Baseball Time

John has been as giddy as a school boy about taking Ainsley to a baseball game this summer. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. I think since he knows he's not going to get to go to a Red Sox game this year a Hawks game will have to be the next best thing. So today John and Ainsley went to sign up for the Hawks Kids Club. For a mere $5 Ainsley now can attend all Mon-Wed games for free and on top of that she got a hat, ball, and water bottle. Can you tell that we're not in that major leagues here? I think the team might be desperate to get a few more people to the games. I guess Wednesday night is also $1 night where hot dogs, sundaes, and drinks are all just $1. I think John and Ains will have to take advantage of that amazing deal. I hope Ainsley actually has fun with John for the entire game, even when the excitement of the first 15 minutes has worn off and then there all of the sudden isn't anything exciting going on. Maybe Owen and I will join them in a year or two when Owen is capable of holding still for more than 5 minutes.

You Decide!

Last night we made some taco pizza for dinner. I always thought taco pizza sounded nasty. Like the frozen foods that make hamburger flavored pizza etc. But yesterday my sister told me that some friends of theirs had made them some taco pizza and that they loved it. So last night when we were scrounging trying to decide what we could come up with for dinner I thought we might as well give it a try. I thought it was delicious. I even thought it would be a good/easy dinner to make for company. John thought it was "gross" to use his exact words. Although later he claimed that it just wasn't as good as he thought it would be. Ainsley didn't like it either. So, I'm wondering what you think. If any of you are willing to make this and try it I would love to hear what you think. Maybe I'm crazy. I've had it for 3 meals now (seeing as how I knew no one else would eat it) and I still think it's good. So here's the recipe....

Taco Pizza

Pizza Crust (this is Jill Farley's pizza bread from college for those of you that remember her)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 C water
1 T yeast
1 T sugar
2 T oil
1 tsp salt

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water. Mis in other ingredients. Spread evenly on greased pan (I use a pizza stone sprayed with pam). Let rise at least 5 min.

Toppings: (Use whatever else you think your family would like)
Spread refried beans on the crust (any kind you like)
Top with seasoned/fried taco meat
Diced tomatoes (optional)
chopped green onions (optional)
Shredded cheese

Bake at 425 for about 20 min.

While baking shred lettuce and mix with sour cream. Put as much of the lettuce mixture on your piece of pizza as you want.

Magic Show!

Today Ainsley watched a show that had a magician in it and so she decided that she wanted to dress up as a "magic edition"(that's what it sounded like anyways). I missed the picture of her hilarious outfit that included her Snow White cape, snow boots, and a cowboy hat. She told me that she needed her bunny and a penny to do her magic show. The show required me to put the penny in my ear! She never quite figured out how to do that trick. She set up several bowls and baskets and filled them with random toys. She would then stack things on top of it or just put the lid on and then ask me what I thought was inside. Then we would look inside and see. The show was simply marvelous. The finale consisted of her covering her basket with her Snow White cape (as shown) and pulling off the cape so that we could all see what was inside. A magnificent show!

Crazy Sleeper

I have taken these pictures over the past three days. Each one was taken during a different nap. I went in to check on Owen the other day and found him in the first position. I thought it was funny and took a picture. Then I found him in a similar position the next day and thought it was weird. Last night I checked on him before bed and found him with his arm hanging out of his crib, wedged between the slats again. Crazy!

Illegal lotion

I have marijuana lotion! My mom gave that and a foot scrubber to my sister and I for helping with Syd's party. It's weird that there is a picture of a marijuana leaf right there on the front. And my personal opinion is that marijuana lotion works great!

Eureka!!!

Out with the old...

And in with the new!
My vacuum has had problems for a while now and it finally reached the point of no return. I have known that we would need to buy a new vacuum soon so I have been reading up on vacuums for a while now. I was originally going to get a newer model of my old vacuum...a Kenmore progressive. That was until I discovered that the two nearest places that Kenmore vacuums are serviced are Twin Falls or Salt Lake. I still can't figure out why Sears would sell a product in an area and then leave no way for it to be repaired. I was on the phone with several local companies and they won't work on Kenmore products because Sears won't sell them the parts at a reasonable price. Yet Sears only does repairs at certain locations. If I would have wanted to get my old vacuum fixed I would have had to ship it off and been with out it for 2 weeks. On top of that when I tried to talk to a serviceman about my current vacuum problems I spent an hour on the phone getting forwarded from one department to the next and then was being sent back to departments I had already talked to. I never got to talk to a serviceman, I finally gave up. Needless to say sears lost my business.

