Thanksgiving Celebration

We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend with Clif's family. After work on Wednesday, I actually went and got a manicure and a massage...wonderful. Exactly what I needed. Then we just hung out at home the rest of the night. It was nice to sit and relax before running off for a very busy 4 days.

Thursday morning we drove to Clif's grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner before heading on to Northern Virginia. We got to visit with Clif's Aunt and Cousins and some of their kids.

Friday morning, Ainsley and I went to visit with my Aunt Linda, Uncle Matt and their two boys. Every time I see these kids I feel so old. I remember visiting my aunt in the hospital when she had the younger one and I spent a lot of my high school and college days babysitting and hanging out with these little guys. They are the only reason I know that a little boy will love to hang out with me! Now, not so little. They both tower over me. The oldest, Eddie, is in his second year of college. The younger one, Chris, is a Junior in High School. Where does the time go? This is how I like to remember them...

And here they are now...

Wonderful young men, but I miss those sweet cute little boys :( It's hard to believe that my kids will be that big one day.

We headed back to Nanny and Poppa's house Friday afternoon to visit with Cameron and Amanda. They gave Ainsley her Christmas present early...a brand new pair of boots. And not just any boots...Uggs! Lucky little girl.

Saturday we went to the mall for a bit where Ainsley got a new little pet at Build-A-Bear. The skating puppy's name is Sandy...because Ainsley loves Annie. This was Auntie Keek's present to Ainsley...yes, I have the most spoiled child on earth. What will she do when baby brother arrives!

Saturday night was the engagement party for Cam and Amanda. Ainsley had a ball running around in her pretty dress and twirling with all the bigger girls.


Mommy was very tired and had trouble keeping up with the little bug...who managed to go, go, go on very little sleep and very little food. The child was so distracted all weekend that she barely touched her meals and napping? Well that was out of the question.

Sunday morning Ainsley rode her Little Wheels that Nanny and Poppa got for her before we headed home.


Ainsley does not like to leave people and does not like guests to leave us. She was pretty sad, but stayed a big girl and didn't cry.

Then we sat in traffic and just vegged out the rest of the evening. Very busy weekend, but lots of fun.

Ainsley and Her Boyfriends

NOTE: I wrote this post about a week ago, but have been so busy that I never could upload pictures until today. I will post soon about our Thanksgiving Holiday.

Not only did grandma come to visit us this weekend but we got a big surprise when my friend Courtney from Italy and my friend Shanna from the Eastern Shore brought their little boys to play on Saturday! This was our best effort to get the 3 of them together for a picture. We had to bribe a few of them with fruit snacks.

Ainsley just loves playing with other kids. For awhile I thought she might be a loner because anytime we were around other kids she just wanted to play with adults or play by herself. However, now she just loves to take kids to her playroom and play, play, play!

She and Grayson did so well together, better than they've done in the past. We had a much better time sharing and communicating with each other. It's so cute how they have their own little language and seem to understand each other perfectly. We could hear them talking in the playroom, back and forth just like adults. They're such mini grown ups!

Last time Grayson and Ainsley played, Grayson taught her to jump off the ottoman. This time, Ainsley taught him to escape the baby gate and climb into her crib and jump on the mattress. Shanna, I apologize if Grayson starts climbing out of his crib. They seem to like to share their rotten little habits with one another.

Otherwise, it was a very busy weekend. I had 2 jewelry shows and Clif went to visit some friends. We are all looking forward to a 4 day weekend this coming week!

I Love Rock N Roll!

Recently Ainsley has discovered the iPod and the headphones. She loves to wear the headphones, turn the music on and dance around the room. Here are some pictures...

The kid loves to dance. Two funny things she does with dancing...both related to movies she's seen. I am a terrible parent for allowing my child to watch so much TV.

1 - She says "Let's go to the movies mommy!" That means she wants me to get up and dance with her and she tries to imitate the characters Grace and Annie from the movie Annie. If you can remember back, or if you have a 2 year old that is obsessed with that movie, you'll remember the scene before they go to the movies where Grace and Annie dance around as they're getting ready singing "Let's go to the movies, Let's go see the stars..." If you can't remember, here's the clip. It's pretty long, I could only find the whole song, but if you just watch the first minute or so you'll get the idea.



Ainsley will position herself on the ottoman or couch or chair and hang upside down until she falls on her head.

2 - She says "Mommy, my dance with Pince!" That means she wants to dance like Cinderella and the Prince at the ball. With one hand she will hold my hand and we'll sway back and forth. The other hand is strictly reserved for holding her "petty dess" like Cinderella does.



On a side note...Happy 1st Birthday Brinkley!!!

Introducing our newest addition...

I guess it's time that I start including our newest addition in the blog. Here are some ultrasound pictures of Ainsley's little brother...

I'm also thinking I'll have to change the name of the blog so he doesn't feel left out as he gets older. That will take some thinking on my part. We are very excited to be welcoming a baby boy into the mix, but I must admit that it will take some getting used to on my part. I have the hardest time picturing myself with a boy...and Ainsley is so girlie, that we'll have to do some serious shopping for the little guy if he doesn't want to wear pink dresses and play with baby dolls.

Ainsley went to the ultrasound and doctor's appointment with us. She was very excited to "See baby on a teevee" but then just played with the toys in the office. My doctor is the same one that delivered Ainsley, and the two of them seem to really like one another. Ainsley will just randomly interject a comment like "Baby bruder in mommy belly" while the doctor is asking me the standard questions. She's a great doctor and always acknowledges Ainsley's comments and always gushes about how cute and well behaved she is.

We are also in the process of going through toys and Ainsley, at this point, is more than willing to give things up for "baby bruder." We'll see if that's still the case in a year or so.

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...