtime where she usually thanks Jesus for all of her friends, but instead said, "Thank you Jesus for God in heaven! Amen!" You think she'd understand the Trinity yet? Ha!

Well, I have a million projects to finish and get cleaned up this week before our company comes. Clint's parents and his sister are all coming this weekend. It's been a long time since we've had company for the entire weekend. Usually my parents spend half of the time at my sister's house. Even if they sleep here both nights, their time is still split somewhat. So, I have to figure out how I'm going to feed 6 people from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon! I get stressed out just thinking about it!

Lastly, Ainsley has her first dance performance tonight! Her class is doing their "teddy bear" dance at the health fair at the elementary school here. I totally expect her to either cry and run off the stage or just stand and stare at everyone. I'll keep you all updated on that one! :) Gotta go paint!

Daddy's Home!

2008-01-23T20:49:00.000-06:00

That's right! Clint got on an earlier flight Wednesday night so I was awake when he got home! Ainsley was asleep, but she was beside herself with excitement when she saw him the next morning. He even got to go with us to sit in the observation booth during swimming lessons. In over 2 years of lessons, it was the first time he had been able to see her swim so that was a lot of fun for both of them. Then, to celebrate Clint being home, we all went to Chuck E. Cheese to use our coupon I've been saving. Ainsley absolutely LOVED it, but cried all the way home because she didn't get to talk to Chuck E. himself. (He was very busy with birthday parties) She's usually scared of characters like this, but was REALLY excited about seeing him. So I guess we'll have to go back again and make seeing him our goal!

Ainsley was at school on Friday so Clint and I spent most of the morning together just running some errands, shopping for the baby, etc. and then spent our Olive Garden gift cards from Christmas 2006 for lunch. It was a lot of fun! Then Clint had a previous engagement he had to go to so I went home and laid in the recliner for the next 2 hours! Wow! Clint even picked Ainsley up from school for me so I wouldn't have to leave the house again. (I've been having really bad back pain) It was so nice! Man how I wish he could be at home a couple of days a week, but still get paid. Of course, if he was I'd probably just complain about how he interferes with our routine. :)

Saturday we started painting on the baby's room. We're doing stripes on one wall in all 4 of the colors of the bedding. I had no idea that it would take so long to do stripes! Since we have so many colors, you really have to do 1 color a day, let it dry, re-tape, and do another color the next day. I have only focused on 3/4 of the wall right now and I'm still not finished. As soon as I can finish the entire wall, I'll post some pictures.

Sunday brought back some painful childhood memories! Just not the kind you're thinking of. We were all walking out from church (in the parking lot) and each of us holding Ainsley's hands when my favorite heel got caught in my favorite black cuffed pants and threw me down hard! I had a choice...land on Ainsley, land on the baby, or ruin my clothes. My very favorite pointy-toed black slingbacks met with the evil pavement that scraped half of the leather on the front. And my pants are SO far beyond repair! A huge hole ripped in the right knee and it bled all over them. I still can't bend my knee far, but at least I finally got most of the black fibers out of my wound. I think the last time I had a knee wound like this was a bicycle wreck in the driveway when I was in the 6th grade! :) Anyway, it was funny how Ainsley reacted to the whole thing. She was SO upset and just kept saying, "I so sorry, Momma!" I don't know why she thought she needed to apologize, but she did almost all the way home. Then she started crying and just wanted to hug me and kiss me. If she reacts like this to a little blood on my knee, I can't imagine how she's going to react to an incision in my stomach in a few weeks!

I kicked butt on my painting project Monday! I have everything taped off and ready for the last stripe color on my 3/4 of the wall. So hopefully I'll be able to finish the whole wall this weekend. I still have more to do, but that's by far the biggest piece of it. I even gave Ainsley a little, bitty brush and told her to stay between the lines. She did pretty good! Of course, it was in polka dots rather than strokes, but easily fixable!

