WE KNOW AINSLEY DOESN'T HAVE MUCH HAIR...

Look at that smile! So precious!

No, people, she's never had a haircut. Yes, I often try to put bows, headbands, clips, etc...in her hair. She pulls it out immediately. She's stubborn like that. She also is starting to have an opinion in her clothing for the day. I think that's fun so I let her 'help' pick out clothes or socks...but the number of times I hear "that's a good looking little boy you've got there" (aimed at Ainsley, not Mitchell!) is astonishing. When it's a cute old man says it, no problem. I'm totally fine with that. But when Ainsley was in THIS outfit last Thursday at the grocery store and was doted on by four or five people about what a "cute little guy" she was, I had to speak up. Two of those were women who should've known better, it's called "visual clues", ladies. I corrected a few of the women, and they seemed to feel a little bad. I was ok with that. It doesn't really upset me, but it just gets annoying. I also love it when the Wal-Mart greeter says, "you know if you put a barrette in her hair, then she would look more like a girl." Thanks.

This is just a sweet picture of her to redeem the crazy outfit and goofy smile from the pictures above. =)

I love pigtails...

This was almost 18 months ago when Elise was FINALLY starting to get some hair! It's amazing to me that BOTH girls have been basically bald until 2+ years old...how is that possible with all the hair on MY head? Anyway, I love this expressionas much I love those pitiful little pigtails...


This shot I took just this weekend and it's precious, too. She LOVES her "long, long hair" now and enjoys smiling for the camera just as much as she used to! =) Amazing to see how much she's changed in under two years! wow...
this picture is a little dark. sorry. just click on it to enlarge it and you can see better...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I can't believe Elise is FOUR years old...it seriously seems like we just got back from Japan and she should be 2. Not a big kid who is four, totally has a personality, and says the funniest things around! A new thing is to put hands on hips, throw one hip out to the side, and roll her eyes...I mean, really?! Not necessary my favorite 'attitude', but a total riot. Apparently, she entertains her teachers at school, too, because they've commented more than once that "she's a great addition to the class, very mature, and quite the comedian..."! HA. I love it.
I didn't want to plan a party b/c I can't handle the pressure. The party-anxiety is all my "issue", I know, so I took advantage of her little preschool and just did a party there for her! She kept insisting that she didn't want cupcakes, but PURPLE DONUTS! How does she even know what donuts are?! Did she see me sneaking them after EVERY one of my OB checkups during Mitchell's pregnancy? I thought she didn't see any of those?! whatever...

So, I ordered purple donuts from the Kroger Bakery (!)- they asked several times, "Purple?! Really? Not pink or white for a little girl?" No, people. She loves purple. Any shade.... We put together gifts of crazy straws and little blowing horns, and that was it. I took it all to school and Elise was in heaven. She was so happy that she got donuts, juice, and that all her "friends" sang Happy Birthday twice!! It was sweet. Adam was at work, of course, so I was juggling the other two kids as well, but we survived. I'm pretty sure Ainsley just wondered around the room and took sips of any Capri-Sun that wasn't being consumed. I saw her drinking off a few at least! How nobody got sick is amazing...

I also decorated the kitchen for her, we played special games (just Elise and Mommy) during rest time, and then she opened presents and had candles in her pizza for dinner. She was happy and felt celebrated for sure. That's what matters, right?! We love you so much, Elise, and you're a JOY in our family!!!

Cute stinker...

Here are two quick pics of Mitchell, who's now 4 months old. Where does time go!?! what you can barely tell from these is that he was naked from waist down (due to some diaper rash issues, he's 1/2 naked a lot!)...as we were taking one of these, he pooped! Unknown to us for a couple minutes, we were trying to get him to smile, laugh, etc...and were a little confused when he wasn't his usual happy self. Maybe because he was smooshing around in his own feces..that's why we constantly have a couple blankets under him. =) HAHAHA... He's adorable.




And, FYI...CHECK OUT THOSE EARS!!!!! Mitchell clearly has one "Moseley" ear (his right- it definitely sticks out way more than the Left "Martin" ear...). We don't say one is "better" than the other, just different...

Update...

Well, we're still fighting wolves (who've also created fear at afternoon 'rest time' too, now!), but things are better than they were this weekend. After four nights of total misery (90% of it being shouldered by Adam- he's the greatest!), we've figured out a few minor solutions.
-Reasoning isn't working. I guess she's just too young to understand most of it (although we thought the opposable thumbs argument was a real winner!).
-She has 2 magic 'no wolf' wands in her bed with her now. Before nap/bed, we walk around the room waving the wand, checking under beds, in drawers, closet, etc... and 'wave away' any wolves.
(she looks in places like INSIDE her shoes...if a wolf was really that small, is it worth being scared of?! I decided not to tell her that wolves are WAY bigger than that...probably wouldn't have helped in the long run).
-A lot of people have suggested some 'wolf spray' (water in a squirt bottle) that we'd let her spray around the corners of room, window, doorway, etc...but I feel like that goes against the fact that we've said wolves don't live anywhere near here and can't even get into our house...but since she doesn't seem to follow our logic anyway, maybe it wouldn't hurt at all. not sure...
-Our best bet has been to let her fall asleep with her door open. No extra lights on, nobody in there cuddling with her (I just feel like that could lead to more dependency on us 'helping her to fall asleep' in the long run. We're SO NOT "family bed" people...), just letting her hear us a little bit and not feeling too confined seems to help. I'm sure we'll have to fight another battle of closing her door at some point, but for now this is helping. =) As soon as she falls asleep, we close the door and she slept fine the last two nights after that...

