Easter Dilemma

Another post about children's clothing. I'm not sure what my problem is but for some reason I am having a very difficult time with the whole Easter dress thing this year. Usually (by usually I mean the other 3 Easters that Ains was alive) I find Ainsley's Easter dress early in the season and it's one I really like. This year Easter dress shopping has turned into a huge hassle. It hasn't helped that this is the first year that Ainsley has had an opinion on her clothing, or that we found her some cute shoes with pink on them, because now we were looking for a dress to match the shoes.Today Ains and I went shopping, between sessions of course, for her dress. I had already found the skirt and shirt, and had shopped around town, so today it was time for the mall. After several stores and 2 purchases later we were home. We finally decided on the dress on the right. Now I have a ton of returning to do. I purchased the other dress, skirt, and shirt at 3 different stores. Owen's shopping was so easy. John and I found him a shirt a few weeks ago on clearance that I thought was cute. He already had pants, so with that his shopping was done. I'm not sure if I make things difficult for myself, or if shopping for girls is really that complex.

Holes

Ainsley currently owns one pair of pants that don't have a hole or a patch. I don't know what it is that she does, but whatever it is, it causes a hole in her left knee. I have patched one pair of her jeans, but I just didn't bother or didn't catch the holes in time in her other pants. I am very angry that this has been happening. I bought her clothes big this year on purpose so that they would last her another year. So I have had to put up with clothes that were too big on her and now they are all falling apart. I even got higher quality pants, not that I spent more, I just got them on sale at places like Gap or Osh Kosh. (I have to admit that I am an amazing sale shopper...the above Gap jeans...$7. I know you are all amazed.)

This year she has worn out her first set of clothes. Shirts are also stained and worn. I thought that as she got bigger her clothes would last her longer because she wouldn't outgrow them every season. Now I guess she'll just wear them out faster. We really need summer to get here because I'm not about to go out and buy her new winter clothes.

Fish Sitting

My parents and sister are in Mexico this week. They have 2 fish. Therefore we get a fish for the week and my sister's family gets to take care of the other fish. We have to feed the fish 4 little pellets morning and night. Ainsley really likes to feed the fish. We sit there captivated waiting for the fish (I'm not sure what his/her name is) to eat his food. It will be very sad when our little visitor goes back home. Actually not really, there is a reason we don't have a family pet.

FYI

Just to let you all know...I have become more aware of the settings on my lovely blog and have changed it so that you can now leave anonymous comments and don't have to set up a google account. I know that there are a lot of you that are silent participators in my blog, so now there's no reason for you not to share your thoughts!

Little Chef

Today after church we made homemade oreos. I think they're one of the best cookies ever. (Thanks for the recipe Aimee!) Ainsley was excited to help and got herself fully prepared by putting on her apron and chef's hat. She did a very fine job. One of her self appointed key duties it to ask if things taste good yet and then stick her fingers in the bowl for a taste just to make sure. Ains has this funny new noise she makes when she eats. She reminds me of Bob on "What About Bob" when he is eating the chicken dinner with the family. She says "mmmmm" with every bite. It is so funny. John and I just sit and laugh at the dinner table when she is really liking her food.

The Yard!!!

Today we spent the entire day outside. We did work all day, but it was wonderful. We have waited for a yard for so long that the work was nice. We cleaned out the flower bed, raked up all the leaves the previous owners left last fall, washed the cars, cleaned out the garage, sprayed off all of our cement, and finally we mowed and edged the lawn. I think John liked mowing his own yard for the first time in his life. I wish I would have remembered to take a picture. Then, just to keep with the theme of our day of work, John also installed a dimmer switch for our living room light and fan (quite impressive I think). He then installed 2 of our new blinds, that frustrating story is for another day. And I gave both of the kids hair cuts. We're pooped.

It was such a warm and wonderful day. We celebrated our day of work with dinner outside. We got this table and chairs when we bought the rest of our yard stuff. I think we single handedly kept Lowe's in business this week with all of our purchases. It's amazing what you have to buy just to take care of a yard. Anyways...back to the celebration. John made hamburgers with striped cheese. I guess that is what officially made them "celebration" hamburgers. We were even able to spend time enjoying outside until it was finally time for Ainsley to go to bed. What a great day!