And lastly, Ainsley woke up with a snotty nose this morning. I wasn't the least bit surprised because we had our first week of bible study at church yesterday. Every time I'm involved in a women's bible study Ainsley gets sick a lot. I don't know why people think it's ok to bring their sick children to church, but they do! And she seriously gets sick from her interaction with kids on Tuesday mornings than any other time. Actually, that's why we moved from Wednesday's at Mother's Day Out because she'd always wake up sick. She's just one of those kids that catches everything! We were at a friend's house this morning (I was low-lighting her hair) so I really hope her son doesn't get anything because Ainsley woke up from her nap with a fever! Just 101 so it's pretty low, but it kept us home from church tonight. She went to bed really early tonight, so hopefully she can sleep it off. Regardless, it's probably not a good idea to take her to swimming lessons in the 20 degree weather, huh? Ha!

So there's my catch-up. I have several pictures to upload, especially Chuck E. Cheese so I'll work on those soon. In the meantime, if you want to take a look at my other baby name poll I have going, you can check it out here. (And no, we're no closer to choosing a name than we were 3 months ago!)

100 Days!

2008-01-15T08:26:00.000-06:00

As of today, I have 100 days until "baby brother" is born! 100 days seems like a lot of time to me, but when I think that I only have 14 weeks left, that seems pretty short. That's only 14 Saturday's to get everything ready - painting, decorating, organizing, etc. It doesn't seem like enough time! I did get my "golden ticket" from the doctor last week, though, with my surgery date/times. My pre-op is on April 23rd and the C-section is scheduled for April 24th at 7:30am!

Wow, we need to get a name for this baby! If you have a moment, please help us narrow it down by voting on our name list! Thanks!

Don't drink the Bunco water!

2008-01-13T23:16:00.001-06:00

Casey took this picture of all the pregnant girls at Bunco last week. (We're missing Leah) Yes, over half of the Bunco girls are pregnant! It's pretty funny, really. The food is changing because none of us are drinking a lot of caffeine and we're all eating a lot of dessert! :)
From left to right: Andrea Shoppach, Shannon Allen, me, Tiffany Lee, Leigh Fox, and Natalie Knoble. Andrea is delivering tomorrow so she was pretty miserable here. And Tiffany delivers in less than a month. I'm next....

She's growing up!

2008-01-12T22:30:00.001-06:00

The big girl bed is here! My parents got in late Friday night, so when Ainsley woke up Saturday morning Mimi and Bapa were here. She was SO excited! I cooked breakfast (blueberry waffles, bacon, sausage, and eggs) since it's been over 2 weeks since I've actually cooked a meal. Cooking is a stress reliever for me so it was nice to have someone to cook for.

After breakfast we got started on the rooms. Since Ainsley was staying in the same room, we had to move all of her furniture into the baby's room before we could get the new furniture in. My first task was to strip down the toddler bed (crib) so I asked Ainsley if she wanted to help me. I wanted her to be very involved in the process so she wouldn't lose the excitement of a new bed. Well, instead of helping me, she stripped her mini-crib (dolls and all) and said, "I did it! I win!" Ha! I guess we were racing. I'm so glad that I had the majority of the work completed already. Like painting the walls, ironing the bedskirt, etc. Here is a picture of Ainsley and my mom cleaning the bed...

She was letting Ainsley help pour the cleaner onto the rag since the bottle was almost empty. This eventually led to a mini disaster...

The half-completed bed...Ainsley's first "turn". Doesn't she look SO tiny in it?

What a sweetheart! She's helping me put the sheets on...

A little bit of jumping action to make sure it's fit for sleeping!

Yeah! She likes it!

It looks really cute in her room and is perfect for her. She thinks it's a princess bed like Gigi's. (God's Little Princess book by Sheila Walsh) She keeps saying, "Just like Gigi's bed!" I haven't done any decorating at all yet. I just have the bedding on and the curtain up, but so far that's it. I was planning to get a small, black bookshelf and hang the mirror above it so it would double as a bookshelf and an Ainsley-sized dresser. I went to 2 different Wal-Marts before I discovered that the 2-shelf one was only sold online. They had a 3-shelf one at both stores, but I really wanted it to be smaller so Ainsley could see over it and have a little dressing table. But after I got home and realized that the smaller shelf was twice the price as the taller one, I decided to get the 3-shelf. So, Ainsley and I headed to Wal-Mart tonight specifically to buy a bookshelf (which she was excited about) and they were out of stock! Argh! Anyway, I have a tub full of books and some of the accessories just sitting in the floor until I get a bookshelf. I also am not positive that the furniture will stay in the current placement until I get this. So, after I make up my mind and purchase a bookshelf, I'll post some more pictures.

