baby steps...

Ok, he's not actually TAKING STEPS, but little man Mitchell is getting closer to walking. (Which, like everyone said we would, I AM DREADING!!!) With Elise, we COULDN'T WAIT for her to walk. It was fun, such a milestone, a great achievement, etc... but with #3, all I'm thinking is, "I can barely keep up with him as it is...he's going to get into EVERYTHING that the girls put on tables to keep away from him...he's my last little baby, I want him to stay small and crawl forever...". You get the idea. But, he's progressing and I guess I'm ok with that. He's so adorable that I can't help but cheer him on. =)

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a very low key Independence Day and it was so nice.
As I'm looking through iPhoto, I don't even have a single picture of Mitchell dressed in his red, white, and blue...oops.
We had some friends over and made some GREAT food. We love 'entertaining'- especially when it's with people as laid back as we are (ok, Adam is laid back. I'm so NOT. But I'm working on it, ok?! I WANT to be laid back and I can be calm and relaxed while people are over, the house is getting trashed by little kids, etc... that counts for something, right?!).
Anyway, the girls had 'won' RingPops at a birthday party the day before and we let them have the special treat on Sunday afternoon- so that's really all you can focus on from these cute pictures. This was AInsley's first RingPop ever and Elise's 2nd...so it was a major treat and you can see their SUGAR-induced JOY in their eyes!


Again, this IS Ainsley's smile!

10 months old...

wow. I'm constantly amazed at how time just DISAPPEARS with these adorable kids we've been blessed with! I feel like Mitchell should be about 6 months old, not TEN! Seriously, how is he almost a YEAR OLD!? Anyway, we love his little toothy grin, we love his 'old man hair'...also referred to as a "Skullet" around here sometimes- Google Image that for some great pictures. He's SUCH a happy baby- really only cries when he wants to eat or if mommy has wondered away for more than, say, 20 seconds. He's grown to love the church nursery on Sundays (especially days when I don't dress him in little shoes that are 6 months too small which leads to close to an hour of screaming and deep crease-marks in his chubby feet...) and ADORES his big sisters. Elise has been a great second-mommy to him since Day 1, but lately Ainsley has been sweet and loving towards him also, which is impressive, because you just don't see that much sweetness out of Ainsley. =) He's such a fun addition to our family and we're thankful for him every single day.
When Ainsley and I went to wake him up this morning, I took a camera to try to get a cute shot of him sleeping, but these ended up way cuter than a sleeping baby! I mean, sleeping babies are adorable, but that can't beat the way his little eyes light up when he thinks he's playing a game of "come and get me" with mommy...


This was just seconds after the door opened...he was barely awake and not too sure about visitors to his comfy lair with the awesome monster sheets...

Not five seconds later, he's comin' to get me. grinning like crazy...



Just seconds after that, he's up and babbling, our happy happy boy!

He was actually clapping here- his new favorite trick. The wall behind him looks a little 'teal'...it's not- it's a deep "Admiralty Blue"... somewhere between UF Gator Blue and navy blue...just fyi.

Then I hoisted Ainsley up in bed with him for a second and she said that she wanted to cuddle... she actually put her arm around him and kept saying, "hi Mitchy...like my pretty outfit? Smile for mommy, Mitchy...". Precious.

Father's Day fun

Many of our blogging friends did sweet tributes to their husbands on Father's Day, made Facebook photo albums chronicling pictures of their kids with dad, etc...I thought I'd keep ours unique by waiting until a week and 1/2 later to post it....
The girls had picked out a couple totally random gifts for Adam and decorated posters for him, too. We spent the morning visiting some friends a couple hours away, so we did "Father's Day stuff" when girls woke up from naps in the afternoon.

All week long we practiced a "Happy Father's Day" song (tune of Happy Birthday-I know, i know, I'm so creative). Elise sang it well when Adam came downstairs, but Ainsley clammed up. She's cute, though. For HOURS afterwards, she was singing "Happy Birthday to Father's Day...Happy Birthday to you." So, she kinda got it.

Elise spent HOURS on this poster. She worked on it during rest-times all week long and was SO proud of her coloring, the writing, her own creativity, etc...it was precious.


Mitchell was asleep the whole time, but, whatever...he would've just eaten the wrapping paper anyway. This is him saying Happy Father's Day to Adam. You can tell he's excited about it.
Regardless of how random Adam's gifts were and how silly the song sounded, we think he knows how much his kids ADORE him and how I think he's quite possibly the greatest thing ever. =)

starting young....

I have a friend here who makes GORGEOUS baby carriers (check her out at etsy under the name ObiMama)! They're sooooooo well made, beautiful (mostly organic/fair trade/etc/etc...fabrics), and good prices, too. That's my plug for Jen's wraps. ANYWAY, I have a breathtaking wrap that's khaki-colored linen and black dupioni silk....so gorgeous...and Mitchell loves being toted around in it... The girls talk about it all the time and think it's so cool when I load him up to head into Target, Kroger, etc...so it shouldn't have surprised me when they ran into the kitchen last weekend like this:
I know people don't believe me, but that really IS a smile on Ainsley's face...
I had tied the baby blankets up to be used as princess capes a few days earlier, but Elise must've figured out how to maneuver them into their very own ObiMama wraps!

