Crazy Driver

I'm counting the "Potty Training basics" as being complete and a huge success in the Moseley household! It's been fun to see Elise do something new and challenging and to watch her TOTALLY rise to the occasion. She loves doing something that pleases us (constantly saying, "Mommy/Daddy/(another loved one) so proud of me on my potty".). It's adorable. One of our neighbors gave her a toy grocery cart as the big final potty present. She has been running around the house like an absolute mad-woman for a week now with the cart- let's just hope her 'driving' isn't a precursor for driving a car in 14 years! =) The poor baby doll gets thrown out the top all day long! What a joy. Also, Ainsley has really started to watch Elise's EVERY MOVE. She laughs, smiles, and just lights up as Elise runs past her over and over again. Elise stops to kiss her sister all the time and says, "Watch me, Ainsley baby!" =) This was Ainsley watching Elise zoom in and around with the Shopping cart!

10 Things...

So this is like one of those silly "10 ways to get to know us" emails or whatever...I got the idea from a friends' blog, I took the pictures, and here you go!

The Rules:
Take 10 pictures right away, NO CLEANING up first, and then "tag" three more friends:

1.Favorite Destination:
I honestly don't know...is that bad?! I love relaxing with friends/family and I don't really care where it is. I LOVED our time in Kyoto, Japan last year, so here's a picture of that:
2.Self-Portrait:
This was from the day last week that I painted one of the bathrooms..and apparently I bumped into the wall of wet paint...I didn't notice until HOURS later and elise woke up from her nap and told me I had blue hair!
3.What the kiddos are doing:
Both were taking a nap right then, but this was later in the day...


4.My Closet:
I love a great walk-in closet in this house. However, with no basement or attic, all closets are also storage rooms, so pretty cluttered. Any Miami girls...notice the top t-shirt? MU 1998 (?) Lax Spring Tournament... still wearing that!


5.Laundry Room:
Boring, but useful.


6.The Refrigerator:
The inside is a little empty today, so we'll take outside shot...

7.Favorite Room in the house:
The kitchen/living room is definitely the "hub" of the house and I love it! We play, read books, share meals, etc...all right here!

8.The Bathroom:
The newly painted kids/guest bathroom...I love it.

9.The Kitchen Sink:
It wasn't functional yet, so it was VERY clean.


10.Favorite Shoes:
I'm totally NOT a shoe person, so I go for comfort....my favorites are either REEF Flip flops, Chacos, or my current attire...running shoes.

Ok, so Casey, you're "tagged" (although Shannon Tagged you, too...)since you haven't done it yet, I'll encourage you also.
Also, Alicia and Julie...you're up!

Home Improvement, con't...

Never wanting to sit still, we (Ok, "I", Adam loves sitting still...) had new countertops installed this week, I did some MAJOR closet cleaning, and I painted two bathrooms...Here are a few Before/After shots of the kitchen. The counters are Silestone and such a KILLER deal that we really couldn't pass it up. They were just installed yesterday and Adam is still working on the sink/disposal hook-up, so we're dealing with no kitchen sink, but it's fine for a couple of days. The counters look very nice and upgrade the kitchen from the counters that I despised before. Now, of course, the 10 year old white appliances look dingy and outdated, but we'll get to them in a few months. Since they actually work fine, there's no real reason to upgrade that yet. Elise keeps looking at them and saying, "oooohh...so cool, mommy". She also loves the "dark purple" (it's periwinkle really, but that's fine, she's 2, bathrooms. It was a fun project to work on during naptimes all week. And, I don't like doing nothing...
BEFORE...they were a dingy khaki in color...

DURING...we saved a few hundred bucks by doing the demolition ourselves of the old stuff...that's the fun part, right!?


We did the Demo right before Trash Day and snuck the WAY OVERSTUFFED, Clampett-lookin' trashcans out the curb after dark so the neighbors wouldn't laugh at us...although our neighbors would love it. They're so great.
Now, AFTER...it's called "Ebony Pearl" and it's a gray/black with lots of variation of specks of gray/black/a few white....


Here's the upstairs Guest bathroom/ kids bathroom. It was a hideous faux-finish/sponge paint disaster with a floral wallpaper border left by previous owners...now, I love it.

P.S. In the midst of all this craziness and more, Elise is still being a Superstar with potty-training! 10 days and only a couple minor accidents! YAY!

Adventures in Gardening

BEFORE shot...April 15, 2008

AFTER shots- July 23, 2008
You've gotta LOVE the toothless Cabbage Patch Kid!


How great is this!?! When we planted our garden in April, we had two small Watermelon plants and were really hoping to yield a few fruits out of that. Little did we know that WATERMELON CAN TAKE OVER YOUR GARDEN, SIDEWALK, BACKYARD, etc...it's unreal! Good thing that the other plants next to it all died early on and there was plenty of room for it to grow. Unfortunately, there still aren't ANY Watermelons growing...!?! We're not sure what to do about that- any ideas out there? Here's a picture of Planting Day and another one from this morning-Hilarious...

Sisterly Love...