Oh, I didn't even talk about how well she's been sleeping in her gargantuous bed! We got it set up just about 30 minutes before nap time. I wasn't sure if this was a good idea or not, but it turned out great. I think it was good to introduce it to her before I left her in it for the night. Her nap wasn't great, but about an hour and 15 minutes or so. Enough. Then she slept about 11.5 hours last night before my parents woke her up for church! Fantastic! I think it's a success! Wow, big girl bed and potty-trained all before the baby comes? Can somebody pinch me, please?

Practicing for Baby Brother!

2008-01-11T22:12:00.001-06:00

This was hilarious! Ainsley was sitting on my bed watching the Veggie Tales Jonah movie, eating oranges, and had such a cute little smirk on her face. So just as I went to snap a picture, Jonah got swallowed and she gets SO mad at the whale! So this is her telling the whale what a "bad girl" he is! :)

So, I'm heating up my pizza (that we've been eating on for a week now) and Ainsley says, "Hey, look at my frog!" The red-eyed tree frogs on Diego have suction cups on their hands that help them climb trees. So much of her imagination comes from Diego so I'm sure this is where she got this. Anyway, I barely got the camera in time before she started eating them!

This is Ainsley's mattress set that's laying in the baby's room. My parents are bringing the furniture (and should be here tonight) so I was organizing and getting things together tonight. A friend had given me a sack of shoes she had borrowed of Will's and asked me to get them back to Leah. I also had a blanket of his that we borrowed the night of the tornado. Well I guess Ainsley found my stack of "Will things"...you know her imagination! Here she is telling Benji that it's time to eat...
All dressed up for dinner! He's the best dog ever...he even left the shoes on while she made little smacking sounds!

Ok, Benji, time to go night-night. (She got him a pillow)

Here she was singing him a lullaby! I think it was made-up because I couldn't make out the words. :)

Oh, and I have some fantastic news! Ainsley came home in the same pull-up that she wore to school this morning! Miss Stacey said she potty'd like 5 times today! I'm so proud of her!

Pump It Up!

2008-01-09T21:24:00.000-06:00

We had Toddler Toes yesterday morning at Pump It Up. It's an inflatable playground for kids and was SO much fun! Ainsley hated these things at the fair so I didn't think she'd go in, but Mommies were free so I went in with her for the first few. After a few minutes, she was an old pro! Here is Ainsley and Will on the "UFO"...

She kept jumping right toward me so I could get a picture of her jumping!

This slide was HUGE! There were no stairs either...just this chicken run sort of thing with ropes on each side for you to climb up. Well after Ainsley saw other Moms going with their kids she wanted me to go. Easier said than done when you're 6 months pregnant, but we made it! Here we are at the top with another random little girl that followed us around a lot.

It only took 2 times for Ainsley to realize she could do it by herself. (And watching Will...notice her following him) I was nervous watching her climb up the ladder thing!

Let me tell you, that thing was big! I thought I went down fast and Ainsley went down even faster!

Ainsley and Will going up together...

Doubles! Tomorrow we'll start training for the 2024 Olympics!

We all had a great time and I never saw a kid without a smile the entire time! But I think every single kid through a fit when they had to leave. I had to carry Ainsley out! When I told her it was time to put her shoes on and she started saying no, I did the whole reverse psychology thing. "Ok, but Mommy's leaving. Bye bye!" This has never, ever failed! But she came up to me, gave me a hug, and said, "Bye, Momma! Fee ya waiter!" :) At least I know she enjoyed herself!

And lastly, just a cute picture after dance. For some reason, she really wanted a picture with Benji! He wasn't quite as excited as she was...

Tornados!

