lots o stuff...

It's been...yikes...THREE weeks since I've posted on here. Crazy time around the Moseley house...Adam was out of town for about a week two weeks ago. Then right as he got back, I took the kiddos to Ohio to visit some family and friends over Elise's Spring Break. All I'm saying is EIGHT hours in the car with three kids and ONE STOP. We had lots of snacks, games, movies, Adam rigged a pulley system that went to the way back so Elise and I could pass stuff back and forth. It rocked. We got home on Sunday night, had the Closing for our new house on Monday (YAY!), and now we're prepping to move THIS weekend to our FINAL (at least for a long time...) house! We're only moving 3 miles away, but since it's NOT a NAVY move, we're doing it all. Phew. That's a quick summary of why I haven't been on here much...but I'll throw out a few pictures now to keep people happy. =)


When Adam was out of town, Elise decided to "decorate" part of the playroom. It was precious and she spent a TON of time arranging everything JUST.THE.RIGHT.WAY. Then we had to keep Ainsley out of the way for 48 hours so Adam could see it exactly right. She was so proud of her creativity and hard work...adorable. She INSISTED that I take a picture of the stuff she hung from the knobs of the armoire, too... so, here you go.


This is a face I get from Mitchell ALL THE TIME. His little flat lip smile as he looks up at me from his Exersaucer (his new favorite pass time, by the way. love that thing.).

Elise loves making silly faces at the camera. She thinks she's so clever...

Could.not.be.any.cuter.

I snapped these two pictures of Mitchell a couple hours ago and had to put them on here immediately. We were heading to a birthday party for a little one year old friend, Norah, so Mitchell wanted to dress up for a potential future girlfriend. He fell asleep about 3 minutes after we got there and slept the entire party. Oh well. He was so adorable getting ready that it didn't matter what really happened. =) We so love him!!!

Happy Valentines Day!

Shocking, I know...this is a week or so late! HA. (but, I have been working on baby books and have all three almost caught up to 2010! Woohoo!).
This was Valentine's Day. We don't really 'celebrate' V-day, but we did something little this year. Here's the basic story:
Elise went to grocery store with me on Feb 13. They had a special vendor there with a crock pot of chocolate fondue who was dipping strawberries and making little gift boxes. Elise was enamored. Chocolate AND Strawberries!? Nothing could be more heavenly in her eyes...ok, unless it was a princess with a crown and a wand dipping the strawberries in chocolate!
I decided that we would do that as a family on Sunday...not the princess part, just the fondue.
In my head (that's always where the problem starts!), I pictured the four of us sitting around the table happily dipping our fruit in chocolate, sharing stories about how/why we LOVE (the only tribute to V-day) each other... I think I'm a few years ahead of myself... but Adam went along with my vision for the afternoon.
During naptime on Sunday, we made the fondue (whole other part is that I didn't buy any milk chocolate, just dark and semi-sweet...but I don't like those. I only like Milk Chocolate. So, Adam kept adding powdered sugar and more cream to 'lighten it up' some...) surprisingly, we ended up with like a QUART of fondue that was really only going to be eaten by Adam and Elise. We got the girls up, had the table set nicely, told them our idea, and sat down for a nice time of yummy food and sharing sentiments of love and appreciation.
Oh wait. Our kids are barely 2 and barely 4. A little young for such plans...but it sounded so good in my head! It went something like this...
4:10 pm:Sit down and explain 'guidelines' for eating and sharing. Adam and I have a small glass of wine on the table, ready to enjoy...
4:11 pm: girls DIG IN to some chocolate
4:13 pm: We've already gotten up 3x to get more napkins, a fork, and water for the girls
4:15 pm: only Mommy and Daddy are sharing stories. Nobody else is listening. I'm not even sure Adam was listening to me!
4:16 pm: Sharing time over. I still doesn't like the chocolate, so I'm just eating fruit. Ainsley starts whining b/c she's "too messy, Mommy"
4:18 pm: Ainsley full-out crying b/c her hands and face are covered in chocolate. She only wants to eat pretzels
4:19 pm: Adam gets up to refill his wine already. I haven't had a sip of anything yet...
4:25 pm: Elise still hasn't said a word and is basically INHALING the chocolate. I have to grab a headband for her to keep her hair out of the mess...
4:26 pm: Ainsley has thrown her bowl on the table and CRYING "ALL DONE, MOMMY..."
4:28 pm: We pry the chocolate out of Elise's hands, use two washcloths to clean off the kids, let them down to run and play

Seriously, it was all over in less than 20 minutes. I was planning on it taking all afternoon, leisurely talking, slowly enjoying the time as a family (minus baby who was sleeping, of course!)... augh...when will I learn?
It was probably 1 1/2 hours of work, a DOZEN or more dirty dishes, crock pot, two saucepans, etc...oh the joy. And we could've given them an open bag of the chocolate morsels and they would've been every bit as happy.
At least we got some good pictures! Maybe this will work a little better when they're older.


