Sweet picture

I took this of Elise yesterday while we were just playing around the house...she really has developed the cutest smile and I love how this captured her freckles, too! She used to smile with SO MUCH effort that her eyes were pretty much closed, but her 'developing smile' is now so adorable...even with the dead tooth. =) If you click on the picture of Elise and blow it up a little, you can see that she only has freckles on the left side (her left side) of her face. I don't know why, but I think that's the cutest thing ever...

This was Ainsley around the same time yesterday...she was actually trying to walk around in my shoes and it was hilarious. She fell a few times and just giggled, but my big old clunky shoes on her little 1 year old feet were adorable. I'll find another cute one to post.

I'm also finally updating their profile pictures on the right of the blog...it's been about 6 months.

Random stuff...

I can't really think of much to blog about these days...but I've gotten a few complaints about not having a recent blog up here...uh, sorry. Let's see, what's going on?
*Elise's "dead tooth" (as you can see in ANY picture we have of her on here- she smashed it against the rail of her crib when she was 2 and it's been a dead black tooth since.) Anyway, she's had a few infections show up in the gum around that tooth lately, so we got a referral to a pediatric oral surgeon. He was GREAT and we're heading back in 2 weeks for some minor surgery for her. They'll do some stuff under a heavy sedative (but not general anesthesia) and it'll be able to save the tooth, 'whiten' it some, and prevent further infections. So that's good. I'm not excited about any type of sedation or surgery for her, but I think it'll be good in the long run.
*I'm 25 weeks pregnant and feel HUGE. Seriously, I have no idea how I'll last until late August/early Sept at this rate. This pregnancy has definitely been the hardest on my body, but I don't know if I can blame that on the fact that I got pregnant before Ainsley was even a YEAR old, maybe b/c it's a boy and that's just different, or b/c we live in a hot, sticky, humid swamp and this is the only "end" of the pregnancy of mine during the summertime. Whatever the cause, it's been a little rough. But we're very excited that baby is healthy and growing well...it's just me that's suffering a bit. I guess that's the price we pay to be a mommy.
*It's almost time to start seriously considering houses in our next city, Roanoke, VA. We've got a great Realtor there who's sending us listings weekly, but it's always tough to find a house via pictures and MLS descriptions. Plus, we have to decide what to do with our current home and the one we own and are renting in Florida. Hmmmm...anyone moving to JAX and want a great little house to rent/buy?!
*Ok, my girls are both waking up a little early this morning, so I should go and get the day started...see, I told you our lives are pretty boring. That's why I haven't blogged lately. You probably just wasted 4 minutes of your life reading this and are dying of boredom. Sorry. Here's a couple cute pictures to redeem the posting a little:

Elise's last day of preschool as a "Monkey"...she wanted to pose with Ainsley and then Gus...they weren't as excited as she was!

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

We kept Mother's Day pretty low-key (as we do most holidays) and it was a lot of fun. I got to sleep in a little, opened two fun presents from Adam and the girls, and then we all headed to Wal-Mart. I despise Wal-Mart, by the way. I hate the crowds, a lot of not-so-smart people all together in one place, the always-busy parking lot, etc....but sometimes you have to go there when you live in a relatively small town in the South. The "BIG" present for Mother's Day was a decent backyard kiddie pool. Doesn't sound all that exciting at first, I know, but it really will be "the gift that keeps on giving" around here. Being about 6 months pregnant now, having a 3 and 1 yr old, and just starting the insanely hot and humid SC summer, I had to have something easy to entertain the kiddos all summer long. So, we opted to move the patio furniture off the deck, put down the carpet squares that covered our floors in Japan, and turn the backyard into the main play area. I'm SOOOO pleased with the result! Elise loves playing in the water, but the other little pools we had required inflating and deflating each day, they got filled with grass in the front yard that they were disgusting, and they kept getting holes in them (probably b/c they were $12 pools...). It was exhausting to spend 1/2 of the girls' naptimes inflating, filling with water, dragging chairs out front, etc...and then sitting in the 100 degree afternoon heat on the front of the house! So this was our great solution! I feel very blessed being a mom to these girls (and the little boy in utero!)! It was a great Mother's Day.