2008-01-08T21:33:00.000-06:00

We had a very exciting night last night! Ha! Luckily I was on the phone with my sister yesterday evening when she asked if I was ready for all of the tornados. Tornados? Huh? They don't have much of a storm tracker on Nickelodeon these days! It was just raining a little outside so I didn't think too much about it. (I did grow up in the middle of tornado alley after all) So we went ahead and ate and went to the toy room to play a while before bedtime when I decided to turn the TV on. Whoa! I had exactly 25 minutes before they estimated the first rotation to come right over our house. So now I had a decision to make....keep Ainsley up and wait it out or put her to bed? Funny that I didn't think about shelter first! :)

So after a couple of friends called to check on me I decided to go ahead and get Ainsley ready for bed...just in case the storm didn't even come our way. Well, now I only had 20 minutes left so I was in a little bit of a panic mode. I got Ainsley in the bath and started pulling stuff out of the bathroom closet and lining the floor with blankets, pillows, books, snacks, flashlights, etc. to keep her happy. Then everything was out of place...couldn't find my cell....pajamas were all in the dryer....flashlight??? flashlight???...where's the stupid weather radio!!??? Yeah, I was a little flustered trying to get everything finished in enough time to get Ainsley out and dressed without rushing her. After all, I didn't want to scare her. Well, too late. I guess just all of the commotion was enough because she was crouching down in the bathroom and starting to cry a little. When I asked her what was wrong she said, "I cared!" (I'm scared) So I ask why she's scared and she says, "Torm's comin!" (Storm's coming) Wow! I had tried so hard to be calm in front of her (and didn't even know she knew what a storm was) but kids are SO perceptive!

My friend, Leah, called back to warn me that it was headed straight to us and see if I wanted to come on over. I had pumped myself all up into thinking I'd be fine by myself, but knowing that I was starting to scare Ainsley made me decide it might be better to go over there and get her mind off of things. So, by now I only have about 5 minutes before the storm hits. I decided to drive the Bronco (hoping I'd get Clint a new truck out of the deal) but I had to put the carseat in first. Then I had to chase Benji because he was so scared and running from me. By now it was REALLY pouring down outside and a little hard to see, but I could see the wall cloud and we still had plenty of time to drive just a few blocks to their house. Leah had made popcorn for the kids and, being in their p.j.'s, they thought we were having a party! They immediately starting running around and squeeling! We mostly let the kids play while we watched TV and Caleb (Leah's husband) watched outside. At one point it got scary enough that we went to the closet where Caleb had hooked the portable DVD player up and made a little pallet for the kids. They stayed in there for a long time!

Well, the rotations were coming about every 10-15 minutes so I knew it would be several hours before it all passed by. So, I decided to put Ainsley to sleep at their house. She did fine and we continued to watch the storms pass right over us until about 11:30pm when Ainsley woke up crying. I think she just didn't know where she was and it scared her...plus she was overtired since it was after 9:00pm before she went to bed. So I decided to just go ahead and take her home. There were only about 3 more rotations to pass and it looked like they would miss us by 4 or 5 miles so we loaded up during the heavy rain again (since I knew a tornado wouldn't hit during rain) and went home. It was a scary drive again, but once home Ainsley went straight to sleep. The poor thing just climbed into bed and closed her eyes! I stayed up until the last rotation passed about 1:30am. But then woke back up at 2:15am to a loud noise and the weather radio going off again. I turned the TV back on and waited it out again...back to sleep at 2:45am.

6:45am - my alarm clock went off so I could get the trash out before the truck came. This is something I really hate doing while Clint's gone because the truck usually comes so early! Then I just went ahead and took a shower and got ready because we had Toddler Toes at 10:00am anyway. Well, it turns out the truck didn't come until 2:00pm and Ainsley slept until 9:00am! I could have had 2 more hours of sleep!!! Agh!

Oh, the loud noise? I guess a branch broke off of the neighbors huge dead Oak tree (behind us and over one). Their guttering is flattened and there's plastic nailed to the corner of their roof. At least the tree didn't fall because it probably would have hit our house!

Just us girls!

2008-01-06T21:55:00.001-06:00

Well, Clint left on Friday before Ainsley got home from "school" and so far the time is passing pretty quickly! Saturday morning we went over to my sister's house to hang out for a while and let the girls play. Ainsley adores her little cousin and had SO much fun! I bet she hugged Hailey 2o times while we were there!

