AINSLEY is 3!!

Our little Ainsley Sakura is a JOY. She is the strongest-willed child I've ever seen or heard of...or at least ONE of the strongest-willed. She knows what she wants and will dig-in, kicking and screaming, until she gets it.
A year ago, I was pretty sure she wouldn't MAKE it to 3... it was a challenge to just make it through the day without MAJOR tantrums. She would rather sit on the floor for an HOUR than stop crying, say sorry to someone, or then just move on. She made herself throw up (in the pool-awesome!) because she didn't want to stay at swim lessons, and the list goes on and on.
Somehow, in the last 6 months or so, we've learned how to better love and encourage her. It's great. Not always easy or perfect, of course, but we've learned that Ainsley is SO different than Elise and we have to respect that. She is sweet in her own way, she is amazingly focused and thrives in organization, structure, and routine. She loves all things blue. Anything, as long as it's blue. She'll collect them and carry them around the house in a purse for days... and although blue is far superior to other colors, she'll pretty much gather anything that could be considered a 'collection'... all the super bouncy balls, small rocks from the yard, leaves, Mitchell's blocks (but only the single-wide blue ones)... she's a riot. She is a WONDERFUL big sister to Mitchell and she loves to teach him things. The two of them giggle a lot together and I love to listen to it. Ainsley will follow Elise around trying to do whatever her Big Sister is doing, until she sees someone watching her, then she'll run the other way because she doesn't want you to think she's a 'follower'. I think we've got our hands full with her. We love her to pieces, are so very thankful that we're learning how to really GUIDE her little personality, and we pray daily for the strength and wisdom to be great parents to her.

She asked for a chocolate brownie instead of cake or cupcakes...so I made a 'S'mores Brownie' dessert thing. She loved it. We don't really do parties until each kid is 5, so she had a great time opening gifts/having brownie with just our family here at the house.
Ignore my double-chin, I was turned awkwardly. Ainsley looks gorgeous!

Ainsley's own fireplace sign- it's a fun tradition, I think...

As a birthday treat, we let the girls have a slumber party in Ainsley's room...it took them HOURS to fall asleep and they were both miserable the next day. Yet they still talk about it like it was the greatest treat ever!

About 2 weeks after her Bday, Ainsley finally got her FIRST EVER Haircut! It was adorable and she did a great job at the salon. The little bob is really so cute and she looks way less scraggly now...


So truly blessed.

Elise is 5

It's really kind of hard to believe that our precious little firstborn is 5 years old. Really. 5?!

It seems like a year ago that my mom and I were boarding a plane with a beautiful little 6 week old Elise and moving to Japan. (Adam had left 3 weeks earlier to report to the US Kitty Hawk stationed in Yokosuka, Japan).
Yes, I look a little ...uh...rough. Whatever, that 16 hour flight was LONG.


She was a precious infant (until the Colic set in and she cried for 6 weeks straight...) and a good sleeper from Day 1. At least she was a good sleeper overnight. Naps, not so much.
This was "touchdown Elise" napping at the NAVY Lodge in Yokosuka- we lived there for just a couple weeks until we got into housing.


We continued to live in Japan for almost 2 full years and had some amazing experiences. Unfortunately, she doesn't remember most of it because she was so young, but we talk about it often and show her pictures like this:

Ok, this one wasn't Japan. It was at my friend Abby's parents' house in Ohio. We came home to the U.S. once during the 2 years and I got to catch up with some friends.... Adam loves this motorcycle of Mr Wheelers, so I took this picture. Elise was 6 mos old...
Just a couple weeks later, we headed back westward across the Pacific and then kept going an extra seven hours... THAT was a long trip- just the two of us that time...
We met up with Adam in Singapore for almost a full week. (She ship docked for just a couple days, but Adam got to fly off ahead of time to do prep-work for the onslaught of thousands of Americans coming on shore... we took advantage of the 'free time' with him and had a great visit!)
I mean, could her cheeks have been ANY fatter? I love it!

We took MANY trips to one of the Great Buddhas in Japan- there are a handful of the giant Buddha statues, but one of the most famous (dates to 1252) is located just 15 minutes from where we lived! AND there was a great ice cream shop right on the way! woohoo!

Nana (Adam's mom) was in town for a week right around Elise's 1st Birthday. =)

We spent many weekends visiting Yokohama, at just a 45 minute train ride away. It was a fun big city (but not as overwhelming as Tokyo...) and had lots of cool stuff to see and do.


Elise at about 14 months old. Adam's birthday weekend, actually.
This was outside a candy/gift shop near Kyoto. AMAZING long-weekend trip.

