BOY

Elise and Ainsley were/are pretty 'active' girls. They love to run and play, Ainsley has tons of energy, Elise loves to be crazy and goofy, but NOTHING prepared me for a toddler BOY. So many people said, "Oh, just wait until he's mobile- he'll never slow down. Wait until he runs everywhere and crashes into everything and is a little tornado". I kind of dismissed them and thought, "whatever, my girls are active and exhausting...how much more can a boy do?" Uh... We're there.

Mitchell is a total riot and absolutely a crazy little boy. Ok, I MAY still call him a 'baby boy' around the house, but you didn't hear that from me... it's hard to let this one grow up... and regardless of what ANYONE says, he's NOT TURNING TWO in 3 months.

He's developing quite a little attitude (it was bound to happen- he's around females all day!) and is so adorable..as he's trying to scale the couch, the kitchen table, the tv stand, etc... He also likes to jump off each item as soon as he gets to the top. At least we get warning sometimes- he's got a cute little yell that means "HERE I COME!"...I can recognize it from 2 rooms away and usually get to him in time. usually. The great thing about a boy, though, is that even when they fall from 3 or 4 feet up, they crash, MAYBE cry for 10 seconds, and then want to do it again...

It's really fun. and tiring. I now have more sympathy for my friends that have 3 young boys to chase around... but, whatever... I'd rather deal with THIS than the drama of girls most days!

I went in to get him up the other morning and this sweet little face was smiling at me. I promise his shirt didn't start out like that.


Then he started giggling and pointing to the corner of the guest bed in his room... where he'd thrown every single item out of his crib (with pretty stellar accuracy)...

And then he 'told' me the story of it all... with giggles, pointing, and TONS of joy. I love it.

Also, with the girls, we NEVER had 17 items in the bed with them...I promise! We followed every American Pediatric Association guideline about 'almost nothing in bed until they're two' or something... the girls give him this stuff, he loves it, and then throws it out every day... pretty cute, really.

Cute, cute, cute

The last two weeks have been pretty busy around here. Not only is it GORGEOUS (ok, maybe a little TOO hot at 95degrees, but i'm not complaining...) outside, but we had a few 'end of school year' programs for the girls, and they were adorable. We're thankful that Adam was able to make all three events- the girls were ECSTATIC that Daddy could come and see them even though it was a 'work day'. I think that made it extra special for them.

Ainsley's little school performance was the first one we went to. She and her four classmates were PRECIOUS! They sang 5 songs for their families, complete with hand motions and little dance moves. Ainsley was by far the tallest of them all, she did great with the moves/motions, but her singing voice was very quiet and kind of shy...which is hilarious because at home she's NEVER quiet or shy!



The next week, we went to Elise's school show. A little bigger group with all the 4/5 year olds and it was funny. Elise has been practicing her songs/moves for probably 2 months now, but it was supposed to be a 'secret' for the parents. So for the last few weeks, I'd catch her singing quietly or practicing her moves only to stop immediately and screech, "MOMMY! You can't watch this! It's a SURPRISE!"... cute.

Ainsley and Mitchell heading into the show. Ainsley loves playing the role of 'big helper sister' when Elise isn't around. =)

Best part of the show? Elise and the little guy next to her... they're kind of enemies in her class and were constantly tattling on each other... I got multiple notes from the teacher about it during the year (most often, "He was picking on Elise again..." kind of thing.) Well, during the performance, he kept flailing his arms 'into her space' and bothering her. So she started kind of pushing him away and GLARING at him. It was hilarious. The teacher told us afterwards, "well, that kind of summed up the whole school year for the two of them." Great. Click on this picture and you can see a little bit of it...in that very front right corner. =)

We also got her some cute flowers just to say CONGRATS on a great school year. Kindergarten, here she comes!

Last, but not least, was Elise's gymnastics performance... it was really just their same weekly class with a few extra 'showy' things. And they got little trophies at the end. Elise actually carried around for HOURS that day. Clutched to her chest. Sweet.

Cinderelly, Cinderelly...

I'm SO THANKFUL that all three kids still take some form of "naptime/rest time" everyday. It keeps me sane. Mitchell sleeps almost 3 1/2 hours daily, Ainsley usually rests quietly for one hour and then sleeps for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (seriously, AMEN!), and Elise plays and reads quietly for about 1 1/2 hours and then plays a little louder (recently with her Leapster thingy...) for another 45 minutes. Either way, I almost always have 2+ hours of almost total peace. ....aahhhh, do you hear the angels singing and birds chirping for me? I do!
I usually fill the time with prepping for dinner, cleaning up lunch, exercising if I didn't meet my running buddy that morning, taking a quick shower, catching up on Facebook, emails, blogs, etc... and then cleaning the house. I procrastinate on that one lately, augh. It's just so never-ending. And it seems pointless when I spend 30 minutes cleaning the bathrooms to have them FILTHY again by bedtime... phew.
I realized today that I could procrastinate no more when I could see the slime, filth, paw prints, mud residue, and milk splatters on the floor. I HAD to (on my hands and knees, nonetheless) SCRUB the kitchen/foyer floor. I love my hardwood floors, but hate the fact that the (glaring/blinding) afternoon sun shows all hints of dirt. And there are lots of those 'hints' around here!
As I was working, Elise came downstairs for a second and asked what I was doing (!)... not sipping a margarita, that's for sure... I told her that I had to clean the floors b/c they were a mess. As she walked back upstairs, she mumbled, "wow. my mommy is just like Cinderella."
I guess she's NOT referring to the glamorous-princess-at-the-end-of-the-movie version of Cinderella?! Oh well...it was cute.