After a really good nap, we met Ainsley's friend Michael and his mom at the park. It was 69 degrees in Centerton! We didn't stay too long, though, because it was really windy. I didn't get any great photos because I couldn't keep my hair out of the shot, but here's a few nonetheless...

Ainsley told me she was "shopping for apples" here! :)

After the park we went to Wal-Mart to get some good girly food while Daddy's gone. I needed things that I can heat up and not have to cook huge meals just for the 2 of us. I also got some shelving for "baby brother's" closet so I can start sorting and organizing! I had 2 awful experiences at Wal-Mart with rude people that don't respect pregnant women. The first time I was trying to load one of the boxes of shelves (which wasn't light) into my cart and keep Ainsley sitting down without her falling all at the same time when this guy came up behind me and said, "Excuse me?" First thought - how nice! Someone is coming to help me load these into my cart! Nope, he wanted me to sit the heavy box down while balancing it with one hand and move the cart full of the 30 pound toddler (29 lbs 14 oz with shoes on....we're almost there!) with the other hand! You tell me why he didn't go out the other end of the EMPTY aisle? Ugh! (BTW - he was about my age with a 3 or 4 year old daughter...should know better!)

Then this young punky cashier just sat there and watched me fight the toddler and try to load all of my bags in the cart all while he stood holding my receipt and waiting for me to finish. That was it! I haven't been feeling well the last week (normal pregnancy stuff, braxton hicks, sore all over, etc.) and have NO energy at all so I just snapped! I looked right at him as I was making Ainsley sit for the 4th time, out of breath, and said, "I'd really appreciate it if you could help me load the rest of these bags!" Response - "Oh, ok." It's not like I'm not visibly pregnant or anything! Do these people have ANY idea what it feels like to be pregnant at the end of a busy day with a stubborn toddler?!!!!

Anyway, I was glad to get home and receive a call from Clint saying he was in his hotel room in Shenzen! It definitely made my day! Ainsley actually was really good for me most of the time. Plus, she was in big girl panties ALL DAY LONG! This is a huge milestone considering how busy and active we were all day. It's the first time I've ever put her in panties on a busy day like that, but she did excellent!

Speaking of, she insisted on wearing her Tinkerbell panties to church today also. I was really nervous as we often have accidents at church (long story there...) but she also did fabulous at church! I'm so proud of how good she has been! Anyway, she looked so cute so I tried to snap a good picture of her in her cute little dress. Ha! She was way too excited to be outside. This is the best I did....

Ainsley has been the BEST sleeper so far. I've been praying really hard about this because she didn't sleep well at all the last China trip and God has definitely blessed us! She's been sleeping about 12 hours at night and going straight to sleep without singing or talking! Then she's been napping about 3 hours each day! Also easily laying down like a big girl! Today I put her down at 1:00pm and heard her snoring about 1:15pm. My friend Casey came over to sew some pillows and keep me company during naptime. (Thanks Casey!) It felt like a lot of time had gone by so I looked at the clock and it was already 4:15pm and I could still hear snoring! When we went to wake her up she was still in a DEEP sleep! So I had no idea how bedtime would go, but she was asleep by 8:45pm tonight! I just can't stop using exclamation points!!!!

Clint called again this afternoon, it was his Monday morning and he was getting ready to go to work. Ainsley was so cute on the phone! "You in China, Daddy? You work? Have fun in China? I love you, Daddy!" She loves to go outside and watch the airplanes because she thinks Daddy is in them. Too cute! She also runs to the garage every time she hears a loud truck go by the house...she's convinced it's the Bronco. Hopefully I'll keep her busy enough next week that she won't miss him too much...

Where's China?

2008-01-03T21:18:00.000-06:00

I've been working really hard on all of the decor for Ainsley's big girl room. I've made curtains, tons of throw pillows, lampshades, etc. Ainsley decided it was time she learned how to sew too, so I got the little toy Singer out for her. I've never used it (I got it at a garage sale a few months ago for .75) but it was great for Ainsley! She didn't like to use her foot for the pedal, though, she liked to just squeeze it. She sewed for about an hour, though! Cut her fabric, pinned it back, and everything!