I ended up going with a Eureka which was just one notch lower on several rankings and over $100 cheaper. I was extra ecstatic about my Eureka when I found one at Costco and didn't have to have one shipped to Wal-mart. It was still and came with extra stuff like most Costco products. It did make my cart even harder to push around however. But I have vacuumed twice in 2 days, I love having a new vacuum!

Sunday Walks

Our family is incapable of going on a nice leisurely walk. I envy the families I see walking around the neighborhood having such a nice time together. I have always enjoyed going on walks, especially on Sunday afternoons. Walks were never John's favorite but it was easy enough to get him to go until we had children. However, he insists on knowing the exact distance and time of the walk before hand and gets very annoyed if the walking path deviates from the predetermined path or takes longer than expected. Once Ainsley was born the leisurely walk got a little more difficult. She didn't enjoy being in her stroller for long periods of time from day one. She wanted held. So as long as I carried her on me in a baby carrier we were okay. Then she outgrew those and walking became even more difficult. It usually involved a decent amount of crying, a lot of treats to keep her occupied, and toys constantly being thrown from the stroller (we lost several toys on walks). Now that Owen is here walking has become even more difficult, but not because of Owen. He is more like his mother. He will sit in the stroller for a long time and just enjoy being outside.

Last night the weather was perfect so I decided to make everyone get out of the house and go for a walk. I would say the events of last night were typical. We offered to let Ainsley ride her bike. She informed us that she never wanted to ride her bike again. She asked if she could push her baby in her stroller on a walk. I let her thinking we would get less whining. No such luck. The stroller thing was cute and fun for a while (probably about 1/8 of a mile). One funny thing about taking Ainsley on a walk is that she is very friendly at the beginning when she is still happy. She calls out "Hello" loudly and several times to everyone we pass until she gets a reply. After our enjoyable 1/8 of a mile last night the whining began. "I'm tired', "I have a headache"," my stomach hurts", etc. (FYI we have tried putting her in a stroller as well and the happiness distance is the same, but that way we end up pushing an empty stroller with Ainsley trying to push as well). We ended up putting her babies and her stroller under our stroller while Ainsley moaned as she wandered behind us. Interestingly enough Ainsley has ended up riding under the stroller in past walks. John refuses to slow down (that's a bit of an exaggeration) and walks about 10-15 steps ahead of us the entire walk. I get annoyed because he won't slow down. Ainsley continues to whine, I get annoyed with Ainsley. John gets annoyed with everything, the walk is going to be longer than anticipated now. Ainsley refuses to be carried except for a very particular way. I end up carrying a whining Ainsley on my back chasing after John who refuses to slow down. An hour after we left the house we return. Three annoyed people. But we did get some exercise. What a fun family activity.

Sweet 16! Shiver me timbers!

We are all pooped from the fun and festive birthday party last night. It was a surprise party and those are always more fun to plan. The fun part about this one was that Syd thought she was planning her party. We just planned it for the night before she planned her own. She sat with me while I made her invitations and then when it came time to print them out my mom distracted her and I changed the time and date. Kind of funny that she passed out the invitations for her own surprise party.

All day yesterday my mom, sister, and I worked on the party. My dad took Syd out to lunch and a movie while we decorated and got everything set up. Syd loves "Pirates" and wanted that to be the theme of her party. We combined it with a Survivor theme so that there would be fun things to do. Captain Jack Sparrow was nice enough to show up and pose for pictures. Syd was completely surprised! After dinner the girls did a treasure hunt and even had to dig up their treasure. There were pool races and diving challenges. A gross food eating contest where they had to eat things like butter, mustard, raw potato, and other random condiments. A tribal council meeting finished out the night where the girls had to choose their team winner around a fire. Kortney even made a pirate ship cake! They all seemed to have a lot of fun. I let Ainsley stay for the whole party so she didn't get to bed until about 11:00 last night, but you have to have fun once in a while!

Spiders Beware!!!

