Fall

I'm sitting on our back porch (my favorite place in our house), feet propped up, monitor showing a snoozing baby, jackson snoring, maya sun bathing, me staring at the cloudless blue sky and beautiful trees in our back yard. I love our new house. I love the peace that the back porch gives me, almost every nap time. I come out here and read, do my bible study, blog. today i'm waiting for hubs to come home from a weekend of racing (last one of the season!) speaking of racing, I was not the happiest wife that he was going away on a weekend where we had been asked to do lots of fun things that required him being here. however, I did enjoy the gifts I received to make up for it;) 

We are enjoying this fall weather and all that fall entails. Ainsley has her Halloween costume ready for Friday. as does Jackson:) Our new neighborhood has been introduced to the Overall Pumpkin Family, 2014 edition. 

we taught ainsley who each pumpkin represented and she likes to point to each one and name them. 

We use acorns for the eyes and the squirrels seem to have had them for their breakfast one day. Ainsley walked over to them the other morning and said "eyes? uh-oh mommy. eyes?" try explaining that to a toddler :) 
With fall comes spiced tea which I actually made myself today. Delicious. and makes my house smell yummy too. 

I got crafty this week and made halloween chex mix. I gave some to our neighbors (all three of them that I know), ainsley's teachers, philip's coworkers, friends, etc. 

The cold weather also forces us to get more creative with our free time. Being cooped up with a toddler gets old a lot quicker than you would think. Philip thought he would help the situation by investing in a little bounce house for ainsley. she calls it her castle. Her two friends came over this weekend for a playdate and the girls loved it. 

As for us, we have also gotten creative in our quality time together 

please note the mortgaged property versus the domination on the other side… ;) 

Looking forward to Halloween this weekend and getting to actually go trick or treating this year! 
some pics from our week : 

cleaning up her own mess, kind of

wanted to wear Jackson's "necklace" 

training for Ebola patients… 

Hurricane Ainsley. Whitney loves Jackson in the background saying "I told her not to do it!" 

pretty much a dream come true! my pastor signing a book he wrote, and hugging me! cloud nine! 

Anna Beth's first bonfire

ainsley and "emmie" to which emma said "my name is emma" haha 

ice cream! 

annnndd still working on the whole utensil thing. sigh. 

testing

Monday, ainsley slept in until 9am (i of course was up at 630) , woke up with a fever/cough/and snot CAKED in her hair. like gobs. she was pitiful. we spent the day alternating tylenol/motrin and watching Nemo and Mickey. She fell asleep in philip's arms around 1215, slept until 430 and then back to sleep at 8. girl did not feel great. 

so pitiful 

don't worry she perked up enough to eat joy's pumpkin pie with cool whip 

However, she woke up with vengeance this morning. She slept in again, but hit the ground running. Hurricaning all over house. of course on a day when it poured all day, forcing us to be cooped up inside with maniac child. 
She got her little chair taken away from her because she was standing on the back of it. She then proceeded to stand up in her rocking chair. I counted to three, thinking it would be a warning. instead, she counted with me. laughing when we got to three.  the rocking chair joined her other chair out in the garage. 
at dinner, she began throwing the food she didn't want on the floor. Philip told her no. she looked right at him, laughed, and threw her food at his feet. this warranted her first 'time out'. not sure how effective it was. 
Don't get me wrong, I love that she has such a spirit about her. I love her laugh. I even appreciate the fact that she is testing her boundaries. Most the time, I want to laugh at her and how defiant she is right now. Philip and I have agreed we will probably spank. but we haven't really sat down and talked about it and how we want to go about it. My dad told me a book I need to read about discipling children… I think it's time I get the title of it and get to work.
anyway- last week we did get to enjoy some family time. we went to the explorium downtown for the first time with A. Philip remembers going there on field trips when he was in school. I dont think Ive ever been. It was fun, something to do on a rainy day at least. 

 

why does she look 5 here? 

We also got to meet up with Matt and Rachel at Keenland. Which is such a different experience with kids. But we had such a good time taking the girls there. 

the girls faces CRACK ME UP 

Ainsley is keeping us on our toes around here. but we love every minute of it. she is starting to put words together and it is so cute. her first two words were 'more. pickles'. she also puts her possession on things now "Ainsley's hair" "Ainsley's shoes" "mommy's chair". she's such a little person now! 

Photo Dump/Cuteness

We have been here and there and back again the past few weeks. 

Ainsley has been going to mother's day out on tuesday and thursday mornings. She has two wonderful teachers and gets to spend a few hours with kids her age. It is a Christian based curriculum with craft time, music class, gym time and lunch:) She seems to really enjoy it and it gives me a few hours to get some things done or sometimes go into work early and have Mom pick her up. She has been in trouble twice: once for not listening/responding and once for throwing her food, piece by piece, onto the floor. Lucky for us we have jackson at home to clean up her mess. and when I accuse her of making a mess she just repeats "mess", which makes me want to laugh. 

She goes to BSF with me on Wednesday mornings and the children's program is awesome. She walks into her room and starts saying "bible". it makes my heart flow over. 

on the flip side though, when we go to church, she walks into her class saying "crackers"… she eats southland out of crackers every sunday morning. 

Ainsley had a little virus (maybe? maybe molars coming in?) last week. she woke up pitiful saying "hot hot" and proceeded to vomit on me. poor, sweet, little thing. luckily, it didn't last long. 

i am just going to upload lots of pics that are snapshots of our past couple weeks:) 

playing at the park 

classy. 

eating her friend Kalyn's popcorn, she wouldn't eat the funnel cake.. WHAT?!  

LOVES cheese 

donielle and I attempted to make caramel apple pops… they didn't really turn out. 

went to the new outlets with my parents (birthday present). A got to play on rides with Pop :) 

eating a cookie, sitting outside waiting for Daddy to come home 

playing in Daddy's car  

french braid! 

this was the night Ainsley was officially put on probation from eating meals out.  

still working on the whole utensil thing. eating "noo-noos": noodles 

a glimpse into her teenage years 

girl time 

she likes to lay her blanket out on the pink side and lay on it. she also likes me to lay on it with her. 

gathering acorns in her measuring cup. she brought them in to "cook" in her play kitchen 

yes she has crocs. we don't wear them in public, don't worry. just outside around the house. 

my favorite niece stopped by for a visit!!! 

Now, the CUTEST thing she does right now is at night she likes to see the moon. And when she sees it, she holds her hands up, reaches up and says "HOLDER?" I would love to grab that moon and let her hold it. she would be so happy:) 

Today she also pointed to the rust on the chairs in the playset outside and said "owie" :) 

and the wind started blowing and she said "WINDY!" 

Philip was changing her diaper and on her own she said "Shooo-weee!" and covered her nose. Just guess which parent she learned that one from:) 

She loves to point to jacksons tail, then to her bottom and say "Ainsley's tail" 

She feeds all her babies. saying their name as she gives them a bite. "Hippo. Cheetah. Elmo. Minnie. Baa (sheep). " then before she takes a bite she says "Aasley" :) it's so cute. 

she knows her colors, including aqua, and loves to walk around naming everything and its color.  

she knows all the characters to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and loves the hot dog dance. she also knows all the sesame street characters. She really only watches mickey on TV but has lots of mickey and elmo books. 

she does so many funny things during the day, Philip and I are constantly cracking up at her.