First Birthday Party

I had always said I wasn't going to do a big birthday party when I had kids.  That the party was more for the parents than for the actual birthday baby.  But once we sat down and made a list of my family, philip's family, and our best friends, there was no avoiding a large number of people. We have too many people we love and who love Ainsley. Since Ainsley came into this world in a snowy wonderland, I decided to have the theme for her party be a 'Winter OneDerland'. 

her birthday outfit that I barely got any pics of her in it! 

something else i never realized until I had a child, was how precious nap time is. and how missing a nap can ruin a whole day (for us at least). so I decided to avoid nap time completely and have a birthday breakfast:)  and yes maybe a lot of her party was for philip and I. but more than anything, we just wanted a day to be about our daughter and celebrating her life. with the people who love her.  I think we succeeded! 

her invitation 

The forecast was predicting for freezing rain all week, but luckily the day was beautiful! the sun was out and there was no rain or snow in sight:)  We decided to have the party at the Hartland Clubhouse. This decision was made way before we decided to buy a house and move. It worked out perfectly though. The pressure of having it at our house was taken off (especially since our house is not put together yet!)  We started her day off by taking balloons in her room and singing to her as we came up the steps. she was a little confused :) 

philip hadn't put on his shirt yet:) we were too excited 

here are pictures of the party set up and the food: 

homemade hot cocoa favors:) 

doughnut hole kabobs and fruit platter

doughnuts and sausage balls 

snowflake water, OJ, milk boxes and juice boxes

snowflake cookies

mini cupcakes

Ainsley's smash cake 

frame of her monthly 'onesie' pics. thanks aunt rachel! 

Philip came home one day with a present for Ainsley that she 'had to have'. He said it was her housewarming present. But i decided it should be her first birthday present. I was skeptical at first but her present was the hit of the party. a roller coaster!!! 

Philip has been so excited for Ainsley to eat her smash cake. He really wanted her to pick the whole thing up and just tear into it. But she is a lady, and ate it pretty daintily :)  *picture overload coming up*

a little scared of the candle and everyone singing 

sharing with daddy 

what was left:) 

Opening presents was pretty amazing. to see the fun and thoughtful gifts everyone picked out for her was so sweet. I didn't have expectations of her helping open presents, so when she wanted down and to play, I was fine with that:) I had to open the presents quicker than I would have liked, but a baby's attention span is not very long:) 

Overall, I think the party went really well! and if it didn't, at least I felt like it did haha:) I wasn't stressed out about it and felt like Ainsley had such a good time. 

A huge thank you to my mom and family for bringing food, helping us set up, and decorate. And a huge thank you to mine and Philip's friends who stayed and helped clean afterwards! 

Ainsley shares her birthday with Auntie Jo, and that night we went to Mi Casita to celebrate her! (well my family always goes to Mi Casita on Saturday nights). They brought out the sombrero and ice cream for both AJ's:) 

hand in ice cream 

Ainsley also had shrimp for dinner and (sadly) liked it. Her Daddy is so happy, I however am not ecstatic. :)  Happy Happy Birthday to our sweet Ainsley! We hope we made you feel extra special on your special day. Birthdays are a big deal in this family, and I hope your first one was spectacular:)  

ONE YEAR!

 a sneak peek of her one year photos taken by Mary Maldonaldo Photography 

I can not believe I am writing her one year update. It makes me tear up just realizing how fast these 12 months have gone. The first twelve months of her little life have come, and gone. I just want to make the time go slower. to make myself appreciate things more. To love and cherish the 2 am wake ups and the hair pulling and things that annoy me now:)  Because our lives have been forever and completely changed in the most amazing way possible. We have fallen in love and our hearts have been opened in ways that we didn't even know existed. I'm not saying it's easy or always enjoyable. But it IS always worth it. so worth it. 
 **her photo shoot this month was the worst yet! we did it the day after (her actual birthday was too busy!) and she had just bumped her head in the church nursery. we did have one year pictures taken by the same person who did my maternity pics, so I am hoping they turned out better :) 

height/weight: 20 lbs 8.2 oz (38%) 29 1/4 in (51%) OFC: 45 1/2 (61%) 

my 12 month stats. I was smaller than ainsley! 

size: she is in 12 month clothes. size 3 diapers. 
nicknames: beanie, monster, tornado, stinker 
physical: her eyes have remained blue she has a mullet but the sides are starting to grow out too to even it up a bit she still only has 4 teeth, but I think her molars are working on coming in her hair is a brownish red 

fell asleep in target. but look at the mullet. 