Adam deployed again soon after that, we visited him in Guam for 3 or 4 days...GORGEOUS, but kind of a dirty place, overall... we had one great afternoon at the beach and a few days of gross weather. It didn't matter, I was newly pregnant with Ainsley and we just hung out together.

A few months later, we were on Elise's 4th around-the-world flight and moved to South Carolina. She met her first 'best friend' Kristina there:

Then we started a blog. and most of her last 3 years have been well-chronicled here. She had a SWEET, cute, fun, birthday party last month... She has truly turned into a sweet, thoughtful, gentle girl. Her first tooth is just DAYS away from falling out, she starts Kindergarten in just 6 months, and we love her to pieces!

7 of the 10 girls 'hiding' behind a couch in the playroom

We did a 'chef' theme and they made pizzas, shrinky-dinks, and cupcakes... here they started spontaneously dancing and acting crazy....it was adorable.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELISE!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The new year started with a bang...ok, not really...a small 'woo-hoo' with the wonderful Janney family here for a few hours on New Year's Eve... the kids had a blast playing

We seem to be missing a few...there were five total kids and they get along so well! It's sweet. =) and, of course, not a single picture of the adults...we were all there together and we all looked fantastic to celebrate 2011.

We ATTEMPTED a quasi-sleepover with Elise and Jackson... which consisted of two hours of Elise chatting away and poor Jackson trying SO HARD to go to sleep on the top bunk. Eventually, we moved him over to the room and I think Jackson was asleep before his dad closed the door...
Regardless, the adults had yummy Japanese food, enjoyed some homebrew and great conversation. We're sooo thankful for our friendship with the Janney family!!


Elise and Ainsley have started trying to dress like 'twins' and it's precious. We don't have many matching outfits for them, but they've been creative about it. Ainsley actually jumps up and down yelling "We TWINS NOW, WE TWINS NOW..." . =)

Ainsley, who has a deep love for accessories, found a bag of Summer Stuff in the closet. She wore the hat/sunglasses combo for the next three days and was SO proud of herself. It was freezing outside and you can see snow in you look closely. Oh yeah, they were locked out again and dancing to get back inside...hahaha.

Elise turned FIVE (how did that happen?! I swear she was 2 last month...augh!) during the first week of January and she loved being the center of attention for a couple days. I'll put pics up from her party in the next blog, but this was the actual BIRTH-DAY celebration at home with just family.


I think that's a "5" candle in yogurt...whatev, she was happy. =)
The next morning, we woke up to THIS:
Our awesome middle-school neighbor (and babysitter-extraordinaire!) had decorated the street in front of our house... Elise was BESIDE HERSELF excited and they danced all over for about 15 minutes...and then had to come in for hot chocolate- it was COLD out there.

I love this shot of her. Gorgeous.

Christmas Day 2010

We woke up to a GORGEOUS snowy Christmas morning and were excited for a nice day. Uncle Kelly had been up all night VERY sick, so we knew he wasn't going to be around for the gift-opening, we let Mitchell sleep in (normal wake up time is after 9am for our little guy), and we had a (relatively) quiet morning. The girls are a fun age right now for Christmas and it was nice having a calm-ish morning as we were all feeling the absence of my dad. Although he was never the center of attention at a family holiday, my dad (like so many dads, right?) sat back on the edge and watched everyone else 'have the fun'. He would've loved the joy on Elise and Ainsley's face, he would've cracked up at Ainsley's obsession with the candy canes for the first 20 minutes of gift-opening. He would've been proud of his family as we just treasured each others' presence around the holidays... It was hard to think back to Christmas 2009 when we had no idea what would happen in a few months of late 2010. The good thing is that with three kids under 5 years old, I didn't have the time or energy to get too sad too often... I so wish he could've been here with us, but I'm constantly thankful that he didn't suffer for too long with the crappy chemo side effects and the cancer in general. I think that thought came to mind several times over the course of the Holidays this year...

Back to Christmas morning:

Ainsley was seriously obsessed with the candy canes. She wanted to equally distribute them among the people in the room- worrying about the colors, flavors, etc... she was VERY serious about it. that's how she is...


Elise looking like one of the Olson twins...in her new slippers, new jammies, new scarf, new purse, and light-up Christmas necklace...

Once Mitchell woke up, he was precious!! So excited to play with the wrapping paper, empty boxes, bows, and...oh yeah, his gifts.

Elise was, of course, a GREAT helper!



A little bit of a mess, but a good day overall


Late in the afternoon, Uncle Kelly was able to get out of bed and we could finish unwrapping gifts. Mitchell was especially excited about getting a few more presents.




