Cute Kids!

I might be a little partial but I'm pretty sure I have 2 of the cutest kids out there. So... here are a few recent pictures to demonstrate this more fully.

I went in to check on Owen the other night and thought he looked so cute sleeping with his hand resting so peacefully on his cheek. I must admit that any sleeping baby is cute, well maybe not all, but most! Maybe they're so cute because they aren't moving, therefore not getting into trouble, and when they look that peaceful it just makes them that much easier to love.
Ainsley got to go to a primary activity yesterday even though she is still in nursery. She went with her friend Nathan while we watched Nathan's little brother here. While there she learned about pioneers. They churned butter, made race car snacks (we're pretty sure they actually made covered wagon snacks), and she got this cool bonnet that she insists on wearing upside down and backward like in the last picture. She also has a new thing about making faces in pictures. She was posing with her mouth opened like that waiting for me to get her silly face on film. Does this face look familiar Katie? Like mother like daughter I suppose.
Just a random picture of Owen tormenting Ains. Good times!
And here is Ains doing another funny face wearing her lovely bonnet "Ainsley style!" I wish I knew what inspired this face.

A book for Christmas

John sent me an email last week requesting this book for Christmas. Take a look!

A Conversation

The following conversation took place after lunch.

Me: Ainsley let me wash off your hands and face.

Ainsley: No! (starts running)

Me: Ains, don't you run away from me!

Ains: (Upon returning from her jaunt) I wasn't running away from you, I was exercising!


Clever girl!

Here are a few other Ainlsey words I have wanted to post lately. Some are current and some are old funny ways she had of saying things but I wanted to get them written down before I forgot.

narbles=marbles
mugis=music
sprinkles=sprinklers
pocapickle=popsicle
sunbrella=umbrella
waygoat=yogurt
kabashoe=barbecue

Small Acts of Service!

Yesterday we had a surprise visitor at our door. A woman in our ward had heard that Ainsley had been sick and so she picked up one of the young women and this Sprite from Sonic and headed over to bring Ains something to drink. It was sweet because the young woman that she brought with her came to the door and asked for Ainsley, which made Ainsley feel special. What a small thing to do to make someone else feel good. It's always nice to know that people are aware of you and willing to do something thoughtful. Wouldn't it be nice if we all took a few minutes to do a small act of service everyday!

***A note: Since the arrival of the Sprite I have had 2 phone calls just to make sure we were doing okay. I really love our ward! I often think to do little things like that but have a hard time following through. A new goal for me will have to be committing to doing little acts of service. "The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention!"

No Zoo For You!!!

Poor Ainsley had to miss her field trip to the zoo today. She woke up at about 3:45 this morning asking for water. Fifteen minutes later we had our first of several episodes of throwing up. I think it was a long night for all of us. Ains would yell, I would go in, there would be throw up everywhere, John would come in and get her changed and bathed (for some reason it was in her hair and all over her every time), while I changed sheets and did laundry. We went through 3 pillows, all of her pajamas, 3 sets of sheets, and 2 or 3 baths (I'm a little foggy on that one). She finally fell asleep at about 6:45 and she hasn't thrown up since. She slept until 10:45!!!! That is a record in Ainsley land...even when she is sick. Unfortunately, I didn't get the luxury of sleeping in so long, Owen wasn't as tuckered out as the rest of us. But he did let me sleep in for a while so I can't complain.

Instead of spending our morning at the zoo we spent it cleaning and doing laundry. Not quite as fun. It was sad, because Ainsley was most sad about not being able to ride to the zoo in Abby's car (her friend at preschool that we were carpooling with). I thing she was more excited about riding in her car than the actual zoo. Hopefully she'll learn as much from Caillou and Barney as she would have at the zoo. Who am I kidding, she totally missed out! We'll just hope she's not sick for the next field trip.

I am Special!

Ainsley made this crown last week in preschool. I love that she wears it around on a regular basis and wants to wear it on various outings! Wouldn't the world be a great place if we all wore around paper crowns with jewels attached to remind us that we are special!

Some random events followed by reasons I need a vacation!

