Ainsley's awesome new 'thing'

Geh...I'm so far behind again...but I refuse to get out of chronological order...so before (ha!) I get to Christmas, I'll do the next blog that I've had in the wings for about 6 weeks now.

And it revolves around Ainsley. no big surprise there. She's been the most entertaining one in the house lately. ESPECIALLY relating to naptime/bedtime/sleeping.

This was last month during afternoon rest-time. Ainsley has pretty much given up all sleeping, but still needs to rest quietly for 2 hours in her bed. and mommy needs a break for a couple hours, so we're going to keep this pattern going as long as we can!

I kept watching on the video monitor and didn't see or hear anything for about an hour, so I assumed she was at the foot of the bed, which was out of the frame of the video. I took my camera upstairs JUST IN CASE. I figured that she'd fallen asleep near the end of the bed and I'd go in to cuddle a little to wake her up and get a sweet shot of sleeping Ainsley.

When I opened the door, I heard a little giggle. A "ohh...she's finally here and I'll stay totally quiet" kind of giggle. I put the camera up to my eye and STILL couldn't find her...
and then I did:

look closely. See her? don't cheat and look down at the next picture....








Oh yeah. There she is. Almost-four-year-old Ainsley smooshed up inside her pillowcase and had been quiet and still for AN HOUR...


and she was giggling like crazy that I had found her.
This picture included because you get an idea of how big she really is as she UNFOLDED herself from the confined space. it was like a clown car...
I had to re-hydrate her a bit after that, too. She'd sweated out a couple pounds while in there.
and, ps-Paul... check out the size of her feet in this. sweet baby Sarah comes by it naturally... =)


The next few are also Ainsley in relation to her newest (but not even remotely her only) obsession. Her sheets and comforter. HAVE TO STAY NEAT and TIDY. They have to. She refuses to go to sleep under the covers b/c then the 'system' would be messed up. At first, I was a little frustrated and forced her under the covers...but after a few days, I quit. It doesn't really matter, does it? If she gets cold enough, she'll get under the covers. maybe.
This was last night. She was curled up (once again) in a tiny ball just so she could avoid wrinkling up the top quilt. Also, our furnace is broken. So there's no heat upstairs. And it was 22 degrees overnight last night. But we wouldn't want to mess up the covers...

This was last week. Her new sleeping bag (Xmas gift from Super Uncle Kelly) couldn't be messed up either.
I know I took a couple more pictures, but I can't find them. The kid is awesome and quirky and a total riot.

DISNEY

After a year (or maybe 5) of saying, "we're so NOT Disney-people" to anyone who would listen... we became Disney people and had a GREAT two days there in November. TOOO TOOO TOOO much joy to explain. I would do it again with the girls (Adam... he would probably not do it again). Or at least wait a couple years until Mitchell could enjoy it and kids could actually survive w/o naps or rest-time... although going back to the hotel mid-day was awesome for the adults to rest, too!
We did one full day at Magic Kingdom and it was fun and total chaos. The 'girl-ness' of it all was a little overwhelming. So much pink/princess/sparkle/etc... wow. But, for an almost 6 year old and an almost 4 year old with very low expectations, it was perfect. We didn't tell them where we were goin until we were about 20 minutes away, and Elise's response was, "YAAAAAY DISNEY!" count to four...."Um, what IS Disney?". seriously.

Mimi, Nana and three really happy (and hot and sweaty) kids
Watching the show in front of Cinderella's castle. really cool.


Mitchell actually LOVED the carousel!


She'd just finished an ice cream cone and was even MORE joyful than normal!

Mitchell was a little skeptical of the huge duck, but still wanted to 'meet' Daisy.
Girls were enamored.
We stayed the night at the Military's Shades of Green hotel and it was gorgeous. SOOOO well-kept (I was picturing a Navy Lodge...dirty, smelly, outdated...usually pretty horrible) and I was absolutely pleased with the accommodations. (especially since the grandmas were paying!) We crammed 4 adults and 3 kids (fairly comfortably, actually) in a one bedroom 'suite'... it was actually way fun.

A few quick shots of when we went back to Magic Kingdom later that evening. It was kind of nice being in the winter b/c it was only 5pm when we returned, but fully dark already! WIN/WIN! The Castle was all lit up, but kids were still awake and happy since it wasn't past bedtimes yet.

It really was kind of breathtaking!
An (almost complete!) family picture.

OF COURSE the highlight of the trip for the girls was the 1-on-1 meeting with several princesses. Elise really was speechless. She couldn't stop smiling. it was precious.
Ainsley, on the other hand, was a total chatterbox with the Princesses. She kept telling Cinderella how much they looked like "twins"...blue dresses matched, I guess? =)
The whole Fam Damily with the Worlds most famous Mice. =) Can't you see the joy on our faces at "The Happiest Place on Earth"?

Day 2 was Animal Kingdom and we LOVED IT. Side note: when planning on a trip like this, ask lots of questions, read lots of reviews, but then do what you think is BEST for your family. Many people had said that our kids were too young for Animal Kingdom and they just wouldn't have fun. However, we KNOW our kids and knew that they would LOVE all the animals and the lower-key atmosphere. And they did. We had so much fun on the safari, Elise rode a REAL roller-coaster (loved it, but said she may never do that again!), the food was better there, the overall 'feel' of the park was way more Moseley... =)



Really cool huge huge huge play area! It was set up like a archaeological dig site and was sooo fun.
We went to Finding Nemo show (read:sitting down, indoor, air conditioned!) that was sweet too.

It was a great trip, really. Totally exhausting, but fun and a great 2 days. =)

GORGEOUS WEDDING

Almost a month ago, we went to Florida to be part of celebrating Adam's sister's Wedding and it was FANTASTIC!!! It was a total whirlwind 2 days, but the event was gorgeous. Amanda was a breathtaking Bride, the venue was gorgeous, and it was truly a fun Reception! Ainsley and Elise were both flower girls and they did a great job. They LOOOOVED their fancy dresses, getting to stay up late, and drinking "bubbly juice" (SPRITE, not Champagne) in pretty stemware.


CONGRATULATIONS to AMANDA and LUCAS!!! It was a blessing for US to be part of your day.


Oh yeah, Mitchell was 'kind of' in the wedding. He wore a dapper little outfit, practiced walking down the aisle with the girls, etc.. but at 'go time', he froze and hung out in my arms during the whole ceremony. We're thankful that Amanda had such a laid-back attitude! Mitchell did rock the dance floor, though... dancing with total strangers, spinning in circles... it was awesome.


The girls got to hang out with the Bride/Bridesmaids for a little while and had a blast, apparently!

I'm not sure exactly HOW this happened, but could she BE any cuter!?

One of my favorites from the day...Great, great, great!!!

Adam was honored to walk his sister down the aisle...



RECEPTION

just LOOK at that floral centerpiece!! hand-made by the very talented Brenda Donovan...

mid November

Mitchell is such a champ. About a month ago, he decided that he wanted to work on potty-training. At 2 years and 2 months old, I had very low expectations when he kept pointing to the toilet and saying, "Me Potty!" (which actually sounds like "Me Bobby"). So for a couple days we let him run around the house mostly naked most of the time- and as Adam likes to point out, 'what male WOULDN'T love that!?!...uh, sure. Mitchell did love it and only had a few accidents over the course of a few days. Although exhausting to enthusiastically run him into the bathroom every 3 or 5 minutes, hoist him up on the toilet, and then entertain him while he keeps trying to get off, phew... IT WAS WORTH IT!!!!!!! To have a potty-trained BOY who isn't even close to 2 1/2 yet, is fantastic. He is so proud of himself, the girls still cheer him on every single time he goes to the toilet, and we've only had probably 3 accidents in the last 3 weeks. AND that INCLUDES 7 days in Florida, 2 days at Disney (posts to follow) and 5 days with a stomach bug that caused constant diarrhea. constant. at Disney. awesome. but, the little man loves his choo-choo (Thomas the Train) underwear and didn't mess them up through all of that. it's great.

And now that the weather is cooling, we've been able to enjoy the outdoor fire-pit that we got Adam for Father's Day. These are a few pictures from our first s'mores event of the season.

Ainsley loved the s'mores, but didn't want to get her hands/face/clothing dirty.

Elise just wanted to be comfy and let the marshmallow slow cook...Gus getting in on some crumbs, too.

And Mitchell LOVED the mess and staring at the fire, but then only wanted to eat the Graham cracker and the chocolate. Not interested in the marshmallow.

fun, fun, fun Halloween

This was Elise's outfit for school on Halloween day


Of course we had to throw some pictures from Halloween up on here.... only a week and 1/2 later. Not bad, really.

Kids had a blast, we really enjoyed it, too. This was our first Halloween w/o a stroller or wagon, and that was NICE! Well, it was nice until the last 30 minutes when the two little ones were both crying, tired, and begging to be picked up... which was right after Adam rolled his ankle and fell hard to the ground while holding Mitchell, who was kind of thrown and then of course screaming. Adam was in pain and couldn't hold anyone, so Mommy was trying to carry two 30 lb kids up a steep hill... oh, man, it sounds bad all written out. Ok, we'll just pretend that part didn't happen. Rose-colored rearview mirror, people. =)

The girls only wanted to be princesses (easy! already have those costumes. Thanks, Paul and Jen, for Elise's dress from two Christmases ago). Mitchell LOOOOOOVES monkeys, so he was stoked to re-use a 5 year-old costume, too. win-win.
We hung out with neighbors we love and all was good. impressive that all 6 of these kiddos were at least 'pleasant' looking-no way possible to get all 6 smiling, happy, and looking at the correct camera.




He's really just awesome. He's been wearing the monkey outfit all week, too... just put it away yesterday.
We gave away 1/2 our candy to some friends who were out of town and didn't get to Trick-or-Treat, but I'm still ASHAMED of how quickly the stuff is disappearing...and it's not the kids eating all of it. augh. "fun size" Kit-Kats are my enemy.

Probably not going to be a professional song-writer...

I just walked downstairs and wanted to get this written down immediately...
Elise is at school, so I was putting Ainsley and Mitchell in bed for naptimes and Ainsley asked me to sing her a song about princesses. I told her that I don't know any songs about princesses, but I could sing something else instead.
Her reply:

"Mommy, want me to sing YOU a song? It's called the Four Princess song."
(she actually sat upright, cleared her throat and started....she swayed the whole time, it was all SUNG in a cute little squeaky voice.)

"There were four princesses-Ariel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Aurora. They all went for a ride in the forest one day. One had a horse, one had a unicorn, one on a horsey, one was on a reindeer, and one on a sheep. They were all so happy. They went for a ride in a forest. The horses picked them beautiful flowers. They were happy. All the princesses loved their flowers and so they (drawn out for dramatic ending!)....went.... home.....to their castle."


"That's it. Did you love my song?"

Absolutely. Beats Old McDonald ANY DAY!

that picture was a few weeks ago, but it's sweet, so I stuck it in here. That's her 'new' smile... we do miss the 'growl' smile as it used to be called, but this is cool too.

LOVE the Fall in Virginia!

Two Saturdays ago, we woke up to the PERFECT Virginia fall day. It was a little cool in the house, THIS was my view from bed (after I ran downstairs and got the camera...).

REALLY! THAT IS MY VIEW. EVERY DAY. I LOVE IT.

Actually, THIS if my view from bed. The above shot is when I got closer to the window and turned off the flash. Whatever.


Since our kids are AMAZING and sleep until after 8am on the weekends, Adam and I got up, enjoyed our coffee on the back deck (don't judge me, ok? no makeup yet and it was my first cup of the morning!). It was glorious.

We decided to take a little family hike for the morning at a local park- another joy of living so close to mountains- we drove about 3 miles and had access to GREAT hiking trails heading up a good-sized foothill of the Blue Ridge Mtns. We couldn't do THAT in Ohio, Florida, or South Carolina...
We probably hiked a total of 2.5 miles (?ish). Mitchell was in the jogging stroller for part of it, Ainsley's little legs got so tired and I was piggy-backing her by the end, but they all did GREAT overall!


Ainsley found a cute little walking stick that she loved, although she never actually used it correctly, she looked good with it! Agreed?

Elise (NOT surprising to anyone, of course!) was a total adventurist! She kept running ahead and exploring for us.

We kept following markers for the "Old Giant Oak Trail" or something like that... figuring it gave us something to look forward to, right? take some cool pics by a huge Oak tree. I'd read somewhere that it's a record of some type? largest in the Region? Oldest in VA? something special...



Well, 30 minutes of doing that and we found the OLD GIANT OAK... laying (lying!?) on it's side where it's, apparently, been for YEARS. awesome. I guess it never said, "Old Giant ALIVE Oak" tree.

It was great to climb onto it and play some, though. At least for me. I've always had a thing for climbing around in the woods... Elise loved it, Ainsley was ok with it for about 35 seconds... just long enough for Adam to snap one cute picture of the Moseley Girls. =)

Happy.