Ainsley and Brinkley are BFF's

Ainsley has always loved her puppies. However, recently she and Brinkley have really bonded. She loves Gatsby, but Gatsby doesn't play with her like Brinkley does and Gatsby doesn't like to cuddle.

Most nights while Clif and I are cleaning up or making dinner you will find Ainsley running from one end of the house to the other with Brinkley chasing her...and Gatsby just kind of watches.

This weekend, Ainsley spent a good portion of Sunday in the crate with Brinkley. She was showing him her Disney Princess magnets.

The great thing about Brinkley is that Ainsley can sit on him, grab him, hug him, kiss him, whatever and he just lays there and allows her. Most of the time that tail is just wagging like crazy.

I'm glad they get to grow up together.

Beauty Treatment?

The other night we bought Ainsley a little Disney Princess wipe off board out of the dollar section at Target. She loved it. Played with it for a solid hour...which is really rare for her. She also did really well with it, and anytime she has a pen she'll say "Only on paper!" So she's a good girl about that.

However, I came home to these pictures yesterday. Ainsley had colored her little finger and toe nails black with the dry erase marker. Her poor little toenails still look a bit gray.

I asked her why she did it and she said "Petty donails mommy!" Well, I guess that explains it.

Story Time with Ainsley

This video is kind of long, but it's pretty funny. Ainsley sometimes likes to tell us stories after dinner...

Ainsley's Big Weekend

Ainsley had a BIG weekend these last couple of days.

Yesterday was Halloween, of course, and before putting on her costume to trick or treat, we went over to a neighbor's house and painted pumpkins. Ainsley had a blast doing this.

After getting our pumpkin, hands and faces painted up we threw Ainsley in the tub for a quick bath and then it was time to dress as a little fairy.

While getting dressed, Ainsley looked at Poppa and said "My wins, so my can fyyyy!" (My wings, so I can fly!)

She was really just too cute for words. We only went to about 10 houses, but that was enough. By the last few she wanted to be carried, so she was kind of over it. She didn't quite get the "Trick or Treat" greeting down, but she left ever door saying "Tank ew sooo much!"

After a good nights rest (and a needed extra hour of sleep) we woke up and got ready to go see Nemo on Ice in Charlottesville. We splurged for the good seats. We really can't afford them, but figured if we were going to go we should go all out. We knew if we got the cheap seats Ainsley wouldn't be able to see and she'd be over it fast. So we ended up right on the ice. And I mean it was us, a walk way and then the ice! I've never been to anything like that, and I certainly never get such great seats, so it was a lot of fun for all of us.

Ainsley was completely in awe of the skaters in their fish costumes. She sat and watched for awhile and then she decided that she should dance on the ice with them. Literally I had to hold her back. She really wanted to get up there with them.

She got a high five from one of the baby turtles...unfortunately it happened so fast that we couldn't snap a picture. But that was great for her, she was so excited.

I did catch her dancing in the aisle with daddy on video...

At the end of the show Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy came out to say goodbye to the crowd. Not kidding, I had to use all my weight to keep her from jumping on to the ice to see Minnie. Then, my heart totally broke when they left the ice and she turned around head down, pouting. I felt so bad for her to be so close to one of her best friends, Minnie Mouse, and not be able to hug her and say hi. Poor little girl. I literally almost started crying...I'm sure pregnancy hormones had something to do with it. But she was so pathetic.

Now we're home and have to go back to real life tomorrow. It's always fun to have a weekend full of make believe.

A Lot of Random Happenings

Two weeks ago we celebrated Mike and Carolyn's engagement with a big party at their house. It was a lot of work but so worth it. Carolyn and Mike really seemed to have a good time and it was a lot of fun seeing them with all their friends.

Ainsley especially loved putting on her "petty dess mommy!" and twirling over and over again. She really is such a little girl. She loves to dress up and watch me put on makeup and play with dolls.

Carolyn's neighbor has a little girl about Ainsley's age and they really took to one another. Kids are very funny, I guess they are just like adults. Some kids Ainsley gets along with so well and others she just doesn't care to play with. Luckily, McKenna and Ainsley loved to play with one another and pose for the camera.