I'll begin with a few random things. First this picture of Owen. He has discovered a love of stuffed animals. It's so cute. I just love the way he carries them around. It's always propped up under his chin in his right hand, and he usually squeezes them and rubs his face into it as well. John doesn't like it when he does this with any of Ainsley's dolls and promptly takes it away and gives him his more masculine puppy or Winnie the pooh. As long as his love of things soft doesn't reach "Sydney" levels I'm sure we'll be fine!
Next, Ainsley's new incentive to be good. I'm not sure if every three year old reaches points of defiance that bring their mothers to points of extreme anger and frustration, but this girl has managed to do it. Last night after completely losing my temper with her when she decided to dump the entire contents of her dinner plate onto the table I decided it was time to set a few goals. She is currently working on listening/doing what she is told the first time, and picking up her toys. I'm sure these will be common goals for the next 18 years. She gets to take a cotton ball out ever time she meets one of her goals and then we get a prize (probably a trip to the dollar store). "WE" get a prize because Mom's goals are on the back. Mom's goals are patience, and limiting time on the computer...I'm too much of a blog freak!
After our 3 battles of the day I wish I had made one of Ainsley's goals be "GET DRESSED BY YOURSELF IN A TIMELY MANNER!" I think Ainsley spent most of the day half naked or in her pajamas. Part of the problem might have been that we had 3 clothing changes today, morning, dance, and then back into normal clothes. I started calm, due to my patience goal, but I have to admit that about 45 minutes into our final clothes change my patience was wearing thin and Ainsley got a bit of a yelling. It's funny, well not ha ha funny, but Ainsley is really a sweet girl and so pleasant and positive most of the time, but it's almost as though she has figured out what makes her mother fume and pushes the right buttons just to get a reaction. She is only three. Could she really have figured that out already and be acting certain ways on purpose. I mean, you expect that from a teenager ( I know I was that way) but is this a rude awakening for me or merely coincidence???

WARNING!!! Long meaningless rant to follow....

So, on a final note, I have decided that I am in desperate need of a vacation! Not just a weekend get away....a vacation. I want to be gone long enough that I actually want to come back because I miss my children. The longest I have been child free since the day of Ainsley's birth was 24 hours. That's not long enough to miss the kids. I am taking a shopping trip with my mom and sisters to Salt Lake in a few weeks, but we won't even be gone a full 2 days, so I'm not counting that either. John's good at giving me time off at nights and letting me get out and do things on my own but I have reached a point that will require more that that to get me back to my chipper motherly self.

I think I have "over worked and under payed" syndrome. If that's not an official syndrome I'm making it one now. My nerves are shot, I'm tired, I'm sick of cleaning up mess after mess all day every day, I'm sick of running from this to that (although I must say I'd go more crazy if we were home all day and not running), and I'm sick of being under appreciated. Children the ages of 1 and 3 aren't the best at understanding when mom needs a break and being appreciative of all their mothers do. Come to think of it I'm not sure a child of any age is good at that!

Last night I had a complete break down because John bought some Raisinettes. Why did this cause a breakdown??? Because I hate Raisinettes and I was sure that if John appreciated me and was thinking of me he would have come home with something other than Raisinettes. I think this breakdown cements the point that I need a vacation! I want to sleep in, finish Harry Potter, go for days with out making dinner, or cleaning a single dish. I don't want to change a diaper for days on end! And then when I'm back I'll be excited to see my kids. Coloring might not seem so bad. Pushing a swing over and over might not seem like a chore. And I just might enjoy myself a little more.

If you would like to donate to my vacation fund I will accept all forms of payment!

FYI: I really do love being a mom and being able to stay home with my children, I just want to cash in my vacation days!

Star Light Star Bright....

John taught Ainsley that you can make a wish on the first star out every night. She has interpreted this as the first star she sees, which is fine in my book. She usually notices stars in the sky when we are driving at night. Every time she sees one she says, "Star light, I wish for a doll house for Christmas." It's really cute. Last night she also threw in that she wants her bedroom purple in our new house, I'm just wondering which new house she is referring to? So, I wonder if all the wishing will pay off and she'll get that doll house for Christmas?

Event of the day....

....Owen fell out of his crib. Come to think of it I'm pretty sure he climbed out and just had a rough landing. For some reason he decided that today he no longer needed sleep. He usually takes 2 naps of at least 1 1/2 hours a day. Earlier when I did get him to sleep he slept for all of 45 minutes. Not so great for a one year old. Especially since he has been crying most of the day, cried when he woke up, (usually I get a happy dance and smile upon awaking...still trying to get a good picture/video of that), and continued to cry for the following 2 hours. I decided it was nap time again. Owen didn't agree. I put him in his crib determined not to get him until he had taken a decent nap. Well, Owen won that battle. I heard the dreaded thud on the ground. The thud that any parent dreads hearing because you know that what made that noise was your child's body, and you are hoping it wasn't their head. So Owen is still alive. Unfortunately, his crib is already on the lowest setting. But, he is asleep now. After a large dose of crying, being held, and rocking.