Elise Before

Elise After...
Ainsley Before...

Ainsley During... hard to get a good picture through all the tears.

pictures...

Not sure I have any great stories or anything to share this morning, but I'm TRYING to keep up with 1 or 2 posts/week, so here are a few quick pictures. There were about 20 shots in this series, but only ONE that was even possibly 'share-able'...hilarious to try to get all three kids to look at me, smile, NOT be picking their nose, NOT sitting on top of the baby, keep Gus from walking in front of the camera, etc...they're adorable, fun, challenging all rolled together!

They were really just hanging out together and I said, "Hey Guys...look at Mommy."
This is the "HUH?" look!
You think genetics shows through in those eyes!? All three...same eyes...Adam's, not mine. Oh, and the skin...there's no chance one of our kids could have 'olive' skin. Pale, pale, pale...


A few seconds later... Elise constantly stares at Mitchell b/c she loves him so much, that IS Ainsley's smile sometimes, and Mitchell is just a cute boy...

Sittin' Tall...

So maybe he's not really sitting "tall", but Mitchell is sitting up already! It's more of a 'tripod' resting on legs and his belly, but it counts... it's cute and he seems to love the ability to look around and keep up with the craziness in our house. He uses his Bumbo seat for a little bit each day, but it probable feels nice to sit up independently, even if it just lasts for 4 seconds...

Woah...leaning a little to the right....

And he's over...face smooshed a little on Elise's arm, but he's fine.

Another weekend, another snowstorm...

For the third time in just over a month, snow has been DUMPED on us and we're (somewhat happily, I admit!) snowed in for a weekend. We've fallen into a fun routine with the neighbors of meeting outside to hang out, make tracks for kids to sled down, build a snow ramp for the 'big kids'(6ish year olds), and then take turns going down the hill with the 'little girls' -Elise and two other girls are all the same age and LOVE sledding together- they are totally fearless...it's a riot! Adam or I are often taking turns so someone can stay inside with Ainsley who just doesn't have the stamina for the cold and/or Mitchell, who definitely can't handle these temperatures...
Anyway, I brought our little ones inside on Saturday around 5pm, leaving Adam and Elise out to play a little longer. Adam was working to fulfill one of his own childhood memories of building a snow cave. They had a BLAST- built a small cave with three entrances, hung out inside making "pizza" and "hot chocolate", and apparently laughing A LOT!


Not the best angle on Adam, but I was inside making REAL hot chocolate and feeding the baby, so he had to make do by himself...

She soooo loves her Daddy...


LOVE this picture! She was so happy, wet, cold...all at the same time!

Daddy's little helpers...

If there's one thing we do around this house, it's fix stuff. I feel like Adam and/or I always have a 'to fix' list...including magic wands (the one sitting on the counter now has already been fixed twice this week!), kitchen chairs, light switches, Adam's truck, books (HOW MANY times do I have to dig out the clear packing tape to fix library books!?), etc... Even Ainsley knows, "ok...Daddy Fix it, Mommy..." .
The funniest part for me is to watch the girls trying to "help" Adam. Elise has her own little hammer, safety goggles, and 'shop apron'. It's adorable, really.
Last weekend, Adam was fixing a high chair/convertible seat thing that my dad made for the girls...it's a really cool chair, can adjust to a bunch of different heights, etc...and looks much cooler than the big plastic high chairs! Adam had to adjust stuff a little and put in the foot rest part for Elise. It took him about 10 minutes and the girls were helping the whole time. It's so funny to watch Elise imitate Adam (hammering, stepping back to look at it, etc...) and then Ainsley imitate Elise! They both also thought they were so cute when the covered their ears while he was hammering part of it...it was cute, so I took some pictures.
Covering their ears...and laughing at themselves like crazy.



TA-DA! All finished.
and playing Peek-A-Boo...ALWAYS playing that...