Easter and sun

Oh my beautiful weekend!! Easter could not have fallen on a more beautiful weekend this year. We enjoyed every minute of our first taste of spring.

Family photo op at the Easter carnival

Crazy lips and soda- just part of the carnival loot

Ella grabbing as many eggs per hand as possible!

Aubrey....I can only imagine she is saying "What ddaaaadd?" given this face ;-)

Ainsley, poor girl. I failed to realize that she had never been in the grass before the day of the egg hunt and just set her right down in it. She was less than thrilled!! I handed her an egg to try to entice her, she sat there a minute holding onto the egg and chewing on it but as soon as she dropped it she was done. I helped her stand up, thinking then she might at least reach down and grab the eggs. Well she reached down, got one feel of the grass and then picked her hand right back up minus the egg!  I tried to set her back down with the eggs but by this time she had reached her limit and when I asked if she was "all done?" she quickly shook her little hands (the sign for all done) and started crying. Mommy really wasn't trying to torture you sweet girl!!

Easter morning...Let the hunting begin! 

 Both girls are far too quick and both running in opposite directions to get very good pictures of the hunting process, but I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like for these characters to be scooping up eggs ;-)

We found our Easter baskets hidden in the washer and dryer.

Ainsley slept through the first part of the morning so she got to hunt for her basket after breakfast.

 

Grandma Marian once again made the girls matching Easter dresses this year. I also got in on the dress-making action =) We have found Project Runway patterns and I have to say I love them! Sorry Grandma for all those years I balked at you making dresses for me =) 

 I am also finding that taking photos of 3 very energetic girls proves to be a bit of a challenge. Here are our best attempts at Easter pictures:

Logan and Quin came over for Easter dinner and an afternoon egg hunt. The sunshine was too much to resist so they put on their swimsuits and jumped on the trampoline with the sprinkler....how many times does that happen in Oregon on Easter?!?

Well as I am writing this our sunshine has quickly turned into liquid sunshine, but at least we enjoyed it while it lasted!!! Happy Spring =)

Insta-March

I really love the idea that I can bring the photos I snap on the go into our blog life. Its a great little snapshot into our daily life.

Just love this face!!

Oh the mess!!This would be the aftermath of 2 eager helpers, 1 chocolate smoothie, and an extra powered vitamix. The positive of this situation, both girls were showered and kitchen floor (and counter and cupboards) cleaned by 1PM.

For 1 very long week, our poor dishwasher was out of commission. I never really appreciated the amount of dishes my family of 5 creates in a day until I had to wash each individual item by hand.

Enjoying a little sunshine.

Can't say enough words about the cuteness we have here!!

Cooking is always better with a crown ;-) One of our library books had lots of recipes in the back and Aubrey was so excited to try it out. She hand-picked the lemons at the grocery store in preparation for these cookies. Unfortunately the cookies were a flop in many ways, but hey we had fun making them!

Egg-dying fun with cousin. And surprisingly 99% of the dye stayed on the table/eggs!

Personality abounds

Life with 3 little girls is never short on personality! I keep trying to make mental notes of special moments, funny sayings, etc but I am starting to realize that I have far too much to remember!!

 Ainsley is definitely the baby of the family! I'm still amazed just by how much birth order shows through in personality. Ainsley will be quietly playing by herself with some toys then suddenly realize that she needs some attention RIGHT.NOW. Even though she is super fast crawling or even cruising along furniture/walls, she will sit in one play and scream until someone comes to her rescue. I can't help but laugh because every time it works every.single.time.

 Aubrey. Oh Aubrey just has personality pouring out of her. She has a logic like no other, is the family comedian and just generally has a spunk about her while being my cuddliest girl. Often times, it might helpful to have a piece of paper to jot down notes during a conversation with Aubrey otherwise you might get to the end so confused. This morning for example: Aubrey was telling about her dream last night- a building that got attacked by forks. She is giving me lots of details about the fork attack then suddenly its "this finger nail is long. Can you cut it?" Before we can get to cutting the finger nail she is back to wanting to stir the chocolate sauce. She keeps me on my toes and constantly laughing, even when I shouldn't laugh (like trying to discipline her after she got mad at Ella for biting her when she told Ella to bite her!)

Ella has an insatiable desire to learn. When she first started reading, she loved the idea that she could read so much that she would read at such a fast pace that her comprehension of the material wasn't very high. Now, I find myself jaw-dropping-shocked when I hear Ella explaining a concept to Aubrey and its correct. Ella definitely has the first child perfection gene- she has been known to take 3 times as long as the other kids in class to make sure her coloring is really good or writing-erasing-writing-erasing until the letters look just right. She is my tenderhearted, strong-willed mini-me!!

Ella's Girl Scout poster on how to care for a pony! Fortunately for her, we had lots of real life pictures of her caring for horses thanks to Aunt Kathy and Kristy!!