Mitchell took FULL ADVANTAGE of everyone being busy and not paying total attention to him. He crawled up on Elise's chair and was just as happy as could be to hang out like a big kid! Man, he's adorable. mullet and all...

Overall, it was a good Christmas. We wish Paul,Jen, and Evan could've been here with us, we wish Kelly and my mom both didn't get sick (but at least it was over quickly for both of them), I missed my dad a whole bunch, but my family is wonderful, friends are great, and we love and serve a loving God who comforts us and wants us to find joy in all situations. We did that this year for Christmas and felt blessed all week. =)

HO-HO-HO

We're getting closer to being caught-up:

Christmas Eve:

Super Uncle Kelly ("SUK") and Mimi watched The Grinch movie with the girls (the original 1960's cartoon one, not the creepy Jim Carrey one). Mimi got hit with the nasty, nasty stomach bug that day and was a trooper for sitting here with kids and trying to enjoy the festivities.

I kind of forgot to take pictures of decorations, the tree, etc... so here's a glimpse...
SUK got the stomach bug later that night and spent the whole night (literally midnight until 10am Christmas morning) with gross, gross intestinal issues. poor guy. It took him most of Christmas day to recover enough to leave bed, but he mustered up some strength to come down for a little bit on Christmas night. More on that in a couple days...


The girls opened a gift from Mimi of new pj's, so they put them on immediately and we worked on the plate of snacks for Santa and the Reindeer...


While kids were playing/watching movies/etc... Adam worked on his annual BIG DESSERT project of the YULE LOG...3rd year in a row. It may not look fantastic, but everyone who eats it LOVES IT!


Preview for the next blog... here's the first picture of Christmas morning:

Happy Christmas Eve eve...

Ok, we're making strides toward being up-t0-date on this thing... and that feels good. =) I'm officially one month behind and catching up quickly.

The Thursday before Christmas, my brother Kelly and my mom were both in town so we braved the chaos of the 'Big Mall' (a very relative term, there's not much "BIG" at all in our awesome little city... still, it's the only significant mall around) to get a picture of the kids with Santa. And I figured with them around "how bad could it be? We're now 1:1 with my kids, and we (the adults) can handle anything if we're only in charge of one kid each, right?! "

And we really did fine. The kids were so enamored with Santa (whom we explain is really just a 'helper' of the real Santa. After all, the REAL SANTA is way too busy this time of year to sit around at a mall for pictures). Go ahead, hate us because we let our kids believe in Santa. We're fully aware that some Christian families will wag their finger at us, but we think it's fun, don't take it too seriously, and we still (gasp!) love God and believe that Jesus is more important. We just ALSO believe that a little Santa doesn't hurt anything.

The girls had a BLAST hanging out with "Super Uncle Kelly" (I'm not sure if Elise gave him the nickname or it was a self-proclaimed thing...either way, it's stinkin' adorable and that's the ONLY way she refers to him now.) and Mimi. Man, I love it when my family is in town.

We only waited in line for about an hour, Mitchell was happy people-watching the whole time from the stroller
the girls and Mimi rode the North Pole Express a few times,



and we got a cute (enough!) picture.

Then the kids got to share a cookie from the mall and a ride on the often-begged-for (but oh-so-disgusting-germ-covered) ride in the food court. They were about as happy as they could be.

winter wonderland

We've already had a few decent snow storms this year (I mean, we're not NYC or Boston, but we've had 3 snow days off school and about a foot or so of snow...) and the kids have LOVED it. Last year, Ainsley still HATED (no, really... she DESPISED) the snow and cold, Mitchell was only about 4 months old, and it was the first snow Elise had ever seen.

This year is totally different! And so fun. Elise was jumping up and down about it, Ainsley was excited to go outside and play, and Mitchell, well...he went with us and wobbled around for 20 minutes at a time. He did great.

This was all the first afternoon/evening- we were outside for probably two hours. We have some WONDERFUL neighbors and friends and it was so fun to sled with them, hang out and laugh together. It's fun to watch Elise really have BUDDIES that she just plays with, giggles with, and actually has conversations together.


Mitchell stole a 'very skeptical' look from his cousin Evan as neighbor Mark pulled him on a sweet old-school sled.

oh man, these two are cute.

This was the 'prep time' as I got all three kids ready to go outside before Adam got home from work. It was a 45-minute process, we were all exhausted, Mitchell was ready for a nap before we even got outside and was crying most of the time. =) Oh, they're A-DOR-A-BLE!!!