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!!

Our peanut is 9 months old!

9 months... 3/4 of a year... wow...

 It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time passes with a baby! Weren't we just working through tummy troubles and sleeping more than 2 hours at a time?

These past few weeks she is just jumping over milestones it seems. She pulls up on everything possible, empties any and every cupboard and drawer and last night she even pulled on her first cord which sent Aubrey's snow globe tumbling down from the shelf and crashing to the floor. Fortunately the only casualty was to the snow globe ;-)

A few of this month's highlights:
- 3rd tooth (top right) popped through
- 1st ear infection, in each ear....BOO
- love her little gluten free, diary free, egg free baby puffs
- army crawl/scooting all over the house (today at her checkup she made her first little crawling attempt up on her hands and knees!)
- cannot get enough of her sisters
- has become a total daddy's girl! One morning after she finished nursing, she crawled over to his side of the bed only to realize he wasn't there. She put her little face on his pillow and just cried and cried =(
- lots of babbling but nothing consistent or object specific
- 17 lbs 9.5oz (30%) but finally doubled her birth weight!
- 28 1/4" long

We love you so much sweet Ainsley Rae!!

Instagram January

A nice cold, juicy honeycrisp apple is just what a girl needs to help ease the pain of teething!

.....that is, until Mommy takes it away so she can have a bite!

Ella sold Girl Scout cookies to a family friend who is a firefighter. It was a slow evening at the fire station, so he showed both girls in, on and around the fire trucks. This must have jogged memories of Ella's preschool field trip to the fire station-- I found this drawing in the craft closet. Its Ella's fire escape plan for our house! I'm so impressed and amazed by her details: 2 routes (window or down the stairs), fire with smoke, smoke detector (she is really working on spelling- bape corrected to beap!) and what appears to be daddy watching TV.

Just because we are dairy free doesn't mean we don't get to enjoy the finer things in life...life caramel corn =)

Family skating night = our new favorite way to spend Tuesdays

Sweet smiley girl

1st cold. Yuck! We invested in a new booger-sucking device, the NoseFrida. The red end goes in your mouth, blue vial looking end goes in baby's nose...suck suck suck and voila! Baby can breathe again. No worries, there is a filter that prevents the boogers from traveling up the little straw to get into mommy and daddy's mouth ;-)

Joining the ranks of her sisters in trouble-making! She can now open most cupboards and drawers, pull herself up into a sitting position and empty whatever cupboard or drawer she is currently in front of.

Ella won a very special prize for selling random do-dads out of a catalog last fall. She got her 1st limo ride to have a pizza lunch.

And now she can pull herself up to standing!! This is going far far too quickly if you ask me. Earlier today I went to get her up from her nap to find her standing in her crib as proud as she can be. Slow down baby girl... Saturday she will be 9 months old!

Well there you have it! I managed to post somewhat consistently for an entire month. Now I only have 11 more to go....

Modes of movement

While I've been busy trying to get the blog finished up for 2012, life in 2013 has been moving ahead! Before I get to the "moving" section, here are a few glimpses of life according to Aubrey.

Self-portrait

She does a pretty good job getting pictures centered =)

Hamming it up with lil' sister

Aubrey can often be caught redhanded with the camera, Neal or my cell phone, the iPad...you name it, if its technology she plays with it! She is truly the definition of the new-age child who can operate most electronics without any teaching- I am constantly amazed by what she can do!

For Christmas, Aubrey really wanted roller skates. Stan and Jeanie found Neal's old roller skates (circa 1950!) in the attic and gave them to Neal for Christmas. We had to return one of Aubrey's gifts because it didn't work, so in exchange she got new roller skates and Ella got Neal's skates. Unfortunately when you are 6, you don't appreciate the old vintage aspect of the skates! After a valiant effort of trying to skate with the vintage skates, she asks oh-so-kindly "Can I have some different skates? I don't like these old rusty ones that don't roll well." Anyways, back to the adventure of learning to roller skate...

We are ready to roll hehehe

Aubrey was absolutely DELIGHTED to be skating. I love how her emotion just pours out of her face. She has that throw-your-head-back and laugh way about her. She was a little leery about skating on her own and took a few tumbles, but the smiles by far outweighed the bumps.

Daddy helping Aubrey stay on the skates or giving her a free ride!

Ella. Ella has always been our determined child. When she decides that she wants to do something (read, write, learn to braid, draw, etc) she gets down to business! Skating has been one of those things that she is so determined to learn how to do. The last 2 weeks we have gone to our local skating rink on Tuesdays (its a whole $2.50 for skate rentals and 4 hours of skating...AMAZING cheap family fun date!). Ella ditched the ol' rusty skates for the rental skates and started doing her laps. The 1st week was filled with many tumbles, but she persevered. One of the workers gave her some tips and 2 hours later we had to drag her and her red cheeks and bruised body off rink to head home! This last week, she had already made great progress. She was going 2-3 laps or more without falling and even going at a pretty good pace. She decided to trade her chore money for a pair of new skates like Aubrey's so she can't wait to go skating again next week.

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Ainsley isn't quite ready for roller skating, but she isn't to be left out of this new movement trend. She is full-on inchworming her way around our house! That girl goes from sitting nicely in front of her toys, to behind the rocking chair, into the pantry and then off to the playroom in the blink of an eye. And boy is she proud of herself!!!

And oh yeah, she can now pull herself up all by herself!! Sunday night she was laying on the floor playing, next thing she has pulled herself up onto an ottoman then came crashing down because she let go. Oops! She thinks she is pretty hot stuff with her pulling up on things and gets a little upset if she can't manage to stand up as quickly as she would like.

And Ella, who has been reading over my shoulder as I wrap up the blog, suggests a simple closure...
"That's all for now..."