I guess I should also mention the other noteworthy item of the day. We are celebrating my dad's birthday tonight. He doesn't officially turn a year older until Wednesday but today was the better night for celebrating. So Kort and I (mostly Kort) made him a football field cake for the big occasion. Pretty impressive eh?

And more paint...

Before...
After...
We finally got around to painting our bedroom last night. It was a long night. Okay, it wasn't that bad. I started painting at about 6:30 and finished cleaning up at 11:30. I love having the rust color gone from my bedroom but I hate that a room never looks like the color of the swatch you are going off of. I need to invent some sort of company that sells paint swatches that are true to the color. I think this is just a money making scheme to sell a ridiculous amount of paint for one room and force people to paint the same room several times to get the right color. Enough of my rant. I decided a while ago that I would paint my bedroom and the living room a shade darker than my hallways and kitchen. On the swatch the color looked like a warm taupe with some brown in it. On the wall it looks like a taupe with some grayish charcoal/hint of purple to it. I actually like the color for my bedroom, but now my dilemma is the living room.

My living room causes me so much stinkin' grief! We painted one wall in the living room last night and I'm just not sure I like it in there. All of my walls are connected so it touches the kitchen, halls etc. That's why I thought my plan to paint it a shade darker was genius. The colors touching would be just slightly different and almost blend together. I hate the olive color that is in the living room now, not because I hate the color, but because I hate where it touches all adjoining walls. It just plain clashes, and it's really bothered me since we moved in. I also didn't like the color enough to drag it through the whole house so I went with the kitchen (taupe) color. So now my options are limited. I can paint my living room the dark taupe charcoal color, the kitchen color (which is a lot lighter color than I wanted in there), or I can leave my living room with 3 varying colors of walls; olive, red, and taupe. I hate making these decisions!

And now that you all know my painting dilemmas you can feel free to leave advice, sympathies, or come over to my house and make a decision for me!

Guess what I did today???

It only took about 800 hours of trial and error and the slightest bit of neglecting my children and the laundry!

Climber

I found Owen sitting like this today. I didn't put him there. I'm still not sure if he thought to put the stool by the couch or if Ainsley set it there. Either way, I've got a climber on my hands. The most dangerous place he has been found is standing on Ainsley's table(we didn't take the time to get a picture of that one). I can only imagine the places I will find him over the next couple of years.

Nursery

This is Ainsley's picture from nursery on Sunday. I found it today when I was cleaning out my desk and papers. I forgot how funny it was. I bet no other nursery child in the entire population of the church colored this picture on Sunday. Ainsley's teacher's are Scott Galloway and his wife (for those of you who grew up with me). Scott claims that there is more discussion during coloring time when he is in charge of the pictures versus when they are given the traditional pictures. I think that Ains has the greatest nursery teachers right now. They always do fun stuff with the kids and Ainsley just loves them.

The great debate...please help!

Last year I made the effort of buying Ainsley's pants a size bigger so that she had room to grow. She then got holes in all of her pants so that by the time they actually fit her they were ruined. This year I find myself making the same effort. She fits perfectly into a size 4, but I think, "how long will that last?" So I end up buying her the bigger size anyways that I have to roll constantly so it doesn't cover her foot. Any suggestions that don't involve sewing or any work on my part??? Do you buy big, or fit to the current size of your child???

And so it ends......

Yesterday something happened that gave me the BIGGEST sigh of relief. I was called to work in the primary! This gave me such a sigh of relief because along with this new calling comes the release from my old calling....den leader! I should have predicted that a change was coming soon for several reasons.

1. Several months ago I was talking to a friend of mine, who happens to be in the primary presidency. She asked how I was liking scouts since it was partly her fault I was in there. I was honest and told her that it was very hard to keep 8 boys entertained while dealing with 2 crying children desperately jealous that there mothers attention was everywhere but on them. I also complained that it's hard to do things in my tiny house with 6-8 scouts, 2 leaders, and 3-4 additional leaders children (those of you that have been to my house know that once you get 14-16 people in my house there isn't much room to do anything but stand).

2. I was with some friends a few days ago and the previously mentioned friend was complaining that they have few reliable teachers in primary and it was time for a change.

3. I got the long awaited call requesting a meeting with the bishop on Sunday morning.

So I guess I'm an awful person because I am ecstatic at the thought of being released. I have to keep doing scouts for a few more weeks until they can bribe someone else into the calling, but then I am free. I'm sure that due to my completely cruddy attitude I'll be called back to scouts shortly!