Creature of habit

After each of the girl's birthday I compile pictures from the previous year and put them into a photo book. I love doing it...yes it is very time consuming and this last book too far longer than normal due to a few glitches (I learned the hard way that not clicking save every so many pages can and will result in 40 pages of work LOST!)...but in the end it is always a great way for me to recap our life as a family and admire how much each of the girl's have changed. This year I noticed another thing- each year the number of photos I take in February and March is drastically less than any other month of the year. Maybe its because its cold and rainy and we aren't doing anything exciting per-say? Or maybe its just part of the recouping process from all of the holiday pictures/activities/busyness?

Anyways, you are probably wondering how come I chose to share a very random and probably not so interesting fact? I dunno =) But history repeated itself and we have very few pictures to share since last post!

3 very wiggly sisters give this momma a run for her money when trying to get a good picture!

Smoothie face

We jumped onto the Vitamix bandwagon recently. Given all of Ainsley's food issues, this has been a great way to get extra vitamins/nutrients into her. She LOVES the smoothies! Ella on the other hand, she has decided that since there are "leaves" (aka spinach) in her smoothie and not just the "good" stuff, she is boycotting!

Oh this sweet sweet face! She gives me a run for my money as well on getting a good picture because she would rather be running, well actually crawling/cruising but at any rate she is super fast!

Our recouping period is officially over now. Spring break has begun. Easter is almost here. Then Aubrey turns 4. After that Ainsley turns 1! And Ella heads to her first ever Girl Scout camp. WoW...I'm tired just thinking about it!! Happy spring everyone =)

10 months old (tomorrow)

Each month I feel like I am a broken record....time is flying by, she is growing up so fast, etc. This month she has mastered cruising around the furniture, climbing stairs, pulling up on anything and everything she can get her hands on, emptying cupboards in record time, finger foods, playing independently and babbling. She lets her wants and needs to known to everyone in the house, especially if you are not responding in the time frame she had in mind ;-)

10 months (tomorrow)
*probably weighs 18lbs now! She was 17lbs 14oz last Saturday...still our little peanut!
* 9 month clothes [still]
* 4 teeth- 2 top, 2 bottom
* still doesn't sleep through the night [and actually prefers waking prior to the sun on most mornings]
* LOVES finger foods [pasta, chicken, pork, cereal, banana muffins]
* has decided that after 9 months of being finicky, taking a bottle isn't so bad and now takes 2-3 bottles when I am working
* says "num num num" "nigh nigh" "da da" "ma ma" and attempts to say Ella, Aubrey and puppy
* would still take 3 naps a day, but in an attempt to sleep later in the morning we have cut out the evening nap
* struggles daily with biting =(

Not cooperating with letting mom get some 10 month pictures!

Ainsley Rae

On the move and not going to look at the camera...

Learning to blow... I love how babies blow upward and into their own faces!

Blurry but sweet! I have to take what I can get these days.

 Oh Ainsley...we just love you so much and the little person you are becoming is such a perfect addition to our family!!!

February in review

Between germs and vistors, work and playdates then add Girl Scout cookies on top of that...February was BUSY!

Aubrey's favorite thing to do while Grandpa Rick was here was just sit on his lap! She is such a snuggler ;-)

Happy Birthday Grandpa! He got to blow out the candles twice so that each one of the girls could help. And don't worry about those germs I talked about earlier, each girl spread her germs evenly across the cake!

Who knows!?!?!

Ella with her stacks and stacks of cookies to deliver. Between presales, extra sales while delivering presales and booth sales, Ella topped out at over 400 boxes of cookies! Not too bad for her first year!!

Ainsley is losing her toothless grin =( Its such a happy and sad moment...she is growing up far too quick!

Ainsley is constantly moving these days. All that movement makes getting a good, smiling, looking at the camera, not blurry picture a bit of a challenge!

Happy Valentines Day!

Num num num! Ainsley is babbling quite a bit now. You know you have made a good dinner choice when as she is smashing food into her face she is saying, "Num num num num!"

What can I say about this.... if you find it on the camera, its fair game for the blog!!! LOL

 

February Insta-life

February for us has been full of germs!! Ainsley: double ear infection followed by pink eye; Aubrey: bronchitis; Ella: bronchitis followed by pink eye. YUCK!!! Our house could use a good bleach wipe followed by an uninterrupted night of sleep...

Finger foods! Ainsley has discovered how much more fun it is to eat finger foods instead of baby food. Her first go-round of pasta was a HUGE hit. =]

Girl Scout cookies!!! Ella was so excited to deliver her cookies in the neighborhood. Her and Neal had braved the cold back in January to preorder; the delivery weather was a little warmer and the entire family joined in.

Oops.... Guess that cabinet isn't babyproof?!? Pyrex is usually pretty durable, unless its stacked inside another Pyrex and in the path of a 9 month old ;-)

Oh Pinterest, you make dinners at my house so much prettier and tastier! This is nothing crazy, no weird ingredients just pure genius if you ask me.....cornbread in the waffle maker then topped with some good ol' chili. YUMMM!!