The Hickey

Somehow the above mouth gave the above jaw a hickey today. Owen woke up early and wanted to play. Ainlsley was still asleep so I just laid Owen in bed with me so I could get a bit more sleep. While laying there I was suddenly attacked by what was apparently a very hungry child. He lunged at my face and started sucking so hard that in a matter of a couple of seconds he left this mark on my jaw. What a way to start the day!

The Dreaded Costco Trip

I used to love going to Costco. John and I would go just to look at movies and to see what other random cool things Costco had to offer at that particular time. Now that I have 2 kids in tow my Costco trips are all about business and not so fun. I dread the Costco trip. I know I have to go because I just can't beat the prices, but it is just too much of an event anymore. My cart is incredibly heavy and overflowing shortly after entering and it gets worse until I am finally through. I have to lean forward and push to get the cart going. I usually forget at least one item and then have to push a huge cart to the back of the store (because I never forget things that are located by the checkout stand).

Today when I unloaded my cart I realized that they had forgotten to put my bread back in the cart. I couldn't figure out how in the world this could happen so I checked my receipt to make sure I wasn't crazy and hadn't just forgotten to buy the bread. I wasn't crazy. So after unloading all the groceries in the car and hauled the kids back into Costco to get my bread. I thought about just taking the loss, but that would mean having to pack the kids up on another day just to go get bread. So after going back in and retrieving the bread, we were finally on our way out of the store in only what seemed like hours after arriving. The most depressing part of my trip was that I somehow managed to spend$270, and I didn't even get anything fun. The most "fun"things I got were a hose, a pineapple, and diapers. None of those things are at all fun.

John's Birthday

Yesterday was John's birthday. He is now 29. I can't believe we're almost 30. I'm assuming he had an okay day. He says he had a good birthday. He had to work and had a hearing that was supposed to go late. I felt bad that he had to work late on his birthday, I think it's bad enough if you even have to work. All he wanted to do was watch a baseball game. Since we only have 5 channels at our house he DVR'd the game he wanted to watch at my parents. So he got to spend his birthday over there. I promised him that by next year he would have the channels he needed so that he could spend his birthday at home. Although I think he cared more about just being able to watch the game than about being at home.

Ainsley got him a baseball. The scouts threw his last baseball over our fence and our rowdy neighbor dogs demolished it. Needless to say they don't get to play with this one. He got some t-shirts, Seven Years in Tibet (I finally gave in since he has been asking for this throughout our whole marriage), James Bond, some money, and a month of netflix. So we will be watching an incredible amount of movies this month. So I guess that about sums it up. And by the way, in case you couldn't tell, his cupcakes were supposed to be baseballs. I felt bad that they didn't measure up to my culinary capabilities.

My Purchase

Tonight I bought the garden surplus for the entire summer from a lady in our ward who has a garden that is over a quarter of an acre. A girl I talked to that bought that at the service auction 3 years ago still has canned goods from that summer. I think I did amazingly well!

Service Auction

Tonight for enrichment we are doing a service auction. I decided to make some cards to give away. I got really into it and made all but 3 of these cards one day while Ainsley was sick and sleeping all day. It's rare that I have a quiet house with no kids, so I took advantage of my day off and cranked out a bunch of crafty cards. I love it when I have time to do things like that. I'm actually bummed that I have to give all of them away, but who knows, maybe I'll come home with something much cooler than cards. And I guess I can always try to find another quite day and make duplicates.

By the way, the Melting Pot is delicious!

Food Glorious Food

John and I have finally completed our little weight loss competition. Many of you know that we have been dieting since January 1st. We have been doing biggest loser with my dad and one of his friends. Everyone put in $50 at the beginning and we have been weighing in every two weeks since then. I won 2 weigh-ins, John won 2, and my dad won 1. And the overall winner was...ME! I lost 24 pounds, John lost 26, and I think my dad lost 26. I win $75. I was supposed to win $100 but my dad's friend is a bum and had unofficially dropped out, so we'll see if he pays out or not.