Making sure her measurements are correct!

Clint leaves tomorrow for China so he took Ainsley in to show her where China was on the map. She knows that he is going to fly over a lot of water (which she thinks is way cool!) and she knows how many days he is going to be gone. It was really cute watching her learn with Daddy.

She's wearing a bib like a cape on her back, only she says it's "wings like Tinka Bewl!"

On another note, Ainsley went #1 in the potty for the first time when Clint was in China a couple of months ago. So tonight it was only fitting that she poopied in the potty for Daddy for the first time the night before he leaves. (Not poopied the first time, just the first time for Daddy....she will usually only go for me) She's in big girl panties most of the time now unless she's at church or school (and never has an accident in panties), so I think we're doing pretty good to be so close to potty-trained in only 2 1/2 months! With a little less than 4 months to go before the baby comes, I think we can be completely potty-trained! Woohoo! I'm so proud of her!

New Year's Eve/Day

2008-01-01T22:37:00.000-06:00

Clint had to work on New Year's Eve, so Ainsley and I ran all sorts of errands that morning. Pharmacy refills, dry cleaning, groceries, and Hobby Lobby sales! :) She took a good, long nap that afternoon and when she woke up I heard her on the monitor say, "Time for Gracie's house!" I had told her that if she closed her eyes and took a nap like a good girl then we'd go to Gracie's house for a party...she was SOOOO excited! Unfortunately, she had to wait 2 hours until the party started, but reminded us every 10 minutes that she was going to Gracie's house.

The party was at a friends house from church and they have 2 kids, Gracie is 6 and Gavin is 4. Ainsley is convinced that Gracie is her best friend in the whole world! She has always loved that little girl! They just built a house on some land outside of Centerton so this was our first time to be over there. There were about 8 couples there and they each had a couple of kids so it was definitely packed, but we all had a great time. Ainsley stayed with the big girls (other than 1 baby she was the youngest there) the entire time and we never even saw her unless we went back to check on her. They had a big dog too, which I thought would be a problem, but Ainsley didn't seem to mind him too much. He even licked her forehead once and she just pointed her finger at him and told him, "No, don't do that!" We had great food! The kids ate at little picnic tables and the adults played a couple of games and got to know each other. It really was a good time. We only stayed until about 8:30pm (which is late for Ainsley to be out anyway) so we were the first to leave. Most of the couples were planning on letting the kids just crash somewhere and watch the ball drop, but my child would have never recovered from a night like that! So, we planned to come home, drink our sparkling grape juice, and watch a movie, but Clint had been up since 4:00am and I am pregnant and always exhausted, so we fell asleep in the middle of the movie about 11:00pm! Oh well.....maybe next year!

We all slept in until almost 8:00am on New Year's Day. I can't even remember the last time Clint slept that long! We all three stayed in our pj's all morning, Clint cooked us waffles mid-morning, and we played a couple of games. Here is a picture of Ainsley enjoying her New Year's Day while watching her movie!

When Ainsley woke up from her nap, we headed to the mall for our traditional "fun day with Daddy." Clint leaves for China again on Friday and we always try to do something fun with Ainsley before he leaves. I had a $10 gift certificate for Build-A-Bear so we started there. We were looking at all of the different kinds of animals to choose from and Ainsley kept saying, "I want a bunny!" I wasn't even sure they had bunnies, but luckily we found a cheap one! :) Here she is stuffing her bunny....with her "cheese" grin.

Picking out a heart for her bunny....this took a while to choose which one was the best!

She gave the heart a kiss and stuffed it in the bunny. They didn't do all the things they did the last time with the heart, but they were really busy too so maybe there just wasn't time.

Bunny's first bath!

She named her bunny what we thought was "Buster Bunny" so that's what we put on the birth certificate. But she's been calling him "Brother Bunny" at home....who knows?

What a fun day with Daddy! (They had just gone to play with an iPhone at the AT&T store)

I also had coupons for Cold Stone Creamery, so we stopped there before heading home. This was a big step for me because we hadn't even had dinner yet! Ainsley picked out the "blue" ice cream with sprinkles on top! (She did not want them mixed in) She ate the entire thing, but I tasted it and it was really gross!