Daddy and the girls working hard to set it up. Adam calls this Ainsley's "Jane Fonda" look.

Elise LOVES to use Adam's air compressor air gun to inflate things.

We even "splurged" on the $15 Little Tikes slide to go inside the pool! They love it.

It only took Elise about 10 minutes to figure out she could do this! She is my kid after all...

Gymnastics, con't...

Elise's second gymnastics class at the YMCA was today and she was, once again, on cloud nine afterwards. So, we came home and made our own balance beams in the front yard. Good thing Adam keeps some 2x4's around...Elise and Kristina each had one (equal lengths so nobody got upset!) and then Ainsley needed one. Hilarious. So, I found a shorter 2x4 in Adam's scrap pile...they all loved it! We did side-stepping, marching, jumping, walking on toes, etc...In the top picture below, Elise is showing her "finish" pose. I'm not sure if we have the next Shawn Johnson or not, but she did have a lot of fun.

Time is flying by...

I've gotten a few requests to keep updating "pregnancy profile" pictures, so here's one from this weekend...almost 23 weeks along and feeling like I should already be 30+ weeks. I guess that's what happens with #3...all is going well. Elise has gotten used to the fact that it's going to be a little brother and she even puts her head on my tummy sometimes to "listen to HER baby boy", as she says. So, there's the picture...ignore the frizzy hair- it's summer in the swamps of South Carolina- there's nothing I can do about it!!

"Nim-nax-nicks" for Louise...

For MONTHS, we've said, "We should really get Elise into a Gymnastics class or something. She has SOOO much energy and I think would just love it." And then we get busy with life and 6 months goes by... We tried "The Little Gym" once about a year ago and it was GREAT, but just a little expensive for my taste. So, FINALLY, I signed Elise up for a preschooler gymnastics class at the YMCA and our first class was Monday afternoon.
SHE LOVED IT! She talked about it all day Sunday, couldn't nap b/c she was GIDDY after school on Monday, and we headed up there a little early to let her see what the other kids were doing, sign some papers, etc...and she was literally bouncing up and down for the extra 15 minutes...it was adorable.
They did 45 minutes of floor, balance beam, rings, trampoline, and swinging on the bar. It was adorable to watch Elise in a crowd of strangers like that. She is such a good listener and really was working hard to follow directions, take turns, etc...I was a very proud mommy! Her teacher asked her name when they started and since she's not so great at "L" sound, "Elise" sounded like "Louise"...so, the teacher called her Louise the whole time! I didn't realize it until the end, but I guess she just responded to "Louise" for the whole class. Hilarious. =) As long as the lady let her keep running, bouncing, and swinging, I guess it didn't matter what she was called.
She also cried about 3x in the next 2 hours at home b/c she didn't want it to be over. She can't wait until next week, too! It was fun.
Here are a few pictures...I got reprimanded by one of the teachers b/c I took them- "the flash could be a safety hazard" was what the 15 year-old told me. Really? We're concerned with the 3 year olds being blinded by the flash during their "sit on your bottom and side off the beam" dismount? Sure...


Bounce on the springboard and do a somersalt onto the big pit...she did great!

Cutest clothes EVER

Thanks to Aunt Amanda for two great new outfits!!! You can see how happy Ainsley is about her new little get-up. Just this morning, I heard, "What an adorable outfit on her...where did you get it?!" at least 7 times. That was just at the doctors office and the grocery store. It was fun.

When Ainsley saw the camera coming out, she backed up against the wall just like Elise does to get her picture taken in an especially cute outfit! So cute. As soon as I took it, she (totally on her own!) waddled over to look at the back of the digital camera to see her picture!!! Hilarious. How smart is she to know that at almost 15 months?!

This is Elise's new dress. She wore it last night, wanted to sleep in it (I said "no" to that one!), and then insisted on wearing it to school today! (today had the extra bonus of pink knee-high rainboots with it). Her teacher told me at the end of school today that she caught elise looking at her dress in the mirror all day- twirling around, fluffing it up, etc...hilarious.


This was a few days ago- the bedhead was cute...that's all I was taking the picture for!