Since then, I've been busy, busy, busy with the jewelry business. So far, it is going very well. I'm not booking parties as fast as I'd like (Shameless plug - if you want to have a party and get FREE jewelry, contact me), but I've had a good month. Mostly because I have awesome friends and family and they've all generously opened their homes and had home shows with me. Thank you to all of those awesome people.

Last weekend we visited with some of Clif's fraternity brothers and their families. I am a horrible picture taker, so I have no pictures of that. Clif is really your man with the camera and he was visiting with old friends...so no pics. But Ainsley had fun playing with the other kids. Another funny thing about kids...put them in their own playroom with all the toys in the world and they will write on the wall or push the TV button on and off for hours. Put them in some other kid's playroom and you can't drag them away from toy dishes. Which, she has, in her own playroom! So strange.

This weekend is kind of relaxed after a busy few weeks. Friday night we made Halloween rice crispy treats.





The chocolate melted and I don't think I put enough orange in, but they were still yummy.

Yesterday, we were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch, but it rained on and off all day so we didn't go. Instead we drove to Fredericksburg to visit with Clif's cousin and his new baby.

They also have a little boy about Ainsley's age and we finally managed to get a couple of pictures of them together.

After getting home we ran up the street to a local church selling pumpkins. We bought a few to carve, even though it was pouring rain - so no pictures from that little adventure.







So this evening, after dinner, we covered the island and carved away. Here are the results...

Cinderella's Slipper





Cinderella's Castle





And a ghost.

Ainsley enjoyed watching for a bit, but did not like the gooey ickiness of the pumpkin guts. She wouldn't touch it voluntarily, so like a good mother, I forced her for the camera.

I can't wait for you all to see Ainsley in her adorable fairy costume! You're going to die from cuteness! But no spoilers, I'll post those next weekend after trick-or-treating.

Baby Belly, Visiting Friends and the State Fair

So I'm not even going to make excuses for my lack of blogging...you know why...

Let's go back a couple of weeks. The last weekend of September Ainsley and I went to visit my good friend Carrie. She just had her second baby. If you've heard me mention Carrie before, you probably remember that her daughter Addie and Ainsley are only 8 days apart in age. So Ainsley talked about visiting Addie for days before hand. I was curious to see how she'd be with a brand new baby. It had been awhile since she was around such a little guy. She did really great. She wanted to hold him all day and she kept petting his little head. She must have like the way his hair felt. She'd kiss him and hug him. It was very cute.

My friend Shanna also brought her son Grayson. Grayson is a couple of months younger than Ainsley and Addie. I have to say the kids played so well together. It's so crazy to see these girls as moms now. The three of us spent a lot of time together in college and even lived together for awhile. It's awesome that we've been able to watch each other grow into motherhood and I love that I get to be around their babies, even if it isn't as often as I'd like.

Of course we never get pictures of the mommies, just the munchkins!

When I was pregnant with Ainsley, Clif took a picture of my belly every week and now we've got about 32 pictures of me getting bigger and bigger. Well, we slacked a bit this time around and didn't get started until about the 13 week mark. But we did start, and no I am not sharing those pictures right now. I just kind of look fat. However, I will share this very funny story. Ainsley of course had to have her turn, so here she is cheesing it up with her belly exposed standing just like mommy.

Too funny. She had us in hysterics. She was so serious about where she stood and how many pictures we took. She's such a little person with a mind all her own.

Finally, last weekend we went to the State Fair. We had never been before and thought that now since we have Ainsley and she's getting bigger we should check it out. We also got free tickets :)

She loved the carousel and the spinning apples.

We also got to see an enormous pig nursing her gazillion babies.

Those little piglets were cute and hungry. Ainsley thought they were funny.

Ainsley was very tired by the end of the day and barely made it through the last ride on the Ferris wheel.

Well that's about it for now. This weekend we head to Raleigh for Carolyn and Mike's engagement party. Should be fun.