We came home and I cooked our traditional New Year's pork dinner. It was a great, relaxing day!

Silly Little Girl

2007-12-30T22:45:00.000-06:00

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!)

2007-12-27T14:56:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-20T22:26:00.001-06:00

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!

2007-12-16T22:10:00.001-06:00

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!!!

2007-12-14T16:08:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-11T15:18:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-09T10:29:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-12-03T08:01:00.001-06:00

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!

Halloween '07

2007-11-01T16:04:00.000-06:00

Ok, I know I have been super behind on my posts, but I've been feeling terrible! I really thought I was over morning sickness, but it came back. I've figured out that I get really sick when I eat meat (as I did when I was pregnant with Ainsley) so I do well as long as I avoid meat. Although I ate some pizza last night that had the pepperoni under the cheese so I thought it was cheese pizza. Needless to say, I was up all night! And I would have been in bed all day today if I didn't have to go to the doctor for pink-eye! Yeah, as if I needed something else, I got pink-eye. I'm pretty sure I got it from the shopping cart handle at Wal-Mart because I haven't been anywhere else this week. Oh well, at least I caught it early so it shouldn't harm the baby.

Ok, enough pity party for today! We had a great Halloween! We went up to Clint's office at 4:00pm for trick-or-treating and Ainsley LOVED it! When walked out the building she said, "Ainsley has fun! Ainsley has candy!" She got to see all the work Daddy did while he was in China (she thought his layouts had pretty colors!) and saw several of her friends from church. Then after we got home she had 5 little friends come by to trick-or-treat all at the same time so she got an extra playdate after dinner! She was thrilled! Then after they left, we all met up again at Will's house for more fun! I didn't really care to take her to any homes around us or hand out candy because she gets scared so easily. I've worked so hard to safe-guard her from the scary aspects of Halloween and didn't want to ruin it by some punk kid showing up at our door with blood running down his forehead! And besides, she didn't know the difference! Here's a picture of Ainsley in her princess dress. She knows she's our little princess and LOVES to dress up all day long. She has so many dresses from a friend at church, as well as 4 pairs of high heels and a tub full of jewelry. So, it was very hard to convince her to wear the cute homemade Dorothy costume I found at a garage sale. I even had the sparkly red shoes, but she insisted on being a princess. (I even rented Wizard of Oz, but it didn't work! :) We painted her fingernails with "sparklies" that I let her pick out by herself from Wal-Mart and I put some red lipstick on her cheeks to make them rosy. And of course some chapstick that she thinks is lipstick. :)

I have a couple of other stories that are really funny, but I'm a little nervous to post them since I don't know who reads this blog. So, to follow suit of all my friends, I'm considering blocking the blog also. That way I can post what I want and not have to talk around things. Is it a good idea?

Be sure and view our flickr account if you wish to view the whole spread of Halloween and October photos!

Branson Trip

2007-10-22T21:32:00.001-05:00

Clint got home at 2:00am Wednesday morning and we were in Branson by noon that day. Yeah, talk about a busy day! We stayed in a condo that was actually very convenient. We had a bedroom and my sister and her family had a bedroom. It worked out great because we could put the girls to bed, shut the door, and go watch a movie in the living room! My parents had to sleep on the sleeper sofa and had very little privacy, so I felt sorry for them, but not enough to trade them rooms! Ha!

Ainsley LOVED spending so much time with her baby cousin, Hailey. She was not jealous at all and was very sweet with the baby. She loved to dance for Hailey and sing to her. And especially loved giving her toys to play with. Here's a picture of both the girls having their milk...

This was taken the first day we got there. It was a little late when we got in that night, and very windy, but our balcony overlooked the playground. Well, you know I just couldn't fight that battle! The pictures are terrible, but it was super dark and they were all action shots. Here's Ainsley racing Mimi down the slide!

Ainsley posing in this lion. For some reason she kept calling this a fishy. ???

What should I play with next?

Both the girls were giggling as they rolled this toy back and forth to each other! It was so cute! This is my mom and sister.