After the first picture, I told Ainsley, "smile bigger, sweetie!" This was the result...precious.

SWIMMING, SWIMMING, SWIMMING

Once again, we caved and got a backyard inflatable pool. Re-read my last blog about WHY we built a huge swingset and now apply it to a public pool. Not even mentioning the gross heat(ok, not as gross as when we lived in SC, but still HOT and MUGGY), but it's just a bit overwhelming to be at a big pool trying to chase the girls around a pool deck, catch them as they jump in the water, and continue holding a 9 month old who SO wants to be crawling around on his own. So, we ended up with a 8 foot diameter pool with a filter and cover...and the girls (and mommy) LOVE IT! Even more so than last year because thanks to swimming lessons, they're way more independent and confident in the water. Elise is actually SWIMMING, which is really cool and Ainsley doesn't get upset or panic when her face goes under. It's a blast. We've been outside in the backyard for about an hour and 1/2 EVERY DAY for the last 3 weeks... everyone sleeps better, the girls are playing well together, Mitchell's monitor sits next to us while he naps upstairs...it's great. So here are a few pics from the last few weeks. Mitchell has only been in 2 or 3 times and he's kind of so-so on the whole thing. I would be, too, though, with the amount of splashing, shrieking, jumping, bumping, etc...that Elise and Ainsley create =)


This is actually a smile...=)

She closes her eyes, counts to 3, and "dives"...

The Big Build

Memorial Day weekend, we bought (what we thought was) a good-sized playset for the backyard. With three kids currently ranging 9months old to 4 1/2, I just CANNOT get out of the house as much as I'd like...going to a park these days is almost impossible...Elise wants to do all the 'big kid' stuff. Ainsley wants to do everything Elise does, so I have to keep a CONSTANT eye on her. (although she's insanely coordinated, so there are actually some things she does better than Elise! BUT, she's not even 2 1/2, so...I'm following her all the time!). Ainsley also LOVES the "Game" of Hide-From-Mommy-and-be-really-sneaky. I hate it. She's a good stinkin' hider (is that even a word?...) and it really scares me sometimes when she disappears. Mitchell isn't happy just being in my arms anymore- he wants FREEDOM! So, at parks, I'm constantly trying to keep him on a blanket, pull wood chips/grass/bugs out of his mouth, run back to help Ainsley, fix a scraped knee by Elise, run back to Mitchell b/c he's crawled onto the (HOT) pavement and is crying, give him some Cheerios, search for Ainsley hiding under a slide, then pick up Mitchell b/c he's exhausted since the poor guy NEVER gets a full nap- i feel like we yank him out of bed for something every naptime. Sounds fun, right?!! And then there's packing/prepping sippy cups, snacks, sunscreen, hats, potty emergencies while there...PHEW. Can't wait to join us, right?

So, From inside SAMS CLUB, this playset looked great. It had the elements we wanted, was a 'reasonable' price as far as these things go, and since Adam is great at this stuff, we knew he could assemble it all in a few days' time and we'd be up and running! yay.

So, this top picture was Sunday afternoon...the rest of the pictures are all in reverse-order, but I really don't have the time or energy to cut-and-paste each one individually and make it the correct chronological order. So, scroll to the bottom of this post and then work your way back up! THANKS!



Finished enough to play for a couple hours Sunday afternoon! The girls are excited. Mommy is in love with the convenience and safety, and (now 4 days later...) we've already had 3 sets of friends over to play together! YAY for everyone! And, oh yeah, it turned out WAY BIGGER than we expected. Funny how it looked 'normal sized' inside a cavernous Sams Club...and it really is over 13 feet tall- it comes as high as our back deck off the kitchen! BUT, it's still great.

FINAL PRODUCT!!! A neighbor pitched in a couple hours on Sunday and I was able to help during naptimes, but that's all the help Adam had. He had to customize the right side(above) to accommodate our steeply sloped backyard. Good work!


We went to church w/o Adam on Sunday so he could keep working (uninterrupted). This was at 1pm when we got home. ROCK WALL is on! Yay.
This was 8pm-ish....ALL DAY LONG. 2 quick food breaks. Probably 11 hours of work.
About 1pm, making GREAT progress. All by himself. YAY for ADAM! BTW, it was the "hottest, most humid day in years" that our neighbors could remember. Awesome.
By about 10am, this was the scene...YAY, the actual assembling has begun!

I got the girls out of the house for a few hours that day, but they just wanted to WATCH every second...

Early Saturday morning, Adam got started digging out a spot to level the 'princess tower'.


308 pieces of wood, 1200+ screws/bolts/washers/etc....we prepped for a few hours on Friday night in the basement.