I just killed a spider and felt it pop. I hate that! I hate spiders. They scare the begebbees out of me. The bad thing is that John hates them about as much as I do. We haven't found very many in the house (yet) but it seems that our yard and garage are crawling with them. And they are big spiders, not little ones. A couple of days ago I saw a BIG spider crawling up the side of the house carrying an egg sack. I didn't have anything to smash it with so I ran to grab something and when I came back of course it was gone. I immediately went and grabbed the bug killer we already had and sprayed it around the entire outside of the house, even though it was an ant killer. I figure if it will kill ants, its got to kill spiders too. I was happy to see dead bugs on the patio later that day. Needless to say I have been a little creeped out ever since this little spider incident. Later that day a guy came to the door and was willing to solve my bug issues for a mere $100 for a one time treatment or for only $70 a quarter for a yearly treatment (it is hatching season after all). Since I am not made of money I have to take care of the problem myself. This Saturday's task (along with the regular yard work) is to kill bugs. Our fence, garage, and the perimeter of our house all need sprayed and de-cob-webbed. I bought a true bug killer, and while I was at it I also bought a spray to kill any bugs that might want to attack my plants. A fun task. Hopefully we will kill all the bugs....Do I sound morbid?

Charts

We are now officially a family of charts. The last time I diligently used a chart was when I was potty training Ains. I decided to break out the charts Sunday night when I was at my wits end and ready to pull my hair out due to the annoyances of my oldest child. Sunday afternoon she got the bulk of her toys taken away as a result of her disobedience and whining and complaining. A person can only take so much. Ainsley has really been testing her limits lately and has an excuse for everything. It doesn't matter what the task is she comes up with a reason that she can't do it. The most popular excuse is, "I have a headache!" She even used that excuse when my mom asked her what she learned in nursery on Sunday for being her reason she couldn't talk about it.

We are now on day 2 of chart usage. Ainsley now has 3 chores; make bed, get dressed, and pick up toys. So far she has done well. For each day that she does her chores she gets to chose one of her toy containers back. She also is trying to earn a movie outing with me. She has to hop her frog about 24 spaces. She earns hops by doing what she is asked the first time and being nice/sharing with Owen. She is doing alright so far. I'm desperate that this will improve her behavior. Hopefully soon we will have a much happier mother and daughter that get along instead of argue all day.

Father's Day

John has desperately wanted his own collection of syrup flavors to be able to make Italian sodas ever since we went to an Easter egg hunt where they were served. He has felt deeply deprived because since the introduction of Italian sodas to my family everyone has bought the supplies except for us. So, for fathers day I started John's collection of flavors. I have to admit they are very good and so easy to make. Just a little ice, half and half, club soda, and your flavor. John and Ainsley have already had several. I have a hunch the syrup won't last that long. Luckily there is a restaurant supply store located right by John's work (how convenient) that sells the syrups very cheap. I'm sure that John will be making frequent stops there on his way home from work.

Hello?!?

This can now officially be added to the list of Owen's "tricks."

Our Earnings!

This week has been the festival for our city. Last night we joined the festivities and paid an arm and a leg for Ainsley to go on a few carnival rides. We visited the barn full of cows, a few sheep, goats, a chicken, a goose, a bunny, a pony, and about 5o more cows. Then we went to reserve our spot for the parade. After being attacked by a man for moving the wagon he was using to reserve his families spot (I didn't move his wagon...I moved the chairs of the family next to him closer together so that we could fit) I looked across the street and saw families camped out on the grassy median so we headed over there. Not only did we get to sit on grass this way, we got to have our backs to the sun instead of looking straight at it for 2 hours. Ha Ha to the man who attacked me!

It was a lovely parade. Actually Ainsley loved it, she got more candy than I ever got at a parade, and I got a million ads handed to me. We got coupons, stickers, and temporary tattoos too. Someone even handed out bags to put the candy in. It was like trick-or-treating. A few times people would come by and just lay candy on our blanket. My have times changed. At the beginning of the parade every year they pass out chocolate milk (did I mention this was a "Dairy Days" celebration), at least they did that last year too. Someone passed out otter pops. There was an ice cream truck (but you had to go to the truck to get the ice cream so we just passed. And there were even 2 businesses that threw t-shirts from their float. Best part of the night...chocolate milk handed out at the beginning of the parade.

