Elise quotes...

Another cute morning of Elise-isms...
We've been playing tea-party (she says it's "hot chocolate" actually!), baking cookies in her new kitchen, cleaning up all the Christmas decorations, etc... for the last 90 minutes while Ainsley naps. Elise has said a few cute things:

"Mommy, the Christmas tree is all Nakey (Naked) now."

"I don't want Ainsley to wake up. I want her to sleep all day so I can play with just you"

"I save lotta lotta cookies for Daddy when he comes home. He loves cookies"

"Mommy, can we get another tree tomorrow and get ready for Christmas all over again?!"

"Elise, I think you are beautiful." "Mommy, I think you're a good share-er"

Christmas hats

For some reason, my mother and mother-in-law decided last year that a new Christmas tradition would entail everyone wearing goofy Reindeer antlers/elf hats/etc...purchased at the dollar store. It seems random, but is definitely fun. We continued it this year and We wore them on Wednesday night as we were all being "Santa" and filling stockings, assembling toys, etc...and then again throughout Christmas day, too. I think I got pictures of almost all of us (sorry, Nana!)...fun new tradition! We all look like dorks, but it yields good pictures, too.

Christmas stuff...

Along with everyone else, it's been a little hectic around here for the last 8 days with family visiting, pre-school on break, and all of us doing nothing but EATING 24/7!! I'll post pictures soon from Christmas morning and whatnot...it was a great time and SOOO fun with an almost-3-year-old! Elise "got it" more than I thought she would and it was a blast. Here are a few quick shots of the days leading up to Christmas morning...Ainsley sneaked over to the tree and was just pulling presents down one at a time...had the cutest look on her face as she played with ribbons and wrapping paper. I had been changing her clothes when she "ran away", hence the diaper-only!

It's just what you do, right?..

Following the tradition of probably every parent out there, we took the girls to get a picture with Santa this morning...Although I detest waiting in line for silly things ESPECIALLY if they interfere with naptimes, we knew this "is just what you do" when you have kids...so, we did. It wasn't too bad. We waited a little over an hour in line, ran into some friends, enjoyed the breezy 65 degree weather, and left with one wide-eyed happy kid and one screaming baby. =) Elise was BEYOND excited until she actually saw Santa, then got a little nervous for a minute or two. Ainsley (almost always happy!) wanted NOTHING to do with Old St.Nick! We got a few good pictures and Elise got to pass on her Christmas wishes to Santa, so we called it a successful day.

Bread Dilemma

Elise's 3 day/week preschool is so great! For her two teachers' Christmas presents, I had planned on baking them each 2 loaves of bread (1 pumpkin, 1 zucchini) and a $10 Starbucks gift card. A nice gift, but nothing too fancy...hey, we're in a Recession, right?!
So, I just pulled the loaves of Pumpkin bread out of the oven and the bottoms totally stuck to the loaf pan. So, they're only 80% of what they were, there's no "icing" to hold the bottom on or try to hide the issue...so I'm not sure what to do...
1.Eat the loaves ourselves and start over for the teachers (however, I don't want all those calories and it just took an hour and a half to make!)
2.Give it to them anyway and make a joke out of it...it still tastes GREAT, just doesn't look 100%. (I hate that it wouldn't be perfect...but I think I can get over it.)

Any opinions?

Ode to Daddy

Our girls LOVE their Daddy! It's so fun to see both of them LIGHT UP when Adam gets home at night or even just walks into the room. I don't know if it has anything to do with Adam's deployments and the huge amounts of time he was gone during Elise's first two years or what, but it's such a blessing to me. Ainsley giggles, wrinkles her nose, and smiles at everyone, but it's a special little smirk for her Daddy. I know they love me and they still run to me first if they're injured, sad, etc...but it's great to see them just overwhelmed with excitement and joy when Adam gets home...Elise has said a few times lately, "Daddy has to go to work AGAIN!? I miss him SOOOOOOOOO much when he go to work." Can it get any cuter?

No Way!

We just had an Earthquake!!! No way. doesn't happen often in this part of the country...that's for sure. I was awake making coffee, girls and Adam were still in bed and it was a huge BOOM. It only lasted about 5 seconds, but it felt more like an explosion nearby, the whole house shook, and it was very loud. I thought it was more of a sonic boom right over us or something...all the neighbors met out in the street and nobody had any idea what it was. crazy.
I think it's really funny that we lived in Japan for 2 years and only felt 3 TINY Earthquakes while living in the "Ring of Fire" (the most Earthquake-prone zone on the planet). But now we move to the SE USA and just sat through a bigger EQ than we ever had in Japan. It was a little fun, actually. But I'm a nerd like that. You can see on our "Favorite Websites" on the right a link to the US Geological Survey...click on that and you can see a cool graphic of all recent EQ's in the world. I check the site fairly regularly just for fun. Again, I know I'm a dork.

Big Helper...

We have a table in our front hallway that my dad made us last year. We use it to 'hold' stuff that's waiting to go upstairs and also to stow away shoes on the first floor... Ainsley loves to play next to it with all the shoes, so it wasn't out of the ordinary to hear her playing there this morning after breakfast. Elise disappeared in that direction for a few minutes and I heard, "Mommy. Mommy. Come look!" Hearing no screams, I assumed nobody was bleeding, but as I got close, elise informed me, "I Teached Ainsley how to make a BIG mess with shoes." That's what big sisters are for, right? =)

Ainsley says....

