All my letters

I'm getting ready to go out of town for a few days (leaving the girls, essentially, for the FIRST TIME! AUGH) to meet up with wonderful college roommates! I'm excited to see old friends, but a little nervous about leaving my girls. Elise got my mind off it, though...I'm helping her color and practice her letters with a learning/coloring book she just got. I asked her about a few letters, and then answered it myself a minute later...she says, "You're very very smart, mommy. You know All your letters. I funny. " Yes you are, Elise. =)

Just when I was feeling pretty good....

I've been trying to figure out a way to write this for about 2 weeks without giving out 'too much information', but it's just too good to pass up....
I was sitting on one of our kitchen chairs doing something at the table. Elise came up and wanted to share the chair with me. We do this a lot, so it's normal. She climbed on behind me, straddling my body with her legs as she's also sitting on the chair. She starts giggling and lifts up the back of my shirt to 'count my freckles' on my back. She loves doing that, I'm not sure why...but again, this is pretty normal. She's counting for a few seconds and then starts poking my 'love handles'...that's nice, I'm thinking. Just what I need is a reminder that I still have a few pounds to drop...maybe I should dig out that Pilates video after all. She keeps poking- both hands on both jiggly spots...I'm laughing to myself at this point...until she says "Wook, Mommy. You have boobies back here, too!". Awesome.

Next Milestone for Ainsley...

Ainsley had a big day on Sunday (her 7 month "birthday", too). Not only did she officially graduate to a "crawler", but she also figured out how to get herself from her sitting/lying position to sitting upright. All on her own. It's so fun to see her excited that she figured something out and that she can get to stuff on her own, but it's also a nice break for me to not have to constantly re-adjust her and keep her happy. She's a lot more high-maintenance these days in general- throwing a SERIOUS fit when shes hungry, a toy gets taken away (that one usually thanks to Elise), or she just wants something HER way. It's a riot to see her face get so grumpy SO fast. Poor thing doesn't realize that her crying doesn't phase us that much and we can outlast her grumpiness...at least until she's a teenager! Here's the little crawler in motion:

Hanna-hype

As we cautiously watched the Weather Channel last week, we did a few little things to prep for Tropical Storm/Hurricane Hanna. We were pretty sure the storm would just pass, but we bottled some water and bought a few batteries, just in case. We met up with some neighbors around 6pm and shared a whole lot of appetizers, sports trivia, and a few adult beverages in Bill/Brandi's garage. The kids ran in the rain and wind like crazy and had a BLAST. The worst of the storm hit about 1am, just barely waking us up. Now we just hope that the same thing (miraculously!) happens with IKE! Here are a few shots of elise and the neighbor kids playing in TS Hanna. They laughed a lot and had so much fun.

There were about 3 inches of rain over the street...
Perfect for doing "stop,drop,and roll" in the street!
Taking a break for a few minutes and reading a book with Daddy...
Rolling like a ball...
The rain took a break, but the kids didn't! Is that a good idea to be playing on the electric box in a storm?! Needless to say, Elise slept well that night. =)

Grrr...

Always in search of a good deal, I thought I'd try the "Wal-Mart" brand diapers. Since we use cloth diapers most of the time, Ainsley only wears disposable diapers overnight (no matter HOW good a cloth diaper is, it can't keep her dry for 12 hours of sleeping!). So, we use 1 diaper a day. You'd think I'd buy the good ones for that very reason- a $16 pack of diapers would last 2 months...but, nope, not me. A good friend recently said they love Costco's brand of diapers, so I thought I'd try Wal-Marts....even though I DESPISE that place in general. I bought 80 diapers for $13 or something....Great deal! Not a great deal when the diapers are horrible. Three nights in a row she woke up soaking wet. I'm stuck with these lousy diapers for 3 months now! Grrr! So, for all those 'deal searching mom's' out there, DON'T TAKE A CHANCE ON CRAPPY DIAPERS. It's not worth it.

At the Mall...

The second 1/2 of the long weekend included a few hours of hanging out with The Andersons! Abby is a great friend from College (and beyond, of course) and it's so fun to spend just any time with them. =) They were visiting family nearby and the graciously took a little time for us- so we met up at a nearby mall so the kids could run and play. Their little boy Soren is going on 2 years old and is so adorable. He and Elise played well together and rode a mini-carousel toy for about 30 minutes straight. It was way cute. Here are some fun pictures....
So cute...

What a smirk!

Trying to get the two of us + the three kids to all look at the camera for a picture was next to impossible, but we got a few decent ones. It's always encouraging and refreshing to spend time with the Andersons and this was no exception. If only the Navy would move us to New Hampshire so we could see them on a regular basis...how else are Elise and Soren going to fall in love someday!?!

Ok, try to get all kids together...
Hmmm... 0 for 5 on this one...
2 for 5 is getting better...

Finally, all 5 looking ahead and at least somewhat happy about it! Yay!

Is it just me?

Does everyone else re-use the "Swiffer" cleaning things? not the wet pads that are mop-esqe, but the flat dry ones that you just use to pick up dust and (in our house) massive amounts of dog hair? Once it fills up, I get out the vacuum cleaner and vacuum just the Swiffer pad. Then I put it back on the end of the mop and, voila, a whole new Swiffer! I do that for three or four cleanings, then you can flip the whole pad over to the other side for another few uses....I figure that I really get about 6-8 uses out of each one. That adds up to several dollars over the life of the Swiffer refill box. Am I the only one this cheap!?!