Ainsley jumping with Hailey and Barbie!

I didn't get many pictures, considering we were there for 4 days. We had some great photo opportunities of the girls swimming together too, but my batteries were dead in my camera. My dad got several pictures, so maybe I can post some of his later. It was just so fun letting the girls spend this much time together and really bond. I think it will make the holidays even more fun now that they've already warmed up to each other. Ainsley slept pretty good too, but insisted on sleeping in a pack 'n' play. She wanted to sleep in "Ainsley's wittle bed". She took 2 hour naps and slept about 10 hours at night. It wasn't nearly as much as she sleeps at home, but I was happy considering we were in a hotel! It made me feel better about traveling for the holidays. Hopefully she'll do just as good!

And, lastly, this is probably a good opportunity for me to tell you all that I'm pregnant! It has become very hard to hide lately. Luckily, I've been out of town the last couple of weeks so very few people have seen me, but I don't think there's any hiding it now! I just wanted to wait to tell everyone until we were out of the first trimester. We've had 2 ultrasounds and everything looks good so far! My official due date is May 3, but the ultrasounds showed April 30. And since I'll be having a C-section again it will definitely be an April baby. I think Ainsley is going to be a great big sister! We're watching a little 2 month old tomorrow so I guess we'll see how it goes with a tiny one. We haven't said anything to her yet, and we don't plan to for another couple of months. She already thinks she has a baby in her tummy (because she felt the baby in Zoe's momma's tummy kick) so I'll just let her concentrate on that for now. :)

Fall Activities

2007-10-22T15:44:00.001-05:00

Well, as I mentioned earlier, Clint was in China for a couple of weeks this month, so Ainsley and I did a lot of things that wouldn't normally be allowed. For example, we made caramel apples one day and ate them in my bed while watching the Wizard of Oz! :)

We made this princess pumpkin this year instead of carving. The pumpkins just don't last anytime at all when you carve them up, so this will last much longer. Plus, we can use it again next year! It's a set made by Mr. Potato Head and Ainsley LOVED it!

Posing with her "pukin." We got home from Oklahoma late the night before and were leaving early the next morning for Branson, so she stayed in pajamas all day. And we never even combed our hair!

Here is our finished product...

We also made Daddy's favorite cookies to surprise him when he got home! I only make these 2 or 3 times a year so it was a big surprise for him!

Clint's plane was supposed to land just after 10:00pm Wednesday night, but it was the night of all the storms and tornadoes. His last connection was in Dallas and I knew that he was on the last flight of the day. If he missed it he'd have to stay overnight somewhere. So, by 11:00pm, when I had not heard from him, I got on some of those flight tracker websites and could see the flight path his plane was taking. It was very comforting seeing all of the updates and knowing that the pilots were in direct communication with someone. (They updated with some kind of message or status about every 3 minutes!) Anyway, they circled NWA for a very long time, flew up to Missouri to get out of the storm, and eventually had to redirect to Little Rock and land there for a while. It was after 2:00am when he finally made it home. I tried my best to wait up for him, but I fell asleep just a little before he got home. I even had candles lit for him to find his way to the bedroom because the electricity had been flickering all night. Anyway, the first thing he said to me when we woke up that next morning was, "Did I see cookies in there?" Ha! Here's evidence that food really IS the way to a man's heart!

On another note, did anyone watch Spookley the Square Pumpkin this morning? I had seen the previews on Disney and had already scheduled the DVR to record it, but Ainsley was too excited and had to watch it! She loved it and it was a very cute story! It's about a square pumpkin that just wants to be round like everyone else, but in the end realizes that he is very special because he is square and learns to love himself! Cute movie!

If you missed it, keep an eye out for "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" next Tuesday, October 30 at 7:00pm on ABC. I have not missed a single year of that movie since I was a child! It inspired the Great Pumpkin that used to come visit us every Halloween when I was a kid too. Very similar to the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus, my mom would play the Great Pumpkin and buy us a small little gift and candy and place it in our trick-or-treat bags overnight. Maybe not the traditional Halloween that most kids are used to, but we sure looked forward to it! Ok, enough plugs for Fall cartoons!