eating: she eats most anything that we do. still takes a bottle 4 times a day and eats a meal 2-3 times a day. she LOVES fruit and ravioli. she is definitely a carb girl.  she loves ice chips and fights Jackson for pieces of ice  she had shrimp for the first time, on her first birthday, and (sadly) loved it. her daddy is so happy 

sleeping: our rock star sleeper has lost her status this month. we have been so blessed  up until this point and don't know what to do with ourselves when she is up at 2 or 4 am haha. I don't know if it is her being sick for 2 weeks, or moving into the new house or teething- but she wakes up at least once a night screaming in her crib. She is fine when we pick her up and rock her, then screams when we lay her back down. We hear this is normal around this age, but geez! NOT FUN!  but we can't complain. I know it could be way worse;)  words: she says DaDa and Jackson with purpose. Philip thinks she says MaMa but if she does, it is not often. 
new things:  she is into EVERYTHING. if we change something or put something new out, she notices immediately.  loves trying to eat dog/cat food and putting her hands in their water bowls.  loves being chased and playing peek a boo still loves books and flap books. she will go to her book basket and pull out her flap books and bring them to us to read to her. she knows which ones she likes too  she is hating her car seat. makes her body as stiff as a board and screams when we try to strap her in. it's pretty awesome  she has started dancing. when music plays she squats up and down and claps  she loves playing with jackson. she follows him around and pets him and they roll around on the floor together. she gets his bones and hands them to him. they are best friends:) she tries really hard to be friends with Maya but Maya is not having it  She is obsessed with bath time still :) she loves pushing things around on the floor: her rocking chair, baskets, chairs, laundry basket, etc. 

lowe's trip with Daddy 

Ainsley, for your second year of life I promise to stop and truly enjoy each little moment with you. To love you unconditionally and patiently.  We are so blessed to be your parents and can't wait to experience the next year with you:) 

The Storm

I feel like I just survived something big. not a war, that's not the right word. storm maybe? like we have been in a boat, thrashed around in a severe storm the past week and finally the waves have calmed and we see the shore. yes that's more accurate.  (maybe because it was this past week's bible study though- about Peter in the boat and walking on water. either way, it's a good picture painted. )
Tuesday I broke down and took Ainsley to her pediatrician. She needed a breathing treatment or something to help her breathe better. We spent an hour in the dr's office, getting her tested for RSV and getting a breathing treatment. You would have thought the sweet nurse (who i went to nursing school with) was sawing ainsley's leg off the way she screamed over having an oxygen mask held in front of her face. not even strapped on. just held there so she could breathe the medicine in. geeezz. 
she tested negative for RSV but was diagnosed with another form of bronchiolitis. she also said she was developing bilateral ear infections. she gave us an antibiotic for the ears and told me to just suction her out as much as I could. to keep her fever down with tylenol and motrin. that it was going to get worse before it got better. and it would last probably about 2 weeks. great;) looking forward to this!  Of course this all happened when philip is scheduled to work 4 12 hours shift in a row (we see him a total of 40 minutes when he works back to back shifts), has one day off, then back to work. Single moms- I admire you soo much. I don't know how you do it on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.  the second night ainsley was up from 11-4/5 I thought I was going to pull my hair out. It was 1 am and I was driving around the neighborhood in my hoodie and house shoes trying to get this child to just sleep. texting philip that I would rather work his 4 shifts than be here by myself. 

We tried to move some stuff one day while Philip was sleeping, but A wouldn't let anyone hold her except me. she would scream if they tried. at first it was sweet. about 24 hours in, not so much;)  anyway, enough whining. we survived! she is almost back to normal. she played today finally. she would bring me books to read to her. she would play and then come lay her head on my shoulder. then play and come back. but at least she played. and no fever in 24 hours. she took her night time bottle for the first time in 4 nights tonight. we are making progress:) 
 We can see the shore and are about to jump out of this sickness boat and roll around in the sand:)  Thank you thank you to my parents and family and friends who have helped me with her. or have been praying for her/me this week. It has made such a difference! 

oh, and this happened. 8 inches- chopped off and donated! 

We're Moving!