To celebrate everything we have passed up celebrating over the past few months, like our anniversary, my birthday, Valentine's Day, and now John's birthday, we are going to the Melting Pot tonight. I'm very excited because I love fondue. It's extra exciting because we have a $50 gift card and a coupon for a free chocolate fondue. So hopefully our little celebration won't break the bank.

The Kite

Tonight I made us make a trial run of a kite so that I would be prepared for scouts this week. We held family home evening a day early and spent our night making and trying to fly a kite. I was surprised that the kite even got a little bit of air. I think if we had made the string longer and if John wouldn't have been embarrassed to try it out front we could have gotten it to fly pretty high. Not bad for a paper bag, yarn, and tape. John remembers making a kite like that when he was in scouts, so hopefully the scouts will have fun this Tuesday. Even though the weather calls for colder temperatures and rain.

Cake

Tonight I went to a cake decorating class with Kortney. Her visiting teaching partner does classes out of her home so we decided to go. I was very impressed with my cake. Mostly just that I did the basket weave on the sides. So now that I'm a professional I guess I'll be expected to make lovely cakes all the time. We are taking the advanced class next month. There we get to learn to do layer cakes and fondant. I'm very excited. My first opportunity to show off my new found skills would be this week for John's birthday. However, I think we will stick with cupcakes that look like baseballs.

Dance!

Ainsley takes a dance class every Thursday. She goes to a lady in our ward that teaches dance in her converted garage. Ainsley may never be a professional dancer but she loves going. I would say her skill rivals that of Napoleon Dynamite. She is getting quite good at plies (pee-ay) and sashays (carshay). They get to do tap, ballet, and tumbling. They also get a snack and a story when the need arises.

Parents are allowed to come and watch once a month. It is so cute to see all these two and three year old girls try to make it through a whole dance. Her greatest struggles right now are tapping her toe without bending her knee, and those darn arabesques. It's amazing that she is starting to memorize her dances though. She sings and does her dances at home and while we are at the store. She dances to Spoon Full of Sugar, and Once Upon a Dream. We are very excited for the recital in May.

Pro Bono

Look closely in this very low quality picture for John. This is when he took his oath after passing the bar and became an official lawyer. But John's time of service started long before this day. Apparently he had been working for free for quite some time. I got a check in the mail for John today for a significant amount of money. It was from his employer in Utah. They had attached a note that said they had been waiting for his time sheets and didn't get them so they just sent him a check for the time that he said he had worked. I have to admit that the check was a nice surprise, but who does that? Who forgets to get their last pay check?

John has always had trouble turning in his time cards and actually getting paid for his work. I used to get calls from Maryann (his boss at Waterford) telling me that John had forgotten to turn in his time card and asking me to remind him. I'm just glad John works for the government now. Where he is taken care of and he doesn't have to keep track of his hours worked. Otherwise a huge portion of his career would be dedicated to pro bono work. Maybe I'm selfish...but I want the money!

Very Discrete

While we were in Salt Lake John stole a new set of stronger rabbit ears from his parents. He actually stole 2 pairs but these ones work best. The good news is that we now get CBS. The bad news, they couldn't be more obvious. Especially since we have to lean them completely in front of the book shelf to get PBS or NBC. Lovely!

Life Goes On?

Owen had his set of four month shots today (yes he is 7 months old but that is besides the point). When Ainsley used to get her shots it seemed like we took the day off. I would give her some Tylenol and we wouldn't do much all day. Today right after Owen was pricked we went to the park so Ains could play, ran an errand, and went about life as usual. He seemed fine most of the day but got a little grumpy this evening. As far as his check up went. He was only 30th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. A quote about a melon on a toothpick comes to mind. His height was right at 55%. So all in all a healthy kid, who doesn't sleep through the night. The doctor went through a list of things to try to get him to sleep, all of which we have already done. After a few questions about his sleep habits she decided that he just must legitimately be hungry during the night and needs fed......just what I wanted to hear.

Tai Pan

A little while before we moved I found my favorite decorating store, Tai Pan. I loved it because they had really cute things for cheaper than anywhere else. I took time during our trip to go shopping there even though I didn't really have any money to spend. I bought this cool iron wall hanging, that John thinks is ridiculous, and a neat vase thingy. I would have bought a lot more but I used self control and will just have to wait until we go to Utah again in August to do some more shopping. Now I just have to get John to hang up my newest find.