So, we'll see. Thanks for all the help, prayer, and suggestions! Once again, I LOVE the wisdom of other moms and am so thankful for this crazy internet thing that lets us 'network' in ways that are really helpful to me!!

Next blog...ELISE IS FOUR YEARS OLD NOW! =)

"NO WOLVES ANYWHERE!"

My heart is breaking a little for Elise right now and, for maybe the first time in our journey as parents, we can't just hug her and make something better or just FIX IT. We THINK it all started Thursday night when Adam read her a book before bed. It was a 'Frog and Toad' book- simple, cute little stories, nothing scary (we thought!). There was one line that said 'a wolf was chasing Frog and Toad, but they were brave and it didn't catch them' or something like that. That's it.
And that one sentence has completely rocked her world. We can't figure it out. She woke up that night 3 or 4 times and called for us to help. Adam went in and she said she had a bad dream about wolves. We kind of dismissed it because she's had 'scary dreams' before and she usually forgets about it the next day...but this hasn't been dropped. She's convinced that there are wolves in her room. We've never seen a wolf.

It makes me sad that she's so frightened that she's literally TREMBLING when it's bedtime. It's not the fake 'let me ask a million questions to stall". She really is scared that there's something in her room. And it kills us that this is a 'new' kind of scared for her. It's all emotional based. We can't hold her hand through a set of shots (did that this week, too!) and then it's over. Adam spent 30 minutes in with her last night and is up there again now. They've walked around the room to make sure there's nothing in there. We 'reasoned' with her that 1.wolves don't live in this state 2.They can't open the door b/c they don't have opposable thumbs, 3.they don't like being inside and 4.They can't go up stairs (ok, they probably could do that, but whatever...) 5. They live in far away forests near Santa, 6. They are friends with Santa, 7. They are friends with the reindeer, 8. They play with bears. NONE of that seems to be helping. We really want to cuddle with her, rub her back, and hold her until she falls asleep, but we know that's not the best answer...she needs to get herself to sleep and learn that there isn't anything in her room.
It almost hurts my pride a little just b/c I want her to trust me. I know she can't reason that deeply, but I want her to know that anything/everything I do is to help and protect our kids. I want her to hear us say, "There are no wolves" and then it's over.
At bath time, she was even scared to go in her room to get her jammies b/c the light wasn't on yet. She's NEVER done anything like this- she usually runs ahead of me up the steps, into a dark closet and hides until I find her. So, I guess we just try talk her through it, be patient when we're sick of going in for the 5th time in 15 minutes, and pray that it'll just pass. I want her to crash into bed and fall asleep within seconds like she usually does...and until then we'll keep listening to her yelling/ crying "No Wolves Anywhere..." and try not to cry a little myself. augh. parenting is hard.
As always, any and all advice is welcome!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I know I'm behind (once again!) on this posting, but I told myself that I couldn't update the blog until I'd sent out all our Thank You notes...the mailman took those just an hour ago, so now I can move on to updating pictures and whatnot on here...
Christmas was so much fun this year! I guess that's how it goes for a few years- as long as "Santa" exists, at least...my (Erica's) whole family was here and it's always a hoot to have everyone together. Paul and Jen brought along their Wii and we enjoyed a bunch of bowling, tennis, and Kid Icarus... we're now considering buying a Wii...although until our kids are a little older, we can't "blame them" for being the reason we buy one! I wouldn't want to share it with Elise, anyway...I'm the one with an addictive personality! I would lose HOURS playing that thing.
We had a lot of fun getting prepped for Christmas morning...the girls decorated cookies with Mimi one afternoon and with Uncle Kelly the next morning. Kelly had a good handle on the situation, I'm sure it just looked like Elise was eating her weight in icing and that Ainsley was actually LICKING the countertop for sprinkles! It was cute, though...

Cooking with Mimi...that's Ainsley's smile, I promise.












Watching cookies bake...












Here are the pics of the girls with Santa's plate of cookies. We also added carrots to the plate for the Reindeer to enjoy...that was Elise's idea- she's sweet like that.













Elise was cute Christmas morning as she wanted to open everything of everyone's at the same time. She really "gets it" for the first time this year- relating good behavior with Santa and presents. (Yes, we're fine with the whole "Santa" thing...I know many Christians think Santa is bad, but we go with the "we believed in Santa and turned out just fine." approach. We try to talk a lot about Jesus, too, because we KNOW that's more important. But Santa is cool, too!). Elise was happy to GIVE gifts, too, which was fun to see. The actual Christmas morning was a little overwhelming for Elise, Ainsley and myself...just lots of commotion, lots of little giggles and quite a few shouts of "mine. mine. mine. mine. mine." Mitchell just hung out and took it all in. That's what that kid does. He's sweet and fun like that. =)

Here are a few pictures. Enjoy:

Both girls LOVE their Bean Bags...

Everyone's heard of the "Snuggie"...we found the "couch sack" that is even cooler! With leg holes built in, we think Paul looks like a flying squirrel!!!!! Poor Jen...does she know what she married into with this family!?!

Elise in gorgeous dress that my friend Lacey made.... I love it!
Uncles Paul and Kelly...enjoying their Jester hats on Christmas morning...

In Princess dresses from SC friend Allyson...they looked adorable!