Today we closed on our new house!  The story of how this all fell into place is pretty amazing.  Philip is always browsing houses. He is constantly looking online and when we drive around, just looking at them. He is the dreamer of the two of us. I am the realist:)  A few months ago he told me we needed a plan. that I needed to decide if I wanted to live in Lexington or Georgetown. This was a hard decision because I have always envisioned myself living on the farm in Georgetown. And we still may eventually. But it surprised me to realize that I wasn't ready to leave my life in Lexington. My friends who stop by, girls i meet up with to go on a walk, my bible study, our church, preschool for Ainsley one day, planet thai (just kidding). I just felt like moving to gtown, I would lose a lot of that. and i've finally found my niche here. so that was decision #1.  Decision #2- do we want to have next baby in this house, or a bigger house? if this house had a basement, or even some more storage, I would love to stay here. We love this house. We love the location. but it has no space. we store so much stuff at my parents right now. it's crazy. so no way could we have another baby and everything it would accumulate, here.  So once I made those decisions, Philip felt better about having a 'plan'.  He found this house on Zillow. He showed me pictures. he is always showing me pictures of houses and I usually am just half-looking at them. But this house looked pretty awesome. In a neighborhood I have for some reason been drawn to every time we drive through it.  We agreed to pray about this house and the decision to move before we even went to look at it.  And that decision has made the biggest impact.  Once we both felt like we should go look at the house, we called the number to see when we could come look at it (for sale by owner). The girl who answered told us she was actually close to the house and could meet us there in an hour. I had been baking all day and was a mess, but we went over there to see it!  Gloria was so incredibly sweet and in love with her old home. After we left, we both just knew this was going to be our new home. I love it. and that is big for me, because I didn't even love this house when we bought it. change is hard for me and I don't deal well with it. but asking God to come into this decision gave me peace about it.  We talked everything over with our accountant (aunt ellen) and decided to put an offer on the house. After some back and forth, we reached a price that we were happy with. the seller wasn't:) but his wife convinced him to sell it to us:) i knew I liked her!  The next day at work, i told my manager that we were buying a house and selling ours. She told me that one of the managers there was looking for a house in our current neighborhood. to tell him we were putting ours up for sale. so I went to talk to him and he said he would be interested in coming to see the house.  the week after christmas him and his fiancee came over to see the house (we had to take the tree down on dec 26 and i was devastated). when they left, philip and I both looked at each other and said 'they don't like it'. I felt pretty deflated. but not too discouraged, it would have been too easy to have him buy it.  well he texted that night telling us that they loved the house and would talk to bank on monday and see what they could do. We were beyond excited. He has now signed a contract and we will close late February. God is so good. and answered our prayers in amazing ways. I told the guy who is buying our house that God had just worked this out perfectly and he said he agreed. And when I told Gloria that we sold our house without a realtor she said 'God is so good'.  We are so amazed at how much God cares for every aspect of our lives. at how if we just give decisions to Him, He will take care of them far better than anything we could have ever done on our own. in bible study last week, it was the parable of the mustard seed.  faith that small, moving mountains. 

keys to the new house! 

soooo- we are moving! we have some boxes packed and need to pack so many more. we have furniture and rugs ordered. We don't have to be out of this house until end of February, so we have time. which is soo nice. especially because ainsley is a sick little babe right now. she has bronchiolitis and bilateral ear infections. she had to get a breathing treatment and is just pitiful. :( 

“I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." matthew 17:20

11 months!

11 months! are you kidding me?! Ainsley has been on this Earth for ELEVEN. MONTHS. I honestly just can not believe it. I ordered her birthday invitations and teared up when I was addressing them. I can't handle her growing up so fast! :'( 

11 months-- wahoo!!! 

loves playing peek-a-boo

i need a water break mom

weight/height: she hasn't been back to the dr, so not sure.  She seems so big yet so tiny all at the same time. 
size: she can wear some 9 month clothes, but is mostly in 12 month clothes or 9-12 month.   still wearing size 3 pampers cruisers during day and side 3 pampers nighttime diapers at night.  nicknames: beanie, big girl, stinker, monster, Jo-Jo(pop), Sugar Bear (nana) 
physical: she still has blue eyes! I am surprised they didn't change, but love it because they are gorgeous.  Her hair has a slight reddish tint, and is still shaggy. She is starting to get a mullet that we might have to trim up soon.  She now has FOUR teeth. her two middle bottom teeth and her top two eye teeth. she's our little vampire. wondering when her top middle teeth will appear? 

eating: She still takes a bottle 4 times a day, usually around 6oz. She eats fruit/yogurt after 1100 bottle and eats her dinner of vegetables around 500pm. She LOVES ravioli. I have to hide veggies in her pasta to get her to eat it. She gets bites of whatever we are eating. she still loves fruit the best. she is now using her sippy cup with a straw, and loves ice water. 

sleeping: for the most part she has dropped her morning nap and only takes one nap in the afternoon. She goes down around 1/130 and sleeps until 3-4. or some days she sleeps for 30 minutes. any day I plan to get stuff done during nap time, it's like she has this sixth sense and decides not to nap;)  She goes down to sleep anywhere between 7-8 and wakes up around 7-730. she's getting better about finding her paci in her crib and not crying for me to put it back in. 
new things: she walks everywhere. it is the cutest thing watching her walk around, practically running sometimes. we're like 'she's so tiny and running!'  she can stand up without holding on to anything she HAS to have to have something in her hand at all times. so she walks around holding various things she finds around the house; pot holder, deck of cards, remote, etc.  she is getting so good at 'sharing'. she will offer her toy, food, or paci to you and laughs when you take it or pretend to eat it.  she has started 'dancing' where she squats down and back up. not 'twerking', ANN. just dancing.  she gives the best hugs, especially in the mornings.  she LOVES playing with jackson and sharing her toys (and food) with him. she has tried to play with Maya but she isn't having it.  she loves waving at people she says 'DaDa' with purpose, but thats the only thing she knows what she is saying. although several times we think she says her version of 'Jackson'. i swear she does.  after her bath is over, we yell 'cleanie beanie!!!' before we take her out of the bath and she gets so excited she throws her toys and kicks her legs. excited is actually an understatement.  she has started pulling the monitor into her crib and playing with it when she wakes up. it makes for an interesting view when i turn the camera on and see an eye ball staring at me  still loves books. especially loves flap books.  she high fives, thanks uncle bubby

RUNNING to the bath tub