"Mommy thought I was ready to feed myself a little bit. I've been trying to hold my spoons and take them to my mouth, so she decided to give it a go....


click on the pictures above and you can see, in better detail, the incredible mess I made. Good thing Mommy put on the Japanese-made full-shirt bib!! It was perfect! I got a little oatmeal in my mouth, Gus the dog ate a lot that I flicked on the floor, and a lot ended up on my tray, hands, cheeks, hair, etc....We'll try again in a few weeks!"

Matching outfits...but that's it.

I recently came across a picture of Elise at 10 months that I LOVED, so I decided to try to "duplicate" it with Ainsley...since Ainsley wears all Elise's hand-me-downs anyway, it was easy to pull out the same exact clothes, throw her outside on the grass over the weekend, and snap a few shots. I didn't get it exactly right, but Elise had a tricky little expression to duplicate. So, here's the best shots:
(btw-I've done one every 3 or 4 months so far, and it's been fun to have them side-by-side on our wall...at the newborn shot, they looked VERY similar; at 4 mos, they were clearly related, but now I barely see a resemblance at all. it's cool)


Elise-10 months in Japan













Ainsley-10 months in USA

Festive Weekend

We got our tree this weekend, decorated it, put little goofy snowmen and things all around the house. It's been fun, and a little chaotic. I hate when my entire house seems out of order. But, it's fun to think that Christmas is just a few weeks away! Elise is starting to really understand some of it all this year. Her little face really LIGHTS UP when we talk about Santa and the presents...(we're trying to explain that Jesus' Birthday is the important part of Christmas and that Santa is just part of it, but that may be a little much just yet. She's not quite 3.) Either way, she likes to pull of the paper rings on her "Countdown to Christmas" paper craft thing she made in school. It's cute.
She's also adorable when it comes to decorating the tree...I thought it would be cute for her to have her own little tree that she could put her ornaments on. So she and I went to Target and picked out a little 3' tree. There were none left under the shelf so I took the display one off the shelf. Isn't that what everyone would do? So, she rode around the store with it for 30 minutes in the cart with her. I thought to stop an employee and double-check that I could actually PURCHASE the display model. It's only a little tree- 3' tall and $9.99. ...well...10 minutes later, after holding in my FURIOUS inner-voice, the employee TOOK THE TREE OUT OF THE CART NEXT TO THE TODDLER and walked away with it. Elise STARTED CRYING!! IT was so sad. That made me hate Target more than I usually do anyway. Grrr....I DID say, out loud, "It's ok, sweetie, yes, the mean lady made a 3 year old cry." I was so sad for her. I then went to three other stores before I found another tree that was suitable. It was all worth it at the end of the day when she woke up from her nap and got to put a few of her own ornaments on HER tree.
Precious.

Go ahead, laugh...

because I'm sure my neighbors are, too! After dropping Elise off at pre-school this morning, soothing a very-fussy-because-a-new-tooth-is-breaking-through Ainsley, fighting with my computer over emailing pictures to my brother, I decided I should hang our Christmas lights outside. Brilliant plan when you're already flustered and short on time! After 17 trips back inside, trying a chair then a stool and finally the ladder to reach above the front door, and cursing the fact that i'm going to have to go back to Lowe's today for more lights, I got it finished! All that in just 45 minutes (and I'm not kidding on the 17 trips back inside!). Of course, I was only decorating 6 bushes and arching the front door...but whatever. It'll remind me of Clark W. Griswold's masterpiece when we're totally done...I know my neighbor Jean was watching me and laughing, and I can only imagine who else saw it, too.
By the way, Lowe's (at least our Lowe's here) has ALL CHRISTMAS Decorations at 50% off already! So, for 12 sets of lights and a 7.5' douglas fir tree, our total last night was only $52. YAY. Gotta love that. Now I just hope there are some lights left when I go back this afternoon for a few more boxes...just in case we have to jazz it up a little more once we see it in the dark.
And also...I can make fun of Jean right back because they're "those people" right now with LIT UP LAWN DECORATIONS consisting of 3 penguins, 4 snowmen, a 4-car train, and 10 candy canes. We went for the simpler approach of all white lights...we're pretty vanilla like that.

I may have cried a little

Tonight was the local "tree lighting ceremony" in our cute little town, so we all bundled up and went to see the HS band play, local choir sing, and the whole town square light up for Christmas. It was a lot of fun and Elise LOVED it. Poor Ainsley was so bundled up she could barely move, but it was cold out! We're not used to 35 degrees around here.
On the way home, Elise was talking about the moon being out in the sky. Since we were heading home to sleep, her train of thought only made sense...
She asked, "Where the Sun go to sleep?" We told her that it just goes away to sleep. (not really prepared with a good answer on that one...). Her face lit up and she said, "I know. Maybe moon go sleep on the clouds!!!". She was so enthusiastic and so excited that she had come up with such a great idea! So creative and oh so adorable. I loved it and totally started crying...I'm such a sap!

It was JUST LIKE in "A Christmas Story"...poor thing! But she was warm!

Everyone had fun...we don't do "night outings" often, so it was a treat

Elise was very excited to be high enough to see all the lights and music