Spring Break!

We've just finished Spring Break Week, which is a hilarious idea with 5,3, and 1 year olds. I've had a whole week of 'oh-my-gosh-i've-got-to-be-creative-and-fun-and-boundless-energy-for-9-full-days...". Yikes. It was a blast though...

more pics continued from the last post. HOW GREAT is that outfit?
..and she picked out the pink socks and plaid flats to go with it. I give them some choices, ok?!

That outfit could've been from the same Butterick's Spring 1984 catalog that featured this hot number:

I had outfits like that in the 80's, too...they were from this store called "UNITS". Horrible idea. big mistake. WHY did that even exist?!

More Spring Break pictures.... this was the very second before they SMASHED heads, tears from both girls, playtime over for a little bit.


This boy is naked all the time. He seems to love it, we don't really mind it either...


Ainsley was given a REAL ballet leotard and ballet slippers by Mimi last week. That's a three year-old in HEAVEN... she wears it every day, gushes over it, and can't stop watching her reflection in the fireplace. SUCH a riot. The FOCUS she has is awesome, too.

What else? We went to the Zoo one day, stayed in and did crafts one day that rained non-stop, visited three new (to us) parks in town, went grocery shopping one day, played with neighbors, lots of wrestling with daddy in the evenings.
Adam had his USN Reserves weekend this weekend, so I was a little worried about coming up with two more days of new and fun stuff to do....
But, then we found LETTUCE:

You can see Mitchell's face in that picture!? Awesome. He's not too excited about the turtle... but the girls LOVE the smelly thing, so we'll keep him for a few days. We even had a friend (who's a Vet in town) look at him and Dr.M says he looks great and is probably pretty old- like 10ish years. She told us what Lettuce should eat, how to give her water, etc... Elise can't stop playing with it. really funny. Elise found it in the backyard on Saturday morning first thing and it kept them happy ALL day Saturday and parts of Sunday and Monday, too. YAY for a distraction and something cooler than Mommy.

Last picture of the day... Mitchell woke up Friday morning with a black eye! We have no idea how it happened and it hasn't slowed him down one bit. It looks much worse in person than this picture, too... crazy.

Springtime...

So, now that spring has officially hit Virginia, we can have FUN OUTSIDE again! YAY! We so love the outdoors and now that the weather has improved, everyone is happier. =). especially Mommy. We all need a little fresh air and open space, right?

We spend a LOT of time doing bubbles... Ainsley and Mitchell, especially, these days. Look at that little guy's smile. I mean, really!? Yes, he's that cute.
...and, yes, this was 6 weeks ago. I hate that stupid date-stamp on the pictures from our point-and-shoot camera. whatever. That was the 'start' of Spring. Now the real thing is here!

We always love a good run in the rain... =)

Swings are another major pass time...

GORGEOUS SHOT! great backyard, great playset... we love our life.

...just in case...

WE FINALLY have a good whole-family picture. It's the first time we've gotten one since Halloween...that was, uh...6 months ago. awesome. Anyway, the night before we left for Mexico, I kind of freaked out for a minute. just one. Promise. =) I started thinking, "If Adam and I die in a plane/bus/boat/taxi crash in another country, I want the kids to have one last GOOD picture of all of us together." Poor Adam. Yep, this is how I think sometimes. So, kids were in PJ's, house was crazy, but Mimi was here and could snap this pic. I think it turned out great. And, we're all still alive. So that's a win-win!

Vacation bliss...

I'm aware that nobody really enjoys pictures of other people's vacation, but this is my blog...so deal with it. =). I got an email today from my younger brother gently reminding me that I'm overdue on blogs again, so this was a quick and easy one to throw together....

GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS water, scenery, SUN, etc... in Cozumel, Mexico last month.
Do we look relaxed and happy? ...that's because we're on VACATION with no children... the grandmas both stepped up to help out and we got to go away for 5 days. It was glorious.
We even rented (ok, actually, it ended up being FREE-along with two cheesy Cozumel tshirts, a blanket, $20, and a bottle of cheap Tequila..!!!) a jeep for an afternoon and went exploring on the island. It was great.

Ha! That's funny! This was part of the menu- a hunk of wood, really. The Margarita we DID drink was really strong enough for about 4 drinks here in the US. It was good, though!

View from our room. Not bad.


We had tons of fun, Adam went SCUBA diving a couple times, we ate LOTS of good food, didn't get sunburned at all, and are soooo thankful for the time to relax together, reconnect without any interruptions by little munchkins, and have NO schedule for a few days.... so nice.

Photo Dump..ha ha...I said Dump

The title is in honor of my hilarious older brother who still chuckles like a 12 year old when ANYTHING could relate to potty-humor.

My next attempt to update this blog includes a quick and easy highlight of the last two months... how's that for taking the cheap way out? =)

These are generally in order...
Early January, we realized Mitchell needed a haircut desperately, so I did it at home...it's already grown out a bunch again, but here's the immediate Before and After shots:

...channeling Farrah Fawcett with those wings...

...and 3 minutes later, he looked like a Toddler. Yes, it was immediately after, I changed his clothes at the same time.

We spend A LOT of time PLAYING around this house!! A recent favorite? Elise drags the 'little ones' around on the hardwood floors on either a blanket or a big pillow. The non-stop giggles are amazing.

After emergency knee surgery for a friend of ours, we kept their boys for a day... five kids age 5 and under was a handful but SO MUCH FUN, too! We LOVE Jackson and Chase!
...this was before Ainsley's haircut, obviously. Man, that looked bad.

After years of being oppressed by his financially-neurotic wife, Adam got a sailboat. It's the exact boat he's been looking at for awhile and it was a killer deal on Craigslist. yay. Now we just need weather to be above 50 so we could actually USE it!

We still find Ainsley like this (or crazier) most nights...I love it. =)

ELISE LOST HER FIRST TOOTH!!!!! She'd been wiggling it for weeks and it finally just fell out. No tears, no blood, no drama...but she was super excited! The tooth fairy left her some $$ and everyone was happy. The 'even-more-gappy-smile' is awesome. Plus, I made her a GREAT Tooth pillow she's holding onto in this picture... yay for finally having a fixed sewing machine the DAY BEFORE the tooth fell out.


Mitchell and Ainsley are great little buddies and have so much fun playing together. There's a lot of jumping, tackling, running, and laughing. Mitchell couldn't quite imitate her on this one, but he was trying to jump off the hearth onto a pillow like she did. He'd just fall on it and giggle.


Cute little man

Adam tackled a great big house project of pulling off the carpet and old stairs and replacing them with a gorgeous oak. Another Craigslist find, we LOVE the finished project. It was a LOT of work for both of us, but totally worth it in the long run...

Adam turned 36!
We were BLESSED BEYOND BELIEF to go to Cozumel, Mexico for 5 days with NO KIDS. All-Inclusive resort, SCUBA, snorkeling, lots of resting and just talking. No sippy cups, no schedules, no diapers. LOVED IT!

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!!!!!!!