Wrestle Fight

Last night, out of nowhere, Owen started wrestling with Ainsley. We haven't taught Owen to wrestle. He will crawl all over John and I like any other baby would, but last night he wrestled! So, maybe boys are just born to wrestle. I don't think I've ever met a boy (or man for that matter) that didn't like to wrestle. And on the other hand, I can't think of many girls that do (girls over the age of 8). Sorry for the cruddy dark video, apparently the lighting wasn't that great in our home last night. Also excuse our nerdiness, John is recording with the video camera while I'm recording with the camera. He has been determined to get more family videos to turn into DVD lately, and I'm a bit more obsessed with blogging, therefore we were both recording for our medium of choice!

The Purse

Ainsley's Grandma made these purses for all of the granddaughters a few years back. This purse has gotten lots of use from Ainsley. Now, however, the purse has 2 seekers. Owen has decided that he likes to carry the purse around too. It's very convenient to stick toys in to carry around. He doesn't always carry it around his neck. Usually he just holds the strap in his hand. I think it's cute...as long as he outgrows his love of purses!

2 Ainsley's!!!

When John and I chose Ainsley's name I was pretty sure that she would never have the problem of having someone in her class that had her name. Actually, I was positive that this would never happen. Well, today I was proven wrong. Ainsley started dance again today and as luck would have it...there are TWO Ainsleys in the class! What are the chances of that???

Preschool!

Today was Ainsley's first day of preschool. I am currently enjoying peace and quiet while she is away. I'm still not sure who was more excited this morning. It might have been me because Ainsley slept in later than she usually does and I had to go wake her up at 8:15 so she wouldn't be late. I can count on one hand how many times she has slept that late in the past year. She was very chatty when she first got up as I was trying to shove food down her mouth.

I did her hair while she was eating and we had an interesting conversation. She was telling me what she was going to do at school that day and how she was going to tell the other little girls that her name was Ainsley and ask them their names. All of this sounded great to me. Then she told me that she wasn't going to lift up her shirt and show them the diarrhea rash on her stomach. This made me a little nervous. I had no idea what she was talking about. I told her that she might have the wrong name for her rash. She informed me that she was right because that's what dad told her (I'll have to have a talk with John tonight). So now I'm a little worried about conversations that might take place at school today. Hopefully these diarrhea rash thoughts will leave as she is busy about her day.

Ains looked so cute as she went off to her class. She was being very timid as she walked in and saw her teacher (we went and met her teacher and saw her class last week so this was her second meeting) but I'm sure her timidness has worn off by now and she is having tons of fun!

Anyone can look like a professional!

Thank heavens for programs like photo shop and Kodak Galleries that make pictures like the following possible. I think I have mentioned before that I gave up on taking my children to be photographed at places like Sears, Walmart, and so on because I get sick of paying an arm and a leg for pictures that aren't necessarily my favorites. Where I can edit my pictures at home I can get comparable outcomes for a fraction of the price (like I just spent $7 to get all of my new pictures ordered).

I made John go with me yesterday morning to take some new pictures of the kids because he is better at getting good shots than I am and I am better at making them smile. So we ventured off to my parents neighbors (the Engstroms) yard to get some pictures. This yard was great for a photo shoot. There were benches, flowers, rocks, and lots of good places to have the kids pose. John took 83 pictures and we only got one decent shot of Owen and Ains together (where there heads were even looking in the same direction with out a crazy look on their faces) and a few cute individual shots.

While we started looking through the pictures I was worried we weren't going to get any pictures that would be good portraits because the lighting was bad and there faces looked dull. Luckily I discovered the lighting feature on our editing program. At the push of a button the kids faces were glowing like it was sunset, or all the colors were sharpened for a scenic shot. After some serious cropping and lighting adjustments I was pretty impressed with how cute the pictures turned out!

Duck Tales

Any of you from my era probably share the same memory as John and I. Coming home after school and sitting down to a wonderful episode of Duck Tales. I have yet to meet a person that didn't like Duck Tales (although I don't ask this question to every one I meet I'm sure I'm right). John has decided to share the classic shows of our childhood with our daughter. He bought the first season of Duck Tales for Ains as a gift "from" Owen when Owen was born. She has watched those over and over and John brought her home a new installment of Duck Tales episodes as well as the movie for viewing enjoyment this weekend. So guess what Ainsley has done this weekend??? Yes, she has watched a lot of TV and is currently watching the full length animated feature. I decided to pass on the movie, I just don't share the same love of the show that I used to have. Although I still fully believe that it is a classic. So next on John's list of cartoons from memory lane that will be shown to Ainsley are Gummy Bears. Another great show! Any other suggestions of shows that Ainsley 'needs' to watch?