Bad Mother

Today we had a playdate with a couple of other moms in our ward. When we walked into the house of the playdate I noticed preschool looking stuff in the corner of her kitchen. I asked her if she taught preschool (there was a lot of stuff) and she said no. All of her "preschool" stuff was just for activities she did with her kids. Boy am I a bad mom. Ainsley is so content to play on her own and so imaginative that I take advantage of that and just let her play. She rarely likes it when I try to do any sort of structured activity with her so I usually don't even try (good luck to her preschool teacher next year by the way). What a bad mother I am!! In my defense, this particular mom claims that her oldest child required a lot of attention and hence the activities. She also feels like she is so structured with their day that they don't pretend play well. And she doesn't put them in preschool so she can afford other activities year round like swimming and gymnastics. Not that I'm justifying my poor mothering.

A party is coming!!

Syd's 16th birthday is next week and I got to make her invitations. Guess which picture is of the invitations??? The first one! There is a scroll rolled up in each bottle that is the actual invitation. I think they turned out really cute. We had a lot of root beer to drink last night to get enough bottles for all of the invitations. Syd wants a "Pirates" party. Hence the bottles of "rum" with a message inside. Right now all of the ideas are pretty big. For example, Tinkerbell descending from the top of the roof as the finale. We'll see how the party actually turns out. The bottom picture is just of a little book I made for guests to write in at the party.

A very unordinary Sunday

We had a very out of ordinary Sunday this week. Usually we sit around all morning, maybe get in some reading, I sometimes get some scouts worked on, etc. But for some reason yesterday John ended up trying to fix the fabric softener dispenser in our washer (which he did...with Ainsley's help). He also set up the tent in our living room. Not a play tent, our actual tent. Good thing it had never been used. We got it for our wedding and this was the first time it had been taken out of the bag. We are obviously huge campers. Ainsley was also particularly good at sharing yesterday. Okay, she wasn't good at sharing at all and that is extremely typical but I got a kick out of the new strategy of not sharing...laying on the toys so that Owen can't get to them. What a little genius.

After church (yes, we still did the usual church thing) we usually have a nicer dinner. Yesterday it was just grilled cheese and tuna. It even got a little burned. And then usually we spend the night at home alone (or with my family), and yesterday we were invited to a family's house that lives in our ward. We had a good time getting to know people and Ainsley got to have fun playing with other kids in our ward. Kind of a nice Sunday.

A bit of bragging....

I don't often include stories on our blog about John's work. I guess most of it is completely irrelevant to our family, and lets face it, once you have kids your whole life revolves around them. But there has been a noteworthy event that I thought I would blog about even though it will take a bit of an explanation for the news to seem that big.

Friday was John's last day of doing misdemeanor work. On Monday he will begin working on a felony team! Why is this news big you ask...because no prosecutor (as far as I know) has ever done that in his office before. Being a true government job any ladder climbing is almost always based solely on seniority. First you are on a magistrate team (handling misdemeanors), then you advance to a juvenile team, then you get put on a prelim team (a felony prep team of sorts), and then finally you work your way up to a felony team.

Needless to say everyone that John skipped now hates him. I'm just assuming that they do because I think I might. But I'm just excited for him. This whole thing is also kind of comical because ever since John started he has felt like he would never get to a felony team because there were just too many people that had to quit or advance for him to ever get there. And here he is starting on a felony team less than a year after passing the bar! (Now we are just hoping they remember how much they love him when raise time comes around this fall).

Our Little English Girl

John likes to talk in an English accent when talking about Harry Potter. He has taught Ainsley to do the same. She is getting pretty good at her accent. Actually there are only 2 phrases that she uses it for but we think it is funny.

Hair Troubles

When we moved here last year I had to find someone to cut my hair. My sister was going to a girl that was really good and also really expensive. I reluctantly went to her and she did a fabulous job with my hair. I just hated forking out the $35 each time I wanted my hair cut. Although I only cut my hair about three times a year I still thought I could do better. A few months ago my sister's beautician friend moved here. She was just cutting hair in her kitchen and only charging$12. I have been in desperate need of a haircut and decided to take advantage of getting a cheaper hair cut during the summer when I pull my hair up into a pony tale most days anyway. I figured that this way, even if it was a bad haircut it wouldn't matter as much.

Yesterday when I got home from my hair appointment my hair looked like picture #1. I panicked! I'm not sure how the back got so uneven. The front looked fine, but the back was awful. In this girls defense she was cutting my hair with 3 kids in the room (Ainsley being one of them) and I ended up holding her baby on my lap part of the time and probably wasn't holding very still.