I may have mentioned...

that AINSLEY tends to be a bit of a HOARDER (like, REALLY is a hoarder. Her collections of "stuffs" is getting out of control.


This was last weekend. Just riding her bike around the driveway..she can't be content with just riding it. She has to be loaded down with three containers (EACH filled up, of course). The item that day? Some Nerf bowling pins- she would FREAK OUT if anyone got near them...but was perfectly happy to just move them from one bucket to another and then ride them around the driveway. She kept saying they were her "school stuffs" and she was leaving for school that day...
maybe I should actually be concerned about this trend...

(and, yes, Mitchell was heading right for the street. We stopped him in time. Ignore the pink car he's on...ok?_)


But then she goes and gets all adorable about it like this:

These were a set of free bracelets my mom gave us. They're all different colors and say "Ralph Lauren Fragrances" on them (not shocking if you know our family...). She couldn't just wear one or two...but had to have ALL of them on at once. She also got dressed "all by myself" that day. It's hard to set personal pride aside and let her wear outfits like that, but it's really cute, too.


She and Mitchell were being TOO adorable playing on the empty boxes like it was a boat. And, yes, the backpack is full of stuffs too.

Daddy and his boy...

All three kids LOVE when Adam comes home from work at night. of course they do. As soon as they hear the garage door opening, the girls RUN, SCREAMING, and try to find a place to hide from him... the giggling, wiggling, blob under a blanket or behind the couch is usually a pretty easy 'seek' once Daddy walks in the door. Gus barks loudly and then runs around the house looking for a stuffed animal or baby doll blanket to present to his Master. It's all TOTAL CHAOS and so fun...
Then there's Mitchell.
While the girls and Gus are running away from the door, Mitchell heads right for it. He stands right in front of the door and screeches (at the top of his lungs-which is really quite loud these days!) "DAAAAADAAAAAAAA!!!" (take a breath, stomp his feet, giggle) "DAAAAAAADAAAAA!" (spin around in a circle, giggle more...) "DADA. DADA. DADA. DADA.".
and then runs to Adam and grabs onto his leg/feet/briefcase/etc...the second the door opens. Adam has learned not to be on the phone when he walks in the house.
Mitchell really has a sweet, precious, special love for his Daddy. It's adorable and fun and I absolutely love it.





this could've been a great Father's Day post...but I just spent 20 minutes doing it, so there's no way I'm Saving it for a month... Enjoy

Happy Mother's Day to me...

Mother's Day weekend 2011. I was alone with all 3 kids, Adam was out town for a quick trip to Ohio, the weather was grumpy...bah humbug. But then, I remembered that Adam is the greatest husband. He crammed about 10 hours of work +15 hours of driving + 6ish hours of sleep into 24 hours. He made it back home late, late on Saturday night so I could enjoy being a little celebrated on Mother's Day. =) I love the man.

We had a nice morning at church, kids were great, and we even got a few good pictures.



I LOVE LOVE Ainsley's smile in this one!


After 55 pictures snapped, this was my look of: "Really!? can we just get ONE with all four of us looking at the camera?!" Here's my life.

Easter...

I'm getting a little closer to being all caught-up again on this thing. Easter was just two weeks ago and here are the pictures. My mom was in town for a couple days before Easter Sunday, so we did a little front-yard Egg Hunt on Saturday afternoon.


The girls were BEYOND excited and, no surprise here, Elise was an adorable big helper. She also thought it was really cool that she could find/reach eggs that the 'little ones' couldn't...


Ainsley just loved looking at the stuff in the eggs ("oohhh, it's so pretty..." and then kind of dancing about it- stickers, candy, tiny toys, etc...).


Mitchell found his first egg, slammed it open, found some Jellybeans, and never really moved again.

He just stood in that same spot (about 4 feet from the 'start line') for the next 20 minutes. We kept trying to entice him to get MORE eggs, some with bouncy balls, little cars, or stickers inside.
Nope, he was absolutely frozen in one spot devouring jelly beans. It was great.
The girls started finding some 'easy' eggs that we'd hidden for him and would run them to his basket, giggle a little, and then run away again.

Tried taking a few pictures at the end...but they were too excited (sugared up) to sit still. This is my favorite shot of the day: