Crazy Driver

I'm counting the "Potty Training basics" as being complete and a huge success in the Moseley household! It's been fun to see Elise do something new and challenging and to watch her TOTALLY rise to the occasion. She loves doing something that pleases us (constantly saying, "Mommy/Daddy/(another loved one) so proud of me on my potty".). It's adorable. One of our neighbors gave her a toy grocery cart as the big final potty present. She has been running around the house like an absolute mad-woman for a week now with the cart- let's just hope her 'driving' isn't a precursor for driving a car in 14 years! =) The poor baby doll gets thrown out the top all day long! What a joy. Also, Ainsley has really started to watch Elise's EVERY MOVE. She laughs, smiles, and just lights up as Elise runs past her over and over again. Elise stops to kiss her sister all the time and says, "Watch me, Ainsley baby!" =) This was Ainsley watching Elise zoom in and around with the Shopping cart!

10 Things...

So this is like one of those silly "10 ways to get to know us" emails or whatever...I got the idea from a friends' blog, I took the pictures, and here you go!

The Rules:
Take 10 pictures right away, NO CLEANING up first, and then "tag" three more friends:

1.Favorite Destination:
I honestly don't know...is that bad?! I love relaxing with friends/family and I don't really care where it is. I LOVED our time in Kyoto, Japan last year, so here's a picture of that:
2.Self-Portrait:
This was from the day last week that I painted one of the bathrooms..and apparently I bumped into the wall of wet paint...I didn't notice until HOURS later and elise woke up from her nap and told me I had blue hair!
3.What the kiddos are doing:
Both were taking a nap right then, but this was later in the day...


4.My Closet:
I love a great walk-in closet in this house. However, with no basement or attic, all closets are also storage rooms, so pretty cluttered. Any Miami girls...notice the top t-shirt? MU 1998 (?) Lax Spring Tournament... still wearing that!


5.Laundry Room:
Boring, but useful.


6.The Refrigerator:
The inside is a little empty today, so we'll take outside shot...

7.Favorite Room in the house:
The kitchen/living room is definitely the "hub" of the house and I love it! We play, read books, share meals, etc...all right here!

8.The Bathroom:
The newly painted kids/guest bathroom...I love it.

9.The Kitchen Sink:
It wasn't functional yet, so it was VERY clean.


10.Favorite Shoes:
I'm totally NOT a shoe person, so I go for comfort....my favorites are either REEF Flip flops, Chacos, or my current attire...running shoes.

Ok, so Casey, you're "tagged" (although Shannon Tagged you, too...)since you haven't done it yet, I'll encourage you also.
Also, Alicia and Julie...you're up!

Home Improvement, con't...

Never wanting to sit still, we (Ok, "I", Adam loves sitting still...) had new countertops installed this week, I did some MAJOR closet cleaning, and I painted two bathrooms...Here are a few Before/After shots of the kitchen. The counters are Silestone and such a KILLER deal that we really couldn't pass it up. They were just installed yesterday and Adam is still working on the sink/disposal hook-up, so we're dealing with no kitchen sink, but it's fine for a couple of days. The counters look very nice and upgrade the kitchen from the counters that I despised before. Now, of course, the 10 year old white appliances look dingy and outdated, but we'll get to them in a few months. Since they actually work fine, there's no real reason to upgrade that yet. Elise keeps looking at them and saying, "oooohh...so cool, mommy". She also loves the "dark purple" (it's periwinkle really, but that's fine, she's 2, bathrooms. It was a fun project to work on during naptimes all week. And, I don't like doing nothing...
BEFORE...they were a dingy khaki in color...

DURING...we saved a few hundred bucks by doing the demolition ourselves of the old stuff...that's the fun part, right!?


We did the Demo right before Trash Day and snuck the WAY OVERSTUFFED, Clampett-lookin' trashcans out the curb after dark so the neighbors wouldn't laugh at us...although our neighbors would love it. They're so great.
Now, AFTER...it's called "Ebony Pearl" and it's a gray/black with lots of variation of specks of gray/black/a few white....


Here's the upstairs Guest bathroom/ kids bathroom. It was a hideous faux-finish/sponge paint disaster with a floral wallpaper border left by previous owners...now, I love it.

P.S. In the midst of all this craziness and more, Elise is still being a Superstar with potty-training! 10 days and only a couple minor accidents! YAY!

Adventures in Gardening

BEFORE shot...April 15, 2008

AFTER shots- July 23, 2008
You've gotta LOVE the toothless Cabbage Patch Kid!


How great is this!?! When we planted our garden in April, we had two small Watermelon plants and were really hoping to yield a few fruits out of that. Little did we know that WATERMELON CAN TAKE OVER YOUR GARDEN, SIDEWALK, BACKYARD, etc...it's unreal! Good thing that the other plants next to it all died early on and there was plenty of room for it to grow. Unfortunately, there still aren't ANY Watermelons growing...!?! We're not sure what to do about that- any ideas out there? Here's a picture of Planting Day and another one from this morning-Hilarious...

Sisterly Love...

After about 5 months of life as a "Big Sister", Elise FINALLY wants to hold Ainsley and get pictures taken together. We've tried 100x, but to no avail until earlier this week. (I think, once again, it's the influence of 5 year old friend Kristina who LOVES Ainsley) and all of a sudden, Elise keeps asking us to put Ainsley on her lap, she spontaneously kisses and hugs her, etc...and it's so precious. Elise really is so tender-hearted. She gets sad very quickly if someone has an "owie" or if somebody around her seems upset. She's constantly hugging us, kissing us, hugging Gus, etc... I pray that gentle spirit and tenderness continues as she gets older.

Three good shots

Just thought I'd throw two quick pictures up that we took in the last week or so...both so cute. I'll post more later. I'm trying to finish painting a bathroom, clean the house, and prep the kitchen for the COUNTERTOPS to be replaced tomorrow morning! YEAH!

"big girl" Ainsley is now happily eating bananas, sweet potatoes, peas, and applesauce in addition to nursing! She LOVES food!
Elise STILL loves to play in the sink! On those days when I need to just stand still for a few minutes and "be ok with a mess", we pull her stool up to the sink, clean out the dishes, and let her go to it!
This was a little toy that she was working SO HARD to share with Madelyn F last week. I was proud of Elise...she loved the little doggy on a string, but was pretty good at letting Madelyn have a turn, too.

Pooping, Creeping, Sitting...all in a weeks' work

While Elise was working on potty-training all week, Ainsley has also hit some milestones in the last 10 days. At 5 1/2 months, she's able to hold herself up in a 'sit' position (after we place her there)-it's really more of a tripod with two legs and one hand propping herself. She loves to look around and see what Elise and Gus are doing, mainly. She's also started "creeping" - the little commando-crawl on her belly that precedes crawling. If a toy or book is just a few inches out of reach, she'll wiggle a few times until she can reach it! It's so cute. Yes, the picture below shows the Creeper in action- she got to Adam's shoe just in time to leave a healthy amount of spit-up in it for us. Hilarious!

ps-I didn't let her chew on the shoe very long...that's gross. But I had to get a picture of it first!