After about 5 months of life as a "Big Sister", Elise FINALLY wants to hold Ainsley and get pictures taken together. We've tried 100x, but to no avail until earlier this week. (I think, once again, it's the influence of 5 year old friend Kristina who LOVES Ainsley) and all of a sudden, Elise keeps asking us to put Ainsley on her lap, she spontaneously kisses and hugs her, etc...and it's so precious. Elise really is so tender-hearted. She gets sad very quickly if someone has an "owie" or if somebody around her seems upset. She's constantly hugging us, kissing us, hugging Gus, etc... I pray that gentle spirit and tenderness continues as she gets older.

Three good shots

Just thought I'd throw two quick pictures up that we took in the last week or so...both so cute. I'll post more later. I'm trying to finish painting a bathroom, clean the house, and prep the kitchen for the COUNTERTOPS to be replaced tomorrow morning! YEAH!

"big girl" Ainsley is now happily eating bananas, sweet potatoes, peas, and applesauce in addition to nursing! She LOVES food!
Elise STILL loves to play in the sink! On those days when I need to just stand still for a few minutes and "be ok with a mess", we pull her stool up to the sink, clean out the dishes, and let her go to it!
This was a little toy that she was working SO HARD to share with Madelyn F last week. I was proud of Elise...she loved the little doggy on a string, but was pretty good at letting Madelyn have a turn, too.

Pooping, Creeping, Sitting...all in a weeks' work

While Elise was working on potty-training all week, Ainsley has also hit some milestones in the last 10 days. At 5 1/2 months, she's able to hold herself up in a 'sit' position (after we place her there)-it's really more of a tripod with two legs and one hand propping herself. She loves to look around and see what Elise and Gus are doing, mainly. She's also started "creeping" - the little commando-crawl on her belly that precedes crawling. If a toy or book is just a few inches out of reach, she'll wiggle a few times until she can reach it! It's so cute. Yes, the picture below shows the Creeper in action- she got to Adam's shoe just in time to leave a healthy amount of spit-up in it for us. Hilarious!

ps-I didn't let her chew on the shoe very long...that's gross. But I had to get a picture of it first!

Overheard....

As the "Potty Week" draws to an end around the house, I'm ABSOLUTELY exhausted, but so thankful that Elise has totally gotten the hang of the potty- I haven't changed one of her poopy diapers since MONDAY morning 9am!! That's something to enjoy a glass of wine over. =) We've also had some VERY CONCENTRATED time together in the midst of that...leading to some of these comments:

Elise to Daddy during bathtime, "I had hard day, Daddy"

Elise to Mommy after nap today, "Mommy, my diaper hab tinkle". "That's ok, elise. You can tinkle in your diaper during naptime." "I know, Mommy. Big girls do dat, too"

After poopy on Thursday morning, she carried the 'training potty" to the bathroom to dump it, but first said, "Hi Poopy" as she walked.

As she left her breakfast to go potty, she turned back and held out a hand to the cereal, "Wait right here, cereal and nanas, I go potty now"

She's also taken to being very possessive of our family members, for example:
"I love My Ain-swee, mommy. She so pretty"
"There my Gus. He play wif me"

I know there are more, but those are the few that come to my mind right now. So funny. Coming into motherhood, I had no idea how much fun (AND SO HARD, some days!!) a two year old and another infant can be. I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Tourists, who us?

On Saturday while Erica F and Madelyn were here, we went into the Historic part of town and had a GREAT time just wandering around like tourists... we actually did get turned around at one point,

but still saw some AMAZING old-school architecture and gorgeous homes.



Ainsley and Madelyn were happy in their strollers for the 3 or 4 hours, just attracting attention from little old ladies wanting to "oohh" and "ahhh" at adorable babies. It was fun. Enjoy!

POTTY time!

Elise decided yesterday that she wanted to be potty-trained and she's doing it! After MONTHS of casually discussing the potty and all that goes with it, she finally agreed that it is a good idea to not wear diapers anymore. I wasn't prepared mentally or with the correct bribes in the house, but we made do. With ONLY ONE accident yesterday afternoon, she's used the potty almost 15 times in just over a day. Her first comment the first time she went #1, "oohhhh, mommy...it Yeyyow (Yello, with no "l" sound!)" . Funny that she hadn't made the connection that urine was yellow before. Her first #2 on the potty was this morning and that one makes me VERY HAPPY! Her comment, "woah. BIG One, Mommy." It was. With two suckers, new paints, several pairs of big-girl underwear, a glow stick, bouncy ball, a balloon, and strawberry smoothie as her rewards, she's LOVING this! She's so proud of herself and gets this fantastic look of BLISS everytime she starts to go....=) How fun.

A great week!

