Craigslist joy...

Once again, we scored a GREAT deal on a Craigslist item... Elise's 'rest time' in her room everyday (1:30-4...and, yes, I am THANKFUL EVERY DAY that she still does this!) has been focused lately on two things: coloring and watching for deer. This same deer (I'm pretty sure it's always the same one.) is in our next door neighbors' backyard at least once a day. Elise LOVES to watch him and calls out every few minutes what he's doing:
"Mommy, the deer is resting now under the big tree. Mommy, the deer is eating more apples from the ground. THE DEER IS POOPING, NOW!!! " you get the idea... thank goodness for the baby monitor we still keep in her room or I'd be running upstairs every five minutes to chat about the deer...ANYWAY, she also loves to color, usually while on the floor with books, colored pencils, etc...scattered everywhere. But lately she's been exhausting herself to stand up, run to the window yelling "deer check", yell progress back to me, flop back on the ground, find her place in her coloring again. Repeat for 2 hours. I started thinking she could use a little desk up there so she could sit while coloring or reading quietly, glance out window toward deer-land, and then keep going. pretty original idea, eh? Adam took it the next step and thought of the idea for an old (antique-ish) school desk. So, CRAIGSLIST HERE WE COME! No need to buy something new, 'recycle' something, make it our own, save money, yay for everyone. Local CL-ers had 3 desks listed the next day and Adam came home Wednesday with this little number. $30. Elise is SMITTEN over it (after a thorough cleaning/disinfecting, of course...). She's been in it for hours already.

The best part? We were upstairs this morning and I handed her a piece of trash to throw away in the bathroom. She got all excited, said, "Wait, Mommy! There's a TRASHCAN inside my new desk!" and went running for it. Turns out, she'd been playing around and figured out she could shove trash up the desk support hole inside the bottom storage compartment.

Laughing out loud, I explained that it wasn't a trashcan, but just part of the desk. I reached in to pull out the two SMALL pieces of paper she'd just shoved up there and pulled out about 15 pieces of trash!!! HILARIOUS. It was NOT stuff she'd thrown in there already,btw. Most notable item?
The Sweepstakes offer on the backside of it said, "all entries must be received by October 31, 1988. Yep, a 22 year old (at least) candy wrapper. =) I guess all kids think somewhat the same!

disclaimer: In the first picture, you can see her room is a DISASTER! It NEVER looks like this. We were all FOUR playing in there while I was cleaning out her closet, so it got temporarily super cluttered. It was cleaned up just moments later...I just needed to say that.

Big morning for us...

Ainsley has been asking for MONTHS when she could wear her hair in a ponytail. My answer is usually something like, "When you grow some hair...". She's 2 1/2 this week and has never had a haircut...I'm thinking she'll be about 4 when that's finally necessary.
So, this morning, I finagled her three long strands of hair up with a ponytail holder...and she was BEAMING with joy. =) It.was.adorable. She then said, "SEE, Mommy. I TAN have pone-tee-tail, too. Just wike Ee-see". Got that? 'Can have ponytail, just like Elise.'.
Elise's hair is finally long enough that I can put it into braids, which she loves, too. She just keeps rubbing them all day to make sure they're ok. it's fun.
After everyone's hair was properly done this morning, Ainsley told me to take a picture of her new pretty ponytail. How could i resist?

quick updates again...

We finished the kitchen re-do and it's amazing. It makes this house feel like HOME, which is great since we'll be here for about 20 years...or more...yay! Here are some quick shots:

BEFORE:


DURING:


AFTER:



Two weeks and not a ton of $$ and we're very happy. Plus, I'm always amazed at my husband. He's talented, thorough, detailed, etc... and it's FUN (despite being exhausting, stressful, etc...) to work on projects together!


We had WONDERFUL houseguests this past weekend. My brother Kelly and his girlfriend Melanie visited from DC...the kids LOVED having them here and it was quality time with my brother and a great girl. The weather was pretty miserable the whole time (as in raining, cold enough to need long-sleeved shirts...grrr.), but we did a mini-celebration for K's upcoming birthday, walked around the farmer's market downtown Saturday morning, played on Uncle Kelly's skateboard in the rain, etc...good time for sure.


Elise made a bday sign for uncle kelly...it rocked.

Melanie with Ainsley... it was just starting to rain...

Guess who thought she was SO COOL with a skateboard tucked under her arm?


It was absolutely POURING, so Uncle K scooped up Ainsley and headed back to our house from the cul-de-sac...
Playing in the fort/hideout later, Elise surprised Melanie and jumped on her...nice.

busy week...

We're in full swing of summer around here and I'm WAY tired but I'll throw a few pictures up and then go to bed! These were late last week, so I'm not too behind...we did a pretty significant kitchen re-do this weekend (more on that later), but we LOVE the new look. We've also done LOTS of sprinkler/pool days, Elise had VBS at our church last week and she had a blast. It wore her out (yay!) and she learned a lot, so that's great.


I got a haircut, which was WAY overdue, and that was fun... yay for a little pampering and 10 minutes extra under the hair dryer with a People magazine. (shhh! don't tell Adam!)

This is a deer in our backyard. We see him/her there (or in the next door neighbor's yard) all the time and the stinker eats our wild blackberries...grrr...but the girls LOVE it, so I can't complain too much.

Ainsley playing in the kitchen...so I guess she's about 8 gallons or so...

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.