I worried about it all last night. I couldn't come up with a way to hide the unmistakable unevenness. I had been told several times before I left her house to call if there were any problems but I felt stupid doing that. This morning I finally worked up the courage and called her. I told her about the problem in a very nice way. She felt bad and so I went back this afternoon for another little hair session. She fixed the back and now I really like the cut (picture #2 obviously). I have to admit that the $35 haircut is still better though. Now I just have to decide how much I want to pay for a cut in the future. FYI....it is very hard to take a picture of the back of your head all by yourself!!!

Blog time

Today while I was checking my email/blogging I noticed that the house was too quite. I usually take advantage of Owen's nap time and Ainsley plays on her own while I get some me time. Today however I found myself in a silent house. I went to check on Ains and this is what I found.

Animal Crackers

A few weeks ago this 3 pound bag of animal crackers was on sale at the grocery store. I thought it would be a good treat for Ains. After all they were low fat. Turns out they are a better treat for me. I am now on my second bag. Good thing they're low fat. I just pop a few in my mouth about a million times a day. I eat them for snacks. I eat them with my lunch. Sure Ainsley requests them occasionally, and Owen gets all of the broken off limbs. But it's sad to admit that animal crackers have become a staple in my diet.

Owen's first tooth...take 2

A long time ago Owen had a tooth beginning to jet out of his lower gums. I assumed this would be his first tooth. I was wrong. I won't be as bold this time, but now I think Owen is teething for real. We have the added effects of drool, snot, and a bit of grumpiness. Accompanied with a swollen lower gum and a completely different tooth slowly working it's way to the surface. The aforementioned first tooth has since disappeared. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see if all the grumpiness and discomfort will get us a real tooth this time. I guess it's about time. He will be 10 months on the 8th.

By the way...I just stuck the second picture on because I thought it was cute. Owen does a scrunchy face thing sometimes when he smiles. I have yet to get a good picture of it. He is looking down while doing the weird/cute scrunchy face.

Tattle Tale!

Yesterday Ainsley's tattling reached a new level. Her tattling began a few months ago when she was getting picked on and John told her that she needed to tell mom or dad if someone was hurting her. You would think this was a legitimate thing for a parent to tell a child. Unfortunately this was the beginning of Ainsley's tattling. She started telling on everyone about everything. We would hear about every little teeny tiny thing that didn't go precisely how Ainsley thoughts it should be going (okay that might be a bit of an exaggeration but some days it feels like that).

At a certain point I finally told Ainsley that I wouldn't listen to her tattling. This did not sit well with her. Her solution...tell the mother of the child misbehaving. For example, if child "A" was swinging on a swing that Ainsley felt it was her turn to swing on, Ainsley would tell child "A's" mother exactly what was going on. If I were to try and stop her she would then inform me that she was not talking to me. I'm still not sure how to get her to stop being the tattle tale.

I thought she was getting a little better because I haven't heard much tattling lately. Apparently I was wrong because yesterday I thought I was going to die laughing as she told on grandpa to grandma. We were enjoying the sun and swimming with my family. My dad was teasing the kids (splashing, chasing, etc.). At one point he took a toy or a ball or something that Ainsley had to tease her. Ainsley got very upset and went over to Grandma and informed her of what Grandpa was doing. I guess even children of that age realize who is the boss.

Learning

Ainsley learns things very quickly...when she is interested in learning something. I have tried to sit down with her in the past and teach her different letters, or show her how to draw certain things. When it is done on my time table she just acts silly, scribbles, and refuses to cooperate. On the other hand, when learning is her idea she sits nicely and tries new things with great effort.

Yesterday I got one of those rare teaching moments with her. She was coloring and figured out how to trace her hand. This sparked more questions. So I sat down with her and within 10 minutes she had written the letters A, B, C, I, T, Y, and D. These were all letters she requested, I had no say in which ones we were going to write. Granted she has known how to write an "A" for a while now, and she has attempted a "T" before, but I was quite impressed.

She then drew her first stick figure. She wanted me to draw Jesus. Notice the resemblance of the above "adult drawn"stick figure to Jesus. Then she proceded to draw 2 stick figures. The black one is holding a red one...if you couldn't tell. I have a feeling that Ainsley's current learning style resembles that of her father. That style being "very bright if interested". Hopefully this way of thinking fades as she gets older.