Erica and Erica with the "little ones" Madelyn and Ainsley

Since about 1992, one of my nearest and dearest friends has been Erica F. With the last few years of crazy moving, 2 kids for us, 1 kid for her, etc...we haven't gotten to spend a good chunk of time together to REALLY catch up. I'd only spent time with her 1 year old a few times and she hadn't even met Ainsley yet...so I was SHOCKED when Adam came home from work last Monday with Erica and Madelyn in his car!!! It was a TOTAL SURPRISE and I had almost a full week with them here! (Special THANKS to Matt for 'allowing' them to visit while he "bachelor-ed" it for the week). It was SUCH a great time and I'll stick pictures up here later today. I'm trying to figure out how to scan in some older pics from Erica and I, too. There are some great shots out there from the last 16 or so years of friendship!!! WOW. =)
It is crazy to think that it all started (basically) with the dance studio we were part of in High School, being college roommates, weddings, now 3 kids between us, and MANY moves, etc...it was so fun to encourage each other in all kinds of "life stuff" from parenting, marriages, careers, finances, etc...and go on walks, cook a bunch of meals, tour historic Charleston, and just spend time together. God truly has brought us FAR from where we started as friends. It's so cool and I'm SO thankful for any time with good friends, ESPECIALLY when it's almost a WEEK worth of quality-time. Madelyn is an adorable little girl who LOVES dancing and totally loves our dog Gus (who doesn't!?!). Elise was pretty good at sharing with Madelyn and gave us hope for how Elise will deal with Ainsley as they get a little older together.
Ainsley and Madelyn in Charleston at historic marketplace...

Elise and Madelyn in playroom...many hours spent on the floor here and Madelyn's favorite toy was the "Elmo iPod" that Uncle Paul and Aunt Jen gave Elise for Christmas. She used it like a phone and did a little shimmy dance every time the music came on!
Dancing Queen

The "little girls" playing together around the Exersaucer

Come and Visit!

I saw this on CNN.com this morning and was so excited!

"Earlier this year, Travelandleisure.com and CNN Headline News polled travelers and residents on what they like (and don't like) about 25 top urban destinations in the U.S. Turns out that people have some pretty strong feelings about New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, and other hot spots—we received nearly 60,000 responses."
There were rankings on 15 or 20 categories, including "friendliest, clubbing, cocktail hour, historic sites, lodging, etc..." and OUR CITY was listed #1 as "Friendliest" and #4 in "OVERALL FAVORITE AMERICAN CITIES"! How cool is that!?! So, come on down and visit the Friendliest city in America!

4th of July

Mommy and Elise in our Fourth of July outfits
Elise with her favorite "kitty cat lunchbox" that she took to the bbq! Right as I took the picture, I said, "Aren't you cute?"...this was her look in response!

Sorry this is a little late...We had a neighborhood cookout with about 6 families on Friday night. We love the folks that live around us...some really nice, quality people. =) The kids played well, we all ate some great food, and the fireworks were, well...fireworks. Not much to say..we watched the local Fireworks from our neighbors' driveway and it that's it. Elise and Ainsley went to bed before any of the fireworks started and slept through the whole thing...pretty uneventful really, except we all wore red, white, and blue and that was fun. Friday was also Ainsley's first day in the little Kiddie Pool in the front yard. I think she liked it. Elise has been BEGGING for weeks for me to put Ainsley in the pool with her, so I finally did. It was cute that Elise was SO excited about her sister being in the water "playing" with her.

My little Detective

It's 9am Wednesday and I just got Elise up. Ainsley is rolling around on her little activity mat and Elise is "playing with her"...(sitting next to her while watching a cartoon). Elise just came over to me to report, "Ain-swee tooted, mommy." I replied, "Oh, she did. Thanks for telling me, sweetie." "Sounds like it's poopy, mommy." Love it. The discerning ears of a 2 year old are great!

Our Gremlin...

At 5 months (today!), Ainsley is doing well and is such a blessing. So this weekend, when she started GROWLING at us, we were a little shocked. According to my neighbor with four kids, it's totally normal, but we can't stop laughing. Ainsley GROWLED all weekend....a deep, gutteral, animal-like sound. She's laughing and smiling the whole time, but we keep looking around for what creature is threatening us...it's so funny!

"Nah-a-wee"

We had some wonderful friends in town on Thursday/Friday and Elise has a new best friend! Natalie and Brent Twombly got married just 2 weeks after Ainsley was born and I was honored to be Matron of Honor for them at the GORGEOUS event in St.Augustine, FL. This time they were up in our neck of the woods and we shared a great Japanese meal with them, just hung out a bunch, Brent and Adam played poker with the neighborhood men (no kilts this time, just FYI!), and had a great visit. Elise REALLY took to Natalie and couldn't get enough of her! We heard OVER and OVER again, "Nah-a-wee, come play in my playroom", "Nah-a=wee, read me book wif me", "Nah-a-wee, ready not, here I come" (hide and seek). It was a riot and although Elise didn't smile well for a picture, but she was so happy to have them come and play! Come back anytime, Natalie and Brent! We loved it. =)
Here's a pic from their wedding, just b/c Natalie was so beautiful!

And the winner is....

THANKS for the 7 actual votes we got on the 'comparative photo' of the girls. Although all 7 votes were for the same picture, I took some more yesterday to try to get one a little better, and I succeeded. Thanks anyway for your votes. Here's the winner- ELISE on bottom, AINSLEY on top.

This picture didn't mimic the one of elise very well, but it is classic for Ainsley. We see this look all day every day...so, I included it just for you all to enjoy.