Our Real Trip

So I was awful about taking pictures on our trip to the grandparents but I did manage to pull the camera out a few times. We had a nice time. It was a pretty relaxing trip, nothing too exciting. This was the first time we have been back to Salt Lake since we moved. Ainsley had fun playing with her grandma, her cousins, and the doll house. Apparently we, or Santa, need to consider getting her one in the future. We got to hang out with all of the family that we don't get to see regularly anymore. John got to go to the book store he used to work at and came home with lots of books(I think that was the highlight of the trip for him). I got to have people around to dump kids on(the highlight of the trip for me) and I got to go to Tai Pan (post to follow). So all in all I'd say the trip was a success.

He Can Fly!

I wish this picture were a video. Then you could see the rapid up and down movement of Owen's arms. He has become our little bird. He flaps his arms all of the time like he is going to fly away. Ainsley would flap her hands when she was mad or frustrated, but Owen has extended it to his whole arms. He'll do it whenever he's excited or mad. It's very cute.

De Ja Vu

After twenty minutes of trying to figure out how to spell de ja vu I can get on with writing about what I was originally going to write about. I gave up on trying to figure out how to spell it by the way. I guess it's just one of those words that you hear all the time, and I know I've seen it written, I just can't seem to spell it for the life of me. So there it is, the title of my post, and misspelled. If anyone knows how to spell it please help me out. Or maybe I lucked out and that is how you spell it.

Anyways...today we are packing again. It seems like only a week ago I took Ains to dance, ran errands, did all the laundry, cleaned, and packed. Oh wait, that was only last Thursday! We have had a repeat day today. Except hopefully this time we will actually get to go somewhere, not just load up the car and then unpack it. I'm sure we will, Ainsley will be absolutely devastated if we go through this again and then we don't get to go on a trip to see Aussie's grandma.

Money!

Ainsley's sunglasses broke recently and she has been wanting a new pair. So today we headed off for the mall so that she could use some of her money to buy new ones (never mind the fact that we were really going to the mall to find her mother some desperately needed new clothes). I took her to the children's place and she picked out this lovely pink pair. She was really cute when she walked up to the counter and threw her money up on the counter with out realizing that she needed to give them the sunglasses as well. The sunglasses are so cute they even look good on Owen.

Haircut

Today Owen got his first real haricut. And by real haircut I mean I stuck him in the tub and tried to cut his hair as evenly as possible while he was squirming around in the water playing with toys. We have had to trim his hair before but it was always just a tiny bit that we took off in one area. Although his hair looks about the same as it did before I think he looks smashing!

Time to Kill

Since our trip was cancelled and I had done all that needed to be done, I decided John and I would get some painting done(along with several hours of shopping). Shocker...huh? I think he was really excited about the painting. We just got some color on more areas they left white. John can't complain too much though, the project only took about 2 hours from start to finish. Probably because we did it after the kids went to bed.

Our fake trip

Yesterday was the big trip to Salt Lake. I spent Wednessday cleaning, doing laundry, running errands, and getting things ready for us to leave. Thursday I spent the day packing. I even gassed up the car and took it through a car wash. The car was loaded with everything so that we could leave as soon as John got home from work. The cooler was in the car with snacks, Ains had chosen her movies for the road, sandwiches had been made for dinner. So why am I still home???

Well, it had been snowing on and off all day so I knew weather wasn't ideal. Then my dad called on his way to Twin Falls for a meeting to tell us to be careful because there were several cars off the road and that the visibility was awful. He even had a life flight helicopter hovering beside the road in front of him and didn't see or hear it until it was right above him. So then I started checking road reports and the snow was supposed to continue on through friday. After admitting that we didn't feel good about making the drive we finally called the trip off. So I spent last night unpacking the car and all the bags. Luckily John was able to take a day off work next Friday so we will only have to postpone our trip for a week. So I will get to relive yesterday in only a weeks time. However, we already checked the weather reports and things look good so we might actually get to take a real trip!